Above 1200 Sq/FT Pacific Island Life - 40x50

[Zengineer]

I have finally started on my dream build (after more than a decade of planning), a 40x50 foot, 18' high steel building from Metallic Steel Buildings.

Some details:
- Pre-engineered steel building - built for the pacific coast means our seismic requirements make things BEEFY
- 14'x14' bay door on the short side, which will allow for just about anything I can throw at it.
- 18' walls allowing for hoisting, mezzanine, and some other shenanigans!
- Single 36" man-door
- Mixed use - Woodworking (segregated), Metalworking, Automotive
- 50' deep allows future parking of anything up to a 45' bus (not planning on that, but you never know)
- Planning a 2 post hoist where the single car is parked in the floorplan image below

Floorplan generally looks something like this:



Early stages yet, but things are rolling along now. Should progress quickly.

Status as of July 31.



I will be making a series of videos talking about the build and why I am doing what I am doing. First video is now up:

Link to YouTube: Shop Build - Part 1

Really appreciate the feedback and commentary from this community on my other various garage build threads, so please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions!

 

[captain14]

Following

 

[Zengineer]

A bit of information about the build site. 4.94acres which is rectangular (ish) as depicted below. Hard to tell, but there is 37m (121ft) of elevation gain from the road (to the right) up the driveway (not depicted as surveyed, lol) to the dwellings. This elevation change certainly had some impact on site selection.

After looking at various options around the property, some with elevation changes of 16' over the 50' proposed building length, I settled into taking down the existing woodworking shop as the most viable way forward. Even then I still had to cut & fill somewhere between 200-300 cubic yards of material.

The new shop (highlighted in green) was the minimum viable size that I felt the project was worthwhile. Seems kinda crazy to say that with an additional 2000sqft coming. However, I removed 450sqft of woodworking shop to build, so net gain is "only" 1550sqft. I'm also going to be relinquishing the metalworking shop to family use (gym, bikes, kayaks, garden tools, etc) and so am giving up another 450sqft there, taking the net gain down to 1100sqft. Still considerable, and more than enough space to work on a few old cars or equipment.

 

[Maxcustody]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Now we need more information on the pacific island part?????

 

[Zengineer]

In the BC gulf islands... island life is pretty great!

 

[RickP]

Congrats on starting the new building! I enjoyed reading about your previous shops and look forward to the new build.

That size may "seem" big to you now, but you'll probably wish for more space as soon as you move in...

Question about the bathroom placement -- why so far back in the corner of the woodshop? Wouldn't the access and plumbing be easier if it were in the corner by the stairway?

 

[Zengineer]

I know, I went as large as a reasonably could with the site constraints and budget. It seems small to me already, lol. But I will have to make it work.

Washroom as depicted is on the 2nd story, inset in the office. The woodworking shop is under both, with a 10' ceiling, on the main floor.

 

[RickP]

Gotcha -- that makes sense to me now.

Now that I see the second floor design, I like that you're not "wasting" any prime space on the ground floor for the bathroom!

 

[Zengineer]

Yeah exactly my thought. Office and washroom up top, which will put a set of stairs in the way of veggin in the office. Will have a shop computer on the shop floor so I can read The Garage Journal though.

 

[Zengineer]

Progress today while I was away, foundation walls were poured. Not a lot of photos, but marking the progress none the less.



Today is stripping forms and cleanup, then onto perimeter drains and rainwater leaders.

 

[MacTexas]

Big garage the kind I like to follow.

 

[MrScott99]

My company was a dealer/builder for Metallic for years. Great products, great people.
This is going to be a great build, will be fun to follow along. Congrats on getting started!

 

[Zengineer]

Well progress continues... it's been hot here lately, 32-35°C (90-95°F, which for my northern bones is too hot to do ANYTHING other than melt) but despite that I've pushed ahead with some things.

Finished underground electrical service (the last 6 feet), connected data conduit, painted foundation wall with asphalt membrane, and today was putting the perimeter drain in place. Fortunately for me I stockpiled some 4" PVC about 2-3 months ago, because it's really tough to find these days. Fittings, no problem. Pipe, no dice.

Foundation came out pretty well, though we do have a few issues to try to sift through. More on those as we come up with solutions.


Painting tar in the heat, fun fun.


And today's work.


Tomorrow is the rainwater leaders, geotextile and gravel work... Going to be another hot one!

 

[Zengineer]

Another hot day, 10 hours or so in 32°C heat. At least for much of it I was down in a hole, or finding some shade. But some decent progress none the less.

Rainwater leaders, geotextile, gravel, and SOME backfill was the order of the day today. The foundation wall concrete is only 5 days since pour, so I haven't wanted to backfill the taller walls yet. Much less concern with the 18" tall walls on the west side though, so backfilled there today.

