New Tractor Shed

[Pete W.]

Wow!  That's amazing, I bet you're pleased to have reached that stage.

Two questions, one serious, the other just a little tongue in cheek:

Do the 'preferential crack slots' sever the rebar?

I've just got to know - what did you do with all that concrete in the dumper truck?!? 

[hermetic]

 superb Job Andrew, My next workshop job, almost the last job, is to break up and re lay a 9m x 6m slab, like you I will be getting "the lads" in to do it!! Powerfloat finish is amazing, and I have had enough of trolley jacks, engine cranes and the like sticking on the bumpy floor, and dropping into the holes, It has got to go! I really like the concrete going under the walls, completely rat proof! Almost there!
Phil

[Pete.]

Ever wonder why the power floater is called here "helicopter" Surely if amateur tries it.

Pekka

Like this?

[awemawson]

Thanks chaps for the thoughts 

Pete, the crack inducing slots are I believe about 50 mm deep so should miss the re-bar by quite a way. The surplus concrete was spread out thinly over the pile of crushed concrete so it can easily be reduced to crush when needed !

Roller shutter should go in next week, so we should be weathertight then and I can start with the wiring and plumbing but there is still quite a bit of landscaping and fencing to do as well as an entry ramp and 'Aco' storm drain to install.

[Pete.]

Wow!  That's amazing, I bet you're pleased to have reached that stage.

Two questions, one serious, the other just a little tongue in cheek:

Do the 'preferential crack slots' sever the rebar?

Nope, they use a much wider blade than average which even if it hit the rebar would take an age to cut through it, especially on the typically lower powered saw they would use.

I've cut hundreds of meters of crack-inducer cuts. Don't like doing it because there's no margin for error - any slight wobble in the cut line stands out a mile. The bigger/better saws actually have a bias adjustment on the rear axle so you can put a bit of 'turn' on the saw to counteract the tendency to turn when pushing the blade mounted on one side. It's handy if you do a lot of roadway work where the blade is always on the same side but if you do work where you have to swap sides like we do you set it to track straight and counter-steer manually by leaning hard on the handle otherwise it's harder to cope with when you swap sides on the blade and the bias is working the wrong way.

[awemawson]

Pete I think that you had better come and supervise tomorrow 

[PekkaNF]

This is another great thread from Andrew. Entertaining and informative at the same time.

Downside is that now I have serious shed envy and I want to move back to countryside.

Pekka

[awemawson]

Thanks Pekka 

So 07:30 brought another team to saw up the floor to form the preferential cracking positions. This time led by the boss of the company. It didn't take long to saw it up and swab it with a curing compound and they then disappeared over the horizon for breakfast.

Darren is here pulling up the shuttering, and if it dries up will be moving some more of the earth.

Garry brought in load #38 of soil while I was out walking the dogs so we now have six 'humps' in the stock pile waiting to shift round the back of the shed when it dries.

[Pete W.]

This is another great thread from Andrew. Entertaining and informative at the same time.

Downside is that now I have serious shed envy and I want to move back to countryside.

Pekka

 

+1 from me!

The concrete extends to the outside of the building but because of the radius of the blade and the overhang of the machine the cuts must end short of the wall inside, is that a serious issue?

It seems to be a long time since we've seen your dogs - I hope they are thriving.   

[awemawson]

Oh yes they are thriving  I walked them round Battle Great Wood this morning accompanied by the young lady who keeps her pet pig here along with her Terrier. They both walked me off my feet finding bits of the wood I've never seen before 

Remember the slots are to promote crack direction - they go close to the edges but obviously not all the way, but that produces a stress riser that will I'm sure propagate to the true edge.

[awemawson]

At last things dried up enough to resume earth shifting. First problem, move the cattle off the heap before they leap over the fence 

Fairly monotonous back and forth with the Telehandler until eventually the entire pile was re-located  round the back of the shed and levelled off. Then we trenched and put in the drains for the roof run off.

Loads of not hugely interesting pictures of piles of earth, bull calves and drains follow : 

Been told that the roller shutter and Pedestrian Door will be fitted Tuesday or Wednesday next week 

[awemawson]

Hopefully that's it for importing earth 'fill' - a total of 38 eight wheeler lorry loads 

[awemawson]

Got a surprise this morning - Darren in early and doing things with his scissor lift. Turns out that the Roller Shutter was due to come in early (noon today) and he had a hydraulic hose to fix first.

I was due to go over to my commercial butcher in Horam to collect some pigs that he'd been dismantling for me, and by the time I'd returned, unpacked, and set curing six sides of bacon and six legs and packed away the rest of the meat in various freezers the door was up and working, albeit on their temporary 3 phase genny.

So few actual pictures and I set to this afternoon living up the 3 phase distribution board and wiring a single 13 amp double socket as a temporary source of single phase power.

