Thank you I will take the advice to mind, but that leaves me with one other
question. If I was to hire a cement company to pour the floor, who would I
have to call to get the pad leveled and the brackets mounted, is there
companies that specialize in this? Like I say I have a few ideas of how I
want this thing built, even though I am very much lacking experience, I do
have a lot of things I feel should be part of ay garage. Such as the type of
heating I would greatly consider having the floor heated with a boiler type
system (convection heating, I believe). Thank you very much for the info,
though I know I lack a lot of true hands on experience. I have considered
ordering in the concrete, and having it pour due to cost issues, also
realising that with the sheer size of this building I would at best run into
too many problems pouring the mix myself as I can't be in two places at once
like my ex wife used to think I could!! LOL But cost is one thing I have
looked at time and time again! The quote I got years ago was $5000 for a pad
this size and included the gravel back fill needed for drainage issues,
which even then I thought was a good value! Though I am able to do as much
of the work myself, and I have a little experience pounding nails and what
not, there is still a lot I feel I couldn't do myself logically. Concrete is
one of those things of course, but I have talked to others that have told me
to pour it myself, and I find cost over-runs to be much higher then it would
if I had it poured. Of course I look at the over all size of the
construction as well and find that the people I have spoke with often shun
my design ideas.

In all I feel that a garage should have an upstairs storage area, using open
rafter designs the type used for apartments in the space. This would allow
for increased storage without shoving things about the normal rafters, or
cluttering the garage area. Too often on a summers day I have drove by
"normal" garage style buildings to find them so littered with junk that the
owners cars have no place else to be but in the driveway. Yet the garage is
so packed the door can't even close exposing quite an eyesore to those
driving by. And being I have known women like my ex wife, who seems to find
a way to purchase ever large yard Christmas orniment on the planet without
concern of where to put it in the off season, I feel strongly about this!
Also in my considerations is doubling the amount of rafters used. Actually
my dad did have this thinking and after talking to a couple contractor
"friends" of mine, it seems to make sense, that the more rafters, the better
the load handling properties of the roof during wintery seasons. Also I feel
the wall height has to be at least 12' tall, to accept a later installed
above ground lift. I am a car guy after all and digging a trench in a lot of
cases just dosen't make any sense, when a post lift can be had for as little
as $2500. And with a lift if a person had to, you could lift one vehicle and
drive something else under it if the need arose. Not to mention that with
12' walls you could logically lift a full size pick up, and have enough room
to work underneath it and not worry about any lighting issues above the
vehicle. Besides going back to the topic of the pit or trench style floor
(like those in Lube places), I have currently a very high water table on my
current property. At about 8 feet I hit water which would mean a trench
would be filled with water at the concrete level (of say roughly 9 feet in
the ground for the two foot of concrete required and one foot of rock
drainage back fill) making for a whole host of drainage problems! Something
my parents, grandparents, and what friends I had at the time, never once
took into consideration! Like I say I don't know as much about construction
but I do look at the logic behind it and understand a lot of rules of thumb
and so on. Well that is kind of the jist of my ideas of a garage, I could go
into my thinking behind windows, and what not in the same structure, but it
is really off topic at this case as the past paragraph has been. Thank you
again for the low down on floors!

Thanks, E5


"Joseph Meehan" wrote in message
...
E5I5O wrote:
Ok, this is going to seem a little strange, ...

Right there.

First, the concrete can be done either before or after. I suggest
before. You have better access and it provides a good work surface to
work
on when putting the poll barn up. I suggest getting a good size crew to
do
the work and have at least one who knows concrete work. Concrete waits
for
no man, you need to work it when it is ready. You need to have a little
experience to know when and how long to work it. Books and newsgroups
can't
provide the experience. That size pad, takes a lot of work all at once,
so
you need a good size crew who have the tools and are ready to go when the
concrete gets there. BTW don't even consider mixing it yourself. It is
far
cheaper and much easier to have it delivered.

As for the poll barn, I suggest you find someone who has done it
before
and knows how to do it to help you. You are going to need additional
hands
anyway. There are just too many little things that done right will make
the
job go much better to learn here.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math