Pump House Pad

The Pad - 2012 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
The first task was to layout the pad position using string and batter boards. Then initial leveling and positioning of the form boards (Slightly less than 8' x 16').

Robby never forgot his gloves after he developed his first ever "shovel blister". Ouch.

I had planned to dig nice clean trenches for the plumbing by hand, but that old Cedar tree gummed up the digging with thousands of very tough roots. So instead we used the backhoe to make very large ditches.

Connections to the 15,000 gallon tank. The 4" pump house drain dumps into my tank "sump" which drains into a branch of the several thousand foot French drain system that keeps winter surface water from flowing across the property.

When we poured the pad for the shop in 1995, concrete cost less than $10/yard including tax and delivery with a 1 yard minimum. So I budgeted $25/yd., thinking maybe it could go as high as $35. Man was I surprised when the cheapest I could find was $90/yd. with a 6 yard minimum and after adding micro fiber, environmental charges, fuel surcharge and taxes, it was almost $120/yd. Since this pad was only going to take a little over 2 yards, I decided to do the pad for my future shop addition and another small pad at the same time. The 14 yards of concrete cost $1,670.00 plus the $600 labor I paid for help leveling and finishing the concrete.

Shop Annex Pad - 2012 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
The 2nd pad is 12' x 48' x 5-6" with a 18" footer along the outside edge. It may take me a few years to get to it (I have a long to-do list) but eventually a 7' outside wall will support beams that inferface with the posts in the shop wall at about 12' off the ground. 2 x 8 perlins will span the beams for the steel roofing. With a roll-up door in the near end and people doors in both ends, the space will be for welding, air compressor, dust collector, phase converter, wood/metal stock storage and tractor parking. Then the Case 310 crawler can move out from under its winter tarp into the barn space the tractor now uses for its time off. A key aspect of the add-on is the custom hood and vapor proof exhaust fan that will cover a large area for welding/paint/chemical and other "stinky" operations.

Big Tank Steps Pad - 2012 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
The 3rd pad is approx 3' x 3' with 2 embedded steel straps. This pad is the base for stairs to the top of the big tank.