Hey ya'll.. Im getting ready to start making my shop customized inside, but before i do, i need to fix the water problem that I have. My shop is 30' wide x 50' long. with a 18' door on each end. The problem is that when we get anything resembling a heavy rain, the water running off my driveway seeps under the front main door into the shop. So I want to build a small concrete ditch that runs the width of the front and just around the corner..

My concrete knowledge is limited to cementing in posts.. so I figure someone here has done some concrete work and can offer advice. I want the ditch to be about 6" deep, and 6-8" wide, and I have some expanded metal to put over it, so I can still drive across.

The best i can figure, is to get a little trackhoe, and dig about 12" wide and 12" deep.. but how can I make the sides of the concrete stand up? Am I making any sense?

Most auto shops have these, so when they wash the shop floor out, the water/junk goes thru the expanded metal into the ditch and away, instead of into their parkinglot..

 

you need someting like this

 

 

and look it has sheep already KC



My concrete skills are about the same as yours, i would say you should build some type of frame to lay it in and make your form

 

this is what I was thinking.. but i dont know where to start except for digging the ditch ..

I used my awesome MS Paint skillz to make this.

 

 

Dig ditch. Pour a slab in bottom with rebar sticking up on sides for your walls. Allow to cure overnight. Make a set of forms up that will make your walls, pour walls. Just like a minature basement. Or, make a U shaped form and pour all at once. That would be harder. If this is going to take a beating, you need about 4" thick walls with rebar, 6 sack concrete. I used to run concrete trucks, don't like the ground work though! Essential tip:
coat your forms with a combination of diesel and motor oil, mostly diesel. Otherwise will never come apart!

 

Thanks for the tip.. that is somewhat close to what I was thinking.. but without the rebar.. is that essential? Will the concrete hold up without it?

 

the rebar gives it the tensional strength it needs to support the truck driving over it all the time.

 

the reason they use rebar is because it gives it strength and because its steel. steel has the same exact to the thousanth of a percentage on expansion and contraction rate as concrete, thats why they use it