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You can also inquire at a lumber yard. They make Glu-Lam beams in 3 1/8" x 28" cross sections up to 40 ft continuous length. Get one of those to the length you need and turn it sideways (3 1/8" thick x 28" deep or whatever depth you want). I "thought" I priced it out at around $13 / lft but...

This is part of the problem with relying on the people who work at Lowes or Home Depot. The fellow at Lowes "who had worked for over 20 years as an electrician" said it would be fine for direct burial. I should have suspected something when he had no clue what an Ufer / CEE was a few weeks...

Yes. This is a fascinating one. . . . it's about shoveling dirt. :D The backfilling work is tedious and slow. Basically shoveling dirt from the piles into a wheel barrow then dumping said wheel barrow, spreading out the soil and stomping on it to compact it. Ideally I'd employ a plate...

A few thoughts without having read all the comments carefully in this thread: Even though money is cheap for new cars, I'd still be buying used. I think you get MUCH better value and can by nicer cars if you're willing to put up with a some thousands of miles on the odo. And with modern cars...

Wow, that looks great, James! Rock on! Nice touch with flashing behind each joint in the siding.

This was another house we designed for "light" snow country (not the same one I mentioned above). There were a number of discussions back and forth with the owner on the orientation of the garage. Ultimately the roof was set up this way. The owner figured it wouldn't be a "big" deal as they'd...

The custom up in the NW is to have a place to dump the excess concrete on site. Ideally, as others have mentioned, you'll have other things you can make with concrete ready to go: stepping stones, curbs, etc. Other wise you get charged an armload if they have to clean out the truck because...

Looks great and I love seeing other construction methods and technology vs. the typical wood frame construction common to the U.S. Keep up the photos. Out of curiosity, the beam that you had welded up looks rather complicated with the different plates and all welded on too the I-beam. Any...

I've worked on a few projects in our office that were in "snow country" and we needed to design the roofs to handle 8 ft snow loads. On one house in particular we carefully examined how to orient the roofs to shed snow where we wanted it so it wouldn't block access to the house or garage. If...

I haven't decided 100% yet on the electrical. Prudence says to put in more electrical than needed "now" for any future "just in case" uses. However, I've always looked at using the new shed WITH the main garage attached to the house (think same purpose but split into two building). The house...

The other option is OSB (or preferably plywood if you can swing it) for the lower section of wall where you're more likely to hit it. Then do sheetrock above that. I'm just not a fan of the chippy OSB texture showing through the paint. I'd rather the OSB wood chips either just have a clear...

One annoying thing I notice in working with concrete is it's incredible ability to dry out one's hands. And I normally hate wearing glove. Last night I got about 3/4 of the form panels stripped off. It's a semi-slow process as there are many pieces to remove. The form system is simple. Just...

Man, painting OSB looks like a bear. If one does want OSB my inclination would be to either sheath it in a thin GWB or stain, whitewash, or clear coat it. I think if you try and cover it with an opaque paint that completely hides all the multitude of wood chips you'll be left with an odd...

What about pouring a 2"+ thick concrete counter top? I did a conrete counter top for the bathroom vanity in my house and it turned out real nice. If need be, put some steel over it for better protection. Or do the 1/2" cement board with a layer of thinset over that that the steel top cover is...

I will say this about the CH unit you saw a Lowes, you can at least mount that higher up on the wall or in different configurations which may be a benefit if you're tight on floor space for either a big 60-80 gal compressor or even a smaller one like the DeWalt posted above.

The idea is interesting and I like it, but the execution isn't all that good. The major turn off is the 3.8 cfm rating for me. FWIW, a big shop compressor wasn't in the cards for me (no room or, honestly, major need for that much air). So I went with this guy: DeWalt D55168 It takes up...

Dang, if I had such a goreous view of the palouse out of my garage like that I'd probably open the whole wall with floor-to-ceiling store front windows (and drapes or something to close for privacy when warranted). Nice territorial view. It seems this whole issue greatly depends on where each...

Ha! Cool thread. Though I think some of the commandments make my wallet hurt. I did a yard tool shed separately as a way to keep the general storage shed building (where I'll keep, um, "nicer" stuff) from collecting a bunch of dirt, dust, and grass clippings from the yard tools. It didn't...

What about putting a layer or two (or three?) of nomex down between the steel and the wood? Nomex is the stuff the make fire-proof racing suites out of.

Looking good as always, James. As for the lights, it looks to me that the wall space between the door trim and the corners is a little tight. Do-able, certainly, but it might look like the lights are being crowded. Might just take "the right" light fixture to be fine. However, I also like...