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

[Jim Becker]

"It's alive!!!" Took my time and took great care to not bugger the line set. The shorter 16' worked much better, although even shorter would have been nice for this application. A traditional line set obviously would be better for that, but the counter weight is more install work and tools needed. I'll live...

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I am, however, going to do a very small bump-out on the lower inside wall so I do not have to risk things. It will be the depth of a 2x4 or 2x6 and be minimally intrusive. I'd rather have that little bump on the wall than say more bad words.

Next up will be drywall...soon.

[Tom M King]

It won't matter that it's about to get cold outside. You made it in good time to finish the inside in comfort!

[Jim Becker]

It won't matter that it's about to get cold outside. You made it in good time to finish the inside in comfort!

Exactly. The remaining work prior to move-in is all inside and working comfortably is a nice thing. The system will only need to be shut off when I'm spraying the walls and given the insulation, that's not really going to matter. Sadly, I do need to open the big door to bring in the drywall and later, the tools. Nature of the beast.

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So I've been mentally working on a bunch of complimentary sound mitigation things for this space. One portion incorporates some elements covered with (presumably surplus/used) carpet. The other night I randomly typed in the word "carpet" into Facebook Marketplace and the very first hit was a nice roll of actually brand new, grey, indoor-outdoor, short pile carpet for $50. The lady had purchased it off Marketplace and the seller unfortunately misrepresented the size to her...it was not nearly large enough for her need. Perfect color and exactly what I wanted for a reasonable cost. And yes, I drove to pick it up.

[Jack Frederick]

Well done on your mini install. I will be following your sound mitigation strategies. We have an offer in on a place and if accepted I’ll be outfitting a two car garage that currently has open studs and no insulation.

[Zachary Hoyt]

The mini split looks great, very nice work. Will you have to buy some kind of hard cover for the part of the lines outside the building or are they fine with the tape they have? Nice find on the carpet too. New carpet should be nice and non-smelly, and the price sounds great.

[Jim Becker]

The mini split looks great, very nice work. Will you have to buy some kind of hard cover for the part of the lines outside the building or are they fine with the tape they have? Nice find on the carpet too. New carpet should be nice and non-smelly, and the price sounds great.

Since I didn't come down the outside of the wall, there's no need for the hard protective cover. The 16' line set I bought to replace the original 25' line set that I buggered has a flexible plastic cover on it already in addition to the foam insulation. The foot and a half that's exposed outside has been further wrapped with the non-sticky tape they provide plus electrical tape to hold that in place. I'm picking up some white tape today to make that all "disappear".

And yea...the carpet was a good, lucky find and new is much nicer than used for sure!

[Jim Becker]

Well, I guess I can honestly say that I'm officially ready for drywall. I put in the small bump out so I didn't have to risk further bending of the line set and re-filled in the blocking grid so I can still hang racks up there if I need to for any horizontal lumber storage. Also picked up some white tape and did the final wrap of the short bit of line set between the wall and the outdoor unit...I'll deal with the excess spray foam another day as I forgot to take a knife outside with me when I was wrapping. Lastly, got all the boxes cut up and put in the recycling, swept the floor of the miter saw debris and stood there looking at things for a bit. I'll probably order the drywall in the morning for pickup and then get the unneeded tools and materials out of the space.

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I left the unit on 65ºF overnight and brought it up to 68ºF about mid-day, intending to work out there. It did the job, despite the open ceiling. The seal of the spray foam is going to help a lot with that I think.

[Jim Becker]

Drywall time has commenced. I ordered from Lowes this morning expecting to be able to pick up within about an hour...which wouldn't have been an issue except the store had a childrens' workshop even happening smack in the middle of the building supplies department for some reason and they couldn't run the fork lift or other machinery during the event. No big deal, but I had wanted to do the pickup before it got windy. Brought it home and using the Big Orange Power Tool with a bucket mounted hitch ball, I carefully backed the trailer into the shop where it will live until the drywall is off of it. That's only an 8' wide door and there was mere inches on either side to pass through. Did it quick so I didn't lose too much heat.

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Since there was still day left before I had to start preparing a family meal in celebration of 17 years since we adopted our daughters (our "Family Day" is in just three days), I decided to put up what is pretty much the one "difficult" piece of 'rock...the one just inside the person-door where the electric panel and a whole bunch of other wall perforations are. This one had to be laid out manually and I had to massage it in the corner because the guy who did the interior girts did that corner before figuring out the correct way to do it. I wonder who what was? At any rate, that sheet is hung and it's reasonably good. The rest of the sheets I'll be able to use a rotary tool to do the cutouts with the help of some kewel little electric box inserts that automagically locating the boxes when you tack the board up.

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Oh, and I know this question will likely be on the tip of more than one person's tongue..."why is the drywall going up vertically?" There's method to my madness here. It's a big, wide open room and by using vertical orientation, I virtually eliminate butt joints that don't have the recess between the sheets. That will save me time when taping and mudding...less feathering of the mud. The second question is likely "why 8' sheets instead of 10' sheets?" Also a simple answer...with two parts. 1) I can handle an 8' sheet myself if need be and 2) that top two feet is where a bunch of sound mitigation things are going to happen so there's no need for drywall all the way to the top. I did consider using 10' sheets for the end walls, but the extra five bucks per sheet plus the greater handling challenge in the end changed my mind. I'll just continue the sound stuff there, too.

[Alan Lightstone]

The rest of the sheets I'll be able to use a rotary tool to do the cutouts with the help of some kewel little electric box inserts that automagically locating the boxes when you tack the board up.

OK. Do tell us about the kewl little magic tool.

[Kyle Stiefel]

Nice work, it always feels good to knock out the harder portion of a project.

[Jim Becker]

OK. Do tell us about the kewl little magic tool.

Patience, Grasshopper...before I wax eloquently about how wonderful that "magic tool" is, I need to actually use it. But it does look promising for such a simple gadget.

[John Kananis]

What a great space. Congrats, Jim - I'm enjoying the progress.

[Thomas Wilson]

It looks like there is enough depth in your wall to add some fiberglass batts. It would add some insulation. I would think your climate would justify the cost. What is your thinking on the cost/benefit?

I have been experimenting with keeping the heat vents and interior doors to my shop’s basement closed. The basement is half underground and has 1” - 1 1/2” foam and 6” fiberglass in the above ground walls. The 10x8 garage door is R19. In the current cold snap, it is still tolerable, probably 60 degrees in the unheated space. We are having mid 20’s lows and high 30’s in the daytime. I have the main shop set at 67 which is very comfortable while working.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, there's space that I could put in fiberglass, but it likely wouldn't add a huge impact because the closed cell spray foam is so efficient and gives a total seal. With no air infiltration, the value of additional insulation "in this particular kind of project" will not justify the cost for me. The mini split is set to 66ºF and now that the space is filled up with warm air, it's sitting at about 67ºF, according to the app, and it's barely cycling on. The spray foam was spec'd at 2" on the walls (R15) and 3" on the ceiling (R22) but like all spray foam jobs, it's over-shot a bit, so in most of the space, the R-values are higher than I paid for. In the area I did the punch through for the line set, the foam was about 3.5" thick. I'm not unhappy about that.

[Thomas Wilson]

The R values are additive but the heat loss coefficient is the exponential of the negative of R value. There is diminishing return.