Building my shop

[David A Anderson]

Here is a Sketchup drawing of my future shop. 40x50x15. Door to be 13T x 12W. Mueller bolt up building kit. I requested U panels for the walls and PBR panels for the roof. Light stone color with Cocoa Brown Trim.

Note: I started this on Dec 7, so some of this is from my archives. I'll post until I get it up to present date.

[David A Anderson]

I had to establish electricity, so I bought a pole for $25, a meter socket for $45, 200amp main disconnect $135. I had the riser and service with 3/0 wire saved from a demo project, so I used it as is. That saved me about $400. Bought a permit, inspected, and passed.

Code requires 2/0 copper minimum for service with a #4 ground for 200amp. I also installed a grounding bushing on the offset nipple between socket and panel with #4 wire. Earth ground wire is protected in plastic conduit to ground level. If you use metal conduit, code requires bonding bushings on both ends. Didn't want to do that. The grounding bushing wire doesn't show in meter loop picture 003.jpg, but it was added after I took the shot. It is shown in "meter loop revised" picture. Neutral and ground are bonded and cabinet bond is connected. This is required at the main disconnect panel only.

The panel is an RF panel. F = feed through. It is for a proposed future house if I decide to build later.

[David A Anderson]

Site pictures. Let's start digging

[David A Anderson]

I got the trench for the sewer lines dug today. Slope is 1/4" per foot with the trench depth and minus 20" below concrete grade at the toilet flange stub. In the 3rd picture you can see the laser I used to establish a level line to get the ditch straight and reference my 1/4" slope. That laser is the handiest tool I have to get things level and square.

I dug about 100' of trench today with my old Case 580B backhoe. She's a good ole girl. Didn't break any underground pipes or hit anything. City should be there next week to give me a sewer tap. $1300, ouch!

[David A Anderson]

Building permit $303. Sewer tap $1300. $400 for slab engineering. Mueller engineered building $17300. The plumbers came today and laid the sewer line about 130' of pipe. Time and materials. It took 3.5hrs. They bought the permit. City won't let me plumb or wire since this is not my homestead. I'm wiring using a friends' license, and he pulled the permit. Don't have any plumber friends. Don't know the plumbing cost yet.

Bought $1700 in rebar this morning. I'll need more. I have a friend helping me and we made beam steel all afternoon and will resume tomorrow. I plan on laying all my steel and forms myself and will hire a finishing crew. Figured about 64yds of concrete at about $80 ea. This building is going to cost around $35K. Being in the city and dealing with their rules is really running up the cost.

[David A Anderson]

Plumbers came and put in sewer line. Inspection failed because they put the back to back clean outs in backwards. (These are really an RV dump adjacent my driveway.) I told them it was wrong, but they said that is the way they always do it. Inspector called them and they came right out and turned them around. Arrgh, why do I have to pay for this? Because the law says it MUST be done by a licensed plumber because it is not my homestead. I was boiling mad all Friday afternoon.

Still waiting on sewer tap from City. I will just let the pipe end sit there until the get it done.

[Jim Neeley]

Nice posts, David. I look forward to following your progress! :-)

[David A Anderson]

And here is my green tag from City to finally cover this up. Got it on Dec 15.

[David A Anderson]

December 22. Putting up forms. I closed in 3 sides by Tuesday afternoon. I began digging beam trenches after lunch. I tried a mini excavator, but it just didn't work the way I wanted to, so I returned and started working with manuel, er, my shovel I mean.

[David A Anderson]

I've been a mole all week. This is how far I've dug up to Sat Dec 23. All intermediate beams and 3 of the perimeter beams. Boy am I sore.

[David A Anderson]

January 4. Pre pour inspection is passed. Underground electrical is passed. We are ready to pour. I hired a finishing crew to pour it for $1200. Should do it next Tues. Total cost will be about $8000. I am ready for this phase to end. It has been one month since I started. I've got muscles now http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/Smileys/default/grin.gif Inspector gigged me for not wrapping the sewer line where exposed in the concrete beams. I should have known that. We do that when I'm on my volunteer building jobs. I told him I'd do it, and he left. http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif

[Jim Andrew]

Interesting to see your progress. Do you live near the building?

