Slab and grade floor vs a space with a basement

[atomeyes]

Allo,

Just curious to see what people's opinions are for building a new space.

If you were going to set up a 7-10 bbl system in a busy cosmopolitan area, would you rather have:

- slab/grade flooring without a basement?
-a regular space with a basement, but structural and drainage would would be needed to support main floor brewing/fermenting?

Guessing there's a 3rd option, which may be to blow out part of the basement to allow fermentors and a brew system. not sure how cool that would be with perspective landlords.

[Junkyard]

whatever is fits the budget and makes more sense. you could easily install a floor drain on a main floor in a building with a basement. If the main floor is an old wooden floor supported by wooden floor joists it will need alot more structural support for 7 bbl. lots of variables that should fit into your building decision making process.

[NatchezBrew]

@Dan,

I would love to hear how to install floor drains on a main floor which is wooden. This is exactly what our new building has with a concrete basement. Our plan is to tile a large area of the wooden floor for the Brewhouse and pushing/pumping to fermenters which will be in the basement.

[atomeyes]

@Dan,

I would love to hear how to install floor drains on a main floor which is wooden. This is exactly what our new building has with a concrete basement. Our plan is to tile a large area of the wooden floor for the Brewhouse and pushing/pumping to fermenters which will be in the basement.

that part's the easy part. tile the floor. seal the tiles/grout well. make sure there is a grade that leads to central drain(s).

i'm more concerned about supporting the weight of each fermentor. calculate how much a full 7 bbl-ish fermentor weights, then multiply that. you need massive reinforcement done to the floor and, possibly, the foundation, to support that.

[beerguy1]

I would want nothing to do with a basement. They usually have a humidity problem introduce warm moist area from a cooler or brewery and BAM you will forever be fighting mold. Yes, you can scrub it but it will always lurk in the corners ect. Trust me I have worked in a brewery with them. You can never scrub it away.

CHeers
Mike

[Junkyard]

tile will likely crack underneath large/heavy fermenters from the sheer weight. not saying its a bad idea, it might be one of the only things you can do to make a waterproof/brewing friendly floor on top of wood... we were thinking of pouring a small slab of cement for a previous location we were looking at, but not sure if that would even be feasible. but the tile will probably crack underneath anything more than a couple bbl.

as for structural support, you would likely have to brace the bottom of your brewing area with I beams and 2x8's or something. maybe even micro lam's.
You would probably have to hire a engineer or a contractor that really knows what they are doing if you are planning to brew any more than a couple bbl.

to install a floor drain you simply cut a hole in the wood floor where you want it and put the drain in and tile up to it. then route the drain from the bottom to the nearest plumbing drain downstairs.

not sure about how bad mold would be, i would think that would be different for every basement and every hvac system.

[hokus]

We have a wooden floor over basement with currently a 5bbl brewhouse w/ a few 7bbl and 15bbl fermenters. Everything is located on a subfloor, 3/4 plywood screwed every 6", hardy backer screwed every 8", waterproofed, then tiled with quarry tile (the red tile you'll see in a lot of breweries and kitchens). The tile can come in differen't thicknesses. Our floor isn't slopped but it isn't really that big so a floor squeegee is used to clean up.

We are planning to expand into another section and concrete/slope/trench drain it and install a 15bbl brewhouse. Catch of that is our building is a 100 year train building that was over built to hold weight. It's got massive wooden beams and oversized joists. We had a stuctural engineer come in and look at the floor to determine if it would hold the weight and it does. In a perfect world though I would stay away from wood floors if you can though.

[dick murton]

The only thing I will raise is that of safety. CO2 is heavier than air, and so you will need good, and permanently active extraction systems to remove CO2 and replace with fresh air. Technically in the UK at least, the basement would be considered a confined working space, so would be subject to various safety regulations that would not be applicable if the brewery is at ground floor level or higher. It might well be worth checking with you local H&S fascists (yes they can be that bad here) what the rules are, and what you need to meet the requirements.

All the other comments raised so far appear to be perfectly correct / valid IMHO, and need to be considered - the structural loading in particular if this is an existing building.