Question About Barn Pad

[Believer]

I'm going to build a barn and may eventually pour concrete but the concrete won't be right away. I have some creek gravel I could put down to save money over buying something. Does it make sense to put down say 4-6" of the creek gravel and then ~2" of crusher run over that? The creek gravel varies in size up to 4-5" rocks. My barn is going to be 50x50.

 

[scgargoyle]

By 'creek gravel', do you mean rounded pebbles and rocks? They don't work well as a base, since the roll against each other. Crushed stone is much better, since the sharp edges and flat faces lock against each other.

 

[Raspy]

1 1/2" crushed gravel is a very practical size for a base material. It seems a bit big, but it does not need further compacting. The act of running over it with your tractor and smoothing it out is enough. Of course it's mainly good for parking and not for working on stuff. Just add plenty according to your ground requirements. Then, if desired, road base can be added later to give a smoother surface that is almost like concrete after compacting and watering. Finally, if you do pour concrete later, you're all set with a proper base material.

In my case I put it down over decomposing granite that I compacted with a jumping jack and water till it would not go any farther. My thickness varied from a few inches to about 4 feet inside my perimeter foundation.

 

[EddieWalker]

The creek gravel will move around on you if it's smooth on the edges and not acomplish anything. Like already mentioned, a good base is made up of jagged rock in various sizes from a couple inches down to fines. The way it works is that it gets compressed into itself and locks together. For roads, you need a minimum of 4 inches for this to happen. If it's indoors and you are not dealing with moisture, less will work find until you pour concrete over it. Depending on your soil conditions, you might need base for the concrete, or you might not.

Eddie

 

[SPIKER]

Like others said depends on the gravel you have, I put in a lot of it in my barn pad area. probably scooped up 200 ton of the stuff from my creek. it is mostly a sand pea gravel and broken up sandstone. compacts really well.

Mark M