40 x 64 Workshop in Wisconsin

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

After 23 years of marriage, 10 years at our current home, and 2 years of lurking around The Garage Journal... it's finally time to build my Workshop.

Here was the initial plan.

The images were done on Floorplanner.com

drivesitfar · Dec 22, 2014

Dave: nice looking plan. i'm guessing size is 64 foot x 40 foot? when are you breaking ground?

welcome to the forum and post lots of pictures before and after and i'll be watching.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

The new shed will go in to the left (North) of my wife's little horse barn. There were many, many, trees and stumps to dig out.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Yes, the shed will be 64' by 40'. We broke ground a couple months ago, I'm just getting around to posting the pics now.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Here's a different angle of the site after a year of cutting and clearing with still a year of cutting and clearing to go.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Here's the toy the wife bought me to help with the clearing.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

The site after being cleared and prepped for the building.

James-W · Dec 22, 2014

WOW!!! That's some toy! My wife never bought me anything like that. I bet that is a lot of fun to play with.

drivesitfar · Dec 22, 2014

Dave: looks like you are well on your way to getting the garage built. sorry i didn't see the size in the title when i looked at your drawing and started adding up the dimensions. what you call a "SHED" some of us would call a huge shop.

are you going to build a pole building or stick built? it looks like a good size office or maybe a guest room so are you planning on a bathroom with running water?

by the way i wouldn't be too much in a hurry to get rid of that gal if she buys you a Kubota. lucky guy.

great pictures and keep them coming as you have time to take and post more.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

James-W said:
WOW!!! That's some toy! My wife never bought me anything like that. I bet that is a lot of fun to play with.

James-W, you are SO RIGHT, it is a blast to play with!

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

drivesitfar said:
Dave: looks like you are well on your way to getting the garage built. sorry i didn't see the size in the title when i looked at your drawing and started adding up the dimensions. what you call a "SHED" some of us would call a huge shop.

are you going to build a pole building or stick built? it looks like a good size office or maybe a guest room so are you planning on a bathroom with running water?

by the way i wouldn't be too much in a hurry to get rid of that gal if she buys you a Kubota. lucky guy.

great pictures and keep them coming as you have time to take and post more.

DrivesItFar: Yeah, we're not exactly sure what to call it yet. We call my wife's building the 'barn' or 'female crisis center'. She keeps about a dozen rabbits along with the hay for her horses (the horses stay outside). But I've forbidden anyone in the family from calling my building a 'barn'. It will be a critter-free structure. I think we'll call it a 'shop' or 'workshop'.

It's a pole building. I'm not a carpenter but I'm willing to dive into projects even when I don't really know what I'm doing. And I have a feeling I may regret the 'pole building' decision by the time the build-out is finished.

The 20' x 40' room will be used as an office and a somewhat-clean-lab to build some electronic/robotic projects. My early career was as an electronic technician and I'm looking forward to experimenting with circuits around the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi.

Yep, definitely keeping the wife.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Northland Buildings show up to begin construction

Here's one from the back corner

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

The crew works in the cold and rain to get the roof on and the service doors in.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

As part of the build, I hired them to add a steal ceiling and blow cellulose insulation in above it. When I asked the crew how they planned to keep the insulation out of the eaves they said they were told to stick in some foam chutes. We looked at the chute plan and together agreed that it would not work well. The crew quickly came up with an an excellent custom solution.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

The shell is finished within a few days.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

The big front garage door goes on.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

An interior pic showing the Tyvek building wrap, and the steal ceiling

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Once we started pounding in steaks to prep for the concrete we realized that the soil around the posts hadn't compacted enough. I worried that additional settling over time may cause the concrete to crack. So I ran water near each post for almost an hour each. Then I took a 7' steal bar and tamped, prodded, and poked around each post. In many places that soil compacted nearly an additional 12".

I filled in the new holes with additional sand

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

I also realized that it was going to be difficult to feel good about pouring the concrete while having such a large gap below the perimeter stringer.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

So I used the Kubota to drag dirt away from the posts. Then I added another board around the perimeter.

Cousin Phil used his skid loader to replace the dirt.

Additional sand was added and leveled. Then, nearing the last minute, before the foam and wire mesh went on, Cousin Phil talked me into adding a drain. Good idea, Cuz!

We also stubbed PVC with electrical wires into the shed before the concrete was poured.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

It's an exciting day when the concrete shows up.

Concrete is going on top of 1.5" pink foam insulation and steal mesh.

It was below freezing when the concrete was poured so we put some insulation over the exposed portion beneath the garage door and then closed the building up for a few days to let the concrete cure.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Then we cut expansion joints into the concrete

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Before pouring the concrete we added an inside perimeter board on top of the pink foam to have something to attach the sheeting to at the floor level.

Unfortunately, the boards along the long walls were about an inch off at the corners which gave me an additional challenge when it came to getting the backers in right.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Next step was to add 1.5" R6 beadboard between the outside perlins.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Then goes on the backers to hold in additional insulation and for securing the future wall sheeting.

