Best concrete floor prep for pole barn on downward slope

[mykleh]

I leveled the site BEFORE they put up the building then drove over it for the fall/winter, let the frost do its thing all winter then put in the gravel, compacted it and poured the slab in spring.. also I had them put 2" of foam then re-bar centered in then concrete.. no floor sweating and I had two drains put in as well

 

[neopheous]

I put my few implements on sheets of exterior plywood sitting on the gravel. They will scoot well enough to get hooked up.

Now that's a GOOD idea... I like the way you think... :thumbsup:

 

[neopheous]

A little different approach here? The cost of your slab might just be more than a "lean to" off one of the side walls would cost where you could drop your implements right where they come off the tractor and forget about a bunch of silly dollies and pushing them around. :thumbsup:

Good idea, but unfortunately that is not an option for a couple of reasons... 1) The left side of the building (looking from the front) is only about 2' from my property line, and the right side is only about 12-14' from the creek. I actually had to take the crook out of the creek there to give me some room to pass by with the tractor to get to a food plot I have in a field behind the building. 2) Since this is currently not my full-time residence and it is in a somewhat remote area, I do not want to leave implements just sitting outside by the road. The reason I built the building here is b/c there are a couple of neighbors here that can watch it. I actually already built a pond and leveled a site for a home, but it is about 300-400 yards on down the road and around the corner with no other neighbors for about a 1/2 mile.

 

[neopheous]

I leveled the site BEFORE they put up the building then drove over it for the fall/winter, let the frost do its thing all winter then put in the gravel, compacted it and poured the slab in spring.. also I had them put 2" of foam then re-bar centered in then concrete.. no floor sweating and I had two drains put in as well

That would be a good way to do it alright, but I am usually only out to this property about 1 day a week if I'm lucky and I usually have a lot of other work to do on other parts of the property and I might not see this area but 10-15 times in a year which wouldn't be enough driving over it to do much good. I really just built this building b/c I currently live about 30 minutes away and I have to haul my tractor and any implements out to it every time I am doing work... so I spend 2-3 hours loading/unloading the tractor and implements each time I do it.

I do like the idea of possibly putting the gravel floor down now with plywood on it for the implements and leaving it until next spring to pour the concrete.

 

[WVBill]

.. 1) The left side of the building (looking from the front) is only about 2' from my property line, and the right side is only about 12-14' from the creek. I actually had to take the crook out of the creek there to give me some room to pass by with the tractor to get to a food plot I have in a field behind the building. .

Those two things set off all kinds of alarm bells in my head. 1) Everywhere I've lived, a 2' setback for a building that size would violate county codes. 2) Re-routing a creek and a 12' setback from a natural waterway would surely have gotten me in trouble with some State environmentalist group/agency.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Don't let someone talk you out of the fibered concrete. Again the base is the key, uneven compacting of the subgrade and the gravel will ruin a good concrete job with cracks and differential settlement. Re-bar is only required if you are building a structural slab like over poor subgrade or heavy equipment running on it. Last but not least is construction joints and control joints. Control joints have to sawed in as soon as they can get the saw on the slab. Next day, forget it, as you will waste your money as cracks, even if you cannot see them are already started by then. Control joints get the slab to crack at that point, not where it wants too. et a book called "Concrete Floors on Ground" put out by the Portland Cement Association. You can get it on Amazon.

Ron

 

[dragoneggs]

Good advice, Ron. When I had a cement sport court built at my previous residence, they put in grooves in the cement to force cracks along desired 'seams'. The grooves were not even half the thickness deep but they worked beautifully. They grooved with trowels rather than cutting so all of the edges both on the perimeter and interior were 'finished'.

 

[neopheous]

Good advice, Ron. When I had a cement sport court built at my previous residence, they put in grooves in the cement to force cracks along desired 'seams'. The grooves were not even half the thickness deep but they worked beautifully. They grooved with trowels rather than cutting so all of the edges both on the perimeter and interior were 'finished'.

I agree, that sounds like good advice from Ron. I wasn’t aware they needed to be cut that soon but I guess it makes sense as the concrete has already settled probably some and while curing.

So do you think the troweling of the grooves rather than cutting the joints work just as well? I’m worried they may say they will be back the next day to cut them instead of standing around waiting for it to cure enough. I guess I could rent the saw and do it myself.

And Ron, the concrete guy I’m using was also adamant about using the fibered concrete as well.

 

[Streetcar]

Troweled joints will work, they need to be 1/4 thickness of slab

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Troweled joints will work, they need to be 1/4 thickness of slab

Cotinuing the sage:

Be careful troweling in the joint; . The average concrete finisher does not understand control joints. They make edger trowels in several depths. Finishers normally only have the ones they use for edge finishing that only o down 1/2-3/4 deep. To amplify the subgrade prep; I did a driveway 20 years ago, 50' long X 25' wide X 4" deep. Removed all vegetation down 6", compactded the native soil to 95%+, installed 6" of 3/4 minus crushed rock (crusher run w/lots of crusher fines), moisture conten is important, then compacted it to 95%+. 4000# concrete, air intrained 5%, heavy fiber added at plant, 3" slump (do not let them add water and finisher will cuss you), no other reinforcing. Trowled in control joints every 12' both directions. That slab today has no visible cracks. It has even had concrete trucks roll over it among other heavy vehicles. Did it cost? Yes, but I considered it worthwhile.

My philosphy, do it right the first time. Costs 3 time as much to redo, or have it cracked up, unsightly, and a path for additional water migration to subgrade and, frost heaving and spalling. Idf you can afford the project you can afford to do it right.

Ron