New Driveway and Polebarn

[rswyan]

We recently decided to put up a polebarn in addition to the driveway replacement project I started last year. While I'm having the building shell structure itself erected, I'm doing the clearing and grading of the land myself (with some help from several friends), as well as some of the other aspects of construction (electrical, plumbing, and finishing on the interior. )

The building is from Cleary and is their 42' x 72' x 13' EnergyMiser. The poles are on 8' centers and are constructed from three 2" x 6" PT lumber, nailed together. The building will have three 12' (W) x 10' (H) overhead doors in the one of the long sides (west), and 2 man doors .... one in the long side and one on the south endwall. Interior ceiling height is 12'.

It ought to look something like the attached when finished, though it will be about twice as long, near twice as deep, and a few feet higher.

 

[rswyan]

The current thought is to partition off and enclose the center bay for a shop area. This will make it easier to heat (and maybe cool /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) than trying to do the entire building. I plan on heating the building with wood using a barrel stove - but I plan to run natural gas out there in case at some point I want to run a heater just enough to keep the temperature above freezing. Might as well do it now while I'm doing the water line, rather than having to tear things up later.

I plan on running (direct burial) 4/0 4/0 2/0 ALU URD from the house for the electrical service, along with plenty of low voltage wire.

Attached is a pic of the interior layout.

 

[rswyan]

The polebarn will be located in the woods which is directly behind me in this picture.

 

[rswyan]

Attached is a pic of the site (looking due almost due east from the rear of our side yard) which is about 100' away from the house. Considering our current shed is a 300' plus walk from the house (almost all upslope) this will be an improvement. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I started working on clearing the site a couple of months ago and most of the following pictures were taken from then to this past week, except for some of the ones of initial work on the drivewayand road, which were taken last year.

 

[rswyan]

A little closer view looking East Northeast. Currently there is about a 2' drop north to south over 100' on the site and about the same amount of drop from the east/west sides of the site to the center. The building will be located towards the north end and on the eastern edge of the site. The area was originally a cornfield which grew up into a woods after the farmer quit farming it.

The plan is to remove the topsoil down to the clay (anywhere from 4" to 12") and then excavate clay soil from the high side (north & east) and fill in the low parts (south side & center)) and compact it. This will leave a couple of foot drop below existing grade on the north and east sides of the site. This is a little less than ideal but I don't know whether I can swing it budget-wise to bring in enough fill to raise the building pad significantly. Bankrun is probably the cheapest thing ..... any comments on whether it would be suitable would be welcome.

Barring that I will use some of the excavated topsoil to form a berm on the north and east sides on the remaining existing grade to channel surface runoff away from the building. Eventually I'd like to put up retaining walls on the north and east sides using landscape blocks.

I also plan on installing a french drain system using washed gravel and 4" perf flex pipe with soil sleeve encased in landscape fabric around the perimeter of the building on all sides to pull water away. Additionally there will another run of french drain under the approach/driveway in front. The layout of the drain system is like a bisected square - three north/south runs with two east/west runs at the top and bottom (north/south) ends - all of it connected together.

 

[rswyan]

Looking back to the house from near the southwest corner of the building site.

 

[rswyan]

This is spot the previous two pictures were taken from. There's an outlet for a culvert that runs under the side yard in the weeds. It drains the front yard. We're planning on doing a dry creekbed sorta thing over top the culvert and down into the woods since during heavy rains the flow will exceed what the culvert can handle.

 

[rswyan]

Clearing under way.

 

[rswyan]

Heading in for another load of wood.

 

[rswyan]

Another pic.

 

[rswyan]

My neighbor Jeff and his grandson, Zack, brought down his JD 310 TLB and Bobcat 743 one Friday evening and spent about about 10+ hours that evening and Saturday digging stumps. This pile is the result. I estimate it's about 20' long x 10' wide x 5' high and probably represents only about 40% or so of the stumps that have to be removed.

 

[rswyan]

Long shot of Jeff & Zack's stump pile with another pile I started in front of theirs.

 

[rswyan]

Another picture of the ongoing stump removal activity.

 

[rswyan]

One I dug out myself with the Kubota B2910.BL4690B backhoe. It's a Slippery Elm which was probably 14". Hint/Tip: If you ever have to clear an area use your tractor and FEL to push over as many trees as you can - you won't get them all, maybe just the smaller ones but it makes stump removel with the backhoe of what does remain alot less time consuming, since pushing them over generally will pop most of the stump and rootball. Of course it does depend on the type of trees you are working with and their root systems.

 

[rswyan]

While digging out a stump I found this hiding underneath it.

 

[rswyan]

I can't pick it up but I can pull it. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[rswyan]

All the way out finally. It kept wanting to roll while I pulled it so it took a bit to get it all the way out.

 

[rswyan]

The hole it came out of with a shovel in it for reference, along with a couple of relatives.

 

[rswyan]

My neighbor John (JASTN70D) was kind enough to lend a hand with prepping the pad a few Saturdays ago. Here he is coming back from the stump dump area at the back of the property. He moved the entire stump pile (30'+ x 20'+ x 6+') off the pad to our rear property line with his grapple in probably 30 to 45 minutes. It probably would have taken me days working by myself and loading them a few at a time into the bucket of my B2910.

John, thanks ... seriously. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[rswyan]

The road going back to the new stump pile. This area of the property is the lowest point on the property and has a large drainage - it's also fairly flat. When there has been any rain or it's at all wet out the place is pretty swampy.