Shop addition

[astroracer]

I have a 30 x 48 pole building that I will be adding a 30 x 26 addition to. This has been something I've wanted to do for a few years and now I wish I had done it earlier... Cost for the addition (unfinished on the outside), concrete, tear off of the old shop roof and roofing both structures is right around $14K.
I will kick off the builder Sunday when he comes out to go over plot plans and elevations. The addition will be used for vehicle storage and work shop organization. I have a '73 Firebird and a '31 Model A that are taking up valuable work shop space and a couple of industrial 4' x 8' shelf units that will be set up in there. I will also be able to stick my '95 Sierra show truck and another vehicle in there to free up even more garage space during the winter.
I can't wait to get this up and done so I can finally organize my shop into a usable space...
Mark

 

[ranger_dood]

Make sure you take lots of pics... since this is the garage gallery after all

 

[DynoDave]

Yes, we'd like pictures. And good luck to you with this project!

 

[astroracer]

Got some pics...

Here are a few pics of the current shop and a couple of pics of the addition modeled in UG. I know it's not big enough but it's what I can afford right now...

here is a pic with the addition outlined in white....

And a couple of the UG model...

 

[DynoDave]

Sweet!

Not big enough....you're funny!

 

[dink]

Man that is awesome the stuff you did to show actually what you will be doing...good work

 

[astroracer]

Thanks guys... Isn't that the case with any shop though? They are never big enough...
Dink,
The 3D stuff is easy to do. I have been running UG for 13 yrs so it's actually quicker for me to do it up in 3D now then to draw it on the board... My builder was very impressed. He said I nailed it right down to the color of the materials...
I got the builder started Saturday morning. He is pulling permits today and expects to be out tomorrow to lay out the building and start drilling holes! I can't wait! I have such a mess in the shop now I can't hardly walk around in it. I am REALLY looking forward to getting this place organized.

 

[OHEKK]

Nice 3D drawing!

We hired and fired 3 architects in the beginning of our project! Though I've not used UG, we did use a computer program called "3D Home Architect" to design our renovation project. These programs are really slick. I think we paid something like $39 and saved thousands by doing it ourselves.

Also... may I suggest you use trussses for the roof. I used trusses on my previous building and was able to box in an area in the middle. This was wide enough for me to install a lift and the car would raise up between the trusees.

 

[astroracer]

Thanks and good for you. Doing it yourself is a good thing.
My builders architect charges him $1.75/sq.ft. for barn plans... At 780 Sq. Ft. I just saved myself $1,365.00. There was no time involved to do this. I modeled the barn, my plot plan and cut a section in about 3 hours. That's a pretty good wage if you ask me.
I had him price a scissor truss but they were special order only and added almost $1500 to the cost. I am not planning to use this new part for anything but vehicle and part storage so I couldn't justify the cost. It is bad enough now with the cost of lumber!

 

[DynoDave]

I had him price a scissor truss but they were special order only and added almost $1500 to the cost. I am not planning to use this new part for anything but vehicle and part storage so I couldn't justify the cost. It is bad enough now with the cost of lumber!

Ouch!

You should check with Maple Valley Truss before you build. They are here in Michigan. Call 1-800-338-9220. I got quotes from them on 3 different types of trusses, and while the scissors where a little more, they weren't THAT much different, unless you need 100 of them or something.

 

[astroracer]

Prices have skyrocketed in the past two weeks! I got bit by dragging my feet and not kicking the builder off a week earlier. Materials are ordered now and, like I said previously, this is just a storage unit so cheaper is better.

I have holes! The guys were out yesterday and got all of the post holes drilled.

Materials should be here tomorrow or Friday so hopefully they can get the poles set before it starts to rain this weekend...

 

[astroracer]

After getting the permits a week ago Monday and hole inspections on Tuesday this is where the guys are at after 5 days of construction.

A shot from the back...

They will finish the roof on the new structure today and probably start tear-off on the old building. They are going pretty quick and the weather is forecast to be very nice for the rest of the week so I expect the building will be done before the end of the week. The concrete guy is scheduled for Wednseday so I should have pad by the end of the day...
Thanks for looking.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Well, forget about the concrete getting done tomorrow... The builder just called and the concrete truck had just arrived. I guess the cement contractor was running ahead of schedule and decided to do the job today instead of tomorrow... It looks like I will be able to start moving in this weekend... This is great!
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Just a bit of an update.
This is an older pic taken after the concrete and door were installed.

and this is one of the siding going up on the back side.