[Ole Anderson]

Nice to see progress pics. Where are you located? (go to "My Profile", hit the "about me" tab and fill in "location", then it will show on each post)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

David....You are making good progress! Enjoy the process!

[Sam Layton]

Hi Dave,

Really nice shop. I would love to have a shop that big. All of your hard work will sure pay off. I am enjoying your progress photo's.

Sam

[David A Anderson]

Nice to see progress pics. Where are you located? (go to "My Profile", hit the "about me" tab and fill in "location", then it will show on each post)
Live outside San Antonio TX

[David A Anderson]

Interesting to see your progress. Do you live near the building?I live two blocks away. The property has a 900 sqft home on it with a tenant. He will move out next year, and my wife and I want to sell our 2700sqft house and move in it. We want to downsize. We spend most of our time in the RV doing volunteer building with www.vcbuilders.org (http://www.vcbuilders.org) anyway (about 20 weeks per year). We have been doing that since 2008. The new shop is a glorified rv garage, but I have lots of tools to play with.

I've confered with the vcbuilders' president and I may use this location as a cabinet shop for fabrication for some of our jobs. He is very excited about that prospect as we have been building cabinets on the jobsite which doesn't give us the the quality that the organization requires.

[Darcy Forman]

That will be a very nice shop when done. Take heart in the cost department though. Just think, if you were building that shop where I live that sewer line would need to be eight feet blow grade and the shop footing would need to be four feet below grade. Imagine how much more that would end up costing you. It is cheaper building where frost is not a problem. On a side note I was in San Antonio in Novemeber for a water conference. Very nice city. That river walk is very nice feature of the city. I enjoyed visisting the Alamo as well.

[Jim Andrew]

I haven't heard of your organization, but cool that you can involve yourself with volunteer work that matters.

[David A Anderson]

I haven't heard of your organization, but cool that you can involve yourself with volunteer work that matters.We have over 1000 members with the average age about 70. Only about 250 are still physically able and active. Our jobs range from small to large depending on need. I worked the biggest one ever in Charlestown NH last summer. We laid up 75' trusses on a 7500sqft building. Those rascals were hard to handle. I'm always hawking for more members anytime I have a chance. It is a great reason to travel the country.

In the picture I'm standing on the roof with the brown shirt and white hard hat.

[Jamie Lynch]

Looking good. Good luck with all the inspections.

[David A Anderson]

Got the slab poured. Total cost to me was $4.05sq ft with 3000psi mix and no fly ash in the mix. Tomorrow I will wreck the forms, grade the perimeter and the building arrives Wednesday. Yippee!

[David A Anderson]

Two more pics

[David A Anderson]

While wrecking the forms I decided to lay in my water lines. 100' of 3/4 PVC. I tapped into the house water line and it was really rusted galvanized from the 40's so I replaced one joint with PVC from the meter to the first set of threads. It will all have to be replaced soon.

[David A Anderson]

Material arrived Jan 15. Neat gizmo to get it off the truck

[David A Anderson]

Standing the columns Jan 16. These all went up very fast and easy.

[David A Anderson]

Hanging the wall girts Jan 16. We got 3 sides done in one day. They bolt on really fast. We attached the wind bracing cables in the walls which really stiffens it up, so I didn't worry about any wind.

[David A Anderson]

Hanging the rafters. The previous "girt posting" had a rafter on the Gen pole. Jan 17 we hung the rafters. This was the most difficult part, especially the first one. Those I beams way up on that jenpole we made were hard to maneuver in place. I was too cheap to rent a sky jack. http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif I do own the blue lift, however. I bought it at an auction 4 years ago to trim all my oak trees. The second and 3rd set of rafters went pretty easy. OSHA would have put us all in jail if they had come by. We attached tag lines to each end with two guys outside the slab to guide the rafters in position after I raised the the rafter set above the column height. It was all done with safety as no one was under the rafters before they were attached.

