concrete slab for compost

[Eric_Phillips]

My wife wants to compost her horse manure on concrete slabs. I have never poured a slab before, any tips? I was thinking of making the top level with the ground so I am not having to adjust the bucket when the wheels get to the slab. The bays I was going to make about a foot wider than the bucket. What about ground prep. It will be on sandy loam. Is 4" thick good and what about rebar?

 

[Treemonkey1000]

You will probably get an ear full of responses about concrete. Can you get some of the loam dug out to get to some more solid dirt as a base? I am no concrete expert. But I would think the fact that you are going to drive on it with the tractor and having the compost pile. You would want at least 4" with some rebar. Depending on how big of a slab you might want some relief cuts in the slab. Having a ramp onto the slab seems to make sense in my mind which means having the slab slightly above ground level. The run off from the compost will you have to worry about that much? Say if you get a large rain and it starts to float away the material and liquids.
Ahh I am just rambling here it seems. Let some other bright person chime in and give you some good advice. Get some friends to help you pour the slab. It really isn't hard if you have some forms built there. I had a ready mix truck drive up and mix the concrete on site and to the thickness I needed. It was a piece of (concrete) cake.

 

[bpattie]

I have been composting horse manure for years. I have never done anything as fancy as you are proposing, but I like your idea. I just pile it up and move the pile from time to time until I end up using it somewhere. You mentioned bays, is that is indicating you will have sides and a back? I have seen several designs that do include that to make it easier to turn over occasionally. Only thing I do know about composting is that adding air by turning from time to time speeds up and increases the effectiveness of composting.

 

[Eric_Phillips]

My wife has been the one looking into this. I am sure just putting it in a pile on the grounds works but she claims this is better. I was planning on putting a back and some sides. This way we can have the pile we are adding to, the cooking pile and the finished. With the back and sides it should help in turning and not pushing it around with the bucket. I don't think they need to be more than 4' high.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I did a quick Bing Search for composting manure.
A Guide to Composting Horse Manure
There are plenty of links to the subject.

 

[bpattie]

good article TreeMonkey. Eric, no doubt the concrete bottom would be better than the dirt. I also like your 3 pile scenario. It is interesting how much heat these piles can build up. I know when I turn them in the WInter the inside when exposed produces steam. Also have found some on the inside that actually burned to ash. be careful where you locate the piles just as a precaution. My folks set a couple bags of grass clipping under their boat until trash day and one of the bags caught fire and set the boat cover on fire.

 

[charlz]

When composting grass, garden waste etc. I have used the '3 bin' method using bins made of old wooden pallets and turning by hand. When I get horse manure it's by the multi-dump trailer load and too big for bins. The best/fastest system I have found so far:

Dump the trailer loads end to end in a windrow.
Wet thoroughly (I have a 1.5" hose I use, makes quick work of wetting down).
Back into/over the pile with my 3pt tiller. I do this working down each long side to make sure things are thoroughly mixed/aerated.
Wet down again
Re-stack the now flattened windrow with the front end loader.
Repeat wetting/tilling/wetting/stacking 2-3 times every two weeks or so.
After about 2 months move it to the 'done' pile. At this time it is about 1/3 it's original size.

 

[bpattie]

Back into/over the pile with my 3pt tiller. I do this working down each long side to make sure things are thoroughly mixed/aerated.
Wet down again
Re-stack the now flattened windrow with the front end loader.
Repeat wetting/tilling/wetting/stacking 2-3 times every two weeks or so.
After about 2 months move it to the 'done' pile. At this time it is about 1/3 it's original size.

boy tilling is a great idea, not to practical for me, but great idea. that would really aerate it, which speeds up the composting.

 

[JC-jetro]

There is better dirt and composting material contact on the ground. Much of composting done by bacteria in soil. I always add a bit of dirt on the compost pile to increase bacterial activity. House keeping seems to be easier on concrete. On this Old House they showed a commercial composting out fit and basically all they were doing was to make piles turned over by a loader, they sweetened the mix by adding water and dirt... that's all.

JC,


By the way, I don't use the pitch fork to turn the compost and instead use my front tine 5.5 hp tiller and work it up like that. works like a charm.

 

[charlz]

boy tilling is a great idea, not to practical for me, but great idea. that would really aerate it, which speeds up the composting.

Not only does a great job of getting it aerated but mixes the moisture evenly through as well which really helps. Generally I always seem to have a problem keeping compost piles wet enough.