I finally started

[Brad W Wi]

Just to put something on here I'll start with this. I started my sugar shack last week. We poured the slab 24'x40' last weekend and got the walls up this weekend with T-111 as my siding. The slab is bigger than the building, but the entire slab will be under roof. Big Allis, my 51 Allis Chalmers WD tractor along with wood will be stored on the south side with just a roof over them. On the front part of the slab(west side) there will be a 4' pourch on the 24' side and a 16'x16' room for hanging around and telling lies and selling syrup. Next to that room on the south side is the tractor storage area that is 8'wide and 16' deep, there will also be wood stored here.Behind that room is the evaporator room, it is 20'x20' I will be placing a 2x8 Dallaire that i just purchased this spring from Roth Sugar bush in Cadott Wisc. in the evaporator room I have a garage door as well as a door to the 16x16 room. Outside on the south side of that 20'x20' room the is a 4' over hang over the slab for fire wood storage. I also have a door on that side of the building that opens in and I can stack wood against the wall and pull it in through the door. On the outside, east side on the south corner of the building there will be a bulk tank250 gal for dumping in and a smaller one 100gal bulk tank on stilts for a feeding tank to to my evaporator. There will be a float switch for keeping the top tank full. Just to the north of that is the garage door. We don't have water to the place, I would like to someday but I don't know if or when. I will have power brought in. I have a 4x12 pitch roof and will have a stainless hood placed over the evaporator. There is a picture window on the wall between the 2 rooms and a small wood burner for heating the 16x16 room. My wife and I would like to have school kids come through when we make syrup. If anyone is interested I will update as we go along and try to get some pictures.

[maple flats]

Wow, that sounds great! Keep us posted.
Dave

[HanginAround]

and a 16'x16' room for hanging around

Wow, I get my own room :D :D Well, I do have to share it with TellingLies and SellingSyrup, but that's okay....

J/k, it does sound great. Very exciting for you I'm sure. Post some pics sometime.

[brookledge]

Thats sounds good. Definately well planned out. How deep did you pour the concrete under the area you plan to put your evaporator?
I poured mine with a 6" floor and about 20" under the evaporator. I put in wire mesh and re-bar. I built mine 4 years ago and so far no cracks in the concrete.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your progress.
Keith

[Brad W Wi]

No matter how well you think you thought things out , there's always something. Well , I have a 6" floor through out the slab. I thought this would be plenty for a 2'x8'. But hearing you have 20" makes me wonder. But 20" does seem to be a bit over kill. But better to much than not enough and that may be where I'm at. Time will tell, and I think I'll cut some 1/2" grooves around the evaporator to control any cracks. I do have rebar around the pereimeter and under load bearing walls,as well as fiber glass.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

20"??? 8O 8O 8O 8O What does it weigh, 150 ton?? I can't imagine that a 5" slab with wire in it wouldn't have held it fine? 8O I have 5 to 6 inches in my 24 x 48 building and I have the evaporator in the center of it and the tractor parked a few feet from it and I have no cracks anywhere. Keith, I would guess my arch weighs probably as much as yours since mine is drop flue and have 140+ fire brick in it and the airtight front. Yours would weigh more with sap it it, but empty, it would be the weight of the pans difference.

[brookledge]

Let me clarify, the only reason I have that much is originally I had a cement pad only with dirt floor for my 2X6. Then I raised it some when I put in my 3X8. Then finally when I rebuilt to make room for my 3X12 I poured another 6" wall to wall.
You should be fine with 6" in your floor. Just to be sure check your arch for levelness every year.
Some people have dug sono tubes for footings under the arch that way frost won't bother it.
Keith

[Fred Henderson]

If you ever get out of syrup makeing with that 20" pad you could park the space shuttle on it. Just joken with ya.

[brookledge]

I could turn the steam louvers into a silo an launch a missle off the pad anyways.
Keith

[digman_41]

Here in Michigan the frost line is 42". I wish when I built my building I would have poured a seperate slab and extended it below the frost line in the place where my evaporater sits. When the soil freezes under my building and I start making syrup which heats up the ground the cement actually moves up or down because of the expanded frozen ground. I had to adjust the height of my evaporator to keep it level. 20" is a great idea.
Sounds like your off to a great start! Good Luck, Mark

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, most people worry too much about the weight of equipment on the slab and forget about the frost. Brandon - where did you score or separate your 24 x 48 slab?

There is always a debate on where to put the rebar - close to the ground side or close to the surface. Near the surface for frost and near the ground for equipment weight.

Actually, you might want both since concrete doesn't like to be put in tension and will crack.

Good idea making it thick in the center. Just costs a few extra bucks in concrete but more likely to stay on one piece.

Unfortunately, I didn't insulate enough between the evaporator and the cement slab, so it cracked the first year. :(

[Brad W Wi]

Sweetwoodmaple, If you were asking me about the cuts(Brad) I put one at the divider between the 16x16 room and the 20x20 room. I also put one along the wall where I'll be parking the tractor as well as behind it. I thought I'd put a cut all around the evaporator when I get it set up. I also put 2" of pink foam insulation under the whole floor and I plan on mounting my evaporator on blocks to keep it off the floor and for easier access to feeding wood into it. I'm still open to ideas from all of you. This whole idea came about with help from many of you over the last 2 years and I want to thank you all for your help.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Brian,

I cut mine about 1" deep with a skill saw 1 time down the entire 48' length of the building in the center. Down here, we don't worry much about frost. Of course, I do have 4' of gravel under my entire floor, so frost wouldn't affect it anyways. So far, no cracks anywhere. I put concrete wire in the entire floor and that was it. It is 5 to 6 inches thick and it the concrete was really green from a family company that still takes pride in mixing high quality concrete. :D

I forgot to add that in one section, I have a 2x8 drop flue with 140+ firebrick in it, a few feet from that a Kubota L3400 tractor that is 3500+ lbs, and in this area too I have a 625 gallon milk tank which full probably weighs about 6,000 lbs. :)

[sweetwoodmaple]

Wow, Brandon. That's a lot of gravel.

