Decided to build a garage. Now the fun begins.

[BuiltToWork]

The other thing I need to plan for is internet access. We have Starlink in the house, which works really well, but I’ll probably have to add a router to extend service to the garage.

3/4" PVC Conduit buried 18" to your house. Run Cat6 Cable - good for 300' and buy the tool kit to terminate the ends (or you are close enough we could meet 1/2 way and you can borrow mine).
I have just direct buried my non-outdoor rate cable in the past and it has lasted years and years (still do the 3/4" stubout thru your slab.
My little shed is about 100' from my house and I put an old apple wifi repeater in the window - just enough signal to make it work - no wires.
What do have laying around? Something can be scabbed together for low to no cost that will work reliably.

 

[South VA]

Doh! You asked this before and I thought I'd answered. It's 10' up, right above the welding bench.

You may have, but I don't recall seeing the answer. Thanks.

She does basket weaving, painting, etc. Mostly her shop just collects piles of stuff, but she's making a lot of effort to get rid of junk and organize what she's using. Her biggest problem has been mold - she has a similar fan in her shop on a thermostat and humdistat. The humidistat has made a huge difference, but it's not 100% effective. The larger problem she has is that the contractor tried to skimp on the foundation and the city inspector caught it - as the concrete was on its way. He had to hurriedly dig the footing out a few inches larger. As a result, the building sits a couple inches lower than intended, which means that the east side of the building is almost flush with the ground. My recommendation is to make it clear to the builder that you want the foundation to spec, and get it up a couple inches if you can. You can always buy mulch to build up the ground to the level of the slab for driving onto the pad, and the floor of the shop should be an inch above the pad.

The contractor wants to pour the slab to be 6" above grade at the lowest point, so it looks like we're good there.

Speaking of whom, he called a few minutes ago, and said he was two months out from being able to work on this project, and wondered if I still wanted him to bid on it. Add a month to that for curing time before the building can go on the slab, and it's mid-December at the earliest before the building can be installed. Which is not far off of what I thought it might take. So I told him yes, please give me a bid.

As mentioned previously, this concrete guy can do it all: stump removal, backfilling the holes and compacting with gravel, and site grading. The other concrete guy I spoke with doesn't do stump removal, but I have the name of a stump removal contractor. I don't know if that company will also handle gravel backfill. Maybe not; which would mean yet another contractor. And so on. I suppose I should get bids, just in case.

The real concern is that we could get two months down the road and the preferred concrete guy still can't do the job; then we're into the beginning of winter, without a concrete contractor. Winter is not necessarily a big deal around here, especially compared to where I used to live (where they have serious winters), but I'd imagine it's a factor in pouring concrete.

That said, other than the weather, there is time. At least I think so. One never knows, right? The building pricing is good for 180 days, so that's not on the critical path.

Since I've waited this long to have a garage, a few months shouldn't really matter. Sure, I'd like to have it sooner, but that's probably not realistic. So it goes. I'll get the other bids and wait.

This also brings to mind - you absolutely want insulation in your shop. You can't add it after it's built. Mine has a simple layer of bubble-wrap, and it's not really effective. My wife's shop has R5 insulation, and it works good, but that's part of what traps humidity in the building.

The building will be insulated with a double layer of bubble wrap ("Double-Bubble"). Going the next step would have cost thousands more, so that was the choice. Not great, but better than no insulation.

 

[South VA]

3/4" PVC Conduit buried 18" to your house. Run Cat6 Cable - good for 300' and buy the tool kit to terminate the ends (or you are close enough we could meet 1/2 way and you can borrow mine).
I have just direct buried my non-outdoor rate cable in the past and it has lasted years and years (still do the 3/4" stubout thru your slab.
My little shed is about 100' from my house and I put an old apple wifi repeater in the window - just enough signal to make it work - no wires.
What do have laying around? Something can be scabbed together for low to no cost that will work reliably.

That's a good idea, and thanks for the offer of lending me your tools. It turns out I actually have the tools and a spool of Cat 6 (it may be Cat 5) that just might be long enough, stashed somewhere around here.

 

[South VA]

Exactly! In good weather, I prefer to be outdoors. And in bad weather, I prefer to view the outdoors
from a warm, dry vantage point. :0) Anyway, I found an old photo of the main work bench with a
view of a nice rural back yard in a densely forested area in VT:

Old 4-speed Top Loader after installing fresh bearings & synchros

You must be registered for see images attach

1) If you look carefully at the reflection in the window, you can also see that we lit this garage
with plenty of (then new) compact fluorescent bulbs. Each 23W bulb replaced a 100W incandescent,
so that gave us a 4:1 power consumption improvement. (Pretty heady stuff in the '00s)

Yeah, CFLs were the bomb, back in the day!

In addition, we wired the lights 5 to a circuit, with 5 circuits, each on it's own switch. So if I was
working solo, I could control how much light I needed. Usually I'd turn on a couple of circuits over
where I was working - more than enough light where I was working for 230 watts total. Meanwhile,
the 3 other circuits were off. But if we had several people in the shop then all 25 were on, for a total
usage of 575 watts.

At the time, electricity was somewhere around 12¢ per kilowatt-hour, so solo I could have all the light
I needed for a 4-hour session for ~12¢. Today, the 100W-equivalent LEDs are down to 15 watts --
that's only 375 watts for all 25 bulbs. (!)

It's amazing how little electricity LEDs use.

2) After soaking several previous wooden workbenches with engine oil, stinky 90-wt, coolant, etc., the decision was
made to put a few coats of polyurethane down on the plywood (finished 1 side) before putting it into
service. NOTE: The counter-argument to finishing the workbench was that it would be 'too pretty' to
use.

