Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Hobby Shop - Down in the Holler (24'x32')

[Magneto]

Round 2: I first surfaced on Garage Journal in 2013 when I built my first shop.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/small-shop-project-in-the-green-mountains.200815/

Since that time I retired in 2023. The wife & I moved from the North (VT) to the South (TN) to be close to family. After settling in our 20 year old home in middle Tennessee and having finished a multitude of renovation projects, around the house, it was time to focus on building another workshop, a hobby shop.
This hobby shop will be 24' x 32' inside dimensions. It's a one (1) story conventional stick build with 2"x6" walls for added insulation. The outside walls will contain partial brick to compliment the brick home with the remainder being double dutch lap vinyl siding, color to be determined. Further details to follow.

The cost: too damn much! Anyways, here is the breaking ground photos and an aerial pic to give you a sense of its location relative to the house.

 

[Magneto]

Today's project is locating the water line from the meter to the house. We hoped it missed the worksite. The contractor is a part-time builder, he is employed full-time with a nearby water district. He does NOT want the water line running beneath the footers & slab. The water line is pvc pipe. Clearly the house builder didn't insert a locator wire with the pipe. We tried the voodoo magic using the dowsing rods. We followed the results and dug a 3 foot long drench, in the hard clay, about 4 feet deep. We kept expanding the trench til it was 12 feet long when I finally declared the witchcraft wasn't working. So, the backhoe will be used to carefully follow the line from the house until it hits the worksite, locate it on the other side and dig a new trench bypassing the work area.

 

[JuncleJohn]

24x32 is a nice size. Congratulations on your move to a warmer climate and retirement. Looking forward to following your progress.

John

 

[Magneto]

I dug one last hole this morning and hit pay dirt. Found the water line at about 22" below grade. It goes under the work site. Will get that re-routed around the back of the shop and then onto digging & framing out the footings. You can see in the photos we have a sloped grade to deal with so these footings will be stepped.

 

[Krfjkm]

Looks like it going to be a great shop!

 

[Magneto]

24x32 is a nice size. Congratulations on your move to a warmer climate and retirement. Looking forward to following your progress.

John

Thanks John, no progress these last few days due to rain. Hopefully we can get that water line moved soon.

I was able to accomplish some electrical work. I will be running a #2-2-2-4 SER service cable from my main panel in my garage into my crawl space and to the corner of the house closest to the shop. The cable will terminate inside a junction box attached to the crawl space foundation wall until we are ready for hook up,

 

[rixtrix1]

24x32 is a great size, because I have the same size! Amazing how much one can put in there, on wheels, and still have plenty of room to do almost anything. 10" sidewalls with a vaulted ceiling allow me to have a 9K lift. My slab is 5" 3500# concrete and I made a 4'x14' area where the lift is 8" deep. Don't know if you will have a lift, but this is the perfect time to prepare for it. If so, don't believe manufacturer specs on slab thickness and anchor length. My installer used 5" anchors which only went 3-1/2" into the slab and most didn't hold up torque. I removed all and replaced with 10"x5/8" grade 8 threaded rod epoxied 8" into the slab.

 

[Magneto]

Memorial Day weekend was rainy. Nothing accomplished. Except enjoying a few bourbons and good food. No complaints about the rain as we really need it to break this early drought. Finally the rain let up enough to get a trench dug for rerouting the water line. I have to grab a 1 1/8” SDS Plus drill bit tomorrow for the hammer drill to get through the foundation block. The old water line was only 4” below grade, it should be a minimum of 12” here in Tennessee. As a result we created a new entry point. If the rain holds off for tomorrow we will backfill the trench and start on the footing prep.

 

[Magneto]

Water line re-routed. Now on to the work that counts, i.e., getting those footings constructed. Need to remove a section of concrete driveway that impedes on the front footing area. It needed to go anyway. The new connecting sections will have to be sloped and/or shaped to shed water away from front of garage door.

 

[Magneto]

I should have included these drawings when I started this thread. The builder asked for some roughed up sketches so he had an idea for window and door placement. I quickly created these draft drawings using the free online version of SmartDraw. These are rough only and have already undergone many changes, mostly electrical changes regarding position of outlets, lights, and the mini-split. Can never have enough outlets. I tried to plan ahead for the position of tv, 4 person bar area, and mini-split. As far as the lighting, I used a layout I had in my old shop. I had many 4 foot T8 light fixtures (w/LED bulbs) linked together creating a enough light to perform surgery. I will be going with less lighting fixtures as the LED technology has really evolved in the last 10 years. I still want a lot of light. Whatever the configuration I will have 3 zones operated by 3 switches to control the amount of light for specific areas. The bar area will have some kind of drop down lighting on a dimmer switch.