As long as you have a well drained area, you should not have problems with cracking.

Unfortunately, in my area, all 4' of gravel would do is hold water like a swimming pool. :(

I didn't put any rebar in my floor, I used locally made fiber. Gives that shaggy rug look (well, not really, but...).

[Brad W Wi]

My site is well drained on the side of a slight slope, with the water running aroung the area of the slab, and I have 10 to 18 inches of sand and stone fill that the slab sits on.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Brian,

I used that much gravel to get my floor up closer to road level. Listened to others and if i had it to do over, I would have had filled dirt hauled in and rolled. :?

[Parker]

I used to do concrete work,,hate to see a floor crack,,poured what we call an "alaskan slab" much deeper around the edges than in the middel,,the slab is 2' thick on the outside 3 feet then goes to 10" thick in the middel,,I put 8, 16" sonotubes around the corners of where the evaporator sits,4 directly under the corners of the firebocx,also the concrete is a thicker under the fire box,,I used LOTS of re-bar around the edges,, then I have peices going from inside the sono tubes bent 90 degrees and running 4' in the slab tied into the rebar that is 16" on center throught the slab,,I used fiber mesh,,wire,,and rebar,,,poured the concrete stiff,,havent seen a crack yet,,,the steel is (was) cheap compared to a floor that is cracked

[Brad W Wi]

This past weekend we had temps pushing 100 so we could only work from 5:30 am till the sun was on us around 11:00 am. We made the beam that will run the 40' on the south side with the over hang. It's made of doubling up 2x10's with 1/2" plywood in between. This was pretty heavy for 2 guys in their mid to late 50's and are both packing to much weight to begin with. But we managed to get it up in place. We have pressure treated 6x6's for up rights and had to get it up on them. We also got the truss' up and in place. Next weekend the perlins and the galvinized roof will go on for sure. It's starting to look like a building now. Still looking to set up the evaporator in late Aug or early Sept. If anyone is still interested I will keep you up dated.

[Al]

Absolutely!!!! Keep us updated on your progress. I understand about the heat. I have some trees to cut but am waiting until it's cooler and the bugs die down. The last two days the mosquitos and deer flies have come out in force.
Take care,

[Sugarmaker]

Brad,
Keep it coming! Sounds like the building is coming along nice. Take lots of pictures for us. And try to stay cool.

Spent many hours on a WD narrow tricycle type! My Uncle still has it. We also had 2 WD45's with wide front end that did a lot of farm work. Also had a Allis model B.

Chris

[royalmaple]

Brad-

Have you taken any digital pictures? Post some when you get a min.

I'll be working on mine as well soon. Seems like we get all or nothing, rain for 3 months straight, now highs in the mid to upper 90's, heat index well over 100, deep humidity. How about a nice 75 degree stretch?

Mine's going to be 16x20, with an extended slab for wood storage/future expansion so slab will be 18x28, 2 feet on one side and 8x16 wood shed on back.

I'll start posting some too when there is something to talk about. Still got a lot of drinking before I'm ready, I mean planning. :lol: :lol:

take it easy in the sun, you got pleanty of time till first run.

[Brad W Wi]

I'll try to get some pictures. I'll talk to my son, I'm not handy enough with the computer to do something like that. It may take a while.

[Pete33Vt]

Most deffinatly keep us informed. Sounds like a very good project. Keep it up, HOT HUMID AND BUGGY here

[Banjo]

All this talk of hot weather, and AC tractors prompts me to add a pic of my D14 in use raking hay:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Banjo1293/Farm/AllisRaking2.jpg

With the bucket off and the rake hanging off the back the lack of power steering isn't an issue any more.

It's been a good year for hay, although I had a few fields that were wet for a long time with all the rain we had earlier in June and July. They have dried out in the past week. The field I am raking was baled last weekend. The weekend before I couldn't get in there to cut because of standing water.

I was lucky to get a lot of hay off in the dry spell in early June, although I was over optimistic for how much I could bale and get off so some got lost (maybe 100 square bales worth). We have been getting thunder squalls of late so there's been a lot of rained on hay around here. I was lucky with this field, the storms bypassed us while it was drying :-).

Actually, if I'd had Allis working in June I would have been in better shape. One thing led to another with fixing a rusted rear rim, then new front tires, then front wheel bearings. So only one tractor (IH674) on the go for that stint.

No maple stuff to report here of late ... sorry.

cheers, Andrew

[Brad W Wi]

Well it was sunny and in the 80's but we got the roof on today. It's a galvinized metal roof and the sun was bright and hot reflecting off of it but we got it on. Next will be the facia boards and covering the over hanging areas. Tomorrow we will put on the cap and ends. It looks like a building now. I still need to talk to my son or wife about a picture or two. I'm not going to be working on it next weekend but the following weekend I will be up for a week and I plan on finishing the wood work and painting it a bright barn red. We want to paint it before we put in the windows and doors.