Fatjay builds a garage

[fatjay]

Wanted some place to consolidate everything i've done for this garage so I'll start with all the stuff I've done so far, and will update as I go.

Garage needs a setback variance, applied, approved with unreasonable conditions, sent off to lawyer and he's dealing with it.

Excavator guy said it was going to be $2500 to haul the dirt. I have 2 tractors with loaders, one is a 1951 ferguson with no power steering, one is a 1953 oliver TLB that's nearly the length of a football field. The excavator is going to produce a mountain of dirt, so I decided to deal with the dirt myself. I bought a bobcat for $2500.





My garage and my shed have some overlap, so the shed needed to move. I built a new shed pad, 18'x14' for my 16'x12' shed. Leveled it best I could with the grader blade then dug the rest.



I called several shed moving companies. $200+ and they didn't have time to do it. Couldn't be bothered, no one called me back. After a few weeks of that I got tired, so I built a pair of pallet forks for the bobcat and did it myself, which was more of a pain than I thought it would be.











The garage needs electric. I've had my eye out for trenchers for a few months now. One popped up a week ago, brought it home today for $1,125.





Next up is getting it in the current tiny garage and getting it running right. I have about 300' to trench, electric, water, and internet, all separate lines. I also need to bust up part of the concrete pad that the shed was on for the excavator. Fortunately I have a jack hammer.

Until the next update!

 

[zoomzoomjeff]

Can't currently see the pictures, but WOW! Sounds amazing. I like the idea of buying equipment to do the work yourself. It pays for itself. You can then sell it and make your money back, or be super tempted to just keep it, just because!

 

[firebirdparts]

Wanted some place to consolidate everything i've done for this garage so I'll start with all the stuff I've done so far, and will update as I go.

Garage needs a setback variance, applied, approved with unreasonable conditions, sent off to lawyer and he's dealing with it.

Excavator guy said it was going to be $2500 to haul the dirt. I have 2 tractors with loaders, one is a 1951 ferguson with no power steering, one is a 1953 oliver TLB that's nearly the length of a football field. The excavator is going to produce a mountain of dirt, so I decided to deal with the dirt myself. I bought a bobcat for $2500.

My garage and my shed have some overlap, so the shed needed to move. I built a new shed pad, 18'x14' for my 16'x12' shed. Leveled it best I could with the grader blade then dug the rest.

I called several shed moving companies. $200+ and they didn't have time to do it. Couldn't be bothered, no one called me back. After a few weeks of that I got tired, so I built a pair of pallet forks for the bobcat and did it myself, which was more of a pain than I thought it would be.

The garage needs electric. I've had my eye out for trenchers for a few months now. One popped up a week ago, brought it home today for $1,125.

Next up is getting it in the current tiny garage and getting it running right. I have about 300' to trench, electric, water, and internet, all separate lines. I also need to bust up part of the concrete pad that the shed was on for the excavator. Fortunately I have a jack hammer.

Until the next update!

I removed the s off https so I could see your pictures. Good luck with the variance. Hope to see this evolve into a big thread!

 

[Stuart in MN]

Seems like you're going to need a second garage to store all the new equipment you're buying to build the first garage.

 

[Bighead38]

Wow can’t remember the last time I saw an open cab bobcat. What year is that?

How much will you save doing the trenching yourself? Even renting an excavator would be cheaper it seems. Unless you just want to own equipment which I completely understand.

 

[fatjay]

I already have an oliver backhoe, ferguson to30, new holland s14, kubota b8200, and kubota z21 zero turn so adding 2 relatively small machines shouldn't make much of a difference. I have 3 car garage right now for 7 cars, so the focus is going to get the cars inside. I'll build a pole barn in the back once the garage is done for the rest of the machines.

 

[fatjay]

The bobcat is early 70's? M600, it had a roll cage, previous owner cut it off. I'm building one to put back on though.

Someone is doing the excavating for hte garage since it's 24x44. The trencher is just to run the lines. I'm fairly certain the lines will need to be done on 4 seperate days for the 4 lines depending on when I get to them in the process, and trenchers here are $400/day. Also I'd rather not feel rushed, and be able to do it right.

 

[Bighead38]

Didn’t want to just dig them with the backhoe?

 

[matt_i]

I'm curious how it went with the pneumatic tires...they look pretty flat or buried in a couple pics. Obviously you got it done, but I wonder if you'd do it the same way if you had to do it over again?

Sounds like you have quite the stable of toys there Good luck on getting your trencher going.

 

[fatjay]

My backhoe it would be a bit of a job. It's not what you would call a precision piece of equipment. I can uproot tree stumps without issue, but I'd rather let a professional handle the excavation part.

