RacerEx's 18x24

[racerex]

Around two weeks ago, I kicked off the build of my pole barn garage. Due to zoning, the size of my property and grade issues, I was limited as to how large I could go. It’s 18’x24’, with a 9’6” ceiling and some loft storage space….I was limited to a max structure height of 15’. Anyway, the size is not going to be a real issue for me. For the last 10+ years, I’ve been wrenching on my project cars in an 11’x21’ space...one bay in a detached 2-car garage at my sister in-laws house. So she’s selling her house, so I needed to find a new home for my in progress Corvette resto and I decided it was time to build a garage at my house.

So here we go.

 

[racerex]

More framing

 

[racerex]

Roof on and windows and side entry door in.

 

[racerex]

Some interior pics.

It was going to be framed on the flat, but I decided to switch to what my buddy calls "wall units", to make insulating it easier....2x4's 24"oc. I'm also not a fan of osb, so I went with 1/2" cdx plywood.

I plan on adding some additional blocking to the back wall.......more support if I decide to hang cabinets at some point.

 

[racerex]

Siding started yesterday. The siding matches my house.

 

[Idle Serge]

Keep at it!

 

[jnkpile]

Great man door, and I really like all those windows.

 

[Tejas TJ]

I'm in the same boat as you with how big I can build a garage. I'm considering building a 20x28x10 and was curious how that Suburban of yours fits in there?

 

[racerex]

Tejas TJ: I don't plan on having the Suburban in there much. The Suburban is around 18' long, so it will fit with a little space to spare. My attached garage is only 19' long, so the Suburban sits outside.


I'm still working on the trench for the electrical (100 amp service). I'm running into some large stones from when they broke up a rock shelf to build my house 17 years ago. I still have to take the Hilti hammer drill and a large sledge to a few of them.

They poured the floor today. My builder went with a good mix on site guy (4,000 psi mix). They had to pump it 65' to the garage. I'm holding off on doing a driveway to the new garage because once I get my Corvette in there, it won't be moving anytime soon....I still have a few months worth of work to do on it.

 

[dirtyjerzy]

Very nice, I'm planning to do something very close to your garage this spring. Going with a 23x26, town will only allow a monolithic footing&slab if under 600 sq.ft.
What size and brand are your windows? What brand is the man door?

 

[racerex]

Very nice, I'm planning to do something very close to your garage this spring. Going with a 23x26, town will only allow a monolithic footing&slab if under 600 sq.ft.
What size and brand are your windows? What brand is the man door?

Andersen awning 2'x3'. I'm not sue of the make of the man door...I'll check with my builder and get back to you.

 

[racerex]

Update

Got the conduit in (100 amp service plus 1" conduit for coax and CAT-5). Got the panel in and the passed the electrical inspection. I decided to place a little cement between a few of the stones. Filled the trench today. I ran into so much stone when I dug the trench, that I had my buddy drop off a few yards of fill. I also put some orange marker tape in the trench.

The only thing holding me up from getting the final building inspection and the CO is the garage door, which is on backorder for another two weeks.

 

[drivesitfar]

Racerex: your new garage is looking good. can you tell me the price difference between pole foundation and framing on cement footings or did you price that out? also i like that you used CDX instead of the cheaper products and for a garage your size what was the cost difference?

sorry for so many questions, but i'm gathering information for the day when we will move out of the city and I'll get to build my house and garage. you didn't mention the type of siding you used which looks great by the way. is it hardy cement board?

Since you raised the ceiling height are you using a side mounted garage opener or what kind of door and opener?

sorry for so many questions, but if you have the answers now or after you add up all the bills that would be awesome.

good luck and hope the weather stays nice for you to finish up if it really has been so far.

 

[dirtyjerzy]

Thanks, looks great. You dig the trench with machine or by hand? Your in the home stretch now.

 

[racerex]

Drivesitfar: The prices were close between stick on a monolithic slab and a pole barn build. I got a price for a stick build just so I had a frame of reference, as I knew that I was going to go with pole barn. My best freind was in the custom pole barn business for 30+ years and my builder was one of his best guys for 12 of those years before going out on his own. My buddy is no longer in the business and he sends anyone looking for a quality pole barn build to my builder. I ran everything my builder was going to be doing by my buddy and he only pointed out a few minor suggested changes.

Going with CDX vs. OSB for the walls was additional $500. My builder only uses CDX on roofs.

The siding is quality vinyl, to match my house. Hardy plank was out of my budget....from both a material cost and the additional labor to install it.

