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concrete floor in barn
Vapor barriers can be usefull, but it is the warm air that causes moisture to travel. If you don't have any heat in the barn, there really isn't anything to cause the moisture to move. The temperature inside the barn is going to be whatever the outside temperature is if you don't heat it. Insulation is only useful to stop heat transfer. If you don't have heat, there isn't anything to insulate. All the insulation is iseful for is to help keep the barn floor warm if you heat it. The ground under the floor will freeze if the barn isn't heated continuously, insulated or not.
Compressable insulation will reduce the bearing capacity of the slab. The best thing you can have under your floor is a well compacted granular fill, with plenty of drainage.
I don't have insulation or a plastic vapor barrier under my floor. I heat it only when I use it in the winter. I have a couple feet of compacted sand and gravel under the slab, and have no moisture problems. With a well draining fill, there isn't any moisture to move.
Most modern industrial plant floors are fiber-reinforced comcrete over 12"-18" of engineered fill.
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concrete floor in barn
Beagle
I would agree with that on a perfect site prep. but most
are not done under an engineers eye.
Just for fun take a piece of 2" foam 4'x4' and lay it on the ground before freeze up. Lift it up in the middle of the winter and try a spade. I will bet you that you can dig down . I have built many Lakefront decks in places you can't
prepare the site properly(enviromental rules) can't disturb the soil near lake. We always lay foam down under our pads
that the posts will sit on.Seems to work? We use a high density foam board made
for ground contact.
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concrete floor in barn
Thanks, I am going to try it. I have another shed planned for next year that I would love to have options to use on the floor. Any organic material in the soil does create heat as it decays. I've though about adding organics to the soil under a floor to create heat during the winter, but have never tried it.
Sometimes being an engineer can be a handicap if you don't listen to practical solutions. I'm not too to old (yet) to listen. Just don't tell my wife. She thinks I'm just a brick headed Italian who happens to be an engineer.
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concrete floor in barn
We can all learn something from anyone, My understanding on the matter is that the foam will maintain the grounds natural temp. and not allow the frost to penetrate. If you look at my pics of my house, my shed roof off of the garage
is on 18" x6" round concrete pads with 2" of foam under them.
Seems to stay alright with Maine temps?
I think that if you can keep the water away from them it helps.
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concrete floor in barn
Beagle-Denwood
Here is a web page on foundation insulation you might find interesting.
They also cover many other subjects when it comes to building.
Link:
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concrete floor in barn
We tend to go with 10' spacing on the control joints whether tooled or saw cut. We get a lot of requests--and some are adamant--that they want 6x6 wire mesh. Some building inspectors don't allow it for many reasons: doesn't do any good as the concrete is going to crack anyway, and when it does crack the joint allows water to rust the wire then the wire breaks. Also, some concrete recyclers are refusing to accept wire-containing concrete as it tears up their equipment. I charge 50%-100% more for removal if I find wire in concrete.
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concrete floor in barn
Thanks for the article grinder. Interesting stuff for home building. I think it's important to note that the article discusses heated structures. The introduction of heat to the system changes the design requirements, and how you want and need the structure to act.
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concrete floor in barn
Good point! I'm not sure if that web page discusses unheated building science, but I am going to look.
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concrete floor in barn
First off I'm not an engineer, so this is just something I did about 25 yrs ago and it seems to have worked out fine so far. I added section on an existing building that I wanted to heat without any open flame. It's a stud frame structure with steel siding 6 in. roll insulation and sheetrock. the ceiling has about a foot of blown in insulation. I had investigated different types of non flame heat, what looked best were radiant cove heaters placed on the wall about a foot down from the ceiling. The manufacturer of the heaters recommended that the concreet floor be on top of 3 inch foam board insulation and this would give the concreet floor itself the ability to act as heat sink storing heat from the radiant heaters. This system has worked out real well, in fact I installed three heater units and found that no more than two were ever needed so I took one down and used it in another installation. Far as floor strength, it was just standard strength mix (6 in. thick) with re-bar. It's had some mighty heavy machines on it for all those years and I don't see any signs of stress cracking so far, plus it's been an amazingly economical building to heat. I do realize that in theory my floor should have bent, broken and had to have been replaced by now because of the lack of firm support by the foam, but in the real world it's just as good today as 25 yrs. ago. Just my experience. Frank.
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concrete floor in barn
Frank
I'm curious,do you keep the building constantly heated ?
I don't believe the foam will compress any more than it
did after you poured the floor.
grinder
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
11-28-2017, 15:26 
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