My shop!

[Sharpest]

I have a shop in rural South Texas. My grandparents bought the building for my dad when he was in high school because they were tired of torn down cars and parts littering their driveway and real estate there is comically cheap. I don't know how old the building is but my family has owned it for ~45 years or so. It is 45x120 ft with a fenced yard the same size and decent sized yards front and back. I have around 1000 sq ft of enclosed office space in the front. It is built next to a rail road and the lot has a couple feet or so grade from front to back so there is about 2' of exposed slab in the front. The frame is built out of drill stem and the roof trusses are sucker rod. Perlins are wood 2x4s and the whole thing is sheathed with galvanized corrugated steel. It has one sliding door front and rear and three facing the fenced yard. The whole building is in pretty rough condition.

The water was turned off for 7 years while I was in school and then Dallas because my mom forgot to pay the bill for...a long time. I wasn't around enough to really care. I got it turned back on last year and there are a couple pretty substantial leaks. It has two full bathrooms that are on elevated platforms to clear the plumbing. There are no pipes in the slab at all. So I technically have running water but the system is so fucked I cant currently use it. It also doesn't help that the supply line from the meter is 1/2" copper tube which I think bottlenecks the whole system. Getting it replaced with 3/4 or 1" line is a high priority.

The most pressing concern, however, is the roof. Its is totally and completely messed up. It is domed with corrugated steel layed over wood perlins just like the sides, but with a rolled roof topping. I cant recall the roof ever being touched in my life and it shows. The rolled material is completely disintegrated and falling off in sheets. This has led to drastic leaking throughout the whole building which is bad enough its damn near unusable when its raining. All of my stuff is getting wet and the ceiling insulation and drywall in all the office rooms is ruined and will need to be replaced. It also doesn't help that a large portion of the roof is covered with several inches of detritus from the mimosa trees in the yard.

I got up there for the first time ever a few weeks ago and was shocked but not surprised with what I found. Here's a shot of the length of the building from the very back edge.

Ton of tree leaves and branches along with two trees that had grown onto and around the eve of the roof.

And a few shots of the general terrible condition

One major problem is that the sheet metal is cupping between the perlins. It is the worst at the peak but is bad enough that water definitely puddles there.

 

[Sharpest]

Few pics of the layout.

From the street.



The yard.



From the front door.



Bathrooms in front left corner and frontmost office area.



Rest of the offices.



Work area.



Other side of work area. Note torn apart CJ



Back of building. Storage and cars

 

[Sharpest]

The two main sliding doors on the side yard are framed with wood, which is rotted out and in dire need of replacement. Since the right door is far worse, I am doing it first. My tentative plan was to build a new wood frame and reuse the existing corrugated steel skin. Upon closer inspection, the skin is hosed too and needs to be replaced. No one local had any 10' sections in stock so the new frame will have to wait until next time to get installed. I'm sealing the wood with Thompson's to help stave off rotting even though the old frame lasted for ~50 years.

 

[Sharpest]

First priority is restoring water service. The supply line is a half inch soft copper line but I haven't had pressure at the building for 6 or 7 years. I have been living elsewhere so I wasn't too worried about it until I recently moved back and started actually working at the shop instead of just using it for storage. So I decided to dig up the supply line from the meter to the building.

Finished digging up the water line today. My back is hosed.



The line made an interesting dogleg right off the meter and the bends were fairly gentle but still collapsed the copper a bit. I think the city replaced the meter a few years ago, damaged my line and made a half- assed repair. A few years ago the shop front yard was dug up and back filled but I didn't think anything of it at the time. There was also a newer looking push-in fitting on my copper line about 6' up from the meter.



The meter only reads 7 gallons which supports my theory.



Oh well. I'm replacing the 1/2" copper with 3/4" CPVC under ground and galvanized steel for the riser from ground level into the building. Bought all the material today but I need a yard or so of cushion sand to lay the pipe on. I was alarmed at how much rock and concrete debris I dug up so I'm going to lay a 6" layer of sand around the pipe. There's also a separate pipe that branches off at the riser and runs underground around the side of the building to supply a couple of hose bibs. It's 1/2" iron pipe. When I attempted to remove the fitting attaching it to the previous riser, the pipe crumbled apart. So I'll be digging that up and replacing it too at a later date.

