Looking for ideas on salt storage

[Lazer Man]

We are thinking of building a salt storage shed. What are the pros and cons of different types of buildings. How big should it be, what is the best material to construct with, and any other ideas you folks might have. What would be the elite structure to have, and what would be an econo model?

 

[thelawnguy]

First check with any local code or zoning requirements, and any DEP/EPA rerquirements and see what is a necessity and start from there?

 

[plowking35]

Remember its easie to ask forgivness then to ask permission. I can see the EPA DEP thing getting real complicated right away. How many tons are you looking to store? Concrete blocks(mafia blocks if you will) about 2' sq and 4-6' long. Stack them on three sides and leave the front open. 2 rows high should be enough. Then get a cove it type garage, or any temp canvas garga etype unit and install on top of blocks. A cover ed pile and easy access with a loader. Also common sense, dont build the thing next to a river or lake.
Dino

 

[jaclawn]

It costs a little more to do things right the first time. It costs even more to do things a second time. What happens when the proper authorities find out about your illegal setup, and make you tear it down, levy a fine, and make you build a proper storage facility???

 

[BRL]

Use the search button in the top right corner. Someone posted this question not too long ago & the thread was pretty good. I think that question was almost word for word the same as yours. Pretty funny.

 

[plowking35]

while I dont want to egt into a whole letter of the law legal dispute. Unless he is storing a thousand tons of material, no one will even know its there. No harm no foul, worst case set up some erosion control fencing just inside the blocks and that will keep any material from leaching out the sides. If you are building a huge facility to keep material in, then visit the salt institutes web site, they have plans and drawings on how to do it.
What I proposed he build is 1000000000x better than most town have. My local town has an uncovered pile they leave out all year, also I just delivered to a local college yesterday and they have an uncovered bin with sand salt and a ripped tarp. Every large shopping center near me has a 50 ton pile of mix and a tarp over it, after a rain or snow storm, you can see the white from the salt running down the lot into the drains, so again what I proposed is alot better than what the majority of people use.
Dino

 

[John DiMartino]

Im with you Dino,so many poorly covered salt piles here also.there is nothing wrong with your proposed site,so long as its mostly for personal use.If your getting into the business of selling big time then you might want to to further.You could always spray the pile with Magic and thatll take 99% of the corrosive propertys out of it and keep it from turning into solid blocks.

 

[Greenkeepers]

I agree with Dino..

Make a base whatever size you want out of block I would sugguest about 6 block high. On top of that you could get one of those plastic greenhouses pretty reasonable. This is much better than 95% of the setups I see around here.

 

[GeoffD]

I agree with Dino on that one.

However I built a sand/salt/sand salt mix storage building.

I used the traditional 4' frost walls, and then poor 12' tall forms. This gave me an 8' tall cement wall, with the exception of the 3 garage doors on the side of the building. Ontop of the 8' cement walls is a pre fab metal building. The biggest problem with the whole project was the garage doors.

The inside of the building has a tared floor, the cement walls are treatred with 3/4" plywood around the cement. I put the doors on the side, so the trucks could pull a long the front for easy loading.

Geoff

 

[cat320]

Geoff Could you put some pictures of this on here that sound really impresive and quite organized more than some of us.

 

[GeoffD]

I will see what I can do with pictures, I know I have the plans on my computer at work.

All you need is a prefab building, check out http://www.metalbldgs.com/ you will find the prices for these types of builds are very reasonable. Look in the adds in the back of popular mechanics and popular science, you will find building advertised for as low as 4K for something 20X40, I think. Our biggest cost was the foundation, adding electrical, and water/waste water will really drive up the cost. Just think of it as a prefab building on an 8' foundation. Then all you need is a few doors, even one or two will work.

The whole thing is really very simple, the reason we went to total encloser vs partial, is we plan on useing it for storage in the summer. To be honest with you guys, if we were not in need of aditional storage during the summer, then we would have probably gone with the standard open pile.

I plan to use up all my salt, and the maybe keep a few yards of sand/salt over the winter.

Geoff

 

[thelawnguy]

Here is a story some may scoff at:

Several years ago the town decided they could build a better salt shed with Mafia blocks telephone poles and tin roofing. So far so good right? Well next spring the neighboring farmer couldnt figure out why his crops were stunted and decided salt runoff from the town pile was to blame, long story short the town, after a lenghty court battle had to pay this guy what the jury supposed his crops for the year were worth, the town paid a huge fine to DEP AND they had to construct an approved shed along with an elaborate retention/holding basin nearby.

Your shed may be suitable, at least til someone else (competitor, sinking farmer) gets a bug in his bung and makes some noise to the right people.

 

[jaclawn]

Just saw in the news this morning a town near here has a salt pile. Seems that the local tree huggers are concerned with the environmebtal impact of the pile.

The news cameras went to the coincil meeting, and procedded to film a bunch of shoutin' and a yellin'. You know the type of meeting, where someone comes close to getting arrested.

My point is, just make sure that you will not have ANY type of trouble with your storage facility.

 

[plowguy06]

if you have the room, you might consider a dome. http://www.dome-corp-na.com/ this site is the Dome Corp. of North america

 

[9FT.PILES]

IN THE CITY OR IN THE STICKS?

DEPENDS WHERE YOUR SHOP IS.WE HAVE THE LUXURY TO BUY AS WE NEED, BUT I KNOW OF GUYS JUST USING MAFIA BLOCKS STACKED TO YOUR NEEDS,AND WRAP IT W/ A TARP AND SOME TIRES.

 

[Aspen Snow]

We store our salt in our shop. We built a bin out of Mafia blocks. It works great. No tarp to mess with and the loader is not covered in snow.

 

[eskals]

Mafia Blocks

I wonder who came up with that name?? Hmm...Sounds suspicious to me.

Eric

 

[SLSNursery]

A picture of our mafia block collection

I posted this picture before, but here it is again (sorry it is so large).

The bin with the cover is where we keep our mix. It works ok, but obviously isn't perfectly sealed. The grade of the bins are slightly pitched toward the front, which keeps run-off on our lot. The bins are about 50 feet deep, so not too much precip gets into the covered one (we use it for loam in the summertime). Any run off ultimately evaporates, so salt residue stays inside for the most part. The cover allows the light through, and also sort of heats up the pile and ground underneath, which helps keep the pile dry. Most of these blocks are 2x3x4(these blocks were formed and vibrated, so the concrete is very uniform), which is a good size and quality for building a solid wall. Some of the thinner ones are 1.5x3x6 (cheaper), and except for the one with the necktie coming out of it, they all stack just fine.



N.B. If you use a hoophouse, don't cover only one end, it will blow right out of the ground. This one with no ends blew off partially a couple of weeks ago in 50MPH gusts. Otherwise it has been fine for a couple of years.

 

[Rcgm]

Heck with building a storage shed just go rent a storage unit around winter time load it up with salt and get rid of it in summer.Just my idea.LOL

 

[Matt]

SLSNursery
I was wondering what the dimensions on those mafia blocks is. Also how many feet high is each bay and how wide are they. How much will each bay hold approximatly? We are thinking of doing the same thing but I don't think I was going to make them big enough. Any info. would be greatly appreciated.