Thanks again to Ritual for sponsoring this video! I love their vitamins because I know I have big gaps in my diet and I would otherwise missing out on many essential nutrients. Remember to use my code RAINFALL for 10% off your first three months! www.ritual.com/RAINFALL
Thanks for answering so many questions about the design of the barn. You inspired me to design and build a similar deck, with steel columns and stainless steel wire railings. It's not done yet either, but it's getting there. Planning on having the same overhead lights on cables, and a sun shade for 2/3rds of it. Keep up the cool projects! sites.google.com/view/keithviolettesprojects/home/my-projects/new-deck-2020?authuser=0
As far as the floor goes you could refinish it with epoxy floors, they are easy to clean and easy to work with. Not perfect for welding thought unfortunately.
Surprised to see you here honestly, been watching rainfall projects for years and it's truly one of the best hidden gems on RUclips, he deserves so many more views.
I remember when I first ran across your channel. I’ve honestly watched every video you have released. Nothing but a continuous respect for all of what you’re done. Very impressive.
You know, channels like yours put spectators so close to the human part of building stuff that make us feel part of it. I mean, we all love the barn, your progress, projects.. we need you to keep on going because that makes us all happier. I guess that's why followers celebrate when you upload new content! (I tried my best writing in English. Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷)
Just randomly ran into your channel. What an amazing space and property. You have every right to be proud of your progress. This is something most people can only dream of having
Hi Justin, Most concrete I have had done a plastic barrier was laid on top of the gravel. This keeps the moisture out of your building. Then re-bar was used every 16" - 18" in both directions & tied together. Once the concrete has set up overnight, the crew came in with a saw and cut control joints, this is where the cracks occur. You are not supposed to be able to scratch the concrete like that! Something was really wrong with the mix. Because the vapor barrier is missing it will always be damp as moisture will wick it's way through. This is early enough, I would jack hammer it out and start over with a more experienced crew... do a little research before pouring again. From this point on you will experience more cracks. Maybe an insurance claim could help some.... You are young enough, fix the mistake now and never worry about it again. You could have a loan paid off in less than 3 years. Extremely nice shop from the ground up. Nice to see that you preserved the olde timbers.
About that concrete - and you know what they say about free advice! I worked as a construction inspector for a state agency for over 50 years and I have been into a lot of concrete, good and bad. No. 1 - Don't buy any more concrete from the supplier you used for the bad slab. No. 2 - The existing concrete is bad because it had too little cement, too much water and or dirty aggregate, maybe all 3. Also fresh concrete can not freeze. No. 3 - The slab should have had rebar in it. Rebar on dolbies is a must. Rebar must be in the concrete, not at the bottom. Contractors like to use steel mesh on the ground, promising to lift up into the mix and this is a joke, on you. No4. - The Fix. The agency I worked for spent multi-millions of dollars, using every exotic product on the market, trying to add a thin lift fix to bad concrete surfaces, every one failed. The only "cheap" fix that will work is a new slab on top of the bad one. Place at least 3.5" of 5000 lb mix with rebar. You need a high strength mix to give you better surface wear. Good Luck
This is the best advice of all the comments. No amount of epoxy and or gap filling is going to solve the issue with the slab. If you want the floor to be correct for “the rest of your life “ remove it and do it right for the last time. By the looks of it, it will come up fairly easy and crushed up and reused. Every thing else I’ve watched you do has been top notch. I do like your style.
Pretty much spot on. No rebar in the concrete, ratio of water/cement is too high. Contractors will tell the truck operator to add more water on site because it makes the concrete easier to move and easier to finish, also extending the time they have to finish the pour. The more water you add the less strength it will ultimately have, and the more cracks it will likely have. The water won't stay trapped in the concrete forever so when it leaves, the concrete shrinks too fast. All concrete will have some degree of tolerable cracking but if it is really bad, something is definetely wrong.
I always wondered how in the world that steel mesh is going to do any good when they just lay it on top of the fill instead of lifting it up so it's more in the center of the concrete. I know common sense is not that common any more but common sense would tell you it needs to be in the concrete. Unfortunately we don't have as many people taking pride in their work these days that strive to do quality work that's done right the first time. I have an uncle who built a multi million dollar company without ever advertising the company. His made motto from the beginning was " Quality over Quantity." He started sand blasting & painting then the paint salesman hooked hin up with Trailmobile blasting & painting new flatbeds for them. He just continued from ther doing more and more work for them till he got Where's he's at now doing anything there is on semi trailers. Mostly installing aftermarket products. Whenever we had something come back or there was problems he always paid out of pocket to fix it or make it right to keep a good name. You do a lot of good work a few people while hear about it but if you do one bad job everyone will hear.
for your next pour you wanna reinforce with rebar and make sure there are expansion joints. as for sealing you want to go with a low viscosity epoxy to inject into the cracks so deter from more cracking. if you don't have expansion joints go get a saw and cut some
Concrete needs space to expand and contract with temperature changes. You can't go bigger than 9m2 squares without expansion joints. Beautiful barn, I've enjoyed watching you modify it.
The concrete floor issues stem from a couple of possible causes. It doesn’t look like expansion/contract joints were installed. All concrete cracks the joints are installed to have the cracks occur in the weak line of the joint. The softness of the floor is typically caused by a high water to cement ratio, too much water in the mix. The finish is a result of the process that was used to level, compact and trowel the concrete. It doesn’t appear a hard steel trowel machine was used in the finishing process. Solutions: you can grind out the cracks and fill with epoxy. Any type of paint or stain would be cosmetic. The do make industrial concrete floor finishes but they are very expensive.
@@larsmark True. I think in Justin's case he did what he did with what he knew and ultimately it cracked. I'm surprised they didn't at least recommend some relief cuts.
Large floors shrink while curing and water evaporating out of the concrete, so you need control joints cut to give the concrete places to crack in a controlled manner vs spiderweb cracking in any crazy directions. Edit: It also looked like they added too much water because the slump looked really loose. Air added to the concrete helps with spalling and cracking if the concrete is exposed to freezing temperatures.
My shop is 24ft x 30ft. The floor is 1 slab with no control joints and I have no cracks like what he showed in the video. I have 1 hairline crack that is hardly visible. The shop is 15 years old. The floor is 8" thick with 1/2" rebar in an 12" x 12" grid. It's 4000psi concrete sitting on top of 5ft deep of properly compacted sand, 2" thick rigid foam, vapor barrier. The combination of these things and controlled climate during curing is why it didn't crack. Planning and proper execution is key.
