My new shop

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It's looking good!

[mreza Salav]

Looks good. It must be very stressful for you and I hope all works out well.

[Frederick Skelly]

Martin, your shop is coming along great!

I know the building process is hugely stressful, and that power companies can be some of the worst. (Been there.) I know it's a bear. Keep on keepin' on, man. We're pullin' for you.

Fred

[Mike Heidrick]

Its really looking great. Love this thread. Keep at it. It will pay off.

[Martin Wasner]

The whole ordeal has been stressful. I would say one of the least pleasant undertakings I have ever done. Playing General Contractor wouldn't be so bad if I weren't spending 60+ hours a week trying to keep money coming in, and it seems like virtually every single thing is some sort of road block that has to be overcome. It will all be worth it when done though, as my business is being strangled in the amount of space that it is in.

[mreza Salav]

During those two years I was building our house I had my full time job and was working on the house. I was putting more than 70 hours per week (7 days a week) for almost a year and a half. It was brutal but was done and I'm glad with the result.

[Martin Wasner]

During those two years I was building our house I had my full time job and was working on the house. I was putting more than 70 hours per week (7 days a week) for almost a year and a half. It was brutal but was done and I'm glad with the result.

That's about where I'm at for hours, give or take. I did have one week a few weeks ago where I only put in 45(ish) hours, felt like a vacation. I'm spending anywhere from 10-20 hours a week managing this nightmare.


The grind continues though.


This will be a busy month. I'm hoping things fall into place the way I want them to. Christmas will throw a massive wrench in the mix if it doesn't work out the way I want. At least it's on a weekend this year...

Overhead doors are showing up on the 12th, it'll take a day and a half. I'm going to start pouring heat to it on the 14th. Hopefully get the cement guys in there on the 15th-16th to do their final grade, and get the foam down. I thought I was going to be putting the foam down, but they said they want to do it, but I could help. lol. NO. If I'm paying for it anyways, enjoy, I've got better stuff to do. Get the HVAC guys in there to do the loops on the 19th and 20th. Do the first pour, (they are doing it in two pours), on the 21st. Come back on the 22nd and cut the first pour, and seal it. Do the second pour on the 23rd, cut and seal on the 24th.

That's a lot of crap to ram out in a short amount of time. Anything goes sideways, I'm going to get cranky. But, life (insert whatever appropriate word/euphemism you like), happens.



The energy company is still backed up. Now there's some question on how they are going to get power back there as the city is telling me that there might not be the right of way that I was hoping for. We shall see. Current speculation is February 22nd before I've got juice. It's going to cost me a fortune to keep this thing warm in the meantime. Weather is turning for the worst this week as well.


The ceiling is almost up entirely. This picture is from last week. They've got a few more rows to wrap up tomorrow. I thought they'd get it done today, but they ran out of poly. The lid is getting insulation blown in next weekend. Hopefully they get the walls done this week as well. That goes pretty quickly.




Soffit and facia is just about done. They got the back side of the building done first so I could get the dust collector set.





And I got the dust collector set in place, which was a huge relief. I'd been trying to get that thing up for a few weeks, weather and schedule just wouldn't allow it to happen. It wasn't too bad, but it was a bit hairy getting it from flat to vertical. I had the telehandler boomed out pretty far, and up pretty far. It's not that heavy, 3500#, but I wouldn't want to be near it had something gone sideways when we were either getting it up, or carrying it to the backside of the building. It looks large sitting on it's side. It looks massive standing upright. I'm going to be one happy camper having adequate dust collection in this shop. I'm not going to be happy camper watching the power meter spin a 20hp motor for large portions of the day though.



Bolted down, and chains off. One thing that is a bit of a bummer, the current air intake location is basically pointed right at the facia... I was hoping it wasn't going to work out that way, but wish in one hand, defecate in the other. There are other holes that can be used for the dirty air in, but the one I wanted to use I think is the ideal one. I can't change the orientation of it, as the BOOM panel needs to be facing away from the building. And other issues are created rotating it on the pad. I did a horrible job locating those piers it sits on. All four legs are on, and on decently, but they aren't all centered by any stretch of the imagination. My brother enjoys rigging type stuff, and was giving me crap when we were setting it; "How does a cabinetmaker end up that far off?".

