Sugar Shacks NOT Anchored to Ground

[OrangeAgain]

I am wondering how sugar shacks that are NOT anchored to the ground behave due to freezing / thawing and/or the wind. Do they move? How to mitigate?

[tcross]

Mine is not anchored to the ground. it's a 32x26 structure that sits on railroad ties, on the ground. i have poured concrete in the area that we boil on and have my evaporator on it. it moves a bit, but really not too bad. i'd love to jack it up and put it on a frost wall, but i wouldn't love the price tag that comes with.

[NhShaun]

I was young and starting my 12x16 sugar shack in December. I dug 6 - 24"x 24" holes down 4-5Ft with a shovel and dropped some crushed stone, 4 corners and 2 mid span on the long side. Stacked cinder blocks 2 wide alternating the direction and filled the holes with crushed stone as well. It has been 6 winters and the building has hardly shifted out of level at all. I know this for a fact because all 14 windows are still perfectly square as well as the double doors on front and back. It is also not anchored, just sitting on the blocks. I used rough sawn 2x12s for the floor joist and layed them on top of a PT 2x12 on the flat. The whole building is up about 12 inches from the ground which has helped prevent any rot on the lumber. (Pressure treated was out of my budget at the time.)

Was this the correct way? No and i always look back in regret now that i have learned a lot more about foundations and building structures in general. But it only cost me 100 bucks for the blocks and stone, 2 broken shovels and about 15 hours of digging in terribly rocky earth. If i did it again, i would certainly put in some large pre cast or sono tub pillars with concrete if not a full foundation with concrete floor.

[TapTapTap]

I am wondering how sugar shacks that are NOT anchored to the ground behave due to freezing / thawing and/or the wind. Do they move? How to mitigate?

I thought you were planning on building on an old concrete foundation? Is your question related to reusing that structure or has your plan changed?

Ken

[OrangeAgain]

I was thinking of part (20' X 40') of the 40' X 80' foundation, I'm considering building an above the ground temporary sugar shack (12' X 16' or 16' X 24') for the next few seasons.

[OrangeAgain]

I was thinking of building a (20' X 40') sugar house on part of the 40' X 80' foundation. Now I'm considering building an above the ground temporary sugar shack (12' X 16' or 16' X 24') for the next few seasons.

[Aaron Stack]

My shack is 8 x 14 and sits on timbers and 4 x 12 cement blocks a crushed stone pad. Spoke to a few farmers and did a bit of consultation with the Great Google first and decided on having the the pad itself in place about a year before putting the structure on it to let it settle into place. I rented a power tamper from HD and went to town on it for about three hours when first built, then just prior to putting the building onto it I did the same with a manual tamper and 8' 2 x 4 to double check the level.

So far after two seasons the level of the sugarhouse hasn't budged and the evaporator remains as level as always.

[TapTapTap]

I was thinking of part (20' X 40') of the 40' X 80' foundation, I'm considering building an above the ground temporary sugar shack (12' X 16' or 16' X 24') for the next few seasons.


It's not clear what you mean by "above the ground". Perhaps you mean that the building will have a wood-framed raised floor resting on the existing flat slab? Assuming that's the case, you always want some anchorage into the foundation. You should look at Simpson Strong Tie products.

I'm surprised that you would spend the effort and cost to build a temporary structure of that size. The cost of building supplies is too high not to plan for expansion around a starting structure. Otherwise, it would mean starting over again after your next few seasons. More than likely you would try to reuse your initial build so you should be thinking of building the starting structure as permanent with the intention of expanding.

One option could be to build a tank room first as the staring structure. Put it 2 ft above the concrete floor and heavy and large enough to support a couple of larger sap tanks which is more than enough to support your evaporator. Then build you evaporator room off the tank room at your future expansion. The tank room would then be ideally positioned above the later build for gravity flow to an RO at the lower level.

Ken

[Brien]

When I built my sugar shack 10ft x 20ft. I spread out a good 6 yards of 2inch minus gravel in the area leveled it and compacted down as best as I could by driving it over with my truck 100 times. I then bought 6 "cottage blocks" 20in x 20in by 3 inches thick. This is what I built the shack on. I'm sure the thing heaves, but it all heaves up and down at about the same rate, so there never has been an issue yet. For me wind is not really an issue, I'm in the middle of the bush and the trees do a good job at blocking it. I also built mine really low to the ground, mostly so I only needed one step to get inside. I have nice big overhangs, so I don't have to worry about the base of the structure getting wet.