I like any base I put down to be a bare minimum of 4 inch road rock compacted and 2 inches crushed lime compacted. My patio is 14-16 inches of compacted rock with2 inches compacted lime. Mu pool was 4-12 inches rock and 2 inches lime.
You dont need to worry about it being that stable and could do even just the crushed lime 1 ton of rock or lime is not as much as it sounds IF times a factor, its way better to do a slab id say, I assume its reinforced so as long as it mates with a flat stable surface it probably is less prone to crack that the uneven mating of concrete on rock On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 9:36 AM Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: > 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]> 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 > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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