brick pavers for shop floor?

[PA hayseed]

I would advise against lowes pavers for anything other than a walkway. Everybody already pointed out the math issue with relation to the number of pavers. if you decide to use pavers for part of it, think about using recycled brick (solids) instead.

In my neck of the woods, half the old town roads have asphalt laid over old brick. When they eventually get around to redoing the road, it winds up being landfill. Sometimes, a frugal person can manage to navigate a truck or two towards their home.

 

[dirt clod]

Properly placed rebar is the proper reinforcement that will provide it's intended function. Mesh is useless and fiber is for surface shrinkage cracking only. It provides no primary load reinforcement. None.

If you place any weight on your slab, you have a load, regardless. A 200 lb person may not be relevant but a light-duty vehicle such as a 2500 / 3500 series truck will put ~ 8000 lbs of load. Mesh will do nothing for you in any regard. Rebar in the footer is a must as far as I am concerned.

Rebar is your call, but to additionally control cracking, place joints in your slab (very liberally) to control where you want the cracks to be, otherwise cracking becomes random. I personally recommend placing control joints as the concrete is finished, in lieu of saw cutting later (the lazy man's way) as stress has already had an opportunity to build once curing begins.

Three-thousand lb mix will normally test out to about 8 - 9k psi after 30 days (if you were to keep a sample and test it in a lab, easy enough to do). If you want to see how your cure is going during the 30 days of hydration, keep out 4 seperate samples and test one at 7, 14, 21, 28 day intervals and watch the sample results when placed in compression. It's kind of neat to see just how 3000 lb will turn out.

Have an air-entrainment admixture added as well. Your location is not necessarily needy of air entrainment but add it anyway. The may do it at the batch plant, but mention it to make sure.

From research I have done the rebar in a 4" slab is bad idea as there is not enough concrete above the rebar. I understand 6" is needed for rebar. Also the air-entrainment admixture is for freeze thaw cycles. We have no listed frost depth in Florida. Frost that settles on top of the ground during the coldest nights is often gone when sun is comes up. My unheated cattle troughs (above ground)get at most 1/4" of ice on surface when not used for a day.

Got a quote today for 5000psi with fiber mesh for $108.50 yard. Dropping down to 4000psi will only save $4 a yard. Doesn't seem worth saving the few bucks. Yesterday got a deal on wire mesh. Guy had left over from building house. Got one full and some partial rolls, looks to be about 2 rolls worth for $60.:thumbsup:

 

[crbr]

. Yesterday got a deal on wire mesh. Guy had left over from building house. Got one full and some partial rolls, looks to be about 2 rolls worth for $60.:thumbsup:

Calcium will eat through it in 3-4 (+/-) years... :thumbsup:

And you're telling me mesh wire gets proper placement in a slab? It sinks right back to the bottom unless you put it on chairs. Even after the rake man pulls it up... Just sayin'.

That said, your wheelbarrow man cannot wheel the mix into the forms for placement when you set the mesh in it's place (if the 4" slab allows)..., so call the pumper..

Someone is telling you some tall tales or some sad placement examples in their times.

I have no dog in the race and it's Jimmy-Crack-Corn. My research was done for post-doc studies...and 22 years of engineering on seismically designed power plants....

Good luck Sir and happy new year. It will be useful for many years to come.

Properly placed rebar............Rebar is your call, ............ Your location is not necessarily needy of air entrainment....

.

 

[dirt clod]

Properly placed rebar is the proper reinforcement that will provide it's intended function. Mesh is useless and fiber is for surface shrinkage cracking only. It provides no primary load reinforcement. None.

If you place any weight on your slab, you have a load, regardless. A 200 lb person may not be relevant but a light-duty vehicle such as a 2500 / 3500 series truck will put ~ 8000 lbs of load. Mesh will do nothing for you in any regard. Rebar in the footer is a must as far as I am concerned.

Rebar is your call, but to additionally control cracking, place joints in your slab (very liberally) to control where you want the cracks to be, otherwise cracking becomes random. I personally recommend placing control joints as the concrete is finished, in lieu of saw cutting later (the lazy man's way) as stress has already had an opportunity to build once curing begins.

Three-thousand lb mix will normally test out to about 8 - 9k psi after 30 days (if you were to keep a sample and test it in a lab, easy enough to do). If you want to see how your cure is going during the 30 days of hydration, keep out 4 seperate samples and test one at 7, 14, 21, 28 day intervals and watch the sample results when placed in compression. It's kind of neat to see just how 3000 lb will turn out.

Have an air-entrainment admixture added as well. Your location is not necessarily needy of air entrainment but add it anyway. The may do it at the batch plant, but mention it to make sure.

A machine parked on concrete is a compression load. Concrete by itself is naturally strong under compression. It is weak though in tension. The metal in both wire mesh and rebar is strong in tension. How you figure wire mesh is useless I don't understand.

There is no true footer for the pole barn, I do plan to have a footer at large bay doors to prevent cracking from wheels rolling on to floor. In a 4" slab the concrete is too thin above the rebar and will cause failure rather than prevent. Rebar in a footer or any pour 6" or greater I will do.

Imho control joints whether cut or formed are worse than cracks in a shop. The formed ones I have seen are bigger than the cut ones. Easier to roll over cracks with small wheels (jacks, welders,creepers,ect.) than the much larger control joints. Control joints are better looking though.

Air-Entrained is for frost/thaw cycles. There is no listed frost depth for Florida. Tension and compression strength of air is much less than the "worthless" wire mesh.

 

[dirt clod]

Sorry for the double post. Didn't think 1st went thru.

 

[CurlyDave]

For my money crbr is right about mesh being useless. I have taken apart many a slab and have never seen mesh where it is supposed to be, in the middle of the slab. It is always pushed to the bottom of the slab, and the guys who say they pull it up arren't really lying because they think they pull it up, but it always gets pushed to the bottom of the slab.

Rebar on dobies or chairs will stay in the middle of the slab.

Compression vs tension loading on the slab is not as simple as weight on the slab always puts the slab in compression. You are always going to have places where the material under the slab is not completely compacted, and it shrinks. A load on the slab them places the top of the slab in compression and the bottom in tension.

I live in a locality where we get some freezing weather. The standard mix delivered is air entrained. As far as I can see, all the air does is to reduce the ready-mix plant's costs by the percentage of air added (they still sell it by the yard).

The contractor who did my slabs used air entrained mix, I did not use it for the 8' x 10' heat pump pad I poured, and my slab is clearly superior to his after 3.5 years.