New Sugar House

[Flatfoot95]

Hey everyone I have poured the concrete for my very first sugar house. I am getting ready to frame it up and looking for any and all suggestions. Have to get to it because I will be getting my new 2 1/2 x 8 Lapierre in November. This is all new to me most syrup I have ever made was around 21 gallons in a season. What should I use for lighting, clearance of the evaporator from the sides of the walls.....anything.....anything at all that you did that was successful or would change if you could.

[Pete33Vt]

Congrats on getting your concrete poured, you didn't mention the size of your slab. I found that getting the rig as close to center(side to side)as possible helps alot with steam getting out of sugar house. As far as lighting, we use florecent. As many as possible. We do alot of boiling at night and can never have enough light. Also make sure to get your holding tank up in the air, so if in the future you want to add a preheater your tank is already set up. I like alot of windows also. Its nice to be able to see out of sugar house during the day. I am sure you will get alot of info from others on here. Good luck and keep us posted.
Pete

[Sugarmaker]

Congrats on getting the cement poured. Good lighting is a must. We really like the high output cold start ballasts. We have three 8 footers in the evaporator room and don't have any shadows. Water is another advantage. Hot water heater for doing all the "dishes" is really nice to keep things clean.
I just ran a cold water line to my upstairs tanks. So now I can rinse them down with hot water and then have cold water if we need to fill a tank for finishing off the last batch.

Regards,
Chris

[Jim Brown]

Good Morning Chris; looking forward to seeing that new evaporator this weekend!
regards
Jim

[Brad W Wi]

Flat foot 95, congradulations on starting. I just finished my building.It's been a long summer, I just worked on it on weekends. I just have some inside trim work to do. I hope to get some pictures of it on here soon. Next week I will start on bricking up th evaporator. Any way your started, I spent a lot of time just looking at it and thinking what I needed. It was time well spent. Most of the ideas and help came off this web site. The people here are ready to help with any problem you run into. Every time I raised a question there were always 3 or 4 answers coming back to me. Some even went so far as to have a phone conversation. I'm sure alot of these people have had the same problems or were prepared for problems by thinking ahead. I'm a firm believer that there's always someone out there that has run into the same problems I have, and I figure I'm not the brightest bulb in the package, so I will always ask. Good luck!

[brookledge]

Flat foot95
How thick is your pad? The reason I asked is you may want to pour footings where your evaporator is going. A little frost may raise or lower your evaporator once you level it Once it is leveled you don't want it moving, if your arch is 8 feet long and one end goes up or down a little it can cause problems. If you have good drainage under the concrete you'll probably be ok.
As for the building if you are able build it bigger than you need to, do it. If you are like most of us you will be looking at a larger evaporator in the future. I used flouresent lights with cold starting ballast. I have a room where I do all my canning and filtering that way I have less dust and dirt in that area. I also have room enough for 16 cord of wood inside. Having your wood inside keeps the moisture content lower than if it is covered outside. I'm assuming you will be using wood for fuel if you are using oil you may want your tank inside where it would be a little warmer so it won't gell.
There are a few good books out there that can help you also one is the maple syrup producers manual and I know there are some others.
Good luck and keep the questions coming.
Keith

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Don't get your expectations to high on that new evaporator of ours. :wink: It is really cute though! Bring a couple extra dollars and you can bid on one just like mine at the PA state banquet Friday evening.
Looking forward to seeing you and lots of other sugar makers there!

Just moved tow hives of bees home from Jake Zimmerman's tonight. I had bees all over me and the pickup.

We really did not get much of a honey flow on golden rod. I have started to take the supers off for winter. We may extract some honey during the maple tour on Saturday?? (Honey, the other natural sweetener)

Regards,
Chris

[cncaboose]

Hi, Flatfoot, I would recommend a booklet available from U of Vermont Extension called "Sugarhouse Design". It does not cost much and asks you the right questions that let you pick your options. There are plans for 3 different sugarhouses included. I modified the 16x 24 plan for the 20x20 sugarhouse I am currently building.