Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT 24x30 build in progress

[Rich H.]

It's comin'. But good grief this is alot of work.

Tonight, if I've got any energy left.....the south wall needs a little tape, the east wall needs a whole lot of mud....

....and I still need to plan out the boiler and integrator panel locations and make sure the wiring matches up. May have to move things around a little bit, not sure.

Was up until midnight last night, got up at 5:30am today and was something of a zombie until 4:00....either the caffeinated drink from lunch kicked in, or I got my second wind. Not sure which.

One really dumb but pleasant side effect: I'm going through some really nasty fall allergies right now. Sinuses are like a faucet, it's making me cough all the time and so on. It's really nasty. Well, when I put the dust mask on to sand the mud....no more allergies! Clears right up. Take the mask off, and it starts right back up again.

So I guess I need to hurry up and get back to sanding mud to make my allergies go away

 

[Motofixxer]

So I guess I need to hurry up and get back to sanding mud to make my allergies go away

Or just walk around all day with a mask on. Only take it off for a shower. Just tell people you have a contagious disease and it's for their safety. They will be very thankful

 

[Rich H.]

Oddly, since the colder/worse weather has blown in, whatever I was allergic to has mostly blown away. I'm not in perfect shape but am a whole lot less miserable...only the occasional hacking lets the world know I'm not quite 100%.

I had bought a bag of drywall clips and thought I'd need them for the ceiling by the gables, but ended up floating it instead. They say floating is less likely to crack, hope so.

Today I found a use for the clips, I sheetrocked underneath the shelf, between the joists on the wall. It's hard to describe so will post a pic later, but I think it'll look sharp when done.

Also sanded the east wall and found a couple little things to correct.

Am planning on rolling a little more primer tomorrow, and tightening up the wiring for the radiant system/getting ready to mount the radiant components.

 

[Rich H.]

Guess it is update time.

Without any further blabbering...the east wall is primed finally!

 

[Rich H.]

Somehow the panel grew a few boxes and conduit...They just kind of sprouted out of there. One is going to the boiler, the others....future expansion...

The 'step' above the panel is where I made the transition from the horizontal strapping to normal vertical studs, seemed a good place to mount th...err, uh...I mean I have no idea how they got there so never mind...

 

[Rich H.]

Piece of plywood for the integrator and boiler, pex, the pressure test manifold, and so on...

The stubs in the floor are more future expansion pieces, since sometimes I have trouble making up my mind. Might want a tiny bathroom area or at least a slop sink out there someday, might not like the electric boiler bills and might want gas instead, so I tried to keep my options open.

Also you can see I ripped the wires out of the garage door opener, oops....got a little clumsy when I was bolting the plywood on...easy fix but annoying....

 

[Rich H.]

Also started priming the underside of the loft to brighten up that area, and put sheetrock up in between each one. I guess I could be fancy and trim it all out but I haven't got the patience, and will probably just use painter's caulk around the edges.

 

[Rich H.]

The north ceiling is primed also, no pic, and there ain't much to look at anyway, just a whole bunch of white drywall, but it turned out OK. Not an easy job on the shoulders using the super-extendo-pole with a roller on the end of it....I'm still sore from that and am concentrating on walls for awhile before I do the south ceiling.

Also primed/cut=in all the ceiling corners using the time honored "brush duct taped to a stick" technique (actually the same extension pole as above), so that is knocked out now.

The south wall is all sanded except two little 8 inch long spots by the exhaust fan that I forgot about, and finally taped yesterday. So after I sand those tomorrow that wall will be ready to take primer.

With any luck, I will be rolling the finish coats on by this coming weekend and can get to some cleanup and power washing the slab. Part of me wishes I had covered it up to avoid getting mud and paint on it, but the other part of me knows what a tripping hazard it would have been...I couldn't have handled it.

 

[Rich H.]

Primer is complete as of 11:00 last night, on to color selection and finish coats.

 

[stangman39]

I've enjoyed reading all your progress.
Thanks to you I learned there are trusses that can help get more ceiling height for an eventual lift. I'm in the beginning stages of planning to build mine in the future!
I had thought I needed to go with 12' walls so the lift would work well but am thinking now maybe I can go with 10' and use scissor trusses to get the needed height I want.

 

[stick004]

I've enjoyed reading all your progress.
Thanks to you I learned there are trusses that can help get more ceiling height for an eventual lift. I'm in the beginning stages of planning to build mine in the future!
I had thought I needed to go with 12' walls so the lift would work well but am thinking now maybe I can go with 10' and use scissor trusses to get the needed height I want.