The pedestrian door is here and Darren intends to fit it tomorrow weather permitting

[russ57]

I hope you are planning substantial internal fitout, as I can  feel awemawson project withdrawal approaching...
Great project, well described!

-russ

[awemawson]

Thanks Russ 

It ain't finished yet ........ 

Nice bright dry day but no Darren so far (15:15)  So I've gone ahead and started pulling pipes and cables through from the Woodwork Shop where I'm sourcing electrical power, compressed air, telephone connections, and my local intranet.

So this morning I got two 25 mm MDPE pipes (water and compressed air), a 6 pair telephone cable, and two Cat5e cables pulled into the duct alongside the three phase 415v cable I pulled through a while back - I also left a heavy 'draw rope' in there for future expansion.

This afternoon I went out and collected yet another drum of rather expensive 3 core x 2.5 mm CSA 'Hi-Tuff' cable to wire up more 13 amp double sockets around the periphery of the shed, but I'm held up awaiting a couple of lengths of 4" cable tray as I've decided that the 'girder clips' I'd planned to use are not holding the incoming three phase cable securely enough.

I can't really progress much further until the handedness of the pedestrian door is decided (to place light switches) and the external flood light goes up (to finalise cable runs.

...... finger twiddling time ........

[awemawson]

I gave Darren a bit of a nag today and he turned up a little after lunch to start fitting the pedestrian door.

Before that I spent a frustrating couple of hours connecting up the telephone (6 pair) and two Cat5e cables to the wall box I'd previously prepared. The telephone cable being terminated on genuine Krone blocks was no issue - however the Cat5E onto a Chinese 12 way patch panel was a nightmare. Connected it up using it's 'punch down' connections easily enough, but when I came to test it I got very intermittent results. Sometimes good continuity, other times nothing. In desperation I put a pair of standard CAT5e sockets on the cable for testing and had no problems what so ever. Conclusion - this patch panel is pants 

Now I've used 11 of these patch panels elsewhere satisfactorily, but this one is definitely for the bin  !

[marcusthehat]

Ahs be suffering proper agric based  based shed envy, only gotten a couple o wile low spec 60' by 30' sheds to make do wit.
but few planning regs to worry aboot
No 3 Ph yet either!
bugger!
marcusthehat

[awemawson]

So yesterday (Friday) Darren came in the afternoon and finished adjusting the pedestrian door, fitted my new swanky 100 W LED outside floodlight (with remote control  ) and fitted the corner cappings and cappings round the doors.

Mounting the floodlight was slightly problematic and involved making up some brackets so the the weight is taken by internal steel work rather than the flimsy outer cladding - confoundedly odd remote control but I think I now have the hang of it !

[awemawson]

Now on departing yesterday he declared the intention of returning this morning (Saturday) to finish off shifting / grading the surrounding earth and forming the grades around the front so we can visualise how the entry ramp will interface with the yard and decide where to put the Aco flood drains in.

To this end I took a series of 'before' pictures this morning for later comparison:

Meanwhile the chap who rents a container from me was desperate to park a newly acquired small tipper lorry so it seems the shed in now in use !

[mattinker]

So yesterday (Friday) Darren came in the afternoon and finished adjusting the pedestrian door, fitted my new swanky 100 W LED outside floodlight (with remote control  ) and fitted the corner cappings and cappings round the doors.

100watt LED, your going to need sunglasses with that! I have a 20watt outside above the 4metre high doors to my workshop, plenty of light for outside!! Looking forward to seeing all this in December!

Regards, Matthew

[PK]

What LED light did you buy Andrew? 
I've had two (used as security floods) fail in the last three years... I'm reticent to blindly purchase a third without a recommendation..

PK

[awemawson]

PK - bought from Phase Electrics in Hastings - but they are a UK chain of distributors. About £80 if I remember correctly and are guaranteed for three years.

Matthew - tests last night showed that it was adequate and markedly brighter than the flood lights on the buildings on two other sides of the yard, but not exactly 'operating theatre' bright. It'll be good to see you again in December for the scraping class.

So Darren arrived and shaped in crushed concrete the form of the ramp that will gain access to the building to give us an idea of the overall form things will take. Then he pushed a load of earth around with his 6 ton digger and then 'landscape raked' it with my 3 ton JCB 803. The ground is just a bit too damp to get a decent tilth, but the weather doesn't look too bad for the next few days so play resumes on Monday.

While he was doing that I removed the temporary wiring for the internal and external lighting and then installed the permanent wiring even with the luxury of a light switch next to the door (contrasting with the temporary 13a plug / socket !)

[awemawson]

Here you go Matthew - Flood Light lit

[mattinker]

Certainly brighter than mine! You've got more space in front  to light up than me!!

[Pete W.]

Andrew,

We had a severe hail storm here late afternoon yesterday.  Not big hailstones but lots and lots of them!  And torrential rain to boot.

I wondered if it had survived to your end of the A272 and beyond?  If so, the sound level inside your tractor shed would have been fairly formidable!