Winter Project... Shop Build Tread

[esbstuff]

Since I am just about done with it, it is time to post some pictures. (Are you ever done with a shop???)

I actually started the shop in 1995 with the initial fill. 25 loads of fill dirt and 5 load of rock gave me a nice flat spot. However I wanted to make sure that the fill had plenty of time to settle so it sat for a few years... Then life happened... 2 change in jobs and getting married all postponed the project. I originally was going to build a 30x40x12, but that ultimately became a 40x60x14.

I for sure wanted a drive-thru bay. This allows me to pull into the front and out of the back with a trailer, no problems. Of course I needed storage and lots of it. A workbench area is a requirement along with at least a half bath. And since we are building, a nice office space would be cool too. Finally, lots and lots of concrete.

Some of what I have done is overkill. Some of the things I have done are totally not needed except for piece of mind of the builder, me. All I tell every one is I only get to build one shop, so I am building it my way.

Well in Sept of 2014 I finally snagged my fathers backhoe and the digging began. Followed by the concrete guy and a lot of wall.

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On the left side where the wall is, any area that did not have 20 years of compacted fill, I put in some 4 inch clean crushed gravel, so no settling would accrue. All the floor was coated (and packed) with 2" minus for a solid floor base.

And did I say I lots of concrete?

10"x12" footers, 6" walls, 100' of 4' wall and 60' of 2' wall. Topped off with an approx 6" floor... I also put in 2 20"x20"x16' troughs where the 2 post lifts were going to be someday. What portions of floor that did not have a wall, we poured the floor and the footer at the same time to have improved strength. the troughs were also poured along with the floor.

And in case you haven't noticed yet, lots of rebar too. We used 2000 pounds of 3/8 rebar in the footers, wall and floor.

The concrete guy is not known for the straightest footers, but now 8 months in no cracks in the floor or walls...

[Daddy'O]

Keep the pictures and story comming esbstuff! Don't leave us hanging....lol

[leuggy]

Originally Posted by Daddy'O

Keep the pictures and story comming esbstuff! Don't leave us hanging....lol

I agree love shop builds
Blaine

[esbstuff]

Now comes the lumber... It helps you have your own truck so you can get the best deal. To start out with I just bought one pallet of 2x6's and one pallet of 2x4's. Of course while I was at the lumber yard, I picked up the 2 walk-in doors and the treated base plate boards. The actual assembly went pretty quick. The builder came out with 10 guys and I had walls in a day. I had them do 14' walls. Overall wall height ended up 14', 5" 1/2". 2 top plates, 1 bottom plate and a full 14' stud. They built the walls on 2' centers with 2"x6" studs. It took all 10 guys to raise each wall.

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Trusses... 2x6" Cathedral trusses supplied by a local truss plant. I had the trusses placed on 4' centers. Going with a Cathedral truss cost just a little bit more but gave me 2' more height in the center of the shop. It was cheaper to buy the Cathedral trusses than it was to go with 16' walls.

After we tried to set one truss with the guys, I sprung for the crane truck. We had all the trusses set in 2.5 hours...

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Insulation and metal. This is/was or seemed to be the most time consuming part of the whole project. 5 guys worked 7 hard days straight to get it in the dry. It was cold and windy which killed productivity. Temps during this time ranged from 5-25 degrees. And to top it off we had a threat of an impending major snow storm hanging over our heads. The guys for sure earned their pay these days. The metal is 100% screwed on. No nails in the metal anywhere. In the end I have a very snug shop.

Due to the impending snow storm, I had the garage door guy show up early to get the doors in. 2 days with 2 guys to install 4 doors and 3 openers. I didn't have a 4th opener installed on the door that is only the loading dock door.

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More lumber! After a much needed day off, a couple of guys spent 2 days framing the inside. The office, bathroom, storage room and work bench framing all went in. The guys were happy to have an inside job with 4" of snow on the ground...

