Shop Build...should be a fun journey...

[Jim Becker]

I am going to have to wait a few days before I resume digging the rest of the material out...last night's and today's rain made things "not good" for digging and moving material. Even the folks who did the demolition next doors said "see you need week" for their last day of final cleanup. Meanwhile, the Project Coordinator wrote me to day to find out if I had any blackout dates and to see if my site prep was "done" yet...the latter took me aback considering the permit wasn't approved until late last week. Fingers crossed that his question is a good omen relative to scheduling.

[Jack Frederick]

I installed five of these receiver hitches in the floor of my shop. Four in a rectangular pattern and one in line with the OH door. Five have proven to be to many, but the in-line with the door has been handy and I’ve used the pair on the other side. I had laid them out to be in-line but things get interesting during a pour so they are not quite in line. I welded up the insert shown in the photo for both to bring them in line. I then installed a couple angle brackets in the ceiling plumb off the fabricated brackets. I have a few sticks of Unistrut I attach vertically and a couple to attach horizontally. I have used it mostly on welding projects for fence panel frames. I can have it up in about 15 min and down in less. It has been good not having to walk around the table on panels, being able to stand up and work on them easily in the position I choose.

[Jim Becker]

I'm done with excavating out the organics. In different conditions, I would not have gone this far, but there is a lot of wet in the ground here and having more compacted stone that's down to the subsoil is long term a better situation, even though the floor would likely be fine anyway. There will be geotextile between the soil and the compacted stone, too, other than in the specific areas where the builder will drill for the posts. I do have to deal with a hydraulic leak before I order in the stone...I discovered it while working today and fed the machine a couple times to finish up, but I can't not attend to it at this point.

Since I have a small machine, it was most efficient when removing material to break it up with the backhoe first...bucket curl is mighty powerful!

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End result...yes, it's deeper at the back end, but that's what was necessary to clear the soil that needed to be gone for a good base.

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I'm very grateful that all this topsoil will be able to be used nextdoor as the lot is prepared to be put up for sale now that the derelict house is gone, gone, gone...

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[Jim Becker]

I installed the geotextile on Sunday, calculated the post positions and removed the fabric from where the auger will be drilling. This required a little manual layout, but was accurate enough for the purpose. The builder will be advised to put the front, right post "here" and layout the remainder from there exactly one foot off the easement boundary. Today, I need to do elevations to calculate the stone required. It will be a lot more than I would have preferred but I do believe the excavation will have a good long term benefit.

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[Bob Riefer]

Looks great Jim! Perhaps a stake at each post location before laying stone down would be helpful. The geotextile material is awesome stuff, very tough and long lasting. Long after the sting of than the extra stone & expense, I think you'll rest easy knowing the prep work you've done for the base of your building.

[Jim Becker]

Looks great Jim! Perhaps a stake at each post location before laying stone down would be helpful. The geotextile material is awesome stuff, very tough and long lasting. Long after the sting of than the extra stone & expense, I think you'll rest easy knowing the prep work you've done for the base of your building.

This particular fabric is heavier, made to go under driveways...and at 13' wide, it was perfect for a 25' wide hole in only two pieces. Unfortunately, I needed to buy two "portions" because they were only 60' long, but it will not go to waste as it will go under a small apron and whatever walkway between the shop and house gets put in place. Much better and heavier than typical "landscape" cloth. Not terribly expensive, either.

I'm not worried about staking the post positions as the builder has to plot them precisely. By giving them that one in the front corner, it insures they do their layout consistent with my soft-layout of the space.

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In other news, I had a friend who's currently in the insulation business quote my "beloved" closed cell spray foam. Eek...I don't think it's going to happen. Before the "friends and family" consideration, the insulation was going to cost just shy of two grand less than the entire flipping building. Unfortunately, the petroleum/chemical industry has taken a major hit. I may need to do a ceiling after all...

[james manutes]

Check "flash and batt" , it would be somewhat cheaper .

[Adam Herman]

best laid plans and all that. we had considered lots of "upgrades" like in floor heat and spray foam, but alas, the cost of the building itself is 50% more than we originally thought so going for bare bones. we are doing the standard plastic backed fiberglass. and will put in a ceiling later on and insulate that as well.

