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Re: Slab under existing shed?

To: Keith Kaplan <keithka@microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Slab under existing shed?
From: John Napoli <jgn@li.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 18:01:10 -0400 (EDT)


On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Keith Kaplan wrote:

> 
> On the back of my detached garage there's a kind of lean-to potting shed.
> The shed has three walls of its own (shares the garage wall for the fourth)
> its own door to the outside, and a dirt floor.  The freestanding walls are
> standing on pier blocks.  I've been thinking I could use this space as
> storage for extra sets of tires, and maybe I'll put my compressor there,
> etc.  Before I do that, I'm thinking it might be nice to pour a slab in
> there.  
> 
> The books I've seen assume you're pouring the slab _before_ building
> anything on top of it, so I'm wondering if there are any special
> considerations I should know about.  I won't be driving or parking cars in
> there, so I assume a 4" thick slab is sufficient.  

More than enough.  THree inches with some wire is enough for what you
have planned.

> I'll just build forms at
> the outer edge of the walls to let the slab go under them.  Obviously, the
> pier blocks will get cemented in place in the process, but that sounds like
> a good idea anyway, right?  

Wrong!!  You want everything to move around on its own -- and it will!!
Wrap expansion strips around everything.

> Also -- am I insane to consider mixing my own
> Quikrete for a 24'x8'x4" slab?

No.

> load.  Would I pour the slab in one piece, or would doing it in 2 or 3
> sections be easier?  Should I put divider board between this new slab and
> the existing garage slab?
> 

Sections -- and you want to put an expansion strip along the garage wall,
too.  Use some scrap lumber to create quadrants.  Do one at a time if you
can't do it all at once.  You don't need to put expansion joints within
the quadrant, but do scribe the slab (like a sidewalk) so that any future
cracking is hidden.

John


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