New Driveway and Polebarn

[rswyan]

Mike,

Thanks - yup, had to do it - should have done it alot sooner actually.

If I had some spare time I would be more than happy to help. My job is presently keeping me hopping and I'm not complaining, other than the fact that it leaves me less time for flying.

Yeah .... I thought more than once about callin' ya' to see if I could weasel an afternoon out of ya ..... the grapple on your TC-40 would have come in handy (more than a few times. )

But I got it done .... (my pallet forks came in pretty handy :thumbsup

 

[rswyan]

Front of the barn as of this evening, with my "helper" on break, relaxing in the chair. In the lower right corner one can see the other helper - Mister Kitty - racing up to assist with the photography.

Got the gutters on this side cleaned out .... just in time for the fall refill :confused2:

Pulled the catchbasin yesterday and knocked 3 more holes in it to connect the lines from the french drains and the tightline from the downspouts on the north end of the building. Got it back in the hole, re-set, and the bottom below the exit pipe 'creted in before the light was no more.

 

[rswyan]

This is the north end of the building - took out about 15 to 25 trees on this end. The trees came right up next to the dropoff .... one of them was actually starting to get undermined ..... glad I caught it before it went over

I've removed around 2' or so of topsoil to uncover the clay.

There will be two french drains installed on this end - one further upslope, to (hopefully) intercept subsurface water before it gets down near the barn, and another one closer in - probably 8' to 10' out from the building - to drain any water in the ground near the building itself.

Additionally, over the lower french drain there will be surface drains which will be tied into the tight line for the gutters. All of it empties into the catchbasin.

 

[rswyan]

Taken from the north end, looking back towards the front of and approach to the building. On the right side of image Mister Kitty is on safari.

 

[rswyan]

Back side of the barn (faces east) There is about a 5' to 8' drop over 30' or so, from the woods to the barn (grade at north end is higher than the south) ..... this side will get the same drainage treatment as the north side - one french drain upslope, another down low, and surface drains.

This side had been graded to a slope previously, a couple of years ago. I put the ledge in today so I can run a mini excavator across the slope to do the trenching.

 

[rswyan]

South side of the building .... took out about 15 or so trees on this end.

I'm pretty good on this side ..... there will be one french drain on this side nearer the building, since grade mostly slopes away from the building .... maybe a surface drain or two on the back side (tied into the tightline for the downspouts), where there isn't as much slope.

There is a wild fern in the middle of the image which I managed to save thru all the tree felling, stump grubbing, and grading. It is unique and different than any of the wild ferns I've seen growing around here. May try and transplant it as native landscaping to an area that will be less prone to traffic.

 

[rswyan]

Well that's it for the pictures today ..... rain is supposedly heading in tonight and will be here throughout the day tomorrow ..... so tomorrow will likely be a "run out and get materials/work inside the barn" day.

I'm not complaining mind you - we can use the rain - it's gotten pretty dusty here with all the dirt work ...... I just hope that it doesn't end up being a torrential deluge .... as I would like to get back to it on Friday, and then pick up the mini-excavator on Saturday morning.

Speaking of going out and picking up materials tomorrow - anybody have any thoughts or comments on the questions/ideas I had on the skirtboard situation in Post No. 230 of this thread ?

 

[rimshot]

Ok folks, time to raise this thread up again ........ like Lazarus risen from the dead.

.

As things currently set, the skirtboards would be below grade (around 8" or so )if I backfilled and graded now.

The building has 1' overhangs, 6" gutters (which will be run to hard pipe) .... the eventual plan is to pour a 3' or 4' concrete apron around all four outside walls - but that won't happen until after the floor is poured .... so probably not until some time next summer or fall.

The skirtboard, while rated for ground contact, is probably not rated for being buried - so I'm toying with a couple of ideas to keep moisture away from both the skirtboard and the poles. My thoughts are to cover the skirtboards with some heavy Visqueen/plastic sheeting, and then run that out another 5' away from the polebarn and backfill on top of the sheeting - so that any moisture would flow away from the building.

Idea was that I would backfill out 3' with washed gravel on top of the Visqueen (as base for the concrete apron), and then cover the last 2' of the Visqueen with topsoil.

Another thought I had was to run the Visqueen as above and then run 12" or so 1/2" expanded polystyrene on the skirtboard over top of the Visqueen. I'm planning on running PEX for floor heat inside the barn, and will insulate the interior side of the skirtboards with at least 2" of expanded polystyrene as well.

Due to how the building pad was cut into a bank, the ground around barn is prone to being on the damp side, particularly on the north and east sides (the worst places, due to the amounts of shade both areas get)

Thoughts ?

(new pictures to follow later today)

========

I'm in the process of erecting a small pole barn myself. I made sure however to haul enough fill sand to provide a favorable grade for the floor and to provide a positive flow away from the building. Perhaps you were not able to do that but just hoping your grade is high enough also. I mention this because you noted that your grade was, "building pad was cut into a bank"

I priced several pole barn packages prior to purchase. To make the price cheaper I suppose, every provider included a treated sill board specifying above grade. I don't care for that. Since I wanted to screed the concrete floor directly off the top of the sill board the outside grade will probably touch this sill board. Since this area may be in contact with the ground I figured it should consist of .60 ground treated lumber even though it costs a bit more. I have seen that .40 stuff fail in less than 10 years when used for ground contact applications.

I don't think one should count on visquine to provide much protection over the years because it treats the effect and does not address the cause.
rim

 

[EddieWalker]

That picture of your "helper" and your tractor sure makes the building look HUGE!!! It's a heck of a project. Thanks for the updates and good luck on getting it done before the weather changes on you.

Eddie

 

[wmonroe]

Great build, just finished reading the entire thread and am very impressed with what you have done. Having built a small 28x30 garage myself I know how much time you are putting in. What i did with the bottom skirt board on my garage (pole building) since it is also below grade was to dig down below the skirt board and also about 12" away from it and put filter fabric in, perforated pipe, and then backfill with 2B gravel. I figured this would keep the water away from the wood itself.
Good luck as you continue the project, everything looks great.