The wife even gets in on the cutting

James-W · Dec 22, 2014

It is looking REALLY nice so far. How many yards of concrete was needed to do the floor?

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Then we add R19 5.5" Owens Corning insulation

Number 3 son masters the roll-around scaffolding

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

Next comes electrical. We upgrade the meter socket on the house to avoid the need for a second meter or the need to run wires from breakers in the house panel. We also add a one inch pvc for low voltage stuff like internet and telephone.

And a 19" deep trench.

Poly goes up over the insulation and a couple of quick sheets of OSB to put the electrical on.

DaveF. · Dec 22, 2014

James-W said:
It is looking REALLY nice so far. How many yards of concrete was needed to do the floor?

As strange as it may seem, I don't exactly know. I haven't received the bill yet. This was one of the things I didn't get quotes on, I just told Cousin Phil to 'make it happen'.

The thickness was 4.5".

When I get the actual total on the bill I'll post it.

drivesitfar · Dec 22, 2014

Dave: I'm not sure you are done posting, but you've been busy today. those are some awesome posts and pictures you have been putting up on your thread. i thought when you started this thread that your garage was still in the planning states.

nice work and i might have some questions after i take a closer look. i can say that isn't any shed that I've ever seen or heard of. it might not be a barn, but maybe you can step it up to at least your SHOP?

cheers and again thanks for sharing your progress and for taking all those pictures.

Kjbakke2 · Dec 22, 2014

Is this the same Dave that works with Wi ems?

emktx · Dec 23, 2014

Nice shed, nice floor plan. I had Northland build my 30x40X10 last Dec. It was -3 when they started and -6 when they finished a day and a half later. One tough crew that produced a nice little building. Mike was nice to work with, nice outfit all around, I would recommend. By the look of your land I guessing you are just north of me, I am down outside of Trempealeau. Quick question, what lights do you have on the ceiling? The lights look like they illuminate your workspace pretty good. I too am putting up a white liner panel ceiling.

Thanks,
Ed

Ballistic Jello · Dec 23, 2014

That is one sharp polebarn.

DaveF. · Dec 23, 2014

Kjbakke2 said:
Is this the same Dave that works with Wi ems?

Yep, that's me.

DaveF. · Dec 23, 2014

emktx said:
Nice shed, nice floor plan. I had Northland build my 30x40X10 last Dec. It was -3 when they started and -6 when they finished a day and a half later. One tough crew that produced a nice little building. Mike was nice to work with, nice outfit all around, I would recommend. By the look of your land I guessing you are just north of me, I am down outside of Trempealeau. Quick question, what lights do you have on the ceiling? The lights look like they illuminate your workspace pretty good. I too am putting up a white liner panel ceiling.

Thanks,
Ed

Ed: Both of our out buildings are Northland and I too would have no problem recommending them to anyone. I think the Mike you're referring to has the last name of Vold. He was great on both projects. The original sales person and I had some weird personality clash that I still don't understand, but Mike set me up with Craig Tobias instead, and he did a fantastic job.

The lights are 4 bulb, high bay T12s. They are supposedly quite efficient. For only six fixtures they do a fine job, but I think someday I'd like to add three more down the middle of the ceiling. When the walls were white with Tyvek or beadboard it seemed like plenty of light. As they turned pink, and then later brown, the light seems less adequate. I'll eventually paint the OSB a light grey, which should help. In the mean time I like fixtures, I'd just like more of them.

DaveF. · Dec 24, 2014

My sons and I finished putting up the perimeter sheeting yesterday. We used 7/16" OSB with the intention of painting it.

DaveF. · Dec 25, 2014

I used a router with a laminate bit to cut the OSB sheeting out for the doors and windows. I'd never used a router before or a laminate bit, but this was AMAZINGLY easy.

DaveF. · Dec 26, 2014

Put up the garage door opener switch. I didn't realize how cool this opener was when I purchased it. Maybe I've just been out of the opener loop for a while, but this thing has a motion sensor to automatically turn on the light, a thermometer, and a clock.

drivesitfar · Dec 26, 2014

Dave: the Garage or shop or SHED as you call it is shaping up nicely. sounds like the entire family is helping after the contractors have done their work which is great. i too just upgraded my garage doors and have that opener. it's awesome how quiet it is compared to the old 1/2 HP Craftsman i installed almost 30 years ago.

besides the clock, temperature and light motion detector i think yours will also close automatically after a minute, two or you can put on hold to stay open. be careful if its on an automatic close and you step outside with your keys in the garage. luckily when it happened to me i was emptying the garbage and taking cans to the curb when garage door closed and someone was inside my house to let me inside.

you are doing great with the pictures too.

cshades · Dec 26, 2014

Where are you located in wi?

40 x 64 Workshop in Wisconsin

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