Building a shop

If you're a) going to buy trusses and b) want storage above, I would consider an attic truss rather than the "W" truss that Bubba used. I'm planning a garage rebuild this year. Unfortunately, I'm in a suburban area with a few more regulations than you have. Pre-built trusses are almost forbidden here.

todd

Reply to
todd
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"Bubba Wood" wrote

Looks nice. Good job Bubba. I bet it is nice to work in a dedicated shop like this.

Why the gaps between the drawers in your cabinets along the wall. Or lack of doors on the other cabinets?

I do like the built in platforms for the miter saw, etc.

Also, why no paint on the walls? White paint lightens the place up and increases visibility. And is easier on the eyes than OSB.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

You need a footer so the edge of the slab under the walls does not crack away form the slab due to the weight of the wall. IIf you have a footer you can float the floor inside of it, or support the floor on a ledge on the inside of the footer, though that is more typical of a industrial construction.

There are construction techniques that combine the two, basicly a trench is dug for the footer, the outside is boxed in with forms and the footer and slab are poured altogether then a course or two of block is laid to raise the wood high enough above grade. That may or may not fly in your area, depending on the depth of the frost line.

There is a material called soil cement. This is made by tilling dry cement into the soil, then wetting and compacting it. This may or may not be viable for you depending on the composition of the soil. I think it works best for soil with a high clay content, OK for high sand content, and not very well at all for high humus content.

Popular science did an article on soil cement, maybe 35 years ago. It is the kind of thing you might find in back issues of Mother Jones, though I do not recall specifically seeing it there. There were one or more US government studies done (probably by the USDA) that might provide guidelines.

This sounds like the sort of thing you're looking for, low tech, low maintenance, costly in sweat but cheap in money. I have NO personal experience with soil cement so if you try it, let me know how it works out. ;-)

The key to doing a slab yourself is to either have good technique and a sufficient number of competent helpers, or good technique and only do a small section at a time. There is no substitute for good technique. If the cement sets before it is level and smooth, you're screwed. I'd start with a section not larger than

4 foot by 4 foot, so I could bust it up if I botched it, and go from there. The rebar will extend from one section to the next so you done;t have to worry (excesively) about differential setttling.

Working with cement is not too difficult but you need to research it well and understand the parameters to avoid disaster.

Very fun stuff. Not as much fun as wood, but done right, it lasts longer.

Reply to
fredfighter

If the floor is well above the water table then cement woudl be worse. Condensation can sink through the gravel but will sit on the surface of the cement.

If the water table is high enough for moisture to creep up through the floor it is a bad location for a building and the floor should be built above grade, regardless of the type.

Dust will be a PIA with a gravel floor. Once the sawdust as thick enough you could seep most of it off without losing much gravel, but by no means all. Heck, once the sawdust was thick enough you could saturate it with linseed oil, compact it, and have a linoleum floor. Might take a few years to cure without baking it though.

Reply to
fredfighter

If he uses fiber reinforced concrete he doesn't need to use rebar, but he'll want to pour the whole slab at once.

Fun? It's heavy, dirty, too wet or too dry and simply won't level like it should. Plus, it's heavy, dirty, too wet or too dry and simply won't level like it should.

JP

Reply to
Jay Pique

He could go with a scissor truss and have more headroom. Attics tend to accumulate stuff that's not touched until you die.

JP

Reply to
Jay Pique

I like the industrial look of OSB. In DreamShop 1.0 I'll probably paint some trompe l'oeil trim or something and then seal the whole lot of it.

JP

Reply to
Jay Pique

You could always do a half and half type thing, half of the building and open front or garage door with a gravel floor, and the other half a wood raised floor.

Reply to
Locutus

Reply to
stryped

x-no-archive:yes

Could I do a 4x4 section at a time as you say? I mean square off and form the entire 24x32 area then finishe the entire area by squaring that off into 4x4 sections? Would it looke right? How do you ensure each 4x4 area is the same height as the rest? Could I use sack crete?

I will read up on soil cement.

Reply to
stryped

From the outside it could look like any other outbuilding/pole barn, just when you go in the garage door there would be a gravel floor, with a dividing wall with some steps up to the door of the raised floor portion (think of an attached garage...)

Reply to
Locutus

unfortunately my quick posting from yesterday did not make it through our firewall, so another quick post:

i had a pole building, exactly as you describe, put up last year. i would highly recommend that you have someone do it for you--but i admire your initiative. another recommendation is that you consider "clear span" joists (i.e., engineered i-beams). you'll have a lot more attic space than even an attic truss would yield. (especially if you have a 1 or 2 foot kick wall built.)

the building, so far, has cost roughly $21k....there's a fortune to be saved in doing all the interior, electrical, and painting yourself.

i put up a quick summary of the construction of the building this past december. it can be found at:

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luck.

