The CCC shop build

[The mean fish]

I've been here for a couple months stealing ideas but I haven't actually started a build thread for my shop so here it goes. We'll call this the CCC shop build, CCC stands for coonasses, chemo and concrete... I'll explain as we go along.

This adventure started almost 3.5 years ago when my wife and I bought a house that had an existing "workshop" out back, we live in the Conroe TX area. We didn't place much value in what was back there but my plan was to do some significant renovations at some point to make some of it usable as a shop.

Looking from my house you an sort of see what was back there when I started. By the time this photo was taken I had already torn down a couple sections of barn/shed.

There is a working outhouse and a couple other "structures" back there that I haven't really messed with yet.

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Most of the floor in the old buildings were concrete pavers, I picked them up by the pallet and moved them up to the house for a future patio project.

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The house is about 250' away from where all of this is taking place.

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[The mean fish]

After living here for a few months I decided that a portion of the old structure was just too far gone to keep so I tore it down.

I kept the usable lumber and we started what has become the never ending pile of rusty barn tin back behind the outhouse.

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Once the space was cleaned up I came up with a plan to build a new 30 x 30 structure and tie it in to the existing 15 x 20 pole barn structure that remained on the left. That 15 x 20 structure was much younger and in fairly good shape. This is looking into the 15 x 20 where it would eventually tie into the side wall of the 30 x 30.

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[The mean fish]

I guess I should also explain that I'm a Craigslist addict so when I decided on 30 x 30 I started shopping for some roll up doors. The doors that I found eventually dictated the overall design of the building. I found a pair of new 12' wide by 14' tall Janus doors. I purchased them and bought some 12' tall rail hardware so I decided on a 14' ceiling height. I also bought a smaller 5' wide roll up door because it was cheap, I haven't 100% decided what I'll do with it yet.

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I brought the doors home and started collecting other building materials.

 

[The mean fish]

I've got a few friends in the construction industry so I was able to pick up a lot of building materials either free or at a screaming price, given my cheap *** nature that's a good thing.

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I was given about 70 sheets of U panel galvalume metal 18' long, these were protective cover sheets from sheet metal bundles that a buddy of mine had left over from a large construction project. I also got a ton more of shorter pieces of this U panel. This metal would eventually become the wall and roof panels of the 30 x 30 space. He also dropped off about 100 20' long sticks of #3 rebar left over from a large driveway project they were wrapping up.

 

[The mean fish]

I hired a local driver to bring in some dirt so we could level and eventually pour a concrete pad. This started a very long driveway project because we got the truck stuck and I later found out I had a septic sprinkler line leak in the back yard.

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After months of dirt work, septic repairs, gotextile fabric laying and lots of crushed limestone I was able to get back to the building and I ended up with a decent driveway to get back there.

 

[The mean fish]

We dug up a couple roots in the process.

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[The mean fish]

After a very long wait I called up a local concrete guy in town and he drove out on a Saturday afternoon to give me a quote. After explaining what I wanted he threw me a number that I couldn't refuse and within 24 hours he had a crew of guys at my house forming and digging footers.

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I ended up doing a 14" grid of #3 rebar in the new section.

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They also formed up inside the existing 15 x 20 space and did a 16" grid of rebar in there.

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[The mean fish]

We ended up pouring 29 yards of concrete.

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We ended up doing about a 6" ramp up into the old section due to elevation changes on my property. I didn't want to raise the new section any more than I already had so I just did a ramp, it turned out a lot nicer than we expected.

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[The mean fish]

Right around this time I found a good deal on a used 9K Rotary 2 post lift on Craigslist so I picked that up and brought it home to eventually install in the shop.

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[The mean fish]

So this was right around mid June 2012, I had concrete poured and a crude plan in my head for a 2x6 stud 30 x 30 building with a 14' ceiling height tied into the existing pole barn that was there.

I picked up a bundle of 16' 2x6s and brought them home.

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A few days after getting this bundle of 2x6s back to the house I had a Dr. visit for a bump I found in my right arm. I had this bump removed and a few days later my world was turned upside down, I was diagnosed with stage 1 hodgkins lymphoma and what had been removed was a malignant lymph node. That would explain the chemo portion of the CCC.

