underground workshop

[tachikomaster]

Hi, I'm Michael from Slovakia and I want to share with you my underground workshop build.
Shop is about 4m x 4m (I'm sorry guys, but all measurements will be in metric units).
When I started, it was unused storage room and it looked like this:

After some cleaning I had an empty room:

Then I removed the old sand plaster because it was crumbling:

Next was old concrete floor because it wasn't level and one other reason which I'll show you later:

Then I did new plaster on brick wall and ceiling:

(that's my dad helping me)

The other reason for removing old floor was that I wanted more head room. I removed about 30cm of soil and stones, some of it I sieved for later leveling:

It took ages to wheelbarrow it all outside. With that done, I attached rebar to the stone walls:

After that I could do something about that stone footings around room:

I dealt with others in similar fashion:

And that's about where I'm right now with my build.
I hope there's not too much pictures in my first post and sorry for my english

 

[A_Pmech]

Welcome Michael!

It's looking good so far, keep up the good work!

Is that all one house, or what we would call a "duplex" here?

 

[Bogdan M.]

Cool! Seeing the amount of work you already done, it will surely be an interesting thread.

 

[EVOLVO]

Your English is better than lots of Americans. That's a ton of good work on your shop space. What will you be doing in it? I wish we were on the metric system, it's so easy!

 

[theoldwizard1]

WOW ! That is a HUGE amount of work you have done ! The picture are great.

Keep us up todate !!

 

[tachikomaster]

Thank you guys!

Welcome Michael!

It's looking good so far, keep up the good work!

Is that all one house, or what we would call a "duplex" here?

The white one on right is my grandparents house, the left orange one is my parents. Recessed room with the big window was unfinished part of grandparents house with underground garage. When was my father young he decided to build extension behind it.
My shop is actually underneath grandparents house with entrance from garage underneath our house.

Your English is better than lots of Americans. That's a ton of good work on your shop space. What will you be doing in it? I wish we were on the metric system, it's so easy!

I'm a car guy, so mainly car related stuff, but I'm planning to learn some woodwork as well.

 

[Lickers]

That looks a great transformation already. It reminded me of the conversion I did to the cellar in my house.
I moved around 9 tonnes of earth and clay when dropping the floor level - every bit carried in rubble sacks up a narrow flight of stairs to the back garden.

It's very hard work but definitely worth it. Looking forward to seeing the progress you make!

 

[Grimly]

That's a lot of hard work right there, knocking all that concrete out and re-plastering, and the floor is a nice job.
I see you'll have what looks to be a steeply-sloping ramp down from the street - are you arranging a sump pump for rainwater drainage?

 

[colt zantop]

Wow... That's a ton of work and it shows! keep us updated.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great job!!!!

 

[Schleprock]

This is shaping up to be another epic transformation and I can't wait for the next installment of your documentation c/w "lots" of pictures.

 

[ODIS]

Nice work, Tachitomaster!

Will you be hauling sacks of concrete into your shop space to mix and pour, or using a pump truck?

This is going to be a nice space to work in. Just guessing that it will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter months.

Best,

Ody.

 

[ConCretin]

I'm kinda partial to underground garages myself. Your project is looking great. Keep the updates coming.

 

[Bib Overalls]

That will be a great place to do ancillary automotive work; rebuilding engines and other components. Don't skimp on the lighting or the electrical outlets. Do you drink your beer warm like the Germans or will you be adding an American shop necessity, the refrigerator.

 

[tachikomaster]

Thank you guys!

That's a lot of hard work right there, knocking all that concrete out and re-plastering, and the floor is a nice job.
I see you'll have what looks to be a steeply-sloping ramp down from the street - are you arranging a sump pump for rainwater drainage?

Yes it's steep, but it's made of grass lattice and on bottom is channel drain connected to sewage. Not much of rainwater can make it down to the drain. The sewage pipe is quite deep on our street, our pipe from house it's installed in garage floor.

Nice work, Tachitomaster!

Will you be hauling sacks of concrete into your shop space to mix and pour, or using a pump truck?

