It didn't occur to me until later, but I wonder if this slab has a companion cable vault which doubles as a footer. The hole in it obviously goes somewhere. My enclosure isn't 12,000 pounds though, so I'm not worried about a footer.
We'd have to remove sod and level the spot. I was thinking some compacted crusher run - which is what we call the material used as the base layer for roads. I'm given to understand that's a regional name and they call it other things in other places. There's still earthwork to do, but there's no form, no rebar, and no concrete truck. Someone will be there to bury conduit anyway, and they ought to be able to scrape off 6" of sod while they're at it. With no cure time I think the precast slab could make the installation a one-day job. I still haven't heard back from the GC, but it's not even been a full day yet. I want to know if the idea helps and I'm not feeling patient today. -Adam ________________________________ From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Steve Jones <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2025 9:22 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Precast concrete pad 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]<mailto:[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. [cid:79fdcd1d-7ef8-4e9f-9ef7-5854fca2394e] 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]<mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
