A Shop is Born

[Charlie Barnes]

Finally, after many years of planning and procrastination, work has begun on my new shop. First I need to thank my wife for allowing this to happen. My family has been through a lot this year (long story, but hopefully with a good ending to come) and we’ve realized that we need to stop putting off a lot of things until “tomorrow”, because there is no guarantee tomorrow may ever come. Second, I need to thank all of the contributors to the Creek that have posted all of the great shop ideas and pictures over the years. While I haven’t been able to incorporate 100% of the ideas that I wanted, it’s going to be pretty close. I need to state up front that I’m wimping out and contracting out the “shell” so that it’s under roof and closed in before the weather turns. I’ll handle the electric, insulation and interior finishing myself this fall and winter.
The main workshop area will be 20x30. There will be an additional room for miscellaneous storage and finishing that is 20x12 in the back of the building. On the front side there will be a covered porch area that can be used for working outside on nice days. There will be 4 windows facing into the yard and 2 skylights. The exterior will be a brick and siding mix to match our house. It will also have a hip roof and overhangs, again to match the house. Our lot is narrow, but deep. We wanted to preserve as much of the yard as possible, so the shop will be located on one side of the back yard near a tree line on the east side.



Some of the other features include:

Central heat and AC (I wanted radiant floor heat, but will be using standard forced air due to cost constraints)
Vaulted ceiling in main shop space to 10 ½’
Half bath with drain stubbed in for future shower
Separate electrical service from house
Floor outlets for saw and accessories
The first photo is of the site before any construction (and back in the days when we used to get rain). My boys and I tore down the old swing set since they’re now 17 and 12 and haven’t used it in years. Construction began two weeks ago with the three small trees being removed, the footers being dug and the pad poured. The majority of the framing went up this past week. The trusses and roof should go on this week. The photos are in chronological order. It looks like I'll need to spread the photos over several updates due to size constraints.


I’ll keep posting approximately weekly updates throughout the process.

Charlie

[Charlie Barnes]

Photos of the slab pour.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Not big enough. Not enough room for tools and some more 'toys'. Doors are too small. Not enough windows. Too many windows. Not enough power. Too close to the house. Not far enough from the house. Walls are too light. Ceiling isn't high enough. Not enough room for a fridge.

I'm just getting you started here. You may want to save these for later and add to the list as you go along.

You're welcome, don't mention it.
.

[Charlie Barnes]

More of the pour.

[Charlie Barnes]

More of the slab and framing. What looks like a door in the side is really a window that the guys were using to move materials in. They'll close in the framing this week.

[Charlie Barnes]

More framing and the view from my oldest son's bedroom window. He's so lucky!

[David Christopher]

looking good, bet you cant wait...

[Charlie Barnes]

Not big enough. Not enough room for tools and some more 'toys'. Doors are too small. Not enough windows. Too many windows. Not enough power. Too close to the house. Not far enough from the house. Walls are too light. Ceiling isn't high enough. Not enough room for a fridge.

I'm just getting you started here. You may want to save these for later and add to the list as you go along.

You're welcome, don't mention it.
.


Hey Mitchell - That may all be true...except for the part about the fridge!

[Micheal Roth]

Ah,yes.......Man Cave :D

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Charlie....Congratulations! Enjoy the process!

[Paul McGaha]

Looks great Charlie. I think its going to be really nice.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Charlie....Congratulations! Looking forward to more posts. Tom

[Van Huskey]

Congrats, these shop build threads are killing me, I keep getting so close to starting then I change my mind about something and redesign, I need to get buiding already!

[Mitchell Andrus]

Ah,yes.......Man Cave :D

No. Men's Crisis Center.
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Congrats, these shop build threads are killing me, I keep getting so close to starting then I change my mind about something and redesign, I need to get buiding already!

Yep. Don't let the quest for perfection get in the way of progress.
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

If you don't mind.... how much is the budget and did you put anything on the wish list off for later... (like the shower) ... maybe solar or skylights?
.

[Ray Bell]

Congrats Charlie. Bet you can't wait to start moving the equipment in.

[Charlie Barnes]

If you don't mind.... how much is the budget and did you put anything on the wish list off for later... (like the shower) ... maybe solar or skylights?
.

The budget is around $40K, but I keep changing things, like increasing the electrical service, so hopefully I won't miss that by too much. That may seem kind of high, but I figure almost half of this cost is due to exterior design elements to make it match the house and other homes in our subdivision and not create an uprising with my neighbors.

