Building New Coop/Barn...Phase 5 Great Barn Build, OCCUPIED! 3/6/16

[speckledhen]

Oh, that stinks!
No doubt that you're super bummed...I'm soo sorry. Deep breaths.
It's a tough site with that sharp slope (can't remember which side it's on) and clay soil....
......the paver base is now a porous place for the water to go.

Will have to go back and look at pics to see slopes....site plan with slopes and elevations shown might help
There's got to be a way to trench and swale to redirect water runoff.

We thought we had it covered. The guy who did the pad work said the base was a great place to put the bldg, that he uses it for his. The guy who delivered it said it would be a great base for the bldg. The inspector said it would be a great base for the bldg. Well, it isn't. I realize that there is a slight slope from the entry door side to the garage door side as witnessed by the crew raising the back corner on a 4" block to level it out, but we thought digging down a few inches below the wall all around and pouring concrete and then sloping the base stuff away from the bldg toward the drain (told DH we needed gravel on top of that, not this base, but he didn't listen)

 

[aart]

The base material probably is a good material, but site prep is/was probably crucial.
Hindsight, and not happy, but thinking clay ground should be sloped down away from house, so any water that does migrate into/under base will move away down slope, then base leveled. But that's all water under the, let's say bridge.

Gutters will probably take care of 80% of it...and was this an uncommonly heavy rain...not sure what comes off slope on 'house side' of barn. but a swale cut between there might help too if needed.

 

[speckledhen]

The base material probably is a good material, but site prep is/was probably crucial.
Hindsight, and not happy, but thinking clay ground should be sloped down away from house, so any water that does migrate into/under base will move away down slope, then base leveled. But that's all water under the, let's say bridge.

Gutters will probably take care of 80% of it...and was this an uncommonly heavy rain...not sure what comes off slope on 'house side' of barn. but a swale cut between there might help too if needed.

The big rock wall side is not an issue. It seems to be doing very well, thank goodness.That does well because that is the gable end-roof drains to the entry and roll-up door sides. DH's idea is pull up all the perf pipe, dig out all that area and put concrete from building to rock wall, sloped to the center, like one big concrete gutter so water has no chance to get into the ground around the building. That's a boatload of concrete, but maybe it will work. It will be no fun digging it out and he refuses to hire someone. Guess I'll be a shovel jockey in a big way after the rain quits. We'll have the bags delivered along with the guttering and downspouts if we decide that's the way to go.

The site prep guy didn't do his job well. Hiring folks who do things right seems to be a problem for us.

 

[aart]

Orient me.....What side is the roll up door on...north, south east, west?
Where's the perf pipe?
Where the rock 'wall'?

It looks like the land slopes pretty evenly from your house down to and past barn.....is that correct?

 

[speckledhen]

Orient me.....What side is the roll up door on...north, south east, west?
Where's the perf pipe?
Where the rock 'wall'?

It looks like the land slopes pretty evenly from your house down to and past barn.....is that correct?

Roll up door is on the north side, the lowest side of the pad, the back corner of the barn. Entry door opposite on south. Rock wall is on east, back slope on west. Perf pipe is at the base of the rock wall, goes on three sides, around the north and south sides and empties off the slope on either side veering away from the building, nothing on west side of the barn since it slopes off more back there.

The land does slope down steadily from the house past the barn and on down to the bottom of our 5 acres, just keeps on going. Our house is on the highest point. There is a foot or maybe a little more between the gable side of the barn that faces our house and the base of the rock wall/drain pipe.
These two pics are the back corner where it's raised up on a 4" block and the siding goes to the ground below the base framework. We put concrete below that level on the outside, of course.



this back corner is the lowest-you see the slope going away. There was no standing water inside on that back corner, only the entry door side, but the paver base was very damp near the inner wall-water splashing off the roof against the building-gutter will fix that issue, I feel.
Some of the work we were doing in pics below as we were pouring the apron, the way DH decided to do it. The concrete goes about 4" below the metal siding. On the rock wall side, it's right on the metal, no plastic barrier because the siding was right into the ground there, not something I expected to happen but apparently necessary to level the site that was supposed to be level. Not. The crew did a great job of getting the building level-I put a level on it myself and it is, but didn't expect the pad site to be so off.
I've put some stuff at the top of this slope that you see on the right to divert water coming down, but it was supposed to go into that pipe-it isn't doing it fast enough because the pipe needs pea gravel, not the paver stuff, on top of it. DH wouldn't listen to me about that, though I don't think that would solve the entire issue on this side.

We pushed the fine gravel base up over that concrete at a slope up to the top of the plastic barrier (it's professional type landscape edging with a roll on top and a ledge at bottom).

Those are 10" galvanized nails holding the hard plastic barrier against the bldg. There is construction adhesive between the top of that and the building, sealing any opening that would be right against the metal.

 

[Peanutsmomma]

Oh no! I am sorry to hear about your set back. I know that you all will be able to get it figured out and in the end your solution will be perfect.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh no! I am sorry to hear about your set back. I know that you all will be able to get it figured out and in the end your solution will be perfect.

Thanks, Angela, just depresses me to still be at square one with the water situation after 10 bags of concrete and all that work.

 

[aart]

Pea gravel over the drain on the east side and gutters on north and south sides(both down spouted to the west) should do the trick.

What kind of drain pipe did you use...I looked for pic but maybe you didn't post one.....where do the ends of the drain pipe go?

Was this rain normal or unusually heavy?

 

[speckledhen]

Pea gravel over the drain on the east side and gutters on north and south sides(both down spouted to the west) should do the trick.

What kind of drain pipe did you use...I looked for pic but maybe you didn't post one.....where do the ends of the drain pipe go?

Was this rain normal or unusually heavy?

Its just black plastic perforated pipe, not the sock pipe stuff. DH used a pick axe and cut a few larger openings in places as a temporary help. I also went around and dug out some of the base over the pipe. It drains out past and off the pad each side, past the building. The rain is steady, not heavy exactly, just keeps coming down.

This pipe.


the ditch we originally dug for it. We removed that clay we dug up and only put the paver stuff back over it since we didn't get the pea gravel I wanted. Some men should listen to their women, you know.

 

[1muttsfan]

Not an epic fail, just needs a little tweaking. I agree that replacing the paver base with pea gravel over (and under as well if possible) the drain will help considerably, as would eaves on the sides.

As far as inside, you might consider pouring concrete floors for each pen as you go along, like what you were talking about with the wood floors but more permanent and water resistant, and could be done one bit at a time.