Guitar Shop build: 24'x30'

[Messiah Guitars]

Greetings all, The name is Chris.

I've been lurking for a few months and thought I would share my current build, a 24'x30' stick built for guitar building.

I've been wanting a shop for a very long time and the current garage is just way to small (read: junked up).....and besides, the wife doesn't take kindly to saw dust on the Infiniti. I'm sure nobody here can relate.

So, after constant begging, pleading and all sorts of wussing on all levels the wife gave her blessing and the search was on. I looked at pole barns and pre-fab stuff but it just wasn't what I wanted. After talking with quite a few people, and the aforementioned lurking here, I found a contractor to start work in November. Things have really drug out but the end is near. This will be an on-going thread as the building itself is almost finished and the inside will be as money allows.

The building inspector ripped the contractor a new one on a couple of occasions as he hasn't built in Jackson before and wasn't as familiar with the codes as he really should have been. But, I had a contract and it was on his expense. The building inspector has been super nice and has been looking out for me. I guess that's public servants doing their prescribed jobs. Tax dollars doing the job they were meant for I guess.

It all started out as going to be a stand-alone on my uber-flat land but county code said that their had to be at least 20 feet between buildings for "emergency vehicles" in case of fire, or I guess an ambulance in case I get ticked off and fling a carving plane at someone (just kidding...good planes are too expensive for throwing). Since the contract was signed I ended up getting a pitched and shingled 'L-shaped' breezeway from my current garage for free. That was freebie number one. Then after digging the trench and framing up for the 4" slab the inspector came by and made the contractor do a whopping 18"x 18" footer! My slab was going to be 4" and turned out to be 8" after flunking the ground work. That was freebie number two, and a great one at that! Here are some pics of the concrete work being done. All 22 yards of it. The framing was before the failed inspection.

As time went on everything started going well except things have been dragging out, mainly due to weather. This is my first contract build so I have learned MUCH about finding a better contractor next time. However, as I mentioned before, the building inspector has kept the guy straight.
Here are some more pics.

and here is how she sits today awaiting a little trim work and for me to tackle the inside:

If all goes well they should finish up tomorrow and it's all up to me from then on. I'll be building in the breezeway into being fully enclosed. It's a blank canvas now. HVAC, electrics and workbench construction will be next and I can't wait to start. That's the fun part in my book.

I hope this is interesting to someone out there in the Garage Journal land. I'll update as changes take place. I'm all about the creation process and finding cheap ways to get a quality result so I'm sure the insides will definitely be creative!

Thanks for looking at my dream in progress!
Chris

 

[bad daddy]

Nice!
What kinds of guitars do you build?

 

[jklingel]

And your inspector is happy w/ the framing under the garage header? That is a lot of weight for one trimmer stud. Were it mine, I'd sneak in another stud sistered to the single ones taking the header load.

 

[gmwelder86]

agreed that looked od to me. One thing I have found with inspectors is most of them are retired tradesmen. And most of the time they know their trade well but not so much everyone else. So if you get an ex plumber, he will notice all the plumbing errors and not so much on the electrical and other systems of the house. So it seems your guy knew about the concrete the distances from everything but if he passed the garage header with just one 2x4 that seens odd to me. Personally I would double that up. Its cheap insurance to do it now rather than later.

 

[brownbagg]

most codes are the same everywhere, there is some minor detail has for local area, but most are real close to each other, the 18 inch min footer he should of ne about, also he did the plwood on the corner wrong, sheer wall on corner its upright, that a code item too.

did your builder even have a copy of code.

 

[Nighttrain]

Agree with the above. Also look above the man door. Should be some cripple studs there. Think about it this way if your going to sheetrock the inside there should be a piece of wood (stud) every 16",24" etc or something like that. Also those corners need to have a stud. Sounds like you have an inspector on your side. Ask him to really look at the framing.


Good that you have pre-engineered roof trusses. Make sure they were tied in right with straps.

Looking forward to seeing the build and some of your guitars.

 

[stafford]

And your inspector is happy w/ the framing under the garage header? That is a lot of weight for one trimmer stud. Were it mine, I'd sneak in another stud sistered to the single ones taking the header load.

