New garage build

[Hdonly0]

A while back a friend of mine's father passed away. He had bought one of those arched metal buildings. My friend didn't want to mess with it and gave it to me. He could find no paperwork on it, so I assembled one arch on the ground, squared up the sides and determined the width of the building. The width is 20 feet and the length was 14 feet. Height at the center was 9 feet, so I decided to add a 2 foot tall pony wall from concrete block. My question is: Should I pour the block solid or just pour every four feet that the rebar from the slab comes up? I used bond block on top and plan on pouring the bond with rebar all the way on the top run of block. Every one tells me that just the cells every four feet is plenty and pouring the wall full is just a waste of money.

 

[nadogail]

Are these buildings still being sold?; my guess is that they probably are.

If you find that they are, I suggest you contact the company and refer your question to them.

Then go with their answer.

 

[Hdonly0]

Lots of companies sell them. I have no idea who originally sold this one. I am contacting a few different one as I want to add 5 more arches to increase the length to 24 feet to match the slab already poured. Most of the information on foundations that I have gotten from a couple of companies say to talk to a contractor as they don't spec the foundation. I have talked to a few contractors and have gotten responses both ways. Just thought I would see what some thought here.

 

[Hdonly0]

Here is a picture of a similar building. It looks like they used poured concrete pony walls.

 

[Lelandwelds]

I would ask around before building. That style of building is famous for leaking. Someone must have a scheme to stop leaks when building.

The "after it is built" leak fixes do not seem to work. (I don't own one. But, fifty years ago, I spent a lot of hours in one.)

 

[Lelandwelds]

I bet it doesn't need much foundation. If the mfg wont stick their neck out, i do not expect many other people to.

It should shed snow ok. It will not support a crane or upper level. The short curved walls wont have a lot of wind loading. It looks like the building version of uni body construction so I wouldn't expect a lot of point loading.

Just curious. Grout? Concrete?

Any plans for a car lift? Roll up doors or sliders?

 

[cbacres]

The three walls calculate out to just over 3 CY,, based on a 8" thick wall, it'll be less than that inside the block.

Don't know what the minumun ready mix order is around you, but I'd just pour it solid and don't look back.

Don't know if those style buildings have any outward force on foundation, but poured would would be hard to beat.

 

[Hdonly0]

No plans for a crane, car lift or upper level. No doors came with it, but I have a standard garage door I'm going to use. Don't have to worry about snow as I am in NW Florida. I already have a separate workshop. This will be a garage only for my freshly painted pickup truck and an MGB. I have been told by a local contractor that type s mortar mix is acceptable for grout in this area. There were six bags of type s mortar mix left over from the block work. The crew that did the slab told me to use quickrete as it's cheaper. The block guy said to just mix the leftover mortar in with the quickrete and pour. I guess actual grout would be the best to use, but the local Lowes and Home Depot don't even show it on their websites.

 

[Hdonly0]

Concrete readymix is about $100/yd and a delivery fee of another $140 for a short load like this.

 

[cbacres]

If doing by hand, I'd use concrete for the cells with rebar, ground with the mortar on the others. You can mix Portland cement with sand to make up a grout.

Grout is just a Portland and sand mix.
The grout, the left over you have and Portland I think is fine like you were told. I tend to go over and make sure.

I think the mortar you have can be mixed 1 part to 2-3 parts sand. It should say on bag. It's been a while since I mixed any.