27x68 so cal

[waggie]

After debating back and forth about whether to build an attached or detached shop, I decided on building an attached. I've been working in two car garage since I started a few years back. Originally, I was just gonna weld a little gate for my garden... but that has ballooned to a full blown fabrication shop. I don't make stuff to sell, it's not a business for me. I just like messing around in the shop and build stuff that interest me.

So, after many months of working with an architect, the plan is approved. The pennies all scrounged up, got all my ducks in a row and got a few bids. After meeting with a lot of contractors, and got their bids, I picked one and here's the beginning of the construction.

Here's some "quirk" features to this house/property (that I like):
• There's an existing, PERMITTED 10x36 woodshop (you'll see it in 3rd picture)
• Alley behind the property.
• Original garage opens to the rear (i.e. can't see garage door from street) all the pics in this post is of the back of the house.
• drive thru property
• no second story allowed (a "gentlemen's agreement" in our neighborhood, NOT HOA).
• 24' (or 25, or 26') maximum height. All I need is 22' 8", so I'm covered there.

By working with the architect, we were able to keep these features. I have lived here for 20 years and have grown use to these quirks.

Construction began in mid November. It is scheduled to finish in Mid Jan. Even with Thanksgiving, and new year, it would still be on schedule. Unfortunately, local power company is very slow about spotting the meter. Also, I made some changes that require the architect re-submit some drawings. So, nothing will happen until one of those two issues are resolved. There isn't much left. I think I'm past the mid way point of this build.

anyway, pics!

The demolition begins.

Things move quickly with big tools.

only took a few hours to break up all the concrete. the woodshop in the background.

moving them to the back alley took more time the the actual demo.

 

[waggie]

this was taken before pouring the footing. Notice the holes in the garage floor. These were dug to reinforce the footing. This area was just a basic 20x20 garage, existing footing wasn't enough to bear the weight of the new building. So the footing guys really had to work hard in getting these dug and rebar'd.

Here's a shot of the whole project. As stated earlier, this is the back of the house. The gate that's to the right of the existing garage leads to the actual street. I see this as a feature, since I can leave my garage door open and still have all the privacy I need. If i were building something big that sticks out of the garage, I can just leave the garage door open and not worry about security. Anyway, big shop is coming.

Footers' poured. Where the little bob-cat is will be a 16' wide x 14' tall door. To the right will be a 10'x10' door. Gonna get roll ups for both. The 10' door leads to another concrete pad, that's where I wash my cars.

slab poured. See that copper pipe next to the two PVC pipes? well, the PVC is electrical, nothing exciting about that. But I'm very excited about that copper pipe. Remember that existing woodshop i mentioned earlier? I'm putting my air compressor in there. This copper pipe, and one of the PVC (for electrical) is going into the woodshop. PVC to feed electricity to a sub panel that will go into the woodshop, and copper pipe will bring compressed air from the woodshop. The big shop that's being built will be very tall... and big open spaces and air compressors is not a good combination.

Here's a different angle. there's about 18' between the big shop and the woodshop. I can squeeze a car through, and running a copper conduit isn't a big deal. I don't do much woodwork anymore, I've been using that woodshop as my paint booth. Sounds like a good place for the compressor.

 

[waggie]

first truck load of lumber.

highest point there in the center of the picture is the highest peak of the shop: 22' 8". It's to accommodate 14' tall door (in the right side of the picture, in the shadow). 14' tall roll up doors require 22" head room. So, we round it up to 16 foot.

There, the opening framed out to 16' for 14' tall door. so, technically, that means I have 16 foot wall? What's the reason for 14' door? Two reasons. First, the good o'l adage: "build it as tall as you can now, so you won't wish you built it a foot or three taller later." Second, resale. I don't plan to move. If I've played my cards right, this is where i'm gonna die (after many many, many years, hopefully). But, just in case, who ever is crazy enough to buy a house with a HUGE garage is most likely an RV owner. And those things need tall doors. I think a semi truck is regulated to 13' 6". The actual opening is 14" 8'.

Here's the 10x10 door and a man door (between the 10x10 and the house).

