Been wrestling with how to anchor a couple of carports I'm going to put up this spring. As mentioned in earlier posts - we are the Saudi Arabia of rocks - just below the surface. It's no wonder my great grandfather used split rail fence - digging a post hole is a real chore and using a post hole digger ain't much easier.....
Looking at my anchoring options, I can go rebar - which I don't think will hold, much less will pound in the ground. Screw-in anchors - I doubt they will go down reliably either.
So somehow I need to anchor this carport to keep it from blowing away. Not interested in the expense of pouring full slab or putting in an expensive concrete foundation below the frost line.
Looking at the old buildings, barns, etc., on the place - all are set on cornerstones that set on top of the ground - no foundation buried in the ground. I'm totally amazed they haven't blown away - over 100 years in the weather too.
I've got another idea I'm considering. I would scratch the surface where the sides of the carport come to the ground - down a couple of inches, maybe more, level, put down some gravel and set a form on top of it. This concrete runner along the bottom of the concrete would be 12" x 12" by the length or 18" wide x 8" tall x the length of the carport - one on each side. If the carport is 21 ft, at around 130 lbs per cubic ft of concrete, I'd have around 2,700 lbs anchor weight per side. I would pour concrete with fiber reinforcement. The idea of fiber is to keep the concrete from fracturing with any frost upheaval. Once the concrete is set - then I would set the carport on the concrete runners and anchor to the concrete with wedge anchors.
The purpose of the concrete runner is two fold - one is eliminate having to dig footer or drive anchors into very rocky ground with mixed results (same with mobile home type anchors) - but most importantly to put a dead weight across each side of the carport to keep it anchored to the ground. Hopefully there would be enough weight that the carport would self destruct before lifting the concrete off the ground.
I know there are more elaborate ways to do this - but don't want the expense of a metal carport to get out of hand.
Anyone tried this or seen it done?
Looking at my anchoring options, I can go rebar - which I don't think will hold, much less will pound in the ground. Screw-in anchors - I doubt they will go down reliably either.
So somehow I need to anchor this carport to keep it from blowing away. Not interested in the expense of pouring full slab or putting in an expensive concrete foundation below the frost line.
Looking at the old buildings, barns, etc., on the place - all are set on cornerstones that set on top of the ground - no foundation buried in the ground. I'm totally amazed they haven't blown away - over 100 years in the weather too.
I've got another idea I'm considering. I would scratch the surface where the sides of the carport come to the ground - down a couple of inches, maybe more, level, put down some gravel and set a form on top of it. This concrete runner along the bottom of the concrete would be 12" x 12" by the length or 18" wide x 8" tall x the length of the carport - one on each side. If the carport is 21 ft, at around 130 lbs per cubic ft of concrete, I'd have around 2,700 lbs anchor weight per side. I would pour concrete with fiber reinforcement. The idea of fiber is to keep the concrete from fracturing with any frost upheaval. Once the concrete is set - then I would set the carport on the concrete runners and anchor to the concrete with wedge anchors.
The purpose of the concrete runner is two fold - one is eliminate having to dig footer or drive anchors into very rocky ground with mixed results (same with mobile home type anchors) - but most importantly to put a dead weight across each side of the carport to keep it anchored to the ground. Hopefully there would be enough weight that the carport would self destruct before lifting the concrete off the ground.
I know there are more elaborate ways to do this - but don't want the expense of a metal carport to get out of hand.
Anyone tried this or seen it done?
