Needs some advice.
My tarm is going in a to-be-built boiler/woodshed. 12x24. In a perfect world I'd like to have a full cement foundation and slab floor, with footers below the 4' frost line. Made a couple of calls and got estimates of around $6000 for this work, which seems high to me (high in terms of my cheapness quotient, maybe its justifiable).
I've built plenty of decks and small outbuildings, but have always used sono-tubes/bigfoot combos and a PT lumber to frame it out near the ground, and I could do the same thing here if need be. Benefit being it will save probably $3500-$4000 and I can do it all my self with confidence and pretty quickly. Downside is 1) struggling with how best to insulate under a 'pole barn' type construction (all the ones I've done didn't require insulation) as well as keep the critters out, and 2) really struggling with having a wooden floor in my boiler room that would then need to be fireproofed somehow. (would a wood floor support a 2" cement slab on top?)
So my question is 1) for someone that is very handy, how hard would it be to build a 12x24' cement foundation with slab floor w/out screwing it up? - I figure if my labor is free, that I can do it for 1/2 the cost and makes it comparable in cost to a pole/pt/footer solution. Would using ICF's make this job easier for a foundation newbie?, or would conventional stick-built forms be easy to work with?
or else 2) if I chicken out and go with what I know - then what is the best construction method that will allow me to well insulate and critter proof the floor in this building? I am picturing 8 sono-tubes with footers, 4 - 12' ground contact 12x12's as beams, and then using conventional PT lumber 2x10's probably, to frame the floor either on top of, or in between, the 12x12's - can I lay rigid pink foundation insulation ontop of the floor joists and put the flooring on top of the rigid insulation? I can't see using fiberglass between the floor joists in this situation. Will animals chew their way thru rigid insulation?
other suggestions? I really need to get this building completed by end of July in order to have my boiler installed in August....
My tarm is going in a to-be-built boiler/woodshed. 12x24. In a perfect world I'd like to have a full cement foundation and slab floor, with footers below the 4' frost line. Made a couple of calls and got estimates of around $6000 for this work, which seems high to me (high in terms of my cheapness quotient, maybe its justifiable).
I've built plenty of decks and small outbuildings, but have always used sono-tubes/bigfoot combos and a PT lumber to frame it out near the ground, and I could do the same thing here if need be. Benefit being it will save probably $3500-$4000 and I can do it all my self with confidence and pretty quickly. Downside is 1) struggling with how best to insulate under a 'pole barn' type construction (all the ones I've done didn't require insulation) as well as keep the critters out, and 2) really struggling with having a wooden floor in my boiler room that would then need to be fireproofed somehow. (would a wood floor support a 2" cement slab on top?)
So my question is 1) for someone that is very handy, how hard would it be to build a 12x24' cement foundation with slab floor w/out screwing it up? - I figure if my labor is free, that I can do it for 1/2 the cost and makes it comparable in cost to a pole/pt/footer solution. Would using ICF's make this job easier for a foundation newbie?, or would conventional stick-built forms be easy to work with?
or else 2) if I chicken out and go with what I know - then what is the best construction method that will allow me to well insulate and critter proof the floor in this building? I am picturing 8 sono-tubes with footers, 4 - 12' ground contact 12x12's as beams, and then using conventional PT lumber 2x10's probably, to frame the floor either on top of, or in between, the 12x12's - can I lay rigid pink foundation insulation ontop of the floor joists and put the flooring on top of the rigid insulation? I can't see using fiberglass between the floor joists in this situation. Will animals chew their way thru rigid insulation?
other suggestions? I really need to get this building completed by end of July in order to have my boiler installed in August....
