Considering a 28’X30′ garage-(detached), and would like to consider floating the slab in lieu of footings/frostwalls. Currently have a base of 2′ of 4″ stone and good drainage. An thoughts?
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Try asking at Breaktime, which is really the Fine Homebuilding site and has more traffic than this site. Go to the top of this page in the green box and click on "Breaktime" right after "Other Taunton Sites:" You may also be able to do an "advanced search" (it's at the top of the listing of discussions. Click on it and fill in the blank with "floating slab" and it should bring up past discussions about that. I know someone recently asked the same question there. I think the consensus was that a floating slab for a garage was fine as long as there's enough gravel for good drainage.
To me, 4" stone seems a little big, but that way I guess it wouldn't silt up, but I think it may settle more and cause the slab to crack--I would think more like compacted stone mix (like is used for road beds) would be better. I'm no expert though. There is a guy with the handle "Brownbag" over at Breaktime who could also answer your question, as he works with concrete all the time.