Question about fill

[His200HerScout]

A contractor came back with a bid yesterday for my 26x46 barn/garage. It includes $4000 worth of site prep (note: he is bidding on a pole barn, so there is no foundation digging, just scrape the grass off and back-fill with sand). He used the center of a nearby road (120' from the garage site) as a reference point, and said that the location of the garage is lower than the road, so he needs to build it up a few feet for drainage and then feather it out to make it look nice. He thinks that rain and snow-melt will wash into the barn if it is lower than the road.

I thought about it more, and compared my house to the road. My house (75' from garage site; 50' from road), it turns out, is also lower than the road. In fact, I have a fully finished, carpeted basement that is 60" below grade. It has no water problems whatsoever.

Does it seem strange to build up the garage site when there are no water problems in the first place?

 

[autoclassicnut]

I think if he ran a laser to check the elevations, believe him, he's just trying to avoid problems for you later.IMHO

 

[rcleaver]

The normal way to handle that is with a swale. Perhaps you have one around your house too. That would cost much less.

I would be leary of the rest of his bid too. He may be looking to make up for buiness lost because of the economy.

 

[His200HerScout]

The normal way to handle that is with a swale. Perhaps you have one around your house too. That would cost much less.

I would be leary of the rest of his bid too. He may be looking to make up for buiness lost because of the economy.

Had to Google "swale" to figure out what you meant. Sounds like a ditch or culvert, and there are ditches on all of the farm fields around me, and they drain into a nearby river ("my" river, heh heh heh). I do not have a swale because I live on the edge of a small bluff, so (I guess) water just drains into the river below without any problems.

I am already leary of his bid ($35K for a pole barn) for the reason you mentioned. Thanks!

 

[brownbagg]

once you build the building, you cannot raise it if you have problems, but if you do it know, it will never be a problem, as long as the building is higher than the ground around it. It will be safe. But pushing a vehicle into a shop when its higher is a beech

 

[rcleaver]

Had to Google "swale" to figure out what you meant. Sounds like a ditch or culvert, and there are ditches on all of the farm fields around me, and they drain into a nearby river ("my" river, heh heh heh). I do not have a swale because I live on the edge of a small bluff, so (I guess) water just drains into the river below without any problems.

I am already leary of his bid ($35K for a pole barn) for the reason you mentioned. Thanks!

You still may need a swale around the garage, perpendicular to the direction of water flow, to prevent water from washing over the slab and into it.

If you don't have one around your house already, I'd be surprised. Maybe you just didn't notice it before.

Edit: The $35k bid seems high, but it depends on what's included.

 

[tagoes11s]

I just cut down 50 trees for my 40x72 that i'm putting down. No cost as a bunch of friends helped. Spent $360 on renting a escavator to remove all the stumps. Just got a quote for 60 yards off fill sand delivered for $480 from two different companies. A friend has a dozer to level it for me. But you could rent one for not too much. You could do it yourself for a lot less than $4K. oh and I was quoted $39,000 for 40x72x12, with a 8x6x36 wrap around porch, steel roof, walls, 6ft spacing on poles. Guess I've done pretty good so far. I'll post pics of my progress soon.

Find out how much fill dirt he was estimating........