Wooden Round House

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

I am attempting to do a little research for a friend of mine who is about to start construction on a wooden round house kit. He wants to add a foundation to it by cutting down some C.C. Crow castings and using them to simulate a foundation. I told him I didn't believe a wooden roundhouse would have had a foundation. I know on some of the brick roundhouses a concrete foundation is clearly visible and some cases it's not. It doesn't make sense to me that a wooden roundhouse would have a foundation but I am not 100% sure so I ask you guys once again.

Thanks

[Railway Man]

It would have a foundation, but it might only consist of piers underneath each structural post, rather than a continuous wall foundation, with each wall panel spanning between piers.  However, that would be a very poor building, indeed, suitable for a pioneer railroad or a logging outfit that did not anticipate keeping the building in service for more than a few years.  A building like that would probably be dirt floor, too.

There were some logging railroad enginehouses built using pole construction with the poles buried in the ground.  Often these were open-sided.  These are temporary structures because the pole rots out at ground level within a few years.

More common was a continuous wall foundation (on a spread footing) with the sill laid on top of the wall.  This gives good weather sealing and is permanent construction.

RWM

[wjstix]

If by "foundation" you mean the entire interior being concrete, that would be unusual for a wood roundhouse. Most likely it would have a foundation under the walls of some kind, but an interior of maybe dirt covered with ballast stone...however some had wood floors too.

IIRC some small wood roundhouses on the Milwaukee's former narrow-gauge lines in southern Minnesota lasted into the 1960's.

[fwright]

A very serviceable floor used in many industrial settings as late as WW2 was wood blocks - blocks of wood, preferably hardwood, typically 4x4 by maybe 4 inches long, stood on end.  Sikorsky (maker of helicopters) still had some of these floors in the older parts of the plant when I was taking delivery of helicopters in the early '90s.  I have seen these floors in older automobile garages, too.

Fred W 

[tomikawaTT]

A very serviceable floor used in many industrial settings as late as WW2 was wood blocks - blocks of wood, preferably hardwood, typically 4x4 by maybe 4 inches long, stood on end.  Sikorsky (maker of helicopters) still had some of these floors in the older parts of the plant when I was taking delivery of helicopters in the early '90s.  I have seen these floors in older automobile garages, too.

Fred W 

On a railroad, these were frequently cut from the sawed-off ends of switch ties, back when labor was cheap and materials were expensive.  They are laid with the grain vertical.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

A very serviceable floor used in many industrial settings as late as WW2 was wood blocks - blocks of wood, preferably hardwood, typically 4x4 by maybe 4 inches long, stood on end.  Sikorsky (maker of helicopters) still had some of these floors in the older parts of the plant when I was taking delivery of helicopters in the early '90s.  I have seen these floors in older automobile garages, too.

Fred W 

On a railroad, these were frequently cut from the sawed-off ends of switch ties, back when labor was cheap and materials were expensive.  They are laid with the grain vertical.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

A very serviceable floor used in many industrial settings as late as WW2 was wood blocks - blocks of wood, preferably hardwood, typically 4x4 by maybe 4 inches long, stood on end.  Sikorsky (maker of helicopters) still had some of these floors in the older parts of the plant when I was taking delivery of helicopters in the early '90s.  I have seen these floors in older automobile garages, too.

Fred W 

On a railroad, these were frequently cut from the sawed-off ends of switch ties, back when labor was cheap and materials were expensive.  They are laid with the grain vertical.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

Very interesting concept, now that you mention it I recall seeing a floor similar to that in an old industrial building I once thought about buying. It was a munitions factory during WWII.

In the case of the round house what would the wooden block floor sit on, the ground? I found some pics on the net of an old abandoned wooden round house in a collapsed  condition. From what I would make out it look like heavy timbers rested on concrete pills or stone blocks of some sort. Sort of like what done with a pole barn or for that matter large barns used on farms in certain parts of the country. Dairy barns in particular had foundations and a sort of basement if you would where as barns on produce or crop farms had barns that rested right on the same sort of pill or stones. I know because I have several sitting on our farm that are at least 100 years old.

 

 

A very serviceable floor used in many industrial settings as late as WW2 was wood blocks - blocks of wood, preferably hardwood, typically 4x4 by maybe 4 inches long, stood on end.  Sikorsky (maker of helicopters) still had some of these floors in the older parts of the plant when I was taking delivery of helicopters in the early '90s.  I have seen these floors in older automobile garages, too.

Fred W 

On a railroad, these were frequently cut from the sawed-off ends of switch ties, back when labor was cheap and materials were expensive.  They are laid with the grain vertical.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[DSO17]

     In a large shop building I am familiar with the wooden blocks sat on a poured concrete subfloor. Over the years a lot of the blocks were torn out due to renovations. Several years ago the environmental department came around and had all the remaining blocks torn out and replaced with concrete because the end grain of the blocks soaks up hazardous liquids spilled on the floor. Other than the industrial hygiene problem they made a good flooring material.