@@OU81TWO looked like he didn't have rebar in his for. I'd say most important things for controlling cracking are, rebar, control joints or saw cuts then curing.
@@Nickelplate1 Unless the subgrade was poor, rebar, wire, or macro fibers only control secondary cracking - hold the cracks that do form tight. High water to cement ratio concrete has higher shrinkage potential combined with no control joints equals this poor concrete work.
Love that barn. The progress is incredible. Whenever I consider my current house renovation "complete", I want to get some property and build my own house from the ground up. I used to enjoy working on my car a lot, but now never have any time to work on it, the house is priority. Hopefully the concrete has settled by now? One option is epoxy coating. Depends on the look you're going for. You go through and fill the cracks, clean, etch the concrete, then apply the epoxy. It would be a huge job in there, so I don't know if it would be worth it. Maybe there is a better simpler way to seal and leave the concrete look. I know Jason on the Fireball Tools channel just moved to a new shop and refinished the concrete floors. Had some giant polishing machines that drove around. He might be a good person to talk to.
E it was good to see that you’re doing some more episodes of the transition of the barn I’ve watched all of your episodes from the beginning when you first started the remodeling of the shop keep up the episodes if you would please enjoy them
I started watching your barn videos about the same time my family sold off our 1,600 acre farm in North Dakota. I didn't have the money at the time, nor the desire to move from Oregon back to North Dakota to keep it all together and in the family. I hope the current owner of our farm have made our old barn their own, like you have done with your endeavors in your own. I'm a huge fan of your channel and always in awe of your talent, creativity, and ability to draw people into your excellent and unique content. Well done, Sir! (and Drake!)
have you looked into an epoxy coating for the concrete floor? It's definitely within your skill set and would be a fantastic addition to your shop space, which is one of the best I have ever seen by the way!
I was going to suggest the same thing. Although I think it is on the expensive side of things, it would be definitely one of the strongest and easiest finishes to maintain for this kind of use.
Agree. Epoxy is the thing todo. You probably need to acid wash the floor first. Epoxy isnt that expensive anymore when you do it yourself. I would suggest at least two strokes. I did my shop floor, and regret doing only one layer. The best thing with epoxy is that it is easy to clean, and doesnt produce any dust like concrete floors do.
I epoxy coated the floor in my commercial building last year and it has held up great. It is doable for a DIYer, just make sure and go with 100% solids epoxy.
@@austinhenry4382 Im no expert but I can tell you I used to use a 100% solids on countertop work. 100% solids meaning nothing will pass through, down or up. Unless there's a vapor barrier Im predicting he gets a lot of hazing and cloudiness.
The cracks in your slab are likely from no reinforceing steel imbedded within. To repair the cracks there's lots of products designed for it, I've seen some impressive repairs from a few different high end epoxy products, that route could also produce a smoother "more sweepable" surface too. Your project is so impressive as it stands of course and I hope this info helps
It cracked so much because you didn't cut control expansion joints into the floor. The joints create a focused area for the slab to crack and shrink at, so the cracks (ideally) don't go all over the place. It also helps to put mesh in the concrete (I didn't see that in the pics), some say that fiber helps too, but my shop garage has fiber and it's cracked at weird angles because they didn't cut joints. The same size floor in the attached garage has control joints and no cracks outside of the joints, it also has mesh but no fiber.
Now I'm not a concreter, but I do work in a store dedicated to Concrete products. My advice would be to use a "densifier" to reharden the surface of the concrete. Then stain it in a earthy color and finish with a 2 part urethane. We have a very aged/cracked floor done like that in the display room and the cracks and chips gives it amazing character as the stain pools in those low points and give a darker color then the rest of the floor Allot of customers that come in love it
Hey Justin, have enjoyed your YT channel for years now. I think you have done a fantastic job on turning the barn into your 'mancave'. Your barn transformation is what drew me to your channel. I live in Australia, and what we often do to avoid cracking in cured concrete is to avoid having an unstable base where your concrete is poured. Packing the gravel down is good, but pouring concrete on this surface means the slab will often crack since it can't move as it shrinks/cures. If you had spread 30-50mm of sand over the gravel, the cured cement can move while it shrinks. We also ALWAYS use reo in all large pours, and for indoor floors, we lay plastic down before the cement is poured to eliminate moisture from wicking up from under the cement after it's cured. As for the concrete been so soft, adding too much water to the pour will lead to flaky concrete after it's cured. There may be other ingredients that weren't used that day which may have contributed to the soft concrete floor. As always, look forward to your videos ;)
Just thought I would add in on the concrete floor. Mainly the reason for cracking there is shrinkage. So even though it’s well compacted it has to shrink with water evaporation. It will curl up also. Although not to noticeable by the eye. A possibility to Revamp your floor for you being that your always having heated objects fall with torches and welding would be to grind the whole floor to remove the soft layer at the surface. Then acid stain the floor to your liking and seal it with a concrete sealer-stabilizer which will continue to harden the floor over time. Cement and CO2 don’t like each other and it makes the surface dusty. This would fix that as well. Also once ground it gives it a cool effect with stones showing if you like that sort of style. I would be willing to discuss it more if you wanted too. Other wise the barn is just awesome. We’re a barn builder and concrete contractor so your building is right up our alley. Oh and hobbyist welder/fabricator/machinist. So pretty much everything your into. Lol great channel!!!
Concrete: Crimping of the concrete while drying is the main source of cracking, heavier rebar or even steel fibre are of the more common solutions. This will be even more so when pouring a bigger size slab. Precutting slots in the concrete while drying is done to 'control' where the crack should form. Existing crack can be patched with sealants (I've seen some very creative solution with big shapes/lining used to cover up cracking) Other solutions is to locally break up concrete along the crack and refill with a sealant or a very thin concrete mix.
I've been watching you since some of your early blacksmithing videos, so I've seen most of this barn come together. You've done a great job with your continuous improvements and have a really nice space to work in now. Looking forward to whatever comes next. Thanks for sharing!