Regarding stuff I'm putting off for later, there's not much at this time. I really don't see me needing a shower, so that will probably just remain as it is now (drain only). There will be two skylights in the main workshop area, so that should be covered. I will need a ramp of some kind to get up to the rear doors in the storage room. I'll probably start with dirt/gravel, but may build a wooden ramp or pour a ramp later on depending on how that goes. My wife suggested ferns hanging on the "porch". I suggested NOT. ;)

[Ray Bell]

Aw common, what's a shop without ferns hanging from the porch;)

[Greg Roberts]

Nice looking shop.

I don't think the Radiant floor heating should have been any more money. The tubing is very easy to install, and I've run dozens of my systems off of water heaters with small hydropanels to control things. The water heater is needed for the bathroom anyway.

Greg

[Mike Cruz]

Sweet! I bet you're as happy as a pig in mud. Awesome. Congrats!

[Rod Sheridan]

Congrats, these shop build threads are killing me, I keep getting so close to starting then I change my mind about something and redesign, I need to get buiding already!

Don't worry about it Van, that's what Engineering Change Notices (and contingency budgets) are for......LOL...........Rod.

[Bart Leetch]

Not big enough. Not enough room for tools and some more 'toys'. Doors are too small. Not enough windows. Too many windows. Not enough power. Too close to the house. Not far enough from the house. Walls are too light. Ceiling isn't high enough. Not enough room for a fridge.

I'm just getting you started here. You may want to save these for later and add to the list as you go along.

You're welcome, don't mention it.
.

You want some cheese with that whine?

Lookin Great Charlie don't mind Mitchell he's just kinda funning you,

[Gordon Eyre]

Wow, this looks like it will be a great shop. To say I am envious would be an understatement. Good luck as you continue the build.

[Greg Bender]

Charlie,
looking good ,seems like you did alot of prep.You will be rewarded for that.Curious why no visqueen vapor barrier under the slab.Good Luck on the rest of your build,keep the photo's coming.
Greg

[Charlie Barnes]

Well it's been a busy week for the shop and family. Most importantly, my wife had surgery on Monday and is doing very well. She'll be recovering for a couple of weeks, but the hard part for her will be just taking it easy around the house. The side benefit is that it gives me a personal on-site supervisor since I work about 25 minutes away and need to keep my day job to pay for this little project. :D

As for my little side project, the guys really moved on it this week. The trusses and sheathing went up Tuesday and the roof went on on Wednesday. Thursday was an off day and it actually rained a little. The GC dug all the utility trenches Friday and made the sewer connection in the house. Also, the AC unit was delivered. The yard looks a "little rough", but nothing that some grass seed, sun and water can't cure.

I'm very confident that everything will be closed in and weather tight by the end of next week. This should allow me to realize my goal of having the exterior wrapped up before the weather turns, with time to spare. The speed of getting this done and my lack of ability to devote hours to this during the week make me more confident in my decision to contract out the shell. I work for an international company and we have a lot of evening video conferences, so managing something like this just wasn't an option for me right now. Plus, the GC is a friend of mine who normally builds high end homes, so I know he is doing things the right way and not taking short cuts.

I've been doing a lot of research here about lighting, wall materials, etc., but may still be asking all of you for advice as I move into the interior phase. So thanks in advance. In the mean time, enjoy the pictures. The first 3 are of the trusses going up.

[Charlie Barnes]

Here are photos of the exterior framing completed with the sheathing and skylights installed. The third photo is looking in the front doors. You can see the vaulted trussed in the main shop part and the divider wall for the storage room. The last photo is from the rear corner of the shop area looking back toward the front.

[Charlie Barnes]

Here are photos of the utility trenches for the electrical, gas and water. I'm just telling the neighbors that I have a major mole issue.:eek: Apparently there has been much speculation as to what this project is. I've heard everything from mother-in-law suite to pool house. Actually that's good to hear since I wanted the design to be flexible enough that the next owner (hopefully a long time from now) can use it for a variety of purposes if he doesn't happen to be woodworker.

[Charlie Barnes]

Here's the last one for this week. It's my good buddy Mike putting the final touches on the sewer hook up to the house.

[Charlie Barnes]

Nice looking shop.

I don't think the Radiant floor heating should have been any more money. The tubing is very easy to install, and I've run dozens of my systems off of water heaters with small hydropanels to control things. The water heater is needed for the bathroom anyway.

Greg

Greg, good point. You're correct that the water heater will be there anyway, but I'll be using a much smaller unit since I won't have a shower and the only thing I'll need hot water for is washing hands/brushes, etc. That's a minor savings. The biggest savings was in the fact that they could pour a turn down wall footer/slab in a monolithic pour. No need to have a separate footer/foundation and slab. Also, since I wanted AC and my square footage is at the upper end of what a through the wall system could handle, I was leaning towards a forced air AC system anyway. So the duct work would need to be there to support that.

