My new shop

[Gregory Stahl]

That is where I am already--they won't pour until heat is in and working. Trying to finish framing this week and trusses going up by weeks end.

Welp, framing is supposed to start today. Today is going to be semi miserable, the wind is whipping already, but tomorrow and the rest of the week looks phenomenal.

I'm really hoping they can get the shell up in two weeks. I need to get the floor poured, and we're on borrowed time as far as winter setting in goes. Having to put heat to it before pouring concrete will be expensive

[Mike Heidrick]

Heat in and working or pressure tested?

[Gregory Stahl]

In and working--they want building warm!

[Martin Wasner]

Fun story, the overhead door guys want the floor poured before they install the doors. The concrete guys want the doors in before they pour....

Oh conundrums, how i hate thee.

They want heat in the building to control humidity more than anything. If it's bottled up, but not warm, it'll literally rain inside from the condensation coming off the lid. What I am going to do is get the walls up, roof on, and the weather cooperates enough to pour. As long as it stays above 40º I'm told we're good.

A bit less than half the walls got built today, they should be close to done building walls tomorrow. The trusses show up next week. They should be running the roof steel by the end of next week I'd think.

I'm hoping like hell this warm weather hangs on for another three weeks. We'll see.

I've got some pictures, but hotlinking from my phone is a pain.

[Martin Wasner]

Wouldn't they just add calcium? You have your foam and pex ready to lay and know your loop placement?

The longer concrete takes to cure, the stronger it is. As I understand it. Push it, and it starts to misbehave.

I'm not doing anything as far as the in floor heat goes, except telling the mortgage company to do another draw.

[Martin Wasner]

I've been naughty about putting pictures up.

October 11th, the excavators got the parking area pretty much done. There is a small area on the south end of the building they left the rock out because the sewer and water hadn't been dug in yet. This picture is looking south east.





October 17th, the water and sewer service were dug in. Holy crap they moved a lot of dirt for a couple of small pipes. I was shocked. I don't remember how deep it was, but I want to say twelve feet.








Monday, October 31st the carpenters finally were able to get on site. A crew of six can really get stuff done! Most of the walls were built in 16' sections, and they had a bit more than half built by the end of the day. Not the greatest day to be working outside. It wasn't that cold, but the wind was howling.







Yesterday, November 1st, they got the rest of the walls built, and actually started tipping walls up. I've been running up there after work to clean up cut off's and trash, when I turned the corner I saw they had a few sections up. A happy surprise for me.










That 16' sidewall looks massive to me. I've never had anything other than a 12' sidewall in either of my shops, so the top plate looks like it's a mile away. It'll be really nice having that extra vertical storage space for material. I can start buying things in larger quantities.

The next few weeks are critical. Trusses are showing up this Friday, (Nov 4th), I'm hoping they are ready to put steel on the roof by the end of next week. If the weather holds, I can get the plumber to finish up roughing in his stuff. Then have the concrete guys do their final grade. HVAC guys can lay their pipe for the radiant heat. Concrete guys can put down their mesh, then pour.

Overhead doors are a month out they said. That puts me at the beginning of December for those. It can easily be horribly cold by then. I may have to build something to cover up the door holes just to keep everything from freezing up solid. I hate to guess what it will cost to bring up everything to temp once 600,000 lbs of concrete gets cold. lol YIKES!

I also still don't have power up there. Excel Energy is dragging their feet getting the service trenched in. They've had the request for well over a month now. As of yesterday theres a frost charge, (which is criminal because there isn't a lick of frost in the ground), that will cost me another $1000 at least. Possibly much more. Everything is still up in the air too as to whether they are paying for the trenching and the transformer, or if I'm going to have another massive bill on that front. It'll be line voltage up to a transformer outside the building. That will drop down to 480v into the building, then either a 150kva 208v tranformer, or a pair of 75kva transformers. Those I will have to buy, and it depends on what I can scrounge up used.



Two things are up in the air currently for budgetary reasons.
-I want to do a fiber reinforced panel on the interior, (like what is used in hog barns). I skinned the inside of the delivery trailer with it and it has held up very well. It's easy to clean, it's very bright, and I think it might have some sound deadening qualities to it. It's not cheap though. At $60 a sheet, I need basically 200 sheets, that's $12,000 to cover the walls. EEK! I really don't want to do steel because it will be like working in a drum. Sheet rock is a terrible option I think. OSB will take a zillion gallons of paint to get covered. Plus I don't have a lot of time for painting.
-The other is the exterior siding on the walls. I believe that people have a certain responsibility to not make their surroundings look like a toilet. I don't want just another steel box in town, we have an adequate number already. What I want is brick, but that adds another ~$180,000 to the bill, which is just not happening. So my plan is to do LP Smartside. With a 5" reveal, and the 25 year warranty the material is something like $224/sq. I've got 60sq of siding, so another $13,500 in siding. I would like to do a steel band around the bottom, siding above that up to the eave, then maybe steel again on the gable ends. So it might not be that much of an upcharge in material doing the lap siding in between. But, I don't have any numbers for just doing the whole thing in steel. I also think the vertical lines down low of the steel, and the horizontal lines above it will look nice. I still want brick though.

[Martin Wasner]

More pictures of walls going up today.













I'd assume they are going to leave the north wall out so they can drive in with the telehandler for setting trusses. Last I heard that was the plan anyways. There was talk of putting a few together on the ground and using a crane to set them, but I think that plan got canned.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

That's excellent progress! I am sure you are pleased!

[Neil Gaskin]

How are you/they protecting the base of the walls at grade? It looks like the osb is right at grade.

[Martin Wasner]

That's excellent progress! I am sure you are pleased!

Quite pleased.

How are you/they protecting the base of the walls at grade? It looks like the osb is right at grade.

There will be a couple inches of settling I'm sure, but right now the gravel is basically up to the top of the block.

[mreza Salav]

Must be very exciting.
Did you consider adding more windows? Was it a security concern or you wanted most of the wall space?

[Mike Heidrick]

Moving right along.

[Martin Wasner]

Must be very exciting.
Did you consider adding more windows? Was it a security concern or you wanted most of the wall space?

Security mostly, efficiency another. Windows and doors are just places to lose energy. Also any penetration in the wall becomes a potential spot for water to create issues.

I didn't want the number of passage doors I've got either, but I was forced to by the government. It'd be nice to have some more natural light, but what is there is sufficient.

[Neil Gaskin]

You really want 4-6" of distance between grade and the framing with pitch away from the building. Otherwise the osb will fail very quickly and while the framing will hold our longer it will be very suseptable to rot and insect infiltration.

[Martin Wasner]

Pitch isn't a problem, I've got much more than I wasn't right now. I should've buried 2-3 feet of the one end of the building. I'm not real happy with how high it's sitting at the moment. Plus there's gutters that go into a tile line that punches out a good 50' from the corner of the building.

There's a bit of space now between the sheeting and grade right now, as squishy as things are right now, and none of the aggregate immediate to the foundation has been mechanically packed, I'm guessing I'll have that 4" in the spring.

We had a very wet summer, all the clay and rip rap that was hauled in is just mush. When a heavy truck pulls through the site it creates a wave off the tires in the gravel. The frost heave this winter will be impressive.