mechanics pit

[happycamperbrat]

I have moved and am not in SLO anymore. Im near Death Valley now. Actually the ground here is quite hard. I put some dirt in a small round container and got it wet and then pacted it down hard and let it dry last summer. Now that dirt has held together throughout the winter rains, etc. and it is as hard as a rock. I can stand on it or throw it or whatever and it stays held together and very strong. I havent tried driving my car on it yet, but I intend to. When the ground is dry here (98% of the time) a shovel will just jump off the ground. It can be shoveled when wet but it is very heavy, almost like adobe. I talked to some construction people here about putting up a 40 ft steel Sea Container and told them about my garage/bus barn I want to build onto it. I asked what kind of foundation they would suggest and was told I really didnt need one....... still I want the pit especially to be as safe as possible so I am more then willing to make the walls of it as thick as need be. Im considering the lift as well, but for multiple reasons I think I would rather go with a pit.

Edit: I think the biggest problem here is shake rattle and rollin earthquakes.......

[luvrbus]

You need to check the ground water level in Death Valley it being below sea level you will be shocked how high it is in some places.
I live in the Mojave in AZ and the water table here is from 5 to 12 feet and it gets higher with rain.


good luck

[happycamperbrat]

I will do that. LOL, I think it is pretty deep but if I hit water I could have a swimming pool 

[Iver]

My pit is 45' long,  39" wide and approx. 4' deep.  Sloping floor with a sump at the low end.  I can enter or exit at either end. It has lights and plugs all along one side.

We excavated a trench and just formed the inside with plywood conc. forms. With the soil as the outer form the concrete varied between 8" to around 12" thick.  I poured the pit concrete walls first using heavy rebar horizontal and vertical.   I left the vertical rebar stand 3' above the walls and when they were cured, then bent it down and out and tied it into the shop floor rebar.  The floor concrete was then poured over the top of the walls tying it all together. The pit floor and sump were then poured as well. We used fibrous concrete.

I normally cover the pit with plywood when not in use, but when I am in the pit and under the coach I still use steel beam spacers across the pit for extra support.
Having done most of the work myself, the cost wasn't bad.  It has been worth the investment for sure.
     Iver.

[luvrbus]

I know you had a big chuckle from the water table comment but it happens in the desert if you have arrowweed on your property or the surrounding area the water table will be high it won't be drinking water but will be water you see a lot of fuel tanks on top of the ground in the desert and if the ground perks good .you are going to have a hell of a mess with building blocks with each rain.
Fwiw holes in the desert are not much fun when some day you try and evict a 4 ft rattlesnake from his new house been there done that.
You need to check with the local agencies they may not let you build a pit without a set of engineered plans which is not all bad.



good luck

[Len Silva]

The builder charged me an additional $5000 for the pit when I had my shop built.

[zubzub]

That's good to know Len. How long ago was that?

[Len Silva]

That was in 2002 in rural North Florida.  The entire 40 x 60 building was around 25K with the pit.