Fatjay builds a garage

Millcreekmadman · Apr 26, 2020

man i love all the old equipment and the DIY mentality. Keep the updates coming. I cant wait to see this come together. Im in central PA with the same clay problem.

Millcreekmadman · Apr 26, 2020

Dang. I just saw your blue print. 3 floors! Maybe you already said it but what are you planning on doing with floors 2 and 3?

fatjay · Apr 26, 2020

Millcreekmadman said:
Dang. I just saw your blue print. 3 floors! Maybe you already said it but what are you planning on doing with floors 2 and 3?

Stick an office on the 2nd floor along with metal working shop, 3rd floor for storage. I'll have an equipment lift to the 3rd floor.

sean Buick 76 · Apr 27, 2020

Good stuff!

fatjay · Apr 29, 2020

Got 4 corners built in 8 hours. Learning surveying pretty well and getting a lot of practice. We needed to pivot the building for clearances. Needed to move one side up 1.5", another side back 1.5". I didn't think pivoting was important so I didn't say anything.

I have a 2nd generation 40 year experience contractor guiding me as I build, I'm posing as the main contractor and he is the support. He's basically teaching me as I go.

So I didn't speak up, and he didn't notice. We got 4 corners in and measured square. When I told him we were off by 5.5" the grin left his face and said "5.5" is tear down, limit's 3". We took a few min to see if we could use various methods to get back to square, but ultimately decided to do it right. Kept one corner and shot everyone off of that. 1.5" left on the front's, 1.5" forward on the right rear.

So that's tomorrow. And I'll need to shoot level as well, again. We're off by 1-2" in every corner and the right rear corner, which has the drain, is the high corner. Go figure.

Note to self, if i know it's going to happen, run it by the pro to make sure it's ok. I'm making all the measurements, I'm good at math and geometry, we lost a half of a day because of me. And I paid for it.

fatjay · Apr 29, 2020

Got 2 course in the front, one course on the far end. I'm dead tired. I'll move block all day but mixing that mortar mix is exhausting. A week moving 12" block, next week when I'm moving 8" block it'll be like nothing at all. Going to wait on the 3rd course of block for a bit as I won't be able to get the bobcat into it then.

fatjay · May 2, 2020

3 course all the way around except for the front so i can still get in and out with the bobcat. Next is foam insulation board on the walls, one course of 8's, then stone, then foam insulation board, then steel mesh, then pex tubing, then pour concrete slab. Rebar is in place so i'll get a pallet of concrete to pour down the inside of the block. These days are exhausting.

fatjay · May 8, 2020

Coming along nicely. Will get stone spread then put the last of the block in.

Kevkx125 · May 8, 2020

Block laying looks good fatjay, bet you are excited about the progress.

fatjay · May 8, 2020

Kevkx125 said:
Block laying looks good fatjay, bet you are excited about the progress.

It's a bigger project than I anticipated. Considerably bigger. I figured the hardest part was going to be digging out the footers, but the block work is just endless. Mixing so many bags, moving so many block, getting a dozen shots to make sure height is perfect, perfectly square, getting anchors in, it's exhausting. I'm tired and I'm sore. And it feels like I've barely gotten anywhere. I see commercial companies coming in and building a house start to finish in a week. I know I'm not a commercial company and this structure will be built considerably better, but damn. This is the most substantial project I've ever taken on.

Still, I"m glad I'm doing it.

Kevkx125 · May 8, 2020

Hang in there fatjay, just think of all the new knowledge your are gaining and new skills you are learning and the best part is you did it yourself. Have fun and enjoy yourself

Millcreekmadman · May 10, 2020

Hang in there man. I'm going on 3 yrs since I started. I'm finally using the space as intended and the satisfaction is indescribable. It'll be worth it for sure. The learning takes time. Just keep chipping away.

captain14 · May 10, 2020

You mentioned you were tired after moving block and mixing concrete all day. Remember back when we were 18-20 years old, could work all day and then Run the streets all night?

If only you could back in Time for this part.

Hopefully the weather stays good so progress can be made. I’m tired of the one good day then a day or two of rain or bad weather.

fatjay · May 16, 2020

Stone spread, compacted, end blocks in, 15mil vapor barrier in, foam in, termite guard on, bottom plate on, rebar in. Tomorrow i'll be making the chairs for the rebar. Slowly but surely.

