Above 1200 Sq/FT Finally getting a seat at the grown up table

[strength_and_power]

I’ve been a member of GJ for a bit, lurking and reading mostly, posting on the handful of things where I have knowledge of, never had a shop/garage to share. Until yesterday.
Some backstory, I’ve lived in an apartment for most of the past 23 years, traveling a ton for work. I started a side hustle building gym equipment at my work and ended up growing it until I needed more space. I rented a 1,000 sq foot space in an industrial complex and continued the side hustle evenings and weekends for almost 8 years. Got burned out as I was traveling more and more for work and the time I had available to work after hours became so limited that I was basically working for free and barely covering the shop rent. So I didn’t renew my lease and moved my tools back to work and lowered my stress levels considerably. And then our building caught fire and all but burned to the ground taking about $30k of my tools with it. Replaced the tools slowly, I had met some friends along the years with their own shops and businesses that were gracious enough to loan me tools and shop space as needed for projects. The space allotted to me in our new building was less than ideal so I haven’t been able to do a lot of larger projects.
Work travel has decreased enough to where buying a house seemed like a viable option and not just expensive storage so I began looking with some specific parameters, within an hours drive of work, no HOA, enough land, 1 acre or more, to build a shop if there wasn’t one already. Housing market as I’m sure most know has been crazy so I wasn’t finding what I was looking for and if I did, it was outrageously priced, so I put the home search on the back burner. My mom passed away rather suddenly in June which left my dad alone in AZ, my sister 6 hours away in San Diego and myself in Texas. Not super ideal as although he is is active and currently in good health, we all have an expiration date on this planet. Dad put some thought into things and decided living in Arizona since 1977 in the same house had been long enough, he had no desire to move west to become a Californian, so Texas got the nod. Combined, we had a lot more buying power, with a few additional parameters, so the house search began anew. Almost immediately, we found a place that checked all the boxes and had been on the market for7 months with only a handful of showings and no offers. The day I viewed the house, an offer by someone else was put on the house. We put in a back up offer and kept looking in the area. Back up offer didn’t pan out and a few other places we came close to putting offers in but didn’t happen for one reason or another. We were about to put the plan on a brief hold when a final look on Zillow popped up the house that checked all the boxes and then some. Split floorplan, enough bedrooms to give my sister a place to stay when she visits, 59 minutes from work, 2.5 acres and a shop. 40’ x 60’ metal building, 100 amp service with 220v, large doors and decent enough lighting for the moment. Future plans include spray foam insulation, additional lighting and outlets, a lift, a zero turn mower or lawn tractor and the list goes on and on. Project wise, I will be moving my 1974 Pontiac Ventura that I bought as my first car when I turned 16 thirty years ago from Arizona and bring it back to life, more welding projects, both gym equipment, furniture and whatever else strikes my fancy. I will have plenty of space to store my embarrassingly large, ( approximately a dozen) amount of grills, smokers and other outdoor cooking pieces plus build a few more. Along the way I will also be working on the house and using Google and this forum often I’m sure for answers to my questions that I never had to address as an apartment dweller.
Enough rambling, here are some pics of the shop, the Pontiac and the one car apartment garage currently overflowing

 

[strength_and_power]

Did t work in the shop but I did work so I soon can work in the shop.
Broke into my 1974 Pontiac Ventura, pulled the steering wheel and replaced the ignition switch. Use my rental Penske box truck to pull the car on seriously flat and shredded tires through gravel. Ask GJ members for advice removing security lug nuts then using said advice to remove said security lug nuts. Buy new tires, nothing fancy, I just need them to hold air and be round. For kicks I sprayed the car down with quick detailer, paint is all but dead so the quick detailer didn’t do too much other than let me kill time until my friend and his wife could swing by to help me push the car back behind the fence, it will be a month before I will have time to haul it to Texas

 

[southalabama]

You’ve got a blank canvas.

Make it what you want and can afford.

 

[vavet]

Outstanding. No is when the expensive part starts when you realize that you don’t have nearly enough tools...or projects…or tools…or projects.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

Did t work in the shop but I did work so I soon can work in the shop.
Broke into my 1974 Pontiac Ventura, pulled the steering wheel and replaced the ignition switch. Use my rental Penske box truck to pull the car on seriously flat and shredded tires through gravel. Ask GJ members for advice removing security lug nuts then using said advice to remove said security lug nuts. Buy new tires, nothing fancy, I just need them to hold air and be round. For kicks I sprayed the car down with quick detailer, paint is all but dead so the quick detailer didn’t do too much other than let me kill time until my friend and his wife could swing by to help me push the car back behind the fence, it will be a month before I will have time to haul it to Texas

You've got a a great opportunity with the empty pole barn... I would manage to screw it up by moving all the house stuff in there in boxes to slow any progress I'd like to make. Don't be like me.

