Looking for info on how to pour a slab

[flusher]

Here are a few photos showing the slab construction for my 24x42 ft shop (a metal building with 12 ft high walls, two 10x10 ft rollup doors). The slab is 6" thick, 4000 psi mix, #4 rebar on 24" centers, 6-mil Visqueen vapor barrier over 1/2" gravel base.



Trench for perimeter footings (essential to prevent slab cracking).
You'll need a TLB to dig the trenches and a lot of 2x lumber for the forms.

Good luck.

 

[bironacad]

It's very old and out of date experience. Thank God.:laughing:

Only thing worse is Asphalt.

And then comes base preparation to very close tolerances so very little expensive product is not paid for.:thumbsup:

I have to do my garage floor this summer for an addition that I started last summer, twenty years ago it was a no brainer then it was mostly brawn now it is almost beyond my physical abilities so more brain is required. I will probably use a pump truck and some friends, lol, the problem is we are all getting older.:laughing: 828 square feet at 6" is 15.33 or 16 yards, lol counting the waste for the pumper. I attached some photos from the the ICF foundation.

 

[SPIKER]

So, I should be good on correct thickness and how thick it needs to be around the perimeter.

Looks like my main problem is that I have no mean to compact the base mateial.

As for the services, under the slab, I'm only going to have a drain. Power and water can come in above the slab.

Austin

Austin:
Renting a compactor is what I did costs were 80 bucks for the weekend from my local place. I also used a full lawn roller early on after the barn work was started regularly rolling the barn it was up for 8+ years with gravel/sand compaction mix rolled in lifts and time settled as well as use and drive on it with tractor riders and cars for those 8 years. I still added 35ton of sand to this to help bring it up to grade in the week prior to the pour and vib compacted it over the weekend that compactor probably ran 35hrs picked it up friday 4pm returned it monday morning.

Also working from plans is good but the plans are MINIMUM specs in most cases. putting a little extra into slab/footings is a easy thing to do and costs are only for the material going into the ground. I could have had a 4" slab in my barn without issue but leveling costs are sometimes more than the cost of concrete to be thicker. I ended up about 5" average inside my barn on the south side and closer to 6" in the north side (where the tractor/cars will be driving on it.) around the outside the thickness is 6~8" for a foot or two in from the outside. this is all on foam and is a floating slab and that will help or prevent cracking from the outer edge inwards. I used fiber and mesh on chairs. I tied my in-floor heat tubes to the mesh and set it onto 1" high chairs spaced pretty close to each other to hold the mesh up. with the thick slab I had the guys pull up on it some too to help get the mesh up.

Other than that it is good to have the concrete guys setup the day prior if possible and a must is to have them stop by at least 2 days prior to the pour to see if there is something you missed that they can see which was something I didnt do and should have as they had truck blow a tire on way to job and were late setting up for the pour. They added more rebar and height/thickness judging when pouring the concrete to know they had it level enough. I ended up with one spot where I have a shower in there that was supposed to slope to a pit drain. it has a low spot that didnt get sloped correctly. I can fix it with tile so not a big deal as it was in the bathroom area.

anyhow have fun...

Mark

 

[Egon]

Compaction will depend on how and what the base is built up of.

Layering the base material and compaction have to go hand in hand.

http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete-subgrades-subbases/

Base information
This site might also contain information on concrete finishes for living areas.

 

[ultrarunner]

What is the minimum sized pour without a surcharge in your area. If it's not to much and it sounds like you are handy, maybe you and 1 other person could do it in stages.
I'm not a mason by a long shot, but me and my wife can do maybe 6-7 yards of flatwork and I am shot after that. Maybe you could do your project in small chunks.
If you get help with one stage, at least you will get the feel of it and be able to do the rest, and then you will be handy enough to tackle the approach and whatever else comes up.

Two High School friends and I did a couple of 10 yard pours... we used 1 yard loads in trailers from the local batch plant...

Back then I used my Plymouth Valiant for the tow vehicle... one guy getting the cement and two of us using wheelbarrows to move it and spread while the driver was getting the next load...

The plant now requires a 3/4 ton truck or better to use their trailer and padlocks the trailer to the hitch.

I also helped a guy that used his heavy duty split rim pick-up with dump to haul wet concrete... he would fill the be with 1 yard, drive to the site and dump... had been doing it this way for years... all I can say it worked slick... just gad I didn't own the truck...

I've done 4 years 100% alone... including getting the wet concrete in the trailer and the pour... lots of work and no margin for error.

 

[SPIKER]

you can see the pour going on here I added A BUNCH OF PICS and some Video Clips as well.
video of my amish crew doing some of the apron & pour outside... was real hectic for early part so no vid of that as ended up with 3 trucks stacked up...



link to the barn pics and videos

BARN photos pictures by WPSPIKER - Photobucket

enjoy mark

 

[Egon]

Them fellows sure know how to make the job hard for themselves. Noticed rakes??? but no square nosed shovels.

Good chance of a little segregation.

 

[bironacad]

Compaction will depend on how and what the base is built up of.

Layering the base material and compaction have to go hand in hand.

Subgrades & Subbases for Concrete Slabs - The Concrete Network

Base information
This site might also contain information on concrete finishes for living areas.

After every 18" of fill needs compaction here in southern Ontario

 

[bironacad]

I make up a couple of bulll floats. A piece of 2x6 about 32" long attached to a 2x4 with the handle end ripped down so that you can grab it routed round lol. the handle is at 27 degrees to the floor. I havn't go time to do a full dwg but here is a side view.

 

[Egon]

After every 18" of fill needs compaction here in southern Ontario/QUOTE]

What type of material is refered to?