Yep, I'm in the same boat. Scissor trusses al the way through. I thought they were going to be sooo much more expensive. Turns out they were roughly $20 more per truss. than the standard flat truss.



Rich, Great looking shop. your progress is great and I'm still tagging along with you to get ideas. for my shop in progress.

 

[Rich H.]

Glad to be of help!

I did the same thing....it's what this place is all about

If I could do it over I would have gone with "RAISED HEEL" scissor trusses, for more insulation at the eaves.....but I didn't know they existed.

However even with the eaves having slightly less insulation than the rest of the ceiling assembly....the effect of the insulation is very apparent now and am really happy with that aspect of it. Can't wait to get in there and tear into some projects.

Any questions or comments, holler

 

[Rich H.]

oh yeah....I went and got the paint last night.
Didn't do any work, just went paint shopping.

Verdict?

Ceiling white, and white semi gloss for the walls.

It isn't going to look like much, but at least I'll be able to see what the heck I'm doing.

If it's any consolation I do have a gallon of gray and two gallons of blue on the shelf, and "could" get fancy and do stripes or graphics at any time.....but am going for light and bright for the time being.

I think I'm probably going to like it that way.

 

[stangman39]

Yep, I'm in the same boat. Scissor trusses al the way through. I thought they were going to be sooo much more expensive. Turns out they were roughly $20 more per truss. than the standard flat truss.

I've also read a parrallel chord truss might work good also.
Good to hear that the scissor trust was only $20 more for you per truss...I thought it would have been more.
Are these truss quotes you are getting premade or are you getting the materials and making them yourself? If you are getting them made...how much were you quoted per truss....standard and scissor?

Thanks!

 

[Rich H.]

Not sure what I'm going to do for baseboards......hmmm....any suggestions?

I posted the question in the general area too, hope that is ok

The ceiling has 3/4 of the finish coat applied as of 11:00 last night....will be complete tonight and walls should be done this weekend, barring any major catastrophes....

 

[Rich H.]

.....All the drywall is now painted! Semi gloss white for the walls, flat ceiling white (actually grayish) for the ceiling. 2 coats on all the walls too...

Now baseboards, possibly trim, mount up the heating system, clean the slab.....and that's that for now.

Pics to come...

 

[stick004]

I've also read a parrallel chord truss might work good also.
Good to hear that the scissor trust was only $20 more for you per truss...I thought it would have been more.
Are these truss quotes you are getting premade or are you getting the materials and making them yourself? If you are getting them made...how much were you quoted per truss....standard and scissor?

Thanks!

These are premade trusses delivered to my house. Cantilever ends with extra overhang on the front. For 27 trusses(2 standard end trusses and 25 scissors; 2' spacing) it was roughly $2100 for all standard flat trusses, $2500 for all the scissors. I talked to the truss guy today and with the 6/12 pitch I will gain about 45" in the center for head room and be about 9' from the top plat to the peak. That's a big truss!

Rich, congrats on the finish paint. How's those shoulders feeling?

 

[Rich H.]

Oh they feel just wonderful, especially after doing the ceiling!

The walls were easy by comparison, once I got a pattern going it wasn't too bad.

I picked up pvc baseboards tonight and put one piece on, caulked the top....and wow. Looks residential, except for the great big mess of course. Going to do the baseboards, caulk top and bottom, then serious cleanup.

I also bought window casing, and will see what I can do....no hurry on the windows, I feel like I can put that on anytime.

 

[Rich H.]

The primer I chose is Sheetrock branded, called "first coat". It has gypsum in it and it's supposed to help hide your mistakes..and mask irregularities. We will find out, won't we? At this point I'll take all the help I can get

Yep, well that was a lie I just caught myself in

I read the empty bucket today and it is not gypsum that it is chock full of, it's something else that is incredibly heavy in weight...I think it has more limestone than most but just a guess there.

It seems to have worked....I see the mistakes in it, my mud work is sure not the best, but it ain't half bad either. So I guess today's definition of garage quality is.....a step or two worse than my house is fine

 

[Rich H.]

Update time...Baseboards, windows, mounted the integrator and boiler, ran flex conduit and pulled some 6 gauge for the boiler, cut up and bagged the drywall scraps, and there are probably a few other things I forgot to mention....Been busy every night on it.

I acquired one of the universally hated craftsman oil free compressors which is in one of the pics....a blown up 60 gallon v twin with both rods broken, which seems to happen to them often....it was dirt cheap and I really just wanted the tank for capacity reasons.... but the electric motor runs so maybe I'll put rod kits in it and use it for backup when I finally get an industrial compressor like I was planning on eventually. It might be cool to manifold it together with something like a 3HP IR upright, which is the one I have my eye on.

