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sugar house size........
Hi yall what size of sugar house would you build? I have a 2x6 evaporator currently at 250 taps with the potential to grow probably to 500-600 in the next 5-10 years... also I use a old dozer with a tank on the front to gather with that I would like to have real close or inside..... Also what are your thoughts on a carport and enclosing it? Thanks!!!!!!
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i have a similar set up so i'll throw my .02 in. I have a 2.5x8 evaporator, run vacuum, have all my wood and all my sap storage inside. I run about 400 taps with max out at 550. my sugarhouse is 26' deep by 32' wide. the building was an old horse barn i gutted, cleaned up and converted into a sugarhouse. The room where my arch is (middle of sugarhouse), is 12' wide by 26' deep. my sap storage and vacuum pump room take up aprox 8' by 18' and my wood storage the remainder(plus a few emergency cords stacked outside). when it's just my wife and i boiling, the evaporator room is plenty big. if we have a few people stop by and hang out, it's not quite big enough. So, this summer we're blowing out the ext wall for my sap storage and adding another 4-5 feet. however that 4-5 feet is really just being added to the width of the evap room, making it 16ish feet by 26 feet. we do all our canning in our house kitchen so that isn't needed in the sugarhouse. I also have a second floor where all my supplies are kept.
hope that helps some. i feel like, whatever you come up with for size, add a few more feet. i dont' think you can be to "big" but can certainly be to small.
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That Sounds like about what I need! I do want to be able to upgrade to a 2x8 if i need to. Thanks!
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Our sugarhouse is 16*20 which we built for a 2*6. Plenty big enough, if I had to do it again I would run it off center with the hoods to save space.
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Whatever size you pick will be too small in 5 years! Sugarmakers are like goldfish - we grow to the size of the bowl.
I highly recommend you visit a number of producers that have similar setups to what you may build and see what you like and what you don't like.
When I build our next sugar camp there are a few must haves - floor drains on both sides of the evaporator for washup, a separate bottling room, an RO room larger than a walk-in closet (ours is maybe 7x7 and houses 3x 8" membranes) and a separate tool room with slide up door for chainsaws, fuel, atv's etc... Also on my list are external silo tanks for sap and for permeate plus a working milk tank to refrigerate several days' worth of concentrate. We currently have a 3000 gallon (raw sap), 2x800 gallon (permeate) and a 500 gallon (concentrate) tank inside our camp and they take up a LOT of space that would be better used for other things.
I also recommend you design to allow for it to be expanded in the future when you realize it was built too small.
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We have a 2'x6' evaporator and and a 16'x24' sugarhouse and it definitely is not large enough when you factor in space for a filter press, bottling area, etc.. We store our sap and our RO in a separate 14'x20' building. I would recommend a minimum of 24'x32' for your sugarhouse.
Gary
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Our sugarhouse is 24'x40' and we had a 2.5x6 when it was started. Mid-build an opportunity to purchase a 2.5x10' came about and I got it. I know, your thinking 24x40 is cavernous! Well, as stated above by others, it really isn't once you start bringing in all the "support" stuff. Equipment, tanks, wood, wheelers, tools, displays, tractors, visitors, tables, chairs, etc., etc., etc.,- all take up more space than you can plan for! Make the building as big as you can the first time. I know, easier said than done sometimes, but you will be thankful for going bigger now. Good luck with it!
Steve
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Very envious of these gigantic sounding sugar houses. I'm hoping my next one will be something similar. I can tell you that a 12x16 building is not large enough for a 2x6 evaporator or many visitors at all. Especially after cramming in all the other stuff that accumulated after 5 or 6 years of sugaring. I can also tell you that any building spacious or crowded, beats boiling outside!
I like the idea of floor drains, worth every penny.
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Im at 24x30 with a 2.5x10... BUT no extra equipment is stored in this space and i am eyeing up expanding into adjacent space to make it it 44x30. The common thread here is don't build a 15x15 sugarhouse... and no matter what you build its never big enough, build what you can afford + 20%!
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Our old sugarhouse housed a 2x6...that was it. Enough room to walk on either side and just enough to open the door and add wood....Then we expanded into and added on a couple sheds...like a shanty town. Functional until the 2x6 became too small.
We did a bit of calculating then some more and came up with a 28'x32' with footings which extended beyond the building to add to. I did NOT want shanty town coming back. Instead of footings we went with an Alaskan slab using 2" foam under and 24"x18" foam forms. We decided on 28'X60'. We are three years into it and 32' X 68' would have been better. Not much bigger, but the tractor and a SxS would fit better. the SxS is now in a small shed of it's own.
We stepped up to a 3x10 evaporator and have 1 4'x16' sap tank and 1 4'x12' permeant tank in the room with the evaporator. We have 12' x 12' RO room which also houses our well pump controller and hot water tank. We have a kitchen outside the RO room and open to the evaporator area. We went with 12' walls and have a floor with 3' knee walls above the kitchen and RO room. We also added a cat walk/platform above the garage space which houses the fuel tank for the evaporator (we ran the fuel line in conduit under the concrete along with power to the evaporator) and a tractor and excavator.
It is a large building and does work very well for us. The size difference of what I kind of wish we went with is just a little more space around the equipment so we don't have to move it out in the winter for a quick project.
They say double what you think is good for now and you should be okay. Plan on a RO room (we have a direct vent heater which uses very little propane to heat our 12x12 RO room) and kitchen. Plan on having hot water. Plan on a 3x10 or evaporator if you are happy with a 2x6 (we now have room for a 5x14).
Enjoy building it.
Mike