S.A.M. Hill Customs

[Tscott]

Hey guys, this has been a long time in the making and I completely freaking ecstatic about my new shop. First, a little background.

My wife and I bought 10 acres to build our dream home on and start a family back in 2006. She wanted lots of animals, and I wanted a shop. We have been scrimping and saving and finally have been making progress in the last few months. We paid off everything but the house and now we are working on building my shop. The building is from MBMI metal buildings here in Florida, and is a 36' x 60' with 3 12' x12' openings for doors.

I had every intention of building it myself, but with very little help and very little free time on my hands, I broke down and hired someone to do the erection. So far I am glad I did.


Here is a picture of the slab as it stood about 2 weeks ago before work began.

Here is about the point I decided I was not man enough to erect this beast all by my lonesome.

Here is the point at which I am super happy not to be sweating my *** off in 100+ degree temps trying to hold onto hot steel at the top of a wobbly ladder.

From this point on the crew has made pretty steady progress each day, with a few set back here and there, but nothing major. Currently they have all the roof perlins up and a majority of the wall girts as well. They are going to finish up the walls and square the building over the next few days and then begin sheeting the roof and walls.

I am going to stay on top of the pictures and use this thread as many others on here have. I hope to keep it evolving with the shop and my projects. Hope you all enjoy, and feel free to ask me any questions you have or make suggestions on things you see.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[e-tek]

Great start!! But looks like you've been overrun by rodents already!!

 

[Conor42]

Right on! Bring on the photos!

 

[Tscott]

Great start!! But looks like you've been overrun by rodents already!!

Yeah they tend to run a little on the big side down here in the south.


The crew is back to work this morning, squaring up the building in preparation for sheeting the roof and sides. It's about 8:15am here and with the temperature already in the mid 80's I am not sorry at all for my decision to have the building erected by someone else. As a matter of fact I think it makes it a much more enjoyable process and allows me to focus on the fun stuff inside like wiring and layout.

I will try and get more pictures up tonight after I get home from the office. I love going home and seeing the days progress.

Tom

 

[Tscott]

Some more progress this week. The building has been squared and the sheeting is going up.


A few shots of the progress.

More to come later this week if the rain holds off.

Tom

 

[dlamerton]

That will be a good sized garage when it is complete. Good location as well.

 

[Tscott]

That will be a good sized garage when it is complete. Good location as well.

Yep, don't tell the wife, but it will be almost the same square footage as the house.

The location is kind of our dream. The wife and I both decided we wanted our next house to be on a large piece of land. The wife wanted animals, and i wanted a garage. Currently we have about 7 acres of 20 cleared. I fenced all of it a year or so back, it took almost a mile of fence.

Progress on the shop is a bit slower than I expected, but is moving along. The guy who is putting up the shop is a barn builder in the area, and i think he is a bit out of his comfort zone, but he is doing a really good job. I am very please so far, he is a little slow, but the work looks to be quality which is my main concern.

We hit a bit of a snafu yesterday. Turns out that if you buy the man doors from the metal building company, that they have trim built in to them. Therefore if you just spec the opening in the building and choose to buy doors yourself, you need to get your own trim. Not a huge deal, but a slow down none the less.

There's not much worth posting as of right now, but my guy is working and I would expect the building to be skinned and roofed by next week some time. As soon as roof panels start to go up, I will post up some progress pics.

Thanks for your interest

Tom

 

[KarateBoy]

Any reason you chose steel frame over wood?

 

[Tscott]

Any reason you chose steel frame over wood?

As I priced the materials for pole barns, steel buildings, and house style framed structures (i.e. Balloon Framed) the pole barns and the steel buildings were pretty much the same cost. The balloon framed buildings were a lot more, so they were out. So it was a choice between pole barn and steel building for about the same cost.

I originally wanted a pole barn, but I had a real hard time finding a set of plans that would be wind rated for my area (North Florida). I called around to a bunch of places and had no luck. The local 84 lumber told me they no longer offer plans in Florida because they cannot meet the newest 2007 wind loading supplement. I did everything short of getting an engineer to draw up some plans for me, I believe this would have been cost prohibitive. I then had a really good phone call with MBMI metal buildings, and they gave me a price I was happy with, and I made my choice. For the same cost as a pole barn the same size, I got the steel building with engineered and stamped plans.

I figured that at the same price the 2 were pretty much the same, with the exception of longevity. A pole barn, has a finite life due to wood rot on the posts in the earth, fire and insects. This life is probably 40 years or more, but still, wood rots, burns and bugs love it if not treated properly. The steel building on the other hand will probably be around when my kids get old as long as rust is not allowed and an asteroid does not fall on it. This thing is tough.