Hey dude. Long time subscriber 7 year concrete & construction company owner here. One thing you could do to make the floor alot nicer would be doing a epoxy coat with flake. If you hire the right ppl to grind the floor down with a buffer like machine they will fill the cracks or whats left of them with epoxy and then throw the flake on. The flake is the most durable and hides blemishes the best. Keep it up my guy. You’ve inspired me to do alot of work to my 30x50 tobacco barn thats 100+ years old
I would suggest looking at some of Essential Craftsman's videos about concrete pouring. They lay out that cutting the concrete is a form of crack control, which it looks like you didn't do at all on that floor, so it cracked wherever it wanted. You can probably epoxy coat the entire floor to at least make it smooth, but not really scratch resistant.
Came here to say this. The whole continuous slab thing only kind-of works if the slab can slide a bit to accommodate for expansion and contraction, especially as concrete naturally contracts slightly when curing. Basically, the preexisting foundation pinned the slab in place and the natural contraction put it under tension.
Another RUclipsr up in your neck of the woods, Essential Craftsman, just recently had a video talking about concrete, and he said; "There's two kinds of concrete; the kind that has cracked, and the kind that hasn't cracked yet". Love the work you've done with the barn, hope I get to tackle a few of them myself one day. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
From that small part of the video with the concrete in it, it looked way too wet, unless you were using a low shrinkage mix. To get a nice finish on a floor with little cracking you need to use a dry mix 100 slump. Which where I live is a normal mix, you will still need to do control cuts in the concrete which will help with those big ugly crack lines.
Put an epoxy coating down on the concrete floor. You can add coloring to it to hide the blemishes. It is very durable. The machining area where I worked had that and it stood up to the constant traffic and metal chips.
The cracked floors adds a lot of character to the shop. I’d leave them. Looks like an old factory. About to start milling and building my own barn. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome shop! Concrete is a French word, it means crack. I had a house that had a terrible concrete floor. It looked like a map of the LA freeways. There was water seeping up through them. I cut along all of the cracks to make them a little bigger and then patched them with hydraulic cement. It worked awesome! No more water coming through. I painted the floor and it stayed nice for years. If your concrete is rough maybe an epoxy coating might work good.
I'm not a concrete guy but from what I was told is the ways you limit the cracking in concrete is to add more rebar, pour it thick ( 6-8" ), compact the base really well, and add control joints to control where it cracks because all concrete cracks
Very cool build out. I am also a barn guy & it’s taken 30 years to get mine redone & project ready. Won’t ever be done, but it’s always a great day when I get to work in my shop. Enjoy yours! Thanks a ton for sharing
As far as I know, when you have big concrete block floor, you cut it to create smaller blocks, separating them. So when it sets and moves it will not crack the whole floor. Not sure how is it done in US but in Central Europe, we do that this way. You can see it in shopping malls and such.
Regarding the concrete floor. Check out husqvarna hiperfloor industrial fisnish. We have it at our shop at work. Been there for 10+ years and its only a little bit worn in the hallway where pallets and trucks are used. everywhere else it is as new. Easy to sweep and does not get stained by oil. In short it is grinding with chemicals first which creates a slurry-like thing that fills the cracks and other imperfections. After that its polish and then chemicals to seal the floor. You can rent a grinder, tools and chemicals. Quite easy to do by your self as your floor is recently poured and quite even. Hope this helps. Good luck! Hope this helps.
Concrete floor If you do not use reinforced concrete on your floor, then you should split your floor into multiple sections which are not bigger than 3x4m (9x12ft). This allow each section to move independently and reduce stress. One of ideas to fill cracks is to cover whole floor with resin ;) Not cheap, not easy but works well ;) Or just cut wide channels along the cracks and re-fill then with new concrete. Just make sure you make them deep and wide and do not make them longer than 4 meter (or even shorter if cross-section is small).
Hi! I'm from Russia and I don't know the language very well. I am very impressed! It's very cool that you came up with everything and brought it to life. I wish you to move forward and have a lot of creative ideas! Good health to you and your whole family. Good luck to you
Justin, I have many years of experience engineering concrete. One of the issues leading to unsightly cracks in concrete is failing to create the necessary expansion joints. These joints are installed to create cracks in the concrete in a controlled manner. Lastly, the wetter the slump the weaker concrete will become. Hope this helps.
I restored an old dairy stable for my workshop as well. Poured almost 8m^3 of concrete to flatten the trenches. I used some 2 component sealing coat thingy in light grey. Got some scratches with heavy metal chips. But held up pretty great so far! The downside, it's slippery af even with a little bit of wood dust. So I have to keep it super clean, broom every week. But my shop is always super clean, which is nice!
Cheapest route to fix that slab is filling cracks with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender, then applying a magnesium flurosilicate concrete hardener (cheap and easy to apply), and finally grinding/polishing the concrete. I hate coatings- expensive and always eventually fail. And with coatings you're always afraid of every single thing that drops of scratches the floor. The work you do in there with big steel moving around makes that a problem.
I worked with concrete before I became a welder and if concrete cracks there are 2 main reasons. 1) it wasn't compacted right. 2) they put to much water to make it more easier to move. Oh and they probably didn't put any relief cuts to control where your cracks go. Great content brother. Keep up the great work and do more welding and fabrication. You should also do epoxy floors to cover.
First of all, I appreciate your Love for taking care of your barn. Try polishing your concrete in your barn. We did it at our firehouse and it came out amazing. Only problem is that it gets slippery when wet. Keep up the good work and looking forward for your next project.
There are hundreds of small details within each and every project/space in the barn that he left out of this video! If you are new here go to back and binge watch! This man is incredible what he has accomplished!
They have an expandable crack filler. Comes in a caulking tube. It didn't look like you had enough reinforcement, they should've came back and cut reliefs at the least. We just poured a 60x120 building.
I am pretty happy with myself for never coveting anything that anyone has. However what you made for yourself there is hard not to want. Lol! Great job!
Once again, I delayed watching until supper time to sit by myself, in peace and watch the video alone while I enjoy my meal. So peaceful. I love watching your videos!
