Garage finally under construction
 

I started a prefabricated metal garage project last fall. Now that I have progress to share, I'll be sharing the project.

First, I had to purchased the building to get the engineered drawings for the slab. It took about 3 weeks to finalized the design before placing the order. Once I placed the order and committed to the structure's size (28x40), I had a place graded for the garage.

Unfortunately, everything came to a grinding halt when it came to concrete. Between rainy days, too cold days, and hiring and firing unreliable concrete contractors, the project was on hold until mid-March.

Then I finally found a reliable contractor mid March, and had a pad by April 1st.

Once the slab was complete, I scheduled delivery of the building. It should be delivered and built on April 20. I would like to have it a little sooner, but the concrete needs to cure 14 days anyway.

I have more confidence in the building construction than the concrete, so I already scheduled the electrician for 5/3.

Awesome!!! Contractors can be horrible. Glad you finally found one to get the job done! Enjoy the new garage once it's done!

Wow! I'm jealous. Always wanted to do something like this. Congratulations! I look forward to seeing the progress.

tech day to christen when finished?

Finally!

The previous owners planted a lot of fruit trees on the lot. I had to cut down 6 scuppernong vines for the garage, but there are still 6 peach trees, 2 apple trees, 4 plumbs, 2 cherries, 2 figs, and 1 pecan. I know the figs and pecans produce fruit, but I'm not sure about the rest.

Mid-February I spent the better part of a weekend maintaining 6 fully mature peach trees. They had never been pruned, so there were more limbs on the ground than the tree when I was done. I also fertilized them, sprayed them for fungus, and picked up all the mummies from last year's crop.

I saw a few young peaches, but I'm afraid the frost wiped out most of the crop, but hat's not horrible. The trees can use the energy to grow more branches where needed.

I'm definitely peanut butter and jealous. Wish I had the land to build something like this. Oh yeah and an HOA that would let me.

Also Will if you are a member of the THSCC forum you absolutely need to read through this thread. Tons of great ideas.
http://thscc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12886

I'm not a THSCC member. I tried to buy a membership once but had issues with the checkout process. I should join, but I just haven't tried again.

I have some good ideas already and look forward to sharing them as they are rolled out :-)

My HOA is very strict and would never allow any of this. I was very fortunate to find a 1-acre lot near my house that was reasonably priced.

Nice!!

Progress at the end of day one.

Construction complete by 11 AM on day two. The building is high quality, well built and the contractors were very professional, hard working, and polite. I can recommend Carolina Carports.

Looks great! Property looks amazing too.

Congratulations! looks great. What are you going to do about the driveway leading up to each door?

No spoilers. Next episode 5/3. Stay tuned :-)

3 bay...thats baller! Electrical?

Very surprised he didn't epoxy the floor. You gonna epoxy there Will?

Consider some form of HVAC. You'll thank yourself later. Also, having a few 220v power drops may be useful for welders, air compressors, various machinery in the future as well. Look into power requirements for lifts, etc. Talk to Alex about what was required in his new shop; he's just recently gone through all this himself. Can probably recommend a lot of brands/vendors.

Dang, that's seriously impressive! When are you having everyone over? :D

The rough electrical is done and the inspection is scheduled for tomorrow. Final electrical inspection to follow immediately thereafter. I had an exhaust fan installed in the top of the eave to force hot air out. Otherwise, this is a minimal instal to pass inspection and have service connected. You will notice there are plenty of empty slots in the panel for more goodies later. Stay tuned.

Final electrical inspection passed.

Looking good! Do you plan on mounting more lighting? I've got two 2-bulb florescents in my 2-bay garage at home and I still long for more lighting constantly. I'd mount as many lights as would fit in there with what you're planning on using it for.

Sam's Club sells LED shop lights for about $35 each. I have 2 in my 20x20 garage at home, and they are extremely bright. On a sunny day, I can walk into the garage, and it's just as bright as outside. Before, I had to wait for my eyes to adjust. Other advantages of LED: will never burn out, won't break them with impact, no hazmat bulbs. Also, these have pass-through power to directly connect to the next light, and are very low power, so you can easily daisy-chain several on one outlet.

They sell 10 packs for $309 ;-)

Freakin awesome, I'll check them out myself to maybe replace the fluorescents I have in my garage.

nice!!! i would consider this in the future!!!

I replaced the fluorescent in my garage with LED's and love the difference. Instant on, and better color output in my opinion. Much brighter as well.

