Above 1200 Sq/FT The Empty Cup 40x64 Post Frame

[eastmtn]

Work on testing DeltaDye continues. I rented a concrete grinder and got a little help grinding off all of the previous colors on the test palette.

I then re dyed the test pad with Tobacco Road an Terra Cotta accent on one side and Walnut Brown and Terrra Cotta on the other. We lucked out and had a few hours at 60 degrees so I also put on a pint of Nohr-S Polyurea sealer.

In this close up of the Walnut you can see water that beaded up from the previous nights rain. It just sat there and never soaked in.
I'm glad that I had a chance to try etching the concrete, grinding it, and applying the different stains and sealer. I got a chance to see absorption rates and how the products work with each other before DIYing it. Still a ways to go before I get to the point of applying it in the new garage.

 

[Jayman17]

That was a really good idea to have a test pad, I’m leaning towards the lighter tobacco side.

Jay

 

[eastmtn]

Myself and the contractor figured it might be time to get some trenches done for the utilities. The foreman and I brush cut to the transformer over the weekend.



The garage will have its own meter and a 200 amp panel. We estimate about a 200ft run from the garage to the transformer at the edge of my property. My house is in the center of our 2 acre lot.





The electrician came by and said that we had to take some of the bends out of the run. Sooo, I have a new drainage ditch. He marked out this new path to stay under the 3 bend max. It has to be 40" deep.

 

[eastmtn]

We had a full house at the site and parking was tight. I watched everything unfold remotely via the cameras. At one point the mailman, the garage door installer, the carpenters, excavator, the CAT servicer,and the local cable company were all onsite at once.

We had a dig on the previous day and my internet connection was severed. The cable company came a day later to splice in a new section. Alot has happened this week and I haven’t been home during the day to document the changes. I got some snapshots however from the cameras of the garage doors being installed. The two 10’x10‘ doors have high lift tracks. The big one is 14' tall and 12' wide.

I’ll let them sit awhile before I decide on whether or not to paint them. What do y’all think? The roof and gutters are a weathered copper color. The exterior siding is gray even though it looks like more like blue in the pics.

 

[jbrentd]

What color would you paint the doors? To match the siding? I was thinking your siding does have a blue tint to it in the pictures. This led me to compare your build to @Michael b's build. You should check his thread, if you haven't. His doors/siding/roof are white/blue/copper. Not exact, but close. I think the white would look good.

 

[Chrisb62]

I like the white, but painted mine a beige to help the dirt tone that appears over time....

 

[eastmtn]

What color would you paint the doors? To match the siding? I was thinking your siding does have a blue tint to it in the pictures. This led me to compare your build to @Michael b's build. You should check his thread, if you haven't. His doors/siding/roof are white/blue/copper. Not exact, but close. I think the white would look good.

I don't know what color I would use but my first thought when looking at the doors was how white they are. Like a beaver back from the dentist. I just visited Michael B's build and subscribed. I think his siding is Hawaiian blue.

I like the white, but painted mine a beige to help the dirt tone that appears over time....

I think I'll stick with the white until I think of something better. As much as it rains up here the doors will be stained beige just from the mud bath.

 

[eastmtn]

 

[matt_i]

Great build! One thing that makes me nervous...the very small 16ga(?) strap across the peak where you have 2x10s or 12s joined...I'm thinking in my head something like a V-shaped weldment of 1/4 x 6 flat bar 36" long each side attached with 5/16" x 3-1/8" GRK-RSS screws in a staggered pattern. Realize you have the posts, those could be tied with aircraft (steel) cables at the intersection as well.

 

[eastmtn]

Great build! One thing that makes me nervous...the very small 16ga(?) strap across the peak where you have 2x10s or 12s joined...I'm thinking in my head something like a V-shaped weldment of 1/4 x 6 flat bar 36" long each side attached with 5/16" x 3-1/8" GRK-RSS screws in a staggered pattern. Realize you have the posts, those could be tied with aircraft (steel) cables at the intersection as well.

