Building my Dream

ok rick i wont mentione it again now for the main shop building, yu should try to get some glass in there for natural light, and have your assembly area located for the best outside veiw and lighting.. natural light is way above artifical when it can be used.

if at all possible place your dust collector and compressors in a seperate building.
i am a firm believer in concrete floors for a shop, but i`m a minority

Art - Yes, it is really sandy. Great for pine trees. The power company calls it "sugar sand". When they dig holes for the power poles the sides collapse, and they end up with very large diameter holes to fill back in. There is some clay mixed with the sand about 2-3 feet down in most places. The well went 235 feet to hit water, and there is a lot of agriculture around, so I hope things will work out OK. It does get very dusty when it's dry for a while.
The septic was done a little different that I am used to. Instead of digging a trench and putting in gravel for the drainage, they dug the trench and put in a large perforated "half pipe" called infiltrator.

Click here for Info on Infiltrator.

So, there is a half-hollow tube underground now for sewer drainage. They said the due to the sandy soil, it will be years before anything makes its way down to the last half of the pipe.

Larry - keep the suggestions coming. I was hoping to run some glass all the way around the shop up at the roof line (14 ft walls), but the company building the shop (Hoover), does not offer this option. I will have to come back later to add something like that. I will have a few standard windows, but I usually get to work on hobbies in the evenings and at night, so I will need to have a good internal lighting solution. I am assuming a florescent solution, but I will be looking for advice here too.

Tod - planning to build a "noise room" in the far corner of the shop. If it is still too noisy, I will add an external shed later.

The second well (for the pecan orchard) started yesterday, so I expect it may be done today. There was one open field on the property - about 1.5 acres, and we plan to plant a small pecan orchard along with some hazelnut, almond, and walnut.

Also, the inspector was supposed to come by to approve the footings, so we may pour some concrete today or Monday.

Rick Prosser said:

I will need to have a good internal lighting solution. I am assuming a florescent solution, but I will be looking for advice here too.

Click to expand...

Fluorescents are a good, economical choice - use lots of them. Spend a little extra and make sure you get the newer style (transistorized) ballasts - no hum - and use only daylight color lamps of 5500 kelvin or higher. IMHO

Did not get to start the well today, but did get footings poured.



This weekend, I will be moving and leveling dirt for the tractor shed. (Dirt floor - no concrete)

tod evans said:

if at all possible place your dust collector and compressors in a seperate building.
i am a firm believer in concrete floors for a shop, but i`m a minority

Click to expand...

If you have no neighbours to complain, I certainly agree with Tod about the compressor and cyclone being in a separate building. Keeps the noise and the dust out of your shop. Just make sure you get one of them auto drains for the compressor.

I understand the practicality of concrete floors, but a wood floor is so much easier on the back/legs/feet, so how about wood over the concrete?

Keep them coming, enjoying the show!

why are yu making it so high rick? 14 ft is tall..and for your DC like tod said noise out side, even a walled in area is better than right in the shop. makes for tunes and conversations with friends go better. as for the interior i would suggest osb, alot of folks like drywall but it doesnt hold much in between the studs or purlins..and paint it white on the ceiling and even the walls to if yu like..kilz for the first coat then a good semi gloss on the rest.

A little background to explain the shop size:

Moved back to SC from GA. Housing market crashed, and could not sell house in GA. After a year of renting a double wide, we decided to move ahead and buy the land and build the shop while waiting to sell the house. Shop was to be 30x40x10. Then we learned about the possibility of living in the shop while building the house. We enlarged to shop to accommodate the need for living space. Lots of comments on forums about always needing more space, so considered maxing out as much as possible. We realized we had more stuff to store in addition to living space, so we ended up at 40x70x14. The taller walls was to be able to have a second level for storage that would not require crawling around on hands and knees. The house sold last month (yay! earlier than expected), so now the situation is different. With the economy and job market, we want to be close to debt free, so the little money from house sale will go to pay for shop, tractor, etc. Then we will build new house in stages (no mortgage for now) when I have time, and as funds are available. The shop is real big (bigger is better, right). It gives us options for the future. May still end up living there at some point. May be able to purchase some shop tools at some point A SawStop table saw is first on the list. Then whatever tools needed to build the house will have first priority. More hobby tools will have to wait.

sounds like a good plan rick,, as for finished ceiling height,, my suggestion is 10ft.. that gives you alittle under 4ft for storage area height..i had a 8ft ceiling prior to this one and i can believe the differnce..the only other thing i can think of that yu might look into would be trusses that allowed yu a room in the attic. at 40 ft wide yu got alot space up there that is gonna be full of 2x's for structural strength and no space. also yu might be able to drop main structure down in height and get a higher pitched roof area to accomadate the room above using the specail trusses.

Made a little more progress We had a lot of rain this week, so any progress was good.

The concrete footer is finished and the wall is started.



Got the tractor shed site smoothed and <mostly> level.



Due to all the rain in the area, since my site is so sandy and will drain quickly, I may get first job assignment and get the tractor shed up soon!

Also got a new wood chipper assembled



but they forgot to send the PTO shaft, so I could not connect it to the tractor and give it a spin

Looking good Rick. What kind of heating will you be using for it? Looks like you've got plenty of timber if using wood heat.

movun right along.. seems like the pto shaft would come with the tractor but yu do need a connector huh

Rick, will the hillside drain water into the tractor shed?

Man be careful with that there stick chomper upper. If they don't pull people in, they spit stuff back out at a deadly velocity.

Got the go-ahead to build the 48x30x10 tractor shed, so they started yesterday and finished today.

I am going to try and show the steps to build a pole building (without a front wall since this is the tractor shed). If you want to skip all the little steps, just scroll down a couple of messages.

So all the materials arrived on one truck (about 8:00 AM), the trusses were prepped with hanger brackets, and post holes were drilled.



They brought some concrete "pucks" to put in the bottom of each hole to support the 4x8 posts


Then the posts were placed in the holes, waited for the inspector to approve, then concrete was added to the holes and the posts were plumbed


Then the framing was started and trimmed to fit


Truss lifting


continued...

moving on...

Trusses were nailed and bolted


All the pieces were installed and then the walls were braced.


The bottom panel rail was installed, panels laid out and trimmed, then the panels were set on the rail and nailed


Got everything done but the roof and final trim on DAY 1


continued ...

Almost there...DAY 2

Starting the roof


Adding the trim


Closing off the roof and adding the roof cap


Done before 10:00


A couple of trim pieces were damaged, so they will be installed later this week. Need to smooth out the dirt inside and out. Some landscaping needed to direct run off, but otherwise ready to use

SHOP update:

Got the concrete wall finished. Dirt tamping has started and expect to be ready to start the building in the next couple of weeks. Not sure yet when we can fit into the schedule. The crew for the tractor shed did a great job, so I expect good things when we (finally) get to start the shop build.

Darren - we will have a wood stove in the shop initially, but may add central air/heat at some point.

All I can say is WOW that was one quick build.

Fantastic Rick...what a build. I will post my reply in a new thread in the off topic section rather than hijack your thread.