I'm sorry for the recent silence. I cannot proceed with any other plans until I have power. Duke Energy requires up to 10 days to connect power, and it looks like they are going to use every day.

Good news for you! I just saw Sam's Club is having a sale on bulk LED shop lights - 10 for $284.98. I already bought this pack for the new garage and unfortunately paid $309.98. (I will see if they honor 30-day price guarantees.)

Nevertheless, if a few of you want to get together for a "group buy," I can confirm this is an excellent bargain.

I finally got the power connected today, and I'm very pleased with my lights and exhaust fan. The real advantage of having power is that the next contractor can run his power tools. Stay tuned...

...and to answer Andy's question in the group buy thread, yes...eventually.

Wow that place looks great Will...I can't wait to spill some oil on the floor :eek1:

I'm sure you'll do this, but COAT THE FLOORS NOW before there's eighty million things in the way like lifts and cabinets and stains, etc.

Lights look awesome! Bet its like standing out in the sunlight, lol.

This. Definitely this.

any thought about skylights? Leds are cheap to have on but natural light is always a plus.

There was no option for skylights on this metal roof. Although, I don't think I would have considered them if they were. The photo of the garage is deceptively smaller than actual. The doors look like standard residential-height doors because the walls are 12' high. In fact the two doors on the right are 10'w X 8'h. When I open them to 8' the light pours in.

The door on the left is 8'w X 8'h, but it doesn't count because I have rented that bay to a neighbor for boat storage.

Settle down Bevises. Let's not get the cart before the horse. That big beautiful blue and yellow twelve-foot tall work horse that is being installed tomorrow.

You have very strange taste in animals :p

...and friends :-)

The lift is in. I got it from Patriot Equipment Group (336) 402-0690.

It's made In China like most of the others, but there are a few advantage over Eagle and some other brands. The vertical pieces are single-piece beams (Eagle's are two piece). The hydraulic lines run inside the columns (Eagle's hydraulic lines are on the outside). The over raise cutoff switch is on the crossbar. (Eagle has the cutoff at the motor and a string pulls the switch if the car is raised too high.) Honestly, I didn't know about these differences before buying it. I just got lucky.

I've not used it yet, but I am pleased with the first appearances and the people are great to work with. Their terms are cash on delivery and before install, but don't let that concern you. (I guess they've been screwed-over before.) If you need a lift, call Rick Peters and let him know I sent you.

Spoiler: This weekend I will be grinding the concrete in preparation for epoxy coating. I didn't epoxy the floors before because there was a risk that it would be damaged while installing the lift.

Are you sweating your balls off in there yet? That lift is so purdy

Looks great. I'm very jealous.

That's an awfully tall lift for an awfully small car.

Which reminds me, I need to replace my clutch, pressure plate, and swap to a lighter flywheel. 56k street miles and 16k track miles have pretty much killed it.

If Will would be willing (luls), I see a garage day party coming up.

That's just me tho...

Yesterday I prepared the concrete to accept the epoxy. I used a diamond grinder with two counter-rotating grinders. It weighs 270lbs, so I had to haul it on the trailer.

Overall, I am very pleased with the job it did. At first, my objective was to rough up the surface to accept the epoxy, then I realized there were some uneven places and how well it was able to flatten them, so I spent a little more time to get those areas. It was impossible to see the surface through all the dust, but I could feel the high places. I spent the most time in the area where I plan to do alignments, and I believe I got it very close to flat and level. Although, I've not checked it, I spent all the time I plant to spend, so if it is not perfect, the so be it.

The grinder comes with a vacuum and water attachment. I opted for vacuum. It worked somewhat, but the dust is so fine, I lost count of how many times I cleaned the filter element. It was about every 5-10 minutes. The entire grinding process took about 4 hours, so allow 2 hours for every 500 square feet.

After grinding, I vacuumed the remaining dust. I tried sweeping it, but that was pointless. The dust is too fine and heavy to sweep. The nice thing is that it is so heavy it stays near the ground and doesn't make any clouds of dust. I wore a mask because I don't want silicosis, but I don't think any dust made it above my waist.

After vacuuming everything I used a low power pressure washer to spray out the remaining dust from the nooks and crannies.

Last, I placed a fan on the floor to dry it.

We had a big storm last night and a little muddy water squeezed under the door. This morning I pressure washed those areas again and put the fan back out.

Unfortunately, I cannot host large groups. I rented the front half of the property to a family that is living there. The lease stipulates that I am allowed to use driveway and back half of the property unannounced, but I must respect their privacy, keep the noise to a minimum, etc. I plan to have a friend or two over from time to time, but it is very important that I keep my tenants happy, so I will not be doing anything that would potentially disturb or annoy them.

