Storage Pad

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Thinking about creating a concrete storage pad to park the 3400RL on when parked at the house. it will be on the back side of a 3 car garage which will partially shade it from hot late afternoon sun in the summer and have pretty clear full sun exposeure in the winter all day long.

Looking for ideas on what to include with a slab of concrete to park on. How much slope for water runoff? Plan to be able to extend awning and have a concrete patio under the awning. Plan to run a pipe under the pad since the the water from a spigot on the house is on the opposite side as the inlet on the 3400RL. Maybe run the power in the same pipe. Any other suggestions, recommendations? Rather do it up front than try to fix later.

[richfaa]

A good Concrete contractor can look at your site and give you the proper answers.We did that last summer. We did pour 6 inches of concrete and used some good rebar..not chicken wire..

[Wrenchtraveller]

My wife and I have a 60 foot by 10 foot slab that we poured for our Rec Vehicles. Our yard has a natural slope to the front so I made the slab level from side to side. This is handy for an RV slab because then you just have to raise or lower the front of the RV and then your unit is level. If you have to drain water away from your house you want a minimum of 1/4" to 4 feet.

I never pour concrete without steel mesh in it and my favorite mesh is the sheet mesh. I used to be able to get it in 7' x 10' sheets but the last slab I poured I bought the smaller mesh sheets from Home Depot..

You can also get a lighter guage mesh that comes in a roll. It is harder to work with because of it's memory so I pay a little extra for the sheets. Both are 6"x 6" squares.

If your concrete cracks, mesh will keep the cracks tight. My driveway is 28 years old, has mesh and still looks decent, All the others in the cul de sac have cracked up badly ( no mesh )

A while back , some red-mix companies started putting fibreglass fibres in their concrete to make it stronger, This helps, but it is no replacement for mesh and the fibreglass is not cheap.
My advice, don't go for the fibreglass, spend the money on mesh.

You also can buy regular re-bar, 3/8" is fine for driveways. You can tie this in a 12" x 12" grid but this will cost more than mesh. If your slab has an old tree root or something that could settle out in time, placing re-bar over this is a good practise.

Your slab only need to be 3 1/2 " thick and most contractors use 2x4s for the form which are 3 1/2" high. You want your slab on good hardpan and if you have grass growing you must remove the sod where the slab will lie. You can put poly down for a vapour barrier if you want. This will give you much longer working time. If you place your concrete right on the soil, wet it down good to give you longer working time and stronger concrete.

In masonry, high suction causes low strength and low suction causes high strength.

I remember that from trade school, over 25 years ago. Any other questions, PM me.
I no longer do masonry for a living but I still enjoy talking about it.

Finish, I like to trowel it smooth when it is ready to finish and then give it a fine broom finish. Edge it and leave the margin.

[stiles watson]

Can't show you a picture, but we poured a 20' X 40' slab and then put a roof on it. This gives us room for the Monty (38') and the truck with room for a deck or patio under shade. the roof is on steel beams and trusses with 20' X 20' bays. I have water, 50 amp electricity and a 500 gallon septic tank. This is my home base since we will be fulltiming on our return from Hong Kong.

There is room to work on the roof of the Monty under the pad roof. We put rebar in the slab. The parameter of the slab is a 1'-wide, 18"-deep, beam with a beam running across the middle. I had a foundation man do the work and am pleased to say that there are no puddles after a rain.

If we were to stop using the slab as an RV site, it could easily be converted to a pole barn by covering the sides and ends.

[richfaa]

Agree with what Wrench traveller says. 4 inches of concrete is plenty. There is a forumla that can be worked out to show the Lbs per square foot that the driveway can handle. We did 6 inches because a friend in the business did it for us and did 3 on the street at the same time so we all got a "deal" on 6 inches. Also used 3/8 re bar for the same reasons. A really good base is essential//we used 34 tons of stone in addition to what was already there.

[WildBigBill]

Stiles what was the cost, if you don't mind me asking?

[Dave e Victoria]

You didn't mention a sewer hookup. When I used to store my class "A" in my hanger, I tapped into a sewer line at a cleanout point. It was several feet (like20) from the RV dump and a little up hill. I used one of those venturi driven sewage pumps that works off a garden hose. It almost sucks the sewage out and sent it down the drain with lots of water. It worrked great.
Dave

[stiles watson]

The entire package was close to $6500.00. Most of that was for the floor and roof. Did the wiring and water myself and got a deal on the septic tank.

This spot is on the back half of a 24 acre site. My site is facing a fish pond or small lake. It is rural, quiet, and looks like a park. There are 75 year-old oak trees around it to shade it in summer. Rabbits, deer, and occasionally ferro hogs pass through. It is a great place to rest and relax between excursions.

[Mike Boutet]

Last summer i built two small slabs (about the width of a sidewalk)to park the trailer on. It is atleast 6inches thick with 5/8 rebar.I used crushed stone under the rest of the trailer. I thought no sence in wasting more money on concrete for the hole pad.This works great and no cracks.

[Dean A Van Peursem]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and additional ideas. Have had one contractor out already and another coming next Tuesday. The concrete pad is getting bigger than expected due to a couple reasons:

1.) The better half would like to have some sidewalks laid at the same time.
2.) The entrance to the pad area, leading from the gravel driveway is soggy in the winter months. Optionally could put crushed rock there but it may be not all that much more expensive to extend the concrete another 20 feet to the edge of the gravel driveway.

The creeping feature creature may make this a too expensive project. :-)

I did think about just laying a pad for just the wheels to sit on but thought I would be paying for a non full load of concrete anyway and may not be saving all that much.

As an alternative what about just making a crushed rock pad? What are the disadvantages to that?

[Wrenchtraveller]

Stiles, your description of your Montana's home pad sounds terrific. Nature really is God's gift to Mankind. Take care and thanks for that relaxing post. I would love to have a spot like that for my Monty some day. Don.

[Montana_5612]

I had mine done a few years back along with other concrete work. Before I had the concrete poured, I had electrical service run along with a dump station and water. Once that was done I had the concrete poured. I went with a 4 inch slab reinforced with a six inch band 2 feet wide around the edges for extra support should I drive off the back or side while backing.