Hi Matt. I admit that I do not understand the engineering necessary for a building like this. I do see that the 2x12 rafters were engineered to use that 16 guage strap. The engineers stamp is on the paperwork with a note that all aspects of this design is per Washington State code and if anything is changed then the engineer is no longer responsible unless submitted in writing for review prior to the change being made. Perhaps Michigan construction is different given the wind and snow load calculations.
I like the feedback though.

 

[matt_i]

Hey, glad to see you have some plans, your P.E. has you in a much better place than I could ever put you...I mainly look at comparative sizes and heft when glancing at a structure. I realized the 4 moment-bearing posts play a big part in this but I wasn't sure how much. Its clear now the 16ga straps are just to keep alignment. Thanks for taking it constructively

 

[rmckee]

Fantastic progress!

Sorry to see about the GTS wheel, but the new ones look awesome. Were the PS4S new on all four corners or was that able to be a single replacement? My wife recently tried to Kamikaze the Chick-fil-A drivethrough curb and took serious gouges out of the driver's front and rear wheels on our Audi, killing both tires' sidewalls in the process. Quattro rules applied, and so 4 new Pilot Sport A/S 3+ went on there just a few weeks after a new set of PS4S went on my 981 Cayman as the back end had started kicking out on spirited shifts & corners... rough month for my tire budget.

My vote would be to keep the doors white at least until the site work is done and you can see how it all looks before making a big exterior aesthetic change like that. Excited to see what you choose for the concrete etching.

 

[eastmtn]

Fantastic progress!

Sorry to see about the GTS wheel, but the new ones look awesome. Were the PS4S new on all four corners or was that able to be a single replacement? My wife recently tried to Kamikaze the Chick-fil-A drivethrough curb and took serious gouges out of the driver's front and rear wheels on our Audi, killing both tires' sidewalls in the process. Quattro rules applied, and so 4 new Pilot Sport A/S 3+ went on there just a few weeks after a new set of PS4S went on my 981 Cayman as the back end had started kicking out on spirited shifts & corners... rough month for my tire budget.

My vote would be to keep the doors white at least until the site work is done and you can see how it all looks before making a big exterior aesthetic change like that. Excited to see what you choose for the concrete etching.

Thanks, I'm happy with the progress so far.
I ended up replacing all four tires. It's an AWD vehicle with the rears having a wider tire than the fronts. I definitely feel your frustration at having to buy two new sets. My gen 1 raptor's tires are on their last legs but I'm holding off because I want to get this building done so I can make some suspension and possibly tire size changes myself.
So far the white doors are growing on me. Like you and some of the others have said, it's a good idea to wait and see how the project will turn out first.

 

[eastmtn]

I finally got a quick vacation after 3 years of burning the candle at both ends. The foreman got to meet many of his relatives for the first time ever and my wife got to go to her first crawfish boil.
We went stomping through some bayous and the 6yo foreman caught a bunch of crabs.

We took them to my cousin and he transformed them into this.

Live crawfish



Yummy Crawfish boil

Sportfishing wouldn't be right without a visit from a gator

 

[eastmtn]

A number of events, whether good, bad or otherwise, have occurred in the past few weeks. Unfortunately I haven't had time to document them with pics or a narrative. I'm on a 21 day stretch at work and haven't been at home during daylight hours. I'll try to catch y'all up.

While we were gone on vacation a power outage occurred and I lost remote video feeds to the property. After the power was restored the internet connection remained offline. When my family returned I tried to revive the internet connection with and without tech support but remained unsuccessful. Finally a field tech came out and traced the coaxial cable signal from their terminal and discovered more nicks in the buried cable that were bleeding and degrading the signal to the point that it would show 0 activity before reaching the ISP box outside the house. My guess is that the original dig in caused more damage than the first field tech was able to find.

