Stew Denton
02-25-2024, 3:49 PM
Hi All, I have wanted a shop for most of my life, but never had one, as I have mentioned in the past on this forum. Friday the trench for the footing was dug, and rebar put in place!
I carefully considered the advise given on this forum about my potential hybrid shop size, (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?298566-Hybrid-Workshop-Size), in which almost all said that what I was considering was pretty small for the tools listed.
Since then, Steven also suggested that I build a bigger shop than he has.
I listened to the advise, and my interior shop dimensions are to be about 23' by 40'. More than I had planned on having and spending, but I am glad that it is going that way. Thank you all for the advise on the size, and other advise given.
My wife and I have always lived well within our means, driven older cars, etc., so when I retired it was a very pleasant shock to find out, that we had enough money for the shop and tools that I wanted.
So far it has been a bit of a battle, and 5 different contractors either didn't even come up with bids, got out of the contracting business (two of them), or had to be rejected because of unfavorable references or suggesting poor building practices (two of them), and it finally came down to me being my own contractor.
I worked for a carpenter when young, and know a bit about construction, so knew some building practices one of them described, as normal for him, were of the "cutting corners" type. (He did have a relatively low bid.) When I mentioned that I thought one of his standard practices was less adequate than what I wanted, he told that he would build it any way that I wanted. That didn't give me "a warm fuzzy," though, as I thought I would have to watch them every second to make sure that they didn't cut any corners. That same contractor did not want his business listed as the contractor on the permit form, rather he wanted me to list the contractor as "myself and a friend are building the shop." That was the final red flag for that guy.
(While being my own contractor, I hope I am not like the guy who is his own defense lawyer who has a fool for a client.) At any rate, the work is finally underway. Having to take over the project myself, and weather condition, etc., have greatly slowed things down.
This got me to wondering if any of the rest of you are also working on, getting, building, or setting up a shop? If you are let us know!
Regards,
Stew
I carefully considered the advise given on this forum about my potential hybrid shop size, (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?298566-Hybrid-Workshop-Size), in which almost all said that what I was considering was pretty small for the tools listed.
Since then, Steven also suggested that I build a bigger shop than he has.
I listened to the advise, and my interior shop dimensions are to be about 23' by 40'. More than I had planned on having and spending, but I am glad that it is going that way. Thank you all for the advise on the size, and other advise given.
My wife and I have always lived well within our means, driven older cars, etc., so when I retired it was a very pleasant shock to find out, that we had enough money for the shop and tools that I wanted.
So far it has been a bit of a battle, and 5 different contractors either didn't even come up with bids, got out of the contracting business (two of them), or had to be rejected because of unfavorable references or suggesting poor building practices (two of them), and it finally came down to me being my own contractor.
I worked for a carpenter when young, and know a bit about construction, so knew some building practices one of them described, as normal for him, were of the "cutting corners" type. (He did have a relatively low bid.) When I mentioned that I thought one of his standard practices was less adequate than what I wanted, he told that he would build it any way that I wanted. That didn't give me "a warm fuzzy," though, as I thought I would have to watch them every second to make sure that they didn't cut any corners. That same contractor did not want his business listed as the contractor on the permit form, rather he wanted me to list the contractor as "myself and a friend are building the shop." That was the final red flag for that guy.
(While being my own contractor, I hope I am not like the guy who is his own defense lawyer who has a fool for a client.) At any rate, the work is finally underway. Having to take over the project myself, and weather condition, etc., have greatly slowed things down.
This got me to wondering if any of the rest of you are also working on, getting, building, or setting up a shop? If you are let us know!
Regards,
Stew