A "get me by" garage

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

My Journey To My 36x50x14 Dream shop

After reading all these awesome posts on garage journal for many years, I have finally set aside the time to post my own thread.

My wife and I decided to move out to the country back in the spring of 2013. Our son was due in May, and we were done with city living. We found a very neglected property with the right sized house, enough land, and it was 100k less than anything else available. The biggest issue was the complete lack of effort the 2 previous owners put into the landscaping. The other issue was that there was no garage.

Before we even took possession, i bought a Bobcat 873, a small dump truck, and a Husqvarna powersaw. There were many trees to cut down, and many thousands of tons of dirt to be moved.

This is a hillside property, and as you will see, if you take from the top, and fill the bottom, you can make a big improvement with little work.

After we sold our house in town, i was able to buy a Cat mini excavator and really do some damage to the landscape. I was also able to begin construction on my 20x20x10 shop, which eventually ended up at 20x40 with the lean to's. This will get me by for the time being, but the plan is to build a 36x50x14 shop in the back, once the landscaping is done. That is happening soon.

Here is the backyard the day we took possession:

Beginning to take the hill out:

made a spot to park some stuff:

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

this area was built up by 4 to 6 feet and leveled off for junk parking

we burned a lot of brush

we eventually got rid of most of the hill in the back yard.

the area behind these buildinggs dropped off straight down. I filled all this. In most places the fill is between 12 and 15' deep. This is where the temporary shop is going.

My boss kindly lent us his big Cat backhoe to help make some headway. Having It made a huge difference

this was after approx 1000 tons

had to cut down a lot of trees

this is the area behind the wood shed. this was a straight drop off of about 12' as we took the hill out of the back yard we built this road. This would be the future access to the future shop.

there was a lot of dirt behind the house. After almost 40 years, why am I the first guy to get some equipment and start moving it?

the new shop is going here:

HOTFR8 · Jul 10, 2016

Will be following this with interest.

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

We found out why the hill in the backyard was never cleared away..bedrock

had some good fires:

here is what this area looked like before:

Bib Overalls · Jul 10, 2016

This is going to be dynamite. Did somebody say "Fire in the hole?"

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

On to the beginning of my small garage to get me by until i have a place to build my big shop. The biggest issue with this property is that nothing is flat, and there isn't really a spot that i wont be reworking. I decided to build the garage in a spot where there would be at least 12 feet of fill material. I couldnt compact it very well, so i decided to build a foundation of 6x6 posts sitting on 24x24x8" pads and then backfill around them, then build my little garage. That way i could ensure that the posts were sitting on undisturbed soil, and were not going to go anywhere. The posts are 12' and 14' tall

Framing in the winter *****:

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

After the roof was on, i insulated and added osb and slatwall, wired it, and installed my furnace.

then in the spring, i had back surgery, so while i was off work, I had to find something to do. These two 12x12 sheds were in my way, so I moved them and decided to do something with them.

I built a base:

and joined the sheds together to make a 12x24

used atf and motor oil makes a great wood stain

DarrenF · Jul 10, 2016

This spring i got to work enclosing the lean to's and getting the siding on.

Picked up some hardware storage from my neighbor who is a retired hardware dealer. Got an unbelievable deal on this package and couldnt pass it up.

DarrenF · Jul 14, 2016

The lean to with the man door to the garage will be my wood shed, the other side is to be storage. Been working on shelving and levelling up the floor:

added a ledger board to better support the rafters:

DarrenF · Jul 24, 2016

i have been working building doors and doing trim, and a little cleanup, here is a 360 view

matt_i · Jul 24, 2016

WOw, what a lot of dirt work! Awesome hardware collection. I dream of getting something like that someday...

DarrenF · Jul 25, 2016

Almost all those cabinets are full too. besides nuts bolts and washers of every possible size, there are tons of fittings, screws, machine screws, wood screw, nails, battery cable lugs and clamps, wiring supplies....basically, if a hardware supplier sells it, its in there.. paid 1000 for everything, with lots more to sort and still more coming

dirttracker18 · Aug 31, 2016

Looking good old friend.

I wish you had bought on this side of the city though

tweidman · Aug 31, 2016

DarrenF said:
Almost all those cabinets are full too. besides nuts bolts and washers of every possible size, there are tons of fittings, screws, machine screws, wood screw, nails, battery cable lugs and clamps, wiring supplies....basically, if a hardware supplier sells it, its in there.. paid 1000 for everything, with lots more to sort and still more coming

Why don't these deals ever find me..... That was an amazing score... :p123

DarrenF · Sep 26, 2016

dirttracker18 said:
Looking good old friend.