I'm going with a high-lift track for the door. For now, no opener. Once I finish the garage (i.e., lighting, heat, insulation, drywall and sealing the floor) and my Corvette in there, I still have a year or so worth of work to do on it before it will see the road. I'm not even doing a driveway now.

 

[racerex]

Thanks, looks great. You dig the trench with machine or by hand? Your in the home stretch now.

By hand. This is going to sound crazy, but I had over two weeks of vacation to burn up by the end of the year, so why not spend a few days getting a good workout

Over the years, I've dug enough holes and removed enough trees/stumps around my property to know that it's a complete is mess. I knew that I was going to run into a ton of blasted stone, plus there's lawn sprinkler system lines and an invisible dog fence back there. The trench was 65'.

 

[drivesitfar]

Racerex: your framing did look a lot nicer than most pole built garages I've seen so you have a good friend and builder helping you. it was hard to tell your siding was vinyl from the pictures and it looks great.

sorry to hear you have rocks in your trench route so good luck with that.

if you have any questions on storage or tools just ask and i'll keep watching your build or PM me if you think i might have some information to share. i'm not a car guy so i can't help you with the cool car restoration.

good luck

 

[racerex]

Drivesitfar: Thanks. Most pole barns are framed on the flat. I went with what my buddy calls wall units, which makes finishing the interior off much easier. The wall studs are 24" OC. I plan on using R15 insulation for walls and 5/8" drywall. I debated going with plywood walls, but I'm pretty careful when working around the garage, so hopefully I won't punch too many holes in the drywall.

 

[mountainman72]

Looks great! I think you are really making the most of the restrictions placed on your build by the city/town.

Can't wait to see it moving forward.

Brett

 

[drivesitfar]

Racerex; sheetrock should be fine and a lot easier to fix it you do punch a hole in it.

any pictures of the Vette yet or did i miss them?

 

[racerex]

Filled the trench yesterday. Come spring, I'll get a few yards of topsoil to fix the lawn.

Attached is a pic of my '74 Corvette from when I got it home and how it currently sits at my other garage. It's a one owner car with 36k miles that sat for years unused. It's nicely optioned (i.e., L-82, M21, PS, PB, AC, PW, leather seating, etc.). It's 100% stock. It has light surface rust on the underside and all the rubber suspension parts are dry rotted.....but the rubber body mounts are in pretty good shape...so no body-off resto.

Also attached is a pic of my last car, a '71 SS/RS Camaro. After I sold the Camaro, I was looking at C2's, but nice matching numbers cars are not cheap (i.e., 327/350 4-speed). I'm new to a Corvette, so I figured that I'd cut my teeth on a cheap C3 and the '74 I found fit the bill.

 

[drivesitfar]

RaceRex: the Vette looks and sounds pretty nice. another option i didn't mention for wall covering that i use is peg board. get the 1/4 inch thick stuff and it probably won't break with a bump and if it does it's simple to replace. then you can also buy some of the hardware and hang your tools. or do just one wall of pegboard.

 

[67rstbkt]

Awesome looking shop! I really like the extra height in there.

 

[racerex]

67rstbkt: Thanks.

The garage door was on backorder for close to a month, so that put me behind on getting to work on the interior. I got most of the wiring roughed in over the weekend....you can never have enough outlets and lights. Next up is insulation.

 

[racerex]

Before anyone comments, that's CAT5 and coax running up the center of the stud cavity to the left of the garage door. I was told to not run the coax too close to electrical lines, to avoid any possible interference with the digital signal.

 

[racerex]

Between working around 60 hours a week, visiting colleges with my daughter and having to move my project Corvette and all my tools over to my house (I used my sister in-laws garage to work on my project cars and she sold her house), I have not made much progress.

I was able to get the plywood down in the loft, insulation done and the drywall up and taped. Next weekend I'll prime and paint. I'm still up in the air as what floor coating to go with.

 

[BBSkylark]

Looking great! You seem to be making good progress despite being so busy.

What size did you end up making your attic/loft access way?

 

[racerex]

Looking great! You seem to be making good progress despite being so busy.

What size did you end up making your attic/loft access way?

I'll check. I want to say it's 24x30 (maybe 32").

In the pic you can also see how I got more space so I could use R-30 insulation. The collar are 2x8's and I needed 9-1/2"'s for the R-30.