How's the floorplan/layout coming in your head?

 

[strength_and_power]

Had a friend look at the space and bounced ideas off him. He then proceeded to draw up a mezzanine in CAD and now a mezzanine is on the to do list.

 

[strength_and_power]

After Christmas I picked up a Uhaul, loaded it to the gills and dragged the Pontiac onto the car hauler then proceeded to get 9mpg from Phoenix to Texas. Thankfully no issues mechanically with the Uhaul and trailer. My long time friend made the drive with me and he pretty much convinced me to put corvette suspension front and rear under the car along with a long list of body and trim mods. Iñ return, I treated him to Mary’s Cafe and their world famous chicken fried steak. Seemed like a fair trade.

 

[Xti04]

That chicken fried steak aint no joke. Congrats on your new space. What part of Texas?

 

[cvairwerks]

I've got to make the run out to Mary"s one of these days. It's only about a 100 miles over there for me.

 

[strength_and_power]

I've got to make the run out to Mary"s one of these days. It's only about a 100 miles over there for me.

It’s worth the trip. In Texas, 100 miles is basically the town next over. East coast miles, about 3 states away.

 

[cvairwerks]

It’s worth the trip. In Texas, 100 miles is basically the town next over. East coast miles, about 3 states away.

LOL...Born in Port Arthur, moved to Houston when I was 5 and there for 15 years, DFW for the last 40+ years, although did spend about a year in the NYC area and 17 months in the Chicago area....

 

[wagoncrazy]

You've got a great place to build out as you please. Congratulations.
And enjoy the remaining time you have with your Dad. Once they're gone, their gone.
You wont' regret spending the time afterwards.

Onto the shop projects! Keep posting pics and updates. We all enjoy reading about others fun and games in the shop.

 

[ned911]

Where is Mary's? Is this a doable trip from Austin or wait until racing in Decatur?

 

[cvairwerks]

Strawn, Tx.

 

[strength_and_power]

My buddy drew this up after seeing the shop. Priced out some material and it isn’t outrageous. Any idea if using an 8” I-beam for a 20’ span if a 15#\foot or a 24#\foot, which would be ideal?

 

[strength_and_power]

Didn’t realize it had been over 4 months since I posted. Work has been running me ragged, had a vault build in Charleston, SC that I spent more time driving (4 days out and back) than it took to build the actual vault ( 3 days). I’ve also been working on the house, swapping all the toggle switches for rockers including some smart switches for the exterior lights. Added a zero turn mower which I am loving.
I started reaching out to spray foam companies for quotes for the shop. 2” closed cell on the ceiling and 1.5” closed cell on the walls. Quotes were all over the place and several companies I spoke to gave me verbal estimates with a promise to send a formal quote once they did the actual math, I never heard back from several of them. I’m not going to chase down a company and beg them to take my money. By random chance, I reached out to another company whose owner responded back quickly and had a quote to me later that day ( which was the timeframe he said. ) . His price wasn’t the cheapest but seemed reasonable so he got the nod. His communication has been excellent. He dropped his scissor lift off early in the week and was cool with me using it to pressure wash the walls. He was also cool with me palletizing and shrink wrapping stuff that would not have been easy to move onto the crushed asphalt drive. Picked up a pallet jack on Marketplace so that has made things easy. I put the pallets in one area and after the first day, I moved them to a section that was finished. Should be wrapped up tomorrow and then the fun really begins putting up OSB, running electrical etc.

 

[strength_and_power]

Spray foam was finished today. Very pleased with the work. Now the fun of moving stuff back in begins. Initially, I was thinking lights would be next but now I’m thinking electrical and OSB on the walls would make more sense. I don’t think I want the OSB to rest on the floor for moisture concerns so maybe 1-2” off the floor? Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[sh944]

Please make sure you use flameproof OSB if you go that route… hate to see things go up in flames and a garage has plenty of opportunities for that to happen.

Congrats on the space, I’m a bit late to the game here but am happy to see someone get their first garage.

 

[strength_and_power]

Please make sure you use flameproof OSB if you go that route… hate to see things go up in flames and a garage has plenty of opportunities for that to happen.

Congrats on the space, I’m a bit late to the game here but am happy to see someone get their first garage.

In the area I’m going to weld in, my plan is to overlay 18-20ga steel and a welding curtain perimeter. A few years back, the compa y I work for had a fire started by either an M18 battery or its charger. Building was an almost total loss and I lost close to $30k in tools. I’m definitely hyper aware of where I’m throwing sparks for sure

 

[bluedog225]

Nice place neighbor.