I wish you had bought on this side of the city though

hey Doug, we wanted to find a place out by you guys, but apparently only teachers and lawyers can afford that! haha

We had to settle for this place, but we saved a ton (100k) by dealing with the landscaping issues and lack of shop, but in the end it will be worth it. it will be interesting instead of flat, thats for sure. Many more rock walls to build, many more tons of dirt to move....

dirttracker18 · Oct 6, 2016

DarrenF said:
hey Doug, we wanted to find a place out by you guys, but apparently only teachers and lawyers can afford that! haha

We had to settle for this place, but we saved a ton (100k) by dealing with the landscaping issues and lack of shop, but in the end it will be worth it. it will be interesting instead of flat, thats for sure. Many more rock walls to build, many more tons of dirt to move....

lol

Ya ya the teacher knocks never stop.

FWIW we only paid $110K for this place and then I built the shop. Lots of good priced stuff out this way as long as you don't want a giant house.

We actually looked at a place just up the road from there before we found this place.

I also have a bunch of landscaping to do here, that's why I picked up a broken down back hoe.

Any interest in coming by to help me change the ring and pinion? The tractor is already split and ready to start disassembly

On another note the place is looking good, keep up the great work!

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

alright, so i have some catching up to do with whats been going on over the last year.

we worked our asses off at the beginning of summer to finish up some landscaping projects:

rock retaining walls

front rock retaining wall:

view from the drive up to the house:

then we got some grass growing where it needed to be, a few hundred tons of gravel on the driveway, and the wife and my banker were happy, so now i can get going on my new, big shop. More to come...

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

in the following image taken from my back deck, the new shop will be on the other side of the bedrock, just to the left of the plastic shed. I put the shed there to house my tools during construction. it is only temporary.

grass is growing.

My lil guy wanted to check out the plans for the new shop the night i picked them up:

The new shop is going to be 36x50x14 with 6/12 attic trusses, which create a 12x50x7' tall attic room.

so with plans and permits in hand, i got busy placing and leveling 15 loads (roughly 300 tons) of 7/8" A gravel, or road base material.

My friend Kyle came out and ran the packer for a few days.

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

the packer broke down on the second day, broke a hydraulic line, creating quite th fiasco trying to get a replacement packer. And the gravel would not pack. It was spongy, like a trampoline.

so thinking that it was water coming down off the hill, i dug trenches and added weeping tile and drain piping all over the place

the uphill side turned to mud from the water running down the hill, so i got my good friend to deliver a few loads of 3/4"-1.5" crushed rock, and i pounded that into the mud until it firmed up and allowed me to properly slope it for drainage. Then it rained for a week solid. Miraculously, after the rain, everything was solid as a rock.

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

Finally, it is starting to look like something:

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

I am a mechanic, not a plumber, but this is my version of a toilet, sink and vent.

I am going to install a trench drain, and this is the plumbing for it, with a p trap:

DarrenF · Oct 11, 2017

So with all the setbacks, and **** that doesnt show any progress done, i was able to finally start finish grading, packing, and forming:

DarrenF · Oct 15, 2017

Not sure if anyone is watching this, but had a major misunderstanding with the rebar supplier/installer. I call for a quote on rebar a few months ago. I gave him the total lengths of each size, and he gave me a price of roughly 2k for the bar in bulk lengths. Then he mentioned that if i gave him my plans, he could cut it and bend it for me. That was 2350. I then asked if they could install it. He emailed me back saying $2800, which to me, sounded like a great deal , so i told them to schedule it for tomorrow. When i went down to pay, they told me i owed $5150 plus tax, i nearly **** myself. The 2800 was for labor only. for a couple guys, for less than one day. Looks like i will be installing it myself this week.

On a better note, we got most of the forming done and the 2" xps foam is done.

Riley · Oct 15, 2017

Following along. You have to look at the views, not so much the comments.

Looks to me like you've developed a long term plan and are following through nicely! Great photos of the project too!

When does it get "too cold" up there?

J4mes · Oct 16, 2017

I'm watching! Love seeing what people do with a decent bit of space, especially one as different as your 'hill'.

Bookmarked!

bandlaw · Oct 16, 2017

Loving your thread so far. Keep us updated!

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welder57 · Oct 16, 2017

Looking good!!! Keep us posted!!!

Bronson · Oct 16, 2017

Outstanding progress!

DarrenF · Oct 17, 2017

a few pics of the weekend progress:

C_F · Oct 17, 2017

DarrenF said:
Not sure if anyone is watching this, but...

This is my first time running across your thread...so I wasn't watching before, but I am now! :bounce:

I am surprised your trenches aren't deeper, to get further below the frost line. Or does Ontario not get as cold as I'm assuming it does? Anyway, I'm definitely going to be checking back on your build, thanks for the progress posts. :thumbup:

Oh, and nice job on the yard so far, you have really had to move a lot of earth to get where you are today. Looks really good, as does the scenery around you.

