Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

AZpilot · Apr 8, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

So that build is in Chesterfield Valley NW of Spirit Field? Isn't that a flood plain of biblical proportions? I used to live in Wentzville for 12 years. I remember the last flood that took out the airport. Now there is a ton of stuff built in the valley that would raise the water even higher.

I do love the idea. It is going to be awesome as long as the Missouri stays on its side of the levee.

dubber · Apr 8, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Very sweet project you have on the go. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the progress. Thanks for sharing.

jay8s · Apr 9, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

AZpilot said:
So that build is in Chesterfield Valley NW of Spirit Field? Isn't that a flood plain of biblical proportions? I used to live in Wentzville for 12 years. I remember the last flood that took out the airport. Now there is a ton of stuff built in the valley that would raise the water even higher.

I do love the idea. It is going to be awesome as long as the Missouri stays on its side of the levee.

They recently completed a 500 year flood levee right on the river. That area is full of high end car dealers, outlet malls, and the worlds longest continues strip mall. It has changed quite a bit. The Meramec River is much worse now than it was. just flooded out 141 and 44 in south county.

AZpilot · Apr 10, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Oh, now I remember. The one that had Smartt Field flooded as well. A lot of 100 year floods coming every 10 years.

Greg_STL · Apr 10, 2016

Garage Condo 45x23

No new concrete pours yet but they are making progress. The three sides of the main building have all the re-bar work completed. The 45 degree inner corner walls are at the brick placement stage. The center building has all of the bricks placed as well and is waiting for the final re-bar work. I'm guessing a pour later this week - depending on weather. Last week we had quite a bit of rain that may have delayed things.

They have gone ahead and pulled the plastic trays off the walls now and you can see the brick better. There is still some concrete that is on the front face of the walls. I think it knocks off easy and we will see if they power wash the bricks at some point....

The clubhouse / entrance:

A straight on shot of our unit:

As usual, I keep seeing some smaller features that I had not noticed before. They use small wood strips to hold the bricks in place on the sides of the walls during the pour. I assume that means that these pieces of wood are permanently located in the walls.

The walls next to the 45 degree inner corner walls have some extra bolts that are located about 1/2 way up the walls. It must be something to do with those 45 degree walls as none of the other walls have them. The roof trusses change direction at that 45 degree wall as well so it might be to attach the column for the room system. Time will tell.

Hopefully by next weekend I'll have more poured concrete pictures and in two weeks more pictures of walls tilted into place.

Greg_STL · Apr 13, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

The other half of the walls were poured today!

Photos of the 3 sections of the main building plus the center building.

It looks like they poured some cylinders for testing.

It looks like it cured enough by the end of the day that some of the styrofoam inserts were knocked out already.

A final shot looking into my unit. I keep taking this shot so I can see the progress over time.

The Place noted on their facebook page that the concrete would be finished this week (done), walls would be tilted starting Monday, and the steel for the roof trusses would be delivered next Friday. Can't wait!!

pmason0 · Apr 14, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Very cool build thread, I have a condo unit in a regular industrial park, you are going to love having the space.

92nsx · Apr 14, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Way cool man!

TomcoPDR · Apr 14, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

keep up the updates

Greg_STL · Apr 15, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Forms are knocked off - check. Support beams pre-attached to the walls -check. Crane on site - check. Looks like we are ready to tilt some walls.

A closer look at the 45 degree wall that has some different features:

They are also working on the electrical distribution system getting the conduits for each unit hooked up to the meter panels.

Greg_STL · Apr 15, 2016

Crane Photos

There is quite the infrastructure that comes along with the crane. There at least 3 or 4 trailers with weights and hoist beams in addition to the actual crane. Lots of pics here - enjoy.

jay8s · Apr 15, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

I knew I should have swung by tonight.... I secretly LOVE cranes and all that goes with them, but alas, Itap called and wanted me there, so it won. I will have to swing by next week.

Greg_STL · Apr 18, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

New tilted walls today:

And from the inside:

marbil · Apr 18, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Very cool, I live in St. Louis and was just talking to a buddy the other day saying I wonder if a garage condo would go over in St. Louis, I am going to have to check this out, I will be in Chesterfield Wed.