Not sure if you can see them with all the bracing... but there are 8 openings on the roof for 2'x4' sky lights. It's gonna take a lot of juice to light this place, I need all the help I can get. 8 might be over kill, but I doubt it. I never hear anyone said they installed too many sky lights. Sky lights are awesome... until they leak. But that's most likely an installation issue. The roofer is pretty confident about it.

more to come.

 

[Ray Kelly]

Wow!! That is going to be one big man cave!!

 

[Gentle_Ben]

I had everyone tell me I was crazy for putting 10'x10' doors on my garage, but your big door makes the 10'x10' look average sized lol.

Did you have any neighbors complain when they saw the walls going up?

 

[waggie]

I hope it will be big enough. 1800 sq ft isn't really all that big... I'll admit that it's really tall, though.

The big door is gonna be 16x14. About the height... the first one to react to it was myself.
My architect, contractor and framers all have experience in mentally translating the measurement on paper to actual physical references, so they all knew this was gonna be huge. Not me. I just think: "1800 square feet, 1800 square feet..." I'm just an average home owner. I only know what 22' look like when it lays flat on the ground. My first reaction after seeing how tall it was after the wall went up was: "what have I done?" The wall's been up for several weeks now, and every time i see it, i'm still shocked (in a good way).

as for your question, no, no negative reactions as to how tall it is. In fact, my neighbor across the street (has RV and trailer for dirt bikes) came by to check it out and wanted to build one "just like it"

 

[Kevin54]

Waggie....did you just recently get divorced? Because most wive's would say "Oh hell NO"

I'm lovin' it and looking forward to more pics. And I have to say that when you do it, you do it right!!!!

 

[kyle@hcb]

Awesome start!

 

[dodgepolara500]

nice build. Is the garage going to cover the existing windows on the house?

 

[1/2 Cup]

Great start, I am looking forward to following your progress

 

[waggie]

Garage will share that wall with the two windows. The windows originally were just going to be closed up. Building codes here require garage wall to be fire rated for one hour. Putting in fixed glass windows with fire rated glass would have cost several thousand dollars each opening. Fortunately, someone on this forum tipped me off about glass blocks being fire rated. So, the window openings will be slightly smaller, and filled with glass blocks (under $2000 for Both openings instead of almost $8000).

interestingly, I've been getting a lot of flack for this. Everyone I talked to wonders why I wanted to be able to see into the garage ... They dont know the reason is for me to see into the HOUSE from the garage, since that's where i'm gonna be most of the time.

Kevin... got divorced a couple of years ago. Currently not seeing anyone. House is paid for, and in my name, so ain't no woman is gonna tell me what i can or can't build.

 

[Kevin54]

garage will share that wall with the two windows. The windows originally were just going to be closed up. Building codes here require garage wall to be fire rated for one hour. Putting in fixed glass windows with fire rated glass would have cost several thousand dollars each opening. Fortunately, someone on this forum tipped me off about glass blocks being fire rated. So, the window openings will be slightly smaller, and filled with glass blocks (under $2000 for both openings instead of almost $8000).

Interestingly, i've been getting a lot of flack for this. Everyone i talked to wonders why i wanted to be able to see into the garage ... they dont know the reason is for me to see into the house from the garage, since that's where i'm gonna be most of the time.

Kevin... Got divorced a couple of years ago. Currently not seeing anyone. House is paid for, and in my name, so ain't no woman is gonna tell me what i can or can't build.

I knew it.

Congrats that you now have your balls in their proper place

 

[waggie]

One of the biggest pains in the **** about building an attached addition is reinforcing the foundation. Detached buildings can be built from scratch, but an attached building means adding concrete and rebars to reinforce the foundation. The existing foundation was engineered for a two car garage with 8 foot walls; The addition, which will include the two car garage, will be more times 4x the size, and 3x the wall height. All of which will render the existing foundation too weak. Here's what they did to remedy that.

Areas were marked inside the garage where the concrete will be demo'd, and three feet of dirt will be removed.

right side of the garage:

the rear of the garage. The windows at the top of the picture looks into the street.

left side of the garage. This is the common wall between house and garage.

This is the biggest section to be reinforced.

all of the marked spots will be done like this, instead of posting pictures of every hole, I'll just focus on this one.