My father, brother and I spent evenings doing the electrical. After the framing was done the garage has been a 100% DYI project. I nailed up a 100 or so electrical boxes. Some for lights and some for plug-ins. Both walk-in doors have access to overhead light switches. I put the roof lights on 3 switches. 1 is for lights down the center, 1 is for the front lights and 1 is for the rear lights. The hallway or walkway under the loft has one along with the workbench area. Also the loft also has its own switch. Maybe a little overkill, but is 'green' as I don't have to run all the lights whenever I go into the shop. After weighing my lighting options, I went with good old fashion porcelain fixtures mounted to a standard light box. I am using CFL 23w 'Dayglow' bulbs. These are comparable to 100w incandescents but draw much less juice. Also the benefit of the 'Dayglow' bulbs is that their luminous is greater than a standard CFL. Even with all the lights on, the electric meter barely spins.

[esbstuff]

Special moment.... First oil change! On a square of course!

Special moment.... New toolbox. Yes its a Harbor Freight special, but for $1497 I got the upper box, lower box, side box and a fairly large vise. In case anyone finds this tread researching tool boxes, the Harbor Freight box is easily comparable to a lower end Snap-On box and a lot cheaper.

[flashed]

Dang ,nice shop and toolbox and toys ,you dont mess around when it comes to a shop .

[esbstuff]

First good pictures of the outside. Had to wait for the snow to melt...

The one side has a line down it which is actually a break line in the metal for the addition. Sometime later this year the building is going to get an shed roof built on for storing vehicles and stuff in the dry, but not in the garage. A little more dirt work is in order for sure.

In the last picture you can see the blue van which is in the loading dock area. Not that I plan to use it on a regular bases, but for the cost of the garage door, its there. Otherwise this area would just be covered in side metal and have no usefulness at all.

[esbstuff]

Lifts... A headache for sure! Not the lifts themselves, but researching what ones to buy. I went though 6 months of back and forth with the lifts... Literally a hundred hours of research and pricing of every lift sold in the US.

In the end, I picked 2 Challenger Versymmetric, 10k 2 post lifts. A V-Symmetric is the best of both worlds of Symmetric (which is for rear wheel drive vehicles) and A-Symmetric lifts (which are for front wheel drive cars). The Challenger Versymmetric lift lifts the top 50 vehicles sold in the US. The key is the front arms have a 90 degree bend in them.

The pair from the local O'Reilly's was $9247 installed, tax included. O'Reilly's price matched the lowest bid I could come up with, plus I could buy from my favorite parts person which was worth a lot to me. That made his sales month for sure! I realize you can buy a cheaper lift, but you get what you pay for. What's a few extra bucks when that cheaper lift fails with a vehicle on it?

Don't be a tight butt and try to save the installation. The installers will be there a few hours and you can put your first vehicle on it before they leave. PLUS if it is installed by them you get lots of extra warranty time.

Also don't be fooled into buying a cheaper version of a name brand lift. The reason its a cheap version is because there are cheaper parts installed/used. The cheaper lefts sometimes have a crappy warranty to boot. When you actually compare apples to apples the Challenger Versymmetric is the way to go.

[esbstuff]

Outside lighting... Each end got 4 lights. 1, one by the walk-in door, a CFL Dayglow Bulb. 2, 2 over the garage doors, also CFL Dayglow bulbs and 3, one 500 watt old fashion light up your world light... Each light (walk-in door, garage doors and Light up your world light are on separate switches so I can use them as required...

[esbstuff]

This weeks project, Beverage Center! Oh who am I kidding its a dang old fridge. It was free but needing a little cleaning and TLC. But it cools good and keeps the refreshments cold. 33 degrees as of this morning!

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As of this point I am $64,000 plus in the project, not including the toolbox. I should note that a lot of items I was able to get at a discounted rate... The concrete was at cost (all 72 yards of it!), the concrete labor was close to cost, the trusses were at cost and I had no machine (backhoe/dozer/skidsteer) time as I just borrowed my dads. Of course I am a scrounge, I clipped coupons at every chance and shopped around for the best deal at every point.

