I plan to build a 24x32 garage at my cottage. I can pour the slab this year but don't know if I'll have time to build the garage. Will it hurt to pour a slab this year and it sit until until next year? I am building this in northern Wisconsin and wondering if the weather would affect the slab?

As long as you are building the garage with below grade footers below the freeze line specs in you Geo The slab can sit for Years. The plate anchor bolts needs to be slightly greased so rust doesn't start on them. So no Worries here

Wooo I just saw the word "floating slab" now there worries. Why would you not build it right and use footers for the slab ?

Weather going to affect a floating slab no matter if a garage is on it or not..

Slabs have thickened edges and do not have a footing. The floor should be fine unless you have a drain pipe installed with an interior drain. That kind of slab tilts toward the drain and it will fill with snow, rain and the freeze. Do you have this kind in mind or one that just pitches toward the door?

Sorry but I disagree with the floor should be fine..

All slabs have edges. The "thickened" edges in my area is called a "frost footer' That is in loose terms half of what your Geo is for a below grade footer in getting below the frost/freeze. Footers in my are are no less then 36" The frost footers 18" which is half.

We are looking at Norther Wisconsin. It gets very brutal and cold there not to mention the Great Lake parked out back for cold squalls and moisture and the very cold temps.

Guess what concrete hates..
Subzero temps
Freezing Moisture

So far I see a 24' x 32' sidewalk with no expansion joints and nothing mentioned about steel rebar. My area can gets in the teens and at times to or below Zero, and a lot of moisture and humidity almost all year. Winter and summer here plays havoc on Crete slabs that are poured in a monolithic fashion with no expansion joints

We have pole barns here and a slab poured inside but it has a roof to keep the freezing moisture off of the slab, not to mention the poles are min 24"+

We are not allowed to use a frost footer for a permanent structure on it. "Garage" is one of them

At best rebar needs to be in the slab and the slab covered in straw and tarp on top of that to winter properly.

I'm against frost footers many times because buy the time you use the 12" bucket on the hoe Sometimes have to pound the dirt out of it, then you hit some rocks and blow out the top inside edge of the ditch.

Now you stone the middle and to form the outside edge you have to scab the Crete forms to add thickness to get a pin/stake in the ground to hold its proper edge and height.

BY the time you pour the Crete with the inside rolled ditch edge, already you could of had a 8" thick" footer. Add the fact the 12" wide ditch filled in Crete and the height to it. There is the rest of the footer. The added cost to really do this right is the little extra time to dig deeper and the 8" block that needs laid.

How cold does it get there?

I live in the northern part of Illinois just south of WS and a pitched floor will be fine. The best example I can give is a sidewalk. When we pour in late fall we do not need to cover with straw or a tarp, its like a small floating floor. We can't tell if amber is doing this work on his own or if a pro is doing the pour but most garage floor are poured in 4 sections. Until amber gives more detail regarding pitch we can't tell how winter will affect this floor. Gargaes with interior drains are our only concerns so lets hear from amber before we go any further. WS is a big state but temps can be about 25 below with a frost line of 48"

Bal so you are saying that a "floating floor" in your area is acceptable for a structure to sit on it, other then a utility shed?

The best example I can give is a "side Walk" Is not a base for a structure load. I'm familiar with walks. Been "Bonded for curb/walks and open street" In my city since the 80s.
We never pour a garage in 4 pours. Its either a saw cut after pour or expansion joints or control joints. We grove for control joints or I use A screed rail that stays in the Crete. Do commercial floors that way. Also I developed a set up to use screed rails and attach the "foam" expansion buy sheet metal screws to the screed rail to keep the foam stiff. The rail in 1" down from the top of foam. This allows me to pour a ton of walks in the City and not have to do second day pours. Trick is to pack the rail/expansion with stiff Crete off truck to back up the screed rail pins that holds the rail straight.

Garage floor drains here are not allowed. Simply because of grease into a French pit and or the public sewer and certainly not into the on site septic. DER thing

The other thing I forgot to ask is he using Air trained Crete. Also we have additives in our Crete for walks not freezing with ice so quickly

Yes that is exactly what I am saying. The slab is a 4" pour over compacted gravel. The thicken edge is not a footing and does not reach through the gravel to the dirt but is simply 7-8" thick around the edges. I just finished a 20x30' garage and this slab meet the county, local and state codes. My sidewalk example was not to compare thickness or structure but an example of how concrete is poured and then subjected to the most extreme environment during the winter. Freezing cured concrete is not going to hurt the slab any more than it hurts a sidewalk. I did want to get amber to tell us if there are any floor drains because that is a horse of a different color. You can not let a floor drain get flooded with snow, ice and rain in freezing conditions, the garage would need to be built or at least totally cover the drains. WS is cold but Il expereienced a night or two of over 30 below last winter.

Hi Guys... Sorry to hijack this thread.

I too am building a 28X40 garage in central Wisconsin this spring. I plan on pouring a floating slab for it in 3 sections (pours). I plan to make the edges a 10" deep and 10"wide with the rest of the floor at 3.5" thick. The concrete will be built on later this summer so no worry about the surface being exposed.

There are no building codes in my county that stipulates a foundation for a detached garage... that said. I want to make sure that this is a good foundation. Thoughts...

I plan to tie the sections together with 3/8 bar and put some in the corners of the 10X10 edges. Do you guys think this is OK?

Thanks...

Hartwa