This is going to be a nice space to work in. Just guessing that it will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter months.

Best,

Ody.

I'm making concrete in small mixer from cement sacks and gravel right in the room. And you are right about the temperature

That will be a great place to do ancillary automotive work; rebuilding engines and other components. Don't skimp on the lighting or the electrical outlets. Do you drink your beer warm like the Germans or will you be adding an American shop necessity, the refrigerator.

Don't worry, I'll be installing as much light and outlets as I can. Nothing is worst than working in dark room and tripping over extension cords.
About the beer, in winter I like my beer a little under room temperature and in summer I like it ice cold. We store our beer in underground cellar with wine, so in winter it's about right temperature and in summer I'm just too lazy to go upstairs to the fridge I was thinking about adding a fridge, but it's not a priority, maybe when I'll find a good deal on mini fridge, until then I'll save a space.

 

[930dreamer]

Very nice work, keep us updated on your progress.

 

[Rom'S]

Good job, I'm curious to see the follow

 

[tachikomaster]

Thank you guys!
I have a small update, I bought me a new toy for my shop:

It's a TOS MN-80A precision lathe with incomplete accessory. Here's some info in english about it. I got it from friends father for a reasonable price. It's working, but I'm planning to restore it to its former beauty.

More progress was done in shop, I cleaned edges around poured concrete and leveled floor with previously sifted soil:

I have been working on wall shuttering plank. Today I'll give it second coat of paint:

Stay tuned for pictures from pouring

 

[In The Doghouse]

Wow! You've done a lot of work already. Thank you for sharing. Looks great!

 

[Sunbimmer]

Wow I'm impressed with the work you have done

I'm very curious of the end result, I'll keep watching

 

[1/2 Cup]

Wow. What a difference you have made, looking forward to following your progress.

 

[Zeke]

This guy is not afraid of hard labor. I'll bet he has a six pack in the cooler and a six pack just above his belt.

 

[kluckfab]

Damn this thing is looking good! Talk about hard work, also nice lathe!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[madoc1]

nice work! and that is a lot of work. looking forward to more updates.

 

[Jay F]

Great job and you have a great TOS lathe. The only TOS lathes available in the US are very large industrial types which are unsuitable for a garage, so I'm happy with my South Bend lathe.

 

[tachikomaster]

Thank you guys!
At Friday I started with walls. Shuttering plank was covered with plastic film as additional precaution from swelling and mounted on wall:

As I was pouring concrete, shuttering started to move on left end and one of the supports fell off:

At that moment I was swearing. Alot. Then I had a cigarette and decided to redo the shuttering. This time with some bricks under the supports. I shoveled still fresh concrete back to mixer and wheelbarrow:

One should learn from his mistakes, but it seems I'm not very bright, because it happened again on the same end of shuttering:

At that moment I ran out of patience and left it that way. Today I unmounted the plank and this is the result:

It's far from straight and I don't know what I'm going to do about it
As I see it, I have 3 options:
1, leave it as it is
2, add some material
3, pneumatic chisel (this is my favorite at the moment)
Until some suitable solution will reveal itself to me, I started with opposite wall:

This time the supports will be bolted down to step. Hopefully they won't move anywhere. Lesson learned, concrete is heavy

 

[tachikomaster]

Hi, it was a while since I worked on workshop, but I was rather busy with this:

But I got new pictures for you.
They are pretty much self explanatory, and I'm quite tired

This is from today:

Improved design of top supports:

And full of fresh concrete:

Thanks for watching

 

[Bib Overalls]

There is a tremendous amount of force pushing out at the bottom of a 2" form. Much more than you would expect. Don't be embarrassed. The big dog professional concrete guys, the ones that build bridges and tall buildings occasionally have a blow out involving many cubic yards of material. Your second effort is coming out mighty nice!

 

[great white tj]

Keep the up dates coming...Great Work!!!

 

[Bears Fan]

Wow what a ton of work but its really looking good, can't wait to see all the concrete work finished....

