The Multi Purpose Shop

[Fyrme]

So I had a thread going on this like a year ago and between losing a bunch of my pics and the build coming to a screeching halt, I had a Mod delete the whole thread. Well Things are rolling again, so I figured I'd fire up a new thread.

In May 2014 we moved to a new house. I was able to convince the wife to take the $16,000 of equity we got in the sale of our house to build a shop.
I first looked at kits, and it just wasn't fitting into what I wanted. Plus If I had a custom kit built, it would break the budget. So I took several days, ok, weeks, designing exactly what I wanted. From that I built my own materials sheet and ordered my custom trusses. There were several weeks in June, before any pier was drilled, trenching all over my property. What was originally just a water line to the shop, and a propane tank relocation, turned into an entire highway of water, gas , drainage and electrical lines going everywhere. Hey, I had the trencher for the whole weekend, why not right? Anyway, here are some specs and boring pics to bring you up to speed.

The exterior:
40'Wx30'Dx10'H
6/12 roof pitch
10'x9' insulated overhead door set to roof pitch
9'x7' insulated overhead door under one loft

Interior:
Double lofts, one 10'x16'x7' and one 12x16x8' on each end.
Center bay is 18' wide with scissor trusses and a height of about 15' I think
3" vinyl insulation under the metal on the roof
Plans to insulate the interior walls and sheet them to the top of the walls. With what exactly, I'm not sure yet
200amp 36ckt panel with it's own meter
Water, but no sewer as of right now

Those are rough specs. If you have questions, ask away. Like I said, I lost a **** ton of good documented pics of this entire build by my own fault. But I'll share with you what I have.

July 2, 2014



July 6, 2014 Less than 24 hours before leaving on a 10 day vacation. This was a full day. I had to get the trusses off the ground before we left. As you can see the center trusses were just stood up and nailed down to keep them verticlal.

July 22, 2014. Just a couple days after I got back. Other than truss day, it has been just me and my 74yo neighbor that I had met just weeks before I started all this.

And there he is up there, the work horse. All 125lbs of pure out-work my **** , retired engineer, fixing a board I cut 1/2" short (but still worked), because, hey, he's an engineer right!




So, this was the current state up until 5 days ago. Sorry about the crappy pic. It's wasn't intended to be a pic of the shop, it just happened to be in the back ground and the only one I have up to date.

So here's the deal. I had this entire build budgeted down to the penny at $16,000, completely dried in with a slab. However, remember the vacation we went on in July of 2014? Well up on our return we were greeted with our down stairs A/C unit that took a dump on us. This set me back a couple G's out of my shop budget. And as Murphy's law has always been a close friend of mine, the following month of August, the upstairs A/C decided to also die on me. It was theatrical. Kinda like the movie Where the Red Fern Grows. lol Anyway after another $2000 set back, my budget was BLOWN! Basically my shop sat like the pic above for over two years. I packed it full of **** but it was no more than a dirt floor barn.
Fast forward to the end of 2016 where I had decided to reopen my part time small engine repair business and needed a slab ASAP. I had been saving up cash to get this thing finished up, but time ran out. So I went down to the bank, and borrowed the rest of the money against my truck to get it done.
After getting 4 bids, all way different in price and execution of work, I went with the second most expensive guy.
As you can see, I chose not to go with a vapor barrier since I have a good dry base and I won't be coating the slab, only sealing it. Also, you can see the two 24"x24"x18" piers I dug out for a future two post lift.



So now we are 100% up to date on this thing as I wait for the 28day curing period to pass so I can seal the slab before filling it all back up. I will be addressing a elevation problem that I knew about, but is a lot more obvious now than the slab is in.


Like I said, ask away if you have any questions.

 

[Capt Crash]

Looks like a great space. Please keep posting as you get more done.
Brian

 

[drivesitfar]

Fryme: i remember you moving all YOUR STUFF and then not seeing much after that so was hoping you were ok. your shop looks great and i'm waiting to see how you set it up. a few years ago i didn't venture into GARAGE GALLERY much cause i tend to want a lot of the cool stuff i see and i had 3 of our 5 kids in college or still living at home. our youngest is getting married and moving out soon so i've been admiring the garages for a while now.

hoping all is well in your world!!

