Folks, the shop build is finally underway. Photos were requested, so they follow. At this point the old rickety shed is torn down to make way for the shop, as it overlapped the shop footprint a little and given its condition, we improved it a lot by tearing it down. It has been a long battle to finally get to this point, as I started trying to find a contractor about a year ago or so. As I mentioned in the initial post, I finally gave up on contractors after trying to work with 4 of them, none of which worked out. As mentioned before, I am now my own contractor, and know quite a bit about the basics of construction having done some of all of it years ago.
That said, it has been over 45 years since I worked in the building trades and there is a lot I don't know. Methods have changed some but the basics are still the same. However, given there is a lot I don't know, I do have friends who are experts in the field, and a mechanical engineer/building inspector daughter who knows a lot about building codes and construction, so I can ask them questions. She is also pretty good at some of the trades herself. (She has a masters degree in mechanical engineering and is working at getting the PE certificate.)
At any rate, seeing actual progress being made has made my wife and me pretty happy at this point.
This is the Thanksgiving day photo of our kid's families and me tearing down the old shed. My mechanical engineer daughter has been running a hammer and nail puller, but at this point is directing our efforts to tear down the shed. My two PhD engineer son in laws and me, the retired applied research chemist ex-carpenter, are running hammers and nail pullers. I am the one on the ladder showing my best side for the purpose of photos. The shingles and decking are gone at this point, and you can kind of see the scaffolding that I had built previously for pulling off shingles and decking. My two young teen age grandsons are not in the photo, but they were also helping.
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Old rickety shed is gone. The initial dirt work is done at this point, needed because our yard is on a slope. The shop footing excavation lines are shown here.
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This is a trench for the footing/stem wall before the rebar has been put in place, the dirt work excavator for the footing is just finishing the excavation.
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Pouring the concrete in the trench is about complete at this point. If you look closely you can see a little of the rebar in place. The guys are pretty grateful, I am pretty sure, that I am being very helpful here by mostly staying out of the way.
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The concrete pour of the footing/stem wall is done here, and this photo shows that result.
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Initial plumbing steps and forms for the slab are now in place. Electrical conduit for receptacles in the floor needs to be in place, and more dirt work will have to be done as the dirt in the center of the build is only 3 inches or so below the tops of the forms. It needs to be deep enough for 4 inches of concrete and 4 inches of sand. We may put in a layer of black poly as a moisture block on top of the sand even if we wet the sand down before putting in the rebar and pouring the slab.
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Well that's where we are right now. It will need to dry off some, as we got about an inch of rain today. Thanks go to the plumbers for wanting to work in the rain. I was very surprised that they showed up today because of the rain, as they had planned to, but to work in the rain was their choice not mine. Thanks go to Ben for showing me how to add the photos.
More to come as things proceed. As Steven adds in his projects, "stay tuned."
Thanks and regards,
Stew
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