 

[captain14]

What's the plan for the roof since if is leaking?

What vintage are the vehicles in the back of the shop?

Keep us posted on your progress with pictures.

 

[Sharpest]

Cars left to right are a 74 Ford Pinto, 63 International Pickup, 67 Camaro and 50 Willies M38A1. I also have a 76 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, 69 Chevelle and the 74 Jeep CJ5 that I am currently building.

The roof is one of the main reasons I started this thread. I need some insight. It is currently short pieces of corrugated steel "shingled" over each other down the slope of the arch. Somewhere along the way, someone put down the aforementioned asphalt roofing over the corrugated, the weight of which appears to have crushed and cupped the corrugated between the perlins. This led to water sitting on the metal, which led to rust and leaks. The way I see it I have two options;

A) Replace all the sheet metal with brand new material and fasteners. This would be expensive and a monumental pain in the *** but probably the best long term solution. The major problem (besides finances...) is finding roof material with the proper radius to match the trusses. I would be fine with R-paneling or really anything that's structurally sound, it doesn't have to be corrugated.

B) Remove all the old asphalt and then apply some kind of spray foam to the exterior surface of the corrugated decking and try to shape it to fill the cups. Top that off with an elastomeric coating and call it a day. I like this option more because it has to be cheaper than all new paneling. I also like the idea of having some insulation up there and a white coating would have to repel heat better than the black and battleship grey up there now. I'd probably get an engineer to make an educated calculation on how much weight this roof structure is capable of bearing before moving forward with this option.

 

[egnorant]

Have fun taking back the workspace!

Not a roof expert but the arc of the roof may lend itself to normal panels flexed a bit. Precurved panels are available and, yes, they are expensive. Have you thought about some translucent panels for more light?

Trees are kinda nice for the shade until they throw leaves and twigs all over. Once they get bigger they throw whole branches.

I had the rotten water line problem and had to replace EVERYTHING from the meter to the house. Rented a ditch digger when I put in the lines for the shop...took an afternoon compared to the 3 days of digging for the line from the meter to the house.

Dibs on the Pinto!

Bruce

 

[Bib Overalls]

Can not help you with the roof. I will say, however, that if you can remove the built up tar paper coating your existing roof will handle the weight of a foam cap without any problem.

Are you planning to build living quarters inside? That would be cool.

 

[T_R]

I think you could get thinner gauge roofing panels to make those bends. People put them over the domed roof older mobile homes have and it works.

 

[ambenz]

What a great building with a lot of potential.
My gosh, it's gonna be a labor of love but in the end, your gonna save a huge chunk of change if you ever had to replace it with new.
I be watching your progress...I am taking it that you will be posting progress on this thread, right?

 

[Sharpest]

Trees are kinda nice for the shade until they throw leaves and twigs all over. Once they get bigger they throw whole branches.

Bruce

Yes they do. The original mimosa tree that was leaning over the fence from my neighbor's property in the above pics first split in half and almost pulled my main power supply line down and the. The other half fell over and twisted my overhead I-beam last year so it all came down.



My poor little Echo CS-360T got a hell of a workout butchering that damn tree and subsequently any others that looked the least bit threatening to my building. Those damn mimosas grow quick and are hard to keep up with.

Will definitely post progress pics. I have some loosely formed plans floating around in my head to reconfigure the existing office space into an apartment but that will require gutting it down to the studs due to water damage and is a ways off. I currently live an hour and a half away but will be moving to within 45 minutes soon.

 

[marty_p]

What a sweet, large space.

Please keep us posted!

 

[930dreamer]

What a great shop, I went to a few classes on the King Ranch.

 

[HOTFR8]

This looks like it will be interesting to follow. That place has old world character.

 

[Hounddog]

I'm thinking about the sagging metal between the joists. If a guy was to install bucks between the joists (steel or yellow pine). Would take a significant amount of force to push those sags up..so jacks would be required...would be a challenge that high. Also, I'd suspect the metal is brittle with age so....afterward I'd guess that some spots would leak...you'd probably have to install a membrane over it. Off the cuff, a tough job for sure.