 

[Fyrme]

Thank you.
Yes drives, I did something similar. I was in the garage gallery all the time building up to my build . But when the money ran out, I had to stay out because I got frustrated because I couldn't do anything with the ideas.
The funny thing is, some of the stuff I wanted to do to the inside 2yrs ago, I am not so much interested in anymore. So maybe the break saved me some wasted time and money.

 

[drivesitfar]

FRYME: i also lost a bunch of pictures that were on my old laptop that is maybe retrievable if i have a few days to work on it, but for now i just take more of the present and just keep rolling. i don't have much of a garage currently cause i get a 9x15 piece of our 2 car garage cause my bride parks her car in the other half which I invade now and then when i'm changing up mine.

i do have a few things in storage and in a small shop i lease so would some day like to have it all in one place. or maybe buy one of those garage condos and have a small house or condo and travel. hard to say, but i do like looking at garages again and i know you have some pretty cool stuff and some talent so thought i'd stop in and say HI.

cheers and glad you are posting again.

 

[dwysywd]

Great build. Looking forward to following your setup. I too am in a similar predicament. I put my barn up Nov 2015 and here we sit Feb 2017 and no crete yet. His sight is great when you have time to wait or are forced to wait, ive decided to heat the floor so that is a bonus for waiting. I'm hoping by this summer it's all wrapped


Sent from my quanset hut facsimile machine

 

[Fyrme]

I've got a question about the slab. I had a power trowel finish put on it, but there are some areas I'm not real happy with the finish because it's a bit rough. Also, and I was standing there when he did it, there are a couple splash marks from a hand trowel still right in the middle of the floor, that didn't go away. You can see them in the pics I posted. Could I rent a sander and go over the entire floor with a fine grit to take care of the light rough spots and get a more uniform color out of the whole thing? I'm just planning on doing a clear sealer, or at most a very mild gray stain under the sealer.

 

[drivesitfar]

Fryme: that might be one of the main reasons why so many members put down race deck, epoxy, porcelain tile and paint their cement garage shop floors. since yours will probably have stuff dragged across it and it probably will fill up pretty fast it's your call, but i'd leave it and just start using it.

once you have items in the garage the flaws won't be so noticeable is my guess.

 

[flushcut]

One thing about power troweled slabs is they are slippery. Get a fine dusting of snow on your boot and watch out slicker than dog snot on a door knob! It might not matter in Oklahoma as much but it might help someone.

 

[Fyrme]

There is a trade off with slick floors for sure. But I've got a floor drain under the bay that will be parked in and I'd rather risk it being a little slippery and be easy breezy to sweep, that the other way around.

 

[Bib Overalls]

For some reason there are a lot of old chicken houses being torn down in Northwest Arkansas. These old chicken houses contain a lot of 1.5" foam insulation and it is available for cheap. This link will take you to one dealer. He does not list insulation but I know he has it. https://fayar.craigslist.org/mat/6003248082.html

I bought some off a dismantler in Missouri. Payed $10 each for 1.5" x 4' x 16' sheets.

Look around. If raising chickens is big in your area there should be some of this stuff available.

 

[Fyrme]

Got some updates on the shop. We've been using it for real now for a few weeks. I had to let the slab go through it's 28 day cure period, which ended up being 30 something. I wasn't too happy with the smoothness of the power trowel finish, so I rented a floor buffer and sanded it with 36grit paper followed by a 60grit. Swept, blew it out, pressure washed it, dried it, then sealed it. A few days later, I started moving in. As did my teenage son. And let me tell ya, he wasted no time breaking it in for me. I'm pretty sure just about every type of fluid a vehicle has in it, has been spilled on my floor already. He's rebuilding his brakes today while I'm at the firehouse.

So back to the floor. I ended up going with a clear water based penetrating floor sealer. I prepped the slab on a Sunday morning when I had a thought of adding some color. I asked the question in the flooring section, "can I add tint to the sealer?" Well I didn't get any response on it that day, and ended up running out of time to seal it that day. So Monday morning, I called the supply house where I bought it and they said "I'm pretty sure you can" Nope, not a good enough answer for me. I then called the Manufacturer and asked the same question. This time I got, "It seems like we played around with the idea a few years back, but can't remember the results" Hmmm. So then I just asked the guy if adding a dye to the sealer would affect the sealing properties, and he told me, with confidence, "no, it will not". Sounds good. I spent the $7 for some charcoal colored dye and gave it a shot. It was a ton of extra work rubbing in the color, but what I saw at first, made the work worth it.