I‘d take a big chunk of that foam and put a torch to it. Good to know if it sustains a flame.

There are intumescent paints that can be sprayed on.

 

[strength_and_power]

Nice place neighbor.

I‘d take a big chunk of that foam and put a torch to it. Good to know if it sustains a flame.

There are intumescent paints that can be sprayed on.

Thanks.

I put a propane torch to a scrap chunk of foam and the foam did not stay burning once the flame was removed.

I will probably use the intumescent paint just to be extra cautious.

 

[strength_and_power]

Pretty sure I acquired enough wire today for my outlets and lights, 4-250’ rolls of 12/2mc

 

[strength_and_power]

Started off ordering three loads and ended up ordering a fourth of asphalt millings as the driveway was getting thin in spots and starting to hold some water. When the guy was spreading it, he built up the center to give it a crown which should help a ton with drainage. In prep for this day and with hopes that I won’t have to mess with the driveway for a bit, I spent the past two weeks when it wasn’t raining spraying almost 10 gallons of Roundup along the edges and in places where weeds were coming up in the existing driveway. Also did some weed eating and weed burning.

 

[strength_and_power]

Picked up 8/3 mc wire for my 220 circuits. 500’ should be plenty although now I’m thinking I will need to go to a larger panel, which means I can add more circuits, quite a vicious cycle

 

[strength_and_power]

Scored 10 of these Chinesium 150w LED lights for the price of free ninety free. Guessing 5000k color since they came from a jewelry booth and the whiter the light, the more things sparkle. I’m thinking if the high bay UFO lights don’t make it surgery suite bright, I’ll mount these over the band saw, drill press and other work areas on their own switch. Priced out renting a scissor lift to hang my lights, turns out if you pick up after 3pm Friday and return at 8am Monday, they only charge for 1 day. Definitely something I’d like to take advantage of. 2 days should be plenty of time I’d think to get all the high work done, the UFOs I’m looking at have plugs so in theory, I could pre make the runs with outlets in the appropriate places, make some marks on the floor to position the laser and just have to mount them. A 14’ Big *** Fan is in the plans, not sure if that will happen at the same time as ideal as it would be.

 

[strength_and_power]

Ultimately, I will be lining the walls with White Galvalume R panel, the rough quote my buddy gave me was super reasonable so I took more detailed measurements and am awaiting the revised quote. To hopefully future proof, I decided to mount OSB from 4’ above the floor to 8’, figuring if I need to hang anything, that will be adequate support. Of course the girts were not 48” apart, they were 51” so not the most efficient use of 4’x8’ sheets. I used some of the drops as a backer between the vertical seams and also on horizontal seams where I pieced pieces together to get another 4’ section. I’ll be mounting angle iron on the floor for the R panel to mount to and am debating welding in some square tubing about 2’ up for additional support. Excuse the mess, it was hot and I had dinner to cook

 

[strength_and_power]

Drew up a bracket to mount junction and outlet boxes above the girt at 94-98” ( ultimately you won’t see the height difference in the walls but was going to make it a bit more interesting getting all the outlets at the same height. Sent it to a fab shop I use and he knocked it right out. Cost me a case of beer. No complaints here. Hoping to make progress over the upcoming weekend

 

[strength_and_power]

My boss told me to take the second compressor ( it wasn’t being used) home. So I did before he could change his mind. The pallet it was on was junk so it went away and I built a new one and got it anchored. Installed a plug on it and ran it for a bit. Made pressure and seems to hold pressure. Plan is to clean it up, drain the oil and fill it fresh along with cleaning or replacing the air filter. Thinking I need something better than the plug since it doesn’t have an on/off switch. Also curious what size breaker I should use? Dedicated circuit, 8/3 wire. 70’ run

 

[strength_and_power]

On a separate but shop related note, my dad walked out to the shop and we played ping pong for about 10 minutes. Doesn’t sound like much but 2 months ago we were at the ER after a ride in an ambulance. Left the ER without any answers and it took a month to get him into various doctors and tests. Also spent 3 nights in the hospital. I believe we are well on the recovery road and won’t be leaving us anytime soon. So glad he decided to make the move to Texas so he wouldn’t be alone.

 

[Xti04]

I have that same compressor. It works pretty good for my use. Think I gave 75 dollars for it. I have had to replace the motor on it, and have plans when it cools down this fall to run my air system for the whole shop not just to my one hose reel.

 

[strength_and_power]

I have that same compressor. It works pretty good for my use. Think I gave 75 dollars for it. I have had to replace the motor on it, and have plans when it cools down this fall to run my air system for the whole shop not just to my one hose reel.