Still on the to do list... Got to hang a few inside doors, install the bathroom sink and toilet and build a built-in desk for the office. Each end also get a pad once the ground settles some, so maybe in the fall.

The business has picked up, the weather has broke and more pressing projects have put the garage on the slow burn for a while. I still try to get something done or put away every week.

[77c10]

Nice, very nice! I wish I had thought mine out more before I had it built.

[Daddy'O]

Very nice. I really like the layout.

Looks like you’re a professional hooker. Is that one of the reasons for the drive thru bay? Any problems with the rollback fitting through your lifts?

[esbstuff]

Originally Posted by Daddy'O

Very nice. I really like the layout.

Looks like you’re a professional hooker. Is that one of the reasons for the drive thru bay? Any problems with the rollback fitting through your lifts?

Thanks! The reason for the drive thru bay and the slightly wider lifts is actually quite old. I used to do a lot of scraping before I was in the wrecker biz. I wanted to be able to bring the junker home, lift it up, and pull the converter and gas tank, then set it back on the trailer. But it works quite well now as I can pull the rollback in and take the car directly off of the truck... The rollback will fit through, but I have to fold the front arms out for the truck to clear.

[Mr Chevorlet]

Nice job on the shop, I noticed your located in St Robert Mo. That was an old stopping ground of mine. Was born and raised in waynesville. I left in 78, after I graduated. Its been a couple of years since I been in the area.

[Advanced Design]

Great shop build and very well thought out. How long were you in the planning stages before building?

[esbstuff]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Great shop build and very well thought out. How long were you in the planning stages before building?

Forever it seems! 1995-6 would be a good start. Everytime I got to visit someones shop I would take a good look around and make a note of what I liked and didn't like. Case in point, a lot of people around here has a full bath in their garage. However no one ever uses the tub/shower... Ok, so my bath has enough space for a tub/shower, but since the area is heated anyways, I am going to use that area as a battery storage area. Cold and batteries don't always mix. So if I can keep them warm, it will save a few batteries a year.

In the end, I had one benefit... Everything I own is paid for (before the garage). Trucks, property, house and so on. With that in mind, I was able to borrow everything I wanted to and build.

[68C15]

Those Challenger versymettric lifts are nice. We have one at work we got from Napa almost 18 months ago. Something like $3500 plus $300 install.

What are you doing for heat? Also, what about floor drainage?

[esbstuff]

Originally Posted by 68C15

Those Challenger versymettric lifts are nice. We have one at work we got from Napa almost 18 months ago. Something like $3500 plus $300 install.

What are you doing for heat? Also, what about floor drainage?

Heats has been up in the air... The office and bathroom will have baseboard heat at least. I may just get a motel style heat/air unit, depending on what I come up with between now and then. Either way the shop is wired for 220 in both rooms. I have a oil burner traded for, I think, which may provide whole shop heat if I have a project going on. I won't have enough used oil to keep the shop heated all the time. Last winter, on the coldest day (here) it was -5 outside and it was 33 inside with just the 2 truck's block heaters going. I have propane spot heaters if I am working just on a truck or work bench and it seems to be fine.

I passed on the drainage. The floor is flat... Drains always seem to be in the wrong spot and sloping the floor one way or the other would have lead to vehicles rolling off.

[esbstuff]

Well finally got the oil heater installed and going. 200,000 BTU heater heats the shop just fine. 30-32 degrees outside and a nice 62 degrees inside. It only runs 15 minutes an hour to maintain the set temperature.

The good news is with oil prices so low, waste oil collectors are charging to remove waste oil. One local shop I deal with, that does not use their waste oil for heat, has given me all of their old oil. So at least this winter, I heat for free!

[northern 85]

Super nice shop!!!!