This is a BEAUTIFUL barn, I think you did it a lot of justice. As for your concrete, fill your cracks and then do an epoxy coating. It will look spectacular and last decades.
makes me want to move to a warmer climate a video like this.i have my own newly constructed shop but had to do so much to it to make it usable all year round.insulation,heated floor,boiler,wall steel,etc..i like the look of this inside and out and have access to an older barn also.What i would need to do to it to use in WI more that 6 months out of the year would take away this character for sure.good luck
If you decide to refinish the concrete then you might try adding a few relief cuts to lessen the cracking. It's not a great solution, but other than to go back and start over, or do a complete new pour over the top (which isn't practical), it's probably the only option you have left. You can even add the relief cuts where the cracks are and just repair the places that don't line up straight. I've seen it done successfully where there's good concrete that just settled over time.
You and me both! I spend all my time in my shop, so I organized it on paper first. I re-thought alot of ideas before actually going ahead and building it. It's so much nicer than the one I lost to a fire last year. I guess the fire was a blessing in disguise.
Cracking is result of ground settelment and natural stresses in concrete. Think of sidewalk concere paving - it is well compacted subgrade nad still over time it moves. Also building codes require to cut the concrete floor in semi-regular mesh (take a look at the floor in big box store). This can be done even with angle grinder. This allows the floor to crack but it’s controlled and the visible cut is filled with elastic filler. To fix this you might cover the floor with self-leveling grout (say 1/4”thick). It’s got fine sand in it and it would fill the cracks and leave nice surface which can then be painted. The floor needs to be cut as I mentioned max 2- 3m. Unfortunatelly this will be costly. Epoxy coating might be better option but don’t forget the non-slip kind. Hope I helped. Love the chanel and the barn.
Concrete cracks because its expanding and contracting as the temperature changes. To avoid the cracking usually lines are left thru the concrete to give it place to expand into. Usually in basements those lines are not added because they are covered with carpet and lines will make a wear line on the carpet while cracks won't be seen. When you asked for flooring ideas epoxy floor came up to my mind because they can be beautiful, but i think cracks in the concrete base might be a problem.. Love your videos!
Thank you very much. I enjoy watching you as your voice is very calming and I feel you are very kind. I have enjoyed everything I've seen you do. Wishing you the very best
I work construction as a welder and I can only tell you what I have seen and what an old timer has told me. First, you need(ed) some concrete wired mesh and some rebar stands to hold the wires mesh up once the concrete begins being poured on your surface. If you let the wired mesh float to the bottom near your gravel, the mesh is not holding the concrete together. Second, I didn’t see any concrete joints. Your concrete needs room to breathe or it will crack up every time. Third, the weather conditions make a difference when it comes to pouring concrete. If it is too cold or windy only the top of the concrete will dry adequately. Last thing, not sure if you vibrated the concrete to get the air bubbles to the surface.
I have been watching you for a long time and you finishing the deck is something I have been waiting for , for a long time. I thought you finished and left everyone hanging. But you didn't and you have moved on to a lot more responsibly to your life. Keep up the good work you do, for all who watches, and thank you and your wife for all things that you guys will share for years to come. God Bless
I noticed that there was no rebar in your concrete. Too late now but it really helps keep cracks from opening up. Cracks form almost always. What also helps is wetting the gravel before pouring concrete. Slows the drying process and helps prevent cracks. A concrete sealer helps while the concrete is green. Of course this is all after the fact. 🙂
This was great. I bought a farm last year and with it a 120+ year old barn that has seen better days. Excited and nervous to rehab it but your project gives me hope. Thanks!
Cool tour, thanks! About concrete: one way is to use a bit of self-leveling mixture to plug all existing cracks (very important step), then put 2-3 layers of 2-component polyurethane or epoxy and lastly divide floor into 10x10 feet squares and use concrete angle grinder to make tiny channels in-between to allow for thermal expansion/contraction. And on shop organization side - you might want to explore lean approach (look for Paul Akers and Fastcap, 2 second lean) - that can help you immensely when you understand the concept.
I remember watching each of your videos about your barn upgrades! It was so cool then, and looking back on the journey you took has been even better! Looking forward to what you have going on in the future!
I’ve watched your channel since the very beginning and I really enjoy your projects I hope that you continue to do the work even the ones on the farm . Thank You! Gary
Thanks again to Ritual for sponsoring this video! I love their vitamins because I know I have big gaps in my diet and I would otherwise missing out on many essential nutrients. Remember to use my code RAINFALL for 10% off your first three months! www.ritual.com/RAINFALL
Check deboss garage for the floor in the garage make over video's.
The reason the floor cracked is because it dried too quickly.
Thanks for answering so many questions about the design of the barn. You inspired me to design and build a similar deck, with steel columns and stainless steel wire railings. It's not done yet either, but it's getting there. Planning on having the same overhead lights on cables, and a sun shade for 2/3rds of it. Keep up the cool projects!
sites.google.com/view/keithviolettesprojects/home/my-projects/new-deck-2020?authuser=0
And again, you make me feel lazy and unsmart 🤣
As far as the floor goes you could refinish it with epoxy floors, they are easy to clean and easy to work with. Not perfect for welding thought unfortunately.
This is going to be a 1m+ view video. I always enjoy your work.
Surprised to see you here honestly, been watching rainfall projects for years and it's truly one of the best hidden gems on RUclips, he deserves so many more views.
Need to see your barn again Woody. I miss your projects.
What woody gamer tag on a different RUclips Channel
So glad you sold that car too.
It's been a real pleasure watching that space grow and be refined.
Lord bless you, man.
I remember when I first ran across your channel. I’ve honestly watched every video you have released. Nothing but a continuous respect for all of what you’re done. Very impressive.
Can't tell you how excited I get when I see you've posted a new video! So calming, so informative and so well shot and edited! Keep it up 😊👌
Thanks! I appreciate that you call it calming, my favorite content is stuff I find calming as well. Like frank howarth, etc.
You know, channels like yours put spectators so close to the human part of building stuff that make us feel part of it. I mean, we all love the barn, your progress, projects.. we need you to keep on going because that makes us all happier. I guess that's why followers celebrate when you upload new content! (I tried my best writing in English. Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷)
That's a beautiful shop Justin. Thanks for sharing the story.