Reply to
kimnach

stryped, This is just my opinion and since it is free take it for what its worth ..... From your comments regarding the entire construction process, I think that you should not attempt to build this structure by yourself. Before you begin you need to educate yourself in basic construction at a level much greater than this news group can provide. Even then the book knowledge is not the same as being able to apply it in a practical sense. Reading a chapter on floating the finish of the concrete is very different from doing it. But the book knowledge will allow you to converse with contractors. While you may not have to deal with a building inspector or comply with "city" codes in your location you should not take that as the OK to just do it how ever you want to. In general building codes and inspections are not necessarily bad, they make sure the structure is safe and built to a minimum specification. The questions you have asked indicate that you do not have any experience in basic structural construction, if there is a construction site in in your area, particularly if it is a new home being built you should check it out and really look at the way it is being put together from the ground up. While I am not familiar with the type of foundations that are typically used in your area, if you can observe the construction steps of a concrete slab foundation you will see the footer and probably beams being dug into the soil, the beams will most likely have static tension cables in addition to the rebar. I am not saying that tension cables are necessary but you will need to do the soil / site preparation appropriate for your area, a compacted sand base will probably need to be installed even if excavation of beams is not required. A vapor barrier under the concrete would be essential. Regardless of the exact construction techniques that are appropriate for your soil conditions in my opinion rebar is cheap when you are building a foundation, use extra, it will be money well spent. Some utilities installed before the foundation is poured will be appreciated for years down the road, well placed floor plugs can be very handy, even if you do not plan to install electricity in the floor initially if you install conduit you can pull wire later. Some running water inside the shop would also be a great feature. Then there is the general electrical wiring and breaker box, do you know how to install the electrical service ? You will need to calculate loads and make sure the appropriate sized wiring is correctly installed. Concrete is not especially hard to work with if you know what you are doing, if you don't you will wind up with one big concrete mess. Breaking up concrete and hauling it off is not any fun under any circumstances. If you do not know how to work with a normal mix product I do not think you will stand any chance of success with some of high strength specialty mixes that have been mentioned in this thread. Electrical wiring is not especially hard either but there is a right way to do it, and it needs to be done correctly. If you are actually going to build a shop you should at least be pleased with it when it is finished. Just from the posts you have made in this thread I think you need the help of professionals. Just my 2 cents worth, hopefully you will think about some of the concerns I have pitched out there.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie H.

Thanks Lee, Yes it is.

Early photo, NO fronts on yet. I ended up putting raied panel on all the drawers and built out doors to match for the rest. Painted the whole ehing brite white and added a 5/4 hardwood edge to the double thick top. I'll post more photos later.

They make it so nice. Throw a hunk of wood up there and cut. No worry about holding up the 10 foot cut off. BTW, 12 feet on each side of the Miter saw. 16 and 8 for the RAS

No paint... No money in the buget. I say I'll paint it later but I doubt it now. I should of done it when I painted the outside with the big airless sprayer but I didn't, couldn't cuz we already had the inside half full of stuff. PLus the biggest reason is again money... I had a choice of interior paint or that Jet Lathe... :) You can see which one won.

Reply to
Bubba Wood

The total cost was in the 25k range. YMMV. I got caught having to buy over priced Katrina OSB. From first shipment to second OSB went from 9.90 to 14.90 here in Atlanta. And I needed 70 sheets. The whole building is sheeted in OSB, inside and out and insulated. It can be built for less $$$ it all just depends what you want.

It took 3 1/2 months of part time work to build. We started Sept 15. My son worked on it full time for 3 weeks, I helped hime for 6 days of that. IN that time we got the building raised, had the roofing installed by pros, put up the osb outside, installed the windows and doors, then he left. I did all the rest myself through the winter. We had our final on Jan 5.

Oh the siding also matches my house, Im in a subdivision with rules too. THe roof/attic has no storage except what you can lay across the trusses. They are "W" trusses. I guess I could sheet a section in the center, it is 8 feet tall there. Maybe later. :)

Bubba

Reply to
Bubba Wood

Oops... I missed the footer question. Yes there are footers, per code or a little more. The slab is a monolithic pour. The footers are 24" deep and 12" wide. The whole thing is also well above grade. In fact it is built on the high point of the lot, higher than the house.

Bubba

Reply to
Bubba Wood

That's interesting because it seems to be more common for building codes to require pre-built trusses.

Reply to
fredfighter

I'm guessing this is in response to my comments.

The answers lie in using the right techniques to make the result come out as you want. My parent's garage floor was poured in two sections, I'm not sure exactly why.

When you read up on cement work you will read about very simple tool called a 'screed'. Proper use of a screed is the key to getting sections level.

Cement is caustic it will burn your skin, given prolonged contact.

Reply to
fredfighter

Well, I didn't say it had to make sense. Like the fact that per code here, the eave on my house can't extend over the 5' easement at the edge of our property, but the outside of a fireplace can. There is a lot of teardown activity in my town, and I don't think I've ever seen a pre-built truss. We're outside Chicago, and I'm sure it takes more union labor to stick-build a roof than to hang some trusses. ;-) On the plus side, I think I can wind up with a bit more usable space in the attic with a stick-build roof.

todd

todd

Reply to
todd

...

Aha!

Hit the nail on the head I daresay.

Reply to
fredfighter

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