Around here they use the plastic pads with foam cores for residential. Im anal so id want a solid lime/gravel tamp at least 6 inches deep under that slab, but id bet they just level dirt and drop them
On Wed, Oct 22, 2025, 2:54 PM Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm sharing this find because I hadn't done my good deed for the day yet. > > I drove past a concrete place yesterday and their stack of precast blocks > made me wonder if they have precast concrete slabs. Yes, they do. > > The pad in the attached drawing is a stocked item because the power > company uses them for ground mounted transformers. By sheer stupid luck, > the opening built into that slab can meet up with the built in conduit > openings in a dual-bay enclosure we're about to deploy. They're not a > perfect match, but they're plenty close enough. > A guy who does line work for the power company shared documentation with > me which shows the transformer to go with that pad weighs almost 12,000 > pounds. Given that, this thing ought to be strong enough to support any > equipment enclosure I could possibly fit on it. > > It's $630 from a local precast concrete company. I'm waiting for the GC > to get back to me and tell me if that's actually going to save anything vs > pouring in place. Regardless of whether it's cheaper, it simplifies > logistics because the contractor with equipment to move and place the > enclosure could also move and place the pad. That's fewer people to > coordinate, and nobody has to wait for it to cure. I do have a notion that > it should be cheaper due to labor savings, but I'll know for sure soon > enough. > > I assume power companies nationwide use ground mounted transformers and > that any of you could get similar precast slabs for things you might be > installing. They'll precast you a custom slab too, but I like the fact > that they just have these laying around in case the power company needs one. > > -Adam > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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