Once the rafter is above the column height one man pulls his end down and attaches two top bolts loosely, then I lower the bucket and the other man on the other end pulls his rafter to the column and it drops into position so he can stab a spud wrench in the hole, line it up and insert his bolts, all done from outside the building frame. http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/Smileys/default/wink.gif

[David A Anderson]

We also hung a few purlins on Thurs and finished all of them on Friday. We used the lift to raise them then slid in place. The eave strut purlins were heavy and hard to land. They were also bay specific and we ended up trying all 4 before we got the first one set. Grrrrr! They were not labeled by Mueller. We lost at least an hour messing with those.

[David A Anderson]

Installing the wind bracing cables. This was near the end of Friday. All the angle bracing was installed, and all of the wind bracing cables installed.

[Lou Stags]

Looks awesome!

[David A Anderson]

Today, (Saturday) I worked by myself all day. I plumbed the columns with my laser level. This is done by adjusting the wind bracing cables. There was a 1.5" bow in the last rafter set at the peak which carried all the way through the frame to the opposite gable end. A few cranks on the cables and I got her dead on.

For some reason our overhead door columns did not fit. I had to cut them off 1.5". I don't know if Mueller messed up or I did. Anyway the wall girts don't match the bolt holes now, so I'm going to weld them in place instead of redrilling all those holes. Yuk. They were not plumb top to bottom either. I had to torch out the floor flange 1/2" to get the door jamb plumb. It may have been in the slab. Anyway, it is all fixable. Everything really looks good. I'm happy with my results.

[David A Anderson]

attaching the bottom drip edge and peeling that pesky plastic coating off of the trim pieces. Took 2.5 hours. yuk

[David A Anderson]

Had to take off to help my son load these logs to the sawmill. They are from the Bastrop TX fire. Millions are available for the taking. He is cutting them up into big beams for his house he will build this year. One of these was 30" diameter a the base. It was so heavy he bent my fork on the backhoe, had to take it off, cut it, straighten it, and weld it back with extra gussets to prevent re-bending.

He cut it into an 8"x14"x20' beam.

[David A Anderson]

Got the walls up. Hung the windows. I didn't even make window returns on the back side, just riveted them through the skin. It sure slows down the wall hanging, though. Don't like this metal work much. I know now I prefer wood better

[David A Anderson]

Yippee, finished all the skin. Now installing trim pieces. I've got tendonitis in my left arm from dragging those 20' panels up to the rooftop. On the trim, the corners are installed 1st, then I mate the gutter to the rake box trim. It has really been slow on this phase. It took me 3 hours to do one corner this morning. I must have gone up/down that lift 25 times to get some tool or part, then the brand new GFCI plug failed on my electric panel. It was not tripped, but when I pushed the test button it clicked and I could not get it to reset. I pulled it out and put in a regular plug. All these things take so much time to get anything done.

I had that corner finished at noon and was frustrated enough that I didn't want to work on it after lunch, so I just cleaned up the building site the rest of the day. I was sick of being on that lift.

I'll start fresh on Monday.

[Sam Layton]

David,

The shop is sure looking good. Your truck looks like a toy. Really shows the size of the shop... Keep the photo's coming.

Sam

[David A Anderson]

No pics today, but I finished hanging the rake trim, gutters and downspouts on one side. Took all day. I'm sure guys that do this daily could do in an hour what is taking me 8. It is just frustratingly slow to get the gutter and rake trim to mate up and look good. Lots of grinding, trimming, etc. If I ever build another one, I would not get the gutters. The main reason I bought the gutter package is because it does give a more professional look. I'm in a residential area, and I really wanted this building to look good in the neighborhood. If I'd known the difficulty, I would have deleted it.

