Breaking ground for shop.

[Crazy Horse]

Finally, last weekend we started breaking ground for the new shop. We decided to have a Morton built sized to 30'x45' with 14' walls built. It is going to be finished inside, out, and be insulated with R40 roof and R20 on the walls. There will be two 10'x10' overhead insulated doors. I have a Carrier split system heat pump on order to heat or cool the shop. Can't wait to start bringing some old Cj-5's back to life. I also decided to install a Mohawk 10,000 lb two post lift, I'm getting to old to be crawling around on the floor to work on vehicles. I also want to thank Mr. Poe for all of his advice on the subject. I'll update as it goes up. The building is due to be dropped on the property April 15th.

We are also building a retaining wall for the back and right side of the building out of interlocking cement blocks 6' long by 3' deep and 2' high. They weigh approx 5,500 lbs apiece and we are figuring 38 of them to build what will be L shapped. There are flat top blocks for finishing off the top of it.

 

[MChrist]

Did you look into radiant heat in the floors?

 

[Deleted member 995608]

You lucky SOB. I've needed a bigger shop for sometime now but the wife keeps telling me know.

Maybe I'll put her arse on a cruse somewhere to BFE and build a shop while she gone. Better to ask for forgiveness than
to ask for permission.

 

[Slow Six]

Shops are great. I miss mine. I don't know what you are using it for but your door sizes seem small. My one shop only had a 12 X 12 door and I couldn't get my Rv trailers in for work. |I have always said the only time a shop is to big is when you have to sweep it. Enjoy!

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Shops are great. I miss mine. I don't know what you are using it for but your door sizes seem small. My one shop only had a 12 X 12 door and I couldn't get my Rv trailers in for work. |I have always said the only time a shop is to big is when you have to sweep it. Enjoy!

I have to agree on the shop doors. A 10' wide door will work being that most trailers etc are 102" max,... . I think.

I always find myself wanting more vertical height than width. But then again, my shop door is 14' wide but I only have a 72" vertical clearance.

Build it as big and as expensive as you can.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Shops are great. I miss mine. I don't know what you are using it for but your door sizes seem small. My one shop only had a 12 X 12 door and I couldn't get my Rv trailers in for work. |I have always said the only time a shop is to big is when you have to sweep it. Enjoy!

Yes, shops are great and I've really used and enjoyed having mine. At the last three places where we have lived, I built shops. The first one was wood framed 28'x36' with 10' 6" high overhead doors which was a mistake. We had an Airstream travel trailer at the time and it easily cleared the doors, but after we traded for a fifth wheel, it wouldn't go in the door. The other two shops 40'x50' and 50'x60' were engineered bolt-up steel and I made sure the overhead doors were tall enough at 14'. If it's legal height, it will pass through the doors.



Bill

 

[HBarlow]

Yep, I agree. The purchase price of a new shop building is painful for most of us but my recommendation is build it big and tall enough to allow any possible future purchase to fit inside. Over time you'll be glad you did and you'll forget the pain of the initial cost. And so will your wife, hopefully.

After I moved out here to a rural area I had a 43' by 60' insulated steel building built with two 14' by 14' overhead doors and one 10' by 10' overhead door with a commercial grade door lift installed. I drive cars and my truck in and out of the 10' door and my fifthwheel through one of the 14' doors. It's true that a conventional trailer will fit through a 10' wide door but the narrow opening makes manueuvering a long trailer more challenging when you back from bright sunlight into a relatively dark space with only a foot to spare on each side. The 14' wide door is a lot easier to use even when overhead height is not an issue.

 

[Wertles]

I just purchased a 40x42 steel building so congrats!! I know the anticipation. I am hoping on breaking ground next week on this as well. The building comes with 3 10x10 openings for doors but I am planning on enlarging them to 12 feet (or 14 if I have room) tall. Insulation will come eventually and heat will be provided by a double barrel wood stove. I am with you on the lift. I have my hands on a 9000 2 post lift so that I am not crawling underneath everything any more.

 

[Crazy Horse]

I don't know what you are using it for but your door sizes seem small.

I'm only going to be doing maintence on our two Dodge truck and am going to get into restoring 70's vintage Jeep CJ-5's. I want to put a collection of drivers together and resell them after rebuilding them. This is my 79.

I used to have a desire to get a camper in on my truck inside to work on or store it off season but I have hung up my traveling shoes. I've seen everything in North America I had a desire to see I am perfectly content to not to leave the property here for months on end. I am only leaving the property now once or twice a month when needed. I did find it neccesary to put a battery tender on the 02 Cummins.

 

[Oil Stain]

I'm soooooo jealous... Good luck to both of you. We will all be waiting for the final pictures or work in progress.

