Pics of your shops/garages/specs

TacomaJD · Dec 6, 2016

ibrokeit said:
I'm planning on doing a pole barn next year. Being in the concrete business should help me out a ton. A footer isn't necessary at all with a polar barn, but thicken it up at your drive through door. I'd do 8" thick 1' wide from slab edge. It's cheap insurance to keep the slab from busting where you drive in and out.

I plan on forming with a 2x6 (5.5" slab) and digging another 3" deep 1' off he slab edge all the way around just for fun. Poly and wire.

Interesting post from a guy on garage journal about concrete

"It's perfectly possible to place a typical residential slab without cracks. It depends on a few basic factors. The first is to minimize shrinkage with larger aggregate, minimal water and proper curing. The second is to ensure that slab is not restrained from shrinking by the subgrade, rebar or penetrations. One final point is to avoid reentrant corners.

Lastly, Neither rebar or mesh does much to improve the structural strength of a slab. Its the subgrade that actually supports the loads placed on a slab. A slab isn't deep enough for rebar to form a 'beam' and support weight. The slab just transfers the load to what's underneath.

If you are worried about cracking from loads placed on your slab - put in a strong stable base.

If you want a crack free floor - pay attention to your construction details, slump and curing.

If a random crack will ruin your day - cut some control joints immediately after you place.

(Might as well bring fiber into the discussion. About all it's good for is to buy you some time to cut your joints by resisting early age plastic shrinkage cracks while the concrete has very little tensile strength of its own)

If you want to ensure that you won't trip over your cracks/control joints - install some properly supported rebar or WWF."

jp fan · Dec 6, 2016

Built this last year it's a 24x36 with a tall door on one end and a 10' on the other 12' high roof and put the post on top of the slab

TacomaJD · Dec 6, 2016

How exactly to they mount the posts to the slab when done like that? Interesting.

jp fan · Dec 6, 2016

There is metal plates you can buy and I drilled a hole in the concrete and used Red head bolts to bolt them down then drilled a 1"hole in the bottom of the post for the bolt to go inside of, then screwed the bracket to the post. I liked this a lot because the post not being in the ground and some places that fine but where this building is against the hill side and the backside not really getting any sun thought they may rot in the ground, it made it really easy to line it all up. I also dug out a kinda footer under both load bearing walls, there is 20 1/2 yards in this floor

Marty · Dec 6, 2016

Simpson makes a bracket. Never been a huge fan of wood sitting in the concrete so this is not a bad way at all. Only downside is more money in the slab cause you need a mono to support the building load. Which is not bad just more money. Morton and others are starting to use a pre cast concrete column in the ground which is what I have in my Morton shop. No wood to rot below grade.

ROKTOY829 · Dec 6, 2016

Re:

Looking to build one after i get the house built. Thinking about running pex in the floor and hook a water heater up. That way have a heated floor.

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jccarter1 · Dec 6, 2016

Shane I did pex in the floor of my pervious shop and it was freaking awesome I wish I would have done it in this one but I was still working on forms when the concrete truck pulled up to pour so I didn't get time to get it in but I would recomend doing the pex in the floor

ibrokeit · Dec 7, 2016

How exactly do you get the water to flow through the pex in the floor? Or circulate would be a better word.

jccarter1 · Dec 7, 2016

On my setup I had a closed loop system with a water heater, expansion tank, bleed valve, and small 110 pump to move the water I also had a ambient temp sensor hook to the pump power supply to control the temp it worked great the only thing I would have done different would have been use a wood heater bc the system takes a day or so to get up to temp so you kinda have to let it run non-stop which can add 100-150 to electric bill

blacksheep10 · Dec 7, 2016

TacomaJD said:
Interesting post from a guy on garage journal about concrete

"It's perfectly possible to place a typical residential slab without cracks. It depends on a few basic factors. The first is to minimize shrinkage with larger aggregate, minimal water and proper curing. The second is to ensure that slab is not restrained from shrinking by the subgrade, rebar or penetrations. One final point is to avoid reentrant corners.