[Gregg Williams]

Very cool updates! It is coming along fast and well! Love to see it when it is finished!

[David A Anderson]

Finished all the trim and gutters today, but I backed the lift into the wall and bent a panel all up:mad: Fortunately, it's under a window and I have a spare long enough to cover it. I'll replace it tomorrow. It just won't end:eek:

[David A Anderson]

Finished all the trim and gutters today, but I backed the lift into the wall and bent a panel all up:mad: Fortunately, it's under a window and I have a spare long enough to cover it. I'll replace it tomorrow. It just won't end:eek:

Here is my oopsy, and the gutters and trim corner. Those 4 corners took forrrever.

[David A Anderson]

Hanging the doors. Got her done:)

[David A Anderson]

Since this is a metal frame building all electric has to be in conduit. No romex allowed. I hung electric boxes and EMT all day on the 8th. Pulled nearly all the wire in the pipe today. To make circuit identification easy from any junction box, I used red for lights. Black for 120v circuits. Orange for all my 240v circuits. I used 600' of orange wire:eek: for all my 240v circuits. Need to accommodate the table saw, planer, and cyclone, plus a couple of extra in case I move tools around. Since this is considered a "garage" code requires all 120v plugs to be GFCI. I'll make the GFCI plug the lead plug in each circuit and daisy chain off of it with the rest.

I have to buy some #6 for the 50a plug for the RV and some for my Lincoln welder. I'm trying to get all the plugs done, so I can pull up the extension cords from outside. I'll get the light fixtures up next week.

It's nice to have the building secure. I can leave my tools now.

[Mike Heidrick]

Thanks so much for this thread!!

Now is the time for a 3ph converter install and ductwwork install!!

[David A Anderson]

Boy do I have a mess now. I bought some clear floor sealer to seal the floor and understood from the seller is was a one step process. My son picked up the product, so he got first hand instructions, not me. I called the salesman for application instructions, and nowhere did I hear the word primer. He made clear to stay off of the floor 24 hours after finished. I had 12 cans of "A" and 12 cans of "B". I called a helper and away we went. I did the rolling, he did the mixing. It was going down beautifully. Man, this is easy. When he mixed cans 7 & 8, he said this looks different. I poured some down and began rolling. Suddenly it turned to contact cement :eek: consistency. "What is going on?", I said. He looked at the can and it said "crack sealer". It was different from the other cans. I stopped and looked. I had 6 kits of primer/crack sealer and 6 kits of top coat. The boxes looked identical and so did the cans. Both said mix A and B.

I called the salesman and he said you have to prime the floor first. "But the lady I talked to yesterday said this was one step, and you never mentioned primer." "I explained all this to your son when he picked it up", he said. "Maybe so, but there are no instructions," I said. "They're on the can". It just says mix A and B.

This went on for a few minutes, but it's not getting fixed. Fortunately, after he called the mfg, they said the top coat will dry, but no warranty. Phooey, big deal. These warranties usually amount to nothing anyway. However, the problem is the primer that overlapped the wet top coat. It will not dry. It's about an area of 10x12. I kept rolling hoping it would level out, but I should have stopped as soon as I saw the inconsistency. That would have been about 2'x8'. I went down about 2 hours later and scraped it with a 12" sheetrock knife. It peeled up like wet glue. Hopefully, the base of it will dry. If not I may have to put a paint stripper on it. Xylene wouldn't touch it. Paint thinner did nothing.

I sent my wife up to get six more top coat kits. She saw the boxes and said, "they do look alike." The guy said, "yea this happens some time". Blah, blah. My wife told him they should be labeled A, B, C, D. Mix A with B and C with D.

I spent $1400 on this stuff, and may have to spend a lot more if that area doesn't dry. I'm pissed, and sure wish I hadn't done this.

The picture on the right is where I scraped up the primer that came in contact with the top coat.

