DJF3
Well-known member
So this project started last winter. In my head at least. My good friend and neighbor allows me use of his shop when needed. Quads, dirt bikes, tractors, snowmobiles, vehicles, etc, I've had all kinds of things in his garage. My kids too. While my house is adequate, there is no shop, and worse yet no concrete to work from. I have a crushed limestone drive, and I'm finally tired of working without. I have a 2 bay carport, and I built a 4 bay pole barn. One bay is enclosed, but still everything is gravel. I also built a 34x40 roof on a post and beam structure. At the time, we were boarding dogs on the side and this structure worked very well for housing the kennel. I recently took a new job that's on a 14 day rotation. The dog kennel gave us a little mad money every year. My new role gets me a lot more mad money! Plus being away for 14 days at a time made it difficult to run a kennel.
So, I decided I wanted a shop. The first thought was to enclosed the carport and pour concrete. This meant changing a roofline, redesigning a basement entrance, maybe adding a bay. That got too complicated real quick. Then the thought was to enclosed the old kennel and pour concrete. But I only had about 9 ft ceiling. The decision was made very quickly to take it down and start over. Reusing the trusses and roofing would save some money too. On paper, 34x40 was too small, so I went to 34 x 50. Here's the best part. My wife asks me if 50 is big enough? Maybe you should go to 60, she says. God, I love that woman!
The decision was made. 34x60. My other neighbor recently built a 40x50x 14. He has one large 12 ft high door. Both his travel trailer and boat do not fit! Very quickly I made the choice to go 16 ft high and not limit myself. I will be putting in a lift one one side as well, so I wanted room for that. I change tires on at least 3 vehicles twice a year. No more floor jacks and working on my hands and knees for me!
On the the decontruction. The fun begins. I'm on my 2 weeks off and I have a goal in my head of where I want to be when I go back to work. The first order of business was to move a 12X16 shed that was in the way. Tear down a leanto, jack up the shed, and got it moved out of the way. The base was a little rotten, so that will have to be addressed before it gets moved further. I cannot believe the amount of stuff that came out of that little shed! Next, the tin comes off . Not bad. Couple days work. Next, most of the strapping, but not all. The trusses are attic trusses, so then the plywood comes off the floors and walls. Then I start pulling the nails in the hurricane clips holding the trusses to the beam. The plan is to rent a telehandler to get them down. That's how I put them up 6 years ago. So, everything was mostly free and clear. Rent the telehandler and proceed to take down 5 trusses, one at a time.
This is when the fun stopped. Between the frost coming out of the ground late this year, and the amount of rain we have had, the ground was a little soft, but I thought I was safe. Attempting to retrieve the 6th truss, the telehandler punched through the mud and got stuck. It was getting late in the evening so I called it a night. I went out the next morning to reassess the situation. That's when I noticed the trussed racked on me. I quickly retrieved a rope and come a long, and brought them back to vertical. i
had attempted to pull the telehandler out with my pick up, but that didn't work. I had to call a wrecker to pull it out. I attempted to make a corduroy "road", but that failed when the telehandler got stuck again attempting to get to the soft section. This time the pickup was able to pull it out. Phone the rental company to come and get the telehandler. A 4 hour project to take the trusses down was now into day 4!
Contemplating what to next, I was coiling up some extra rope when the trusses tipped over. Right there in front of me! I had failed to realize that they had racked again. I believe they walked on me, and got to the point of no return. Well, trusses were down! I only damaged one fortunately. Got them all stacked and cleaned up the site and returned to work for the next 14 days.
So, I decided I wanted a shop. The first thought was to enclosed the carport and pour concrete. This meant changing a roofline, redesigning a basement entrance, maybe adding a bay. That got too complicated real quick. Then the thought was to enclosed the old kennel and pour concrete. But I only had about 9 ft ceiling. The decision was made very quickly to take it down and start over. Reusing the trusses and roofing would save some money too. On paper, 34x40 was too small, so I went to 34 x 50. Here's the best part. My wife asks me if 50 is big enough? Maybe you should go to 60, she says. God, I love that woman!
The decision was made. 34x60. My other neighbor recently built a 40x50x 14. He has one large 12 ft high door. Both his travel trailer and boat do not fit! Very quickly I made the choice to go 16 ft high and not limit myself. I will be putting in a lift one one side as well, so I wanted room for that. I change tires on at least 3 vehicles twice a year. No more floor jacks and working on my hands and knees for me!
On the the decontruction. The fun begins. I'm on my 2 weeks off and I have a goal in my head of where I want to be when I go back to work. The first order of business was to move a 12X16 shed that was in the way. Tear down a leanto, jack up the shed, and got it moved out of the way. The base was a little rotten, so that will have to be addressed before it gets moved further. I cannot believe the amount of stuff that came out of that little shed! Next, the tin comes off . Not bad. Couple days work. Next, most of the strapping, but not all. The trusses are attic trusses, so then the plywood comes off the floors and walls. Then I start pulling the nails in the hurricane clips holding the trusses to the beam. The plan is to rent a telehandler to get them down. That's how I put them up 6 years ago. So, everything was mostly free and clear. Rent the telehandler and proceed to take down 5 trusses, one at a time.
This is when the fun stopped. Between the frost coming out of the ground late this year, and the amount of rain we have had, the ground was a little soft, but I thought I was safe. Attempting to retrieve the 6th truss, the telehandler punched through the mud and got stuck. It was getting late in the evening so I called it a night. I went out the next morning to reassess the situation. That's when I noticed the trussed racked on me. I quickly retrieved a rope and come a long, and brought them back to vertical. i
had attempted to pull the telehandler out with my pick up, but that didn't work. I had to call a wrecker to pull it out. I attempted to make a corduroy "road", but that failed when the telehandler got stuck again attempting to get to the soft section. This time the pickup was able to pull it out. Phone the rental company to come and get the telehandler. A 4 hour project to take the trusses down was now into day 4!
Contemplating what to next, I was coiling up some extra rope when the trusses tipped over. Right there in front of me! I had failed to realize that they had racked again. I believe they walked on me, and got to the point of no return. Well, trusses were down! I only damaged one fortunately. Got them all stacked and cleaned up the site and returned to work for the next 14 days.
) don't know everything! 
