Hey guys....

I have a 36 x 60 Pole barn/shop that I think I am going to spend a little cash on to fix up. Anyways as it is, it just has a dirt floor. I am looking at pouring 6 inches of cement for a nice shop floor this summer. My big question what are some things I need to do to prevent large cracks in the floor. For heat I plan on just a large wood stove with some fans to move the air around the shop. So heating and cooling will be an issue in the winter. Might go with a sump in floor, but again with me not heating shop all winter on a consistant basis that will be a major issue. Probably no floor drains, just because of the freezing issues. Not opposed to squeegeeing the floor. Might run in floor heat lines, but have no immediate plans of an outdoor wood boiler/hay burning/grain burning stoves for heat. What has worked for other resourceful Alberta farmers...... Throw any ideas at me. I do NOT build shop floors for a living!

 

I'd surely put the lines in the floor for radiant heat. Even if I didn't have immediate plans for it, good investment. I would also go with adding fiber to the cement.

 

level the dirt nicely, then lay down some insulating styrofoam, then rebar on top or just pour with fibremesh. . .

 

As for a sump, all I did with mine was build a 2'x2'x2' steel box, sunk it in the floor, and outside the building I welded 3 45gal drums together and punched a bunch of holes in them, augered a hole in the ground to fit the drums and connected them to the steel sump with some 3" abs pipe. Has been working great for years. But this can only for used for snow melt or washing vehicles, you can't change oil and just dump it in the sump.

Other than that, just make sure the floor is compacted good, put down a layer of poly, rebar around the sides, and mesh for the rest. Also, put in the heating lines, for the cost they are cheap, and even if you don't use them right now, you might want them later. I wish I had put them in my place. Try to put at least 4" on concrete, the fibermesh stuff is great, and put your sump about 3" lower than the sides of your building for good drainage.

 

Make sure you dig down a bit, compact the soil real realy good. I personally would go with layer of 3/4 crush,, then some styrofoam,, definately go with in floor heat, it is awesome,, the concrete wont crack as bad either with in floor heating. As for a sump, a buddy of mine just dug a big hole, put about a foot or so of crush, then a 45 gal drum with a bunch of holes in it. then packed the hole with sand..... he has had that like that now for allost 10 years, seems to be working great,,, just have to get the mud cleaned out of it every once and awhile

Kevin

 

A company in northern california (Fafco, Inc. in Chico) builds polypropylene solar panels for heating pool water, get about 4-6 of their 4 ft x 20 ft panels and attach a insulated water tank (for storage) and a small circulating pump and let the sun heat the floor.
I have them on my roof heating my pool and if I build another shop, the floors going to be hot.

db

 

If you don't put a floor drain in, you'll regret it. Northernwheeler has the right idea.
Andy

 

Problem with Solar heat, is that with the winter solstice up here, we get less and less light as it gets colder and colder. In the middle of winter we only get about 8 hours of sunlight and not direct either.

So in the middle of summer, we get lots of in floor heat.. Great..

 

First of all, if you don't want cracks, you need rebar in the WHOLE pad. Mesh is USELESS. The best thing is 30 MPA concrete, 6" thick, 5/8 rebar on about 1' centers and it will never crack, hardener also helps a lot. A few inches of road crush for a base also. Styrofoam would be nice over the whole pad, but it is pretty pricy. The biggest thing that makes concrete crack is it not being done right. Without heat it will still last 25-30 years easy, heat is for working on it. Floor drains are also a very good idea.

 

You might have to pour them as two or three pour so you limit the cracking to the pour lines. The ground shifts to much here, frost heaves and from rain. If you pour the the entire pad, I would do some research into whats require to code. A civil engineer would a good buddy to find. You could reebar or mech it but it will still crack, but stay together. You have to put in several drains for that much surface. If you could dig down into you find gravel would help, but whats the chance of that??? Lots of piling would help as well.

Pad level and slope is important to. Just think about where you want the water to go and/or go to.

 

Poured my 40 x 40 barn floor this last summer.

In my case because of my property, it was 2 ft of packed 4" drain rock, 8 inches of packed pit run (driveway gravel), rebar 12 inches on center, 27 mpa concrete poured 6 inches thick and sealed with a waterproofer.

We have kept an eye on it all winter and there are no cracks, no shifting, anything.

My concrete contractor said with the 27mpa concrete and the amount of rebar, it shouldn't crack but if I was to have used it as a shop, I would have just have to step up to 30 mpa.

I had the option of running heat lines for one of those rainy days in the future but didn't. It wouldn't have made any difference on the concrete or rebar if I had.

Rebar is your friend, mesh isn't if you want it to live.

Jeff

 

i would definitely use rebar, and there is no problem doing it all in one pour - just saw cut it afterwards with a skillsaw and concrete blade - or hire it out.

homestead - you can still saw cut it if you are worried about cracking.

i think all you need is to cut about 1/4" depth on a 4" slab - so maybe 1/2" on a 6" slab . . .?

 

Jeff, how was your concrete guy? If you liked him, would you mind forwarding his number along, I'm gonna be in need in a few months of a large heated pad.