Rainwater leaders... I'm sure this could be done differently, better or more economically, but at some point you "run what you brung". The two outfall lines for the perimeter drains and rainwater leaders do need to connect and terminate in a nearby swale, but there is a lot of dirtwork necessary prior to that step. So I'm to the corner of the building ready once that work is completed.





Geo-textile is an optional step, but I felt worthwhile to keep the fine dust and dirt out of the gravel bed, and out of the pipes. I have a hillside next to me here, and water is a real concern. So in addition to the perimeter drains, I am planning another ditch, or french drain at the toe of the bank, to direct as much water as possible around the building before it even gets to the perimeter drain.



Moving mounds of dirt into the holes has suddenly made the site feel big again! only 1/2 done as of the end of the day today, but as I said the taller walls I want to give as much time to as I can. Likely much of that happens tomorrow. My focus will be on the geo-textile and gravel on the backside of the building, as well as the dirtwork there. That will leave the tall wall as the only thing remainging (to the left of the photo here). And the mounts of dirt more or less block my access to get gravel down so might be a lot more labour intensive (buckets)... we shall see.

 

[RickP]

Looks like you're making good progress on the new shop.

I like your attention to the details of water management around the foundation. It's a lot easier to do that stuff right at this stage, rather than after discovering problems later. Man, that looks like of lot of work in the heat!

 

[readhead]

Looks like the concrete contractor has done metal buildings before. A good level start makes the rest go easy.

 

[Zengineer]

A busy week of progress. Passed my perimeter drain/RWL inspection first go, and the steel building folks showed up on Wednesday this week. Didn't take them long to make some really good progress - they expect the whole building to be up and done within about 3 weeks. Well "done" is a relative term - done for them. Then I get to work once again.

Fortunately the concrete work and anchors were in the right place!


First posts going up!


End of day 1... which was about 2 hours after unloading everything and getting sorted on site.



Midpoint on day 2.






By Day 3 we have almost all the structural members in place and they are starting to work on roof purlins. But that will have to wait until Monday to continue!

 

[Zengineer]

Progress as of Saturday.

 

[RickP]

They are really moving fast! That steel definitely looks earthquake-proof.

After working out of two shops all these years, you must be thrilled to be getting everything under one roof.

 

[Zengineer]

Yeah it's a little bittersweet. I came from a few single shops, and was constantly fighting with sawdust vs. sparks, and "crossing the streams". So when I came to this property and had the opportunity to have complete separation of wood and metal, I was super excited.

But as good as that was, one shop (the woodworking space) needed a lot more work, was a lot less comfortable, and didn't get used as much. In addition, I was constantly walking back and forth between shops to get a tool, etc. Which led to me starting to duplicate things...

So yeah, pretty happy to get everything close together again. Plus the woodworking tools have been sitting in a sea-can for half a year at this point, lol. Excited, but as we all know, you never really finish setting up a shop...

 

[CombatNinja]

I would've done two overhead doors and definitely one more service door for quick egress/ingress from the house without opening the giant door. But I'm a car guy and you seem to be a metal and woodworker so I'm sure you've thought it out. Building looks great so far, wishing you good fortune in getting her up!

 

[Zengineer]

I had 2 garage doors in the early stages of design. Decided a large door (14'x14') was really important for future use, RV's, etc. Once I replaced one of the 2 garage doors with a 14x14, there wasn't a lot of wall left. At one point had the 14x14 an 8x10 and the man door all on the same side, and realized I had no wall space left, and the geometry with the other buildings didn't make much sense. So left off with the 14x14.

I think that if I had a flat piece of land with no constraints, I'd have situated things quite differently. As it was this was the best of all the sites I had available (it only sloped about 8' across the building), which led to other compromises.

As for another man door, not sure where it would go to make sense? The current one gives the straightest possible path to future parking (between buildings) and walking to the house. Could possibly see one on the east side to access parking more quickly, but that area is destined to be parking for vehicles that don't move too often (parts cars, RV's, etc) - can't see a lot of trips back and forth, and if I'm working on something I can pull it into the shop. (The point of this was to stop working in the mud!)

Will be interesting as I move forward to see what "regrets" there are if any. I'm fairly confident I've nailed door placements and size given the site, but sometimes you don't know until you are using it.

 

[dmittz]

great progress on your workshop. I'm also located in B.C in the lowermainland. look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[Zengineer]

A bit more visible progress this week. Insulation and sheeting going on, as well as finishing up the perimeter/rain water leaders connection point and outfall.



Progress on insulation... goes up pretty quick at this point.




