Barn Floor

[BXmark]

I'm planning to build a barn probably 20x24 or a little larger to house my tractor and implements. Problem is, getting equiptment in to excavate and pour concrete without damaging our landscaping and concrete driveway. I'm considering a pressure treated 2x6 T&G wood floor over treated joists. This would disturb the site much less and as I study the numbers cost less compared to excavating, pumping concrete to the site, and having it finished.
Has anyone else built a new barn with a wood floor? I'd like to hear any ideas.

 

[MikePA]

Hmm, a BX plus implements could end up being a pretty large static load. In essence, you'd be building a floor system capable of supporting about a ton. What would the floor rest on? How far apart would the joists be? You'd have to have ventilation & a vapor barrier under the floor to prevent rot. The more I think about it, it might end up being more complicated than pouring concrete.

 

[rdln]

I think you will have to bite the bullet. Building a floor to handle
the load is easy enough but your joists have to sit on something solid
which requires material and excavating to build that would have to be
brought over your grass.

 

[Devildog]

Good question, Although what im building is smaller but I am interested in what is needed to support a small tractor in a shed, 2x6, 2x8, 2x10 ? Not near the size of your building. My shed will be a 12x16, Leveling out the building site with box blade now but will be storing B7500 in it.

On Edit: It will be resting on 4x4's to be able to move at a later date.
__________________________________________________
Take care all, Jim

2001 B7500 HST 302 Fel R4 Tires, Befco BRB60
Semper Fidelis<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Devildog on 11/26/01 11:13 AM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[MikePA]

As rdln mentioned, while it's important to properly size the joists, it's equally important what those joists are resting on. Building a wooden floor instead of a concrete floor is, in essence, building a deck that is real close to the ground (hence the need for ventilation). Except that a deck only has to support its own weight plus furniture and the people that would be on it. In this case, instead of people, we're talking about a 1,500 pound tractor (is that what a BX weighs?) plus various implements that might be stationary for a while.

 

[HalseyGreen]

Haven't given the static load much thought, but I have been in a good many bank barns where you backed your wagon load of hay in and off loaded it, all on a wooden floor. Looking back, the barns all had heavy wooden beams like arount 12" square supporting the load with some long spans.

 

[MikePA]

I was thinking of those as well but, as you pointed out, the beams in those old barns are large as is the foundation they rest on.

 

[Devildog]

So would it be safe to say that a 12x16 shed with 2x6 floor joists 16" on center resting on 4x4"s 2foot on center would support my B7500? I was also going to use 3/4 plywood for the flooring.
______________________________________________
Thanks all, Jim

2001 B7500 HST 302 Fel R4 Tires, Befco BRB60
Semper Fidelis

 

[TerryinMD]

Jim,

I have a shed that is 10X10 to store by JD 4100. No implements!! I'll just explain the flooring since walls be walls. The flooring is 2x8's on 2' centers going both ways. Just like a checkerboard. The flooring is 3/4 pressure treated plywood on the as the first layer and 5/8" tongue and groove for the second layer. The floor is layed directly on an 8" bed of gravel and is secured to the ground with screw in anchors. Been there for 5 years and no problems (except for pesky groundhogs).

My JD4100 weighs in around 1600 lbs. The floor shows no signs of sag or wear. The shed also is home to all of our gardening stuff, a chipper/shreader, push lawnmower, etc.

Hope this helps.

Terry

 

[Devildog]

Terry,
Thanks that is exactly what I needed to know /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I'm putting it on 4x4s cause we will need to move it when and if we can build the garage.
__________________________________________________
Take care, Jim

2001 B7500 HST 302 Fel R4 Tires, Befco BRB60
Semper Fidelis

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

BXMark,

A 20 x 24 pad really isn't all that much concrete, about 6 yd's (160 cu ft)for a 4" pour. Have you considered perhaps doing the job in two or three pour's and hauling the mix in your bucket. With 600 lb's per trip, about 4 cu ft. 13-14 trips and your 1/3 done. Do the next section another day.
If the distance for the trip dosen't take to long or road too rough, this might work. At some point usually 30 minutes the truck will want more bucks to stick around. Think how impressed your wife will be for the uses you have found for your tractor, you could take a picture and be famous in Harv's front loader thread./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Al