Need to empty it out and power wash the paint drips and drywall mud off of the slab. HD wants like 90 bucks for a couple hours which seems like a ripoff, so I'm going to try my folks' little electric one and see how that works....maybe it'll be enough. I spent a little time scrubbing a couple areas with dish soap/wire brush/taping knife and the stuff does come off so that's a relief, but I sure am not going to do the whole thing that way!

Can't wait to get the damn bikes and drywall lift out of there. I'm planning on hanging another ceiling in my basement this winter so I should probably just stuff it down there now that I'm done with it in the shop.

Anyway that's about it for now. The next Menards run will entail some lighting, a few things for the house, and pieces to get the radiant plumbed and hooked up the rest of the way.

 

[stick004]

Looks awesome. Your really moving right along. Keep up the good work!

 

[Rich H.]

Thank you

 

[Rich H.]

Cleaning paint drips off the slab has turned into a rather miserable job.

I've been using "Citristrip" , taping knives, a wire brush and a hose....it works, but is awfully slow. I've got about 30% of it done.

Anyone know a better way? Other than "don't mess it up to begin with", I mean....

 

[Motofixxer]

Yep, red rosin paper does wonders to keep the floor clean

Maybe some Goof Off or just regular paint stripper. You could also try a wire brush in an angle grinder or a drill. That would make it go quicker. Just gotta be careful not to leave big swirl patches.

 

[Rich H.]

Yep I'm an idiot for not doing that. Should have taped it down or something since I was so worried about tripping....you know what they say about hindsight.

It's about 70% cleaned now, almost there.

 

[kyles974]

very nice!

I was leaning to put up OSB in my shop
this is inspiring to put sheetrock/drywall

 

[Rich H.]

Sure appreciate the compliments, thank you.
That can be a tough decision and I mulled it over quite awhile too.

I guess I chose drywall based on price, appearance, tiny R value, and tiny fire resistance. There is chance I could add a secondary wall material in the future, either a wood product or sheetmetal somewhere as maybe a wainscoat, or 4 to 8 feet high on the walls. I just decided using the sheetrock as a base for anything else I do in the future would be the best plan for me.

Well here's where I'm at on the floor, I might get the cleaning finished tomorrow or Tuesday but it won't be too much longer I hope. It's wet in both shots.....I washed the paint stripper and the chunks off until (to paraphrase flybefree) the water was as clean and clear as a flowing mountain stream. Makes me think of a beer commercial.

The wood scrap pile shows up in one of the pics. The funny thing about it? It's actually a mobile scrap pile.....I had an engine block to pick up and move in my attached garage, and borrowed a non-folding cherry picker from a buddy. Then after that, I put it in this garage. Next thing I knew, I was using it to store all my wood scraps on....when it gets in the way I just roll it somewhere else.

Guess I'll head back out there for another hour.....fans have been running to dry it out since 5:30, think I'll shut em down and relax the rest of the night.

 

[Rich H.]

Legacy Densifier applied last night (Thanks Scotty).

I could be a real wise guy and post before and after pictures of the densifier application, but since it looks exactly the same that would be rather dumb

Could use some cabinets, Been looking at them for months, they're either too expensive, or affordable but too ugly/sold long before I could even look at them/too far from home..."It's always something". So guess that will wait, maybe winter will bring some cabinet deals my way.

It's almost move-in time

 

[Rich H.]

The Liftmaster 3800 has taken a dump, at less than a year old....I threw a question out in the general area about it....not real happy about it atm...

 

[Kevin54]

Thank you for saying so.

I laugh when I see the boys' idea of "work clothes". For me it was jeans, t shirt and boots.. But it was very hot and humid that day, so the boys did something slightly different

I'll break the chronological order for a second....I had begun hanging sheetrock on the ceiling, and stopped into a HD store I don't usually frequent for a bucket of drywall compound. Lo and behold, they had a couple industrial ceiling fans on sale...discontinued, and deeply discounted as well. Very interesting... I read the reviews on garage journal and it seemed like a good one for me, so I grabbed it and set everything up for it.

Luckily I already had an unused circuit and a dedicated breaker for it, that I wanted to utilize....breaker is labeled "garage door opener". I had specified the opener should be installed on the left side of the door, but the door company installed it on the right side instead. I was upset they didn't follow my directions, but once I added the ceiling fan....it all worked out for the best. It was a lucky break.