They dig under the existing foundation. The hole goes under the foundation, and into the laundry room... and outside that door on the upper right. The house is built on a raised foundation. So it is a little simpler.

Here's a shot of under the laundry room after the rebar is doweled into the existing foundation

This is a shot of out side the laundry room. My dog accidentally fell in and couldn't get himself out. The hole was too deep for him to jump out of. He was stuck there for several minutes, as I was in the craw-space under the house doing some minor repairs.

a shot without the dog.

rebar reinforcement dropped in, and doweled into the existing slab. This is it for the prep work. This is what it looks like right before the concrete is poured in

Here it is all filled up

Rear right corner of the garage. The hole from the inside extends under the existing foundation and to the outside. I took the opportunity to drop in a 3x3x1/4 post for a new gate.

put a chunk of the old concrete under the post.

all filled up and ready for a gate. It will be one of the first projects as soon as the shop is done.

 

[rixtrix1]

This is going to be interesting. Does the house across the street behind yours just look like a two story, or is it built up on a hill?

 

[waggie]

you're right, it is a two story house. It's one of the historic homes in my area. Those are not bound by our agreement that I mentioned earlier. I should have said, new homes and additions are not allowed to be two stories.

 

[BHR4CE1]

Nice work. Looking forward to more pics!

 

[Jay Sco]

Dang that house across from yours looks familiar, although I know a lot of the houses around there are similar. I went to Chaffey High, and have a friend that lives right by Upland High, so I've been around that area for years.

Welcome to the GJ. Looking forward to updates.

 

[waggie]

got a couple of videos done...
first one is all the work up til a couple of weeks ago:

This is today. they got the plywood up on the roof

 

[WarrenJ]

Looking forward to the progress on this. Looks like one BIG man cave!

 

[colt zantop]

This is awesome!!! Can't wait to see more!

 

[waggie]

ok, time for some random pictures i took today.

shot of the hose and the shop. For scale, house is single story, but it does have high ceiling (at the peak, i measured almost 16' at the inside).

different angle.

From the inside. There are some bracing still. I haven't ask them when the braces will come off. All the OSB on the outside are done. The plywood on the roof is 90% done.

Tomorrow the old electric and verizon panel will be taken off so the shear wall can be installed. That's one of the windows that will be filled with Glass Blocks.

Opening for side window. Bottom of the window is 6' off the ground (security and privacy reasons).

shot of the "other shop"

picked up some sky lights last week (fixed, non-opening)

this part is the old garage. ceiling is lowest here. Good enough for machine shop. Gonna have to plumb the air all the way here (air compressor will be in the other shop, air will come in to this shop via underground piping).

side door and man door.

 

[48windsor]

awesome . nice job . Thanks for sharing all the nice pics

 

[musgofasta]

Garage now more square footage than the house?

I've got a pretty good idea about where you are in Upland, and very impressed with your build. From the street, can anyone tell the size and magnitude of your shop over your existing garage?

 

[waggie]

Garage now more square footage than the house?

house is 2200sf, shop i'm building now is 1800. But I do have a second shop that's 360 or 400sf (can't remember which)... so the square footage ratio of house:shop is about 1:1.

I've got a pretty good idea about where you are in Upland, and very impressed with your build. From the street, can anyone tell the size and magnitude of your shop over your existing garage?

Yes.

Right now they can. Since the walls went up, everything is 2x4 (lumber) color, The roof on my house is dark brown in color, so the build very much sticks out like a sore thumb. I do have some big trees in the front yard, but since it's winter and all the leaves have fallen off, it's hard to miss a bright, tall building. Come spring/summer and I get the roof tiles on (hopefully next week), it won't be as obvious. All the houses on the street is single story ranch-style: low roof peak, sprawed out... except mine. All of my neighbors know i'm building a garage/shop, everyone is ok with it.

I'll PM you my contact info, you can check it out for yourself.

 

[waggie]

Here's a video update:

Insulation is in.

Electric Panel is in, and House is hot. Shop has no plugs/lights/switches except for existing (one plug)

 

[Bib Overalls]

Neat project. Cool video. Does that man door have a step over curb?

