Very nice shop. Thanks for posting. My shop will also have 10 ft walls. I don't think I'll be using a concrete apron out front though. Hard to believe I am saying that having just moved from a home that had concrete everywhere, and lot's of it. I'm thinking of retrofitting a trailer ball mount on the front of my John Deere for moving my 5' x 10' trailer around in the gravel.... that'll help save the clutch on my pickup. I'm sure you think that's funny being a truck driver. Picked up the approved Permit from the county this morning. Now we are waiting for Lester to ship the materials... meanwhile its time for some dirt work. Here's a site photo... plan is to provide updated photo's as things progress.
1. GLAD you got your permit! 2. BEAUTIFUL SCENERY! 3. ANYTHING to add life to a clutch, is great. 4. My 2500HD has an automatic, because I bought it used, and my wife likes it that way... Steve.
10-18-2015 Dirt Work Progress Today - 3 loads of dirt... Damn, really? I'm posting photo's of dirt? With any luck this week some progress will be made. On the plus side the dirt guy was driving a Kenworth. _____ John
10-21-2015 Dirt Work: Completion of site leveling. Took 6 loads of fill dirt, varies in thickness from nothing to about 18".
Daily progress, that's what we like. The KW must have been a straight dump truck. No pictures? It would be nice if they would let you keep the Case. I'd like to have a bulldozer, to play with for awhile. I brought in a large quarry sized wheel loader last summer, had to store it at my place for a little over a month. The keys were in it, amazing the fun you can have with one of those. Like I said, before, I love the scenery, wish I was there. Looks like no snow on the peaks, yet. Steve.
Snow on the peaks... It's been raining the past two days... I'm sure once the clouds lift we'll have a lot of snow on the mountains. Here's some photo's we took two days ago near Granite.
Stunning pictures...you sure can shoot some beautiful shots. We have had a very nice fall season, here. I get to drive around and look at it every day, and, get paid for it! I do have a pretty cool job some days. No supervision, except for occasional law enforcement. I tried to upload a dash cam video, but, I think the file was too large. I'm guessing the Jeep season is over. Time for snowshoes? Steve.
Getting back to shop talk... I'm jumping the gun, a little, but, are you going to wire your new building, yourself? I wired mine, and at the time, just wired in porcelain light fixtures to use simple incandescent 100 watt bulbs. Eighteen of them, wired to three switches, for easy and quick, on and off. I would like to find a modern efficient alternative, and have tried a couple of LED home floodlights. They seem to work ok, with bright, white, light, but, are expensive. About 30 bucks, apiece, but, are supposed to last a long time. I like the instant, on-off, because sometimes I'm just in and out, for a tool, or to turn on the air. What are your thoughts? Steve.
Might do some snowshoeing tomorrow. Hiking gets a bit dicey this time of year with everybody on the hunt for furry woodland creatures. Lighting My thoughts on lighting is there are so many options out there it is mind boggling. For the initial permit phase I'm having an electrician run the 100 amp service, install the breaker box, 1 switch and 1 light..... then I'll do the rest. Solar The building will have three 10 ft vent / sky lights on the ridge. I had one of these on my barn back in Ohio and it really lit up the barn during daylight hours, so three should be very bright. These actually are made of metal and stick up about a foot above the roof, not just the flat clear stock that some manufacturer's screw to the roofing. Electric Lighting Do those LED flood lights blind you when you are just walking about in the shop? I used about twelve of the low cost Home Depot 4 ft florescent fixtures in my previous shop and they didn't like cold weather, and the ballasts died frequently. They are a pain. Current thought for electric lighting is to install octagonal metal junction boxes and use regular ole Edison base style fixtures. I am thinking LED's in the high bay and storage areas. I have a bunch of old school incandescent bulbs, so having the edison style fixtures allows for use of some of my NOS. Because of the truss placement in the high bay there will be a flat ceiling, 10ft high, that sticks out from the wall about 42". I'm thinking of installing cans in this area, also with LED's. This should provide good work bench lighting. I'll CAD all this out to figure how many fixtures are needed and what the spacing should be. _____ John
Dang, those are some absolutely BEAUTIFUL pictures!!! I know you have GOT to be looking forward to being inside your garage already! What did you use to pack the fill dirt down with?
