Birth of a shop - The Final Trimester

Marty good to see all the progress on the shop. I sure missed it! Everything looks great. I myself like all the updates. Keep up the good work and thanks for the invite to the new forum.

Doug


Thanks Doug, and thanks for joining us here. I'll be keeping the updates coming as it appears lots of folks want me to. :rolleyes:

Frost is almost gone, I'm off to hang some more Cypress...
- Marty -
 
Marty,

Thanks for the continuation. Like many, it's inspiring to see the amount of energy you put into that every day.

A possible suggestion for holding the boards in place. Could you place an extra wide ledger board on the underside of the building and hold it in place with bracing/joist jacks/etc. This would create a ledge to set the end of the board on and you can use shims and wedges to fine tune the height of the board on the wall. Once it's tight between the temporary ledger board and the top, you shouldn't even have to hold it in place while nailing. Just a thought.

Also, it's great that you show your appreciation to Denise. You may be lucky but so is she in that you give credit where it's due.

Matt
 
Marty,

Fire up the orchestra as the BOSS gave me the green light for next Saturday. Lets hope the weather will cooperate one mor etime and we should get you sealed in for the winter. Looking forward to some hard grunt work after yet another week, this week being the last, with the lawyers and accountants. The mess may finally be resolved, I HOPE. Talk to you soon and if any of the others care to join in, fly into Charleston and I will transport down to Denise and Marty's house for a day of fun and saw dust eatin.
 
Marty, that is looking VERY NICE!! You have been very busy since your last update at SMC on the building. If you still have only the sub floor in the shop at this point, and I can't imagine you could have the flooring done yet, could you move inside to stain the wood and not have to worry about the frost so much? Even if the HVAC is not up and running yet, it should still be warmer. Might have to set an exhaust fan up to clear some of the fumes, but you did say this is water based as opposed to the oil base you were spraying, right?? Shouldn't hurt a thing getting some of it on the sub floor. Might allow you to stain a batch one evening, pull it and stain another batch in the am, then work on installing the first batch while the am batch dries.
Daily works for me if you have time for it. If not, every 30 hrs will be a good substitute.:D
Continued good fortune on the construction!.. Jim.
 
Marty,

Thanks for the continuation. Like many, it's inspiring to see the amount of energy you put into that every day.

A possible suggestion for holding the boards in place. Could you place an extra wide ledger board on the underside of the building and hold it in place with bracing/joist jacks/etc. This would create a ledge to set the end of the board on and you can use shims and wedges to fine tune the height of the board on the wall. Once it's tight between the temporary ledger board and the top, you shouldn't even have to hold it in place while nailing. Just a thought.

Also, it's great that you show your appreciation to Denise. You may be lucky but so is she in that you give credit where it's due.

Matt

Matt,

I think it may be visible in some of the earlier pictures. I do in fact use a ledger board of sorts screwed in under the beams of the building. It's a requirement for me to attach the boards that run straight from the top to the bottom of the building, since it forces me to have a straight edge across the bottom of the building.

The challenge I've been facing is that I'm hoisting 16' boards, up to 3 or more feet from the bottom of the building. A ledger board wouldn't work. Randy's idea of temporary ledgers would work, but as I pointed out, it would do more damage to the Tyvek than it would be worth.

But thanks for thinking of options. As you'll see in my update in a few minutes, I'm using the only feasible option I can see. ;)

- Marty -
 
Marty,

Fire up the orchestra as the BOSS gave me the green light for next Saturday. Lets hope the weather will cooperate one mor etime and we should get you sealed in for the winter. Looking forward to some hard grunt work after yet another week, this week being the last, with the lawyers and accountants. The mess may finally be resolved, I HOPE. Talk to you soon and if any of the others care to join in, fly into Charleston and I will transport down to Denise and Marty's house for a day of fun and saw dust eatin.

Joe,

Glad you're making headway with your corporate nightmares. (Boy, do I NOT miss that!!!:rolleyes: )

As before, let me know as the weekend approaches, and I'll be sure to have materials and projects clearly outlined for your arrival. ;)

- Marty -
 
Marty, that is looking VERY NICE!! You have been very busy since your last update at SMC on the building. If you still have only the sub floor in the shop at this point, and I can't imagine you could have the flooring done yet, could you move inside to stain the wood and not have to worry about the frost so much? Even if the HVAC is not up and running yet, it should still be warmer. Might have to set an exhaust fan up to clear some of the fumes, but you did say this is water based as opposed to the oil base you were spraying, right?? Shouldn't hurt a thing getting some of it on the sub floor. Might allow you to stain a batch one evening, pull it and stain another batch in the am, then work on installing the first batch while the am batch dries.
Daily works for me if you have time for it. If not, every 30 hrs will be a good substitute.:D
Continued good fortune on the construction!.. Jim.


