Vacation - Shop Update

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Folks....I took vacation last week. See the attached photos. About one more hour of hanging sheetrock and I'll be ready to tape and mud. You'll notice that the top 2' of the walls are not covered with plywood yet. When they delivered the sheet materials, a single sheet of 1/2"CDX was on bottom, the sheetrock was on top of it and 30 sheets of 1/2 CDX was on top of the wallboard. I elected to install the 1/2" CDX on the walls starting from the bottom up so that I wouldn't have to handle the plywood more than once. As it was, I ended stacking 10 sheets to get to the drywall. You'll notice that at the north end of the shop I have yet to install plywood on the walls around the electrical service panel. I'm going to put that plywood on with sheetrock screws and finish washers. I didn't have the washers at the time that I rented the sheetrock hoist. Regardless, I made some significant progress (for me) this week and am much closer to having a finished shop. :D

[Corey Hallagan]

Looking good Ken, that is going to be a pretty big shop, I am envious. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see the shop equipment in their!

Corey

[Jim Becker]

Looks great, Ken! I bet it got a lot LOUDER in there, too... ;) Those hard walls will bounce a lot of sound until you get your tools and cabinets in to break things up.

[lou sansone]

ken

looks like you are doing a nice job with it all.. is there any finish for the plywood walls that you are planning on? I am not suggesting any, just wondering what if any you were planning on doing. Just to let you know, that for my shop I did put a "natural" minwax coating on the entire interior. It turned out that the simplest way I found to apply the material was to buy an inexpensive bug sprayer ( pump type cost about $15) and just spray the whole thing down.
lou

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim....I wish it was louder in there. Due to a viral infection in my inner ear, I lost all of the hearing in my right ear and only have about 60% normal hearing in my left ear. The loss of hearing drives me up the wall. I used to love to go to parties just to visit with people. Now...if it's you and I having a conversation in a room I can hear most of what you say but...if someone else is having a conversation in that same room, even if it's a indoor stadium and the other people are at the other end of the stadium...I hear them just a well as you and can't understand what either person is saying. I really haven't noticed an increased volume of sound in the shop, I'm sorry to say.

Lou, I plan on painting the ceiling and walls a low lustre white...probably an egg shell white. If you could wash flat white, I'd paint the walls flat white to maximize the light in the shop without a glare.

[Dan Forman]

Ken---Is your hearing loss permanent? I have hearing loss too, due to years playing in bands in an earlier life. The digital hearing aids of today are miles ahead of the older models. Have you considered getting fitted? They can program a test model for you so you can hear what it will sound like before you buy. Mine have made a big difference in my life.

Almost forgot to say what a great looking shop you will have! Enjoy it.

Dan

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dan.....The loss is permanent and the type of hearing loss I have won't be corrected by using a hearing aid. That was the first thing I checked into. I just woke up one morning 10 years ago...I was totally deaf in my right ear and it had a constant tone in it. After seeing my personal physcian, having an MR scan and seeing a ENT I was placed on a strong steroid for 10 days. I was told that most likely I had a viral infection in the inner ear and if my hearing didn't return within 6 months of the steroid treatment the loss would be permanent. I've seen other doctors since the initial diagnosis and they concur.

[Jim Becker]

Jim....I wish it was louder in there. Due to a viral infection in my inner ear, I lost all of the hearing in my right ear and only have about 60% normal hearing in my left ear. The loss of hearing drives me up the wall. I used to love to go to parties just to visit with people. Now...if it's you and I having a conversation in a room I can hear most of what you say but...if someone else is having a conversation in that same room, even if it's a indoor stadium and the other people are at the other end of the stadium...I hear them just a well as you and can't understand what either person is saying.

Trust me, I understand as I have a similar issue. I have about a 35db hearing loss in my right ear probably from otosclerosis (http://www.entcolumbia.org/otoscler.htm), but it's different through the frequency range. So I have the same issue with discrimination when in noisy environments. Folks who interact with me will often find me turning my head if they happen to be standing on my right...

Of course, Dr SWMBO says I also have "selective hearing" in my left ear...and with that title, I guess she's right! ;)

[John Hart]

Me Too...Mark me down as one of the deaf guys....But only with women and children voices and anytime there's background noise. Loud noises cause pain so I'd have to wear ear plugs and headphones in Kens Shop.

Speaking of Ken's shop....Is this going to be all shop or are you sharing with other utilities? Are you installing electrical outlets in the ceiling? I know...weird question. It seems like I'm the only one who does that...just looking for vindication.

Looks good Ken

[Bill Lewis]

Outlets in the ceiling is good idea, not a crazy one. Great for retractable extension cords, or for ceiling mounted air cleaners.

I put my light switches in a double gang box thinking I would need to add another lighting circuit (task lighting), but I have sufficient light so I am now thinking of using the box space for a switched ceiling outlet (air cleaner).

[lou sansone]

glad to see you are going to paint the plywood.... I think in the long run it will be more pleasent to work in. As you can see in my shop I used a combination of painted surfaces and natural tones as well, just to break up the monotany. I am not sure what you could do in your shop if you wanted to do a little more than all one color, but I am not an interior designer.


lou

[Ken Fitzgerald]

John...if you look at the photos down the middle of the ceiling there are 4 120v outlets. I plan on put twist-lock outlets there and make up some special extension cords. At the North end (garage door end) of the shop, there are 4 outlets going left to right. These are for the 4 rows of T-8 flourescent lights. Each lighting outlet is controlled by it's own switch. You'll notice in the walls that all of my wall outlets are at 48 1/4" height above the floor. I can stand sheet goods up against the wall without blocking outlets.

And finally....it's all shop in my backyard. I installed an insulated garage door because in the winter I might want to pull a vehicle in the shop to work on it. Otherwise I'd have installed a set of dual insulated doors to get material and objects (large tools and projects) in and out of the building.

[John Hart]

Ok Ken. I am completely impressed. Geez...I can't even think of anything else to say! Completely impressed.

[Jerry Olexa]

Ken Very professional Good job! Can't wait to see it in operation! Be careful w your ears. I'm sorry to learn that. My next door neighbor (a pilot for American) is always insisting I wear ear protection, etc and I've got to be better in that regard. Your shop looks great!!

[Chris Padilla]

Looking good, Mr. Fitzgerald! I think you have too many outlets! ;) Did you design in a future cyclone/DC in some corner somewhere?

I've got 3 more T8 light strips to put up but I can already tell you that these things are bright, bright, bright and quiet, quiet, quiet (not that you could hear them! :p ). I think painting everything a semi-gloss white (although boring as heck) is really making the lighting work very well....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Chris...yes I did design it for a cyclone dc. In the third picture there are a couple of extra outlets....one is for the air compressor...it's switched. I plan on putting a solenoid drain on the ac and at night when I wall out and switch off the lights I also turn off the ac. I'll put a plastic oil drain pain under the ac and it'll get drained daily. I had a friend who's neighbor's garage caught on fire. They had a time getting the ac out while waiting for the fire department. Seems the 26 gallon tank had about 20 gallons of water in it?The other outlet is wired with #10 and it's on it's own breaker specifically for dc. I plan on framing in a double closet in that corner. One closet will hold the ac and one for the dc. I'll probably use Jim's idea of a z-shaped air return to deaden sound tranfer on the dc.