Zig that's a great question. The fill dirt wasn't compacted by anything but driving the skid steer over it. Which I feel is a shortcut but the sub-contractor says it'll be fine. So... being a retired Mech. Engineer / QA guy I set about to find a test that could be done to prove compaction. I have contracted a local construction engineering place to perform tests on the soil (known as a proctor compaction test) and then do actual on site testing before the slab is poured. This will prove if the base is actually compacted to support the slab. I was taught at CWI school "Trust But Verify" ____ John
10-25-2015 Lighting Layout I had a chance to do some CAD layouts of the lighting for the pole barn. I ended up with (3) lighting circuits: (8) LED flood lights in the main "high" bay work area, (5) LED flood lights above the workbench, (4) LED's in the storage areas. I figure I'll wire it for this.. if I need more light I'll go from there. ______ John
It's like a giant model kit... John, the LED floodlights do not blind me in the shop, they do seem to concentrate light, even with 14' ceilings. Mine are evenly spaced on an 8 foot grid. They are heavy, relatively, and I have noticed they tend to unscrew themselves a little over time, and I have to tighten them back up. I'm thinking a fat rubber o-ring around the base of the threads will stop this. I've always liked a shop to be BRIGHT, and hated working in one that was cave-like. I've only tried them because...$30/each. The point you brought up about packing down the fill would alarm me. In fact, it would bother me a lot. I realize you only intend to park 3000 pound automobiles in your garage, but, cracks in the future might be hard to get anything done about. My KW weighs 20,000 pounds, bobtail, and a loaded unit is, well, at least, 80,000 pounds. One thing I did learn the hard way, mount your air compressor on something that will cushion your concrete. I'm thinking, now that it is there, you should have a lot of daily progress. Is the crew ready to go? By the way, what is that purple thing pulling the flatbed? Looks like a aerodynamic space-shuttle lookin' Petercar? yuck. Steve.
Thanks for the input on the lights Steve. I asked the trucker if the Pete was his, he said yeah. I asked if he liked it better than a KW.... he said no. Yes, the crew is ready. I hung with them today, laid out the building footprint and column locations. Tried using the bobcat to auger in the holes.. no dice, to rocky. Digging holes tomorrow morning with a backhoe. I'll report back _____ John _____ John
I think if your pouring concrete on a surface that rocky, you should be just fine. I sure would not want to try to dig a hole in your yard by hand, with a shovel. I'm curious, where do they manufacture these Lester buildings? I assume they would have several plants, serving different parts of the country. Where was the guy with the Peterbilt from? Steve.
Our building came from Charleston, IL. They have (3) plants.... not sure where the other two are. The trucker was from southern Illinios, said he delivers a lot of their buildings. ______ John
Charleston, Il. That is only 1 hour and 20 minutes from me! That's a long way to haul a building. Wish I could have brought it out there for you. But, then, I would not want to leave. Steve.
10-29-2015 Rock Hound Report I'm guessing the covering on the earth here is 75% rock, 15% sand and 10% organic material. Suffices to say the GC's plan to drill holes with an auger was a huge fail. So a mini track hoe was brought in and all the holes were dug on 10-27-2015. Then when I inspected the holes, late afternoon 10-27-2015, 7 were not deep enough. So the mini track hoe was brought back in and the 7 incorrect holes were reworked on 10-28-2015. Then when I inspected the holes, late afternoon 10-28-2015, 4 still aren't deep enough. They're close, close enough to rework by hand. Deviations vary from 2.5" to 7.75" to shallow. Interestingly enough the county inspector passed everything? The county inspector did tell us that the building needs an UFER ground. More information on that here: Ufer ground - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia We're getting there... lots or re-work, but we are getting there. ______________________ 30" Footer and 17" Puck _______________________ 30" x 42" Footer (for 2 posts) _______________________ 30" x 90" Footer (for 4 posts) _______________________ The Crew _____ John