Jumping jack video: http://i.imgur.com/njOjt2Yh.mp4

Bigblockyeti · May 16, 2020

Are you sure you don't want to just buy the chairs for $0.50 each from Lowe's? That's what I did and they'll easily support over 200lbs each.

fatjay · May 16, 2020

Bigblockyeti said:
Are you sure you don't want to just buy the chairs for $0.50 each from Lowe's? That's what I did and they'll easily support over 200lbs each.

I'm supporting at every joint in rebar. But I'm finding with weight they're digging/cutting into the insulation. I need 231 of them to support everything. I bought 3 boxes of chairs from home depot for $250, but they're a bit to tall, so I'm drilling and cutting 3" pvc.

Kevkx125 · May 16, 2020

Build looks good so far fatjay. When are you planning the pour?

Bigblockyeti · May 16, 2020

That makes sense, I thought you were welding each one which sounds a little time consuming.

fatjay · May 23, 2020

Weather permitting, pour next saturday. Still getting wire down and tied, then pex.

rixtrix1 · May 24, 2020

Hope the weather holds for a pour!

fatjay · May 28, 2020

Weather didn't hold. Laid pex in rain all day today. Absolutely back breaking work. But I"m glad it's done. Still have to go back and clean up some loose ends. 1600' of pex going to the 8 lane manifold.

Kevkx125 · May 28, 2020

Looks good fatjay. The weather says no rain and upper 70's on sat. I hope you can pour on sat.

fatjay · Jun 22, 2020

Pour took 2 days, last tuesday and wednesday. First truck was 10 yards and did 20'. I'm glad we didn't split it in half at 22' because we had a wheel barrow left.

2nd day was 24', first truck was 20 yards, then cleanup truck was 1.5 yards. By my calculations the average depth is 7".

fatjay · Jun 22, 2020

Wood arrived. Got started on the walls. It was a hot one today.

Kevkx125 · Jun 23, 2020

Looking good fatjay the floor looks great and it looks like the walls are going up well.

fatjay · Jul 1, 2020

First floor done. Joists arrive on the 13th. Will work on the drains and tidying up in the mean while.

3000 nails were used to stick the plywood to the studs. We're dead square, 51'1" diagonal between corners at the top, same as it was with the block.

fatjay · Jul 13, 2020

Floors are here. I'm using Clark Dietrich tradeready steel joists. They're awesome, I love them so much. Really heavy duty.

Bigblockyeti · Jul 22, 2020

They certainly look robust! Weight, cost, height?

Kevkx125 · Jul 22, 2020

Jay the build looks like it is coming along great. The 2nd floor joists look interesting can't wait to see them in place.

fatjay · Jul 23, 2020

Bigblockyeti said:
They certainly look robust! Weight, cost, height?

120lb per beam, 10" tall, $5400 total. 25/50 dead/live load.

And it's all installed. Boy was that a job. Killed ourselves for 2 days lifting them up in 95F heat before I thought the drywall lift would be easier. Sure enough, boom. First 2 days 10, 2nd 2 days 28 installed. And we started doing 5 hour days the second 2 days because of the heat.

Jayman17 · Jul 23, 2020

Now that is going to be stout! I think since you are in PA it is in your DNA to like steel. :lol_hitti

Jay

Kevkx125 · Jul 23, 2020

Looking awesome Jay, Great idea using the lift for the beams. Can't wait to see pics of it when you get the floor put down.

fatjay · Jul 27, 2020

Got all the braces out, pulled square again within 1/8". Cleaned up, brought plywood in, set up the drywall lift again, moved the scaffolding, brought drywall up to the second floor, bought a pair of milwaukee m12 impact drivers, 35lb of self tapping winged screws, and a case of wood to metal loctite. Got 6 down in about an hour and a half.

ODIS · Jul 28, 2020

Have never seen metal joists used in this fashion. Lots of attention to detail here which is appreciated.

This is going to be fun to follow along.

Thank you.

fatjay · Aug 9, 2020

Floor finished, sealed, 2nd floor walls up. 1750 self tapping screws. Bought a few new milwaukee drivers for the task which made it much easier. Self tapping screws, speed matters.

Dug out the drainage and put in drain pipe. Filled with stone and lined with tar paper. Installed one line backwards so I have to dig that up and cut it and turn it around tomorrow.