Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[aircommuter]

You likely don’t have the requirements we have because we have to re-compact the native soil first to get 90%RP then place the fill.

 

[ETD66SS]

You likely don’t have the requirements we have because we have to re-compact the native soil first to get 90%RP then place the fill.

Well here in NY, there are certainly requirements for building foundations on compacted soils. However, because this is essentially a pole barn where the footers are 48" below grade to undisturbed soil, I just have to make sure what I am pouring my slab on to is stable to try and mitigate cracks as much as possible. The slab will always move in relation to the perma column footers due to frost heaving in this climate.

 

[aircommuter]

Yeah that old freeze line is an issue. We don’t have that. However we must compact the entire area and drill back through it for columns because it’s not practical or even possible to compact after columns have been placed.
While my shop is not pole barn style the columns that hold the weight of the building both dead and live loads are supported by 4’ square and 4’ deep footings with 4’ anchor bolts. The concrete footers taper down to 12” square at the top. They are placed at 25’ OC except the end walls which have smaller columns supported only by the building slab footer. It’s 12”x18” with 6 ea #4 grade 60 bars.

 

[EddieWalker]

Nice to see your project is getting started.

I'm curious why you didn't use dirt to build up the pad before setting your forms?

 

[ETD66SS]

Nice to see your project is getting started.

I'm curious why you didn't use dirt to build up the pad before setting your forms?

Those "forms" are only there because I have a sawmill and a lot of fallen dead ash trees. I wanted to give myself a rough guide for leveling off the area as I don't yet have a laser. I'd never buy lumber to do that. Those forms are ~2ft outside the perimeter of the shop walls so the posts don't end up so close to to edge of the stone base making it harder to auger the holes. Eventually I will backfill up to the other side of the forms with dirt or driveway stone then rip them out. A lot of times I just leave the forms in there to rot away, it's what I did with large portions of my driveway when I backfilled the edge with dirt. But I won't leave them in there for this building.

As for dirt vs. hard fill. The guy I bought the fill from had dirt, but it was mostly clay. My soil is sandy loam for about 6-7ft down before getting to clay. I didn't think it was a great idea to put clay under the slab when there is sandy loam underneath it. I have a very high water table in the spring, so I went with hard fill primarily because it drains better than clay.

It took a lot of tracking back and forth to crush up the material with my D6C, but eventually it turned out pretty decent.

I'm probably going to need 2-3 more loads of hard fill then switch to 2" crusher run.

 

[EddieWalker]

I misunderstood what the forms where for. Here, in East Texas, everything is clay, so we just keep adding to it when building a pad.

 

[ETD66SS]

I misunderstood what the forms where for. Here, in East Texas, everything is clay, so we just keep adding to it when building a pad.

It's mostly clay up here too, however my property was once at the bottom of the Great Lakes. My entire 60+ acre parcel is lake laid silty clay then sandy loam on top. 19 feet of it above bedrock. If I drive just a few miles south soils turn to the normal topsoil above clay.

And yeah, most people probably don't waste time putting up forms for stone like I do.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've always used orange surveyor paint. I mark my corners, then when I'm building it up, I'll go over it with my laser level and check every four feet, then spray on the ground how many inches I'm off. Probably not for everyone, but it works for me.

 

[JasperFrank]

I have an old friend that got a permit for an AG structure. He was living in a trailer at the time. I helped him build this and it wasn't an ag building at all. God help the real estate agent that has to broker this place in the future, and find there are no dwelling/occupancy sort of permits ever issued.

 

[ETD66SS]

So after (13) 20 ton loads of hard fill and a bunch of passes over it with my D6C to break up the larger material, I am ready for stone. The stone will be placed primarily around the perimeter where the holes will be augered for the perma columns.

I am deciding what type of stone to order. I know that I want crusher run, which has fines in it for compaction. The question is what size?

Here are my choices:

CRUSHER RUN | Shelby Crushed Stone

www.shelbystone.com

I'm thinking the 2" crusher run. Is there any reason to go with finer material? Remember that in one corner this material will be 26" deep. The forms will hold the material in at the top but I am purposly leaving the bottom of the forms open so the stone can slope outward at the base. It will be backfilled with dirt at a later date, likely after the barn shell is up. So it has to hold the slope during the post hole drilling process.

The perimeter of the forms is larger than the building layout, and at the deeper corner the post holes will be drilled 3ft from the edge of the stone. I did this in the hopes the augering process does not disturb this slope. I dont want to backfill prior to the barn shell going up as that makes it a muddy mess around the worksite if it rains.

I would definitely backfill prior to final compaction and the concrete floor going in.