DarrenF · Oct 17, 2017

Riley said:
Following along. You have to look at the views, not so much the comments.

Looks to me like you've developed a long term plan and are following through nicely! Great photos of the project too!

When does it get "too cold" up there?

It's getting cold at night now, starting to dip below freezing. In another month we will have snow. I gotta get er into high gear on this build soon.

J4mes said:
I'm watching! Love seeing what people do with a decent bit of space, especially one as different as your 'hill'.

Bookmarked!

Thanks!

bandlaw said:
Loving your thread so far. Keep us updated!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Will do.

welder57 said:
Looking good!!! Keep us posted!!!

Thanks. I will keep this thread updated, even if just to log my progress.

Bronson said:
Outstanding progress!

Thanks, not bad for a mostly one man show, with the occasional buddy stopping by. I'm only able to work on it a few hours before its dark, and on weekends.

C_F said:
This is my first time running across your thread...so I wasn't watching before, but I am now!

I am surprised your trenches aren't deeper, to get further below the frost line. Or does Ontario not get as cold as I'm assuming it does? Anyway, I'm definitely going to be checking back on your build, thanks for the progress posts.

Oh, and nice job on the yard so far, you have really had to move a lot of earth to get where you are today. Looks really good, as does the scenery around you.

It gets cold up here in the winter, and frost is an issue, but slabs like mine are quite common. They float with the frost. I am going with a frost protected shallow foundation type of setup, with lots of foam, over a mile of rebar, and radiant in floor heating. Also, i added a lot of gravel under the slab and did as much as i could to keep the water away. Without water, there is no frost. I think it will be ok.

Ya, the amount of dirt we moved is really unbelievable. over 500 hours in my bobcat going back and forth, about that many hours on my excavator digging out of the banks where my new shop is going. We even had contractors hauling in free fill for the last couple summers to build up one area. Got about 1000 tons for free. Still more dirt work needs to be done, but this is the final stretch.

DarrenF · Oct 23, 2017

I have been working on the rebar all weekend. it *****. There is no way to explaing how much it *****. but its almost done. Then 2000' of pex to lay out and tie to the rebar. Thats gonna **** too, but shouldn't take too long. Hoping for concrete within the week. And the attic trusses unexpectedly showed up. They tried calling first, but it turns out they had the wrong phone number on file. So they had to drop them in the driveway about 400' from the shop. So now i have to move them to the crane when its time to put them up.

rebar pics tomorrow

C_F · Oct 24, 2017

Oh sure, the old "wrong phone number" story.

Your trusses look nice-n-stout, looking forward to rebar photos...and then a concrete pour!

I hope the weather holds out for you for a little longer.

DarrenF · Nov 11, 2017

well we got the rebar almost done, before the snow hit, earlier than ever.

then this happened:

so I had no choice but to carry on and install the pex for the radiant infloor heat, rent insulated tarps, and hook up my plow trucks heater hoses to the infloor heat to melt alll this ****. Plow truck has been running for a week, and its been working, but slowly. put three 60k btu propane heaters under the tarps, and its still slow. but its melting.

more pics soon...

concrete on Tuesday. Gotta be ready.

DarrenF · Nov 11, 2017

after a few days of just the plow truck running:

the area where snow and now ice remains is where the pex was omitted for the lifts.

850xpeps · Nov 11, 2017

Looks good....you can rent boilers to hook to your lines. Would be a good investment for the poor to help cement from freezing. Just lay tarps on the cement.

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bczygan · Nov 11, 2017

Carnage.......

DarrenF · Nov 11, 2017

850xpeps said:
Looks good....you can rent boilers to hook to your lines. Would be a good investment for the poor to help cement from freezing. Just lay tarps on the cement.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

nobody has one around here. But, the ol plow truck does suprisingly well but its expensive....

DarrenF · Nov 12, 2017

pretty much how it looks tonight. Concrete is coming in a few days. If anyone else is ever thinking about building late in the season, think again, cuz the costs go way up. Right now its costing 350 a day to keep it heated and melt the ice and snow. I know i could find a cheaper way, but i dont have time. This is called getting screwed by mother nature. I wasnt ready and have been screwed since.

850xpeps · Nov 12, 2017

Should tried to pick up a used skid pressure washer water heater I bet that would do the trick......we use the ground loop heaters when we do grade beams and large slabs in the winter. -30 temps usually cost around half a 500lb pig tank per 24hr period. Yes heating costs money lol this insulated tarps will save you some money though. Make sure you keep that slab heated atleast a week after it’s poured with the tarps on it.

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