True that. I'd never want anyone to cause you issues either.

Looks like a super nice setup. Hopefully one day I can do something similar.

I caulked the cracks today.

The fan I used to dry the concrete is specifically designed for drying floors. It's the kind remediation companies use after flooding. I think the floor is already dry enough to epoxy, but I will leave the fan on overnight to be sure.

I also taped plastic over the outside of the roll-up doors in an effort to keep the rain out tonight.

I might epoxy the floor tomorrow.

Today Stephen helped me with the epoxy floor coating. This is definitely a two-person job. No one aspect is particularly hard or difficult, but it is very nice to have one person working with the fresh material and another person rolling out the previous batch and take care of forgotten details (mask the doorway). Once you mix a bucket, you only have 3 minutes to pour it out. (It sets faster in bulk than spread out.)

I used material from Epoxy-Coat.com. It is the same material Riley Technologies uses in their shop and their employees use at home. It is a two-component epoxy and 100% epoxy. Other one-part materials contain up to 70% solvent. This means as the solvent evaporates, you lose 70% of the thickness. The 100% epoxy doesn't not shrink as it crosslinks, so the final coating is much thicker. (...at least that's the jargon). Also, the fumes were not bad at all...no solvents to evaporate.

I opted for a more utilitarian than decorative surface. This means, I did not add the colored fleck or clear coat. I went with light gray and aluminum oxide non-slip granules. The reason for light gray is to reflect more light than dark colors. I wanted white, but everyone warned me that it will yellow over time regardless of UV protection. I want with a solid color (no fleck) so drips and "foreign objects and debris" (FOD) shows up better. The major downside of no-fleck is the non-slip granules make the surface difficult to clean. Fleck would have made the surface non-slip too.

I got two full kits and a half-kit. Full covers 500 square feet. One of the kits included most of the tools needed and the others were material only. The material costs $800 to cover 1250 square feet. Since I won't have a clear coat to protect it from UV, got the optional UV inhibitor that goes in the epoxy. The UV inhibitor was $75 extra ($25/kit); clear-coat would have been another $900-$1000.

I do have lots of bubbles 'fish eyes' in the coating, but I'm okay with that for my utilitarian application. They will not show up too badly because the non-slip material already creates a rough surface and once the fish-eyes pop, they will add traction too.

I have seen the flecked surface at my Riley friend's house, and it looks [queue the Oprah voice] AMAZING! If you want a showroom, go that route and clear coat over the fleck.

If I do this again, I will definitely get the spiked lawn aeration sandals. Some of the areas were out of reach by the time the fish-eyes appeared, The sandals allow one to walk out into the epoxy and roll out the fish eyes later (this is more critical for flecked floors.)

Looking good dude, nice progress since I last checked. Stephen's a heck of a good guy to come and help out. I'm not a "specks" fan; definitely down with the utilitarian finish.

So what's next?

hopefully HVAC :D

I take back all those things I said about you not buying those KW v3's.

The building is not insulated, so AC is nearly pointless.

V only for now. There is a 20" fan in the top of the eve that moves a lot of air. Getting out the hot air trapped above the door openings seems to be adequate up to 85°. Several people have commented they are surprised how effective it is.

The roof is white and the walls are light tan for a reason, to reflect as much sun as possible. There is also a forest on the southern side of the building that shades a lot of the direct sun.

I have two options for H. There is an old wood stove in another building on the property. Cons: It would require a chimney, and would be in a fixed location steeling about 10' of wall space year-around. Pro: it has tremendous thermal mass, so it can keep the garage from freezing hours after the fire is out. I also have a large industrial kerosene jet heater on wheels (aka the Batmobile) Con: it has almost no thermal mass, so I would need to run it long enough to heat the contents of the building to provide thermal inertia. Pros: mobile, storable in the summer, does not use any wall space.

I am leaning toward the kerosene heater for practical reasons, but we had a wood stove at my grandad's garage, so it gets nostalgia points.

Yes, yes he is a heck of a good guy. I greatly appreciate his help.

The good news for him is that if/when he does an epoxy floor, he has experience, can learn from my mistakes, and solicit my help. So, you might also say he is a heck of a clever guy. 😏

As pro-A/C as I am, I bet the eve fan will do you just fine. I'm used to working in a two-car garage with no HVAC, just a box fan in the summer and small electric space heater in the winter, and those small commodities got me through pretty comfortably. I do get spoiled at work though.