I haven't taken the time to get new pics but the barn is 99.9% done and I've spent the last two weekends getting stuff set-up and moved in.
The big project was moving my Firebird from the heated, working side, of the old shop to the new "storage" area. I had to bolt a rearend under the car so I could move it and I got that done yesterday. The car is now in the new building. I also picked up a couple of sets of those car dollies (skates) that allow the car to be moved around easily. My wife and I can move the car with no problem now so, once I get the lumber rack finished, I can slide the 'Bird into it's new parking spot.
I will get some updated pics soon.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

It's done on the outside... Now I have to get it organized on the inside. I got a good start this weekend with the movement of the bird and Monday night I finished the lumber rack so, with the 'bird where it needs to be I can concentrate on getting the working side cleaned and organized. I still have lot to do on the new side yet but it's coming along. I have next week off so I expect it will be pretty well finished up by the end of the week.
It got kinda dark yesterday afternoon because of that cold front you see over the top of the trees. This is looking NW.

This is looking NE...

The lumber rack

This is the workbench on the heated side. I am really embarassed about the clutter but it has been a chore just getting this far with the addition and this will change drastically in the next week...

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for organization or storage please comment, I am getting tired of talking to myself in this thread...
Mark

 

[gb387]

Looks good! Nice addition!

 

[OHEKK]

Mark,

Your garage looks great!

Keep up the good work...and don't worry about the clutter...it's gonna be a loooong cold winter!

By spring, everything will be neat & tidy and you will be sick of talking to yourself out in the garage.

23 degrees and 2" of snow in Wisconsin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tom

 

[chet]

haha clutter... ya right! I got 10X that amount! The addition looks great! I can't believe how fast it went up! I am hoping to do something similar to my shop but it can't be a pole barn.

I like the lumber rack idea too.

 

[jimbo]

I would like to see a picture of your model A. I have a 1931 slant windshield 4-door.

 

[astroracer]

I would like to see a picture of your model A. I have a 1931 slant windshield 4-door.

Hey guys,
Thanks for all of your comments. I expect to have the shop pretty well cleaned up by the end of next week. I will be heading out shortly for a few hours this morning. It is damn cold outside right now! Wind chill is in the minuses!!! I have lots I can do on the heated side though and it's supposed to warm up into the 40's by Sat/Sun.
Chet, the lumber rack is something I have always built. There is one in the old side I will be tearing down when I get all of the stuff moved to the new one. It keeps the lumber off the floor and out of the way.
Jimbo... My Model A is it's own basket right now. All of the "outside" stuff is stashed in the body and it all sits on a couple of pallets with 5"casters. It's easy to roll around and I will get some pics to post when I get it dug out. It's not much to look at but it's all there and the body is in pretty good shape.
Mark

 

[Thumper]

awesome shop!

 

[astroracer]

Well guys, it's taking me longer then I thought to get this shop cleaned up...
I had last week off and got a LOT done but there is still a ton of work to do. I will be picking away at it over the next couple of weekends and hope to have it pretty well straightened up by the end of break.
Between tearing down old lumber racks, burning a PILE of junk wood, building caster brackets for the sheet metal shear, cutting a doorway and building a door frame and a bunch of generic cleaning and sorting, I have made some room in the barn. I didn't take any pics but I'll get some this weekend. I am actually parking my driver van in the barn at night now so I've made a little headway.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

I can't believe it's been a month since I updated this thread!
I got a lot done over break but not as much as I had hoped... Holidays just seem to eat away at "shop" time, if you know what I mean... I've got both of the chassis jig tables on the heated side now with "almost" enough room for two cars on the cold side. I still have a few engine blocks that need to be shelved but I haven't taken the time to put my hoist together so they'll have to wait.
This last weekend I spent 14 hrs on Sat. and 7 or so on Sun. cleaning and rearranging on the heated side. I tore down an old set of shelves that was holding a bunch of old/empty/useless rattle paint cans (and threw out the cans). I did some re-wiring to add a couple of outlets on one wall, one switched for a light, and hung a couple of garage-sale kitchen cabinets on the wall with shelves in-between. I still have a bunch more to do but it's getting there! I hauled three full and very heavy trash cans out to the curb last night...
I'll get some pics tonight and post them up tomorrow. It's almost to the point where I would be proud to show it off to someone!
Mark

 

[DynoDave]

It's always a great feeling to be making progress. Sounds like you've put in a ton of time in the last 30 days.

