My shop

[Rickysnickers]

I have been following along as some of you all have built your shops. Well, I purchased my steel shop building in October and it arrived in February. I started the permit process last June and got final approval a week ago. As a side note, I had to get a "variance permit" because the location of the shop is in the "front yard." It's not anywhere near the front yard, but where it's located it breaks the plane of the front of the house. The county I live in has not been very helpful and the amount of red tape I went through, I thought I was still in CA.

I digress. I'm excited. I will still be a while before the actual building and slab all get going, as I'm on a waiting list for the contractor. It's ok though, at least now the construction beginning is in sight.

For those interested, I went with a 40'x60'x14' steel building. It's going to house my hot rod and will also be my woodshop. I plan to get back into that as well, since I'm now a retired person.

[PGSigns]

Good to see you getting. Keep us poster on the progress.
Jimmy

[Rickysnickers]

After a year and a half of the permitting process and waiting my turn for contractors, WORK HAS FINALLY BEGUN!!! YAY!!! I will post some pictures later.

[Rickysnickers]

Photos as promised.

[Dieselwrencher]

Ricky, good for you! I'd love to have a building minimum the size you are building. I was working on building a new one 5 years ago but county zoning and BS put a stop to it. Now I have been looking for a new place to be able to build a shop on. Unfortunately I'm going to have to wait due to this crazy market. I bet you're getting excited now! I know I would be.

[Rickysnickers]

Thank you. Yes, I am excited, but I am also calm about it as I am always waiting for the hammer to drop that something isn't going to go right. I hear you about all the red tape!!! it was ridiculous here. Anyway, more pictures to come.

[Joe Pass]

I'll tag along to see your progress.......

[Rickysnickers]

I haven't updated lately, sorry. Here's a few more. It's a 6" floor. The excavator was lagging and that has been what's holding up progress. The poured the floor last week, and then we had rain. After everything dries out, the erectors should be here to start with the actual building, hopefully.

[Joe Pass]

This is exciting...I built my shop 30+ yrs ago....and or if we relocate out of state, I'll want to build another........
Joe

[Rickysnickers]

Thanks Joe. I'm a little disappointed though. This thing should have been started a couple of months back and finished by now. I as I mentioned, the excavator was the hold up. Now, we are working around the weather. Oh well, it will get done before the snow at least, or so I hope.

[Joe Pass]

It will be well worth it in the end....hang in there....

[Dieselwrencher]

IMO you have the hardest part done when dealing with winter coming. Once a crew shows up they should have it erected pretty quickly. Hopefully they get there soon.

[kwmech]

How is that going to work with drainage? Looks of the pics provided appears that the slab is in the low spot on the land

[Rickysnickers]

There will be no issues with the drainage. The photos are a little deceiving. We got almost two inches of rain last month. There's little to no standing water.

[_Ogre]

any progress on this shop mr snickers?
a neighbor just built a 40x50 pole barn, i like your steel framed building plan better
my son-in-law's pole barn is starting to rot off the bottoms of the creosote poles
seems like footings in idaho would be deeper than around se michigan
my barn footing goes down 60 inches, i know cuz i dug a waterline under it

[Rickysnickers]

Hey Ogre. Yes, I have a couple of photos that I haven't loaded up. I think the footings were 3'. We don't get that much snow or hard freezing here, compared to MI, or at least I don't believe we do.

This thing has been dragging on and honestly, I'm really tired of all the waiting. The contractors around this area seem to do things at their own pace. I'm not a fan to say the least!!!

[dsraven]

