My 30x30 shop/garage

[DieselSJ]

Finally, after 6 years of using a 24' trailer as my storage and shop, my garage is finally on the move.

I'm in a suburb of Phoenix and we are on 4.5 acres. Everything is great except no garage. A couple years ago my folks bought a 30x30 Versatube building from a neighbor with the intent of putting it up at the family place up in Landers, Ca. Well they decided to sell the Landers place and Dad said come get the building so I hauled it out to Phoenix and it has been sitting in a stack out here for the past 18 months. We have been pouring money into a few other projects such as kitchen remodel, horse barn, fencing, etc... A couple weeks ago on a Saturday night the fiancee says, "I'll split the cost if you want to put in your slab for the garage."

This happened over the next few days -

First, a little tractor work to clean up the spot on Sunday.

This on Tuesday -

This on Wednesday -

And now I have this -

The building was one of their carport styles and was only 7' at the sides, so I'm working with Versatube to get the additional pieces to raise it to 10' and convert it to a garage style building. One end will open into the fenced part of the yard, and the other side to the open part of the property. It is about 250' from our water and electric, so running utilities will be a project this summer.

 

[tjdux]

That's an amazing and fast start. Great work

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[readhead]

With Versatube being right there in Phoenix it should be pretty easy to get parts. Since you did not do a sheeting notch you will need base trim which didn't come with the building. There should be a local supplier that can fix you up with that. I hope you took into account that the building is actually 2" longer in the length. If not you can shorten one of the base rails on each side.

 

[DieselSJ]

With Versatube being right there in Phoenix it should be pretty easy to get parts. Since you did not do a sheeting notch you will need base trim which didn't come with the building. There should be a local supplier that can fix you up with that. I hope you took into account that the building is actually 2" longer in the length. If not you can shorten one of the base rails on each side.

Yes, I actually consulted them before we laid out the slab. It is actually 30' x 30'2". You are correct that we did not do the optional notch for the sheeting, again upon consultation with VT and that I'll most likely be installing a radiant barrier under the siding to help from turning it into an oven during the summer.

 

[readhead]

Don't do bubble wrap. There should be a source for 1/2"FG with white on one side and silver on the other. It's better installed between the frame and the hat channel to allow air movement above the silver.

 

[DieselSJ]

Don't do bubble wrap. There should be a source for 1/2"FG with white on one side and silver on the other. It's better installed between the frame and the hat channel to allow air movement above the silver.

Yeah, no bubble wrap stuff. Are you talking 1/2" fiberglass? I was thinking of the rigid foam panels. You are saying to install that first, then install the hat channel over it?

 

[readhead]

By doing it under the hats you create an air gap which is needed with the radiant barrier.

 

[DieselSJ]

Things slowed down a bit due to summer and travel and fun with the kids, but progress is being made. Versatube worked with me (great customer service if anyone is considering their products) to get the differences in design between the carport and the garage and provided me a list of parts which has been ordered and should be ready within the next few days.

Permitting has been interesting.

Thursday of last week I went down to satellite office for the county to get the permits for the new garage. I had my site plan, permit application, plus all of the documentation from Versatube showing the wind and snow loads for the building.

So guy takes it and starts reviewing and stamps the site plan as approved. Then he asks where my site electric is and I show him electric is on the site plan, and the permit documentation says they can be combined. He says no, electrical must be separate. Then someone else chimes in and asks if it is a steel building, then says all steel buildings must have stamped, certified engineering docs submitted. I argued the point and said when I called the main office they said the docs from Versatube would be all that I needed as this wasn't a building that was using structural steel members. This chick refuses to accept the application without the engineering docs. Stamped, certified docs are another $700 from Versatube.

Monday I decide to head down to the main county office and try it there. Woman comes out from zoning and questions as to why the site plan is stamped approved but there is no permit number yet. I tell her that the other office approved it, then told me I needed a separate electrical plan (which I now had). She says the site plan itself would have been fine as I'm only installing the sub-panel at this time and they only need to know where it is and where the buried electrical will be and those are on the site plan. She enters everything into the system and generates a permit number. Several other departments then come out and meet with me - air quality, groundwater, streets, etc... and they all just stamp their sections as approved because nothing is affected. Final is building safety, which is the department that chick at first office said would need the engineering docs. Guy comes out, asks a few questions about size, height, etc... I pull out my docs from Versatube and he sees them and says that is what we need and puts the permit packet together and says it is good. They just need to send someone to the site to make sure I'm putting it where I said, and they have to review their "as-built" documents to make sure I'm not putting it over a septic field. Told me permit would be ready for pick up in 10 business days.

Also measured out the electrical and I'm right at 290' total from the main panel to the shop.

Moving my pics from Photobucket to Imgur. I'll update images soon.

 

[DieselSJ]

So, update to the permitting story...

The day the permit was supposed to be ready, I get a call asking for the engineering docs. Told them they didn't say I needed them when I dropped off the rest of the packet. Also says that my site plan doesn't show a landing pad outside the main entry door. So even though it is at ground level, I still needed a 36x36 something to step on when I exit the shop. And said that I needed to redo the electrical plan (with 1 interior light, 1 exterior light and 1 outlet to be code compliant) because my outlet wasn't listed as GFCI.

Took about 6 weeks to get the engineering docs from VT. 10 days after that I had my permit. Been making slow but steady progress since then. I'm at the point where I need to get my insulation before I start installing the hat channel. Been looking at a couple suppliers. Was going to use Prodex until I researched their product further. VT recommended Solarguard, but that seems to be right up there with Prodex but even more expensive. Anyone have recommendations?

Pics of progress since last time I posted -

Even had the daughters helping.

 

[DieselSJ]

D'oh!

End wall verticals are about 5" short. One piece was the correct length. Emailed them last night and had a phone call from them at 6:30 this morning. They are going to recalculate lengths and make new pieces.

 

[DieselSJ]

Making some progress. Squared it up and started with the radiant barrier/insulation.

 

[GrantOpus]

What insulation did you end up going with?

Buildings looks great so far.


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[GrantOpus]

Don't do bubble wrap. There should be a source for 1/2"FG with white on one side and silver on the other. It's better installed between the frame and the hat channel to allow air movement above the silver.

Do you not recommend the bubble wrap due to low R value or is it for other reasons?


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[readhead]

Bubble wrap will deteriorate over time and is pretty worthless. It is inexpensive and sounds good but doesn't last.

 

[GrantOpus]

Ok understood. My wife’s barn has it and it helped with deflecting heat from the sun but is now falling apart after 13 years.


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[DieselSJ]

Went with SolarGuard from Silvercote.

https://www.silvercote.com/solarguard/