 

[Sharpest]

What a great shop, I went to a few classes on the King Ranch.

Cool. My building is "close" to the main gate

Anyone have leads on foam companies that would operate down there? I'd probably remove the asphalt myself with a scraper and powerwasher, have it foamed and then apply the elastomeric coating myself. I'm stubborn and cheap so I like to do as much as I can myself. I'm also in the process of buying my first home so the roof repairs are only in the planning stages for now.

After the roof I'll probably be giving the electrical some attention. I have three-phase available that isn't hooked up so that's cool. I was hanging some new-to-me light fixtures last week and when I went to turn the breaker off to wire them in, I discovered that all of the ceiling light fixtures in my 5000 sq ft building are wired into one double pole 50 amp breaker I didn't have time to delve into the guts of the panel or tally up my total amperage draw but assuming I don't have 8+ gauge wire, this is likely a problem. My dad was an electrical engineer with his PE so I'm hoping for the best

 

[welder4956]

This:

http://gbr.liquidplastics.sika.com/en/solutions_products/liquid-plastics-roofing-systems/waterproofing-membranes.html

 

[bazzateer]

Strong feeling of Deja vu here. Sure I've seen this on the 'net a few years ago? .....

 

[LXCam]

I think you're on the right track with the spray foam. Rip all the old asphalt off, pop the sagged sheeting back in place as best you can using a buck-pole and jack and patch the bad stuff. Then spray her. That's an awesome space in need of a whole lot of sweat labor, but worth it. Good luck

 

[Sharpest]

Strong feeling of Deja vu here. Sure I've seen this on the 'net a few years ago? .....

I posted a thread about the roof awhile back but decided to start a dedicated thread for the whole shebang

 

[Sharpest]

Project of the day was my 20' bumper pull car hauler. I have been working on this stupid thing a lot longer than I'd like. It started as a poorly constructed 20' flatbed with a 76" wide deck. I bought it when I was 20 and didn't know any better. Over the next five years it was used like the village bicycle by my fellow off-road club members and the deck finally rotted out. Instead of just replacing the existing deck and having at least half of the large truck tires (40"+ tires on full width axles) hanging off the deck on trips, I decided to widen the deck and build drive-over fenders. I was given quite a bit of angle iron for free by a fellow Aggie and scored the diamond plate fairly cheaply through various channels so I'm only into this refurb for ~$300 right now. Considering an identical trailer would cost $3500 and I wouldn't have gotten much or anything for it in its previous condition, I'm happy. I'm just about done with fabricating then its off to the sandblaster then back for paint and wiring.

 

[Hephaestus29]

I wouldn't mind having that jeep or the international. If you sold a car or two it would give you room and money to fix the place up a bit. Too far for me though.

 

[gnpenning]

Nice shop. Plenty of room for toys.
Kinda of late seeing this. You might have all the water main done already. CPVC is that common in Texas for water mains? Seeing that shallow trench is great. I'm updating some of mine around the barn, and I'm down 6' plus. Adding laterals and shut off's. Does the city have a shut off by the meter? If you haven't already I would suggest even a shut off in the building and on any branches off the main.

The roof looks like your works cut out for you. My barn has leaks that I keep picking away at it, doing one section at a time, it's long like yours. Hope you're moving faster at it than me. Your lucky you don't have to worry about snow load.

I'm glad you reminded me about drive over fenders. I need to replace fenders on one of my flatbeds.

Hope you keep updating this.

 

[Sharpest]

Yah, I build houses for a living and we use CPVC for all meter to house lines. It freezes here once every 10 years so the only reason to go deep is to keep the line from getting crushed by vehicle traffic on the surface. This trench is ~18" deep. We used a heavy PEX for underground supply lines when I worked in San Antonio but its much rockier up there so I dont know if that's a factor. I don't have any PEX equipment so I went with CPVC.