I went into harbor freight hellbent on solid tires. However the tire iw as looking for was completely out of stock, and I needed 9. 8 + 1 spare in case something happens. I wanted wide tires as well to prevent them from digging, there was about 20' of frozen ground i drug it across before it thawed to mud.

The pneumatic tires are the same weight rating of the solid tires though, and honestly a little wiggle I'm pretty sure came in handy. The shed fell off the dolly's multiple times, I think it might have been more if there were solid tires under there. Under load the pneumatic are supposed to squish a bit, or a lot, it absorbs impacts from changing elevation much better than solid tires.

I think the weakest part of the dolly was the axles which were just 10" 5/8" bolts from home depot, I have 2 of them with slight bends. If I had to do it again, I'd use all the same equipment but I'd push rather than pull, and i'd use different placement for the wheels. Initially I put them at the 60 mark so I was lifting 20% of the shed weight, but I'd move them to the 70 mark like i did during the last move so I'd be lifting 40% of the shed weight.

 

[fatjay]

Got the ditch witch ready and took it for a test spin. I was amazed how well it worked. It really tore through the yard and made a great hole. Then I cleared the space for the garage. Now I can start with the jackhammer to bust up the concrete.

 

[Sifan]

Next time try Wrecker/towing company with a rollback to move your building

 

[Spareparts]

What is the fun in that, buy a piece of equipt. fix it and get the job done. Probly cheaper ans quicker to hire it out but you can't say "I did that".

 

[fatjay]

I called 6 shed companies that also provided shed movement. Everyone quoted me $200-250 to move it 50'. I said fine, lets do it. Every one of them was no call no show and when i called either didn't answer or offered lame excuses. I spent months trying to get someone to do it and now i'd sooner burn their business to the ground rather than give them money.

Edit: reminded me to leave some terrible reviews about said companies. Thanks.

 

[JoeMcGov]

I called 6 shed companies that also provided shed movement. Everyone quoted me $200-250 to move it 50'. I said fine, lets do it. Every one of them was no call no show and when i called either didn't answer or offered lame excuses. I spent months trying to get someone to do it and now i'd sooner burn their business to the ground rather than give them money.

You could be my lost brother.

 

[fatjay]

Got some work done in preparation for the garage. Need to clear old concrete pad that has a few foot overlap. Called some friends and bought a case of Guinness. Was going to do it all jack hammer, the pad was 1” when we started but 8” when we finished so I’m glad I broke out the hoe.

 

[M-technik-3]

Gonna go out on a limb and think your neighbors get nervous when your trailer leaves empty. Love the ingenuity of doing yourself, certainly helps.

Amazing that these older machines are so cheap. Finish the project and sell it to next diy right.

 

[fatjay]

I'm on pretty good terms with the neighbors, i clear their driveways when it snows with my 48" snowblower.

I bought my backhoe for $2400, it's a 1953 oliver 77 industrial with a super 88 motor rated at 55hp. I paid $400 for transport services from 60 miles away, as it weighs 13,000lbs. I bought it to clean up the back yard which was a massively overgrown mess.

I bought my ferguson TO-30 with loader for $800 to move dirt. Hauled it myself, although my trailer didn't much care for that. I had 3 triaxles of dirt dumped in the front yard to raise the grade of my back yard. It has a massive bucket on the front and hauled all the dirt, much more maneuverable than the oliver.

I buy machines for a purpose, then just sort of hang on to them because I know they'll come in handy down the line.

All of these bricks were found in the yard buried. I decided to use them.

The yard used to look like this when I moved in.

And a bit closer to recent

Side of the house when I moved in

And now that I've added a generator shed

Bought the jack hammer for this job.

And that brings us up to present. Machines seem to follow me home, but never leave as I keep finding uses for them. I had the backhoe for sale, some guy came and looked at it and offered me $1500. I told him to pound sand.

 

[fatjay]

Turned a bunch of big slabs into a bunch of little pieces, then cleaned it up with the bobcat. Harbor freight jack hammer has had a pretty hard life, but hasn't complained once yet.

Now with this overlap out of the way, the footer for the garage can be dug.

 

[fatjay]

My contractor convinced me to excavate myself. The problem is my backhoe has a 8" bucket, and we have clay soil, so it's always getting packed in there and stuck. Doing a 24" footer would be really annoying with an 8" bucket, so I'm shopping for a 24" bucket, one pass, clean corners. I know i need mounting width and pin diameter. There's a bunch of 24" buckets on craigslist and facebook ranging from $150-700. Hopefully have one of them by saturday.

 

[SorenJ]

You got quite a collection of machinery. It's nice to see it put to good use

 

[fatjay]

Picked up a 24” bucket for $315. Not a direct fit but I’ll make it work. Old pins are 1.5” and new pins are 1” so that’s going to by fun to figure out.