I probably could have tried a different GC and got the price of the radiant system down. But as I mentioned elsewhere, I really wanted this GC to handle the job since I'm familiar with his work and have a lot of confidence in him.

[Charlie Barnes]

Charlie,
looking good ,seems like you did alot of prep.You will be rewarded for that.Curious why no visqueen vapor barrier under the slab.Good Luck on the rest of your build,keep the photo's coming.
Greg

Greg,

In this area, vapor barriers are not commonly used for turn down wall footer/slab applications. I'm told that it's not needed. I hope that's right.

Charlie

[Micheal Roth]

Here's the last one for this week. It's my good buddy Mike putting the final touches on the sewer hook up to the house.
Ole' Mike made it to the big time. The World Wide Web! Look'in good!

[Jim Mattheiss]

Charlie:

That "porch" looks like a good place for a pair of rocking chairs and a table for the pitcher of iced tea.

Don't be too hasty on the hanging fern decision . . . .

I'm jealous on your new addition and it's design looks flexible enough for a MIL suite (ok - maybe it is too close to the house in that case :eek: ) or something else.

Keep posting - I'll be monitoring things as they progress to steal ideas.

Cheers

Jim

[Mike Vermeil]

What a piece of junk. Who's been giving you advice on this thing anyway? :D

Can't wait to see it in a couple weeks. Pre-pull festivities on the new porch? I'll bring the fern.

[Dick Thomas]

Nobody else has mentioned it, Charlie, so I decided I would:

YOU HAVE TRIGGERED A NATIONWIDE EPIDEMIC OF 'EXTREME SHOP ENVY';

We may never recover, until we build/upgrade our own! Therefore our long-suffering wives HATE you. :mad:

:D But of course we're looking forward to it; Looks great!

DickT

[Charlie Barnes]

Good Evening Friends,

It's been another productive week on the shop front. There have been a couple of bumps in the road, but nothing that can't be overcome. This week the electric meter and breaker box were installed along with the HVAC equipment and ductwork. Also, the brick work, windows and doors were mostly completed. Note the use of the word "mostly". It's kind of a domino thing.

The contractor doing the brick work, who is doing a very good job by the way, accidentally broke one of the windows. This means that a replacement window will need to be ordered. Until it comes in, the brick work can't be completed. The siding can't be installed until the brick work is done. So the target of having the shell wrapped up by this Friday probably isn't going to happen.

The minor victory for the week was getting our local utility company to allow me to install the meter lower to the ground than their normal standard. As you can see in the first picture, it's pretty high up on the side of the shop which was going to make it difficult to camouflage. Fortunately, the local inspector has been really great to work with and he is going to let me lower it so that the top is even with the brick work. This will make it much less visually intrusive.

In the mean time, I'm already revising my layout for about the third time based on the great ideas I keep finding from you guys. The latest revision is in the area of plywood and hardwood storage. I'm now planning to store most of my hardwood vertically just inside the front door on the right side. The plywood will also be stored vertically, but the location is still "floating" from day-to-day. Honestly, if I get any more good ideas from the other threads, I may never move in! Maybe I just need to lay off reading the Creek for a couple of months!:rolleyes:

Anyway, I hope you like this week's installment. All of the photos are pretty self explanitory, but just in case. The first photo shows the current meter location. The second is of the breaker box (note blue inspection tag). The third is the the furnace in the rear storage area. The fourth shows some of the HVAC duct work in the shop area.

[Charlie Barnes]

Again, these are pretty self explanatory. The first is the brick work in progress. My wife said that this took a crew of 3 guys about 3 hours late Thursday afternoon. The second shows the doors and windows installed (except for the broken one) and mostly completed brickwork around the window area. The third is the scene on the "front porch", which is still proudly - fern free. ;)

[Tom Hamilton]

Charlie, great planning and execution. You will have many happy years of woodworking in the shop you built.

Since you seem to have thought of all the major items I can only add one small suggestion: hanging pots with ferns on the front porch would look really nice....and pay handsome long term dividends. Just a thought.

Enjoy the journey,

Tom, in Douglasville, experiencing rain for the first time in over 40 days.

[David Helm]

I'm with you. Keep the ferns in the ground where they belong! Shop looks great. Too bad you don't have a wood stove to burn those off cuts. I'm really jealous of real HVAC and plumbing.