Just randomly ran into your channel. What an amazing space and property. You have every right to be proud of your progress. This is something most people can only dream of having
Dude that's such a cool space, and an insane amount of work that must have gone into it! Can't wait to see how it will evolve over the years :)
Hi Justin, Most concrete I have had done a plastic barrier was laid on top of the gravel. This keeps the moisture out of your building. Then re-bar was used every 16" - 18" in both directions & tied together. Once the concrete has set up overnight, the crew came in with a saw and cut control joints, this is where the cracks occur. You are not supposed to be able to scratch the concrete like that! Something was really wrong with the mix. Because the vapor barrier is missing it will always be damp as moisture will wick it's way through. This is early enough, I would jack hammer it out and start over with a more experienced crew... do a little research before pouring again. From this point on you will experience more cracks. Maybe an insurance claim could help some.... You are young enough, fix the mistake now and never worry about it again. You could have a loan paid off in less than 3 years.
Extremely nice shop from the ground up. Nice to see that you preserved the olde timbers.
About that concrete - and you know what they say about free advice! I worked as a construction inspector for a state agency for over 50 years and I have been into a lot of concrete, good and bad. No. 1 - Don't buy any more concrete from the supplier you used for the bad slab. No. 2 - The existing concrete is bad because it had too little cement, too much water and or dirty aggregate, maybe all 3. Also fresh concrete can not freeze. No. 3 - The slab should have had rebar in it. Rebar on dolbies is a must. Rebar must be in the concrete, not at the bottom. Contractors like to use steel mesh on the ground, promising to lift up into the mix and this is a joke, on you. No4. - The Fix. The agency I worked for spent multi-millions of dollars, using every exotic product on the market, trying to add a thin lift fix to bad concrete surfaces, every one failed. The only "cheap" fix that will work is a new slab on top of the bad one. Place at least 3.5" of 5000 lb mix with rebar. You need a high strength mix to give you better surface wear. Good Luck
This is the best advice of all the comments. No amount of epoxy and or gap filling is going to solve the issue with the slab. If you want the floor to be correct for “the rest of your life “ remove it and do it right for the last time. By the looks of it, it will come up fairly easy and crushed up and reused. Every thing else I’ve watched you do has been top notch. I do like your style.
Pretty much spot on. No rebar in the concrete, ratio of water/cement is too high. Contractors will tell the truck operator to add more water on site because it makes the concrete easier to move and easier to finish, also extending the time they have to finish the pour. The more water you add the less strength it will ultimately have, and the more cracks it will likely have. The water won't stay trapped in the concrete forever so when it leaves, the concrete shrinks too fast. All concrete will have some degree of tolerable cracking but if it is really bad, something is definetely wrong.
@@alexaronow9316 add fiberglass with the debar. I live next to a fault line in California and not cracks in 15 years.
That’s really interesting. I don’t know jack crap about concrete so I appreciate your post. 👍
I always wondered how in the world that steel mesh is going to do any good when they just lay it on top of the fill instead of lifting it up so it's more in the center of the concrete.
I know common sense is not that common any more but common sense would tell you it needs to be in the concrete.
Unfortunately we don't have as many people taking pride in their work these days that strive to do quality work that's done right the first time.
I have an uncle who built a multi million dollar company without ever advertising the company. His made motto from the beginning was " Quality over Quantity."
He started sand blasting & painting then the paint salesman hooked hin up with Trailmobile blasting & painting new flatbeds for them. He just continued from ther doing more and more work for them till he got Where's he's at now doing anything there is on semi trailers. Mostly installing aftermarket products. Whenever we had something come back or there was problems he always paid out of pocket to fix it or make it right to keep a good name.
You do a lot of good work a few people while hear about it but if you do one bad job everyone will hear.
It's nice to see the deck getting a mention - that was where I discovered your channel and I'm still looking forward to seeing it completed!
That barn is pretty magical. I'd love to have a place like that.
"you'll probably get away with it" is such a confidence inspiring statement about load bearing structures :-).
But that barn really looks great!
for your next pour you wanna reinforce with rebar and make sure there are expansion joints. as for sealing you want to go with a low viscosity epoxy to inject into the cracks so deter from more cracking. if you don't have expansion joints go get a saw and cut some
Concrete needs space to expand and contract with temperature changes. You can't go bigger than 9m2 squares without expansion joints. Beautiful barn, I've enjoyed watching you modify it.
Been here since your first videos and it’s been a fun ride. Keep moving forward with the barn, it’s the space we all wish we had. 👍
The concrete floor issues stem from a couple of possible causes.
It doesn’t look like expansion/contract joints were installed. All concrete cracks the joints are installed to have the cracks occur in the weak line of the joint.
The softness of the floor is typically caused by a high water to cement ratio, too much water in the mix.
The finish is a result of the process that was used to level, compact and trowel the concrete. It doesn’t appear a hard steel trowel machine was used in the finishing process.
Solutions: you can grind out the cracks and fill with epoxy. Any type of paint or stain would be cosmetic. The do make industrial concrete floor finishes but they are very expensive.
I remember being told there's two types of concrete, the stuff that's cracked and the stuff that hasn't cracked yet.
just like hard drives :)
I say that is BS. Proper ground work, insulation so the ground does not move and plenty rebar and they do not crack.
Pretty much.. finshed concrete for years and they all crack... that's what control joints are for
@@larsmark True. I think in Justin's case he did what he did with what he knew and ultimately it cracked. I'm surprised they didn't at least recommend some relief cuts.
@@rpnp2 Yep, I'm surprised they didn't recommend relief cuts given the total pour size.
Large floors shrink while curing and water evaporating out of the concrete, so you need control joints cut to give the concrete places to crack in a controlled manner vs spiderweb cracking in any crazy directions. Edit: It also looked like they added too much water because the slump looked really loose. Air added to the concrete helps with spalling and cracking if the concrete is exposed to freezing temperatures.
The too wet concrete also give the chalky top surface that scratches easily.
Plus 1 on not adding control joints.
My shop is 24ft x 30ft. The floor is 1 slab with no control joints and I have no cracks like what he showed in the video. I have 1 hairline crack that is hardly visible. The shop is 15 years old. The floor is 8" thick with 1/2" rebar in an 12" x 12" grid. It's 4000psi concrete sitting on top of 5ft deep of properly compacted sand, 2" thick rigid foam, vapor barrier. The combination of these things and controlled climate during curing is why it didn't crack. Planning and proper execution is key.
@@OU81TWO looked like he didn't have rebar in his for. I'd say most important things for controlling cracking are, rebar, control joints or saw cuts then curing.
Also, I didn't see any rebar or welded wire panel or anything in there
@@Nickelplate1 Unless the subgrade was poor, rebar, wire, or macro fibers only control secondary cracking - hold the cracks that do form tight. High water to cement ratio concrete has higher shrinkage potential combined with no control joints equals this poor concrete work.
