Advice on new barn construction needed

[Green Power]

Looking good.

 

[MF283]

16" oc, you'll be looking at 14" & some change in between. One thing i don't understand is why a realtor was asked about the size of building, regardless of value, i'd build what i wanted if i were planning on staying there the rest of my life.

Ronnie

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

16" oc, you'll be looking at 14" & some change in between. One thing i don't understand is why a realtor was asked about the size of building, regardless of value, i'd build what i wanted if i were planning on staying there the rest of my life.

Ronnie

This why 'reading comprehension' is stessed in grade school.

 

[daugen]

MF, I asked the realtor about building an $80K hvac'd work building, not this shed.
And you are right exactly, but I'm NOT going to be here for life, advanced arthritis, maybe ten years at most.
Then headed to a CCC. No wife, no kids, no one to leave it to.
and I have to get my investment money out.
so I built what I needed and not what I wanted.

now awaiting the metal, though pouring rain today, not today.
Major problem with mud between barn and shed, not draining, thought I could bring in topsoil but now I'm sure I'll need rock.

 

[deezler]

Looks real solid. My only concern that I haven't seen anyone else mention yet is those 2' roof overhangs on each end.... are only built out of tacked on 2x4s from what I can tell. I have seen a lot of buildings and sheds with sagging overhangs, and fear yours will too.

 

[daugen]

I need to take more pics, which I will, but I'm satisfied with the final result. About 100% more building than I wanted but that's ok. Just slightly overbuilt...
I walked the job with the GC today, the local fireman I wanted to do business with. And when the bill came in it was a bit over expectation and had a few charges for driving here and there. I smiled and said fine; he basically gave himself his own tip and I just paid the exact invoice.

Just got off phone with local trucker, and awaiting quote on one 16ton load of 57's and two 16 ton loads of ABC Crusher run or whatever the local lingo calls it. The big stuff goes down in the muddy area, and when it's all levelled out, and dried out a little, then I lay down the top layer of ABC and when that's all settled, I may or may not put topsoil on it. I have a huge pile of topsoil available from my water diversion ditch project. I initially tried using that and just made it worse.

ground is really soft now, and much more rain coming next week. Running out of time to get this done with a wet winter predicted.

 

[daugen]

Deezler, you may be right about those overhangs, let me make sure they were totally done.
I'm taking a fresh set of pics; that pic above was on zoom from the house.

hmmm, they did offer to finish/box in the bottom of the overhangs, which I suppose would have added some
strength. Think that would help? I kinda like being able to see what's going on in there...but maybe I only have three
legs of the chair now. For sure, construction carpentry is not my forte.

 

[LD1]

Just got off phone with local trucker, and awaiting quote on one 16ton load of 57's and two 16 ton loads of ABC Crusher run or whatever the local lingo calls it. The big stuff goes down in the muddy area, and when it's all levelled out, and dried out a little, then I lay down the top layer of ABC and when that's all settled, I may or may not put topsoil on it. I have a huge pile of topsoil available from my water diversion ditch project. I initially tried using that and just made it worse.

ground is really soft now, and much more rain coming next week. Running out of time to get this done with a wet winter predicted.

Looks good, but around here 57's is a top coat, Not something I would call "big stuff" to put in muddy areas. 57's is ~3/4" stuff (about the size of large marbles).

AND, since it is a top coat it cost more per ton cause they sell more of it. The larger stone we use for base and teh stuff with lots of fines and dust up my way is 2-3 bucks a ton cheaper than the top coat stuff. I would check when you get your quote that way you are disappointed trying to do a base over muddy areas with small gravel.

 

[daugen]

57 stone delivered, what a morning...truck driver with 16 tons on made big mistake of stopping before little bridge and buried the truck in the mud. We tried everything, Kubota just dug holes trying to pull it. Finally nothing to do but dump the load and that got the truck out. So now I have a lot of stone to ferry over. I am using the 57's first where I thought I would use ABC. And where the 57's were going I need to use either larger rock or sand. I was told by two folks locally to use sand. ??

