Pavers for shop floor (?)

[poyjas]

Building a 22x40 pole shop in N Idaho. Lost control of my timing and got into winter with no floor. I’m not willing to pay the big $$ to get a contractor interested in coming out to work in the hinterlands. After a lot of surly stewing I concocted Plan B. I found a discount building supply to sell and deliver 8x16x4-inch heavy cinder blocks. Hired young strong persons to help level gravel, put down heavy permeable fabric, and lay the blocks on flat side. As I see it, advantages are no cracks ever, melt water just drains through, easy to pull up for pipe whatever, able to get it done in dead of winter (!), and cheap 75% less than the concrete guys. Disadvantages (maybe) are water comes through, won’t stand as well for really high pressure floor loads, and not as even or flat as concrete. None of those worry me much but we’ll see. Meanwhile the Orange Boys seem happy enough. What you think?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Now I'm going to pee in your pool...
Frost heave is most likely going to kick you in the back side, I hope not for your sake.
But just about every job I've seen done like that up here ends up heaving so bad that every thing shifts and moves.
I've seen equipment sink up to the axles over the thaw.
I also just caught that you used 4x8x16 (hollow?) hope you have good drainage or when they get wet and freeze they will might just break.
Like I said you might get lucky and you'll have no issues.

 

[Bulldog777]

Now I'm going to pee in your pool...

It's gonna turn purple!!



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[bucktail]

Now I'm going to pee in your pool...

It's gonna turn purple!!



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What's going to turn purple?

 

[Daren Todd]

What's going to turn purple?

There's an additive for pools to tell if someone pee'd in the pool. Water will turn blue or purple if someone pee's in it

 

[Ramos]

Saw a sign once when I was young that said "Welcome to our ool. Notice there is no 'P' in it, please keep it that way".

I don't see an issue with the pavers other than the frost-heave already mentioned. Time will tell.

 

[poyjas]

Thanks for the comments. The heaving question is a good one and I've put some serious worry that direction. Really good drainage out from under the floor and 10 inches plus of gravel is hoping to address the concern. We'll see. Wolfman, you're in my neighborhood so I'm listening!

 

[BillK01]

The driveway and sidewalk at our old house was omni-stone pavers and we never had any heaving issues (Western PA). We got a ton of compliments on it over the years. Only issue I had was the constant battle with weeds. The upside was when we had light snow my surfaces would melt off before I would need to shovel and be perfectly clear compared to all the neighbors with concrete. We did the drive in Omni-stone mainly because my neighbors sewer line ran under it.

 

[sdk1968]

if you got a good thick compacted base?

that will help for those to set level.

think of it as you have concrete that is already cracked.

good news is if you do get some heave, you can obviously level it back out real easy.

that could be way better than that crappy concrete job i got done.

 

[D2Cat]

Poyjas said he used, "8x16x4-inch heavy cinder blocks". These are not the same product as "pavers", are they?

This is what I think of when pavers are mentioned.

The kind of brick you see on sidewalks or driveways, even some city streets.

 

[RichM752]

I did the same in my barn. I used 2" "cinder pavers". Aside from a few cracked one where I park my truck, no problems. I did the job about 10-12 yrs ago, and I believe it was under 1.50 sq ft. 12 pallets of pavers, road base, sand, and labor included.

 

[poyjas]

D2cat, you're right, strictly speaking I'm using narrow building blocks not pavers. I'm pretty sure there's anything I'll do that'll break them, they're robust. I suppose I could pry them out and replace if I had to. We've been getting some fairly wild snow/melt/freeze here lately. No heave so far.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

We aren't having any heave issues up here this year, as it hasn't been cold enough for it to happen.

 

[bearskinner]

I live very close to you, ( probably within 5-10 miles) and I agree, we have had no heaving YET, this year. After all this warm weather, and rain were going to get the next few days, if we get a couple days at 10, you will have some fun. The pavers are better than being on the cold frozen ground, but not a lot! I went two years on of compacted gravel in my shop ( pole barn) and could not be happier than when I poured a real concrete floor.
I would say this is a good interim fix, but couldnt imaging having to use a floor jack or anything on pavers. If the ground was heavily compacted, drainage screen installed, etc it would make a great walkway or parking pad. I can imagine tripping over many toe stubbers come late February. Just my $.02 worth.

Come spring or whenever, I can recommend some great concrete guys, that are VERY reasonable and do great work. Your welcome to come by and check out mine. Besides purchasing tractor implements, it***8217;s the best money I have spent on my place