 

[Alaskaskiff]

Way to go Phil!

Still too much snow up here to start building.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Did you look into radiant heat in the floors?

There isn't any need for that kind of serious heat down here in South Carolina. The heat pump will get a work out in the summer but very little in the winter.

 

[frank1]

Crazy Horse, you picked a great company to build you pole barn (Morton). I had them build me a 30' by 64' by 14' high (bottom of rafters), with three 12'w x 12' h doors. Two on the 30' side and one on the 64' side. Best decision I ever made! Morton sent out two guys Monday Morning and they put up the whole Pole barn by Friday afternoon at 2:00 p. m! One other guy came on Wednsday with a lift to help with putting on the steel roof, but the other four days it was just the two guys. I put down 6" of gravel and a 8" reinforced concrete floor, also planning on adding a lift to help with maintaining the fleet. Enjoy it!!!

 

[MChrist]

You're gonna love it!! Now, you get to pick out the stuff to put in it. . like a heavy duty 2-stage air compressor, shelving units, etc. I got all my shelving units from Buy Rack ( maybe buy rack.com, or 1-800-buy-rack). They are 4' deep, about 12' long, and about 15' high and you can link them together to go as long as you want. Each shelf holds over 3000#s per level. They went together easily, can be reconfigured anyway you want and they have all different lengths, strengths, or whatever you need. I haven't regretted ours for a second. Very durable and look nice, too.
Electrical: put in more outlets than you think you need. It'll prevent extension cords all over the place. Air compressor in an enclosed area for sound control. Even just a insulated box made with 2X4s with drywall and some insulation makes a huge difference.
If you can't have a floor drain due to permits or health department restrictions, make sure your concrete guy is good and that you have slope to drain any inevitable water on the floor. Our floor scalloped, and we have to squeegee our floor after our snowy trucks pull out in the morning after melting all night.
Consider having "shark tooth" or something equivalent spread onto the concrete floor when they seal it. Otherwise it is slick as snot when wet. Don't skimp there. Ours has held up after 10 years of truck and foot traffic. Only places it got removed is where oil was spilled and somebody cleaned it up with Brake-Kleen. It takes the sealant right off...
There's a lot more, but my point is to not be skimpy with anything and do it right away, otherwise, you'll be wishing you did, and it'll just cost more later.
Not trying to be a burden, just offering advice others offered me.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Thank you all for all the comments, and words of advice. The buy racks looks like they have allot of good racks. I have to pick out a good 60 gallon aircompressor and a good floor coating after the Mohawk is installed on the curred concrete. I did overkill the outlets especially around the work bench and am leaving a couple of dead headed cicuts in the loft flooring area in case I ever put walls up in the storage area. I am having an extra 220 circut run to an outlet between the doors inside for a mig or tig welder. I have to look at those and learn to use the one that fits my needs for metal fabrication.

Andy it is good to hear from you, I thought you left Alaska.

 

[Grizzly]

Reading about all these huge workshops make me feel humble with my 16' wide by 39' deep workshop barn. Well, it is a two story barn with an attached 50' deep trailerport, which houses my 27' 5th wheel and my truck. The trailerport used to have an 11' ceiling until we purchased our current Arctic Fox 5th wheel, which wouldn't go in due to the trailer was too tall. So I completely removed the roof and raised it to 14'. Now the 5er fits in the trailerport. The trailerport in completely walled in, but has no door. I could put in a 14' overhead door, but I really have no need for one. The barn has a standard 9' by 7' high overhead door and a walk through door. The upstairs is mostly storage, but I do have some wood working machines and tools up there. I also added a 10' by 16' covered porch in front of the barn. It's for multi purpose use and for assembly of larger furnisher. It works for me and I spend a great deal of time there.

george

 

[Blu-meanie]

Now I have the "little barn syndrome" only 24 x 36.

 

[Crazy Horse]

As of Sat the wall is almost done. We need to haul in about 12 truck loads of red dirt to backfill and then put the top caps on the wall. After that throw down about 5" of crushed rock and get ready for the Morton Men and concrete to come in.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Crazy Horse- those footings are unbelievable! Explain to me why you had to use the monster blocks.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Crazy Horse- those footings are unbelievable! Explain to me why you had to use the monster blocks.

The concrete blocks are for the retaining wall that the building cement pad will be on. When the building is done there will be an area of approx 7'-8' of ground between the edge of the building and the outer edge of the wall. Nothing will grow in those shaddy areas, to prevent errosion in the summer and I though this idea would be a sturdy trouble free way of keeping solid ground under the building. We can get some pretty good gully washers in the summer. Here's some of the top blocks going into place just before the last rain this past weekend.