[Jim Becker]

Check "flash and batt" , it would be somewhat cheaper .

Yes, it would...I'm very familiar with the technique. With closed cell foam at about $1.80 a 'board foot', even with only a 1" flash layer, it's going to be thousands of dollars and doesn't solve the "up top" problem with me leaving the structure open, unfortunately. It's likely I"m going to have to do a ceiling with blown-in fiberglass with R19 unfaced "wide batt post frame specific" material in the walls with a polyethylene vapor barrier to be affordable. That means more work for sound mitigation, but it's still going to be substantially less by a magnitude than what I would prefer. Life is that way sometimes.

On a brighter note, lumber futures continue to fall which should hopefully help with my interior fit-out.

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Took my first stone delivery today...recycled concrete which was less expensive than "regular" modified stone and really compacts well. My calculations anticipated I'd need a total of just over 50 ton, but it's more likely I'll need about 60 ton to have a little left over for "stuff". At 23 ton a load, that's three loads. And bringing it in via the still-existing driveway next door was awesome as the driver could pull in forward and then do a K-turn to get the stone across our back lawn to "the spot". (sorry about the lighting...I picked an unfortunate angle for the photo) At the back end, running doing elevations, there will be about 28" of compacted fill with about 12" above grade.

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[Sal Cangialosi]

I was forced to go with closed cell spray foam in the roof. I switched from an unconditioned to a conditioned space which changed the code requirement. I couldn't meet code and maintain the ceiling height I wanted without the spray foam. I could have 'delayed' install of hvac; but ultimately resigned myself to what was/is a shocking cost vs batt.

[Jim Becker]

In my house, I would have gladly chosen the spray foam "despite" the cost. Actually did that at the previous property when our large addition went up. For my shop...I gotta have money for other things, too, so we'll just have to see how things work out. I do plan on other quotes, too, "just in case".
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Better photo of what the first 23 ton of stone ended up doing. Not enough. LOL I still have bare geotextile up top, but this layer is a triangular section that's about 16" at the back/deep end feathering to next to nothing up at the front/top.

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[Jim Becker]

Holy tons of stone, Batman!! I'm up to 69 ton and need at least one more 23 ton full load to finish the base! Today, I moved around 46 ton...and the Big Orange Power Tool did it effortlessly, albeit in, um...small bites...compared to the typical skid steer. I rented a compactor and clearly, I'm going to need it longer than just a day. At any rate, things are moving along. I "may" have the base complete with one more day of working, but the weather has to cooperate.

Pictures from today...

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This is about how much higher I need to build up the back/bottom end. Sheesh.
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At the end of the day...I'm out of stone, but am pleased with the results so-far. Once I have that upper deck fine-tuned, I'll be able to use it as a reference to do the rest with two more layers. I may or may not need more stone after that if I decide to raise it a few more inches for groundwater reasons.

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[Adam Herman]

I hired a guy to do my pad, and it did not turn out very level. I will have to get more structural fill. you can see the sill board down the side and the foot of fill I need at the back. would you call the guy back to finish the job? it was not cheap. hopefully the main contractor will help out with it, as it was his recommended guy to do the pad. anyhow. a progress picture to give you something to look forward to.

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[Jim Becker]

That's a bummer that your ground person did a poor job. I'm a rank amature and I'm so far within an inch with just over half the area now at-grade. I took another delivery of stone this morning and honestly, I'm already guessing I'm going to need a fifth load, although there will be plenty left over from that one for related projects. At $466 with tax per load, it's adding up, but still thousands less than I would have had to pay someone else. The Big Orange Power Tool is working really, really well, particularly with the rejuvenation of the pressure relief valve the other day...it's lifting and moving like a champ!

Sadly, this has turned into a "hurry up and wait" situation as I got the projected schedule this morning in an email from the assigned project manager with the builder. Despite two folks emailing me last week to inquire if my site was ready, she indicated that the second week of September is when things will happen at this point and that could also change. No matter, I really did need to do this ground prep now while I had access via the property next door for the big, heavy trucks. That's going to go away in a week or two. So I'll be staring at the pad for a few months while I find some other mischief around the house to do while waiting.

[Adam Herman]

this is the way.

The advantage of having the pad complete is that the longer it sets now, the more stable it will be with the building upon it.