So you're pretty set to go... I'd assume you'll be installing some kind of storage... cabinets, racks, etc? Maybe a wooden work bench or a welding table?

LOL! I know, I know. I do still want them, I just still can't buy them right now.

Nearing the end of the primary build...

I got the final grading and gravel yesterday. We wanted to do it last week before the epoxy, but the rain pushed back the schedule.

The gravel extends 3 feet around the perimeter of the building. This will provide a sidewalk of sorts, prevent mud from splashing on the building, and prevent grass from growing close to the structure. I went with a thick crusher run base to cover the red clay then covered that with a slightly-larger-than-normal washed stone. The crusher run will compact and prevent the washed stone from pushing into the clay. The theory for using a relatively large stone is so the r-comps won't pick it up and carry aggregate onto the epoxy. ...we'll see how that works ;-)

I also had a small pad graded to the left of the building, so I can park the trailer away in a less conspicuous place away from the main property.

I still have a lot of unfitting to do on the inside, so stay tuned for more updates.

So the signs I ordered just arrived.

Get the lift wired up yet?

Yes it is wired. The arms don't fit under my car, so I need to fabricate some blocks to drive onto.

This weekend I worked on the 10x22' rental bay. The rental bay will be enclosed and completely separate from the rest of the garage. That way tenants feel more secure, and I don't have to worry about hitting their prized boat with a jack handle, engine hoist, or any other fiberglass-seeking battering ram.

I built the ceiling like a normal floor, so it can support a lot of weight on top. Better yet, I can stand in most areas, so that gives me 220 square feet of storage above the rental area. Long term, I plan to fabricate a hoist that mounts to the car lift to help heft heavier loads up there.

I painted the walls with reflective high-gloss white paint to increase the indirect light in the garage. As you can see in the photos, the structure is finished, but I still need to finish the sheathing.

You should check with your lift manufacturer to see if there are low profile arms available. Boards to trip over tend to suck the fun out of having the lift.

Unfortunately, these are the low-profile arms, but they are about 1/4" too high.

You make good points about tripping hazards. I think there is another option. As I recall, the contact pad assemblies are about 2" thick. If removing them works, I can cut 4" squares out of an old tire to keep the car from sliding around on the arms.

A friend gave me some hockey pucks. They would do well and look OK too. They are just over 7/8" thick. Might work for you.

#firstworldproblems

idk man...after seeing that garage I might be more inclined to the following hashtag

#1%problems

Will, can you please talk with your lobbyist friends? Us middle class folk need a tax break plz. :p

Hahaha. I wish I was part of the1%. Then you could tag me with retiredandnotworkinganotherdamndayproblems

I make a lot of sacrifices and invest wisely. DINKproblems, rentingoutabayproblems, or drivesa16yearoldHondaproblems would be more accurate.

The shop looks really good will! #willisthe1%
At my friends shop we always had to take the rubber pads off of the lift, and lift my car up on the metals bars of the arms directly.
Never had any issues with it hurting or bending the metal on the car and the car didn't ever feel like it wanted to slip while it was lifted up.

My car is also so low we still have to jack it up just to fit the arms under there in the first place..

Just get you a couple of 2x4s (or 2x8s if you really care) to drive onto...jm2c :thumbup:

Eh, I like to give you shit. I'd have a similar shop at the house if only my wife would stop spending all our damn money on horses.

That's actually exactly what I end up doing! My buddies S is just a tad higher and he is able to put put it on there without the wood planks

She's got the vet on retainer doesn't she? :LOL:

LMFAOOOOO what the hell Will?!?! Why has no one else commented on the ridiculousness of these signs?

It was coming from Will...so we all just expected it :LOL: Will trolls his own threads :banana:

Right!?! I was surprised too.

They were parked in an empty lot overnight less than 500 yards from my garage. I passed them coming home and did a u-turn to take the photo.

As predicted, it has been very hot in the garage with these 80°+ days and high humidity, so I got a fan from Harbor Freight. Are they trying to send me a message with this packaging? Are real men expected to tough it out in the sweltering heat without a breeze?

By the way, with the fan, heat is no longer a problem...almost frigid.

The rental bay is closed off, the bathroom wall is up, the pallet racking is underway, and two oil changes complete...just 498 more oil changes until this baby is paid for.

I've got a duplicate HPD flag I don't need. Remind me to give it to you next time I see you.

Sweet! I suppose I'm going to have to get that cage and comp license to avoid being labeled a poser.