Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Man Cave

[treehick]

20 x 30 x 10 w/ 4/12 roof and 48" service door. I have used metal that I may line the inside with. Posts are 10 ft on center. Didn't realize how difficult that would make securing things once the barn was finished...

Still working on how I want to lay out the garage. Probably a 30" bench on the right side, 24" or less shelving on the left and back.

I have an 2006 F350 Supercab with a 9' L x 8' W bed - which is the largest thing that needs to be able to fit and maneuver enough to pull the transmission if I need to.

Probably will stay with #53 gravel for now until I pay off some CC and HELOC debt. But, may purchase some bags of concrete (or cement?) for the door sill and some of the right side where there will be a fridge and my workbench.

5L river rock is on the 4ft left side between barn and fence and #7 rock is on the 8ft back side between the barn and fence.

 

[The Cobbler]

nice looking build. as far as your concrete question, If it was mine, I would just build a deck out of wood fro your fridge & door sill , so when you do get around to pouring your pad, it's all one pour & uniform.

 

[treehick]

My dad who is 70, has Parkinson's and worn out shoulders and knees from being in construction all his life, has been helping nearly every chance I work on the barn. He also helped with putting the fence up, and he and an uncle that helps him built the 12x16 shed to the right before I moved into this house. My dad is the old farmer that will continue moving until he's unable to. He's amazing. Here he is, along with 2 uncles and a friend working on it this past Saturday.

I'm meeting with Duke Energy on Tuesday to discuss power feed options. I have an all-electric house with a 200A panel but hoping I can drop another 200A off my meter and run it to the barn without worrying about a disconnect. (It's less than 50ft, I think, so I think I should be good.) But - the plan is to run 3 conduits from the house to the barn, 3 conduits from the barn to the shed, and 2-3 conduits from the shed back to the corner I'm standing at which is my wife's gardening corner (Katelynn's Craft Corner). I'd like to run power and air to the (she) shed so if my wife wants to work on crafts she doesn't have to deal with the noise of the compressor. The 2nd and 3rd conduits would be for water or any future runs that I would want to make.

 

[treehick]

nice looking build. as far as your concrete question, If it was mine, I would just build a deck out of wood fro your fridge & door sill , so when you do get around to pouring your pad, it's all one pour & uniform.

That's a good idea. Thank you.

 

[treehick]

nice looking build. as far as your concrete question, If it was mine, I would just build a deck out of wood fro your fridge & door sill , so when you do get around to pouring your pad, it's all one pour & uniform.

I think my plan will be to build a 2x4x 30" deep "deck" for the entire south (man-door) side of the shop so that I can place the fridge and two work benches that my grandfather built onto. My plan, so far, is to have 1 wall with 30"-36" deep work bench with shelves above, have my portable tools at the east end with shelves above, and have only shelves on the west side.

Dad is planning on tearing his dad's detached garage down because it's literally splitting in half. But all the flooring, joists, rafters, roof panels are all cherry and walnut from the hillside 60+ years ago. So - I'd love to have a place to store whatever my other uncles aren't taking. I hope to salvage as much as I can. Not because I'm necessarily a hoarder but my grandfather and father and uncles are all craftsmen. I hate to see hard work go to the dump or a brush pile.

After talking with Duke Energy about how I didn't mind digging my own trench and running my own conduit, told me that if I put the riser in, that he'd hire a contractor to install the rest. With that being the case - the closest point is the NE corner. So now I'm considering on putting the work bench on the opposite side of the man door and making the door side the shelf side. That would "force" me to keep a walkway cleared to the north side, I suppose. And I could have the breaker panel cleared because it's on my "work" side..

Any reason I should have my workbench on the walk-door side? Or have the breaker panel closer to the front of the garage?

 

[treehick]

Besides wondering if I should spend the money to mount the panel closer to the walk-door - which would require 210 ft (approximately) of 3/0 or 2/0 cable, I also wonder if I should go with PVC or EMT for running wires. I don't want romex because it'll be surface mounted and I want a clean look. It's an un-conditioned space for the foreseeable future.

 

[phred]

Besides wondering if I should spend the money to mount the panel closer to the walk-door - which would require 210 ft (approximately) of 3/0 or 2/0 cable, I also wonder if I should go with PVC or EMT for running wires. I don't want romex because it'll be surface mounted and I want a clean look. It's an un-conditioned space for the foreseeable future.

Have you considered MC cable?

 

[treehick]

I have, but I like the clean look of conduit and I can run multiple circuits in the same conduit also. If I do short jogs from a fixed point to a movable object, I'll consider the MC cable.

 

[treehick]

Garage update: I think I'm getting there. It's already tight with the truck but not as tight with my other 2 vehicles, thankfully.

Goals for the future - more gravel to finish the "apron" and better close off under the doors, as well as line the fence on the north end where I have a Knaack Box, grader box, and my trash containers.

I decided to put the work benches on the north side along with (free) cabinets and my electrical. The south side, once cleaned up, will be shelves. I might get rid of the shelf brackets and build actual shelves so that I can stow larger items on the first 2 lower portions.

My initial plan was to build a 4'-8' mezzanine in the back with a ~4' mezzanine down both sides but for the span with no lower supports I would've needed 2x12x20' for every 16" and I didn't want to drop that kind of additional cash. So - in the meanwhile, I'm putting old scaffolding to use.

And, I'm going with EMT for the rest of my indoor electrical. I started off with PVC to start off with but it's more difficult finding open covers for PVC boxes. And more work for corners. I'm even thinking about just drilling a hole right thru the center of the post to run conduit through it, but haven't decided if that's a good idea or not, haha.

My wife is happy that I was able to bring the rest of the 1/4 cow home from my parents where it's been stored. Now to get the other fridge cleaned up, put back together, and clean out her shed so the house storage can be moved outside. (Long term goal is to insulate the shed and buy a small unit to keep the she-shed climate controlled.)