Jim,

Thanks for the kind words. In spite of not posting updates, they HAVE been occurring! ;)

As for staining inside, I don't really see that as an option, since I'd have to carry those heavy boards into the shop, stain them, then carry them back outside to install them. The boards are 16', are about 100' from the shop, and are HEAVY!

The frost slows me down a little, but at this stage, I simply don't have the "juice" left to do all that toting! :eek:

Oh, and for the record, it was 41 degrees INSIDE the shop this morning when I started. That's not all that much warmer than it was outside. Certainly not enough of a delta to justify the extra effort to tote... :(

- Marty -
 
Ok, so today was another day spent siding that west gable wall...

It turns out it was a good thing that I had Denise help me for a board on Friday. She realized what I was up against...trying to hoist all that weight up on a ladder, hold it ONE HANDED and then precisely fire a nail or two into the board to hold it in place so I could nail it in properly.

To that end, I was able to wrench her away from her office and get her assistance for the day! :D Having an extra set of hands made all the difference in the world. No need for ledger boards, no more boards hitting me in the head on their way to the ground, and two...no, three or four times the progress I would have made alone!

Here's a shot Denise took while I was busy flapping my gums with a neghbor who came by to check on my progress:

DSCN5151.jpg

And here's a shot of where we were just before we stopped:

DSCN5152.jpg

As you can see, we made quite a bit of progress. We actually got TWELVE courses done, each consisting of a pair of boards, totaling at least 20'. It might not seem like much, but when you realize the amount of effort and work it takes to get each course up, I'm not disappointed with our progress.

Heck, I would have been really lucky to have gotten up 4-5 courses alone, so actually I'm THRILLED with our progress today! :D

Oh and finally, here's a shot of how we kept going well after dark:

DSCN5155.jpg

While I was cutting the angles on the top of the boards, and the 45 degree miters on the bottom of the boards, Denise was gathering all my cutoffs into a burn pile. She had a nice warming fire going most of the day, and it's still burning out there now.

Oh, and not only did she maintain the fire...she also stained the next 14 boards you can see in the foreground of the pictures.

Like I said, and extra set of hands makes all the difference in the world!!!


I'll be watching the weather carefully tonight and early in the morning. The current forecast has us getting (much needed) rain for the next few days. If that's the case, I'll be moving back inside to do some more work on the electrical. I'll be sure to take some better pictures to show what I've decided on regarding lighting and powering the shop. If the weather holds out, I'll try to get that west wall done.

Thanks for following...
- Marty -
 
Marty,

Looking very good!!!

I'm expecting that Denise has made Santa's nice list this year and should be expecting very nice gifts...:D :D

Regards

Randy
 
Marty,

Looking very good!!!

I'm expecting that Denise has made Santa's nice list this year and should be expecting very nice gifts...:D :D

Regards

Randy

Randy,

With the way the budget has gone, Denise's gift sits where mine does...about 150 yards from the back door of the house! :rolleyes:

But of course, her devotion, dedication, perserverance, and patience with me never goes unrewarded ;)

- Marty -
 
Are the knots not showing through? A couple of weeks after I stained the first set of boards for my shop, the knots started to show through the stain. I subsequently has to apply shelac then another coat of stain. Later on when I did more boards, I put shelac on the knots before staining the boards. Is your stain such that this is not a problem?


Frank,

Sorry I didn't respond to this question...I certainly meant to. I'm not sure whether it's the stain or the Cypress, but knots are NOT showing through.

And I'm not sure that the knots showing through would be a problem for me even if they DID show through. It's wood afterall..there ARE knots.

Why did the knots showing through concern you to the point of the extra effort you took in covering them thoroughly?

- Marty -
 
Why did the knots showing through concern you to the point of the extra effort you took in covering them thoroughly?

- Marty -
Because, once the knots bled, they looked really ugly. Here is photo of part of the wall where I did not treat the knots with shelac before applying the stain:

bleading knots.JPG

I am happy to say that it is all fixed now. But it was much more work to fix after the fact than if I had applied shelac in the first place.
 
Because, once the knots bled, they looked really ugly. Here is photo of part of the wall where I did not treat the knots with shelac before applying the stain:

View attachment 382

I am happy to say that it is all fixed now. But it was much more work to fix after the fact than if I had applied shelac in the first place.

Frank,

I don't think your siding looks 'ugly' in the picture you posted, it looks like wood! But it's YOUR shop and YOU decide what look you like...;)

If I recall correctly, you used Pine, right? And what about stain...what brand? semi-tranparent? water or oil based?

- Marty -
 
The feeling that the bleeding knots were ugly was pretty well universal.

