On Friday, 26 Jan 1996, Chris Meier wrote:
> Does anyone know loading properties of the stuff shown on those
> home shows? On an existing floor, you put down the tubing and a
> lightweight layer of a concrete like substance (haven't seen this on
> a show for probably a year, so the details are vague),
Seen it recently on both This Old House and Hometime (which is filmed
here in the Frozen Northland).
BTW, I saw a series on This Old House in which they made a ranch with a
tuck-under double garage into a huge yuppie house. With a tuck-under
SINGLE garage!! What the heck were they thinking!! And no access to the
back yard for a separate garage. Is there one amongst us who would not
have taken over the whole darn basement for shop? I don't understand
these non-car folks. Even if they consider cars just appliances (I've
heard about people like that), they have two cars. They park them
outside all the time and let the garage fill with junk. It snows and
such in Mass. Don't these people hate cleaning the windows off? If I
told my wife we were going to get along without a garage for our daily
driver, they'd never find my body.
> I'm wondering if the material used (or something similar)
> in the house can also be used on top of an existing concrete floor
> in the garage (potential higher loads per sq inch, exposure to various
> spillable substances).
What about heat loss? Since your garage slab was probably poured without
insulation under it, I fear a lot of your heating dollar is going to go to
warming up the ground under the garage. So you put down a layer of
insulation and then string your tubing and pour concrete. The floor just
got a lot higher. Nothing you can't handle if this is a furniture shop.
But if it is a car shop, that step at the big door is going to be a
little annoying.
Here is a wild idea. Probably not worth it, but here goes: The garage
footings are under the edges of the slab, under the walls. The concrete
in the center of the floor is much thinner, maybe 4 inches? You rent a
big concrete saw and cut the middle of your slab, about a foot inboard of
the walls. Break up the concrete and haul it away. Dig a hole in the
middle of the garage. Put in a layer of gravel, whatever kind of
insulation they use for this kind of work, then string your tubing and
pour new concrete. Nah. Not worth it.
> ... much about Phil's situation deleted (sorry Phil :-) )...
Nothing to be sorry about. Quoting more of a post than you need to make
sense of your response is a net.no-no. Then again, so is posting an
answer like "Yes, it is." with no link to what the question was. Oops!
I just looked down and saw a soapbox!
Phil Ethier <ethier@freenet.msp.mn.us>
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