 

[Sharpest]

I replaced one of the large sliding side doors this last weekend. The original had rotted out and the wood frame was so far gone even the corrugated steel skin was starting to tear. Since the original wood frame lasted ~50 years and I get unlimited cut lumber drops for free so I decided to make the new frame out of wood again. I drenched it in Thompsons in hopes of prolonging its lifespan. I replaced the skin because the old material was completely hosed and put new rollers on it but the originals were actually in fantastic shape for their age.





I also built and installed a new wooden stair on the front of the building. It is fully exposed to the elements and the fact that the previous one lasted for ~10 years sitting directly on the dirt is pretty impressive. This time I put a brick footer under it to keep it off the dirt and again, soaked everything in Thompson's.



Also hung my crackhead-deal Reelcraft Craigslist score. I don't even have the shop plumbed for air yet but had a few minutes to kill so I put it up.

 

[HOTFR8]

The door finished up looking pretty good as did the stairs.

 

[xtremek]

Keep chipping away at it. I'm following along so I can watch this adventure unfold. It seems like you do very good work.

 

[dubber]

Very unique project. I may have missed it but did you recently inherit the property? Good luck with the refresh.

 

[duwem]

On old barns here in WI with curved roofs people put steel on, I believe they lay the panels then run a crimping tool down them to join the seams. Maybe someone else knows more about the process?

 

[Sharpest]

Very unique project. I may have missed it but did you recently inherit the property? Good luck with the refresh.

My dad passed away 13 years ago when I was 16. I moved 4 hours away for school and then 8 hours away shortly thereafter. In total I was "gone" for 10 years. I came back every month or two to get stuff but never had time to work on anything so the building still fell into disrepair in that time.

 

[cat06]

I had a longer reply typed out then my computer went nuts.........check into the Conklin company Benchmark coatings. they can hook you up with an installer for the coatings and foam or just the foam. also with the size of your building look into becoming a member/ distributor it will more than be worth it in cost savings

 

[chilly_moose]

awesome!!!

 

[Sharpest]

Got to the shop today with the intention of getting after the water line replacement. Looks like the city messed with the meter again. There was a traffic barrel on the sidewalk and a bigass pile of dirt that was not from my trench.



There was a poly line of some sort in the dirt pile.


My meter was still in the hole but it appears to be attached to a new line. A) the old line was left so I don't know wtf is in the dirt pile and B) the meter is sitting at like a 30 degree angle. On every single one of the hundred or so houses I've built, the meter is always installed perfectly level. We'll see what the water department says tomorrow but I'm not expecting much.



It has rained a bit this week so the dirt was too muddy to mess with the water line so I worked on my smoker. Mounted the door on the fire box, mounted the firebox on the pit and built a new base for the whole shebang.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Serious looking smoker. Lot of guys around here with big appetites and lots of friends use propane tanks. Last forever.

 

[Sharpest]

Messed with some flourescent fixtures at the shop. I have several 8' T12HO fixtures that are dead but I still have a few extra bulbs so I tried replacing a ballast. I bought the ballasts off amazon after I had been shaking hands with Mr Jim Beam for awhile and messed something up along the way. The ballasts I bought have two wires per circuit and the diagram indicated they were meant for the dual prong bulbs. HO bulbs have the single nub on each end of the bulb so I just connected each like-color wire together and fired it up. One bulb fully lit up immediately but not at full output and one only glowed over about a third of its length. Since it was 45 degrees in the building I decided to give them a few minutes to warm up. After a few minutes both went completely out. In hind sight I'm pretty sure only one of the bulbs went completely dead but I said to hell with it, pulled that fixture and another and replaced them with shrouded three-bulb T8 units I bought off Craigslist awhile back. I was able to piece together enough EMT from the existing circuitry and material I had laying around for a clean install without a trip to lowes. The branch wiring is 12 gauge, which is interesting as there are only the two fixtures on that circuit.

 

[Sharpest]

Had some highs and lows at the shop today.

High: finished running a new water supply line. Discovered another pre-existing line ~6" under the copper line I dug up a couple months ago. I was cleaning out and leveling the trench when I found this line so I fully removed it. This one was iron pipe and crumbling with rust.





Low: discovered my sewer system consists of iron pipe connected to ceramic/clay pipe. How old is this stuff? I think I broke the connecting Union when I hit it with the grubbing hoe and I'm looking for an excuse to not JB Weld it back together for now. Also, the iron pipe in the building is cracked all to hell.

