John Stromnes on thu 16 jan 03
Steve:
I built my 12x36 studio and attached kiln shed with a six-inch floating
slab over two inches of styrofoam insulation on machine-tamped fill
brought in from the gravel plant. It has worked perfectly for two years,
and I live in an area subject to repeated freezing and thawing, on poorly
draining clay soil. I poured no footings and used no rebar.
Do not mix the concrete yourself. You cannot get good 'air-entrained'
concrete in your tub mixer. When you ask for delivery, make sure they
reinforce the mix with shredded nylon fiber. This gives you all the
reinforcement you need. Forget scrwing with rebar, which is an
unnecessary pain for this application.
Get plenty of helpers when you pour, because doing your own concrete work
is always a fun challenge, and ideally should be a coordinated team effort.
I had to retop my studio floor with a special plastic product because we
'lost' the concrete _ it froze up before finishing on the particularly
hot august day that we did the pour. But the fiber-reinforced slab is
structurally sound _ no crcks, heaves or slumping.
John Syodo Stromnes
<From: "Steven D. Lee "
Subject: Kiln Sheds - Building Hints?
I am in the prepatory phase of building my kiln shed. I have looked
at the cost over time of several sizes of slab and the construction
involved and it looks like for me a slab of about 15' x 30' would
provide space for dry materials, clay and two propane kilns.
I have read a lot of material on making concrete slabs but so much of
it is designed with a house or other very heavy structure in mind.
As I understand it, the typical kiln made of insulating brick will
only weigh in at about one fourth of a similar brick BBQ or the
equivalent.
Does anyone know of the metal mesh or rebar or whatever could be used
in a slab of 6" - 8" that would not have to accomodate any more
weight than 1000 lbs per square foot?
I hope that this is the forum for this kind of discussion...>>
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