There's very little weight on the garage door header, the truss is doing the work. Most of the weight is the header itself and what's between the top of the header and the bottom of the truss. It'll be fine as far as strength goes but you'll need the extra 2x4 on each end for sheetrock or whatever and trimming purposes.

 

[UncleJoe]

the garage looks great. Get someone who knows about framing carpentry to give you a hand. There are several errors in the framing that others have pointed out. Most are not going to cause your building to fall down but they will cost you 10 times the work when hanging drywall or what ever you do to the inside walls.

For example when you drywall the inside corner you have no way to nail the drywall to the inside corner. A simple 2x4 will solve that and a good framer would have seen it. What else did he miss?

 

[ishiboo]

There's very little weight on the garage door header, the truss is doing the work. Most of the weight is the header itself and what's between the top of the header and the bottom of the truss. It'll be fine as far as strength goes but you'll need the extra 2x4 on each end for sheetrock or whatever and trimming purposes.

+1. This would be different if the roof were oriented 90 degrees in either direction, but the end truss supports the majority of the weight.

The single 2x4 provides plenty of support for the header, and the OSB provides the stability from it buckling.

 

[brownbagg]

You are right about the framing, although one said that they not much weight over the door, yes, but it still not built to code. I see an extra 2x at the door and one more under the end of the header. even though it hold the weight, its not code

 

[blue dog]

did not look like there was any rebar or mesh in the concrete. Pretty lax building codes there it seems, the framing never would have passed here.
enjoy your new shop

 

[Messiah Guitars]

Wow! Great discussion here. A lot of work has been done since those framing pictures were taken and quite a bit of structural strengthening as well. Over the doors are 2x10's and the entire frame around the bay doors picked up another 2x4 as well. There has also been quite a bit of bracing done around the perimeter, between the studs around chest high. The inspector is indeed a retired contractor but I have no idea what flavor. There is rebar down in the footer trench but that's about it. I wasn't too happy about that.

I'll get some updated pictures for everyone to look at. I REALLY appreciate this input!

BTW: I build pretty much any guitar configuration that you can think. If you can dream it, I can build it for you. I specialize in electrics and basses though.

 

[DirtyWhiteBoy]

cool shop!

I do some woodworking as a hobby. I have wanted to try to build a guitar for a while. I don't play, so it seems silly to build one since I can't even test it out

keep us posted on your progress

 

[TheGrooveking]

I haven't built a guitar yet, but some day. I watched as a few of mine were built, it was a new experience watching someone use a pin router. I'll have to look up your guitars, presently I'm at 74 guitars.

TheGrooveking

 

[blue dog]

Do yourself a favor and put some saw score lines in your slab to control the cracking. i would at least put a control joint down the center in each direction.
ask your contractor to do it. it will take less then an hour.

 

[Messiah Guitars]

DWB and Grooveking: Guitar building (and restorations) is the most relaxing thing I think I've ever done. It's not hard at all. Anyone who can use normal woodworking tools and can stick to a few rules of thumb can build a guitar.

Grooveking: 74 guitars! Wow! I've got some catching up to do sine I only have 36. Out of those, 14 of which are vintage Kramers.


Everyone: Thanks for all of the advice here. I'll definitely get some score lines in there. I didn't think about that one (and know better).

Here are a few more pics to show the structural additions.

 

[metalept]

I HATE photobucket

 

[like2wheel]

I HATE photobucket

Yeah, I thought everyone knew to boycott them by now

 

[metalept]

They do, it's just that I dug out a 2010 thread. I searched all the internet for this type of build, finally find this and scroll down to find all the broken pics.

 

[kbs2244]

I do not see the need for photo hosting services anymore.
With WalMart selling systems with terabyte drives I would just keep them to myself.

 

[dopod]

They do, it's just that I dug out a 2010 thread. I searched all the internet for this type of build, finally find this and scroll down to find all the broken pics.

You need the photo bucket hotlink fix extension for your web browser.

This is what I use for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...nk-fix/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg?hl=en