 

[Sharpest]

I just bought my first home and since I have a yard now, I needed a lawn mower. I have a fully functional Craftsman riding mower at my shop but the size of my yard at home doesn't justify dragging it back and forth. I have a few old push mowers at the shop so I started messing around with the newest looking one a few weeks ago. It's probably 20+ years old and has been sitting for the last 10 years or so. Started out by changing the oil, replacing the spark plug, cleaning the coil contacts and fresh gas with a splash of seafoam. Something was leaking gas profusely so I started by replacing the filter housing base, which also contains the primer bulb. Still leaked so I bought a brand new carb for $15. Got it fired up and the pull cord broke so I had to rewind it with fresh rope. The original plastic throttle broke all to pieces so I was manually adjusting the throttle. I ran it for 10 minutes until the smoke in the shop got too thick and shut her down. The broken throttle also held the cable jacket for the on/off bar on the handle so I had to get ethnic.

I literally found an OLD metal throttle lever with bracket hanging on the wall of my shop (thanks dad...) but it didn't have any provision to hold the on/off cable. So I made that part out of angle iron and welded it on. The deck is rusted to hell and will likely rot out soon but if this thing gets me through the summer I'll be happy. Don't really want to spend $400+ for a new mower yet with a wedding and house expenses and have ~$30 into this turd right now.







Also tried to finish JB welding the sewer pipe but I'm missing a piece or two of the original ceramic pipe flange. The gap is too large, the regular JB weld kept running out so I'm going to get some of the putty to finish it off. I did run a few gallons of water through it to check for leaks and no water dripped out so that's good. I just need to cover the hole in the top before burying it to keep dirt out.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Get an ABS fitting and cut out a section to cover that hole. Use more JB to hold it. Mickey Mouse and it'll give out eventually, probably another 20 years or so! Lol.

 

[Sharpest]

Finished building my fishing rod racks today and started poking around my shop's electrical system. I've always known I have three-phase available but that it isnt connected but didnt really know about the rest of the system. The main panel is a Square D with 8 locations, has another panel immediately to the left of it (but I didnt know how they were configured) and sub panel at the front of the building. I want to add a hard wired circuit for my newish 80 gallon compressor and another 220v outlet for an old kitchen range to heat treat and boil stuff. So I pulled covers. The main panel has three dual pole breakers and two singles. One dual pole goes to the sub panel at the front of the building that I am sure of and controls all of the lighting in the building. Another dual is for my welder circuit and the third is for the mystery panel to the left of the main.



The one to the left of the main turned out to be configured as another sub-panel but its weird. This one has the unterminated wiring for three phase inside of it (it extends up through the supply upright outside but is also unterminated there) and has three buss bar locations but it appears to have been modified for single phase use? The two black circuits connected to the buss bars at the top are tied together on the right side of the box and run to one of the dual pole breakers on the main panel. The orange and red circuits are for a 20a 220 series of outlets. The single pole breakers are a ghetto light jacket that needs to be removed or run through EMT. This would be the easiest place to put my additional breakers for the compressor and range but they both need 30 amp circuits so I dont know if the sub panel feed is sufficient for this current draw.



The current welder circuit just has a ~20' length of 8/3 type NM wire hanging out the bottom of the panel as sort of an extension cord. NM is rated for uncovered applications but I dont think using it as an extension cord and subjecting it to bending is cool so I plan on repurposing this wire for the compressor and range circuits.

I have this weird timer thing on one of the lighting branch circuits. No idea what its for but it looks really old.

 

[Bib Overalls]

The joints in ceramic tile drain pipes are notorious for failing and letting roots into the pipes. If you start sending a bit of water through your drain on a regular basis you will most likely become friends with the local roto rooter guy.

Sorting out your electrical system is going to be fun. My only advice for dealing with old electric systems is "If it ain't broken don't touch it." My experience is that just looking at something that has worked just fine for 50 years means it will fail immediately or in the near future. And if you touch it, however well intentioned, a meltdown of sorts will surely ensue.