 

[BXmark]

What gave me the idea for the wood floor was some large 12x16 yard barns I built for a company back in the 80s. They had 4x6 sleepers 2' apart leveled on the ground or preferably on a gravel bed. Then we laid 2x6 treated T&G flooring. Several of these buildings were used for storing cars. After 20 years there is no sign of rot. You got to keep in mind, properly treated wood is more like petrified wood than the original organic thing.
I remember on the farm where I worked as a kid; the farmer's barn had a wood floor of 8-10" logs more than 2' apart and spanning a good 16-18'. He parked a school bus in this barn every day for years.

 

[Devildog]

BXmark,
A 12x16 is exactly what Im getting ready to build. This helped me out on what to do for the subfloor.
___________________________________________________
Take care, Jim

2001 B7500 HST 302 Fel R4 Tires.
Semper Fidelis

 

[TerryinMD]

BXmark,

The floor was probably 1" nominally cut oak or chesnut, two layers thick!!

Terry

 

[RichNJ]

You may want to check out a 'span table' in any book on wood frame construction. This table lists acceptable deflection of various sized lumber for various loads.
I used a span table many, many times when building or remodeling. This way you don't underbuild or overbuild.
I just priced a 5" concrete floor for my barn and I got several quotes at around $1.80 per sq ft. My barn is 30x56ft.That price includes all labor and materials with the ready-mix truck able to shoot the concrete thru the main door and a window. A concrete pump added about about $700 to the price. I leveled the site and put in several inches of stone for a base already.
One of the concrete companies around here has a small truck that they use for tight spots or weight limitations. The concrete costs more of course.

 

[BXmark]

Rich, around here the going rate is $3.00 a sq ft for flatwork. That does not include excavating or clearing the site or gravel. Then it would have to be pumped 200'.
That barn they used to park the school bus in had oak flooring 1 1/2 inches thick not T&G.

 

[BXmark]

Get this-- I called our county Building Dept. and told them I wanted to put up a large yard barn with a wood floor. They said as long as it was not on a "permanent" foundation or slab no building permit or inspections are required. Better yet, they told me it would not be taxed as real estate so no increase in property taxes.

I had a local lumber yard that specializes in pressure treated lumber work me up a quote on a 20x24 floor, 4x6 ground contact sleepers on 16" centers (they said 24" centers were adequate), 2x6 T&G treated flooring, including epoxy coated screws--- $1,139.

 

[dummy]

Don't know how to insert links, but www. southernpine.com has some pretty good charts available on their web site.

 

[MikePA]

Here's the link Southern Pine.

 

[Youare]

Around 1989 I built a barn/garage that is 24X26. I did not have the money to have a concrete floor poured, but I did have a saw mill and the access to all the timber I needed. I put in a wooden floor that I still drive on today.

I planted railroad ties in the ground on end 6' apart. On top of those I placed 4"X8" timbers like a sill, running the opposite direction on top of the 4X8's I placed 4"X6"X12' timbers 24" apart. The deck on top of this is two layers of 1" pine boards running in opposite directions which gives me a 2" thick floor.

I have driven my full size pickup loaded with sawdust over the floor for the horses that share one half of the building. I park the truck in the barn over night in the winter, this winter the Kubota will force the truck to say outside.

The legnth of span your 2X6's will bridge is the critical element. I think the 2X6's you want to use are a little light for the task unless you have a short span and put them about 12" on center apart with good bridgeing straps in. I used full cut stock so a 2X6 was 2" by 6" not 1 1/2" X 5 1/2", there is a big difference. When you consider the square inch area of the end of one piece against the other the full cut piece comes out at 12 square inches and the other so called 2X6 comes out at 8.25 square inches. That is more than a 30% difference which equates to a much weaker piece of wood. Most of the old barns were built out of full cut lumber.

You can have a wood floor provided you put in the correct size floor members. One thing to keep in mind is there has to be an air space under the floor that can breathe or else even pressure treated lumber will rot after a while.

Randy