Greg_STL · Apr 19, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

I didn't get to Chesterfield Valley until late today. I was really running late but I had to stop by since I expected even more walls up. I just had time for a couple cell phone pictures. Looks like we are down to the last two walls. Not sure if the rain came after they stopped or what caused them to stop. Everything was quite wet!

Greg_STL · Apr 21, 2016

Last Walls Tilted

The last of the walls were tilted today. It was still muddy and at least one person was still there working. I decided to take just a couple photos and keep out of the way.

They raised the small set of walls that will hide the complex's dumpster.

They delivered the steel door frames for the man sized doors for each unit.

Here is a shot of the completed center building. The last two walls raised were on the near corner.

It really is starting to shape up to look like the final buildings.

One more shot of the center building from the side my unit is on. This thread is about my unit after all......

The roof trusses and steel support beams were supposed to show today or tomorrow. Hopefully it will be tomorrow.

Morio · Apr 21, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

WOW!! This is pretty cool!!! Thanks for sharing!! Can't wait to see more!

Greg_STL · Apr 22, 2016

Trusses

The trusses showed up today. It looks like all of them were delivered based on the numbers lying around in different places.

They have a new smaller crane on site that is already installing the trusses.

It looks like they have maybe half of one leg of the main u-shaped building with the trusses located already.

Some close ups on the truss ends and the braces between the trusses. I love the boot prints on the walls - messes with your sense of reality.

Lots of other little things going on too. They have some braces going in on the corners. The man sized doors and door frames were also delivered.

moab11 · Apr 23, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Very cool, thank you for taking so many progress pictures!

Greg_STL · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Some quick cell phone pictures from today's progress. They are working the trusses along the building and into the corner. There is a bracket to help support the roof at the wall intersections. The corner has a support beam to allow the trusses to run perpendicular to each long leg.

A final shot of some roofing material that has been delivered.

AZpilot · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Be cool if your roof was accessible as a patio.

Bib Overalls · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Thanks Greg. Enjoying this thread immensely.

readhead · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

They are doing the bridging and ledge angle. Once the decking is on the wall braces will be removed and they will start framing the demizing walls. Do yo know if they are going to do any security mesh before the drywall?

Greg_STL · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

@readhead - I hate to say it but you lost me completely. I'm guessing you are talking about interior walls. I really do not know the answer. I'm just trying to document the process along the way and try to learn something.

readhead · Apr 25, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Steel studs and drywall are not a very secure separation between you and your neighbor. Expanded metal tack welded to the studs before the drywall will slow down intruders.

Boost Creep · Apr 26, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

not that i could afford it but i wish they would build one of these by me. lol, i'd have to live in it if i got one

Greg_STL · Apr 26, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Big rain storm today. I'm sure it ended the work early. I saw at least a dozen trees with branches broken off in the valley and on the ridge above the valley. The Place seems to have made it through mostly unscathed. A saw a stack of person sized doors blew over but that looks like the only "bad" think I noticed.

They continued around the first corner before the rain. I took a couple quick cell phone pictures.

Bib Overalls · Apr 26, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Greg_STL said:

Frameable art.

Greg_STL · Apr 26, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

@dkroth - Garage condos are new and I think it caused all sorts of problems for the builder to get the project started. We had to put a down payment down with the condo builder and we have a separate agreement with a third party to finish out the unit. We kinda cheated on the financing. We had just paid off our main home so we did a cash out refinance on our home. It was just easier all the way around.

Greg_STL · Apr 27, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Around the second corner today with the trusses. I spent some time looking at the corner trying to understand how they sloped the roof in the corner. I think there is a 1" per foot slope on the roof with the high end on the garage door entrance side. I couldn't tell looking at the steel beam if it was sloped or not....

On the way out, I noticed that they have started blasting the bricks with water or something to knock off the concrete bits that were stuck to the front of the bricks during the pour operation. In the picture below you can see how clean the bricks are in the foreground but the ones in the background still have bits of white concrete on them.

readhead · Apr 28, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

There may be some slope in the joists but quite often the roof is built level. All the slope and swales are formed with the foam insulation. The foam comes pre cut and marked with all the tappers so that when it is down the roof has it's final form. They will install recovery board over the foam and finally a rubber membrane.

Since these buildings are pretty narrow there is probably a slope so they can use a lot of standard size foam until they need to form the drainage swales.