“I just went for it” when referring to taking out large structural components of his building. I like this guy. I’ll stick around for a bit
Love that barn. The progress is incredible. Whenever I consider my current house renovation "complete", I want to get some property and build my own house from the ground up. I used to enjoy working on my car a lot, but now never have any time to work on it, the house is priority.
Hopefully the concrete has settled by now? One option is epoxy coating. Depends on the look you're going for. You go through and fill the cracks, clean, etch the concrete, then apply the epoxy. It would be a huge job in there, so I don't know if it would be worth it. Maybe there is a better simpler way to seal and leave the concrete look. I know Jason on the Fireball Tools channel just moved to a new shop and refinished the concrete floors. Had some giant polishing machines that drove around. He might be a good person to talk to.
Thank you for your videos, it's by far my favorite content on RUclips.
I'm no Jake Paul, but thanks Tyler!
amen
He said im no jake Paul. Im dead😂😂😂😂
@@rainfallprojects501 It's nice to see that you respect the "Greats" lol
E it was good to see that you’re doing some more episodes of the transition of the barn I’ve watched all of your episodes from the beginning when you first started the remodeling of the shop keep up the episodes if you would please enjoy them
A hand built barn is better than any car! Amazing job, man.
I started watching your barn videos about the same time my family sold off our 1,600 acre farm in North Dakota. I didn't have the money at the time, nor the desire to move from Oregon back to North Dakota to keep it all together and in the family. I hope the current owner of our farm have made our old barn their own, like you have done with your endeavors in your own.
I'm a huge fan of your channel and always in awe of your talent, creativity, and ability to draw people into your excellent and unique content.
Well done, Sir!
(and Drake!)
have you looked into an epoxy coating for the concrete floor? It's definitely within your skill set and would be a fantastic addition to your shop space, which is one of the best I have ever seen by the way!
I was going to suggest the same thing. Although I think it is on the expensive side of things, it would be definitely one of the strongest and easiest finishes to maintain for this kind of use.
I wonder if the floor mounted electric outlets could cause any issues...
Agree. Epoxy is the thing todo. You probably need to acid wash the floor first. Epoxy isnt that expensive anymore when you do it yourself. I would suggest at least two strokes. I did my shop floor, and regret doing only one layer. The best thing with epoxy is that it is easy to clean, and doesnt produce any dust like concrete floors do.
I epoxy coated the floor in my commercial building last year and it has held up great. It is doable for a DIYer, just make sure and go with 100% solids epoxy.
@@austinhenry4382 Im no expert but I can tell you I used to use a 100% solids on countertop work. 100% solids meaning nothing will pass through, down or up. Unless there's a vapor barrier Im predicting he gets a lot of hazing and cloudiness.
The cracks in your slab are likely from no reinforceing steel imbedded within.
To repair the cracks there's lots of products designed for it, I've seen some impressive repairs from a few different high end epoxy products, that route could also produce a smoother "more sweepable" surface too.
Your project is so impressive as it stands of course and I hope this info helps
It cracked so much because you didn't cut control expansion joints into the floor. The joints create a focused area for the slab to crack and shrink at, so the cracks (ideally) don't go all over the place. It also helps to put mesh in the concrete (I didn't see that in the pics), some say that fiber helps too, but my shop garage has fiber and it's cracked at weird angles because they didn't cut joints. The same size floor in the attached garage has control joints and no cracks outside of the joints, it also has mesh but no fiber.
Now I'm not a concreter, but I do work in a store dedicated to Concrete products.
My advice would be to use a "densifier" to reharden the surface of the concrete. Then stain it in a earthy color and finish with a 2 part urethane.
We have a very aged/cracked floor done like that in the display room and the cracks and chips gives it amazing character as the stain pools in those low points and give a darker color then the rest of the floor
Allot of customers that come in love it
Hey Justin, have enjoyed your YT channel for years now. I think you have done a fantastic job on turning the barn into your 'mancave'. Your barn transformation is what drew me to your channel.
I live in Australia, and what we often do to avoid cracking in cured concrete is to avoid having an unstable base where your concrete is poured. Packing the gravel down is good, but pouring concrete on this surface means the slab will often crack since it can't move as it shrinks/cures. If you had spread 30-50mm of sand over the gravel, the cured cement can move while it shrinks. We also ALWAYS use reo in all large pours, and for indoor floors, we lay plastic down before the cement is poured to eliminate moisture from wicking up from under the cement after it's cured. As for the concrete been so soft, adding too much water to the pour will lead to flaky concrete after it's cured. There may be other ingredients that weren't used that day which may have contributed to the soft concrete floor.
As always, look forward to your videos ;)
Just thought I would add in on the concrete floor. Mainly the reason for cracking there is shrinkage. So even though it’s well compacted it has to shrink with water evaporation. It will curl up also. Although not to noticeable by the eye. A possibility to Revamp your floor for you being that your always having heated objects fall with torches and welding would be to grind the whole floor to remove the soft layer at the surface. Then acid stain the floor to your liking and seal it with a concrete sealer-stabilizer which will continue to harden the floor over time. Cement and CO2 don’t like each other and it makes the surface dusty. This would fix that as well. Also once ground it gives it a cool effect with stones showing if you like that sort of style. I would be willing to discuss it more if you wanted too. Other wise the barn is just awesome. We’re a barn builder and concrete contractor so your building is right up our alley. Oh and hobbyist welder/fabricator/machinist. So pretty much everything your into. Lol great channel!!!
Best barn work shop man cave!!!! Can’t wait til you do more to the barn
Concrete:
Crimping of the concrete while drying is the main source of cracking, heavier rebar or even steel fibre are of the more common solutions.
This will be even more so when pouring a bigger size slab. Precutting slots in the concrete while drying is done to 'control' where the crack should form.
Existing crack can be patched with sealants (I've seen some very creative solution with big shapes/lining used to cover up cracking)
Other solutions is to locally break up concrete along the crack and refill with a sealant or a very thin concrete mix.
I've been watching you since some of your early blacksmithing videos, so I've seen most of this barn come together. You've done a great job with your continuous improvements and have a really nice space to work in now. Looking forward to whatever comes next. Thanks for sharing!
