Yet another shop build.... McFarlane

[Peter Aeschliman]

Must be so fun for you, despite the concrete/DC piping setback!

[mark mcfarlane]

The DC pipe has been properly repositioned 3 feet away from the first location. A crew of 5 showed up for 3.5 hours to cut the slab and extend the pipe 3 feet and fill it in and re-concrete. Mostly they stood chatting while one guy worked. Half of the time was waiting for the framers to get out of their way. Glad I'm not paying for it.

[mark mcfarlane]

I believe I purchase the 3/8" Anti-Fatigue versions. What's nice about ULine is that they have very broad sizing options. Most of what I've purchased has been 4' wide. For a new shop like yours, it may be more economical to buy a "roll" and cut to length. The material is easy to customize, too. At my Stubby lathe, for example, I used a 5' x 6' mat and cut out for the legs so that I have material on the floor that completely covers then entire area where I might stand, both in front and at the tailstock end. Before I cut down the right side table on my slider to get a little more room between it and my J/P, the floor was completely covered between the tools. As you can see from this photo, I need to make an adjustment to fill a 16" gap and will do so at whatever point I replace the mat in the kitchen. (They only last a few years because of the uneven brick underneath) The mat in there will go to the shop and get cut up to fill in where I need more mat. You can also see in this photo that I cut around the J/P so the mat also covers the infeed side.

...

The rolls look interesting, but I'd have to cut my own bevels and the minimum freight charge is $131 for one 4'*60'*5/8" roll, although it appears I can get 2 rolls for the same freight cost.

Jim, I don't suppose you have tried the 5/8" mat? 40% more thickness = 40% more cost, but I've been on my feet most of the past 2 days and wish I was on clouds instead of concrete.

[Jim Becker]

While I have not tried the thicker mat, I'm sure it's very nice. The quality on these mats is good.

I don't worry about the bevels on the ends of things I had to cut. I only suggested that perhaps a roll might be cost effective because you're starting from scratch with a whole shop to equip. Check to see where their closest warehouse is...if it's anywhere that costs less than $100 to travel, you could pick up rather than pay freight.

[mark mcfarlane]

...Check to see where their closest warehouse is...if it's anywhere that costs less than $100 to travel, you could pick up rather than pay freight.

I checked yesterday. Carrollton, TX (NW of Dallas) is where they would ship from. 3.5 hours each way, avoiding rush hour driving through Dallas... With wear-and-tear on the truck, not a good proposition.

[mark mcfarlane]

Here are a few more pics of progress. Rough in plumbing is done, except for water heater which should happen today. Electrical starts in a few minutes and should take 2-3 days. The window locations don't show up, they are covered in Tyvek.

The neighbors think I am a bit crazy. It looks like part of the house, so they think we are building a 'mansion'.

[mark mcfarlane]

Progress has slowed down a bit. Electricians took closer to 3 weeks as opposed to 3 days. But they did an excellent job. It's actually the only crew I have been really happy with. Father-son team. Dad used to teach NEC code. Son is up on all the latest tech, generators,... They are doing a great job.

I'm on the second HVAC contractor. First one was unreliable. Second one subcontracted out the rough in and we ended up firing them as idiots. Hopefully someone will show up today to rough in the HVAC mini splits. I settled on 2 Mitsubishi cassettes for the music rooms and a Mitsubishi wall mount for the shop. Ended up costing a bit more than I expected.

Also had a miscommunication and ended up with windows that don't open. Had to repurchase 3 windows so I could get some fresh air in the shop. If anyone is in Texas and wants some free windows let me know. They were surprisingly inexpensive. Double insulated, Low E, 5'*5' for $200. 2' * 5' was $100.

Looks like the end of June for completion, if we get back on schedule... Next is HVAC, insulation, sheetrock, paint, flooring, final plumbing...

Oh ya, we can't find a brick that matches. I have someone coming out later in the week to build some test walls and hand splatter the brick by flicking mortar off a broom,.... 8000 brick to paint this way. Kind of makes me crazy. I was told the GC had brick that matched. When I asked for samples to be deliverd only the name matched, not the colors or texture. If I had known the brick was going to be a problem I would have built a detached structure, avoided the 9 month fight with the water district over an easement, and would already be working in the new shop.

One interesting thing I did (and hope it works) is put the rapidair 90 degree junctions in electrical outlet boxes. This will theoretically allow me to do fix any leaks on the last 90 degree bend after the spray foam goes in. We'll see how that works in practice.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Looking awesome, man!!! Hang in there. Once the shop is done, the frustrations will fade!

[Bill Dufour]

With a big dc pipe misplaced I question if the piers are where they need to be now. I think the structural eng needs to be in the loop at this point before you cut into the slab. How thick is the concrete above and below the dc pipe?
Bill

[Jim Becker]

With a big dc pipe misplaced I question if the piers are where they need to be now. I think the structural eng needs to be in the loop at this point before you cut into the slab. How thick is the concrete above and below the dc pipe?
Bill

That remediation work was already done a long time ago...

[mark mcfarlane]

With a big dc pipe misplaced I question if the piers are where they need to be now. I think the structural eng needs to be in the loop at this point before you cut into the slab. How thick is the concrete above and below the dc pipe?
Bill

The DC pipe runs underneath the slab, not through it. The cuts required were made between the concrete beams. Slab between beams is about 5" thick. Beams are ~30" thick, piers go down another 3-4 feet.

As Jim said, the slab cut was made about 6 weeks ago.

Spray foam is going into the walls and ceiling as I write this. Should have sheetrock up on the walls Monday, taping and all finished by the end of the week. We had a 'pause' in construction for a few weeks, so I took over driving the schedule .

I found a solution to the brick matching problem, but it's going to require hand texturing 8000 bricks. Still cheaper than replacing the brick on the rest of the home.

[Bill Dufour]

Glad to hear the pipe misplacement was not as big a problem as it could have been. So I guess this is a pier and grade beam foundation with a slab on top? Never heard of such.
In the San Francisco area some hillside houses the foundation can be half the house cost or more. And we are talking multimillion dollars just for the foundation. All the easy sites have been built on already so only unbuildable? lots are left to build on today.
Bill

[mark mcfarlane]

Glad to hear the pipe misplacement was not as big a problem as it could have been. So I guess this is a pier and grade beam foundation with a slab on top? Never heard of such. ...
Bill

Hi Bill,

The piers are poured concrete. The beams and slab were poured together, tied together with steel (rebar). There is a pic of the beams before the slab was poured in post #14 of this thread (page 1).

[mark mcfarlane]

Not real exciting, but shows some progress. The spray foam is done. It was fun watching the spray guy walk his ladder around the room. He never got off of it. The guy trimming the foam (pictured) did cut through an AC condensate line so I need to get that fixed before the walls get sheet rocked, which is supposed to happen tomorrow (Monday).

[Chris Padilla]

Is that open or close cell spray foam there, Mark? What kind of tool is he using to cut it back? I used a longish handsaw to do mine but that is some work. It looks like he has a 3' long sawzall blade or something! I also chopped into an electrical line that had somehow gotten pushed out beyond the stud-face plane. I'm guessing the spray foam forced it out and I didn't see it until sparks and that burnt spell stopped me. That was a pain to fix. It is also a pain getting rid of all the excess chunks of foam. I like the stuff, however, as it seals well and has a very high R-value.