[Steve Keathley]

That really sucks. The bright side is that I have been reading this thread thinking, "I would like to do this project, but would have messed something up by now." You have restored my self-confidence. :D

Seriously... I hope you find a good solution.

BTW... I have two sons and feel your pain. They are good kids, but sometimes I think they take their brains out of their skulls and play basketball with them.

[David A Anderson]

That really sucks. The bright side is that I have been reading this thread thinking, "I would like to do this project, but would have messed something up by now." You have restored my self-confidence. :D

Seriously... I hope you find a good solution.

BTW... I have two sons and feel your pain. They are good kids, but sometimes I think they take their brains out of their skulls and play basketball with them.

I kind of ragged on my son about it, but he calmly said, "I was just the delivery guy." I agreed. It wasn't his responsibility to convey instructions. I should of had written instructions and a MSDS, too. This stuff is so smelly, I had to don my respirator.

BTW, they gave my wife instructions and MSDS on the order she obtained this afternoon.

[David A Anderson]

Finished the floor Saturday. After reading the written instructions that the salesman gave my wife when she bought the second batch of topcoat (which I did not get on the first application) I applied the primer on Friday and the top coat Saturday with a squeegee (as stated in the instructions). Man, was it easier. I think it took me 30 minutes to do the remaining 800sqft.

Anyway the floor looks great. Too bad 2/3 of it will probably delaminate in in a couple of years. :mad: This would have been so easy if I just had received the instructions.:rolleyes:

[David A Anderson]

I bought my lights Saturday after finishing the floor and returning the unused floor sealer. Paid $39ea at Lowes for 8' four bulb T8 fixtures. I purchased 6500K bulbs which is daylight. Is that number too high? I could have bought cool white, but I figured the bluish tint wouldn't work well in a wood shop setting.

[David A Anderson]

Got the lights up. Built the bathroom and ran the plumbing. Getting close to being done.

Used the lumber from the wrecked concrete forms for framing. Need to get a door and paint the bathroom. I'll do that next week.

I hung 15 eight foot T8 fixtures at 12' high. I'm pleased with the results. They were $39 each, but they look very "cool white" to me. Oh well, I like them ok.

[David A Anderson]

Time to get the tree out. I pushed it over and got my backhoe big time stuck. If anyone can do it, I sure can. I had to raise the hoe off the tree and cut the roots from underneath then crawl it out with the bucket.

[David A Anderson]

Got her done. All cleaned up and loaded.

[Rich Konopka]

Dave, Job well done. I have been following for the past couple of months. I bet you are glad it is done and time to begin with the real fun - Setting up your new shop.

[David A Anderson]

I started on the fence Friday. My sister is giving me a toilet from a remodel. Once I install it I can get a final inspection, then start installing the DC system and move my tools over.

My son is starting site work on his house next week. Once we start that project, I'll really get busy. I'm really missing being on the road with the Volunteer Christian Builders, however. www.vcbuilders.org (http://www.vcbuilders.org) I haven't been out on a job since November and I'm itching to get back. I received a call from a member today. They are on a 23 couple crew in Hope AR. Really sounds like fun. I never knew working for free would be so pleasurable until I joined that group of folks:D

[Vincent Branton]

Nice thread! I'm looking forward to see more updates on your shop! Good luck :D

[David A Anderson]

I've somewhat run into a problem with my DC system. I purchased a Woodtek CT-201 dust collector from Craigslist last year and have it stored away. Problem is it is missing the discharge chute. I called Eric at Woodworkers Supply and the part is no longer made. It's a 3hp cyclone and should have 2 bags for the fines, so the exhaust chute splits to two outputs.

The input is 6" which with a 6" main line and 6" drops bushed down to the tool outlet size will work one tool at a time for me, and as I see it should be sufficient for my needs. The intake and exhaust on the current models is 8".

I'm kind of thinking of fabricating an exhaust chute and sizing it to accept the new model Woodworker Supply cyclone bag. I'll have to discuss this with Eric next week.

Anyone have any other ideas?