New Garage Shop

[Bill Lewis]

Ok, while this won't be my primary woodworking shop it will be a place to store lumber, plywood and panel saw, and maybe even a large sander one day.

The foundation was completed a few weeks ago. The framers were consideralby impressed it was only out of square by 1/8". I have to give that to the foundation guy I hired. He is the best in the area that I know, has been around for a ong time. We tweaked the plans a bit to raise the side walls of the foundation. This gives me more headroom. However since there is a second floor to this garage, We had to put in a landing to keep the stair run the same.

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In this picture you can see the proximity of the garage to the house.

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Now on Wednesday the Lumber Package arrived.

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On Thursday The Trusses arrived. I had the truss company tweak the plans a bit. The stick framed version of the upstairs was only 14 ft wide, I was able to push it out to 16 ft. More floor space!

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Day 2 of the framing. All of the walls have been framed. The trusses are being prepped for the gable ends, and the doubles nailed together.

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[Bill Lewis]

End of Day two of framing, lunch time. Everything is pretty muched prepped and ready to go.

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The framing crew will be back next weekend with a crane to lift everything in place. They'll then finish out the roof truss caps, the dormers, and the roof sheathing. Probably will need about three or four days total and they will be done. These guys are extrememely fast, and work like machines, very little talking amongst them, they jsut do it. Good to have framers who know what they're doing.

[Jim Becker]

Your contractors seem to be an efficient bunch! Looking good, Bill...

[Don Bullock]

That looks great Bill. Congratulations! Yes, I'm green with envy.
Maybe some day I'll be able to have a shop like that too.

[Ted Miller]

Bill, Thats awesome that the foundation was only out by that much. Nice not to have to shim every where to get the bottom plates level. How deep did you go for the rat walls. Is it 48" in your area for the frost line?...

[Bill Lewis]

Nope, frost line for us is 24" I think. Might even be a few inches less. I can't recall exactly. Never heard them called "rat walls" before.

You're right, the foundation was only out by about an 1/8" out of level, but I was referring to previously was that it only measured 1/8" out on the diagonals (for square). That's pretty much dead on, and definately made the carpenters day.

It did have a very slight bow in the wall where the landing is located, but the carpenters compensated for that by laying the bottom plates straight.

I had to use all of my available fill dirt for infilling the foundation before pouring the structural slab. Fortunately I had several truckloads "stashed" on the lot. Unfortunately I still need a couple of truckloads to backfill and grade some more.

[Bill Lewis]

Lots of progress this weekend. The framers had the whole garage erected by 11 am on Saturday. They spent the rest of the weekend adding the second floor supports, decking it, and adding the supports for the roof between the double trusses that flank the dormers, and stair hall.

Expect some pics later this week, and a Youtube video link too!

[Mick Zelaska]

Lookin' real good, Bill. Looks like it'll be a great place to work. Hope you gave some thought to electric requirements for lighting and powering your equipment. Easier to install romex in the walls now rather than run conduit later. Also, now is the time to think about dust collection. Might be able to rough-in some ductwork in the walls or in a ceiling bulkhead. BTW I like your avatar - GO HOKIES!

[Bill Lewis]

Not to worry Mick, the walls aren't getting closed up anytime soon. I've got plenty of time to get the electric sorted out. I plan to run probably about 100 amp sub-panel to the garage. That should be more than adequate for several 240V circuits for the welder, compressor, and maybe a lift (11' ceiling).

As for woodworking, I will probably only go with portable dust collection. I only intend to have my panel saw, and maybe a large sander out there some day. The rest of the woodworking shop stays in the basement. I do wish I had kept the Jet 1200 dust collector that I sold a few years ago when I upgraded to the cyclone.

Check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0371KpR-qPo

Let me know if it works, this was my first. I really had to edit it down to fit it in to the allowed 10 minutes.

[Dave Fifield]

Bill - the video works great, thanks! It was a treat to see your new building go up so quick. I only wish they do mine as fast when the time comes.....only a few more weeks now before work starts!

Cheers,

[Bill Lewis]

Just a few more pictures to show the progress. It's definately taking the crew more time to finish out the roof structure. Of course they are fitting this in between their bigger jobs. Mostly on the weekends and a couple of days during the week here and there. Whatever day it is, they get to the job early, and work a full eight.
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The roof is also eating up a lot of added lumber. Even though we used trusses, there is a lot of framing and bracing that has to be added between those dormers, both for the floor and the roof.
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The carpenters have spent a lot of time making sure that the roof and the trusses are straight square and plumb. The tweak push and pull them and I would have to say they have been dead on. The little mistakes add up, and these guys are experienced to know the difference.

[Tim Malyszko]

The garage certainly appears to be progressing nicely. I really like the dormers and cannot wait to see the finished garage.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Tim, the dormers add a very nice touch. I was originally going to put them on the upper floor of my shop building when we were planning on finishing it off...but with our upcoming addition, that's off the table.

[Bill Lewis]

Oh I forgot to mention, we also decided to cut in another window on the second floor. Well actually it will be in the stair hall at the second floor level.

We decided to do this for a couple of reasons, first, the side of the garage that faces the yard (in the picture) would otherwise be this huge expanse of siding. We needed something to "break it up", architech-ually speaking. Another benefit is that if we decide to put a floodlight on that wall, it can be in the vicinity of the window for easier bulb changes. Of course getting to the window over the stairs might still pose a minor problem. Lastly, we kind of decided that we liked having a view of the yard from this perspective, expecially if we decide to do more with the upstairs than just a storage area.

Better to do it now rather than regret it later.

Stay tuned for the next "really cool" thing for this building. If all goes well, I should have some pictures later in the week.