 

[Magneto]

Today the weather forecast called for scattered showers. It rained hard for about an hour this morning. The builder showed up about noon to see if any work could be done. Some water pooled on the low backside of the build site so it was decided to start digging the footers on the highside where it was mostly dry. Made some progress for a few hours until the sky let loose. Until next time..............

 

[Magneto]

Progress. The weather cooperated most of the day. My daily visitor wasn’t to spooked by the backhoe noise. The good eats were too hard to resist.

 

[Magneto]

Today. ****! Time for a beer or two........

 

[Xti04]

Today. ****! Time for a beer or two........

My footers looked like that at one point. And lots of Yuenglings were drank while cursing the skies for all the rain.

 

[Magneto]

Almost there. Pumped the water out, gave it some time to dry, and stepped out the remaining footers. More rebar will go in today and hopefully can pour cement on Thursday. Estimating 20+ plus yards of 3000 psi cement. The cement will be transferred from truck by a cement buggy on tracks. The concrete driveway will not withstand the weight of the cement truck. Debated using a pumper truck, but the cement guy has a crew member with a buggy.

Installed an electrical box beneath my main power panel, in the garage, with a hole in wall behind it to feed the #2 Service cable. The cable will follow the blue tape into the crawlspace coming out on corner of house closest to shop. It’s about a 70’ run underneath and will be about another 20’ to subpanel.

 

[Magneto]

Had a 10:00 a.m. appt with dealer to get a new set of tires on the bike. Got home in time to help finish installing the Rebar rods. Now ready for the cement. Coming tomorrow about 3:00.

 

[slomaro3.4]

Love the use of dowsing rods. I feel your pain when we were trenching for power to mine I had the county come out and flag, everyone swore up and down nothing was in my backyard. We found a water pipe.

 

[larry4406]

Are you putting in a UFER ground prior to pouring the footing or planning on installing 2 ground rods afterwards?

While the water line was open, I would have installed a yard hydrant close to the new shop.

 

[Magneto]

Love the use of dowsing rods. I feel your pain when we were trenching for power to mine I had the county come out and flag, everyone swore up and down nothing was in my backyard. We found a water pipe.

When I was a teenager I had to chuckle watching my grandmother, on a new house build, walking around the property with dowsing rods so she could tell the well driller where she found water. She was correct or maybe just lucky.

Are you putting in a UFER ground prior to pouring the footing or planning on installing 2 ground rods afterwards?

While the water line was open, I would have installed a yard hydrant close to the new shop.

Going with the 2 ground rods. You know I first thought about running water to the shop, for a handwashing sink, but decided against it to maintain costs. Besides there was no way we could connect with the septic and I was not a fan having the water run out to the ground. I suppose I could have done a grey water hole filled with crushed stone, but again the costs. I have two house hydrants that are relatively close.

 

[Magneto]

I have footers. Checked that box.

 

[Magneto]

Progress has slowed. We got a bit of rain here in middle Tennessee. It was needed to lower our drought classification from severe to mild. Farmers happy. That rain has put the masonry crew behind on other jobs. I‘m told 2 to 3 weeks before I see them.

When the footers were being poured we had two concrete trucks stationed in front of the house on the roadway. The concrete pourer ended up using a skid steer instead of a buggy to transport the mix. When the first truck emptied its load the driver was told he could WASH the slide in the ditch. Minimal residual. Nearing completion of the footer pour the skid steer worker told concrete driver he only needed a half bucket to finish footer. As that last bit was being put into the footer trench the concrete driver proceeded to empty the remaining load of concrete into my front ditch. It was a lot. He never heard any of us yelling at him. By the time we reached the truck it was empty. No one instructed him to do this. Several calls to the cement company by concrete contractor and myself requesting they clean up the mess resulted in, “somebody will contact you from Quality Control Department. So far……crickets………….

Until next time.

 

[Xti04]

You could always pull it out and return that concrete to their front gate