It looks like some of the joists are ready for decking. You should see some big changes next time.

Greg_STL · Apr 28, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

They finished the trusses on the main u-shaped building.

The center building has the steel columns located. The larger trusses in the picture below will go down the center of this building and the small trusses will span from these main beams to the concrete walls.

They continue to clean off the bricks.

During the build process, there were a few mix ups. The first photo below is an older photo that shows that they mixed up which wall was going to over lap which wall when they positioned the bricks in the forms. The second photo shows that they are now going back an fixing the error. There are always small issues on a project this big. It's nice to see them correcting them.

Rather than a new post, i thought I would just edit this to show the completed brick repair.

And another edit to show the bricks after they have been cleaned.

Greg_STL · Apr 29, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Small update today. There were no new trusses put up today. They may have been tacking down what was previously installed but it is hard to tell when you show up after everyone has gone home.

They had dug a trench outside the building earlier in the week. I think it was for the electrical. Today the trench was filled in and a small concrete pre-fab base was located at the end of the trench. It appears that this was all for the main electrical feed and a transformer will set on the pre-fab base.

I was really hoping the trusses would be installed on the center building today but I will need to wait a few more days. It is going to pour down rain tomorrow and then clear up for next week. I'm glad they have the rain just scheduled on the weekends for the build....

wasfast · Apr 30, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

I think you're enjoying the overall construction as much as the thought of having the final product in your own unit.

Tilt up construction is interesting to watch to those not familiar with it, which is most. I worked for a contractor in the mid 70's building an athletic club. They didn't have enough flat space so walls were poured on top of walls, sometimes 3 deep.

Greg_STL · May 1, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

@wasfast - I am enjoying the build. I really am looking forward to being able to use the space too.

I looked over the Place today and I realized what they were working on Friday. They were welding on some cross bracing perpendicular to the trusses.

The bricks are continuing to get cleaned but it is happening almost random as they work around the crane and the crew lifting trusses.

It was quite muddy down there today. I can't wait until they pour the concrete between the buildings. Maybe once the cranes are done putting on the trusses it will be time to pour. Then again, there is a rain awning that is shown over all the doors. I'm not sure if that is concrete or something much lighter. Either way, a crane might be needed to locate them and they may wait until those are located to pour the concrete roadway.

Greg_STL · May 2, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

I wasn't sure I was going to post today because there was not much new to see. They have continued welding in cross braces, cleaning the brick, and have put in the supporting grout to lock in the bottom of the walls on the center building.

I'll save the cool pics for the next post. I think they deserve their own post.

Greg_STL · May 2, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

So I got home from my now daily visit of The Place. I was mildly disappointed that the joists had not been lifted in the center building (where my unit will be located). I pulled up my e-mail and we had note from our builders. A friend of the builder was taking helicopter lessons at the airport and took some aerial photos of the construction. Pretty cool!

This second shot gives a very good perspective on how close we are to the airport. The near runway is mainly general aviation. The far runway is wider and longer. It mostly has business jet traffic but I have seen MD-80s and lots of Navy aircraft over the years. The airport has the Navy re-fueling contract for cross country trips. I've seen F-14s, F-18s, A-6s, and more over the years.

There will be an airshow at the airport May 14th and 15th that will include the Blue Angles, the Canadian Snow Birds, a B-29, B-17, B-25, and a F-22 to name a few performers.

http://spirit-airshow.com/

It is a shame that our unit won't be done by then....

readhead · May 2, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

The decking is staged so it looks like it will be shady inside pretty soon.

Bib Overalls · May 2, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

The airport will most likely complain about the noise you hot rod hoodlums make with your open headers :tantrum2:

, burnouts :3gears:

, and highly amped hard metal music :deathmeta

. Try to be good neighbors. Hate to see you condo complex closed down as a public nuisance.

AZpilot · May 3, 2016

Re: Garage Condo 45x23

Bib Overalls said:
The airport will most likely complain about the noise you hot rod hoodlums make with your open headers, burnouts, and highly amped hard metal music. Try to be good neighbors. Hate to see you condo complex closed down as a public nuisance.

While slightly funny your post highlights a dark truth. Airports are usually there first and an owner of these new condo's will most certainly complain about airport noise. I hope they put some kind of amendment in the CC&R's about the airport.

Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

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