New guy here..need assistance.

[sphipps70]

First off I want to say..this has the be the coolest forum on the internet.

Ok..enough **** kissing.... and on to my question.

I have a two car attached garage and in one of the bays..the previous owner decided to dig out the floor and add a oil changing pit. Due to many reasons, one being safety, I want to fill in the hole and resurface the entire garage floor.

Any suggestions on how I would accomplish this? Thanks a bunch.

 

[Rrumbler]

Get enough fill dirt to fill the pit, rent a "WACKER" tamping machine, shovel in about two feet of dirt and start tamping and filling until you get to about eight to twelve inches from the top. Then fill and tamp in some fill sand to the level of the thickness you want for a floor, put in reiforcement and tie it in to the sides of the hole, pour a filler slab, then do a skim coat on the whole floor.

That's what I'd do; OOMV.

 

[6t7gto]

Steve,
how's the condition of the rest of the floor?
a 20x20 garage is 400 sq. ft. about 5 cu.yds. of concrete. $400.00 around here.
I would look into removing the whole floor and putting in new.
JMHO

david

p.s.
you might be able to use "pea" gravel to fill the hole. then you could use a "plate" tamper to tamp it.

 

[sphipps70]

Steve,
how's the condition of the rest of the floor?
a 20x20 garage is 400 sq. ft. about 5 cu.yds. of concrete. $400.00 around here.
I would look into removing the whole floor and putting in new.
JMHO

david

p.s.
you might be able to use "pea" gravel to fill the hole. then you could use a "plate" tamper to tamp it.

David,

I measure the garage and it is 24X24. Garage floor is in ok condition, some cracks here and there but no major holes except for the one I mentioned.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to call around and get some quotes. Thanks again.

 

[bobbyd]

Use regular fill sand to fill the hole and you can eliminate all the tamping and compacting. Sand will naturally compact itself as you put it in. This is commonly done in commercial construction. Benefit - it's much cheaper, around $45 a load here.

An entire new floor is going to run you around $2500, or between $4 and $5 per square foot depending on the type of finish you want on it.

Also, at 24' deep, there's going to be a lot of shoveling to get the concrete to the back of the garage. A typical concrete truck chute will reach about 15' from the very end of the truck.

You can get an overlayment done on the floor which is relatively thin, 1/4" to 1/2" or so. The material here is an important factor because it is so thin. Many overlayments have compressive strengths 2 to 3 times that of normal concrete, therfore allowing it to be thin. This method is typically best on flat floors however. Many garages slope towards the door.

The other option that I can see is to just fill in the pit with a new slab and use an epoxy coating over the entire thing. I think it would be a little less than an all new floor and have the added benefit of looking great. The cracks and joints could be filled before coating giving you a bright, shiney, durable, monolithic looking floor, any color you want.

Just my two cents.

 

[Krodad]

Before you pour the replacement square, I'd attach a compressable fill strip with tear-off to the existing surrounding floor slab edge. Once cured, you can rip out the tear strip (the top 1/4 or so of the fill strip) then caulk the resultant soft joint.

 

[OI812]

For the most part I would agree with everyone on filling it in. The material I would use would be pea gravel. Pea gravel is non compressible, therefore you wouldn't need to compact it. If you can get some big rocks throw those in first to fill area. Sand would be a good option also, but will need to be compacted. I work commercial construction and sand has to be compacted.

The only thing I would be worried about is if you get water in the pit after you cover it with concrete. Water may leak in were you have the joint from new concrete to old concrete. Granted it would take a long time to fill, but you would have an even worse mess then. You may want to cut slab edges back so that you can prevent the water from getting into the pit through the crack from old to new concrete.