The bad news is that I need a new service from the ISP cable box to my house. That's almost 200ft. The good news is that the second field tech made up a temp service line that runs on the surface back to my house. I buried the portion that goes under our road to prevent vehicle traffic from crushing it. Also, the tech said that if I dig a new trench with conduit, he will pull the new cable and terminate both connections at no charge. That was a relief to hear. He could have easily billed me for the service call, installing the temp line, and the new permanent service.

The dig in happened at the bottom of this pic where the trench changes direction. I requested a mark out of underground utilities and the internet service was marked on the right side of this pic off in the trees in the same trench as the house electrical service.

 

[rmckee]

I can relate! Our concrete truck for the slab cracked our existing driveway and sliced the cable coax in half underground.... as my wife and I were on a plane to Orlando for 5 days, so I had no camera view of the pour.

I ended up running 200' of RG6 out to the box by the street as a temp service and reterminated it myself waiting days for the ISP to come. Thankfully I was able to persuade the tech to run a new tactical grade line out through the woods and all the way around our property to the box on the house, a fix that has now lasted 5 months of construction thankfully.

Glad you're back online - definitely appreciate the frustration of progress without having a view/pulse on it!

 

[eastmtn]

I can relate! Our concrete truck for the slab cracked our existing driveway and sliced the cable coax in half underground

It never occured to me that pressure from a heavy vehicle could crack a slap and damage the cable underneath. I'm a conduit convert now.

 

[eastmtn]

As promised here are some pics I took yesterday. All of the electrical outlets have been roughed in Which includes 26 duplex, an outlet for the fancy toilet, a 50A for the welder in the shop, a capped box for the lift, a couple of dedicated circuits for the pressure washer and server cabinet, and a 50A for a future EV charging station. We went with the 50A for the charging station because it can always be stepped down to acommodate a particular model but its more work to step up.

 

[Maxcustody]

As promised here are some pics I took yesterday. All of the electrical outlets have been roughed in Which includes 26 duplex, an outlet for the fancy toilet, a 50A for the welder in the shop, a capped box for the lift, a couple of dedicated circuits for the pressure washer and server cabinet, and a 50A for a future EV charging station. We went with the 50A for the charging station because it can always be stepped down to acommodate a particular model but its more work to step up.

Looks great interested in the capped box for the lift? What did you use and are you doing a disconnect?

 

[eastmtn]

Looks great interested in the capped box for the lift? What did you use and are you doing a disconnect?

Thanks Scott. I haven't decide what to use yet. Right now it's just an electrical box with the wires roughed in. A blank plate will go over it until I decide what to do. The lift and disconnect switch research won't start for a while. The box is about 15ft from the load center breaker on the same wall so I may have an acceptable safety there.

 

[eastmtn]

The load center is a 200A 42 space panel with an interlock installed and 50A twist lock inlet box so I can choose which loads to serve with my standby generator. I have a 15k running/ 22k starting watt Generac.

 

[eastmtn]

The electricians Are currently working on the lighting. 10 high bay LED's for the main garage area. 3 will be on a separate switch for high detail projects and color accuracy. 12 wrap around LED's in the shop with 3 selectable lumen outputs. 16 can lights for the loft.

 

[eastmtn]

I finally got to meet the plumber and HVAC installer. The contractor had been trying to reach them and setup consults since the end of January. It turns out that our initial plans for plumbing and HVAC were worthless.
We found out that the plumber isn't licensed to run or tap into septic systems. We had originally planned on intercepting and tapping off the water line in the front yard. That was a plan doomed for failure. I have a well that feeds my property. The plumber explained that the water line is pressurized from a tank in the garage underneath the house. Depending on if there are any back check valves will determine where he can tap into the waterline. To be continued.

 

[kj_mustang]

If you have any water conditioning equipment in the home; softener, mineral removal, etc, you may want to consider splitting the water line after the equipment and running the line back to the pole building.