What size breaker are you using? I’ve started looking at kits to run air lines in the shop, lots to choose from. I want something decent, doesn’t have to be super fancy, my air tool selection is minimal and I don’t foresee it growing much.

 

[Xti04]

Its on a 30 amp breaker. Mine anymore is just for airing up tires and die grinders. Everything else is pretty much battery powered at this point.

 

[strength_and_power]

Took the weekend off for a getaway with the GF. Spent 7 hours tubing the Comal river in New Braunfels on Saturday with my phone on Do Not Disturb. Between that and a good amount of beer, it was a great stress relief

 

[strength_and_power]

On the way back home, I stopped and picked up a flammable storage cabinet that I found on marketplace. Also managed a bonus score, 2 steel and 1 Aluminum large CO2 tanks for the price of free ninety free. Tanks are out of date and need testing. Last time I came across some similar cylinders, my buddy at the LWS did me a solid and swapped them for similar sized owner bottles of mixed gas and Argon. With the one tank being AL, I’m hoping to give him the three and come home with 2. Haven’t made much progress on the shop but hoping that changes this week.

 

[strength_and_power]

Plan was to spend the whole day working in the shop, getting the interior panels hung and start running some electrical. A work trip ran late so I didn’t get home until close to 5. Set up the laser on a tripod and the tripod on a table to get the height I needed and established a line so all the J-trim will be at the same height. Put a couple of panels in just to see how things will look, not too shabby. Plan is to get all the J-trim up tomorrow and hopefully install a few panels along the back wall that won’t have any electrical since the mezzanine staircase will be along that wall.

 

[strength_and_power]

Been plugging away painfully slow as my work travel has been nothing short of insane.
I managed to complete the interior paneling of all the walls and mounting the boxes for the outlets. Running the 12/2 required me removing a good chunk of the paneling but it is what it is. I’m down to the last 30’ which has roughly 7 outlets in the span.
An opportunity came up to host a get together so I shifted gears to ready the shop for that. I borrowed a 16’ A frame ladder from work to hang a few things. Not being a fan of ladders in general I surprised myself and got my fat *** up there. I had a crazy thought that I could use the ladder to run more of the electrical but it turns out, a 16’ ladder does not get close enough to a 14’ wall/roof intersection so back to work the ladder went.

 

[strength_and_power]

Been a minute since my last update. I’ve managed to get all the 110v outlets installed in the walls and wired to the top of the metal paneling. On my 220 runs, to eliminate a connection and make the transition behind the wall look better, I used a 4” box as a pass through. ( this was blessed by forum member who has been extremely generous with his time and answering/explaining many things electrical.)

We were doing a warehouse clean out at work and my boss was in a “throw everything away” mood. This included 7 12’ pallet rack uprights and 16 horizontals. Boss said I could have them, just get them gone quickly. After reading many threads about storing stuff, I decided I didn’t want them but someone I knew probably did so I started sending out texts. Turns out, the friend who is a partner in a fab shop needs racking for their new shop. Dropped the racking off and he is going to give me credit on my mezzanine materials. I’ve been in Miami since 1/2 unstacking and loading 300+ safes for a jewelry show which should help with the balance of materials. Made up a rough sketch that a friend is going to help me draw out in Solidworks. I will break the mezzanine build into segments,
1. Main structure/ gantry set up
2. Purlin floor supports
3. Staircase
4. Decking

Once the main structure is up with the help of some friends, I should be able to do the rest solo as time allows. Breaking it up will be easier on the wallet and minimize material just lying around.

Bonus pic of the shop after 6-8” of snow and near freezing temps, not terribly heartbroken to be in Miami with 65-70* temps during all that.

 

[Xti04]

Shop is coming along nicely! We got about 5 inches here from that storm. Kids loved it but it gets annoying clearing it all for the wifes business.

 

[strength_and_power]

I had hung some banners and flags up in November for a get together and didn’t love the lack of higher mounting options.
The previous owner had livestock at some point and left some gate and fence panels out back. Decided to look on Tractor Supply’s website to get a ballpark on what they cost so I could list them on marketplace. Came across wire grid fence panels and a light went off in my head, hang grid panels and hang other stuff from them. Found some on marketplace for about half the cost of Tractor Supply Supply. So Saturday after picking up a 12’ ladder ( a marketplace bargain at $160), I went and grabbed the fence panels. Had some time tonight to hang the first two and it wasn’t the funnest thing to do solo, I got them up. Should work awesome for banners, flags, fenders, hoods….

 

[Jayman17]

Great idea hanging that hog wire to hang stuff onto. Your shop is coming along nicely.