Corrugated steel sheet concrete shoot supported by scaffold tube
During the wait for the concrete to arrive, a few worse case scenarios are discussed, the worst of these being that the concrete conveyor would not reach the back of the barn and we would have to move it from half way inside to the rear wall, so a shoot was constructed from some corrugated steel sheet.
When the concrete for the barn floor did arrive, it arrived on a truck without the conveyor that had been ordered, a scenario far worse than our previously envisaged worse case scenario!
Concrete shoot with buckets to catch the mix that was pouring out of the gaps
The corrugated sheet was clamped to the mixer shoot, and some storm guttering supported at the bottom of the steel sheet. Using this method we managed to move the concrete about 4m to the back section of the barn.
I didn’t intend to put any concrete in the front of the barn, but we put a damp proof membrane and some shuttering in, so that we could dump any excess concrete there.
French DPM at the front of barn
The back of the barn is the largest area to concrete.
Damp Proof Membrane
The wet concrete floor 15 minutes after pouring.
Barn floor tamped and wet
Concrete floor doorway shuttering
The doorway is shuttered off,so that I can make a step up into the back of the barn at a later date.
3 hours 40 minutes after the 6.5 cubic metres of concrete arrive, the truck is cleaned and ready to leave
Concrete mixer truck cleaning
The floor can be walked on 24 hours after it has been poured, the shuttering is broken off, and any concrete that is in places is shouldn’t be is chiseled off.
concrete floor dry and ready to seal
We’ve just laid our own concrete floors on the two extensions to our main barn but are yet to do the barn itself. At present it has a concrete slab on one side which we’ve been advised just to concrete over. The same person has advised that a damp proof membrane will merely push any water under the membrane towards the stone walls of the building. I think he is talking tosh in both cases but am tempted by what seems to be quite a short cut. Have you heard of this approach and of any positive or negative feedback? Good luck btw, it’s a long old process isn’t it?