 

[eastmtn]

The HVAC installer veered me away from the heat pump and furnace with exposed ductwork idea. I told him about my concerns with the amount of dust that would accumulate on the ductless heads. He then pulled out a brochure from Daikon and seplained that they make air handlers with electric or gas furnaces as part of a modular system. The air handler and furnace will go in the shop and uses a traditional removable filter with a smaller footprint. A 4 ton heat pump will sit outside on a pad and two head units will be installed in the loft and the main garage space. They now sell ducted and ductless modules that are mix and match.

 

[eastmtn]

If you have any water conditioning equipment in the home; softener, mineral removal, etc, you may want to consider splitting the water line after the equipment and running the line back to the pole building.

Good suggestion. I currently don't have a mineral removal system for the whole house. Your suggestion is probably why the plumber proposed tapping into the water line in the garage. If a water softener was installed later then both structures would see the benefits. I use a deionized spotless water system for washing vehicles.

 

[eastmtn]

I am pleased that so far my original electrical plan is holding up to the electrician's scrutiny. He has agreed with or complemented me on my design...until we got to the low voltage work. I originally was going to come in after his permitted work was signed off and then rough in the audio, video and surveillance. This then evolved into him putting in a few long distance runs of low voltage flex tube for me, and finally into me doing everything under his permit. There's a reason why lineman don't wire inside and why inside wireman don't do line work.

He gave me some good tips on camera placement that I hadn't considered. This also strongly encouraged me to make a low voltage schematic. Like my dad always told me growing up, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

So here it is.

The larger schematic is an overlay that gives locations of equipment in relation to the next upstream or downstream device. This starts at the far left in my current office and then flows to an expanded layout of the entire garage. I'll have to decide in the near future if I'll run fiber between the buildings or copper CAT8 ethernet. The nodes on the right are for the server cabinet and A/V cabinet. The circles are wired Wifi access points for inside and outside the building.
The drawing at the bottom right is the theater layout and lower TV in the main area. 5 channel surrounds with 2 subwoofers, and 4 Atmos ceiling speakers. A fiber optic HDMI out will act as a second input to the lower receiver. With his configuration two TV's can watch the same synced audio and video or independently. I'll put in IR extenders to control everything in the AV cabinet in either viewing area.

 

[eastmtn]

HVAC update,

Supply and demand strikes back. I got the quote yesterday from the HVAC installer. It is now double the original range that the general contractor had quoted when we started the process. It definitely took the wind out of my sail. We did some back and forth negotiating and I asked for a different setup that would provide the most economical solution. I ended up going with a 5 ton Mitsubishi ductless/ducted combo. A 1 ton ducted air handler with standard removeable filter that will heat the shop area and help with easier servicing in the dusty environment. It and two 2 ton wall mount ductless units will feed back to an outdoor condenser. Post #2 updated.

 

[eastmtn]

The wrap around lights in the shop are wired up now. 12 total. I increased the number after I realized how much of a problem that low ceilings can cause with regards to shadows. These are selectable 4200, 4800, 5400 lumen LED's from 1000bulbs.com

 

[vntperformance]

Simply badass, subscribed!

 

[eastmtn]

The electrician's wanted me to see the lighting power and placement in the shop so they used an extension cord from my house outlet to provide the power source. Somehow I don't think this meets code but it is effective.



All of the high bays are wired up and also the can lights in the loft. They are just about done with the rough in and placement.

 

[Maxcustody]

The wrap around lights in the shop are wired up now. 12 total. I increased the number after I realized how much of a problem that low ceilings can cause with regards to shadows. These are selectable 4200, 4800, 5400 lumen LED's from 1000bulbs.com

Did you look at the round LED lights? I have not seen them with adjustable lighting levels. Sounds like the ceiling height was the contributing factor. I am hopeful the round LED’s will work for me. My electrician says 8 should light up the shop nicely.

