Shop Rebuild

[David Helm]

Back in early December, a drunk driving a stolen Suburban smashed into my shop. The above picture shows the location where the vehicle entered (going about 50 mph). This is the north side. My office is on the south side. The vehicle continued in smashing things as it proceeded, crashing my office walls onto me and pushing the exterior office wall out about 3 feet at the bottom.

Attachment 140890

This photo shows the outside office wall on the south side.

This is a photo of where I was sitting. My trusty Jet cabinet saw diverted the vehicle just enough to save my life. Unfortunately, the saw didn't make it. The driver actually backed out and took off down the road, but only got about 300 yards before the vehicle also expired. She took off on foot and wasn't caught till 2 the following morning. She's currently in jail awaiting trial.

The shop is now in the final stages (at least exterior) of repair as attested by the following photos.

This is the office end of the shop, with siding nearly finished.

This is the final face waiting to be sided.

This is the side where the vehicle entered. All that's left to do here is new fascia.

This is the street side with the new magnificent (at least to me) sliding barn door.

No photos of the interior yet. The new office is framed and wired. I haven't yet started buying the new tools for the shop, but am eagerly anticipating the process.

[Peter Aeschliman]

What a crazy story! Glad you are okay... the shop and your tools can be replaced, but your health (and life) cannot.

I hope the driver gets the maximum sentence and that insurance covered all of the physical damage...

Aside from the barn door, did you make any other improvements to the shop while you were at it?

[Bruce Volden]

What a mess!! Glad you're fine. I often wonder about stuff like this happening, is it easy to work with the insurance companies, since the vehicle was stolen who paid, how much of the rebuild did you do.........things like that.

Bruce

[Jim Becker]

Oh, my...what a story and I'm so glad you didn't get crushed by that accident!

[David Helm]

Thanks for the kind words. To answer the questions, my homeowner's insurance is the payer; they "totaled" the building. Unfortunately, like many people we are a bit underinsured so they didn't pay the full amount of the "total". I found a contractor, actually one I know well and respect, who was able to rebuild saving much of the structure. I just last year put a new $4K roof on and didn't want to lose that. I'm having him do all the structural. Inside, I've increased the size of my office a bit, giving me room to carve (NW coast native mask style). I'm doing the wiring, insulation and sheetrock. I'll also be redoing my wood storage system (I work mostly with northwest woods; Big Leaf Maple, Red Cedar, Yellow Cedar, VG Doug Fir, and some repurposed woods. I bought some of a Redwood wine vat; beautiful deep red color). Pretty much decided to go with a new Grizzly G1023RLX to replace my beloved Jet. I have been spending some time in Grizzly's amazing showroom since I live in the same town.
By the way, the perp stands to spend some prison time for this and will have something like a $55K debt hanging over her head when she gets out.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Quite an experience.

When will they deliver the large granite boulders?

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm glad you're OK. What's the maximum punishment in Washington for murdering a table saw? I can imagine some soft prosecutor plea bargaining down to man-sawter.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I can imagine some soft prosecutor plea bargaining down to man-sawter..

that's so bad that it made me laugh.

Glad you're ok, and it looks like your shop is on it's way to being functional again.

[Ted Jay]

Quite an experience.

When will they deliver the large granite boulders?

I agree with Bob. When and what kind of a buffer/bumper are you going to install to prevent this from ever happening again?

[Jim O'Dell]

WOW, David! What an ordeal! Count me in the group that's glad you're ok.
OK, you've had a chance to see the new 1023??? There are others here that are asking questions about that saw. Others of us who are interested just from the standpoint of, "What are the new trunnions like?". So spill the beans! I have the G0691 and love it. What are your impressions of the differences in it and the G1023RLX? Thanks.
Hope you get your shop back up and running soon! Jim.

[David Helm]

Darn, I better talk to the prosecuter about adding the 1st degree sawter charge. Granite boulders sound like a nice touch; I've been thinking about Jersey barriers, but boulders would be prettier. The building has been in the same place for 80 years and this is the first time something like this happened. In terms of how safe I will feel, I'm still working that out with my therapist. Someone asked how much of the work I'm doing and how was the insurance company to work with. Insurance was Farmer's. They had a claims adjuster out to the site within 3 days of the incident. They sent me a check for the building within a week. Took me a while to inventory the damaged contents. They paid replacement cost minus depreciation. Got that check last week. I'm not doing the structural work because a. I'm too busy b. I spent most of my adult life building and remodeling c. I'm 67 years old and don't have the desire to do it.

Regarding the 1023 over the o691 it was a very close decision. Those were my shortlist almost from the beginning. I chose the 1023 primarily because of the weight (over 700 pounds; you never know when you'll need to divert a vehicle), the standard Shop Fox Classic fence, the encapsulated blade dust extraction (the beloved Jet had a port in the cabinet only and was very inefficient at dust control. I hated having to periodically empty the cabinet), the standard magnetic safety switch. I do like, however, the white paint on the 0691 better than the all green.

[Jim O'Dell]

snip I chose the 1023 primarily because of the weight (over 700 pounds; you never know when you'll need to divert a vehicle), snip

I think you need to put in some steel pipe in the ground like they do at commercial buildings. At a retail store I worked at, we had removable ones that had locks on them. Not sure if they would take care of high speed hits, but it couldn't hurt.
I'm real curious to see if the 1023R is actually that heavy. Hope it is. Seems like the original weight on the 691 was higher than it turned out to be by about 70 pounds.
Be sure to post some pictures of the inside as you get it going! Jim.

[John Grabowski]

Looks amazing...Congratulations...I wish mine was covered in shakes.

John G

[Jeff Fischer]

I think you need to put in some steel pipe in the ground like they do at commercial buildings. At a retail store I worked at, we had removable ones that had locks on them. Not sure if they would take care of high speed hits, but it couldn't hurt.

David, first, I'm glad to hear you are "OK", but sorry to hear about your friend "Jet". Sounds like you owe him a proper resting place.

If you decide to do a barrier, please check the laws in your area. If you put up something that protects you but harms someone who runs into it, you could be liable for creating a hazard. I'm an insurance restoration contractor and I have installed a couple of energy absorbing barriers for customers, after rebuilding their homes that were struck by vehicles.
I hope this doesn't sound stupid, just trying to help.

Jeff

[David Helm]

John, I had already started siding it with the cedar prior to the incident. It is the last of three buildings on my property to get that treatment. It is a little easier, costwise, to do it here because I can go directly to a shingle/shake mill in Canada, buy good quality for a very reasonable price, and, legally import them for my own structure.

Jeff, thanks for bringing up something I never thought of. You mean if I decorate my property with rocks/boulders I can be in trouble if someone, going way over the speed limit, runs onto my property?