Hey thanks Seth! Man I haven’t done any blacksmithing in awhile, I miss it.
Hey dude. Long time subscriber 7 year concrete & construction company owner here. One thing you could do to make the floor alot nicer would be doing a epoxy coat with flake. If you hire the right ppl to grind the floor down with a buffer like machine they will fill the cracks or whats left of them with epoxy and then throw the flake on. The flake is the most durable and hides blemishes the best. Keep it up my guy. You’ve inspired me to do alot of work to my 30x50 tobacco barn thats 100+ years old
I would suggest looking at some of Essential Craftsman's videos about concrete pouring. They lay out that cutting the concrete is a form of crack control, which it looks like you didn't do at all on that floor, so it cracked wherever it wanted. You can probably epoxy coat the entire floor to at least make it smooth, but not really scratch resistant.
Came here to say this. The whole continuous slab thing only kind-of works if the slab can slide a bit to accommodate for expansion and contraction, especially as concrete naturally contracts slightly when curing. Basically, the preexisting foundation pinned the slab in place and the natural contraction put it under tension.
Another RUclipsr up in your neck of the woods, Essential Craftsman, just recently had a video talking about concrete, and he said; "There's two kinds of concrete; the kind that has cracked, and the kind that hasn't cracked yet". Love the work you've done with the barn, hope I get to tackle a few of them myself one day. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
From that small part of the video with the concrete in it, it looked way too wet, unless you were using a low shrinkage mix. To get a nice finish on a floor with little cracking you need to use a dry mix 100 slump. Which where I live is a normal mix, you will still need to do control cuts in the concrete which will help with those big ugly crack lines.
Put an epoxy coating down on the concrete floor. You can add coloring to it to hide the blemishes. It is very durable. The machining area where I worked had that and it stood up to the constant traffic and metal chips.
The cracked floors adds a lot of character to the shop. I’d leave them. Looks like an old factory. About to start milling and building my own barn. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome shop! Concrete is a French word, it means crack. I had a house that had a terrible concrete floor. It looked like a map of the LA freeways. There was water seeping up through them. I cut along all of the cracks to make them a little bigger and then patched them with hydraulic cement. It worked awesome! No more water coming through. I painted the floor and it stayed nice for years. If your concrete is rough maybe an epoxy coating might work good.
I'm not a concrete guy but from what I was told is the ways you limit the cracking in concrete is to add more rebar, pour it thick ( 6-8" ), compact the base really well, and add control joints to control where it cracks because all concrete cracks
Fine job on your Barn Shop. There is no substitute for quality. Onward!
Very cool build out. I am also a barn guy & it’s taken 30 years to get mine redone & project ready. Won’t ever be done, but it’s always a great day when I get to work in my shop. Enjoy yours! Thanks a ton for sharing
Brilliant. What a great workspace. And good decision over the car, more happiness will be found in your barn. 👍👍🇦🇺🇦🇺
As far as I know, when you have big concrete block floor, you cut it to create smaller blocks, separating them. So when it sets and moves it will not crack the whole floor. Not sure how is it done in US but in Central Europe, we do that this way. You can see it in shopping malls and such.
Regarding the concrete floor. Check out husqvarna hiperfloor industrial fisnish. We have it at our shop at work. Been there for 10+ years and its only a little bit worn in the hallway where pallets and trucks are used. everywhere else it is as new. Easy to sweep and does not get stained by oil.
In short it is grinding with chemicals first which creates a slurry-like thing that fills the cracks and other imperfections. After that its polish and then chemicals to seal the floor. You can rent a grinder, tools and chemicals. Quite easy to do by your self as your floor is recently poured and quite even.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Hope this helps.
Great summary. It's been cool to see the process ... and now to hear you talk through it all. Thanks man
Concrete floor
If you do not use reinforced concrete on your floor, then you should split your floor into multiple sections which are not bigger than 3x4m (9x12ft). This allow each section to move independently and reduce stress.
One of ideas to fill cracks is to cover whole floor with resin ;)
Not cheap, not easy but works well ;)
Or just cut wide channels along the cracks and re-fill then with new concrete. Just make sure you make them deep and wide and do not make them longer than 4 meter (or even shorter if cross-section is small).
Hi! I'm from Russia and I don't know the language very well. I am very impressed! It's very cool that you came up with everything and brought it to life. I wish you to move forward and have a lot of creative ideas! Good health to you and your whole family. Good luck to you
I started watching you 4 years ago when you posted about building the deck... didn't even notice how much time has went by
Justin, I have many years of experience engineering concrete. One of the issues leading to unsightly cracks in concrete is failing to create the necessary expansion joints. These joints are installed to create cracks in the concrete in a controlled manner. Lastly, the wetter the slump the weaker concrete will become. Hope this helps.
I restored an old dairy stable for my workshop as well. Poured almost 8m^3 of concrete to flatten the trenches. I used some 2 component sealing coat thingy in light grey. Got some scratches with heavy metal chips. But held up pretty great so far!
The downside, it's slippery af even with a little bit of wood dust. So I have to keep it super clean, broom every week. But my shop is always super clean, which is nice!
The amount of work you put in your projects is insane...
Cheapest route to fix that slab is filling cracks with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender, then applying a magnesium flurosilicate concrete hardener (cheap and easy to apply), and finally grinding/polishing the concrete. I hate coatings- expensive and always eventually fail. And with coatings you're always afraid of every single thing that drops of scratches the floor. The work you do in there with big steel moving around makes that a problem.
You should put a radiant floor in the barn. That would take care of heating as well as give you a new concrete floor.
This workshop has so much character, it’s incredible. It’s the ultimate man cave. Can’t wait to see how it evolves.
I worked with concrete before I became a welder and if concrete cracks there are 2 main reasons. 1) it wasn't compacted right. 2) they put to much water to make it more easier to move. Oh and they probably didn't put any relief cuts to control where your cracks go. Great content brother. Keep up the great work and do more welding and fabrication. You should also do epoxy floors to cover.
I’ve been watching your progress since the truck tool box organizer!
Is there steel reinforcement in the floor? I couldn't see any from when the concrete was poured. If you don't have that it will crack.
Great job on the shop. Those milk cows would be proud!😁😁 Looks good plus the entry doors looks strong and love the look.👍👍
Thank you RUclips algorithm - I've only discovered your channel today but feel a bit of a binge watch coming on! Your barn is perfect!
