Building a Shop

ddickey

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Transferred jobs so I'm selling and thunk I'll build. The company that builds metal buildings in the area quoted a price that included 4" fiber reinforced concrete.
Sounds light to me. Will be a normal machine shop with medium sized machines. Any opinions on that?
 
It will likely be fine. I had a 6" slab poured for mine. In truth it turned out to be 5" (though I likely paid for 6"). I have 3 machines that are btw 2500-3000 pounds. I have one machine that is 8000 pounds. All the machines are on some sort of levelling pads - the weight is not spread out across the whole base. I have had no issues with the machines moving (one lathe is bolted down, I have not found any improvement compared to the first 30 years when it was not bolted down). I have not had any issues with damaging the floor.

Make sure you ask for good compaction under the fooling and the slab. Pay a little extra and have a tinted grey hardener added when they are finishing the slab - then the scratches don't show and you never have to paint it. Adding some chop / fibre is a good idea and is very cheap. I had chop added to mine, it is supposed to add some crack resistance (you still have to have rebar). The finer will effect the quality of the surface finish slightly.

Let us know how you make out.
 
What do you mean you still have to have rebar?
 
I think a lot has to do with the type of ground you have. If you live somewhere with good bedrock a couple feet down then that’s quite different than the ground like around here where we have no bedrock at all. It’s all basically swamp here. I’d check with some reputable concrete contractors or engineers. Heck....sometimes in our area one couldn’t even put a slab without pilings and chain walls around the outer edges. Concrete is really one of those thing in which one size doesn’t fit all.
 
Out here, you need a building permit to pour a slab over 120 SF. That means plans, a structural engineer's stamp and a building inspector's site visit before the pour. The structural engineer should make sure that the slab will suit its intended purpose so it's a good idea to find a good one and work with him to make sure the slab is sound. Then find a good concrete guy who knows what he's doing because once the slab is poured, what you have is what you have.
 
Make sure it will do what you need and if you plan on having machines anywhere in the middle of the shop go ahead and put conduit to where you'll be placing them. Much nicer than running cables from the ceiling or across the floor.

You don't have to make it all one thickness either I believe, maybe just beef up the areas where you plan on putting machines. But maybe that's a false economy. Chances are the contractor works with a sub for concrete, ask if you can talk with them about your needs.

John
 
IMHO 4” of 30mpa concrete with fibre reinforced will be just fine. Make sure the base is well compacted with a good base of Stone. Make sure it’s saw cut no larger than 15x15. You could park a Cat D6 on it. Concrete is expensive, make sure you have your grades right so you don’t have 4” in some spots 5” in others and 3” in others.
i poured my floor in my shop 29 years ago. 4” 30 mpa with fibre. As good today as when it was poured.i don’t park a D6 on it but I do park a 850 Case dozer loader on it That weighs 17,000 pounds.
Cheers
Martin
 
Will you be living in a cold climate and this being a heated shop ? If so you might want to install tubing for radiant floor heat even though you might not get it finished for a while at least it will be there when needed . I would think you would need a thicker floor then 4"
 
Yes in MN. Was thinking in floor heat would be very nice and probably cheap to heat.
 
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