In regards to the box for mounting the ceiling fan, if that were to be inspected, you'd probably be busted for it. When I built my Family Room on my house, I mounted mine the same exact way that you did and had to take it down. I had to purchase a plastic box specifically for ceiling fans. It straddles a 2x from the top. I think the way I had the metal box mounted was stronger and the inspector actually thought so too. But non-the-less, it had to come down and be swapped out.

Notice how it's getting darker and darker in the previous shot lol....

Alex and Sam, my helpers/machine feeders, did their best.

Alex is the one with outstretched arms, he is 9, and considers himself the brains of the outfit. He definitely is acting like a big shot in this picture. He's smart as a whip, with quite an imagination and highly developed creative skills especially in basic visual arts.

Sam is 7, and seems to be a follower at this point in his life...he's the younger brother after all.....however, Sam is hell for strong, is more active, taller, and outweighs his brother too. If Sam ever develops a temper, his brother is going to be in big trouble. Just have to teach him to use his powers for good instead of evil, and all will be well with the world.

When you're 7, you think it's fun to make a game out of not feeding the machine properly and instead throw little tufts in one handful at a time. Whee!

When you're 9, you can see the pointy, prickly, dangerous looking thing spinning at the bottom of the machine, and you know better than to get to close to it, so you really WANT to feed the machine properly but you're afraid of it.

See where I'm going with this? Yep, another hour or so was spent just waiting for material to come out the other end of the hose. Highly frustrating. During a pure act of God, my Dad just decided to stop by unannounced which he NEVER EVER does....he showed the boys how to feed the machine, and we got quite efficient after that.

Even then, with the machine failure and repair and so on, the boys went to bed at 12:30am that night and everyone was wore out. I paid them by the hour though, so they were happy about it. Gotta teach them the simple stuff as young as possible.....work, get paid, make money. Don't work, don't get paid, and you do not have any money. This is only the beginning...

Nothing wrong with working two energetic boys. Our nephews are 12 and 15 and we had them at our house for a day cleaning up flowerbeds, putting away lawn furniture, and so on. It was fun then, but they didn't crawl out of the sack until noon the next day

Mooney time.

As the legend goes, a man named John Mooney developed a unique method for insulating walls and had documented it on the fine homebuilding breaktime forums. Over the course of time, his method became known as a "Mooney Wall". Feel free to ask any questions and/or google it, there is alot of information out there on it.

In a nutshell it entails horizontal strapping over the studs, then an inexpensive synthetic fabric known as insulmesh or insulweb is stretched and staped over the strapping. Glue is applied over the stapled areas. Then holes are poked in the insulmesh, and finally cellulose is blown in to a very high density. When done correctly, the insulated areas feel like a firm mattress.

There is a common misunderstanding that all insulation requires loft to function correctly. I've found this is not true of cellulose...cellulose performs best overall when densely packed.

Overall performance--including least air intrusion and least sound transfer (neither of which is addressed by R value) is improved using this method.

In certain areas of the building, Mooney was not practical and would have required too much extra effort.....but the all important west wall, and the east wall that faces the house both have it. Best sound deadening facing east, least air intrusion facing west. It isn't perfect but alot of thought went into it.

So the wall that you have the 2x strapping is actually an 8" thick wall? 2x6 studs then 2x4 strapping?

Why did you have to put glue over the staples? Was it just to hold the fabric from tearing out?

Where did you pick up the insulmesh fabric from?

Yep I'm an idiot for not doing that. Should have taped it down or something since I was so worried about tripping....you know what they say about hindsight.

It's about 70% cleaned now, almost there.

There is a product made specifically for removing dried latex paint. But I can't remember the name. It's different than GooGone or Goofoff or those products. I know that's not helping you now though

Great Job!!!! And done in time for winter to set in!!! Enjoy

 

[Rich H.]

Whoa check this out!!! I won!!!

Rich, You have been selected to participate in our Tan Garage Coat Test, thank you for helping us!

Bruce in our order department will be contacting you by email or phone to process the prepayment and get your product out asap.

Again, you will be required to pay by credit card for materials and shipping. As soon as we receive pictures of completed floor and a completed survey, we will immediately credit you for the cost of the product.

Thanks again for helping us out!

www.citadelfloors.com
www.rocksolidfloors.com
www.facebook.com/citadelfloors
www.youtube.com/citadelfloors

 

[Rich H.]

Hey Kevin!

I'm kinda bummed to hear that on the fan box. I guess if they would like to inspect it they can come on out, take the fan off themselves and look I don't plan on taking it down again in the near future, that's for sure. So let's just pretend you didn't see that, ok?

