Shop Barn is getting siding!

[SuperBuickGuy]

I wonder what it would cost for a dry-batch truck to come to you.... 120/yard is a lot; heck, I think 30/yard is expensive; but find a gypsy who's willing to spend his entire day driving there and back from Reno or Salt Lake City and perhaps you could save big bucks? dunno, just throwing an idea out there.

Mixing it yourself is back-breaking work.... when I was a kid, my dad poured all sorts of pads around our house; or I should say, my dad supervised my brother, myself, his father-in-law (grandpa) and a couple other people mixing and pouring concrete.... He told use that he was highly skilled at leveling and that he needed to watch us work.... I've really forgiven him for that.... NOT

[JOES66FURY]

if I can lay cement, you can lay cement....

[STINEY]

I did my dirt/gravel/compacting work myself, laid out the plastic and had everything leveled and 3/4 framed (except for the door openings) All they had to do was pour/scree/float and cut, so maybe that helped more than I realized? I also didn't do any slope or drains, by design. I really really wanted a flat, smooth, level work surface - and they delivered.

It was definitely the high PSI stuff too (I forget the exact rating, but way overkill for the 2-post lift) When I was grinding on it to prep for the garage doors - well you can definitely tell that is it some hard stuff!

[TheSilverBuick]

Maybe if I found a smokin deal on a good sized cement mixer, but as SBG mentioned, it isn't easy work IMO, not to mention sub-flooring it. $130/yd is cost direct from the only vendor within 180 miles with trucks.

I've been looking at concrete prices here for years. I wanted to redo the driveway at my old house in concrete and that was like 6-8 grand.

[STINEY]

Too bad one of those pit trucks wouldn't fit inside.........one pass with them and the dirt would be hard as concrete.

[TheSilverBuick]

Too bad one of those pit trucks wouldn't fit inside.........one pass with them and the dirt would be hard as concrete.

Amen to that! As I said, for the concrete cost buy in, I'll play in the dirt for a long long while. The problem with it being a barn is I'm sure pouring $20k worth of concrete will not increase the property value by $20k, or probably even $10k. If I ever get a skidsteer or backhoe I'll revist doing my own concrete or at least sub flooring and gravelling.

[STINEY]

Yeah, we know that none of the work we've put into our barns has increased a future sale price to anyone. We plan on staying around, and we use the buildings a lot, so its worth it to us.

[Deaf Bob]

Some rental places around here (mowers, tillers, skid steers...etc) have concrete making stuff they mix into a mixer..you pull it with your pickup.. About alf the size of a big truck..

[Rocketman]

Finished! (Is there ever really such a thing as finished?)

Short answer...No, they are rarely ever "finished"
However, it is looking awesome. Very nice work Stiney. It is nice to see new life breathed onto an old barn

[milner351]

Fantastic - the increase in usable space is huge - even if you only heat a part of it - at least you can heat it - without holes in the walls all over the place. Looks great!

[AFFORDILLAC]

Wow...huge improvement Stiney! Much better working space...expecting much bigger things from you now!

[STINEY]

Oh man....feeling the pressure.

[STINEY]

Remember this?

Need to dig out and pour a threshhold here. I intentionally waited until the door was in (we crammed it UP as far as possible, let the bottom fall where it will as long as it is UP as close to the ceiling beams as it can go)[/QUOTE]

It actually happened last week. We have had lots of rain here, all the farmers are sitting around and getting antsy. My farmer friends who did the siding called to see if I had anything I needed work on. They have lots of complete building projects on the schedule but had set aside a couple of weeks for harvesting. Rain put a stop to that idea.

So, they called on Monday evening at 8, said they could do it on Wednesday morning. That leaves me one evening to empty the area (!) clean up, do general prep work and jackhammer out a 3'x3' solid concrete block - which was an old waterer base. And of course it was made of GOOD HARD concrete, took 4 hours of jackhammering to remove. Its raining, so the neighbors will probably not even be able to be hear jackhammering at 1:30 am, right? That's when I finished and called it good enough.





Truck arrived an hour late, but that worked out well as there was some 411 stone to remove and some final forming to finish up. Timing worked out nearly perfect.




Wheel-barrowed it to the back. Truck could have reached it, but my guys don't like how they just plop it in a heap in the middle. They prefer to wheel it to where they want it.



View from the deep dark recesses of the barn.






And my oldest son took the dog out with him to drill a hole in something he is working on. And the dog had to check out the still somewhat pliable cement. Oh well, they are more visible dog prints than actually deep dog prints.




The door is propped up with boards outside to keep the hard rain off the threshhold until it cures some. 4-5" thick 4000psi with the last 12' sloped to the door and a 24"+ deep threshhold. This was a 14'x36' room with worked out to 9 yards of cement.

I am thrilled. While they were there we agreed on another project for Friday, but that is a different barn and a different story. Hope this rain stops before my wallet is empty!

[Dan Barlow]

That will be wonderful to work for the rest of your life Congrats. Looks good .

[70chevyC-10]

That looks great - nice work.