Frost damage prevention around outside of old dairy barn ?

[Cycledude]

Working on restoring old dairy barn to use for storage. Removed all the inside floor concrete, put in new gravel then sheet of plastic then 2 inch styrofoam , poured 5 inches of new concrete with rebar , the interior concrete was poured this morning.
But now I want to do something around the outside of the building to help prevent frost damage to the walls, the walls are 3’ thick built with fieldstone in 1947. Has anyone here got any helpful advice about how I should go about this ?

 

[seville009]

Just curious what you mean by frost damage to the walls - the inside drywall? If so, presumably just the normal vapor barrier protection used in house building (like Tyvek).

 

[Cycledude]

No not interior walls issues, the inside and outside of the walls are 100% stone and concrete, the walls are 3 feet thick.
The problem is winter frost that goes into the ground and heaves up the walls causing cracks, I want to keep the ground from freezing, around here it sometimes gets down below -20 Fahrenheit

 

[Topzide]

Need to have good drainage away from the walls. Maybe need some drain tile installed around the perimeter. No moisture, no heave. Sounds like a great storage barn!

 

[Fallon]

Need to have good drainage away from the walls. Maybe need some drain tile installed around the perimeter. No moisture, no heave. Sounds like a great storage barn!

That is the key. You can't prevent freezing outside. You can make sure there is proper drainage so there is no moisture. Ice is weird, everything else contracts when it gets cold. Water expands as it freezes & breaks things.

 

[dstig1]

Look up "Frost-protected shallow footings or foundations". While you are not building from a footing on up, the principles of insulation required and how/where will be the type of thing you need to do. It is going to require digging out around the outside perimeter, all around. UMN Duluth published some stuff on it, so climate appropriate for our areas.

Good drainage and proper fill are also critical, as others noted, and part of the package

 

[scootr]

Could some amount of straw insulate the ground outside of the building and reduce movement?

 

[LHF2019]

As stated above make sure you have eaves and good drainage. The best way to keep an old barn intact is to fill it with cows. My 100+ year cement work is crumbling away from being empty. Just how it is.

 

[Cycledude]

Well I’m mostly done with the job, the entire inside of the barn now has 2 inch styrofoam under the new concrete floor.
the outside was dug down about 15 inches then filled with 10 inches of 2-3 inch rock wrapped in Geotextile fabric that’s supposed to let water through and prevent dirt from getting in, then we put 4x8 sheets of styrofoam over the rock and then about 3 inches of crushed gravel.
The north wall had the worst cracks but those have been repaired nicely with new mortar, the cracks in the other walls will be repaired next spring after it warms up.

Also spent another $2,000 to have rain gutters installed, black seemless gutters .

Still some minor electrical work to do and planning to get about 6 new window sashes made but that can wait until next year.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well I’m mostly done with the job, the entire inside of the barn now has 2 inch styrofoam under the new concrete floor.
the outside was dug down about 15 inches then filled with 10 inches of 2-3 inch rock wrapped in Geotextile fabric that’s supposed to let water through and prevent dirt from getting in, then we put 4x8 sheets of styrofoam over the rock and then about 3 inches of crushed gravel.
The north wall had the worst cracks but those have been repaired nicely with new mortar, the cracks in the other walls will be repaired next spring after it warms up.

Also spent another $2,000 to have rain gutters installed, black seemless gutters .

Still some minor electrical work to do and planning to get about 6 new window sashes made but that can wait until next year.

That will be what handles the bulk of the problem. As a builder & framer, I saw more damage from missing & clogged gutters than I can remember.

Now make sure you have the downspouts piped a good distance away from the foundation. The best gutters won’t help unless the downspouts carry the water away from your exterior walls.