 

[eastmtn]

Did you look at the round LED lights? I have not seen them with adjustable lighting levels. Sounds like the ceiling height was the contributing factor. I am hopeful the round LED’s will work for me. My electrician says 8 should light up the shop nicely

Scott, I went back and forth on this one for a little while. The round LED's that you're going with are great for open areas like the shop you're building. I chose linear high bays because they are setup for even distribution of light in corridors and space with high variation in object heights. If there are tall aisles or structures like a car on a lift then the round light's intensity can be spent on vertical surfaces and those tall structures while casting more shadows on the floor area. In my 8ft ceiling shop area I used linear wraparounds so the light would be cast nearly 180 degree's and be evenly distributed with the diffuser covers. This pic shows the intensity of UFO round lights vs linear high bays in a rectangular space.

I went with 200 Lumen/sqft for my auto detailing area that I can take down to 100 lumen/sqft, with the flip of a switch for normal day to day tasks and wrenching. I went with 100 lumen/sqft in the shop area and everywhere else in the main space for typical daily tasks and shop type stuff. The loft is much lower with typical living room lighting because when you're drinking beer or lemonade with family and friends you want more relaxing light.
For me, lighting should match the objectives. They don't call it mood lighting for nothin.

 

[Maxcustody]

Scott, I went back and forth on this one for a little while. The round LED's that you're going with are great for open areas like the shop you're building. I chose linear high bays because they are setup for even distribution of light in corridors and space with high variation in object heights. If there are tall aisles or structures like a car on a lift then the round light's intensity can be spent on vertical surfaces and those tall structures while casting more shadows on the floor area. In my 8ft ceiling shop area I used linear wraparounds so the light would be cast nearly 180 degree's and be evenly distributed with the diffuser covers. This pic shows the intensity of UFO round lights vs linear high bays in a rectangular space.

I went with 200 Lumen/sqft for my auto detailing area that I can take down to 100 lumen/sqft, with the flip of a switch for normal day to day tasks and wrenching. I went with 100 lumen/sqft in the shop area and everywhere else in the main space for typical daily tasks and shop type stuff. The loft is much lower with typical living room lighting because when you're drinking beer or lemonade with family and friends you want more relaxing light.
For me, lighting should match the objectives. They don't call it mood lighting for nothin.

Wow, thanks for this! I may have to reconsider my choice

 

[eastmtn]

The is post and the next are not garage build related but they are related to the things I do in my garage.

I cook outdoor on multiple mediums with fire. Texas barbecue is what a I spend 90 percent of my time with but I also like Polynesian food on a fire and mixing New Mexican and Creole traditions. I bring this up because I came across a YouTube video of an 800lb tuna at a fish market being processed. Certain shiny things like cutlery catch my eye and needless to say this guy's skill along with the multiple tasks he performed withe the knife impressed me.
The knife has several names but many know it as a Taiwan tuna knife. It's a butcher knife and filet knife in one. For 15 minutes I watched as this highly skilled individual made quick and precise work of the frozen tuna. Sooo, I bought one. They come in various sizes and I picked a much smaller version. I don't plan on tackling enormous tuna like that...unless the opportunity presents itself. I will report back after I try it out.

Here's a link to the video.

 

[eastmtn]

The Porsche pothole saga continues. The City of Seattle assigned a claims adjuster to me and we've been emailing back and forth. I was waiting in line for the ferry last week and a suspension fault code appeared. I immediately drop it off at the repair shop and then the flood gates opened. What started off as a failed compressor evolved into the front passenger air bag on the strut tearing and upper control arm bushings tearing. All of the trauma was to same the wheel that hit the pothole and bent the rim. So, $10k later I email the claims person and request permission to add these new repairs to the existing claim. The adjuster allowed the damage to be added. I'm still waiting to get a final decision back. Below are pics of the compressor front strut and upper control arms.

 

[eastmtn]

Meanwhile back at the garage, I got home from the night shift, slept 2 hours and then rented a trencher. I've been burning the candle at both ends for 1 1/2 years now and at some point this fire's gonna burn out. The guard on the trencher kept loosening up and binding against the teeth. I tightened the bolts on the guard and used twine to help hold it off of the teeth. This made a 4 hour job turn into an all day affair. I laid the 1 1/2 inch pipe with tracing tape. I didn't have time to blow in the pull string because I got a last minute request to go back to work and cover another 12 hours. This run will replace the old run of direct buried RG6 cable for my internet that faulted. This is the current temp line for my internet.


