foundation under storage?

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plumedic

Member
Jul 22, 2015
23
Kansas
Hi Id like someone to give me an opinion on putting 1200 gal of storage on an existing shed floor. I'm thinking it's 4" thick concrete 5 at the very best. Or should I take the care to remove the floor and put a foundation under the tanks. Any thoughts?
 
Hopefully someone else will be along with more actual know how numbers-wise, but I'm thinking you should be OK.

I stacked my 330's just on my basement floor. I don't think the ground under the floor was levelled with the care it should have been done with, 20 years ago when we built. But I tried to make sure there was at least 4" of concrete everywhere when we poured. Think I remember seeing more posts on this in the past re. concrete strength & then thinking I had nothing to worry about. If it's soft under the concrete, that might change things some I suppose.
 
Most new construction concrete slabs arw rated at 4,000 lbs psi.

You should be fine. The concrete may cracking over time and move some but I wouldn't worry.

IMHO I wouldn't hesitate about doing it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Thanks that would be much easier to not cut and replace. Just don't want to get it all finished and have it all cave off you know.
 
So 1200 gallons of water plus the tank weighs under 10,000#. My little pickup weighs 7500#s and only sets on the ground in four little spots with the front two spots much heavier. What does your support look like where it touches concrete, in other words, how well did you distribute this 10k#? If it is all on one square inch of concrete then you will punch through.
 
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Has the ground beneath the shed ever frozen and possibly heaved? If it has the slab may not be resting solidly on the base material. If you feel it is nicely married to the base you should be ok. As gfirkus mentioned above, spreading the weight around with a sheet of steel will provide some insurance.

Concrete's only strength is in compression. It's weaknesses are in shear, tension, bend and shock.
My tank rests on an X made of welded 4 inch stainless I-beams which spreads out the weight.
 
Concrete's only strength is in compression. It's weaknesses are in shear, tension, bend and shock.

Well that's not totally true. Concrete is indeed strongest in compression but as we all know, it still has strength in the other ways you listed. Plus, it's really hard to burn!
 
Well that's not totally true. Concrete is indeed strongest in compression but as we all know, it still has strength in the other ways you listed. Plus, it's really hard to burn!
Pickin fly chit out of the pepper:mad:
 
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Pickin fly chit out of the pepper:mad:

It's my bread and butter plus I've spent way too much time purposely breaking up concrete to not think it is strong in all directions.
 
It's my bread and butter plus I've spent way too much time purposely breaking up concrete to not think it is strong in all directions.
Glad you're not the engineer on my buildings.
 
The floor under my Garn 1000 is 6 inches of stone, with 4x6 locust joists on top followed by 2" thick spruce. I'd park my payloader on this same floor & not be worried.
 
Here's what I put under my tanks. I'm not worried about it. 750 gallon total.


[Hearth.com] foundation under storage?
[Hearth.com] foundation under storage?
 
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