Machinery shed build

[Gerbert]

We have had a good year on the financial side of things. What do you want apart from land? A shed!
This is where it goes, the concrete panels on the right are walls to hold muck out of the cowshed next to it.

 

[Gerbert]

Step one, dig out the soil until you reach the white ish ground under it.
Our contractor with a Doosan wheeled excavators and a Case puma 175 cvx with Krampe tipper.
Edit: The tractor hauls white sand to fill it in again. 16 m3 a load according to them.

 

[Lincs Lass]

Step one, dig out the soil until you reach the white ish ground under it.
Our contractor with a Doosan wheeled excavators and a Case puma 175 cvx with Krampe tipper.

Looks like pure sand top to bottom

 

[Gerbert]

From the other side, the concrete wall is on the left out of frame. The shed you see is for heifers.
After digging off the soil it has to be filled up again within an hour ideally or the groundwater seeps through.

 

[Gerbert]

Odd markings in the ground, from ploughing a long long time ago my father thinks.

 

[Gerbert]

Looks like pure sand top to bottom

Indeed it is.

 

[Gerbert]

Filled up today whil I was gone.

 

[Gerbert]

Some extra height on the far side as the ground was slooping.

 

[Gerbert]

The trusses I acquired for scrapprice a year or two ago. Will need some work though as it will be a shed with the front open.

 

[Gerbert]

Made a start on cutting and shutting trusses.
Well, my uncle, he is a welder and actually used to make trusses among other things.

 

[Gerbert]

Slow going. We'll get there eventually.

 

[Gerbert]

Another truss to cut in pieces.

 

[mar]

Another truss to cut in pieces.

Is that yard surface bricks or concrete laid with a pattern imprinted in it?

 

[Gerbert]

They are bricks. Funny that, I never noticed it might be odd compared to you guys on the island. Overhere it's the norm. In regions with softer soils concrete plates are more common but if you're on sand this is the cheapest option.

 

[mar]

They are bricks. Funny that, I never noticed it might be odd compared to you guys on the island. Overhere it's the norm. In regions with softer soils concrete plates are more common but if you're on sand this is the cheapest option.

What's the reason for using them, is it because the ground is soft and they flex under the weight of machinery where as concrete would crack and break. Are they laid by hand, I done a couple of patios once and I wouldn't like to do a full yard.
Have you any photos of the concrete plates

 

[itsalwaysme]

What's the reason for using them, is it because the ground is soft and they flex under the weight of machinery where as concrete would crack and break. Are they laid by hand, I done a couple of patios once and I wouldn't like to do a full yard.
Have you any photos of the concrete plates

 

[Gerbert]

We juse bricks because it's cheap, and you would need bricks to fill in al the nooks and crannies anyway. Al laid by hand, not such a bad job with a good few people.
You can just hire a company to do it ofcourse but it's not cheap. By law they have to use an automated method from a certain acreage on. A tigerstone like machine, or walking carpet like they are called here, are really only used for streets as they are a fixed with. Machines like below are used for pretty much everything else.

Concrete plates, these are 2x2 meter which is the most popular size I think.

These have steel sides which I think are a pain, but hey. You can get them with rough finish, brick like finish, whatever. Every thickness, type of reinforcement you want. A tad expansive though, at least €80 a pop for ones that are suited for agricultural use. By comparison, at most I paid €2 per square meter for used bricks. You just need some luck and patience as companies only sell them cheap if they are shifted right when they are taken out.

 

[Riley]

Another truss to cut in pieces.

Do you lay them on sand? Do you not get tracks where the machines run all the time?

 

[Gerbert]

Yes, in time that happens, that's a reason that on softer soils the concrete plates are more popular. Like in the photo's above, we dig off the soil until we get on pure sand and fill in with white sand. Compacting it is key, best option is to flood it after compacting but a bit of a pain obviously. Leaving it to settle for a while is the next best thing. On softer soils crushed stone a layes of crushed stone is also used but crushed stone is more expensive then sand.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

What's the reason for using them, is it because the ground is soft and they flex under the weight of machinery where as concrete would crack and break. Are they laid by hand, I done a couple of patios once and I wouldn't like to do a full yard.
Have you any photos of the concrete plates

I worked for a machinery dealer in Denmark, 23 years ago, and the whole yard and workshop floor was block pavers there too, and when a workshop was extended, it was cheaper to put the used pavers in the skip and lay new ones with a machine rather than re use the old ones and lay by hand, not sure that would be the same now.