Leveling ground for tractor shed

[swreeder]

Good job on the leveling.

You sure 8ft walls are going to be high enough for your future needs? Many tractor ROPS are over 8ft tall.

My tractor has a cab and it fits inside an 8' garage, its exactly 90" tall to the top of the cab. The shed I'm building is 8' side walls, its gabled trusses so the sides are the lowest spot.

 

[LD1]

As you have already found out, a tractor is not the best tool to level an area for reasons you have already figured out.

Little dingo mini type tracked skidloaders are really good at that.

You can make a tractor work as you have....you just have to adapt and improvise. Takes time. But a transit or rotary laser level is almost a must. Some people have a good "eye" for this type of work. But I have found that it can be quite deceiving and that most peoples "eye" just isnt very accurate

 

[bdhsfz6]

Good job with the leveling!

What type of metal shed are you putting up? How is it going to be anchored to the solid rock under the gravel?

I priced a similar project a few years ago. The price for the building looked good until I found out the contractor charged a lot extra for rock work. Since the proposed building was on ledge rock, the cost almost doubled and I was forced to make other plans.

 

[deezler]

Nicely done. Yes, having the gravel dumped in the middle of your intended area is a huge pain. Much easier to have it off to the side, and use the tractor loader to bring in one bucket at a time.

But it also helps to make the pad much larger than the building area, then your tractor stays on the level pad as you work the critical area to perfectly flat.

Are you going to run a plate compactor now? I would. Have a hose ready to add water as needed for ideal compaction.

 

[swreeder]

Good job with the leveling!

What type of metal shed are you putting up? How is it going to be anchored to the solid rock under the gravel?

I priced a similar project a few years ago. The price for the building looked good until I found out the contractor charged a lot extra for rock work. Since the proposed building was on ledge rock, the cost almost doubled and I was forced to make other plans.

I'm installing from a local contract that has been building these in the area for over 10 years. The brand is "quality outdoor products". The framing in constructed of 12 gauge steel and the roof trusses are prebuilt/welded. Since the area I live in is predominately rock (less than 2" of soil depth anywhere on my acreage), the installers are equipped to deal with it. They basically drill 2' deep holes into the rock with a bit that is slightly smaller than the anchor pins they drive in. The building and anchors are rated at 130MPH winds, so I hope it all works as they say.

 

[swreeder]

Nicely done. Yes, having the gravel dumped in the middle of your intended area is a huge pain. Much easier to have it off to the side, and use the tractor loader to bring in one bucket at a time.

But it also helps to make the pad much larger than the building area, then your tractor stays on the level pad as you work the critical area to perfectly flat.

Are you going to run a plate compactor now? I would. Have a hose ready to add water as needed for ideal compaction.

I was able to borrow a plate compactor and run it around the perimeter where the base plate will install. Fortunately (or unfortunately) things around here don't settle or shift since they area is layers of limestone. Below is a picture of the layers of rock they busted up and stacked up when we had our pool built. Each of of those slabs is at least 3'X3' and this is just a small pile of them

 

[deezler]

Yeah. I would still be plate compacting the entire interior space, too. Just makes things more stable and solid to walk and move machinery around on.

 

[swreeder]

Tractor Shed is complete. Four installers completed in less than 3 hours. It makes my tractor look small

 

[JDZ735M]

Looks real nice @swreeder!

 

[fitter1]

I used stone like you did and added stay mat or stone dust on top to lock everything together, otherwise it was like walking on marbles. A plate compacter as deezler said works great. Looks nice.