Thread: Pre-Shed Build Questions

Originally Posted by Lappa

Don’t egg him on.

This seems to be a recurring theme today. Must be something I ate.

Originally Posted by Christos

There has been quite a lot of new houses been built on both sized of the highway. I guess you know about the chicken man that is located in the area. He is a very interesting person to chat with and knows quite a lot about the area as he has been here for around 30 years.

Ask him about "Billy Hughes' Bridge"

my interest was mostly with the rail crossing, T-junction with the Hume Highway and trying to drum up enough interest to replace both with an overbridge.

The money and technical will was there but the political interest was elsewhere. The pollies would rather act AFTER a train or semi took out a bus load of school kids.

The Political creature only acts in their own best interest, they do not care a jot for anyone else.

Me? I just find it offensive that professional advice is so willingly ignored.

Logic is lost on them. Show them there are votes in it and they grow an extra set of ears.

the problem is they want to be seen to be doing something "good" like NOW! Acting in advance of a tragedy to mitigate the hazard just doesn't have the NOW response factor.

Firstly - well done on getting your DA approval. This is where the fun starts. Many valid points and opinions have been made. I had engineered plans which stated what they wanted in regard to the laying of the slab. Covering bedding material, compaction, footings, reinforcement steel, MPA of concrete and slab thickness. Naturally you need to advise your engineer what the building is going to be used for, and ask questions, such as what if I want a 125 mm slab instead of 100, or types and weight of vehicles going in shed, as this may have a bearing on his design. As to the curing of the finished concrete (stop cracking) I spoke with the concreters how this was to be done. I had never cured a slab in the way they said but it never cracked and still has not. My shed was 9 x 4.5 m. Mind you mine was 40 MPA concrete.

As all areas are different in regard to soil movement a geo report in most cases will be required and the engineer will design your footing and slab as required. As for 75 mm slab that's just too thin, I'm doing my strip slab around my shed and its 75mm thick.

Not sure what sort of shed you are doing, if its metal wall sheeting make sure the metal overlaps the slab and the sheets do not remain in contact with the concrete when finished. If the sheets by design end up in contact make sure the builders put a membrane between the two so the sheets do not corrode. Also not sure what is your requirement for placement, mine had to be bitumen coated (would have done it anyway) that were going into the concrete and at least 100 mm above the finished height of the slab. If you plan to paint the bitumen on yourself just read the product label, mine required 48 hours curing before the post could be placed in the concrete.

Anyway you will have a learning curve and fun along the way. Looking forward to your build progress reports.

Brian

Originally Posted by Brian45

Firstly - well done on getting your DA approval. This is where the fun starts. Many valid points and opinions have been made. I had engineered plans which stated what they wanted in regard to the laying of the slab. Covering bedding material, compaction, footings, reinforcement steel, MPA of concrete and slab thickness. Naturally you need to advise your engineer what the building is going to be used for, and ask questions, such as what if I want a 125 mm slab instead of 100, or types and weight of vehicles going in shed, as this may have a bearing on his design. As to the curing of the finished concrete (stop cracking) I spoke with the concreters how this was to be done. I had never cured a slab in the way they said but it never cracked and still has not. My shed was 9 x 4.5 m. Mind you mine was 40 MPA concrete.

As all areas are different in regard to soil movement a geo report in most cases will be required and the engineer will design your footing and slab as required. As for 75 mm slab that's just too thin, I'm doing my strip slab around my shed and its 75mm thick.

Not sure what sort of shed you are doing, if its metal wall sheeting make sure the metal overlaps the slab and the sheets do not remain in contact with the concrete when finished. If the sheets by design end up in contact make sure the builders put a membrane between the two so the sheets do not corrode. Also not sure what is your requirement for placement, mine had to be bitumen coated (would have done it anyway) that were going into the concrete and at least 100 mm above the finished height of the slab. If you plan to paint the bitumen on yourself just read the product label, mine required 48 hours curing before the post could be placed in the concrete.

Anyway you will have a learning curve and fun along the way. Looking forward to your build progress reports.

Brian

What method did they do for curing the slab and what did you coat in bitumen?

Originally Posted by Beardy

what did you coat in bitumen?

apart from yourself, that is. DAMHIKT.

My shed has a patio, I had two posts that had to be placed in concrete to support the patio roof. These two posts had to be painted in a bituman type paint, if I could find the can I would give you the name of what I used. I painted the two posts that were going in the concrete and at least 100 mm above the finished concrete height. In the image attached you may see the bottom of the two posts with the black stuff on them. As for my wall frames I also installed a bitumen tape under the bottom plate so there was no contact between metal and the concrete.

As for curing the concrete - I had to place

sand

around the edge once the boxing was taken off (next day) and I was told to soak the slab in the morning and evening, this also wet the sand around the edges of the slab. I was told to do this for one week, think I did it for 10 days. I have no cracks at all.

I was told not to wet the slab during the day, at all, only morning and evening.

Frame entry door.jpg

Happy to answer and other questions

Hi,

Sorry my last post with the photo was not very clear showing what I was saying. Try this one, bare in mind I still have to have the concrete placed for my patio. The 2nd photo is for my BBQ roof which is yet to be built. However the post had to be coated as well. The bitumen product is easy to paint on, I just leave the can in the sun for a bit and its very easy to put on.


IMG_3713 (1).jpgPost and Slab in Place.jpg

In the last couple of years I have painted *rather a lot* of sleepers and posts with water based Bitumen. It does not like being exposed to long term sunlight, and painting over it with acrylic paint will lead the paint to blister off.

There has been quite a lot of information in regards to going thicker than 100mm for the slab. I have not fully decided but tending towards staying at 100mm as per the original plans/design. We have had the ground prepared meaning one side raised and waiting for this to settle. We are not expecting to have anything done until the end of the month.

No pix, hasn't happened.