Electrical inspection for the garage is Monday morning so this means that when I get home tonight I'll have to pull an all nighter to get the low voltage wiring pulled. The electrician's helped me out by running a bunch of 2 inch and 3/4 inch flex to make my pulls easier. Also, with the flex I can change out the audio and video cables later on if needed. The blue tube in the ceiling will be for 4 Dolby Atmos speakers. The other tubes all lead back to where the AV cabinet and server cabinet will be.

 

[jollygreengiant]

The is post and the next are not garage build related but they are related to the things I do in my garage.

I cook outdoor on multiple mediums with fire. Texas barbecue is what a I spend 90 percent of my time with but I also like Polynesian food on a fire and mixing New Mexican and Creole traditions. I bring this up because I came across a YouTube video of an 800lb tuna at a fish market being processed. Certain shiny things like cutlery catch my eye and needless to say this guy's skill along with the multiple tasks he performed withe the knife impressed me.
The knife has several names but many know it as a Taiwan tuna knife. It's a butcher knife and filet knife in one. For 15 minutes I watched as this highly skilled individual made quick and precise work of the frozen tuna. Sooo, I bought one. They come in various sizes and I picked a much smaller version. I don't plan on tackling enormous tuna like that...unless the opportunity presents itself. I will report back after I try it out.

Wow, I've never seen a 100 lb fish in person, let alone an 1,100 lb monster!

Are there any forums or websites you know of that are really good sources of info for cooking/BBQ over a fire? I've always been intrigued by it and wanting to try it. I was thinking of making an outdoor grill over a fire pit this year. I know a lot of people with Traegers and while the food they make is delicious, it just seems so......fake? I'm not sure if that's the right word but it seems like the latest fad trend for a company to sell something, and really lacks in the experience of cooking over a fire.

 

[jbrentd]

That's crazy what one pothole can do. Hoping for the best as they sort through your claim!

 

[eastmtn]

Are there any forums or websites you know of that are really good sources of info for cooking/BBQ over a fire? I've always been intrigued by it and wanting to try it. I was thinking of making an outdoor grill over a fire pit this year.

There aren't many who dedicate their sites to cooking over an open fire except for the cowboy cooks who use dutch ovens. Here's a blog of recipes that I've used. It's an extensive list. http://dutchovenmadness.blogspot.com/

Cowboy Kent Rollins has a youtube channel dedicated to dutch oven cooking over a firepit.

https://www.youtube.com/c/CowboyKentRollins/featured

You don't need the fancy contraptions that they use to keep the oven at a particular height. I would recommend a trivet or some sort of grill grate and a dutch oven lid lifter.
I find that it's better to search for keywords on the web and VLOG sites like Youtube. South Americans have great traditions in cooking over a fire. the owner of Guga Foods is an excellent brazilian chef to follow for Churrasco. That's brazilian style grilling.

https://www.youtube.com/c/GugaFoods

Argentinan's use an Asador for their yummy over fire cooking. Discada cooking is a Northern Mexican style of cooking with a farm plow disk. Dutch Ovens, Churrasco, Asador, and Discada, are all cooking styles that I've used and enjoyed. It's not all meat either. You can cook stuff like, casseroles, pizza, and breakfast foods.

If you want to try your hand at cooking underground then Imus and Umus are the way to go. An Imu is a Hawaiian style of earth cooking and an Umu is nearly the same thing from Samoa. Think Kahlua Pork. For these types, moisture and moisture retention is really key. That's why they use banana leaves as insulation.

Here's a paella that my wife and me made for a neighborhood party in our backyard. We have a paella pan that can cook over a pit with a stand or a tripod burner.



If you want to hear more let me know. Good food shared with good people is a high value experience for me. That's part of the reason I named my building the Empty Cup.