The Shop Build

[Pearce]

Made some great progress this week. I brought home the roll up door earlier this week and started installing the tracks on the wall. With block wall construction you have to use a hammer drill to drill out 32 ea 4" deep 3/8" holes for wedge bolt anchors. And of course I hit rebar in nearly all of the right side. There are rebar cutter bits but they still suck to use. I got through in a few places but might have had to cut the bolts short and epoxy some in as well.

One of the tools I got off Craigs List before starting was this Little Giant ladder. This is by far the best ladder ever. Very sturdy, multiple positions from extension, A frame, use on stairs, multiple height adjustments and all around great to use. Highly recommend them.




track installed



Then, you get a material lift from the rental store and a buddy to help ya hoist it into place.





boom, roll up door installed! Actually they are pretty easy.

[Pearce]

Looks so nice having the final components go on!



Windows too. They also require the use of a hammer drill to install. They get fastened in with Tap Cons.

[K2]

Looks nice. Are you insulating for A/C?

[Pearce]

Yes I will. Right now just the walls were injected with insulation. But, I'll do R-30 batts in the ceiling somehow. That will probably be down the road though. I desperately just need the building first!

[jsteves]

Looks awesome! Wish I had space for a dedicated shop

[Pearce]

Made some more progress the past couple weeks. Got the vinyl soffit and Hardi fascia installed. First coat of exterior paint done. Bunch of other detail work completed.






And had to put the truck in for a test fit. It will work for me but I sure wish the county would have allowed a bigger building.

[Pearce]

Today we started prepping the floor for the epoxy coating. First step was etching the concrete with a floor sanding machine. Well, that would have gone well except the garage is 50' behind the house. And the machine needed every bit of 15 amps to run. After multiple cord configurations we ended up back at Home Depot with a 50' 10 gauge extension cord that they assured us would work. HA, yeah it didn't. House wiring is only 12 or 14 gauge so I'm not sure why he thought a 10 gauge extension cord plugged into house wiring would work. And it didn't as I expected. Sooo, I did what you would expect. Opened up the panel and wired in a dedicated 10 gauge line. Problem solved! Though, a little sketchy LOL


My welder extension cord tied right into the panel. It's a 10 ga cord.





Temporary socket on the end of my welder extension cord to plug in the 50' cord home depot gave us



The mess of cords trying to make something work



Success!!

[ATL ZJ]

High marks for resourcefulness. Any plans to paint the interior walls to brighten up the space?

[Pearce]

Interior will be painted. Planning a two tone scheme. But I need to see how the epoxy floor looks first before making the final selection.

[Pearce]

The epoxy floor isn't in yet but I did get a chance to paint and add lighting. It's amazing how white walls brighten things up. The color is actually Sherwin-Williams First Star. Not quite white. Once the epoxy is down I'll pick a color for the bottom 3' of wall. It will be a little darker. We didn't get all the chalkiness off from the last pressure washing so did it again, with lights this time! My old garage in GA has like ten 4' shop lights and it isn't as bright as this one with just four. The 11' ceiling also helps.

Oh, and I got the Certificate Of Completion last week from the County.

[Ken L]

You're really going to like working in a shop with the painted walls. Like you noted, it's way brighter in there. Just seems easier to work on stuff in a space that's bright.

Looks really nice!

[BigDaveZJ]

Can't wait to get mine painted. You started yours a couple months after me and you're almost a month ahead of me now.

[Pearce]

Dave, you're doing pretty well with yours. I've not even got power run out to it, just extension cords. I'll do that a little at a time going forward. And I currently have no life besides building the garage, or the jeep or remodeling the house, LOL. Funny thing is my buddy who is a contractor is helping me. We were at UF together in the Construction Management program. I should be a few weeks ahead of where I am and he knows it. But, his real work makes him the good money, not my little garage, ha. I push a little harder cause I manage it for a living. Been trying not to with my good friend, but I have been riding him to get the epoxy done this week.

[BigDaveZJ]

Yeah I'm hoping to get moving on it again soon. Lot of life stuff going on lately. Having a contractor come in Wednesday to do the ceiling and insulation, so I should be able to paint soon. Then its lights and floors.

[Pearce]

OK finally the epoxy floor process started this week. First they did a special urethane caulk at the corner of the floor and walls.



Then the first coat of a sealer that is also acts like a vapor barrier.



Then they put down another product over the sealer that is also a waterproof membrane of some kind. All urethane products. Different than the first only because this one had a different product number and is gray. LOL
And as soon as that is rolled on they spread the quarts sand. In my case I chose a blended color called Ice, E-230. I missed getting a pic of them spreading it.





So there is a ton of the sand spread over the wet rolled on urethane. Tomorrow they will come back and blow off all the excess sand and then apply a sealer over it. This is awesome! )

[Pearce]

Also decided to hire an electrician I worked with in the past to run power from the house out to the garage. I was finally burnt out on doing a bunch of the work myself and doing all the calculations for the appropriate wire size to run out there and related BS. This way I know it's done by a licensed electrician and the important part it got DONE. I can handle the rest of the wiring from the panel at the garage once I get everything in there and decide on a layout.




Only thing holding me back now is the random FL rain showers. I need to work on the outside till the floor is done and i can't! So I sit and relax with a beer watching the rain, hahah

[ATL ZJ]

that's what you get for living in the tropics. looking good though

[Pearce]

The epxy guys came back Saturday morning to finish up. First step is blowing off all the excess sand.



Looks like this before the next two coats of clear are applied.



Then a couple coats of clear.



As part of the process they also put down a traffic grade caulk joint at the entrance and around the perimeter of the building and exterior concrete.



Finish the second coat of exterior paint and wait 24 hours to go inside and paint more there. ....

[Pearce]

On day two I could go on it with foot traffic only. This product takes 72 hours to fully cure.




After a long day of painting on the inside, this is how it looks!!








There are still a few minor paint and caulk things to do and I'm going to put at least one 120v and 240v receptacle in for now. After I get everything moved in over the course of the next week I'll finalize a power layout.

One thing I didn't really consider is with the epoxy floor I'll have to be more careful about plasma cutting and weld sparks. It's still worth having the floor but there will be times when it needs to be protected while working. I'm researching weld spark mats now also.

[Pearce]

Finally some pics of it loaded up. Hate how small it quickly gets! But, I love my pallet racks!! And another plug for the Little Giant ladder, thing is just bad ass.




You can see in this one where I ran a quad box and a welder outlet. Just enough to get by for now. Need to feel out the new space before I start running power all over.











Helped a friend out with his chevy so took the rigs out. Just had to sit back and take this pic and be excited about my backyard. Only the beginning!! So much more to come in chassis build and continued backyard upgrades.