 

[racerex]

Got a few things done:

- Paint: One coat of primer and two coats of exterior semi-gloss
- Floor: Two coats of Armorpoxy SPGX
- Baseboard: PVC baseboard
- Lighting: One row of lights up (I'm going to do two more rows...one down each side)
- Trim: Installed window, entry door and storage loft trim

Got my Corvette project car in (doing a full body-off resto) and got most of my tools and totes of spare car parts in. The totes will be stored up in the loft. I just want to install the lights and hang the heater before moving stuff up into the storage loft...as I will have to move around up in loft when doing the lights. I just tossed everything in the garage for now because who knows when winter will set in.

Once I organize everything, that will free up space and I can build a nice workbench.

 

[racerex]

At the rate that I'm going, it will be a months before I will get back to working on the car. Anyway, I hung the heater. I decided to hard wire it with a wall switch versus going with a plug at the wall. While I was at it, I should've installed a remote thermostat....at 6'3", I can just reach the built-in stat on the unit. Oh well, a project for another day.

Yes, I went a little over the top on the support. I was just thinking ahead if I ever decide to replace the electric heater with a propane unit...I can use the existing support.

 

[hbracerx]

The garage looks very nice, congratulations! How did the SPGX floor coating go for you? Any issues? Did you grind first or just etch? I'm hoping to have concrete in the new garage this week (finally) and need to turn my attention back to coatings.

Just think, one day you'll stop filling boxes and start emptying them as the parts start going back on the car. And you'll get to do it in your nice new garage.

Tom

 

[racerex]

The color variations with the clear SPGX floor coating was getting to me, so I decided to empty the garage and give it a re-coat of SPGX with the gray pigment. Armorpoxy was great to work with. They send me enough product for one coat. Now I'm happy with the floor. Also did some exterior landscaping.

Next up, re-arrange the garage for second time, finish the workbench (to be placed along the back wall), assemble the gantry crane and get back to working on the Corvette.

 

[hbracerx]

Looks good. Very nice!

I ended up going with Nohr S. So far so good. I got some bubbles (likely due to applicator error), otherwise it's very nice. I'll try to do a write up when/if things slow down.

Soon time to make some more progress on the 'vette

Tom

 

[racerex]

It has been awhile since I provided an update on my garage. So, I assemble the gantry crane, built a workbench, painted my freebie lateral file cabinets red, mounted them on casters and did some additional organizing. As for the background on the gantry crane, I needed to replace my old engine hoist and I came across a guy that was selling a never assembled HF 1T gantry crane for $450, so I purchased it. Yes, it eats up a boat-load of space, but it will sure come in handy when it comes time to lift the body off of my Corvette…being that I pretty much work alone on my project cars. My first test drive of the gantry will be in two weeks, when I use it to remove the motor and trans as one unit.

As for the garage, I still have few things that I want to do. I really want to install a few upper cabinets along the back wall…..as I still have a bunch of small NOS parts that came with the Corvette sitting in totes. I also have to paint the trim around the windows and the entry door. Oh yeah, I have to install the 22” LCD TV on the bracket above the workbench.

 

[Shootnjunky]

What garage heater is that specifically

 

[racerex]

What garage heater is that specifically

From memory, Dayton G73. It does a great job at getting the garage to a comfortable working temp and it does not cycle on too much to maintain the temp. I only use it when I'm working in the garage, as the electric rates in my area are crazy high. I may move to a small propane unit in the near future as our "great" Governor just announced the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in 3 or 4 years, which currently supplies the area and NYC with 25% of our power. The BS line is that they will find an environmentally friendly "alternative" source to take up the 25%....a see a nice rate hike in my future. Oh well, enough with my rant.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

It has been awhile since I provided an update on my garage. So, I assemble the gantry crane, built a workbench, painted my freebie lateral file cabinets red, mounted them on casters and did some additional organizing. As for the background on the gantry crane, I needed to replace my old engine hoist and I came across a guy that was selling a never assembled HF 1T gantry crane for $450, so I purchased it. Yes, it eats up a boat-load of space, but it will sure come in handy when it comes time to lift the body off of my Corvette…being that I pretty much work alone on my project cars. My first test drive of the gantry will be in two weeks, when I use it to remove the motor and trans as one unit.

As for the garage, I still have few things that I want to do. I really want to install a few upper cabinets along the back wall…..as I still have a bunch of small NOS parts that came with the Corvette sitting in totes. I also have to paint the trim around the windows and the entry door. Oh yeah, I have to install the 22” LCD TV on the bracket above the workbench.

Nice vette!! Miss mine awful!