Within 48 hours I was a registered patient at MD Anderson cancer center in Houston and I began an ABVD chemo regimen.

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[80WTI_55_CHEV]

Hope everything is ok Mean Fish, Looks like you where kickin *** on the build mate. You guys have big mice over there.lol

10th pic down will give you a hint.

 

[The mean fish]

I'm good man, these photos are a couple years old. I wrapped up chemo and radiation treatments in Sept. 2012 and I haven't looked back.

During my treatment I had some really good friends step up to help me get this sucker built. We framed the walls in a single day.

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I borrowed a scissor lift from a buddy for a couple months, we used it to place the truss and a few other things.

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[The mean fish]

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I also tied the ridge beam of the old space into the wall of the new shop.

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[The mean fish]

We had a few large work days out here and quite a few really good guys showed up to help get this thing skinned. I paid to have some guys put the roofing metal on it just to get some covered space to work in.

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We eventually skinned the walls and started working on getting it dried in.

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[The mean fish]

I paid some local guys to install my 2 roll up doors in Feb 2013... the doors that started this whole project. I'm very happy I paid to have these installed, I'm pretty sure I would have destroyed at least one of them, maybe both.

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[The mean fish]

I eventually started to frame out of the walls of the old section that I poured concrete in.

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[Bib Overalls]

Interesting project. Looks like most of the "old section" will be new.

 

[The mean fish]

It's pretty much all new now aside from the basic pole barn frame. We put new roof metal on it and the outside walls are mostly skinned in new metal already.

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We also had a trim day recently and we trimmed out a lot of the bigger section.

I'm going to tear down the old shed to the right once I'm done and I will add a lean to off the side of the new shop using that header we framed into the side wall. The old shed has some nice 20' steel scissor beams holding up the roof which I plan to use to build the lean to so that'll have to wait a while.

 

[The mean fish]

I also started insulating and sheeting the interior walls with plywood. The lift was installed at some point by a bunch of buddies as well.

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[st cloud rustoms]

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Do you have a slide built off your deck? sweet!

 

[gordyy]

haha my grandson is with me here He just said wow we could put a slide on that porch to slide down to the sand box quicker

 

[The mean fish]

Do you have a slide built off your deck? sweet!

Yes, when we bought the house it didn't have railings around the back porch so when I put up railings and new stairs I added a slide. My wife said I was crazy but my 4 year old and 1.5 year old think I'm a genius.

 

[The mean fish]

haha my grandson is with me here He just said wow we could put a slide on that porch to slide down to the sand box quicker

I built a gate at the top that matchea the railings on the porch so I can close it off and lock it if needed. Even I thought it would get old and wouldn't get used much when I did it but I was wrong... if I did it again I'd add the kids their own ladder or stairs because for family gatherings there's a waiting line of kids running up the stairs and getting in the way. There's a box of mulch at the bottom for when they try coming down 3 or 4 at a time.

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[madoc1]

nice work mf. got any more pics?

jim

 

[The mean fish]

nice work mf. got any more pics?

jim

I'm almost caught up to present day, a couple months ago I purchased a bunch of pallet rack to build shelves in the shop.

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I used as much as I needed, kept some extra and sold off the rest recently.

You can see it here on the back wall while we were testing and adjusting the 2 post lift.

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[The mean fish]

Once I got the entire back wall insulated and sheeted with plywood I put up the pallet rack sections on each end.

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I'm going to elevate my Champion 80 gallon compressor on a shelf in the middle of the 2 sections we put together. I've already cut the beams to fit, I just need to weld it all up and get her lifted into place.

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[The mean fish]

So at this time I'm building a block retaining wall at the end of the old section of shop. Long term plans for the 2 story loft section at the end aren't really solid yet, my wife and I need to figure out what to do with it. I will probably just reskin it with new metal and turn it into storage space, I may use that small roll up door on it.

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As you might be able to see in these pictures my data, phone and power all come into the shop in this old section. I'm just using temp power at this time, once I finish the interior I'll start running surface mounted conduit everywhere for power.

