Hi! I'm a rookie at most things related to construction, but I learn quickly and am very handy.
Now, I have built a balcony about 30sqm in size, and I realized afterward that I wanted to pour a concrete slab under the balcony to use as a carport. I've searched the forum for answers to my questions but haven't found anything that quite fits.
What I want to know is how should I prepare for this pouring with the excavation of the area under the balcony? Should I lay some kind of fabric and then macadam/gravel, or the other way around?
Since I'm not planning to build insulated walls, possibly just a simple wooden plank wall, is there any point in putting insulation under the concrete, and if not; should there be some kind of fabric between the stone material and the concrete?
And should there be drainage underneath, and how is that done?
The location of the whole thing is about 400 meters from the Baltic Sea in eastern Blekinge. I think it's sandy soil/topsoil mixed with medium-sized stones under the lawn.
Many questions and hoping for many answers.
//Samuel
Now, I have built a balcony about 30sqm in size, and I realized afterward that I wanted to pour a concrete slab under the balcony to use as a carport. I've searched the forum for answers to my questions but haven't found anything that quite fits.
What I want to know is how should I prepare for this pouring with the excavation of the area under the balcony? Should I lay some kind of fabric and then macadam/gravel, or the other way around?
Since I'm not planning to build insulated walls, possibly just a simple wooden plank wall, is there any point in putting insulation under the concrete, and if not; should there be some kind of fabric between the stone material and the concrete?
And should there be drainage underneath, and how is that done?
The location of the whole thing is about 400 meters from the Baltic Sea in eastern Blekinge. I think it's sandy soil/topsoil mixed with medium-sized stones under the lawn.
Many questions and hoping for many answers.
//Samuel
We start with the soil.
Soil is a living material because decomposition of old plant parts, etc. is ongoing. Therefore, you should/must remove it before making a slab, otherwise you risk it sinking over time.
Once you have a good base, you may need to fill it in a bit depending on how deep you dug. Samkross is good for this (I am not clear on the exact sizes and it varies a little depending on how much you needed to fill as well). This must also be compacted with a vibrating plate to make it stable. On top of this, you place a ground cloth.
I always recommend insulated slabs unless you're doing something very simple, the reason being that if you change your mind in the future and, for example, want to convert it into a garage, it's a significant job to tear up the slab and build a new one.
For an insulated slab with 20 cm of insulation, the slab with insulation will be 30 cm high. Under this, you should have 10 cm of drainage gravel. Thus, we can see that any filling above should stop 40 cm below where you want the slab.
On the gravel, you then place edge elements and insulation. These then form the mold that you then cast into. This part is well described in http://www.thermisol.se/pdf/Grundbroschyr.pdf
Soil is a living material because decomposition of old plant parts, etc. is ongoing. Therefore, you should/must remove it before making a slab, otherwise you risk it sinking over time.
Once you have a good base, you may need to fill it in a bit depending on how deep you dug. Samkross is good for this (I am not clear on the exact sizes and it varies a little depending on how much you needed to fill as well). This must also be compacted with a vibrating plate to make it stable. On top of this, you place a ground cloth.
I always recommend insulated slabs unless you're doing something very simple, the reason being that if you change your mind in the future and, for example, want to convert it into a garage, it's a significant job to tear up the slab and build a new one.
For an insulated slab with 20 cm of insulation, the slab with insulation will be 30 cm high. Under this, you should have 10 cm of drainage gravel. Thus, we can see that any filling above should stop 40 cm below where you want the slab.
On the gravel, you then place edge elements and insulation. These then form the mold that you then cast into. This part is well described in http://www.thermisol.se/pdf/Grundbroschyr.pdf