[Archived]

I just did my 30 X 50 garage and used 6″ of concrete with steel and commercial fiber.

[Dick]

Ron, there is going to have to be a lot of thought given to your project. To build a pad for the coach, and for it to have a potential use for a cabin at a later date means you have to know the cabin floor plan, the plumbing layout as well as how you plan to secure the cabin and even if you plan to support the coach on jacks when it is on the pad.

My garage floor and my driveway is 7″ thick and has rebar which really doesn’t add strength but holds things together is the concrete cracks.

My garage floor (pad) has plumbing for water supply at several places in the garage. It has plumbing for compressed air to the service pit, and it has both floor drains for water from washing cars and the bus, and a sewer drain for draining the bus holding tank.

Your pad can be simple, meaning just a flat concrete pad of a thickness necessary to support the coach either on its wheels or possibly at chassis support points, or it can be complex with all the potential future infrastructure in place. With the potential freeze thaw cycles you will definitely need a well engineered base, likely of crushed stone or rock with provisions for draining.

[AL]

Tom suggestion is on track I’m planning on House later I would look at exterior fitting with insulation where it is that cold I only have 50 years in concrete construction Thanks Dan

[Deleted User]

We,re putting up a 35×70 with 6″s of concrete. Now the bus will have it’s own home, instead of having to share with farm equipment. Where it is housed now was poured at 6″s, works fine.

[Deleted User]

Dialing in on the length of your pad should be carefully planed. If your storing a Prevost bus XL-II or X3-45 keep in mind your length. With X series the opening of your engine room doors now changes your comfort room to work on your bus as the doors swing out. At 50 ft your bus will need centering in the 50 ft space.

60 ft length is perfect for bus parking. Width at 16 ft is perfect for ease of walk around comfort.

A 6 inch thick base reinforced is minunum requirement for weight.

The above is basically what I have at the Bus Barn in KC,MO.

[Dick]

I think, depending on the building codes in your municipality, you’re going to have to have proper frost footings and insulation around those footings and under the slab if you want to put living space on the bus pad at some point. I went through this with the race shop in our township when I built it because we were putting a toilet in the shop and hydronic heat in the floor.

I too was concerned about how thick to make the concrete. My contractor (also a neighbor) has been doing this for 35 years and the concrete guy (second generation I found out) he used was almost 70 years old at the time; my project was not their first rodeos. I told the CC guy how much the coach weighed. He said, “six inches with a proper base, rerod, and fiber should get the job done”. I asked “for sure?” He gave me the number of the engineer at the concrete company. I explained to the engineer who put the numbers in the computer while we talked. He confirmed what Dave the CC guy told me. I can’t remember the bag mix, but it was a little stronger than normal. I don’t recall if we talked about jacking up the coach, likely didn’t think about that at the time.

Both CC guy Dave and the engineer said the right rock in the base and proper drainage was very important and if I wanted 7″ or 8″ they would be more than happy to accomodate me for what they felt is overkill.

The outside pad is now a little over six years old and it has held up very, very well. If you are really concerned … call the concrete supplier and talk to their engineer.

Dan (and anyone building a bus barn where it might get cold): I can’t recommend infloor hydronic heating strongly enough. Its more expensive to install than a FWA furnace and might not recover as quickly, but it certainly is very nice. Quiet, almost silent. Floor is always warm, no condensation on a cold floor in the winter, late winter, spring, and early summer when you option the door. Cost to heat appears to be very reasonable. The condensing boiler appears to be very efficient. My plumber saved me $500 by getting me a boiler than had been damaged (back panel that goes against the wall dented) in transit.

55*F in the race shop with a heavy shirt under the race cars on the floor is very comfortable while I’m working. 60*F is tee-shirt and shorts comfortable. Did I mention that tools picked up off the floor are not ice cold?

I’m envious of anyone who has zoning that will allow for a bus barn. Someday.

I went with saw cutting the expansion joints in the shop floor for both the race shop, bus pad, and the driveway immediately adjacent to both. After I started to use both and the driveway, I realized I should have “planned” where to have the saw cuts to use as a visual reference where to align the bus when backing in or where to position the race cars when dropping them from the trailer to get them in the middle of their work areas (I did paint red squares where the four tires of each car goes) and where the race trailer should be aligned to properly load and unload the cars (driveway is not perpendicular to the race shop which makes it a challenge).

Its the little things that make this stuff “really nice”.

[Archived]

I did a 30 x 60 with a 14 x 14 overhead door and one man door. You can never have too much room for things like an air compressor and shelves for the things that always accumulate in a garage. I put 50 amp outlets on both sides of the interior and one outside. You can not have too much lighting either….

[Archived]

And no matter how many cubic feet of space you have it will fill quickly and not be enough.

[Billy]

Now, I will be armed with good information and will sound like I know what I am talking about when I meet the concrete guys … 🙂

Dick in Wisconsin … great advice about hydronic heat! Some of you know that I am a Kraut and in-floor heat has been around in private homes in Germany for 40-50 years and is considered nothing special.

We installed in-floor heat (hydronic and or electric) in all the places we have owned and lived in over the years. Would not want to be without it.

We have a combination of hydronic and electric floor heat in the bus and during the past 4-5 days, when Custer, SD, experienced an unseasonally early snow storm dumping 10 inches of snow overnight and dropping the temps down into the 20’s, we were warm and cozy inside. I do not know how tent campers survive in this kind of weather.

[David]

For those of you who did concrete pads, what kind of a $ figure should I anticipate? That is, for the pad only. No structure. Thanks.

[AL]

Ronald,

My pad poured in June for 30 X 50 and 6″ depth was 80000. I’m sure there will be wild fluctuations depending on state and job site access.

[glen]

There’s a big difference in cost between a pad located where there is no ground frost, and one where the frost can go a couple of feet into the ground. There has to be a well designed base with drainage otherwise the pad will heave and crack.

You cannot even lay an asphalt driveway up north without a base of stone,

[Bill]

My slab is 60×42 and is 6″ thick with frost barriers (2″styrofoam). Fiber reinforced, no iron. No cracks yet at 4 years in Hudson Valley of NY. Placed and sealed; $14k.

[glen]

Insulated 40′ x 60′ here with 14′ roll up doors that you can drive through if needed. 6″ thick concrete with ramps. Had plumbing in floor for restroom with shower. Whole deal for building $47,000, electric was extra. Like somebody said you can’t build them big enough. Don’t know about frost or ice and sure pour will be a heck of a lot higher then it was here in Central Texas.

[Archived]

Getting there…. Anyone interested in an RV friendly development in NW GA, Jasper, 3 acre lots, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the builder/realtor. Stoneledge has homes and 3 acres starting in the high 300’s with city water, septic and fiber optic.

No I’m not on commission, but finding property these days that are RV and garage friendly is a challenge. Besides, my commission comes from Jon’s dues money.