Lastly, Neither rebar or mesh does much to improve the structural strength of a slab. Its the subgrade that actually supports the loads placed on a slab. A slab isn't deep enough for rebar to form a 'beam' and support weight. The slab just transfers the load to what's underneath.

If you are worried about cracking from loads placed on your slab - put in a strong stable base.

If you want a crack free floor - pay attention to your construction details, slump and curing.

If a random crack will ruin your day - cut some control joints immediately after you place.

(Might as well bring fiber into the discussion. About all it's good for is to buy you some time to cut your joints by resisting early age plastic shrinkage cracks while the concrete has very little tensile strength of its own)

If you want to ensure that you won't trip over your cracks/control joints - install some properly supported rebar or WWF."

This is not as common as it should be. I built commercial building pads/roads etc for several years. A real pad is stripped down to acceptable material (get rid of ALL the black dirt, get to some good skinny clay) compact and dry, put 12" of lime screenings on it wet, compact, let it dry, pour concrete on it. You want subgrade that won't move. No matter how good the concrete is, it isn't worth a **** with bad subgrade. Having to fill your pad is a bigger deal because most small outifts don't have a compactor that hits hard enough to get compaction. Getting the dirt right is monumentally important to making your floor last forever. Proper drainage of any water away from your slab is the other.

ROKTOY829 · Dec 7, 2016

Re:

I was wondering about using a water heater. Looking at using a rocket mass heater to heat the water lines and the air.

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ForMud · Dec 7, 2016

TacomaJD said:
Lastly, Neither rebar or mesh does much to improve the structural strength of a slab. Its the subgrade that actually supports the loads placed on a slab.

[color=red]If you are worried about cracking from loads placed on your slab - put in a strong stable base.

If you want a crack free floor - pay attention to your construction details, slump and curing.

If a random crack will ruin your day - cut some control joints immediately after you place.

I agree 100% Most cracks are because of a poor base...Spend the money there. Cutting expansion joints are great insurance. Wire mat only holds the concrete together when it cracks. If you use wire or bar, make sure it's in the middle not pushed down to the bottom from being stepped on.
Keep in mind theres a lot of good penetrating sealers out there. They work as a surface hardener, stops stains, dust proof, and stops salt from spalling the surface.

74_Chevota · Dec 7, 2016

New pole barn shop I am building.

40x50 with a mancave, bathroom (full bath), wood shop and 35x40 garage area. Lean-to on the outside is 12'x40'.

Hopefully the last one i will need for a long time.

TacomaJD · Dec 7, 2016

Nice build! That's a sweet setup.

Molly Hatchet · Dec 7, 2016

Bought an old lake house built in 1973. After updating inside for the boss. I added on a 60x40x12 shop, carport, and front porch. Lord willing it will be the last place I ever live.

Jduck · Dec 7, 2016

drool drool

TacomaJD · Dec 7, 2016

Marty said:
Simpson makes a bracket. Never been a huge fan of wood sitting in the concrete so this is not a bad way at all. Only downside is more money in the slab cause you need a mono to support the building load. Which is not bad just more money. Morton and others are starting to use a pre cast concrete column in the ground which is what I have in my Morton shop. No wood to rot below grade.

Where did you buy/order these from and how much were they a piece?

Marty · Dec 7, 2016

TacomaJD said:
Where did you buy/order these from and how much were they a piece?

I didn't use them on my shop, but have for sheds and decks I have had in the past. Should have them at lowes for a 6X6 or a local building supply. I just looked a Lowes online, looks like anywhere from $10-15 a piece.

Marty · Dec 7, 2016

JD- heres a pic of my columns on my Morton building. Concrete gets poured later on just like a normal pole barn but with no wood in the ground. Also morton uses 3 2x6 boards together instead of a 6x6. 6x6 tend to twist and bow and do weird ****.

The-Boss · Dec 7, 2016

On the topic of concrete, I used Ghostshield products on my build last year. I knew I would ruin even the best colored epoxy so went with their 4500 densifier and 8505 sealer. I have been happy with it so far.

http://ghostshield.com/shop/lithi-tek-4500/
http://ghostshield.com/shop/siloxa-tek-8505/