Sliage Pit Floor

darragh_haven

I have 2 walled silage pits. the floors are concrete, but are in a rough condition now. I hope to resurface the empty one this April. Should laying 100mm of concrete with a resistant additive directly on top of the old concrete floor be sufficient?
I was told by a neighbour that i should put a 20mm layer of sand on the old concrete first, before pouring the new concrete. He is of the opinion that the new and old shouldn't touch. Is there a reason for this.

blue5000

The old one probably has no expansion joints in it, the new one should have, polyethene sheet could be used instead if the old one is level, if it has holes in old floor, might be better to dig it out altogether.

just do it

There was an article in the journal within the last two weeks on this....

td5man

blue5000 wrote: »

The old one probably has no expansion joints in it, the new one should have, polyethene sheet could be used instead if the old one is level, if it has holes in old floor, might be better to dig it out altogether.

If it has holes or is moving better to take it out and create a solid base. if the old slab is good it should be ok to lay new slab on plastic on top of the old slab.
Would have used sand in foundation in hard rock so that each could move independently of each other

Markcheese

Find a proper engineer, I've heard Tarmac is much more resistant to silage than concrete is but tines make ****e of it ....

iverjohnston

I think Ashfelt is used, rather than Tarmac. More bitumun in it, and cooked at a higher temp in the making. But using a loader with a twist in the frame, or two back tyres with different levels of wear will allow the fork to dig in on one side or the other. The benefit of ashfelt is you can lay it today, and put silage in tomorrow. Concrete should get at least a month ot cure before putting in silage.

darragh_haven

I asked the resident engineer in the company that I work for. He said I should dig up the old,concrete, and lay 200mm of concrete with 1 layer of A393 mesh. With a second layer of mesh at turning areas..... I asked him will he pay for it. He said no. I politely told him to Fu5k off.

td5man

darragh_haven wrote: »

I asked the resident engineer in the company that I work for. He said I should dig up the old,concrete, and lay 200mm of concrete with 1 layer of A393 mesh. With a second layer of mesh at turning areas..... I asked him will he pay for it. He said no. I politely told him to Fu5k off.

150mm 40n without mesh will carry all thats ever going to drive on it.

darragh_haven

td5man wrote: »

150mm 40n without mesh will carry all thats ever going to drive on it.

I would have taught something similar. But when you get structural engineers involved, they put a high safety factor to cover their ass (and it someone else's money they are spending)

1chippy

Dont panic anyway, everyone is going to get plenty of time to inspect and repair their pit floors this year.

satstheway

Cousin has ashfelt in for over 10 years. Still like new. Just watch the tines.
Our concrete 5 years and starting to get ruffled on top.

keep going

what ever about 200mm of concrete:rolleyes:would be a big believer in mesh as they say "a pound of steel is worth a ton of concrete".you could tile it;)

darragh_haven

1chippy wrote: »

Dont panic anyway, everyone is going to get plenty of time to inspect and repair their pit floors this year.

I might not need to redo any floor the way the grass is growing. Or should I say isn't growing

td5man

satstheway wrote: »

Cousin has ashfelt in for over 10 years. Still like new. Just watch the tines.
Our concrete 5 years and starting to get ruffled on top.

Asphalt is about twice the price of concrete per m3, for resurfacing over concrete 50mm would probably be enough you'd probably need to spray a tack coat to get it to stick to the concrete.