I think contractors everywhere are slow on the uptake for small jobs. More money and less time moving equipment and supplies around on the bigger jobs so they take priority. Lots of workers here in Canada are also on a govt paid program due to covid so they dont really feel like workingwhen the govt is payingthwm to stay home. Contractors and businesses in general are having a hard time finding workers. Even a lot of the mcdonalds type only have the drive through open due to lack of staff. Hang in there, it'll get there.
What size is your shop going to be? Hard to tell from the pics but it looks like a good size if the big doors are 8 or 9ft wide. What will your cieling height be? Mine is 9'10" due to a max height of 15' at the top of the roofing material outside, measured from the top of the concrete floor. Its a little short sometimes. I spec'd the trusses cor the weight of roof tiles so it naturally holds more weight, then added a floor surface 18" above the drywall to be above the blown in insulation and added a hatch to get up there. Lots of my truck parts are up there waiting their turn. I also wired a couple of lights which are great but shouldda been at least 3 or 4 instead of 2.. outside there are spot lights and plugs on each wall plus a motion detector man door light and an rv plug on 1 wall. Inside I put the compressor close to the man door for easy access to cool air in the summer plus its easy to turn off when done for the day if the shop is full of stuff. There is a ompressorplug in onthe other side as well in case I wanna change onfiguration later. The compressor air filter is in the attic for less noise in the shop and cleaner, cooler, more dense air. It is plumbed in with 3" pvc pipe with an air filter housing from an s10 attached to the end. The air lines run across the cieling to hose reels in each bay and drops for water drains as well as take offs for air near the solvent wash tank and at the centee post between the doors.5 reels in total. It is wired like a kitchen with split plugs set at 8ft apart and 54" off the floor so you dont have to use an extension cord or worry about blowing a breaker with multiple tools working at the same tim plus a sheet of plywood, metal or shop jacks et can be leaned against the wall and the plugs are still accessable. There is a cord reel between the bays as well and a 20 amp plug on each side to run high draw stuff like table saws etc. A welder plug at the front and a master shut off switch for the garage door openers that is hidden in a bank of light switces so thieves have to work a little harder. The lower 4 1/2' are sheet metal siding around the workbench area so the drywall doesnt get chewed up and the plan is to finish that look all the way around. It helps with keeping things clean as it is easy to power wash. The lower part of the walls is treated plywood sealed to the floor and drywall so water doesnt get back there. The floor is graded to drain out the big doors and the concrete foundation is higher than the floor to help keep water from wicking up the walls as well. I use lateral filing cabinets for storage and that helps keep stuff out of sight as well as organised and a little less dusty.
Anyway, just a few ideas for you or possibly a lurker since you cant be banging nails or panels right now. Keep us posted and good luck with the contractors. Hopefully you had a great Christmas and have new years eve planned out.

[Rickysnickers]

This thing has been going on since Sept. They were supposed to start it in August, but kept getting delayed by the excavator. The outfit that put up the framing was supposed to do the entire thing. However, they only had a week open, so therefore only the framing. Since the insulation goes up first and then the outside panels get put on, it's still in limbo as we've had snow and rain. This is the one thing I really was looking forward to and now it is just sitting. I'm extremely disappointed with the entire process and the subcontractors.

Now, to answer the other questions. It's a 40'x60', Dennis. The side walls are 14'. I don't know the height of the peak, but the roof is a 3" in 12". The garage doors are 12'x12'.

Thanks, Christmas was nice. I hope yours was as well

[dsraven]

Sounds like it will be awesome. Scissor trusses anywhere to accommodate tall stuff with a hoist? Flat cieling?
You'll be surprised how quick it fills up.

[Rickysnickers]

It's all steel, no wood involved. It has what would be called in a house, cathedral ceilings.

[dsraven]

Nice, like an industrial warehouse style building then. Do you plan to sheet the inside when done? Heat?
Youre gonna love it, hang tight.

[Rickysnickers]

It's got insulation, but yes, I would like to heat it as well so that I can use it year round. I don't want to freeze to death out there I was thinking about a pellet stove or something similar to that.

[dsraven]

a shop that size would take a lot to heat and maybe be a lot to ask for a pellet stove. I have an overhead natural gas unit heater in the corner of the ceiling in my garae. it is angled so it circulates heat around the shop. it works pretty well. I didn't go with radiant because it takes too long to recover. not sure if thats an option for you. if you have access to cheap wood there are plans for a home made stove made from a couple of drums. the bottom drum is laid flat and is the firebox, the chimney from that goes into the next drum stacked above that is split in half and chambered inside so the hot exhaust from the first barrel has to go in and circulate before it exits. my buddies dad had one when growing up and it heated a pretty good sized rea similar to yours. it takes about as much room as a 45 gallon drum laid on its side with some room between it and the walls for safety. google two barrel stove if interested, there are lits available for the hardware only, maybe home depot? some guys put pipes inside the top barrell as well so they stick out each end and can be manifolded so a fan can be used to blow through the pipes to be more efficient. an old house furnace also works pretty good. I had a downdraft furnace for a mobile home in one of my garages years ago, it sat on a baffle that directed air out across the floor. that worked pretty well too but it was a smaller garage, 24x28 I think.

[Rickysnickers]

I've finally had some movement. It's almost completely enclosed!!!

[Dieselwrencher]

That's awesome! Congrats!