New Workshop Progress

metalspinner · March 30, 2021, 05:02:09 PM

After 20 years working in the basement, we finally pulled the trigger on a workshop. I went round and round with different ideas from buying commercial or building on our property. But we finally decided to build on our property because it was by far the most affordable way to get into lots of space.
So I decided to go with a 40 x 60 pole building. The clearspan steel trusses were a big consideration for me.

Here are a series of pics from November to today. (BTW the building was supposed to be done on October 31. :

)

Everything but the siding and garage door was delivered on this truck

It doesn't look like it here, but we had to move alot of dirt. Diagonal corners were 4' off in elevation. so we cut down 2' from the high side and backfilled gravel 2" up on the low side. This will account for the high numbers in the gravel total.

This tool is pretty handy. 4' holes with 2 80# sacks of concrete in the bottom.

The end of day 1 with the build crew.

The end od day 2 with the build crew. These guys are a well oiled machine!

The crew that came in to enclose the building... :

Not so well oiled. You can see the bottom left has the 2' high retaining wall for the grading discrepancy.

This is 120 tons of gravel! 6 truck loads. I rented a skid steer for the weekend. The rental guy couldn't believe how many hours I put on it. :D

The first of 6 concrete trucks. The slab is 5 1/2 - 6 inches thick. Maybe a little thicker there in the doorway.

The last concrete truck. The weather was really cold. The first several nights were in the mid-20's. You can see the bags of calcium chloride that were added to the truck on site and the boss bundled up in his thermal suit.

The first day of drying.

Here is what I call the bench room along with a bathroom. I found a place where I could buy these 2x6's delivered cheaper than buying 2 x 4's at the home center. This framing all needs to be inspected , so using rough sawn is not allowed.

The beauty shot after paint and gutters installed. It took 15 gallons each of primer and paint. This was the first time I used an airless sprayer and will never again paint without it!

Plumbing connections to the sewer and water lines from the house are scheduled in the coming weeks. Finding a plumber has been a huge headache. I've been looking since January and just now got one schedule. Only 2 of 7 followed through with an estimate. :

I'm still seeking bids for electric. I want to run a full 200amp service which requires 200' of trech from the utility pole. Only 1 of 8 electricans have followed through with a bid. They were all enthusiastic on site, but "next week" never came but from one.

A bid for closed cell spray foam insulation did come in. Just waiting to get power into the building first.

I also plan to spread gravel around the perimeter of the building to keep maintence low.

Getting close! 8) 8) 8)

metalspinner · March 30, 2021, 05:04:12 PM

Oh, and here is the layout of the day...

btulloh · March 30, 2021, 05:15:54 PM

Nice building. Looks like it'll be a great place to get some work done.

Once again, I have shop-envy.

Looking forward to following the progess

sawguy21 · March 30, 2021, 05:39:17 PM

I'm envious too! I am wondering why the bench room structure needs to be inspected since they are not bearing walls. Fire protection?

Tacotodd · March 30, 2021, 05:41:56 PM

It's going to be a purdy good shop!

I LIKE it!

WV Sawmiller · March 30, 2021, 06:19:20 PM

Its not gonna be big enough. :D They never are. Looking good so far.

metalspinner · March 30, 2021, 09:16:30 PM

Sawguy21,
The entire building hasn't been inspected yet. He will not come out until I get the plumbing rough in complete.
But he will most definitely inspect the bench room framing too.
The pic above doesn't show it complete. I cantilevered the rafters out about 18" for a little more storage space above.

WV sawmiller
You should have seen my wife's reaction when I presented this 2400 soft building to her! "Our house isn't even that big!" :laugh:

mike_belben · March 31, 2021, 08:01:18 AM

beautiful.

i need 5 of them.

K-Guy · March 31, 2021, 09:41:04 AM

Quote from: metalspinner on March 30, 2021, 09:16:30 PMYou should have seen my wife's reaction when I presented this 2400 soft building to her! "Our house isn't even that big!"

I told my wife that if we ever got rich, my shop would dwarf our house!! :D

mike_belben · March 31, 2021, 10:37:58 PM

I told mine expect a 1200SF house and 10k sf shop. With his and her parking lots.

gspren · April 02, 2021, 08:42:56 AM

If the year goes as planned we will have a new to us house at 1,800 sq ft and a brand new 46' x 64' 2,944 sq ft pole building 16' tall. Still thinking about exact details but one end will have a pair of 14' H x 16' W overhead doors and about 2/3 of the way back on one side a more normal sized overhead for lawn mowers and such, also 2 entrance doors.

metalspinner · April 02, 2021, 12:46:49 PM

Gspren
That sounds exciting. I hope everything works out
I was limited to the OAH of the building because of setbacks from my property line. I am in the middle of suburbia here. So I had to go with 10' sidewalls which put the roof peak just at about 18'.

metalspinner · April 02, 2021, 08:33:20 PM

The plumbers came out today for the interior rough-in! They will do the outside connections next week.

If I had done this myself?? This project would be at least 7 trips to Lowe's.

metalspinner · April 14, 2021, 07:01:56 AM

Progress report...
I passed my rough in framing and plumbing inspections. 8)

And the plumbers got me all hooked up with water and sewer connections. 8)

Now I'm onto power. Still have only the one bid to run power to the building. But yesterday I had a guy out hauling dirt away that knows an electrician. Hopefully I can connect with him to come out for a look.

aigheadish · April 20, 2021, 01:17:49 PM

Holy concrete, Batman!

Man, as I continue working on my shop I too am jealous. That building is incredible! I considered something similar a few times now but couldn't pull the trigger on a 5 figure building. My little 22x13 room or whatever it is will hopefully end at around $8-9k when all said and done, but the size is much(!) too small. When I was thinking about it (and still am to some extent) I was thinking a 30x50 with a 20x30 woodworking shop that would have a concrete floor but the rest would be gravel.

Well done! I'll be interested to see you populate it!

metalspinner · May 26, 2021, 08:08:31 PM

Finally! Today I have power to the shop!
I still had only the one bid. I was able to get him down quite a bit by digging and filling in the trench myself. It ended up being 180'. This took $1600 off his bid.
It's crazy that I was only able to receive one bid out of 8 or 9 electricians showing up to look at the job.
Anyhow, the building has power.
Tomorrow, the spray foam contractor shows up to insulate!