Here you can see the colored/sealed concrete against the raw concrete




Here is a good overall shot of it about 6 hours after the application. Let me tell ya, it looked gooooood!


Here you can see why it was such a difficult job. It's like a magic trick really The color wanted to separate even though both materials were water based. I had to brush it in with a broom, let it sit a few min, then go back and brush out the brush marks, then go back and buff out those marks right before it flashed off. (You have to click the pic!)


Now, here's the part that felt like a kick in the nuts. The next day, about 12 hours after it was dry. I took a damp rag to the floor and literally wiped off 90% of the color I worked so hard to apply. I was pissed, to say the least, but I knew it was a gamble and it only cost me $7. It was the extra 3-4hours work that got me.

It did darken the raw concrete a tiny bit, leaving it looking not-so-new, which I guess I can live with. But there's no way I'd do it again.

 

[Fyrme]

One of the projects inside the shop that I've been putting off is replacing the inadequate 2x10's with steel I-beams that I acquired for nearly nothing. The I-beams are definitely overkill, but it will allow me to set up a trolley hoist as well as provide support for a landing I will be building for loft access later. I don't have the time at the moment to slap the beam up there, but I do have the need for a hoist right now, so I went ahead and built my shoring to allow me to remove the 2x10's and get a hoist mounted.


I'd have to go back to the spec sheet on my room trusses to see what they are rated for, but I told the engineer that I wanted them to be able to support at least 2500lbs in addition to the weight of the trusses and floor.

 

[Fyrme]

Here is just a cool pic I took the other night after a wicked storm that pasted through.

 

[Fyrme]

How about a shop project or two? After all, that's why we build shops right? I actually started this project a few weeks before the slab went it and was working on the dirt. I threw a few pics of this project in the repurpose thread a while back, but figured I'd get some more posted up here in my shop thread.

So as some might recall, I worked for a demo company a while back running crews and equipment as well as overseeing salvage and reselling. The company had a contract to demo the old wooden bleachers out of Jenks HS, very well known for their athletics programs.

I started with over 14,000 Linear feet. I sold a little over half of it to a guy that was making flooring out of it. At the time, I thought to my self, "damn that's a lot of work. I'd hate to be doing that job". My best friend was the VP of the company at the time and said he wanted the rest of the wood that was left, and asked if I could bring it to his house. Like any friend would do, I said sure thing. Little did I know how much that was gonna cost me....





After salvaging what we could from the wreck, I completed the delivery to my buddies house. It's been in his shop attic now for a year and he hasn't used a single piece. So I got the crazy idea of, yup, you guessed it, making floors from the lumber. After what happened, when I asked about it, my buddy said I could have it all. It really just gave me an excuse to buy a couple new tools that I didn't have, rather than buy flooring.

I borrowed this pic from the internet of the actual bleachers before being demo'd.


I even put the wife to work on the planer. I'm not sure if the dirty look is because she is having to do the work, or because I'm taking pictures while she's doing the work lol.


My new tools. This is an extremely messy project, and was the only project I allowed in the shop while the slab was still curing.


The amount of lumber I get from a single board is dependent on the width. To get the most out of every 18' board, I came up with a cut width of 4'" and finished width of 3.5". As far as length, every board has a pair of 3/8" holes in it from the carriage bolts at random distances apart. All of those holes are cut out, determining the length of every piece.

Here is a stack of finished pieces ready to install.


Installed.


And finished. You can see in the second pic, the first stair tread that's finished. I'm currently working on finishing the stairs now.

 

[drivesitfar]

FRYME: i've got to get my planer on some cedar i bought a few years ago that's been drying (sitting) in my back yard for a fence and to replace my deck and your project is getting my juices flowing.

nothing better than re purposing or making some thing look better and you sir just did so best of luck with the stairs.

cheers and keep posting cause there are a lot of lurkers that forget to or don't have time to post.

 

[rburke65]

Wow...,that's a great looking floor you gave there. Very nice job.

 

[colt zantop]

Awesome shop so far.......glad your ok from that wreck....damn! And those wood floors look awesome! Nice work

 

[Fyrme]

Thanks guys. I'm also working on a antique door resto to use for the shop. It's a 9 panel wired glass door, that has some interesting history with me. The door has moved up high on the to-do list because the "hurry up and cover that up with something" black weed barrier I have nailed up right now is getting annoying lol.




I never seem to choose easy projects....