 

[astroracer]

Yea, I've spent some time out here...
I know it doesn't look like much but, two months ago, I could hardly walk through this area...
This is a pic of the new work area I put together Sat. & Sun.

The wall cabinets were $2.00 apiece at a yard sale and I mounted some shelves in between them for a place to store all of my cordless tools. I plan to get the charging center moved over here eventually. The roll around work center has been talked about in other posts. I added the outlets and switch on the wall for power so I wouldn't have to run extension cords to the work center.

Here is look at my cutting area.

The two bandsaws on the left were both gotten cheap on eBay. My horz/vert can be seen to the right and I've had that for 21 or 22 years... I need to do a little more straightening and organizing here still but the majority is done...

This area is next on the list for demolition.

It's not really as bad as it looks 'cause my welder and generator are in there and they roll around easy enough. The big task is to clean off the shelves and pitch anything that is not ABSOLUTELY necassary for my survival...
Thanks for looking
Mark

 

[ponjohn]

What program is UG?

 

[astroracer]

Unigraphics. It's a solid modeling program that is used by GM and it's suppliers.

 

[astroracer]

Got some more done this past weekend. I didn't get pics but, if you refer back to the ones in my previous posts I got the bench cleaned off Sunday along with a few of the cabinets cleaned out. I also put up a bunch of stickers on the "new" wall cabinets and made an outlet cover for the wall switch and outlets I put in last weekend.
On Monday ( I had the day off for MLK Day...) I got the first set of shelves cleaned off (mostly) and went thru a bunch of shipping boxes. These were filled with packing peanuts so now I have a couple of garbage bags of peanuts to go to recycle. The set of shelves I cleaned off still has the stereo and speakers sitting on them. I think this set is going to come out. After I get the other shelves cleaned and gutted I will have no need for them. This will let me rearrange the corner space to move a drawer unit, which you can't see behind the welder, to the long wall and get the cabinets into the corner under the shelves.
Doing all of this cleaning I am finding myself wondering why I kept some of the stuff I have... It is amazing how quickly a garbage can fills up when you decide to "really" clean the shop!

 

[ati2de]

astroracer
Amen! Wondering why we keep so much seemingly unneeded stuff is just what I have been doing. I recently sold a 6000 sq ft cabinet shop. You would be amazed at the clutter (I hauled 18 pickup loads to the dump). I even sold $1100.00 worth of stuff that I almost hauled to the dump (maybe I should have been a bit more selective with those 18 loads) .
Of course, I had been in that shop for 18 years. Now my home garage and a storage rental are crammed with the "stuff" I couldn't live without (why i'm adding another addition) Once it's completed (couple of months) I'll attempt to pare down the remaining "stuff".
Sounds like you're having fun straightening out your garage, I know I will. Hopefully I will end up with an organized shop? Being newly retired I don't have any excuses this time (nothing but time, now!).

Rod

 

[RARE-ASC]

Nice addtion and makeover looks really nice!

 

[astroracer]

Compare!!!
Before...

And after!!!

Another marathon day Saturday and I had this dude pretty well licked. I did a lot of work in the addition also. The white cabinets you see in this pic...

are in the addition now with a sheet of OSB on top and stacked with a bunch of old, antique, car parts. Getting them out of the way let me put two of my roll arounds on the wall and get that brown drawer unit moved out from in front of the bench. The orange drawers were put on a frame with casters and another cabinet was put on casters and graced with an OSB top to make a dedicated work center for the chopsaw and belt grinder. It also has room for ALL of the sanding belts and cutting wheels for the saw and sander to keep them in one place...
This is what the corner looks like now. I put a couple of those shelfs back up just because the wall was too bare...

I will use the big drawer unit as an assembly table. The drawers are huge and will hold a ton of hardware. The lower shelf will be a storage area for mock-up parts.
The real nice thing about having all of this stuff on casters now is the ability to move things as the work progresses; not to mention being able to clean and sweep much easier.
Thanks for looking...
Mark

 

[Craig Balzer]

Mark

That doesn't even look like the same garage. I can only imagine the amount of work it took to get this far -- to say nothing of teh pounds of **** that has been trashed.