[Art Mulder]

Looks good, real good actually, but larger photos would be nicer on these middle-aged eyes! :cool:

[Charlie Barnes]

Well guys, not much to report this week. Tom Petty had it right when he said that "The Waiting is the Hardest Part" - as in waiting on my replacement window. :( The good news is that it should be in next week and they should be able to get things wrapped up. Maybe this is just in time since it seems we have suddenly gone from very hot and dry to cool and damp. Note damp doesn't mean wet - we still need real rain in a bad way. Anyway the crew got most of the siding and soffit up. The electrician got the meter relocated to the lower position even with the bricks. The GC and I decided that he would go ahead and do the finished grading so I could get the grass reseeded which my boys and I cranked out yesterday. With any luck, the window will show up this next week and they'll get the rest of the siding, brick and gutters knocked out.

The first photo is the siding work in process. The second one shows the relocated electric meter. It was much higher if you recall. The final photo shows the seed and straw effort from yesterday. I guess there's progress, just not as much as I wanted.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Charles.....it is progress and you are going to have a shop others will drool over!....or Turn Green!

[Jim O'Dell]

Very nice! Question about the broken window. Could the glass not be replaced without the casement? Or was there damage there too? Either way, it will be done soon, and you'll get to start seeing in real time, just how much you will need to change your planned tool placement!!:D:D:D Jim.

[Charlie Barnes]

Very nice! Question about the broken window. Could the glass not be replaced without the casement? Or was there damage there too? Either way, it will be done soon, and you'll get to start seeing in real time, just how much you will need to change your planned tool placement!!:D:D:D Jim.


I should have mentioned it sooner. Actually it's the casement that's cracked. I was told that it wouldn't impact the window functionally, but it is visibly noticeable. And of course, it would be on the first window which is the one that people would see first.

Regarding the tool placement, I've been thinking about a making mobile tool cart for my lesser used bench top tools such as my mortiser, oscillating belt/spindle sander etc. The tools would be mounted to a plywood base that would drop into a mating opening in the top of the cart. When not in use, the tools would be store in the lower part of the cart. Even with my expanded space, I'm going to keep things flexible and mobile so that the inevitable layout redesigns are less painful!

[Don Jarvie]

That shop looks awesome and the porch is a nice touch.

Have you thought about a wood floor? Those concrete floors can get really cold in the winter and you can also run some outlets to the middle of the shop and not have to upset the slab.

[Jeff Holoboski]

How exciting...Looking forward to more pics.
Jeff

[Charlie Barnes]

Good Evening Everyone,

It's been quite a while since I last posted an update. Part of the reason is that now the progress is up to me vs. contractors, so it's going much more slowly. Anyway, here are some pictures to give you an idea of the progress.

The first is an exterior shot now that the grass has started to come in. Actually this was about a month ago, so it's pretty well filled in now. The second is some of the rough electrical that I've run to the breaker box. I've only wired in 2 circuits so far for some of the lighting. I'll get the rest once I get the interior wall panels up. The third shot is of the drywall for the ceiling in process. It's done now, primed and painted. But you can see that in some of the following posts.

I'll try to post more frequently. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving.

Charlie

[Charlie Barnes]

Here are a few more photos of the progress. The first shows the finished ceiling and lighting. I've got 12 8' T8s (each has four 4' tubes) and I'm pretty pleased with the amount of light and lack of shadows. The second shows my current activity on the floor over the last couple of days as seen from the front doors. I'm using an H&C concrete stain and will top coat this with a couple of coats of clear to give it a little more durability. I went with a light tan color to help camouflage the sawdust. The third is just looking from the back towards the front. The fourth shot is my color experiment. I thought the golden red color would be "warm" but it looks pretty bad with the floor. The light brown above the switches is what I used on the bathroom walls. It looks much darker there, but I don't like it under the fluorescents. I'm going with the dark tan in the lower right corner. I think it goes well with the floor, but isn't too dark.

Take care everyone.

Charlie

[Trevor Howard]

Looking good Charlie, in picture one, why is the lights in the 3rd row down not in the same position as the others?

[Don Bullock]

Wow! Charlie, your shop is looking great. Having gone through all the same steps I know how excited you are. Now comes the work that has been the most difficult for me, getting the shop organized. Take your time positioning tools and putting in all the shelves, drawers, work benches and other things that are necessary for a well functioning workshop. Enjoy!!!

[Bruce Page]

I am green with envy!

[Charlie Barnes]

Looking good Charlie, in picture one, why is the lights in the 3rd row down not in the same position as the others?

Good question. I have 6 lights on each side of the ceiling and they are evenly spaced from end to end and from the side walls to the ceiling peak. Unfortunately, this meant that the 3rd row lights are aligned with an HVAC vent on each side. Therefore, they needed to be positioned 24" from the side walls instead of 12" like the others in order to clear it.

By the way, I've got some old T12s in my garage (a.k.a. old shop) and there's just no comparison from a light and noise perspective.