 

[The mean fish]

This old photo shows the 2 story hay loft up front.

It's mostly 6 x 10 beams which are still in good shape, my plan is to eventually clean it up and use the space. The dirt at the bottom is about 10" higher than the concrete I had poured in the old section so this retaining wall will help hold the dirt back and give me something to frame the wall on top of. I'm going to build a solid wall at the end of the old 15 x 20 section so whatever we do with the hay loft area will stay separate.

Given my rate of progress I'll be retired before I get to work on the hay loft.

 

[The mean fish]

I also recently picked up 3 of the HF red 44" boxes.

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I have some 20' angle iron stock laying around that I'm going to use to build a work bench/tool box combo or 3. The work bench idea is what brought me here... mine are going to be quite heavy but free steel is always good steel.

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[DEEDDUDE]

Great Build, it turned out nice. I love the woods and the Conroe area.

You never explained the ******* part of the build, but i think i found it.



Notice the ladders in the sissor lift. and the boards on the handrail..

Cancer *****. My wife was going through treatments at the same time you were, but at a different facility. Good to know you're doing better.

"laissez le bon temps rouler"

 

[The mean fish]

To my defense the extension ladder is on the ground behind the lift. Only the A frame is on the lift and we were putting in the roof 2x4 slats with it.

I wish I had some photos of us using the lift to place the truss in position with the deck slid all the way out.

 

[Kevin54]

Mean Fish......great build!!!!! And it's great that you have friends in the construction business where you can get some deals. That always helps.

Glad to hear that you made it through your cancer treatments with flying colors. My wife is two years in remission now from having Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Never a fun thing when the doc tells you that you have the Big "C". A couple of years before my wife, I was told I had a large cancerous tumor, and they wanted to remove a portion of my lung. I was misdiagnosed by 4 or 5 doctors. All I had was pneumonia. I know that on guys, they always tell you to check your nutsack, but that's scary that you had a lump under the skin on your arm. I'm going to start feeling myself all over after reading that.

But glad to hear that things are fine, and you're back on track now. And looking for more updates on your garage!!!

 

[The mean fish]

As far as cancer goes, I have my 1.5 year follow up CT scan on Friday to confirm I'm still in remission. Things have been great, I just have a ton of catching up to do around the house, the yard, the shop, work, etc etc etc.

 

[Po'Boy]

Love the build, and how you are retrofitting it to the old structure. Glad you saved it!

 

[The mean fish]

I laid the second course of blocks last night, I'm certainly not a mason but I got it done. I'm going to fill the blocks with concrete this afternoon if I have the time, I drilled 5" holes in every other opening and epoxied some rebar in each hole before putting in the second course.

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[The mean fish]

This is the best kind of update I can come up with, I had my CT scan last week and it came back clean so I'm still "cancer free" and very much putting this body to the test. I filled all of the blocks with cement and I've framed the wall above it plus to the 2 ends of the side walls which I've been waiting on.

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I had my helper/inspector come out to tell me that my workshop wasn't pretty...

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[The mean fish]

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I'm running into a few spots where old and nasty are bumping into new and clean. In addition, nothing on the old portion of the shop is level, plumb, straight or even close to correct. I'm doing what I can to support the old stuff while finishing the new stuff, when I'm done there will be very little structure from the old 2 story loft and the new shop touching. I'm just going to sheet metal flash the small gap left between the 2 and call it good.

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[The mean fish]

Before anyone asks, I've just secured the sill plate to the top of the blocks with some tapcons temporarily. I'll put in some real anchors in a few weeks once the concrete has more time to cure.

 

[SiGmA_X]

Progress looks great! I really like the silver barn siding. Nice lookin' shop!

We ended up pouring 29 yards of concrete.

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Just curious, did they embed wood under the slab? If so, why?

 

[The mean fish]

Progress looks great! I really like the silver barn siding. Nice lookin' shop!Just curious, did they embed wood under the slab? If so, why?

Those are just little slivers that they use to create the 2 ramps that lead up to the roll up doors. See how there's a little ramp at each door opening?

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