 

[Fyrme]

I've made some progress on the door. This thing is cleaning up nicely. I've had to resort to working on this project at the fire station during down time. It seems between the wife's assigned projects and the never ending greatness of unscheduled home repairs, the station is the only time I have to work on my own projects.

 

[matt_i]

Wow! Quite the journey for that wood stock! Looking very nice at the end I will say

 

[Fyrme]

No, I didn't die, though 2017 had me thinking I might a few times. I'm back now, and hoping 2018 will be a little less hectic for me.

More things have been done IN the shop that TO the shop even though it still is lacking most everything it needs inside. But since threads are junk without pics, here are a couple of the projects the shop has facilitated.

First, the antique door I was working on.....





Then you got the re-purposed bleacher board floor project......







The dogs staying off the new floor like I told them to.



The stairs from hell. These things kicked my ***!




Then of course my youngest sons first vehicle project that's been a year in the making.....



















And finally, another re-purpose project for my wife's office. (click on the pic)



That pretty much brings you guys up to date with my life (boring stuff omitted). A couple things I have in the works, is finally pour the slab out in front of the shop, and insulate and sheet the interior walls.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Hi Fyrme,

Just started following your thread. Nice score on the bleachers, looked like a tough road to fruition though. I live in Broken Arrow so I'm familiar with your neck of the woods. We have the same color scheme on our shops. Interesting stuff, I'm subbed now.

Good luck with all future projects!

 

[Fyrme]

Thanks Jeff. Always nice to see local guys on here. I grew up in Tulsa, then moved to BA to get out of the "big" city from 2002-2008. It's a nice place to live, but it too out grew me, so I moved north.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Looking good on the shop and projects. Looks like your son is enjoying the facilities. Just curious, as it may help someone in the future. Did the crash occur because the trailer was tail heavy?

 

[sneakyfast]

Hey loving the updates....I have a bunch of 1950's interior doors that I need to restore and hang....a couple of questions.

What did you use to strip the paint? My doors have like 8 layers and I can't find anything that takes it all off at once.

What did you fill the holes with?

Did you find it easier to adjust the hinges or the door hole? In other words...my doors are the same size they are replacing but the hinges and door knob holes don't line up perfectly so I will need to fill one or the other. I'm thinking hinges will be easier?

Thanks and those stairs are amazing!

 

[Fyrme]

Looking good on the shop and projects. Looks like your son is enjoying the facilities. Just curious, as it may help someone in the future. Did the crash occur because the trailer was tail heavy?

Thanks RJ, and good question. Believe it or not, as a passenger back in high school, I have experienced tail wag before in a violent way, also resulted in a wreck. I learned the 60/40 rule many years ago. I have also hauled that trailer with that Envoy just as heavy many times. I came to the conclusion that it was not so much being tail heavy, as it was the down force on the tail of the trailer. You see, that trailer, which I loved dearly, came with a 16" tailgate that the PO built. It was perfect for loading a tractor without ramps, but not so much for hauling a large amount of extended lumber. I essentially created the "spoiler effect" when I loaded the 18' lumber on the 16' trailer, choosing to leave the gate up. The little bit of weight off the back, elevated like it was, pushed down on the tail end of the trailer harder and harder as my speed increased. And well, the rest is history. I learned a huge lesson that day.

And yes, both of my boys managed to spill first blood, er, I mean oil on my new floor, before I had a chance to.

 

[Fyrme]

Hey loving the updates....I have a bunch of 1950's interior doors that I need to restore and hang....a couple of questions.

What did you use to strip the paint? My doors have like 8 layers and I can't find anything that takes it all off at once.

What did you fill the holes with?

Did you find it easier to adjust the hinges or the door hole? In other words...my doors are the same size they are replacing but the hinges and door knob holes don't line up perfectly so I will need to fill one or the other. I'm thinking hinges will be easier?

Thanks and those stairs are amazing!

Thanks for the compliments.

I used Goof Off Pro Stripper on the paint. However, you won't get every layer off in one try. Maybe in some places, but not likely everywhere. To fill the holes I used multiple layers of a mix with water powder base filler, which I can't think of the name at the moment...Durham's maybe??

As far as the hardware. I had to build the jam, so I just matched the hinge locations to the door. I haven't put a knob on it because I am planning a extension of the shop and prefer to have a push plate/pull handle and not to use a latching knob. I did install a door closer on the inside though, so it closes and holds closed automatically. I've rigged a temporary lock on the inside for when I'm not there, and use a overhead door for access.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Thanks Jeff. Always nice to see local guys on here. I grew up in Tulsa, then moved to BA to get out of the "big" city from 2002-2008. It's a nice place to live, but it too out grew me, so I moved north.

