[roger1]

Quote:

Hi Roger ...
A couple of comments ...
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I followed a suggestion from some of the guys here on HR.com to use 1/2" plywood rather than gyproc on the interior walls ... and I'm really glad that I did! You can drive a screw in anywhere you like ... without having to fart around with wall-anchors.
It was also stated that the plywood goes up a lot easier ... no mudding and taping ... and is certainly more durable. Another comment made was "this isn't your living room ... it's a garage!"
There have already ben a few occasions where something fell over that would have speared a hole in gyproc ... but barely left a mark on the plywood.

Thanks, I might do that in the "clean room" area. The rest of the shop will kind of be a combo of a rec room and garage. So, I am going to go with sheet rock in there.

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I did have MOST of my work done by a contractor ... until I had trouble with him and kicked him to the curb!

I have had several things done by this contractor before and we have partnered on some projects. Trouble here will not be an issue.

A buddy and I hung the garage doors ourselves ... it really wasn't all that difficult. Tensioning the springs was the thing that was stated to be "best left to the professionals" ... but again ... all it takes to tension residential garage door springs is two 1/2" x 18" solid steel bars (a 3 ft chunk is available at most hardware / building centers) and a little common sense. If you can follow directions from the manual ... you can do it yourself.

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And a final caution:

Make SURE that your design includes adequate room above your door openings for both the tension springs AND the electric door opener tracks (if you are installing them)!

My contractor "goofed" ...
I had spec'd a 6" concrete 'curb' wall to be built on top of the slab, with the idea that it would keep the walls from 'wicking' water up from the wet floor, should a guy ever want to hose it down ... right?
There was to be a 10 ft wall built on top of this 6" curb wall to give me a TOTAL HEIGHT of 10'6".
When the 12' wide x 9' tall garage door panels were assembled and installed, we noticed that they were a little more than 6" taller than the opening ... and we thought it odd ... but OK ...
When it came time to install the chain-drive tracks for the openers ... there was just NO WAY that they would fit as per the directions ... there was only about 1-1/2" above the springs and brackets, and they were calling for a 2x4 reinforcement to bolt the track bracket to! In a "low clearance application" the said that this 2x4 could be hung from the ceiling, and the bracket bolted to it facing the floor. Again ... NO WAY ... as the top edge of the door arced up to within a couple of inches of the ceiling at it's highest point of travel on the curved track above the door.
It was at this point that I started REALLY scratching my head, and wondering "How can this be?", so I measured from the floor to the ceiling ... and discovered it to be EXACTLY 10ft ... not 10'6" as expected!
That 6" was going to be really tough to "put back in there"!!!
In true "hotrodder" fashion , I came up with the idea using of a piece of 1 x 1 angle iron, mounted on the ceiling, about 6" out from the wall ... with the bracket facing the front. It was still tight ... but it works! Luckily the door opener allows for quite a lot of adjustment ...

I have already contacted a guy I have used before and trust in Austin with Overhead Door Co. He said with the 10 ft. ceilings and the 9 wide 8 high doors, a 20 inch radius rail can be used that will give me ceiling high lift without an extra panel and still be able to use a standard operator. I will have them installed so I don't have to worry about any warranty issues.

Moral of the story ...
Keep a VERY close eye on your contractor, and a tape measure of your own very handy.

Thanks for all your suggestions!
Roger

[roger1]

The plumbing is done. Waiting on city inspections.
Things are going a little slower at this point than I expected.
I am hoping to have the slab poured this weekend.
More pics coming soon.

[79C10]

Roger ,
as a concrete foreman with almost 2 decades of experience , I can tell you --- once the slab is poured , it goes along much quicker.
Getting to that point sometimes seems to take f o r e v e r , though .
Best of luck with this endeavor. One day you'll thank yourself for all this headache/hard work .

Mike

[Big Don]

If it was me building a new shop-- which I did last year, I would make it greater then 24' deep. 28' is the number I like best. The added depth gives me room to pull an engine and keep the car inside, with enough room to move the floor crane and still utilize the rebuild bench and work on the engine without having to shuffle things around. Also I would respectfully have you consider building the garage with a weight carrying I trush, made of wood overhead so you can use a chain hoist to suspend those bodies off the frame until the frame is ready to go back together. What a time safer this is when building a frame and then trying to fit the body mounts to it.

Just a couple of thoughts I had: that you may have not thought of... Chow!

[russcomp]

Originally Posted by Big Don

If it was me building a new shop-- which I did last year, I would make it greater then 24' deep. 28' is the number I like best. The added depth gives me room to pull an engine and keep the car inside, with enough room to move the floor crane and still utilize the rebuild bench and work on the engine without having to shuffle things around. Also I would respectfully have you consider building the garage with a weight carrying I trush, made of wood overhead so you can use a chain hoist to suspend those bodies off the frame until the frame is ready to go back together. What a time safer this is when building a frame and then trying to fit the body mounts to it.

Just a couple of thoughts I had: that you may have not thought of... Chow!

i agree on 28' or 30

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Big Don

If it was me building a new shop-- which I did last year, I would make it greater then 24' deep. 28' is the number I like best. The added depth gives me room to pull an engine and keep the car inside, with enough room to move the floor crane and still utilize the rebuild bench and work on the engine without having to shuffle things around. Also I would respectfully have you consider building the garage with a weight carrying I trush, made of wood overhead so you can use a chain hoist to suspend those bodies off the frame until the frame is ready to go back together. What a time safer this is when building a frame and then trying to fit the body mounts to it.

