Preparing a building pad

[paulsharvey]

I believe cracks of less than 1/8", and that don't settle or heave are generally acceptable; but what I mean are actually cracks, as in the corner of a building js settling, and you start getting cracks in the stucco or block, doors that don't open, cracks in drywall. Hairline cracks in concrete are to be expected. More is certainly a structural problem.

Some quick googling, seems to disagree on what is/isnt acceptable; 2mm, 3mm, upto 5mm (almost 1/4"), depending on source.

 

[paulsharvey]

I went back up to the top, and read for a 3rd time, and am still confused. Building a house in NY, and then talk of a pole barn. Are we discussing a 'barndominum', a pole barn, or a house? If a bardominium, I would assume a Pre-Engineered Metal Building, which the footers/piers (and the bolts, got to Really watch your bolt patterns, make a template for sure) are the structure, and the slab is just the floor surface. If we are talking about having a house built, and also a pole barn, forget densities on a barn. If we are talking about the house, conventional stick or block, and then a pole barn separately, test the house fill.

PEMBs typically have a very specific saw cut pattern (and real reinforcing plan), because they take loads different from a house. I would suggest carefully reviewing the plans, make sure you understand it all, before deciding if you want to take it on.

Bolt pattern on a PEMB is absolutely Key, we generally aren't talking 1/2×8" J bolts, or 1/2"×8 wedge anchors, we are often talking 7/8"×20" bolts, at Very specific locations to match the red iron uprights.

 

[newbury]

So, I don't know how we made it this far down with mentioned compact testing. At first, I wasn't sure if this was a barn, home, shop, or what, and I reread, and it's his home.

The building is a 32x56' pole barn with a 10' wide patio on the front of the building - 4' deep piers and 5" floating concrete slab - wire mesh and fiber mesh as spec-ed by engineer.

Reads like a pole barn to me.

 

[paulsharvey]

"I'm building a house in NY and naturally the first step is to prep the building pad."

So, let's talk tolerances;
pole barn; man, forget radon, compact but don't test. and just roll with it, it's a pole barn
House; we are talking a anywhere from $200-600k, spend the money, test, closely follow engineering specs, ect; but frankly a conventional home, is less square, level, ect than people know
Barndo; PEMB; the footers, rebar details, saw cuts, and bolts are truly important for layout of uprights; I might not worry about the fill as much as the bottom of the piers are on undisturbed soils, so no compaction needed; the slab is non load bearing, but will still need well compacted, or cracks will reflect through your floor finish.

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, over your plumbing DWV runs, you want to compact that as well. Clean fill, a plate tamp with proper moisture will do the job, clay, not so much.

I'm not really familiar with radon systems; but I assume, it's fill compacted and tested, then the stone, then plastic, then our normal wire/rebar? The gravel is to capture the gas, and allow it to escape out of special stack vents through the roof, right? If my understanding is correct, you would want the washed rock gravel as spec, as that's what allows the gases to capture and move to the vents

 

[4570Man]

Come one guys not all deisel plate are created equal



View attachment 930223


View attachment 930224View attachment 930226



View attachment 930225

View attachment 930227

You’re right one of those big ones would get the job done but who wants to spends weeks behind a plate tamper? Rent a considerably bigger ride on roller and get the job done way faster.

 

[rockasawrus]

What do they charge for rental?

It's $850/day for the machine + $600 delivery + taxes , comes out to $1600 for a 1 day rental where I am.
I'm renting a skid steer this weekend to do some brush clearing and driveway work. Gonna see how well I can dig with it


I do have an design drawn by a licensed engineer. I'm not an expert, but from what I've seen around here, soil testing is not usually done for foundation design. However, I'll ask my engineer about it, thanks for mentioning it! They didn't ask me about soil type, but maybe they just pulled up the USGS data?

 

[rockasawrus]

I somehow missed all the new replies from the last couple days, I was still refreshing page 1

This is a residence, post frame construction or Barndo (terrible sounding name in my opinion). It probably doesn't make a difference, but the whole first floor is shop space, and only 600sqft on the 2nd floor is 'living space'.

Barndo; PEMB; the footers, rebar details, saw cuts, and bolts are truly important for layout of uprights; I might not worry about the fill as much as the bottom of the piers are on undisturbed soils, so no compaction needed; the slab is non load bearing, but will still need well compacted, or cracks will reflect through your floor finish.

I don't think this qualifies as a PEMB (only roof metal, somewhat atypical truss spacing..etc). But my feeling is that, as you said, the slab is not load bearing, building is sitting on the piers. That being said, I'll look into proctor/density testing as you suggested, might be worth the peace of mind.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, for a normal structure, house, fairly typical commercial building, but Not bridge, large commercial, drilled shafts, ect, it is very typical to Not do soil sampling during design, but have notes about removing organic material/expansive materials, and then required density of the backfill. Now, you would not typically need to take density on virgin soils, they've been there hundreds of years, and are already at maximum density, unless you over excavate the footers, and then need to fill them back in.

And the building being Post framed, Barndo, does relax me a fair bit. Don't know exactly the post mounting detail, but it's not a PEMB, and I'll bet it's not as critical to worry about the bolt locations down to the 1/4".

I know I made it seem like a big deal, but I've dealt with it twice, where bolts didn't line up, or sunk into concrete too far, and we had to have bolt extensions welded on, engineers signature on that, and certified welder.

 

[ArlyA]

Just following.