Starting to look like something now. Likely another 7-10 days left until the crew is finished, they had a fair bit of "extra" work to do with the metal building package, holes to drill, finishing work, etc. Slowing things down a bit, but at this point what is a few more days?

 

[RickP]

Progress looks good - that is going to be one strong building!

I'll bet you're itching to get it finished and start moving in.

 

[Zengineer]

Behind on the updates a little bit. My FIL passed away in early September, and while work continued on the shop I did not keep up with updating. He was a big part of my building, making, fixing and creating experience. Very much a craftsman.

Will let the photos do the talking on the building, and try to catch up!

 

[RickP]

Your building progress looks good.

Sorry to hear about your FIL -- it's so hard to lose people that have been an important part of our lives (and our projects). I hope you'll have good memories of him whenever you work in your shop in the future.

 

[Z06Joe]

Very nice building.

 

[Zengineer]

Skipping ahead a bit, and this is close to the current state. Ordered a garage door in May and still haven't seen it. Concrete slab hopefully in the next couple of weeks...

 

[Zengineer]

Some fun underslab work to knock off "just in case" I want some utilities at some future point. Sewer and water lines run, slab work begins next week. A shop sink will be a necessity at some point.








At this point I really want to start to make less of a mess, rather than more...

 

[dmittz]

Great progress and good planning ahead for the under slab services.

 

[RickP]

Looks like those machines made short work of the trenching.
But still a lot of hand digging at the ends -- looks like a lot of work!

 

[Zengineer]

Great progress and good planning ahead for the under slab services.

Yeah as much as there is a desire to "send it" at this point, I'm trying to think ahead as much as I can here.

Looks like those machines made short work of the trenching.
But still a lot of hand digging at the ends -- looks like a lot of work!

You'd be surprised, this is rock hard clay with shale and rock... NOTHING goes quickly, even with a 9500lbs machine. Basically you scrape your way in, a fraction of an inch at a time. I've actually scraped rocks in half before the clay would release them...

The flip side is once it rains it's an entirely different animal!

And as you say, lots of hand shoveling and cleanup required even with the machines.

 

[Zengineer]

Just realized some might be interested in my home shop history as well, as they all have their own build threads here:

• First shop build - 16x24 Garage
• What I tore down to build this - 15x30 Woodworking Shed
• Current shop (soon to be garage) - 20x21 Metal Shop

 

[Zengineer]

Making some more progress... all subterranean work is complete! (Finally) And now we are at the point of making things less dirty, messy and dusty.

4-6" of 3/4 minus (road base around here) compacted with a 500# plate compactor. A bit more to go yet, but progress none the less. Concrete planned for Oct 25th.

 

[RickP]

Less dusty definitely sounds like you're moving in the right direction!

 

[dmittz]

The compacted 3/4 minus will make for an excellent base under your foundation. That's what I used in my shop as well.

 

[Zengineer]

Settled in on the slab spec. 32MPa (4600psi) concrete, 6" thick, 10M rebar in a 16" grid. (yeah I'm Canadian, I work in both metric and imperial depending on my mood) Slab should be beefy, and I keep getting told it's overkill before people even ask what I'm doing with the shop, lol.

It should be overkill. Overkill is just enough in this build.

Future plans could (or do) include - 2 post 12k asymmetric hoist, various compact earthmoving equipment maintenance, an old Pratt & Whitney lathe, a 40' possible diesel pusher motorhome and I'm keeping one eye on a future that could include a fairly substantial CNC VMC. We aren't talking about run of the mill garage work (unless you are on GJ, haha). While all these things could no doubt be accommodated on a less beefy slab, overkill is my preference.

Crazy slab, or just enough?

 

[racer-john]

Settled in on the slab spec. 32MPa (4600psi) concrete, 6" thick, 10M rebar in a 16" grid. (yeah I'm Canadian, I work in both metric and imperial depending on my mood) Slab should be beefy, and I keep getting told it's overkill before people even ask what I'm doing with the shop, lol.

It should be overkill. Overkill is just enough in this build.

Future plans could (or do) include - 2 post 12k asymmetric hoist, various compact earthmoving equipment maintenance, an old Pratt & Whitney lathe, a 40' possible diesel pusher motorhome and I'm keeping one eye on a future that could include a fairly substantial CNC VMC. We aren't talking about run of the mill garage work (unless you are on GJ, haha). While all these things could no doubt be accommodated on a less beefy slab, overkill is my preference.

Crazy slab, or just enough?

When I had my floor poured in my first shop, I was asked if I was going to service Sherman tanks! Lol

 

[Zengineer]

When I had my floor poured in my first shop, I was asked if I was going to service Sherman tanks! Lol

Well thats the thing. I don't HAVE a tank, but that isn't to say I don't NEED a tank...