That's the same direction we are moving, north of Claremore about 10 miles. BA has outgrown its infrastructure and there are too many people for my liking, agreed. Long drives to Tulsa for work when we move in a couple months, but it's really nice that far out of the city. Nobody bothers you.

 

[Fyrme]

You are headed up to my part of the country. It is indeed one of the nicest areas in Oklahoma. We don't call this part of the state Green Country for nothing, but it sounds like you already know that, lol.

 

[Fyrme]

I got started on my walls finally. One section out of 16 done.

Not a good pic, since I forgot to take one before I temporarily put my new wood stove in the way, but I'll be framing between the posts.


I found a smoking deal on 300sqft rolls of this R19 blanket insulation. At $50 a roll, I don't mind having to cut it.



The plan is to have every post exposed with a 3/4" reveal. The post will be painted a contrasting color to the walls.




More to come soon.

 

[Fyrme]

I was also able to build me a permanent heat shield today using the three elevator doors above. They have been shuffled around the inside and outside of the shop for about a year now. I was excited to finally have a use for them. Each panel weighs around 90-100lbs. It was quite the chore, but I dug them out of the bottom of a scrap dumpster, because they were just to pretty to scrap.









The next thing I have GOT to do, is do something with that god awful horseshoe handle on this stove that I traded for the other day.

 

[drivesitfar]

Fryme: garage is looking great. good to see your son is learning some good skills and sorry it wasn't you that got to spill oil first.

I like the T1-11 siding under the sheetrock and did you do that for the entire garage? nice find on the insulation even if you have to cut it.

do you have a big old rusty wrench or one that is damaged that you can maybe wire wheel and put some BLO (boiled linseed oil) on it and swap out it with the old horseshoe to make a better handle?

cheers and keep up the great posts that have a lot of information for me (us) in them.

 

[Fyrme]

Thanks drives. I only put the drywall over the T1-11 behind the wood stove. The rest of the shop will just be the T1-11 flipped backwards. I've got two sections done now, with hopes to get another done tomorrow. Each section is a process. Frame it, wire it, insulated it, sheet it, then paint it.

Speaking of electrical, you may have noticed that I'm only using single duplex receptacles, mounted horizontally. One of my biggest OCD pep-pev's is cords hanging over cords. So rather than a pair of receptacles, every 6-8', I'm doing 1 every 4-5'. It requires more boxes, but no cord will ever hang over another.

I'll probably go with a spring handle off of a slag chipping hammer. The horseshoe gets quite hot, and I've opened a bunch of stoves and smokers with the spring handles and they don't get near as hot. However, as far as an old wrench for a handle there, I would like to do that for a pull handle on my side door of the shop.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I like that stove Chad. I've thought of putting one in when I get the shop part of the building organized and running. The heat shield looks well constructed.

 

[Fyrme]

Thanks Jeff. I've burned nearly a half rick of wood through it so far, and had it rolling pretty heavy. The space behind the stove has never gotten more than 2˚ above the temp 5' away from the front of the stove. So at this point, I trust the set up.

 

[Fyrme]

I'll say one thing. This craptastic weather we've been having has really kept me inside the shop on my off shift days working on the walls. It's starting to look like something now.



I've got several of these cabinets that I'll be using throughout the shop. I'll be cleaning them up and repainting them, keeping the original color.

 

[TurtleValley]

That is turning out really nice! The grey and white look really good together and I bet it brightens things up in the shop.

Your stove looks like a winner. Have you had to use the damper to throttle the burn? I have been wishing I put one in for ours as we have a 22ft chimney to deal with and the draft really has us burning through the wood.

 

[Fyrme]

I adjust the damper on the front of the stove on occasion. But with below freezing temps and the shop still being mostly uninsulated, I pretty much run it wide open for most of the day. And yes, it is a big stove with a BIG appetite... One cool thing I figured out is that I can build the fire toward the back of the stove and put a couple wet logs out of the fire just inside the door running side to side, and it dries them out nicely before I'm ready to burn them. A nice feature since its been raining here for 3 days straight.

 

[chevyracer5613]

Nice build and the contrasting stairs are pretty sweet too