Short video of bucket http://i.imgur.com/sAwWD6G.mp4

 

[Spareparts]

DOM tubing and make some bushings, I have got some 1 1/2" X.250 wall but a long way away, might try farm supply.

 

[Riley]

Fun to see you're getting your own equipment and getting it done! Seems like a great way to go if one has the time and the inclination.

 

[fatjay]

Ok got a question. I need to remove the topsoil, 6" down BEFORE the footers are dug. I'm not sure the best way to do this.

The backhoe is not very maneuverable, using the front bucket to scrape would be a challenge because it would be many trips to the dumping site, it doesn't turn very well. I could use the backhoe, but it seems like it would be tough to get a consistent level area that's 1000 sq ft.

Kubota with back blade I'm not sure would do very well because I don't have the down force to get into the ground.

The bobcat might be able to do it, I still need to get the governor issue figured out though. When it bogs the governror isn't kicking in.

The ditch witch has the plow that goes strait down. I saw an interesting video where a guy just plows the grass. In creeper mode I think I would have the traction.

Maybe I'm over thinking this, I just don't want to screw it up and i have limited space/time to practice.

 

[Mike-GA]

Front blade on your trencher will angle. Push the topsoil into a windrow and
move with your bobcat, backhoe front bucket or your tractor. You will be able
to control the depth with the front blade.

 

[Mike-GA]

Sorry. Just noticed your front blade doesn't angle.

 

[fatjay]

The ditch witch blade angles back and forth, but moves only strait up and down, instead of a normal blade which is hinged

 

[drivesitfar]

FATJAY: so tell us how you came about owning a 1953 Bobcat? pretty sweet looking that is for certain.

looking forward to seeing your build too.

 

[fatjay]

1953 oliver 77 industrial with ware loader and backhoe, 1970's bobcat M600. I bought the backhoe years ago to redo the back yard when I bought the house because it was all overgrown. I bought the bobcat a month or so ago because the guy was gonna charge me $2500 to haul dirt away, so I decided to do it myself.

 

[fatjay]

Cleaned up the garage site, got the plans finished up. Going to trench to a lower portion of the yard so water drains out of the dig site. It is raining a lot and the yard is a mess.

 

[fatjay]

Needed a driveway to get the concrete truck back to the garage. Rock hard clay, tilled it then scooped it with the bobcat into the dump truck, then took it to the back. Had a truck load of stone brought in.

Excavating went well. That 24" bucket was perfect. Cleaned out and put rebar in and welded it. Inspection tomorrow at 10am, concrete truck at noon.

Couple videos:
http://i.imgur.com/HYvFcMb.mp4
http://i.imgur.com/CRR8SML.mp4
http://i.imgur.com/eHEWglW.mp4
http://i.imgur.com/GUm0uhX.mp4

Pictures:

 

[Biff Lungren]

Those are some mighty fine looking trenches!

 

[fatjay]

Those are some mighty fine looking trenches!

I had no idea what i was doing. First I sprayed lines all around, but those lines quickly disappeared when it got down to business. So I ended up laying string on the outside pins about 6-8" above ground level so even if i picked up dirt it wouldn't bother them much. I dug a bit deeper intentionally to get a bit more concrete. I feel like it's worth the extra couple hundred in a project this size.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great job! We had a 1958 Massey yellow commercial back hoe a lot like yours, it got the job done and saved us a ton of money.

 

[Kevkx125]

Hey fatjay looks like you have a good plan going. Where about in eastern pa are you? Maybe we are neighbors.

 

[fatjay]

Hey fatjay looks like you have a good plan going. Where about in eastern pa are you? Maybe we are neighbors.

Collegeville, Douglassville isn't that far!

 

[fatjay]

Building inspector arrived an hour early, I was in the pit tying steel. He Concrete trucks arrived. Pulled back, chutes out. The one guy was in training so they didn't charge us time. $100/yard and $230 truck fee came to $2600 with tax. Chutes didn't reach far enough back so we were wheeling it to the back and dumping it. Hard ground down hill, it was pretty easy. Called about 15 people looking for labor before we found someone. Who says there's an unemployment issue?

cleaned everything up and shot the block lines, then trenched the corner for water runoff as it's supposed to pour for the next 4 days.

 

[Kevkx125]

Collegeville, Douglassville isn't that far!

Cool, look forward to seeing this come about.

 

[fatjay]

Finished fixing the bobcat, dumped all the fluid and put all new in. The stuff that came out was pretty bad. Swapped the bad clutches, made adjustments, and got rolling. Needed to take 9 12" blocks and 3 8" blocks to each corner to build corners. I was quite nervous.

Here's the video: http://i.imgur.com/KFP8DmT.mp4