The wood is pine and the stain is CIL Woodcare Solid Oil and the colour is called Ascot Blue (even though it is mostly grey). I really like the stain and it is standing up well both on my shop and on some buildings at Pellow's Camp that I stained 6 years ago. But, no stain or paint that I know of will hide bleeding knots.
 
The feeling that the bleeding knots were ugly was pretty well universal.

The wood is pine and the stain is CIL Woodcare Solid Oil and the colour is called Ascot Blue (even though it is mostly grey). I really like the stain and it is standing up well both on my shop and on some buildings at Pellow's Camp that I stained 6 years ago. But, no stain or paint that I know of will hide bleeding knots.

Frank,

Reading the blurb on the CIL website, it appears that the stain you used is similar to the Olympic Solid I used, except...mine is acrylic based, your is oil based. I suspect there's a difference in the coverage of the two...especially after seeing the difference in the Olympic Oil we tried to use first time around.

I'm not sure if there's a difference between Pine and Cypress in terms of the 'bleeding knots', but that could also contribute to our different results. Also, the Cypress I'm using has been kiln dried. Was your pine?

But then again, my Cypress hasn't been stained all that long. I may have similar results in the near future. I'll be sure to let you know.

- Marty -
 
Marty you said if you get rain this week you'd be moving inside on the electrical. Do you already have a layout for your machinery? How are you going to feed the power to the machines out in the center of the shop or rather the machines that won't be close to walls?

I just did my shop and it's quite a monumental task to get all the electrical laid out and in the proper place. Then again the way you do things I'm sure you've got it all figured out.

Doug
 
Marty you said if you get rain this week you'd be moving inside on the electrical. Do you already have a layout for your machinery? How are you going to feed the power to the machines out in the center of the shop or rather the machines that won't be close to walls?

I just did my shop and it's quite a monumental task to get all the electrical laid out and in the proper place. Then again the way you do things I'm sure you've got it all figured out.

Doug


Wanna bet he has a SketchUp drawing of it :D

It is tough, I've still not done all the wiring I need to in the Dungeon, and rely on a few powerbars here and here :rolleyes: :eek:

Cheers!
 
Boy, it sure is great to find this "Book" again that I was reading about building a shop and I was only about 2/3 finished with.:D You and Denise have really been busy in that time, and it is REALLY taking shape now, what with all the window and door moldings and that nice gray siding covering up that Ugly Tyvec advertising, and LIGHTS with Ceiling Fans, whoo weeeee. I sure like the piling "Treatment" you and Tod came up with and it will really add a lot of Class to the lattice work underpinning when it is done, especially since the pilings would have still shown through the lattice.

You're so close to finishing your gable ends now that it might not be worth the effort, but I had an idea of making a standoff the width of the cypress that you could screw to the cypress about 2/3 of the distance up from the bottom and hook a rope to it and then run the rope through a small pully connected to the top rung of the ladder, then stand the board up against the wall under the ladder and then pull it up in place and tie it off on the ladder. You would then have both hands free to adjust it sideways and nail it. (I'm sure this isn't a very clear explanation although I can see it in my mind). The stand off could be screwed to the cypress close to each edge of the board so the screw holes would later be under the batten, and the standoff should stick out from the cypress board nearly the same distance as the top rung is from the wall, and this would let the board lay up flat against the wall without you having to push against it while trying to nail it in place. Using the rope & pully should be easier than Lifting them also.

(The above was Just another of my hairbrained ideas:D )

Incidentally, I have now "perfected" my procedure I mentioned to you a while back for trimming out the back of drywall where it will be covering a protrusion of some sort that is thinner than the drywall.;) Last week, I had bent some 1/4" x 2" metal strap for hangers for a loft frame that I bolted to the top of some horizontal wall framing that was a combination of a 2 x 4 metal purlin with a 2 x 4 (wood) both above and below it and it was then bent down for 8" and then bent out 90* for 2 1/2" and that 2 1/2" would protrude through the drywall. Since the strap would keep the drywall from mounting flush to the framing and give me a 1/4" "Bump" in the drywall I needed to "Rout" the back of the drywall so it would fit flush against the wall frame, Sooooooo........I marked the area of the drywall 3/8" larger than the strap, cut the through hole where the strap would come through and then used a box cutter to cut the paper (and a little deeper) around the area, then cut the paper away by making angled cuts and popping the paper and some of the "Rock" out and then.......I used my "Neanderthal Non Powered Router/dado cutter" set to 5/16" and cleaned it up. I couldn't believe how fast the thing worked and left a nice clean flat cutout.:D Just thought this might come in handy for something when you get to finishing out the inside of the shop.

PS: I like the Daily updates too, but will settle for whatever you have time for. I hope the weather cooperates and you can get your siding finished before it rains. (It's got all winter to catch up on that raining thing).:rolleyes: :D
 
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