 

[waggie]

Neat project. Cool video. Does that man door have a step over curb?

thanks. Yes there is gonna be a step over curb on the man door. I figured it would be easier to clean with a curb all around the shop (except where the roll up doors are going to be)

 

[waggie]

all the scaffolding were removed, here's a few pictures.

from the outside

after some sweeping

skylights

 

[waggie]

Alright, it's about 3 weeks, so here's some updates and pictures. Things moves slowly towards the finishing straights. Last post I made was several pictures of the scaffolding and braces just removed.

So, here's what happened since the last update.
• common wall between house and garage is a shear wall, so the OSB went on
• roof decking and overhang completed
• skylight curbs completed
• matching celestial roof framing completed.
• roof water membrane, assorted flashing and some painting completed.
• paper and chicken wire for stucco installed.
• "1-hour" glass bricks installed.

This is pretty much where the last update ended. Roof decking and over hang at about 70% done.

side view.

This is the shear wall with OSB all done.

This was required by the city, in order to match the existing house (see next picture)

Appearently, there was a disagreement on who should build the curbs for the skylight, roofers vs. framer. In the end, the framers did it.

paper and chicken wire... almost ready for stucco. "almost" is the key here.

Roof tiles arrived.

Roofing pretty much done. Of course, there are some broken tiles that needs to be repaired, but the roofers said they will fix them when they come back after the stucco guys break some more. Unfortunately, we've hit a snag here. The building plan called out for siding on the center portion of the long, 68 foot wall. The contractor suggested that it would be cheaper to do the whole thing in stucco and I agreed. Unfortunately, the city doesn't. So, we'll have to do the siding over the chicken wire. Little things like this will cause a 5 day extension to the whole project... sigh. c'est la vie.

Here's the most exciting part recently. With winter weather dipping into the 50's at night (BRRRRR! for southern california, it's low 50's is BRRRRR!!!) and two gaping holes, i've been pretty much chained to a personal heater at night. Now that the openings are being filled with glass blocks, we're back to a comfortable mid to low 60's at night. Ironic.

 

[Rom'S]

Nice job, I like !

 

[waggie]

time for a selfie

 

[Jay Sco]

Coming along nicely. So you mentioned that you do a little woodworking and painting, but not much else. What are your plans once this is finished? Car storage? Full blown shop? Misc play room?
I still mean to drop by sometime. In fact I'll be in your area tomorrow but will be running around all day. Maybe next time.

 

[waggie]

yeah, the little woodworking and painting is to supplement the welding and machining. It's gonna be a metal shop.

 

[dhubbard422]

Really impressed by the front view. The (large) addition is very nicely integrated with the front of your home. Kudos to you and your architect!

 

[Nimonic]

That is awesome.

 

[waggie]

almost forgot this... the skylights

 

[Sunbimmer]

OMG this is great, can't wait to see it finished.
I'm very curious what you're going to do with the interior.
BTW the skylights...

 

[Kevin54]

Here's the most exciting part recently. With winter weather dipping into the 50's at night (BRRRRR! for southern california, it's low 50's is BRRRRR!!!) and two gaping holes, i've been pretty much chained to a personal heater at night. Now that the openings are being filled with glass blocks, we're back to a comfortable mid to low 60's at night. Ironic.

I'd kill for some low 50's at night I think this is one of the coldest winters we've had for ages, and also one of the whitest as the snow has been around forever. Someone needs to kick Al Gore's *** for even talking about Global Warming

The garage is looking fantastic, and it ties in with the house great. Looking forward to see some more progress pics on it.

And yes....just a little green with envy on my end

 

[waggie]

I'm also very curious what I will do with the interior. I have no idea so far.

For reference this is the previous shop all housed in a two car garage.

two car garage was very cramped. There was no point in thinking about doing anything with the interior besides organizational aides to free up more floor space. The wall with the glass blocks will be dry walled (per fire code) but the rest will be open beam. I still have to run lights and plugs.

don't be expecting anything "boutique" it's a working shop, the projects and ergonomics are more important to me than how the shop is decorated.

 

[kazlx]

Dude. You're a nut. I'm just going to rent shop space from you.