New Garage/Workshop (Long)

[Frank Snyder]

Well, I'm one month into this new garage project and I'm just about ready to begin framing. I've been meaning to post something earlier, but I've not had a whole lot of free time on my hands.

The initial process actually began back in May when my wife and I had to submit a variance application to the city for their approval. One month later, we were granted the variance and a building permit to begin construction. We began construction, or rather, deconstruction on July 5th. I will be doing most of the work myself, with the exception of the concrete slab, water line and gas meter relocations.

We also moved our existing driveway from one side of the house to the other to gain an additional 4 feet of breathing space. We're on a undersized 50x100 city lot and the side on which the old driveway existed was only 12 feet wide, whereas the new side has 16 feet. Getting in and out of our car without hitting the house or our neighbors fence was always a problem before, as was snow removal.
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The garage will be 588 square feet with nine foot ceilings and an accessible attic for lumber storage (pull-down stairs). This was the largest footprint I could muster on our postage-stamp sized lot (30% of my back yard). For the cold Chicago winters, I bit the bullet and went with an in-slab radiant heat system and a tankless boiler. I'm sure I will appreciate it more once Winter arrives. I also had the concrete slab finished to a SS/SF surface, just like the borg stores have. I figured this was the ideal surface for rolling a 800 lbs. planer around.
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[Ben Grunow]

Very nice project! Congratulations. I built my own shop last summer (and it still does not have siding or heat) and it was very rewarding. Good luck and enjoy the process.

[Frank Snyder]

The caveats involved with relocating our driveway meant relocating underground utilities. The city insisted that we relocate the gas meter and our water line since they do not want gas meters alongside driveways and they won't allow b-boxes in driveways. The new 1" copper water line was an upgrade from our existing 5/8" lead line, and we immediately noticed an improvement in water volume. Not bad for $4K. Fortunately, electric, phone and cableTV are all overhead, so those weren't an issue. I'm also upgrading our 100 amp service to 200 amps and running a 100amp subpanel out to the new garage.
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[Frank Snyder]

The demolition process was theraputic. I've been doing most of my woodworking projects out on our back patio under a 10x10 tent. The old garage had no power and was structurally unstable. I was glad to see this sorry excuse for a garage finally brought down.
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[Frank Snyder]

Excavation began the following weekend and my friend and I pulled out our 80 foot concrete driveway and garage slab in about 2 hours using a 800-series Bobcat. The next day, we excavated for the new garage slab and driveway, using the dirt from the excavation to fill in the void left from the old driveway. Unfortunately, the Bobcat snagged my gas line (it hadn't been relocated yet) just 10 inches below grade. Code here is just 18" deep for a gas line, and we didn't expect to see it that shallow. Fortunately, the gas company made good time on a Sunday and had things under control within a half-hour.
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[Frank Snyder]

For gravel, I went with a local concrete recycling facility that sells CA-6 crushed concrete and they also hauled away our old concrete driveway for free. I used the gravel for the new driveway base and slab.

I hired a concrete conctractor to form, pour and finish the slab. I had originally planned on doing this myself, but I received a quote that was less than it would cost me to buy the materials and rent the finishing tools. This seemed like an easy decision to make, especially since I've never poured or finished concrete before.

The pour went well with the exception that it was 90 degrees that day which made the finishing process a real challange for the concrete guy. They used zip strips for the expansion joints so that heavy equipment doesn't get hung up in the joints when they are rolled around. He came back the following week and applied a sealer to the slab. It looks just like a borg store floor now.

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[Jim Becker]

Very nice project! 'Looking forward to the continuing saga...

[Frank Snyder]

Since the slab was finished, I've been relocating water and gas lines inside my house to tie into their new source locations. Now that the gas meter has been moved, I trenched a 80 foot x 18 inch deep path from the meter to my garage and ran a 1" plastic gas line using Normac risers to convert black pipe to plastic and back again. I also attached a 12 gauge wire so that the gas company can locate the line in the future.
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The lumber should arrive here by Wednesday and I will begin framing out walls as fast as I can. I will make sure I update this thread with progress reports and pictures.

