30x32 Shop with Lean-to

[Chris4x4Gill2]

The site prep for my new shop was completed yesterday. Builder is about 2 weeks out from starting so I figured its time to start a Gallery thread to document the progress. Pics coming soon. Its been dark every evening by time I am able to get home.

First thing I must give big thanks to my Dad for being on site with the work the last few days while I was unable to get off of work. Him retiring finally is a great asset.

I am doing a 32x30 enclosed shop, pole construction with concrete floor and an additional 16ft lean to for parking.

I have a thread asking questions and advice here: Planning Stages

that I will continue to use to try and keep this thread a little cleaner.

 

[MacTexas]

Speaking as a retired father, I am sure he was happy to help. Just last week I helped my son replace a storm door on his house. I enjoyed every minute.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Yes, we always have a project going either here, his place , or at the camp- usually several at the same time. He loves being involved with all of them.

I posted these in the other thread, but I'll add them here as well.

Layout of the shop in relation to the house.

Here is the site April 1st, 2016 after an F2 came through.

Site Cleared of trees, and stumps ground.

Dozer work beginning

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Here is the pad finished out. Not a great picture, but it was raining. I spread hay where I could on the slopes last night. We are in for several days of rain.

 

[matt_i]

The rain will actually help ferret out soft spots that aren't compacted very well.

It appears you escaped more serious damage from the F2! Good start

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Yea. The rain has been fairly light and steady all day. Great for the red clay of the pad. There is a run off area for drainage there in front where the hay is. I wanted to get some sort of cover in there to keep it from washing. They are predicting hard rain / thunderstorms tonight.

Yes, we were very lucky to come out of that storm with no damage to the house. We had 36 trees down on our property, most in the 18-24 inch diameter range. One large hickory trunk fell within 3 feet of the house.

Once the shop is built the next project is replacing all of our fencing that we lost.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed!

 

[Bib Overalls]

Northeast or Northwest Alabama?

When that red clay is wet it is slicker than snot. Dry, you need a pick before you can shovel.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Northeast or Northwest Alabama?

When that red clay is wet it is slicker than snot. Dry, you need a pick before you can shovel.

Pretty much dead center. In Morgan County next to the TN River. And that is definitely an accurate description of the clay. Great for the pad because it compacts so well, but its like an ice rink out there right now.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Here is the sketch for the shop.

Not sure how this PDF will attach, but I'm going to give it a try.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Looks great!!

 

[billspit]

Back in the early 80s, I lived in Montgomery, but spent a good bit of time in North Alabama. If my company had let me locate there in the first place, I would have stayed there when the SOBs laid me off 41 months later. I could not get out of Montgomery fast enough.

Nice build BTW. I am jealous.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Material delivered yesterday! Work should begin this morning.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Started to put the post holes in this morning and almost immediately ran into a problem. We found a gas line. It was about 3 foot deep where they planned to dig 4 foot down to set the post.

My fault for not getting them marked earlier, but it never crossed my mind that there would be a line ran through the woods here. The main line parallels the road. My meter is on the back of the house. I was told, but never verified, that the line to my meter was clear on the other side of the house. I honestly never imagined they would have put a line in through all of the trees that were here prior to me clearing this part out.

 

[dirt_dobber]

great beginnings...
I love helping my 2 sons out with projects.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Can you move the building a few feet so that it doesn't hit the post, or make that post shorter?

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

I believe we may be able to shift the building slightly and miss the line. Waiting on the line to be flagged to know for sure. I will then have to get the gas co to reroute the line though as it would be under the slab. They said they would run new and tie in as opposed to moving the existing line.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Bummer that it's delaying the project. Hindsight is 20/20!

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Framing of the enclosed portion is mostly done. Gravel was delivered to start laying for the base of the slab.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Awesome!! What ended up happening with the gas line?

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Patched it, dug out around it a little bit so it could be moved over and put the post in. It was at the very edge of the hole to begin with. The GasCo is coming out to run another line that will bypass the garage. Still waiting on the flagger to come so the hole for the corner post of the lean-to can be dug.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Getting ready for concrete. Vapor barrier and wire mesh is down inside the shop portion. 3000psi fiber filled concrete mix going in. The lean-to will be gravel.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Concrete is going in today.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Concrete

My 7 yr old wasted no time in claiming his spot.

 

[sunman76]

looking good, We had att come mark the phone line, they ,marked all clear. the phone quit working as soon as we started the footings.. Got a new phone line put in now!

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Little bit of work completed yesterday. They also started framing for the garage door.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Insulation is up and started on the metal. Man door and windows are installed. Poles are in place for the lean to as well.
You can see the color combo on the back side where the man door is. I just notoiced that the photo of the shaded side makes the wainscoat look much grayer.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

You're moving now, damn!!

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

They finished everything except the overhead door on Friday. That is suppose to arrive today.

I'm happy with the build. They did good work. Now to start figuring out electrical.

 

[darkstar88]

Excited to see the next update.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

More rain today and tomorrow so not likely to get the door installed untill end of the week.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Here it is almost complete. I spent the weekend cleaning up and sorting scrap material, but never took a picture of the inside.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

I was suprised when I got home to see that the rain didn't keep them from installing the overhead door. Few shots of the inside.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Looks great!

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Thank you! I'm very pleased with how it came out. A lot of work still to do though. I have to redo the drive entrance from the road and add a culvert for sure. I trenched it the other day to give all of the rain we are getting somewhere to go. Going to add French drains at the end of the existing concrete drive as well. And the dirt needs to be sloped better on the sides and back to make sure water doesn't settle against the building.

Need to contact an electrician to go over options for power. I need to decide if I can pull a sub panel off of my existing box In the house or if its going ot be better to add its own meter. Downside to that is the minimum monthly cost. Plus, I'd like to add in a transfer switch where I can run a generator from the garage to power the house.

Then..... I can start to figure out the inside layout. Plenty of fun left. Right now I am thinking a 10*10 closet / clean work area in the left rear corner. I'm torn on whether to add workbenches on the same side, or to add the benches under the windows and save the other side for storage / equipment. I'm also planning to add exterior workbenches under the lean to for wood working - try to keep as much sawdust as possible out of the shop. I believe anything that goes in soon will be mobile. I think several configurations will get a try before I settle.

I think I've decided to do a 2 part epoxy on the floor. I did a kit 10 years ago on my house garage and its help up just fine to 2 daily drivers parking on it. And that was applied on 25 yr old concrete.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Running a generator in the garage to power the house is a great idea!! From that perspective it seems to make more sense to run the garage off of a sub-panel. What amp main do you have in your house panel?

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

200amp main on the house. Subbing off of that is my preference. Just trying to figure out how to do it. The panel is not on an outside wall but I am thinking it might be possible to run overhead to the shop for a sub panel. I can easily keep any overhead lines above 12ft from the ground. I have an electrician coming out Friday to give me his opinion and talk options.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

I met with the electrician Friday afternoon. His preference was to run from the main panel through the attic and out the end of the house in conduit then continue the conduit to the garage underground. The wife is not big on running the conduit down the entire side of the house so we talked options and came up with running the conduit on the inside of the garage wall and then coming out through the exterior wall at a lower height.

He is working up a quote and going to get back to me. The plan is to go with a 60amp sub panel, but he is going to price a 100amp as well.

I'll be doing the digging so at least this rain we are getting will make the ground soft.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I'd recommend specifying that the cable ran out to the garage supports at least a 100A sub-panel, that way if you install a 60a panel and run out of space down the line, you can move to a 100a panel without re-running cable.