Concrete floor now or wait?

[Deere Dude]

So I had to bring in fill for my 20' x 32' pole building. The fill is approximately 6" in front and 30" along the rear of the building. Do I wait until next spring to pour a floor or do it now? Settling ya know?

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I put a 36x54' pole barn in with about 2' of sub oil and had a guy with a big drivable roller that vibrates to compact it better. When he got done it was so hard you couldn't dig in it. Consider that, although it will cost a couple hundred bucks. It will be a lot tighter than you could ever do with your tractor.
In your situation I'm sure you want the roof and sides on quick but then the floor will be out of the weather and it will take longer to compact naturally, if ever. Like another poster said, I would grade it higher on the sides so there is not an immediate drop off. Good luck. It looks like a nice project.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Egon]

I put a 36x54' pole barn in with about 2' of sub oil and had a guy with a big drivable roller that vibrates to compact it better

That's doing it properly.:thumbsup:

 

[Gizmo2]

That's doing it properly.:thumbsup:

NICE!

 

[Jay4200]

So I had to bring in fill for my 20' x 32' pole building. The fill is approximately 6" in front and 30" along the rear of the building. Do I wait until next spring to pour a floor or do it now? Settling ya know?

You never fill inside a building with dirt. You're kinda screwed. I made that mistake myself when I didn't know better. Dirt needs water to settle, and you don't have it inside a building.

I didn't notice your pics - if you leave the area uncovered over the winter, you'll be good. You'll have to wait until then to build the building though. Either that, or build the building, then set up a lawn sprinkler and let it run for a month.

JayC

 

[AGGIE00]

You never fill inside a building with dirt. You're kinda screwed. I made that mistake myself when I didn't know better. Dirt needs water to settle, and you don't have it inside a building.

I didn't notice your pics - if you leave the area uncovered over the winter, you'll be good. You'll have to wait until then to build the building though. Either that, or build the building, then set up a lawn sprinkler and let it run for a month.

JayC

Almost all commercial construction specifies a five foot overbuild on the pad. This ensures the soil is fully compacted past the building line. A plate compactor in this situation will do nothing. The soil below is bridged by what's on top and you won't do much for it with a 84" vibratory compactor. The weight of the concrete plus the building will also not compact the soil. Over years the bottom lifts will settle as moisture is introduced and leaves. If you are concerned about it, pull out the soil and put it back in in 6" lifts using the right amount of water and a ride on vibratory roller. A plate compactor is good for 4" at the most. For mine I used a combination of a loaded wheel loader and loaded 18cy scraper. Where the dirt was dry I used a sprinkler to wet it down and mixed it with a disk.

 

[arsenix2001]

If you have waited this long, why not rent a machine, get some more soil and some extra seat time and do it correctly? Not talking down at you, but just dont want to see your floor all cracky cracky in two years!:thumbsup:

 

[boxygen]

Almost all commercial construction specifies a five foot overbuild on the pad. This ensures the soil is fully compacted past the building line. A plate compactor in this situation will do nothing. The soil below is bridged by what's on top and you won't do much for it with a 84" vibratory compactor. The weight of the concrete plus the building will also not compact the soil. Over years the bottom lifts will settle as moisture is introduced and leaves. If you are concerned about it, pull out the soil and put it back in in 6" lifts using the right amount of water and a ride on vibratory roller. A plate compactor is good for 4' at the most. For mine I used a combination of a loaded wheel loader and loaded 18cy scraper. Where the dirt was dry I used a sprinkler to wet it down and mixed it with a disk.

Aggie is Right. The fill is not compacted properly in the rear. As others have said 6" lifts are the max that need to be compacted in layers. You have a worse condition that varies in depth so you will have differential settling if you dont redo it. It wont go to heck in a year or two it might take 5 or 10 years to settle enough for concrete to be a disaster, but it will happen. Crushed stone is the only thing that dumps out of the truck at almost 100% compaction. Even that depends on the size of the stone. Even a large vibratory roller is only going to compact the top third of the thickness at best. The lower 24" will settle slowly over time. I know you dont want to hear it but you should really redo it. If you are really against redoing it, you can put the water to it. You need LOTS of water though to make a difference. As in from a fire truck. You would need to build a dam around the perimeter and essentially build a pond. If you did this, you will be amazed how much it would settle. But you need to flood it at this point. Flooding it is definitely the unscientific way to fix it but it will make a difference.
Im a builder by profession and I had to take a lot of Geotechnical and Civil Eng classes working up to that. Im not guessing.

 

[Egon]

A pond! Install a freezing system and make a year round skating rink!:thumbsup:

 

[Gizmo2]

A pond! Install a freezing system and make a year round skating rink!:thumbsup:

Only as a last resort.

 

[dstig1]

Neither one of these trucks hardly left any marks so I don't really believe all that is necessary. The outriggers on the drill truck were just fine also. The fill was packed fairly well when putting it down. The 12 Yard dump truck was on the pad a lot also, with a load on as planned. The sides of the pad not so much but the pad was made considerably bigger for that reason. However the plan was/is to use a plate compactor, the guy who delivered the fill has one I can use any time I want, and I have before.
I'm still going to wait until spring. So many people on this forum, they can't all be wrong. Thanks again to all.

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Is it OK by the local building/code authorities (if you have any where you are) to drill a well that close to a building, even a future building?