 

[daugen]

after hand shoveling that gravel around the back side of the building about a foot wide, to keep water splash off the metal sides, I'm sure not ready for any more work today, but I keep looking at that last picture and I'm thinking, yeah go down there and blow it off, get it nice and clean. For once...

 

[LD1]

Yep, looks like your 57's are the same as what we have here. Need something bigger for base IMO, otherwise drive maintenance is gonna be never-ending in the lower muddier areas

 

[daugen]

Yep, looks like your 57's are the same as what we have here. Need something bigger for base IMO, otherwise drive maintenance is gonna be never-ending in the lower muddier areas

thanks, I agree. But what I don't know is whether to go with larger rock, which I'm told just disappears headed for China versus sand which packs down. This is over the wet clay muddy area only. Otherwise the 57's with a top layer of ABC should be fine.

sandy soil with patches of clay. No rocks, learned that stone is expensive here because it has to be hauled from almost an hour away at the minimum. No stone here on the coast, only sand pits. I just paid $547 for 16 tons of 57 stone delivered and dumped. Pricey for sure.
Interesting that rear tires on dump trucks up North would likely have not had a problem because of much more aggressive tread being used on rear tires due to snow.
Here the rear highway style tires didn't stand a chance when that slick clay filled up the grooves.

 

[LD1]

Never heard of using sand for a base. It seems sand only packs when its got nowhere to go, like in a bucket. But I'll see what others have to say.

If sand were indeed better for base, I think it would be alot more common, as it is far cheaper than stone I. Just about every part of the US

 

[aczlan]

I remember seeing them making roads of sand in Swamp Loggers, perhaps because it drains well? I don't know.

Aaron Z

 

[LD1]

If its got somewhere to drain to I guess.

I'm my area, things are mostly flat, and clay. My vision of using sand for a base would be something like trying to fill a pond with sand. If its in a "clay bowl" and it rains, you have quicksand

 

[wcampbell47]

Saw the pic of your mud hole which reminded me that once upon a time i put wood chips in a similar hole. The wood chips dried it up and packed down where the other stuff just disappeared. The local electric utility gladly donated the chips.

 

[daugen]

enjoyed two hours of tractor time before the rains came this morning. Moved the stone out of the field around the new building and leveled the gravel area before the temporary bridge. Thinking about it, guess I'd better build a real bridge there.
Got some stone down in the muddy area only temporary to push the precip about to come down over to the drainage ditch. If I drove a tractor on it I'd bury a tire.
But I could back the water roller over it. Not today for sure.

warm weather here is confusing the lawn; new grass planted to cover the water diversion ditches is bright green again. Nice change from dead brown.

 

[EddieWalker]

Back when I worked a little bit in construction in CA, they always used sand under the slab. I was told it was required because of earthquakes, and that it was the only material that they didn't have to compact before using. When I moved to TX, I was surprised that nobody used it here for anything.

As for putting rock on mud, I wouldn't do it. Iv'e found that it's a wast of time and material. If I have to deal with mud, I either wait for it to dry out, or dig it out until I get to firm soil, then fill and compact the hole up to grade or a little above grade. Dirt is cheap and very effective for a base. Leaving a wet low spot just means you will always have a wet low spot after filling it with rock. On big construction jobs they will use bigger rock because of time and having more money to spend. Ideally, you want to use clean fill dirt to build up your base before adding expensive rock to cover it.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Technically it's 19.2 inches for spacing if you want to be somewhere between 16 inches and 24 inches. I tend to call it 18 inches, but that's just a bad habit of mine. If you look at a decent steel tape you will see that they are marked at 19.2 inches, 38.4 inches, 57.6 inches, 76.8 inches and 96 inches. Most people don't even realize that when looking at a tape!!!

Learn something every day. I've used these Stanley tapes pretty much every day for decades, and never noticed those marks.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Drew, I'm not sure what to do with your sop hole? But my contractor got me some 12' wide landscape fabric. After scraping off the top green layer, I rolled it out and put the 2" to fines stuff he brought me on top of it. I did not have the mud mess like you before I started. Also, I built up any low areas with some sand and dirt. I would guess I only have about 3 or 4" of rock on top of the landscape fabric, which is over our clay soil. It has held up well for 11 years.