Just a couple of thoughts I had: that you may have not thought of... Chow!

I know what you are saying about the 24. However, my "clean room" will not have a bench on the end if I ever have a need to do an engine remove/install with the door closed, I could do it in there (as long as it was an average size car and not a pickup). Other things I considered are that I don't do engines all that often and the weather is mild in San Angelo. I am already committed on the size at this point as well.
The overhead I beam truss I am going to do.

Thanks for the suggestions!

And btw, it looks like pouring the concrete is probably not going to happen until Tuesday. I got a green tag for the plumbing inspection but there is still some rebar work to do before getting the inspection needed before the pour.

[NEW INTERIORS]

Mine is 32'.Wish it was about 60'.

[fatboyman05]

well, I want to move to your neighborhood. in Palm Coast to get 4 acres it would be 16 lots, and at around $40,000 per lot... well, you get the idea.

the garage looks great. I would suggest individual dedicated exhaust fans.

it may still not be too late to do a vaulted truss to get that lil extra space if you should ever wind up with a lift.

is the front 18 by 18 for parking or porch? I have seen a few shops / barns and a raisd front porch seemed to add a bunch of character....

the other thing I have seen, in a great garage in Hastings florida (owned by the local bank president) was a glass wall separating the clean room from what I would call a entertaing / living room.

I suggest that perhaps a sliding glass door could be put in the clean room wall. you would have to protect it during certain operations, but it is just a thought.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by fatboyman05

well, I want to move to your neighborhood. in Palm Coast to get 4 acres it would be 16 lots, and at around $40,000 per lot... well, you get the idea.

the garage looks great. I would suggest individual dedicated exhaust fans.

it may still not be too late to do a vaulted truss to get that lil extra space if you should ever wind up with a lift.

is the front 18 by 18 for parking or porch? I have seen a few shops / barns and a raisd front porch seemed to add a bunch of character....

the other thing I have seen, in a great garage in Hastings florida (owned by the local bank president) was a glass wall separating the clean room from what I would call a entertaing / living room.

I suggest that perhaps a sliding glass door could be put in the clean room wall. you would have to protect it during certain operations, but it is just a thought.

The sliding glass door is an interesting idea. I'll have to give that some thought. The porch is the drive through area between the building and the gas pump island. It will make a good place to wash the car out of the sun. I had given a lot of thought to a lift and decided that I if I ever got one, it would be a Kwik Lift and I don't need higher than the 10' ceiling for that.
Yes, it is pretty cool that I have a 4.1 acre lot within the city limits of San Angelo. This part of town is zoned "ranch and estates" and lots are 1 acre minimum.

Here is a partial plat of my lot showing the location of my new workshop in relation to the house. The front of the house faces south. Most of the trees in the front of the house are pecans but some are oaks. The back fence splits the property in half and this plat doesn't show the whole 2 acres of the north part. The north 2 acres has been pretty much left natural. It is a corner lot so access to the rear of the property is through the gate on the west side. It looks tight to drive around the workshop through that gate but it is not. The entance to the house attached garage is on the rear side of the house (North Side).

[roger1]

Originally Posted by 79C10

Roger ,
as a concrete foreman with almost 2 decades of experience , I can tell you --- once the slab is poured , it goes along much quicker.
Getting to that point sometimes seems to take f o r e v e r , though .
Best of luck with this endeavor. One day you'll thank yourself for all this headache/hard work .

Mike

Get this!

It's Sunday evening (about an hour ago) and my foundation guy calls me from jail. Says he needs $451 to get bailed out.
So, he says if I'll come down and pay it, he will finish all the rebar work tomorrow, arrange for the inspection, and have it poured on Tuesday. (We'll see.)
I still owe him $1,200 of his original bid, so I went ahead and got him out. (Am I nuts for doing it?) I told him no more money until it's finished and cleaned up. (I am paying the for the actual concrete separately from him.)

Mike, I wish you worked in San Angelo!

Hmmm... Just looked at the forecast. A 50% chance of rain tomorrow and 20% on Tuesday.

[NEW INTERIORS]

Man!! Good luck!!!!

[roger1]

Looks like we are back on track.
The ex jail-bird has the foundation ready to pour. Told him I didn't want to know what he was in jail for.
Inspection tomorrow at 8:30 AM and concrete trucks arrive around 11.

[1ownerT]

I hate to say this, in 28 years of working construction I have never seen a slab prepped like yours.
What is under the poly?
It may be deceiving but it looks like a lot of the rebar is laying on the poly.
There should be two #5's min. in the thickened edges, rebar should have a min. 3' clearance from the dirt.
If you streach a string line from side to side, what do you have for concrete depth?

[roger1]

Originally Posted by 1ownerT

I hate to say this, in 28 years of working construction I have never seen a slab prepped like yours.
What is under the poly?
It may be deceiving but it looks like a lot of the rebar is laying on the poly.
There should be two #5's min. in the thickened edges, rebar should have a min. 3' clearance from the dirt.
If you streach a string line from side to side, what do you have for concrete depth?

Dirt is under the poly. You are right, the rebar is on the poly vapor barrier in the pic.
Plastic chairs will be installed before the inspector arrives getting the rebar up the correct distance. There are 4 #5s in the beams, 2 low and 2 high. Strings were stretched and it is 6" minimum concrete depth.
The beams are 24" deep and 12 feet apart which exceeds the code for San Angelo.

[1ownerT]

Pix can be deceiving, sounds like it is under control.
The anticipation has to be killing you.