Let's hope I can wrap this project up before Winter arrives. Stay tuned...

[Roy Wall]

Frank -

Welcome to Sawmill Creek! You've got a GREAT shop project going there. Thanks for the pics - keep em coming......... and good luck in the new space.

It looks fantastic......and you'll love that heat!

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks for the encouraging words. I had my gas line inspection this morning and all went well. My lumber delivery got pushed back to Thursday, so it looks like I won't be framing until then.

[Marty Walsh]

Frank,

Congrats on the new shop! Looks like you have it well under way. Looking at your pictures, I can't imagine doing the work with neighbors so close. I know I'm making A LOT of noise building my shop.

Please keep posting progress shots. It'll be nice for me to be able to sit back and watch someone else do the work...for a change...

- Marty -

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks, Marty. I'm still amazed that my neighbors haven't complained about the noise I make, especially considering I did all of my woodworking outside on my back patio last year and my 13" lunchbox planer screams like a jet engine. They're either extremely tolerant or hard of hearing .

[Lincoln Myers]

Nice progress. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

-Linc

[Frank Snyder]

Well, I managed to get a few walls up over the weekend. It ended up raining here for most of Thursday when the lumber arrived, so I didn't start cutting up 2x4's until Friday. My plan was to get three adjacent walls built all at once on the ground, with the longest of the three wall being built last on top of the two flanking walls so that it would be the first wall raised. Then, while one or two helpers hold that wall, we raise the flanking walls and attach them so they support each other. I'm building walls on a slab on-grade, so I really didn't want to anchor braces to the concrete if I could avoid it.

The other challenge with this build is the anchor bolts which extend about 3-1/2" above the concrete surface, so the wall has to be literally lifted and placed onto the bolts so that they fit into their pre-drilled holes. I used 4x4 blocks under the bottom plate to support the wall once it was raised, then we could shift the wall so that the bolts lined up with their holes. Then I would use a large crowbar to off-load the weight of the wall while I kicked the blocks out from beneath.

It took me most of Friday to get all of the plates laid out, drilled for the anchors and marked out for the studs. On Saturday, my wife and I built 2 walls, sheathed them and attached the Tyvek. I ran the sheathing short on the outside corners so I could cut them flush once they're plumbed, and I ran the Tyvek long so I could finish wrapping the corner once the outside corners had been sheathed.

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[Frank Snyder]

On Sunday, I began building the longest of the three walls (28 feet) and I had some friends who were going to help me lift the walls cancel on me at the last minute. Without the additional muscle, my wife and I wouldn't be able to raise the 28 foot long wall by ourselves. So, I decided to build the longest wall in two 14 foot sections so that it would be easier to raise. I installed 2 sheets of sheathing on each section to help prevent the wall from racking (I'm using 4x9 1/2" OSB vertically) and attached Tyvek to each section. We were able to raise one section and I ran a temporary brace from the top plate to the outside edge of the slab while my wife supported the wall. Fortunately, at this point, my wonderful neighbors saw the action and decided to lend a hand. With the additional muscle, we were able to get the next section and the two flanking walls raised and supported. I will be making a beer delivery soon to show our gratitude.

Once the three walls were raised, I finished filling in the middle section of the longest wall and sheathing the outside corners. Even though the 28 foot long wall was built in two sections, the wall and outside corners came out perfectly plumb, much to my surprise. This is the first structure I've ever built, so I was expecting much worse.

I also used my router with a 1/2" flush-cut bit to do the window cut-outs and to clean up the outside corners of the wall sheathing. This worked like a charm.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow morning, but once it clears up, I'll get the last three walls built on the ground and maybe my wife will help me raise them when she gets home from work.
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More pics to come.