Floor Thickness

[NYSBrewer]

I have been searching the site for some advice on this subject and have found info on exsisting flooring, but not much on new builds. Here is my question:

When pouring a floor for a new brewery, how thick should it be to withdstand the weight of the tanks. We are looking to start with 30bbls, 60bbl, and possibly growing into 90bbl tanks. Is there any type of application to the concrete that must be considered? Are the tanks and brewhouse generally put on a pad? Thanks in advance for the help.

[South County]

4" of 3500 psi concrete with fibermesh will work fine. A 90 bbl tank with standard 8" floor plates (adjustable feet) only exerts about 600 psi, figured with a generous 30,000# full tank weight. This assumes well compacted soil and 4" thick #57 stone base. No need to over think here, but do check your codes for tank mounting, in some states tanks must be fastened to the floor.


duh, I forgot to divide by 4 legs, so the load is even less, about 150 psi.

[kramling]

sloped floor

Make sure it's sloped towards a drain.. If this is exisiting I'm sure it's not.. Think about 90 bbls of water/beer hitting the floor at one time and where it will all go.. Think about cleaning your mash tun or kettle and where all the the grain, hops, and protein break will end up. I only have flat floors where my bottling line is.. Liitle bit of water at a time hits the floor and a trench drain completely surrounds it. I wouldn't do that around a brewhouse or cellar of any size. Labor to spray down and squeegee adds up.

Cheers,
Steve

[tsewong73]

Here is a post from 6 years ago:

The late, great Brian Sollenberger posted calculations for determining the necessary load capacity for concrete floors. Just plug in your own numbers and see what you come up with.