There are definitely pros and cons to steel buildings, but for me I feel it was the right choice. I am very happy with how it looks and the only thing I really don't like about it, is the fact that I can't just pound a nail into the wall to hang something. This problem is easily fixed by sheeting some of the inside wall with plywood.

Also, the limited exterior options could be a draw back in a more suburban area, but I live on 20 acres and haven't seen my neighbors in weeks. I think the wife and i did a pretty good job matching the house with the colors offered to me. The wife and I both like it a lot and think it compliments the house quite well.

Just my thoughts,
Tom

 

[Tscott]

The shell is now finished as of late last week. The rest is now up to me. In the next few month I will be tackling electrical, plumbing interior finish etcetera. I have a feeling this is one of those things that will never really have an end, but thats OK because this thing is my dream and it's awesome.

Tom

 

[babzog]

I broke down and hired someone to do the erection.

You hired someone to handle your erection? Oh dear...

Your, um ... building, looks great!

 

[Tscott]

Well, you know the old saying, If it Flys, Floats or F*#&$..........Rent it.


Tom

 

[Tscott]

Hello all. It has been a while since my last update, and for that I apologize. Since my last post, I have been working on the electrical in the shop. I installed 200A meter/ main disconnect combo on the outside of the building and a 200A load center inside.

My old garage was a standard 2 car, so I really do not have a ton of tools. I have the obligatory craftsman rolling tool box filled with hand tools and the normal power tools. Because of this, I have decided to add only a few 20A 120VAC outlets and lights. As the shop grows and new equipment makes its way in I will build more circuits to the needed locations.

When I started my lighting, I decided I wanted something a bit different from the rest. After reading a few posts on those high wattage CFL's, I decided to give them a try. My plan was to break the garage lighting into two circuits to help manage the power bill. To make sure the CFL's were going to be a good fit, I decide to only do one circuit for the time being. If they worked then I could do the other side of the building at a later date. I also wanted to use some sort of light fixture that resembled the old style warehouse lights. I found these on the net and ordered 8.

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft1_poultry_equipment-ft1_poultry_lighting;pg108686.html

Over all, I think it turned out great. The fixtures are good for up to 400 watts and are really pretty good quality. I had to shorten the cords on them to get them tucked up close to the ceiling. The CFL's stick out pretty far, but that was expected. I like the looks, and I get plenty of light with minimal shadowing. I figure that this set up will allow me to upgrade the bulbs as technology improves, and new bulb types become available, instead of having to change out entire fixtures or having to rewire ballasts.

Below is a picture of one of the 105 Watt CFL's next to a roll of shop rags, as you can see they are pretty damn big for a light bulb:
View media item 2521
This is a picture from the side of the building without lights toward the side with lights. It's brighter in real life than it looks in the photo, I have more than enough light to work and I think any more would have been painful on the eyes. Also, as you can see, I am missing a light on the left side of the near row, I changed my design halfway through and ended up short one light:
View media item 2522
Now that the lights are up and running, I have been working on getting the shop into a usable state. After all, that is the point of the garage right? To actually work on something other than the shop itself? I got a what I consider a pretty good deal on some used pallet racking. I got 11 uprights and 56 crossbeams for around $600. So for the past few days I have been cutting down and assembling the racking into shelves and work benches.

In the picture below, you can see what will eventually become work benches with storage above:
View media item 2526
The racking pictured below is to become bulk storage shelving. I am planning to invest in some good quality clam shell type storage totes and stack them on these shelves. The lower shelves have been spaced taller to allow large heavy things to be stored easily below waist height for easy lifting:
View media item 2527
I hope to be done installing the rack frames in a day or so. They go together pretty fast, but being used they tend to need a little coaxing every now and then. Although nothing a big hammer and a few "C" clamps can't fix. Once complete I will then begin to skin the tops of the shelves and the work benches. The shelves will probably be 1/2" plywood cut to fit supported with 2x4 stringers every 2 feet or so, and the work benches will get something a little more beefy. Eventually the benches will get skinned the stainless steel bent to fit, but fort now I am probably going to go with a Masonite covering.


Thanks for taking time to follow my build.

Tom

 

[sam 8]

Looks like your going to have a nice place to work on the Corvette.

 

[Tscott]

Yep, that's my baby. I got it in college and started a frame off resto in a 2 car garage. When I graduated the wife and I moved and the vette has been in storage for a few years. I can't wait to get back to work on it.

Tom

 

[glockaddict]

can you post any info. on the cfl bulb? i'm planing doing the same type..
Thanks...