Finally....

[gwp]

A little over a year in the making and it was finally dried in-in July 06. Now a long winter of finishing off the inside. Basics: 28x40 clearspan pole barn w/12'x16' loft (not complete yet), conventional stud framing w/osb sheathing and Hardi-Plank lap siding. Poles are 8x8 rough/treated timber buried 8', 2x10 tongue and groove w/deadmen and tiebacks for bulkheading. 140 yards of fill sand, 6" slab @ 34 yards of fibermesh concrete. Slab was turned down on all edges to 8" and is 35" off avg. base ground elevation. Building is in flood/hurricane zone. I had to get it above the base flood line for insurance/peace of mind. 14' eve height, 22' peak. Ceiling height under the loft is 11'6". More pics coming...

 

[gwp]

Slab/Framing

 

[ersatzs2]

Fantastic, can't wait to see the other details. I envy the steel beams and the hoist I imagine you're going to have. Keep us posted on details! How big is the loft?

 

[DynoDave]

That's going to be an awesome space when you are finished!

 

[gwp]

More Pics...

 

[gwp]

still more...

 

[gwp]

A little paint...still have the trim to do.

 

[MyDomain]

Wow, nice and strong! Now you have to consider making it tornado proof (although it may be .

 

[gwp]

Electric. Back breaking work. I dug 92' of trench by myself with a shovel. Code says 18", I went 24" and found the water table...compromised at 20" True 200 amp service out of a split 400 amp meter base on the house. I also ran coax and category 5 cable in a seperate 1" conduit that was buried a foot above the power conduit.

 

[gwp]

The most versatile piece of equipment I've ever worked with has got to be this Cat rough terrain fork lift. Hope OSHA isn't watching but...with the homemade basket you can get people, tools, and heavy wood way up high with minimal effort. I honestly couldnt have completed the project without this. I would have needed a crane and cherry picker otherwise.

With a bucket attachement the fork lift becomes a front end loader with one hell of a long reach!!!

 

[ersatzs2]

Great looking space. Again I admire those I-beams. wish I'd used them for ridge and loft beam instead of engineered wood; then I could've easily added a hoist trolley for moving heavy stuff around. A 1K lb hoist is really cheap...

 

[gwp]

Thanks for the kind words. The loft will be 16x27' but finished down to 16x12' when I put in the kneewalls. I worried over the span of the beams, knowing I would have to support a live floor load as well as lifting heavy items such as motors. I finally went to an engineer and he gave me the figures. I went one step higher in size, weight, just to be sure. Knowing my habits (I tend push things a little) its better to pay a little more in aggravation and cost up front than suffer the consequences later. It will be interesting to see the deflection at mid span when I have the space finished, a bunch of furniture/junk up there, and a 350 hanging from the beam.

 

[Down Under Bloke]

Great looking garage and elevated house. I’m familiar working at those types of heights (on your house garage) and now how it *****, but great when the jobs done.

I’m guessing it’s for storing / working on your boat and other stuff…

 

[cdrewferd]

That's a great looking garage. Good job.

 

[gwp]

ersatzs2,
I looked at your project. You did a really great job with it. I am impressed! That is one hell of a LVL you used as your ridge. I am interested to see who you used as an architecht and what codes you had to meet? That is very innovative work and very strong-no doubt! I have seen some jobs where they used a double LVL beam (heavily supported on the gable ends).

I know it may be a PITA but with that hefty ridge beam, couldn't you thru-bolt some beefy angle iron to the bottom of the ridge on each side...in effect creating the bottom flange of an I-beam to serve your purposes for a beam trolley? I would want an engineer to gloss it over but I immagine that with "Your" structure you should certainly be able to get a 1/2 ton maybe greater load on it? Althought I have pretty beefy ridge beams (8x8's) I am a little hesitant to put a huge load on my ridge without beefing up the collar ties just a little. I plan on having a hoist or two mounted along the ridge beam. I'm just a little worried about the roof spreading.

Let me know what you think!

 

[gwp]

Down Under Bloke,
There are always accidents on a job. Twice, subs tipped the forklift over-forward. Too much weight, boomed out too far. Fortunately it was just materials that spilled, from a pretty low height, none of them had any serious consequences or injury. Of course I didnt hear about these till later. Probably a good thing.

It runs home the notion that the homeowner should have (ensure) that there is adequate general liability, workman’s comp and builders risk insurance on the property to cover the general (which may be you) and the subs. If you are acting as the GC as I did, the insurance is very cheap compared to the possible consequences. In my case I demanded that the sub's provide their own for their particular job and then had my own coverage on top of it.

Yes the garage is primarily for the boat and associated work. I will do some repair upkeep on my other land based vehicles as well. I'm planning on building a boat in the near future. I wanted the clear span and big openings to accomodate this.

 

[ersatzs2]

I know it may be a PITA but with that hefty-a$$ ridge beam, couldn't you thru-bolt some beefy angle iron to the bottom of the ridge on each side...in effect creating the bottom flange of an I-beam to serve your purposes for a beam trolley?
Let me know what you think!

Hmm, that's a Great idea! I wonder if those trolley's adjust that wide? I doubt I'd be able to get an engineer to sign off but I gotta believe with close spacing of the bolts you'd achieve some pretty good strength. It would be fantastic to be able to offload the lathe, milling machine, vintage fridge, Formula Fords and all the other stuff I hope to have in there some day! Thanks for the inspiration, I will look into it!

 

[gwp]

Hmm, that's a Great idea! I wonder if those trolley's adjust that wide? I doubt I'd be able to get an engineer to sign off but I gotta believe with close spacing of the bolts you'd achieve some pretty good strength.

I've seen 1/2 ton beam trolleys that will adjust up to a wide flange beam of 7". One ton and up trolley's can go up to 9". You could always go with the bigger trolley and not load it up to the max. You're probably right about the engineer signing off, I would still want one to look at it. I'm not as worried about the load falling on me as I am the roof.


http://dearborncrane.com/Downloads/Budgit/Budgit IBeam and Patented Track Trolley - 11353486.pdf

 

[ersatzs2]

I'm not as worried about the load falling on me as I am the roof.


http://dearborncrane.com/Downloads/Budgit/Budgit IBeam and Patented Track Trolley - 11353486.pdf

Thanks for the link. 9" might just do it, I'll have to measure it tonight. If it is 6" wide, then two 1.5" angle iron would work. Even so, it might be tight even clearing the bolt heads and nuts. If it is any wider than 6" I am probably out of luck. Based on eyeball-engineering assessment, I am just not worried about the roof coming down with a measily 1 ton load. I can certainly find out what the spec is on this thing but what was incredible about it when they installed it was even when they picked it up in the center with the crane: it didn't appear to bend at all! My gut says the bigger worry is deforming the angle iron but there must be specs on that too?

 

[ersatzs2]

Thanks for the link. 9" might just do it, I'll have to measure it tonight. If it is 6" wide, then two 1.5" angle iron would work.

Well it was a great idea, and the engineer came back to me and said a 1000 lb load is no problem. However the angle iron would have to be attached to the center of the beam. However, the width of the beam is 8" now, so no standard trolley will work. I think I'm back to the idea of a cheapo hoist mounted statically by the loft gate.