[Martin Wasner]

Cool Story:

There's no right of way to run power back to the building. That means getting easements from my neighboring land owners. That could go south in a hurry. I hope I haven't ticked anyone off... I'm guessing it's going to add at least another month to their schedule too. Go from February 22nd to March 22nd now. Fun stuff when I'm looking at about $700 a month in interest on something that isn't making me any money. The upside is that by the time they get going in March, the frost charges will be likely off. I'm looking at potentially 1000 feet of directional boring at $20 a foot. That gives me cold sweats at night.

[Frederick Skelly]

Oh crap. I'm sorry to hear it Martin.

[peter gagliardi]

Hopefully you get to the other side of this with a fragment of your skin left!
I really had hoped to build my shop, before I bought my old worn out, cold war era defence contract building with all its issues, but then again, I read this and think I did ok.
In the end though you end up with pretty much exactly what you want, you are just paying accordingly. If I had exactly what I want, it would cost me double what it did. But, I paid less, and compromised to do so.
I console myself by remembering I never have to move or upgrade again- before I moved, I was shoehorned into the first floor, and third floor of an old industrial mill building with a 10" wood post every 8' x 12'- aaaaah, the not so good old days!
Now, I am using about 8000 sf of my 20,000 sf building for the shop, and of course the rest turns to junk storage- for me, and apparently half my family.
That no power access thing is a real kick in the teeth!

[Mike Heidrick]

They are putting a moisture barrier (10mil plastic tyvek taped etc) under the foam correct?

[Martin Wasner]

They are putting a moisture barrier (10mil plastic tyvek taped etc) under the foam correct?

No, the foam acts as the moisture barrier. I asked if it needed to be taped, nobody seems to think so.

[Martin Wasner]

Hopefully you get to the other side of this with a fragment of your skin left!
I really had hoped to build my shop, before I bought my old worn out, cold war era defence contract building with all its issues, but then again, I read this and think I did ok.
In the end though you end up with pretty much exactly what you want, you are just paying accordingly. If I had exactly what I want, it would cost me double what it did. But, I paid less, and compromised to do so.
I console myself by remembering I never have to move or upgrade again- before I moved, I was shoehorned into the first floor, and third floor of an old industrial mill building with a 10" wood post every 8' x 12'- aaaaah, the not so good old days!
Now, I am using about 8000 sf of my 20,000 sf building for the shop, and of course the rest turns to junk storage- for me, and apparently half my family.
That no power access thing is a real kick in the teeth!

I did NOT want to build, but everything I looked at was either way too big, with a big price tag. Or way too small. I just couldn't find a space that was right. There was a building that I really should've bought, but it was 15k sq/ft for $650k. That's pretty reasonable, but out of my price range unless I got real creative with financing and/or spent money I didn't want to explain. It would've had good resale value too bring it was located in an industrial park. They other problem is I likely would've had to have thrown another $100k at it to make it work for my needs.

[peter gagliardi]

No, the foam acts as the moisture barrier. I asked if it needed to be taped, nobody seems to think so.

In order to function as a vapor barrier, it HAS to be taped, or be a monolithic sheet. Vapor transmission happens at, if I remember correctly ,microscopic size levels . It finds a way through the tiniest penetrations.
Maybe as a percent of overall floor area they feel it doesn't matter, but when I general contract, which I do besides running a full time woodshop, the floor gets continuos sheeting, period! What they do above it, I don't care, as long as they don't puncture it.
When it is your own building, you don't have to worry about future liability if someone doesn't "follow the recipe"

[Mike Heidrick]

I used 10 mil taped as a moisture barrier to keep the extruded polystyrene foam from constant contact with moisture. Then lay the 2" polystyrene and tape it as well. Dont ask people that have to do back breaking work what you should have them do.