 

[Modern Jess]

Very impressed at the level of commitment here. That's a lot of work, but should look really good when it's done.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Were you able to wheel all the dug out material all the way outside ? If you didn't have to carry it in buckets, you are quite lucky.

Keep up the hard work.

 

[taumac]

WOW, That's ALOT of work there. Cant wait to see the finish project.

 

[jmlcolorado]

I am fascinated by this project of yours!
I'm curious, why are you adding another layer of concrete inside? Is it structural?
Also, how will you be running electrical?
If it were me, I would have run hard pipe in the rebar grid before pouring the walls, but then again, I'm no expert.

This is a neat way of accomplishing the task and I applaud your effort!
Will you be applying a finish to the walls once completed?
I think an old looking stacked brick wall would have looked sweet in there!

I'm envious of most all underground shoos for the temperature control. I want one of my own some day!

Looking forward to following your progress

 

[A_Pmech]

I don't blame you! Nice bike!

Hi, it was a while since I worked on workshop, but I was rather busy with this:

 

[tachikomaster]

Thank you guys!

Were you able to wheel all the dug out material all the way outside ? If you didn't have to carry it in buckets, you are quite lucky.

Keep up the hard work.

Yes, fortunately I could use wheelbarow.

I am fascinated by this project of yours!
I'm curious, why are you adding another layer of concrete inside? Is it structural?
Also, how will you be running electrical?
If it were me, I would have run hard pipe in the rebar grid before pouring the walls, but then again, I'm no expert.

This is a neat way of accomplishing the task and I applaud your effort!
Will you be applying a finish to the walls once completed?
I think an old looking stacked brick wall would have looked sweet in there!

I'm envious of most all underground shoos for the temperature control. I want one of my own some day!

Looking forward to following your progress

Thank you!
It's not for structural matters, it's basically the fastest way I could think of for flattening those stone walls.
I was considering in-wall electrical wires, but I don't have finished workshop layout yet. I'll be running it on surface as a last thing.
I'll use plaster on uneven surfaces of concrete, but not on all of it, then just white paint. Maybe later I'll think about some fancy colour scheme.
I think underground shops has more disadvantages, but in summer it really pays off.
Hope you can get one!

I don't blame you! Nice bike!

Here's one more for you

And that's more or less all I was doing since last update. Sorry I kept you waiting. I was working on workshop once, but it wasn't really suitable for full update. But today I managed to do a lot of work.

This was where I left it last time:

And it has turned out nice:

Last time I moved it a bit and filled it with concrete:

Today I was removing the shuttering, fueled by this:

and this is what's happened:

but it came off after I persuaded it with bigger hammer:

Now I need to think of a way to fill it up with concrete to the top.
In the meanwhile I moved to the next wall:

it needed a little bit of trimming around the step:

Bolted down the supports:

added some planks from inside:

and filled with fresh concrete:

Fortunately everything did go as from textbook today.
I don't know when I would be able to work on shop again, because there's much of work comming for next two weeks in my job.
But hopefully there will be next update soon.
Thanks for watching!

 

[tachikomaster]

Hi guys!

I have some new photos from last few times I worked on workshop.
Progress is slow but 3 of 4 walls are nearly done.

This is the result of pouring concrete around doors:

The second stage:

Which turned out nice, except a little hole in place where the stone wall was too close to the shuttering:

The third stage:

The same day I started to remove the concrete from first failed attempt:

This is what I managed to do in one hour:

Today I removed shuttering from third stage:

And removed a bit of concrete. I'm in half after 3 hours:

Hopefully tomorrow I would do the rest and pour it again.
Thanks for watching!

 

[theflystyle]

Keep up the good hard work.

 

[A_Pmech]

Looks like you're back on track. Motorcycles can be very distracting.

 

[Vette60]

Hi Michael.

You have done fantastic work so far - your space is really coming together well. Where in Slovakia are you? My Mom's family is from Slovenska Ves, a small village near the Tatra mountains, close to the border with Poland. I had a chance to visit with my relatives there a ways back and it was the best trip that I ever made!

Wish you all the best with your project! Would be great to share a pivo with you to celebrate your project!

Take care,
Randy