So the wall that you have the 2x strapping is actually an 8" thick wall?
2x6 studs then 2x4 strapping?

Why did you have to put glue over the staples? Was it just to hold the fabric from tearing out?

Where did you pick up the insulmesh fabric from?

It's 2x4 vertical studs with 2x3 horizontal. I guess a person could say I have 6" thick walls but it only works out to 4.75" or something like that. I found the strapping helps hold the material up, and prevents it from getting saggy when it's really packed full so it is still worthwhile.

The glue is just to keep the fabric from coming off the studs, and making for bumpy paneling...


And thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate that

Edit #94,632
Oh yeah I forgot.....the best deal I could find on the insulweb fabric was over here:
http://www.insulationmachines.net/shop/insulweb-4-x-375-/
That's the dimension I went with, and I have a whole bunch left over.

 

[Falcon67]

>Could use some cabinets, Been looking at them for months, they're either too expensive, or affordable but too ugly/sold long before I could even look at them/too far from home...

These run $69.95 at Sams:
https://www.sevilleclassics.com/products.php?pid=89

Congratulations on the Garage Coat deal!

 

[Rich H.]

Thanks Chris, I saw your post on 'em, they're affordable and look good but I am kind of undecided yet.

Been trying to not spend too much on cabinets if I can help it, and would be ok with used kitchen stuff.

I had a good experience with my other (attached) garage, painting and reusing the old nasty cabinets that came out of my kitchen, and was looking at going down that road again....maybe not eh? hmm

 

[Rich H.]

Here's the aftermath of moving everything for densifier application, then moving it all again, and then feeling ambitious and starting to clear out my attached garage and move into this one, I got started on it....

I had pulled most of the drawers out of my SAE box, wrestled it out of the attached garage (no small feat given how cramped it is....I'm not showing any pictures of THAT place until I get it cleaned out!), then wrestled all of it across the yard and into the new shop, put all the drawers back in, and put it against the back wall. Wanting to get more done, I moved my mig welder in there too.

And the day after I did that.....I found out I was chosen to be a flooring tester, so now I have to take it all apart again, drag it across the yard again, and get it into the other garage again

I kinda let it sit after that for a day or two, so I thought I'd take these pictures before any cobwebs develop

Guess I'll head back out there and start taking it apart again in anticipation of the rocksolid floor arrival. Will also make a list of the couple small parts I need to complete the radiant and get that working....

 

[Rich H.]

Slab is etched and has been drying with the help of a dehumidifier and that
HD ceiling fan for a few days now. Will complete the "duct tape and plastic" moisture test tonight, but do not anticipate any problems....the slab has always been very dry in there.

Baseboards and bottom of service door are masked off as of last night.

I've swept the floor what feels like 18,000 times

I am ready!!!!

But it's going to be too cold tonight and I didn't get the heat hooked up yet because I was too busy prepping the floor

Guess I'll have to wait until Friday or Saturday.

 

[Rich H.]

Rocksolid garage coat is 99% complete!

The last 1% is where I masked off for my bench. I cound't find anywhere to put it So I will do that one spot tomorrow.

I'm stoked

http://garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=151544&d=1321752387

http://garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=151545&d=1321752387

http://garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=151546&d=1321752387

 

[Rich H.]

Long time no type, been awhile...

The radiant is hooked up, but am still lacking the thermostat and anti freeze.

I got alot of stuff moved in....

mounted up a recycled dry erase board that I've been using all along (using that that white board has been one of the best things I've done), put casters on the two equipto cabinets, moved in both toolboxes and the mig, dragged a couple old Mopars in there, and so on.

I've got alot of org and re-org to do, but instead of agonizing over where to put this and that.....I'm just going to get to work on parting out the old truck. Whatever doesn't seem to make sense when actually working, is going to change right then....

 

[Rich H.]

Much easier rolling these heavy equipto cabinets around, rather than dragging them, like I've been doing for nearly a year. They're going to be awesome storage for power tools, maybe spray cans and other bulky stuff on the bottom, and hardware + some tools on the top. Plus the height is higher than the workbench now, so the different height should be better for certain kinds of jobs.

My workmanship on the floor, although not perfect, makes me very happy.
I can't thank rocksolid/citadel floors enough for what they did for me. I never thought I would have anything cool looking like this.

 

[Rich H.]

It's so simple, an old dry erase board. But when I think of the time it saved me, it's priceless. I've had it completely full a few times now....only things left are "thermostat" and "anti freeze".

Please note gratuitous Rocksolid Floors decal placement on the lower right hand corner of the dry erase board....one more thing for me to make sure I never forget.