First of all, I appreciate your Love for taking care of your barn. Try polishing your concrete in your barn. We did it at our firehouse and it came out amazing. Only problem is that it gets slippery when wet. Keep up the good work and looking forward for your next project.
There are hundreds of small details within each and every project/space in the barn that he left out of this video! If you are new here go to back and binge watch! This man is incredible what he has accomplished!
Great tour Justin, amazing where a single sketchup model can take you.
You are living the dream Justin!
They have an expandable crack filler. Comes in a caulking tube. It didn't look like you had enough reinforcement, they should've came back and cut reliefs at the least. We just poured a 60x120 building.
What you have done to that barn is incredible!
What great shop, every makers dream!
I am pretty happy with myself for never coveting anything that anyone has. However what you made for yourself there is hard not to want. Lol! Great job!
Once again, I delayed watching until supper time to sit by myself, in peace and watch the video alone while I enjoy my meal. So peaceful. I love watching your videos!
This is a BEAUTIFUL barn, I think you did it a lot of justice. As for your concrete, fill your cracks and then do an epoxy coating. It will look spectacular and last decades.
makes me want to move to a warmer climate a video like this.i have my own newly constructed shop but had to do so much to it to make it usable all year round.insulation,heated floor,boiler,wall steel,etc..i like the look of this inside and out and have access to an older barn also.What i would need to do to it to use in WI more that 6 months out of the year would take away this character for sure.good luck
I would love to see a video about tools and equipment, how you pick what you need, new vs. used, buy vs. rent, etc.
If you decide to refinish the concrete then you might try adding a few relief cuts to lessen the cracking. It's not a great solution, but other than to go back and start over, or do a complete new pour over the top (which isn't practical), it's probably the only option you have left. You can even add the relief cuts where the cracks are and just repair the places that don't line up straight. I've seen it done successfully where there's good concrete that just settled over time.
You and me both! I spend all my time in my shop, so I organized it on paper first. I re-thought alot of ideas before actually going ahead and building it. It's so much nicer than the one I lost to a fire last year. I guess the fire was a blessing in disguise.
Absolutely perfection! My dream shop
Very well done! The explanations of your reasoning for doing things you did made a lot of sense!
it's a magical looking space.. totally agree with your sister!
Cracking is result of ground settelment and natural stresses in concrete. Think of sidewalk concere paving - it is well compacted subgrade nad still over time it moves. Also building codes require to cut the concrete floor in semi-regular mesh (take a look at the floor in big box store). This can be done even with angle grinder. This allows the floor to crack but it’s controlled and the visible cut is filled with elastic filler. To fix this you might cover the floor with self-leveling grout (say 1/4”thick). It’s got fine sand in it and it would fill the cracks and leave nice surface which can then be painted. The floor needs to be cut as I mentioned max 2- 3m. Unfortunatelly this will be costly. Epoxy coating might be better option but don’t forget the non-slip kind. Hope I helped. Love the chanel and the barn.
Concrete cracks because its expanding and contracting as the temperature changes. To avoid the cracking usually lines are left thru the concrete to give it place to expand into. Usually in basements those lines are not added because they are covered with carpet and lines will make a wear line on the carpet while cracks won't be seen.
When you asked for flooring ideas epoxy floor came up to my mind because they can be beautiful, but i think cracks in the concrete base might be a problem..
Love your videos!
It looks really nice. Old barns have the character you can’t get in new building and you add to that. Great job.
Thank you very much. I enjoy watching you as your voice is very calming and I feel you are very kind.
I have enjoyed everything I've seen you do.
Wishing you the very best
I liked the background music. Good pick.
Beautiful space! Love the WSU piece in the back. Go Cougs!
I work construction as a welder and I can only tell you what I have seen and what an old timer has told me.
First, you need(ed) some concrete wired mesh and some rebar stands to hold the wires mesh up once the concrete begins being poured on your surface. If you let the wired mesh float to the bottom near your gravel, the mesh is not holding the concrete together.
Second, I didn’t see any concrete joints. Your concrete needs room to breathe or it will crack up every time.
Third, the weather conditions make a difference when it comes to pouring concrete. If it is too cold or windy only the top of the concrete will dry adequately.
Last thing, not sure if you vibrated the concrete to get the air bubbles to the surface.
I have been watching you for a long time and you finishing the deck is something I have been waiting for , for a long time. I thought you finished and left everyone hanging. But you didn't and you have moved on to a lot more responsibly to your life. Keep up the good work you do, for all who watches, and thank you and your wife for all things that you guys will share for years to come. God Bless
I noticed that there was no rebar in your concrete. Too late now but it really helps keep cracks from opening up. Cracks form almost always. What also helps is wetting the gravel before pouring concrete. Slows the drying process and helps prevent cracks. A concrete sealer helps while the concrete is green. Of course this is all after the fact. 🙂
This was great. I bought a farm last year and with it a 120+ year old barn that has seen better days. Excited and nervous to rehab it but your project gives me hope. Thanks!
Amazing job. You're very smart and very handsome. Thanks for sharing.
My experience of concrete flooring cracking has nearly always had to do with a lack of or not enough rebar. Love your shop buddy 👏💪👏
Cool tour, thanks! About concrete: one way is to use a bit of self-leveling mixture to plug all existing cracks (very important step), then put 2-3 layers of 2-component polyurethane or epoxy and lastly divide floor into 10x10 feet squares and use concrete angle grinder to make tiny channels in-between to allow for thermal expansion/contraction.
And on shop organization side - you might want to explore lean approach (look for Paul Akers and Fastcap, 2 second lean) - that can help you immensely when you understand the concept.
Great video. You know, you've made me jealous with your barn/workshop. I've only got one half of a small garage. Not complaining, it is what it is.
I remember watching each of your videos about your barn upgrades! It was so cool then, and looking back on the journey you took has been even better! Looking forward to what you have going on in the future!
Hola te saluda Esteban Romero desde Argentina!!!es un placer ver como trabajas,felicitaciones!!!
I’ve watched your channel since the very beginning and I really enjoy your projects I hope that you continue to do the work even the ones on the farm . Thank You! Gary
Awesome work space you have created, you should be very proud.
Love your work and watching your vids! Please do more!!! Stop letting that farming getting in the way!
Excellent. Ton of energy and skill. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