Nothing like sweat equity to make a man smile

Craig

 

[astroracer]

Thanks Craig!
Two months ago I couldn't even walk through the shop let alone have a place to work on the van. Getting the shop cleaned up has really been enjoyable on my part. I have some things left to do such as the painting, but that is just glitz. It really makes a difference being able to go out there and actually have room to work! I am still organizing hand tools and all but it is really easy now that all of the junk is gone. One thing I am forcing myself to do is to put things back where they belong when I am done for the day... Hopefully this will become a habit in the near future. It doesn't take that long to do when the tools have a dedicated spot!
I will pick up paint this weekend and get that done. I WILL be back to work on the van next month!

 

[astroracer]

I got some pics this weekend. It is amazing what a little paint can do to brighten things up. I didn't think it would make much of a difference when I decided to do the painting but BOY was I wrong! Looks so much better now I can hardly believe it's my shop! Wait until I get the flames on the long wall....
It's a bit messy because I am still painting and I have a lot of junk I haven't sorted through yet but it's getting there...

The work bench area...

As you can see I still need to paint above and below the bench but I need to strip a bunch of posters and stuff off the walls before I can get to it. That'll happen this week and I will be sorting and pitching stuff as I go...
The new work center area looks great!

This pic is kinda dark because of the windows... I am debating painting the door. I paln to replace it this fall with an insulated one so I think I'll let it go...
I did get a few of my tin signs put up though...

Thanks for looking
Mark

 

[astroracer]

A few more updated pics...
This is the S.E. corner of the shop after I stripped everything off the walls Monday nite...

This is the W. wall with the stationary bench b4 I stripped it last nite.

I had put a coat of primer on the S. wall Tuesday nite and I got the bench wall primed last nite...

I will be topcoating the walls tonite (2 coats) and I will prime the bench. It will get painted red.
Needless to say, I really like the clean uncluttered look so nothing is going back on the walls unless it is an enclosed cabinet or cupboard. I think I will do some looking at HD or Lowes this weekend for the pre-fab cabinets. I want to get all of my rattle cans out of sight and build a couple of fastener cabinets for all of my nut and bolt hardware....
Thanks for looking
Mark

 

[W-Cummins]

If your going to go to that much trouble why don't you tape and mud the joints??

 

[astroracer]

If your going to go to that much trouble why don't you tape and mud the joints??

Ummm... Because I didn't want to... More trouble then it's worth in my book. It's just a shop and the walls will take a beating. Besides I would rather get back to work on real projects then spend another couple of weeks tapin' and muddin'... I wasn't even planning on painting it until I tore down all of the old shelves and saw the bad tan marks left on the walls. I am happy with the paint. It looks a lot better then it did and it sure did brighten the place up.

 

[astroracer]

Thanks guys, this has been a long road and I need to get back to work on the van but I can see the light now and the shop will be very enjoyable to work in once it's complete. I already find it easier to work in and I still have a ways to go...
I made it to Home Depot Saturday morning. Spent some money to get stuff organized and keep it dust and dirt free.. I picked up a couple of 54" wall cabinets and 4 30" molded cabinets. Got the two 54's and one 30" installed Saturday.

The plastic cabinets were 25 bucks ea. I thought that was a pretty good deal and I might go get a few more...
I also went to Harbour Freight and picked up a couple of the furniture dollies for $16.00 on sale... You can't buy the casters for that price... I narrowed one up Saturday afternoon and attached a stack of drawer units to it.

The pic shows 4 units but I added one more Sunday morning so there are 10 drawers total now. This will be the roll around clamp/vise-grip/grinder station. I have enough drawers to make another one, I think I will. That will let me throw a sheet of OSB between them for another portable work bench.
I worked on this Sunday afternoon...

I got them sprayed and they look okay. I will get some pics as soon as the pinstriping is done...
Thanks for looking.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Between playing with the new welder and fixing broken garage doors I haven't gotten a lot done in the shop until last weekend. My brother-in-law dropped off a half dozen light fixtures a couple of weeks ago so I got around to getting four of them hung and fired up on the fab side of the shop. 8' 220V twin tube cold starts. The lights are take downs out of a school. They worked just fine but the school system replaces stuff like this from time to time to keep budget money coming. Tax payer dollars spent on replacing perfectly good equipment. I'm not complaining though! All of the electrical outlets and the furnace came out of the schools also...
I ran all of the wiring in conduit and hooked the lights up two to a switch. It is very bright in the shop now, to say the least!
Here are a couple shots of the shop with the new lights turned off.

And here is a couple with them lit up...

With the fresh white paint and these new lights I am all set to get back to work on the van!
Mark

 

[c.schulz]

Astroracer,
How are things coming with the garage addition??? Give us some update pics.

Chris

Sorry didnt see your last posting.