The solution? A local business that specialized in installing custom kitchen countertops had some
waste (in the form of kitchen sink cutouts) that they would sell for a song. We bought a couple, marked
them as "work surface", and then the rule became if you needed to really wrestle around with something
that would gouge the workbench, then you put the offending piece on the 'don't care' Formica work surface
atop the workbench. Wail away to your heart's content! :0)

This has worked ever since, and cleanup only takes seconds using Behold and a cleaning rag. As a bonus,
the shop no longer has that persistent 90-wt funk in the air.

That's a great idea! I'm sure there's a place around here that would have waste countertops. I think I've even seen them in Home Depot and Lowe's. Certainly a Habitat for Humanity Re Store would have them.

3) It can't be seen in the photo, but we set this shop up where *everything* was on wheels. The ability to
reconfigure the shop to best meet the needs of the current project made it work like it was 50%
bigger than it was, thanks to being able to get rid of pinch-points that would inevitably develop.

Yes, I think wheels are going to play a larger role in this garage than I had anticipated. It just makes sense.

****

Judging from all the responses to this thread, you have really found a subject that gets the
collective juices flowing. Moving up from looking for a dropped nut in gravel while it's raining
to a finished concrete floor is a giant leap for those doing their own work on their GMT400s.

Amen to that!

But for a lucky few, they take their workspace to the next level, where it ends up somewhere
between a motorhead Day Spa and a Zen Garden. With a pinball machine.

Thanks to all of the suggestions made here, I believe this will turn out to be a decent garage and workspace. Maybe not a Spa or a Zen Garden, or even having a pinball machine, but decent. I can live with that.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

My ex was. She would clear out a Wal-Mart the week after X-mas. She had her own shed. lol

I built my wife her own shed as well, and now that's full.

 

[thinger2]

Thanks for reading the thread and taking the time to comment.
I hardly know where to begin...

Ok, you really left us hanging by cutting off that last part. What was it?!?

The dirt guy and the concrete guy are one in the same, which simplifies things. Not only is he going to do the grading for the pad, he'll also remove the stumps from the two 90+' tall pines that were taken out. That is a potentially big deal, as the roots are large and deep. The holes will have to be filled with gravel.

The septic field is on the same property as the garage. Fortunately, all of the surrounding properties are under the same ownership.

The insurance guy is in the loop. It appears that we are covered adequately.

It's a metal building, and the price includes delivery and installation. We paid a deposit, and the balance is due upon the building being completed on site.

Because it is considered a farm structure, there is no building permit required. I submitted the application yesterday, which provides the location, size, and setbacks of the building so that the County can assess it and tax it.

You're right, the contract bears repeated reading. We read and revised ours a couple of times.

The insurance agent is in the loop, so I think we're good there.

I've been fortunate in finding good contractors. The main player here is the concrete guy, who is slow to provide a bid, but I've seen that he does very good work. He works on site with his crew, rather than getting them started in the morning and then taking off to look at other jobs. I'm pretty confident that he'll do a good job here.

Sounds like you have a boatload of experience on projects that dwarf this little building. You speak from experience, and your points are taken and appreciated.

I sense that you feel strongly about the subject of piercing...

Sorry I wasnt able to follow up on that whole story.
A tweaker stole a moving truck and ran it into our local cell phone repeater.
The only good news is that he wasnt wearing a seatbelt.
I dont care at all about piercings.
I only care about crusty buggers and infections.
And friggen patchouli oil.
I am the guy who always tells everyone to go do whatever they want to do.
And you can go do any wild ******* crazy thing that crosses your mind.
Go ******* do it.
But you need to understand that personal hygiene and bathing and just taking care of yourself is a line that I just cant cross.
Friggen patchouli oil to to cover up your non bathing stench because you are a "free spirit" for ***** sake.
Its an unfair world folks.
But heres how it is.
Step 1. Take a shower and shave that scraggely little goat fuzz off.
Wash your ass for ***** sake.
Get a haircut.
Wear some clothes that dont make you look like a chump.
No flat brim hats, nothing with some other ********** name on it.
The whole key to getting laid when you are young is to be calm, collected, put toghether and standoffish.
Any fool can net baitfish.
The calm and collected man nets the life ruining big fish.

 

[thinger2]

Thanks! I hear you. For context, this is a working farm, but the cropland is rented out, so the farmers use and maintain their own equipment. They have the big stuff.

Our smallish 1970 JD row crop tractor, which unfortunately doesn’t have a cab, is the tallest piece of equipment we have. At first I thought that we don’t actually need that 10 x 10 door - until I measured the tractor with me sitting on it.

Taking the door into account, and using the high-mount door rails suggested by @Trio, a 10 x 10 is large enough to safely drive the tractor into the garage. So I think we’re good on that front.

But now you have me thinking that I may want to swap one of the 9 x 8s for another 10 x 10. The reason is that the lift is currently planned for the 10 x 10 bay, but I may want to pull the tractor in, but not where the lift is.

While we’re on the subject, any thoughts on a minimum width between doors? I’m thinking 2’ from the left hand building corner, and 18” between the doors, resulting in the maximum amount of wall space between the right hand door and the building corner where the workbench will be.


That’s a good idea. He’s going to pour an apron, but we haven’t decided how wide it should be. I’ll see when I get his bid, and adjust accordingly.



This is something I haven’t quite figured out yet. The eaves run across the front of the building, so rain will drip down in front of the garage doors. Not ideal. even a small shed roof would help this. I’ll ask the sales gal what it would take to fashion some sort of shed to the front.

That is something that I hadn’t thought of, and could definitely build myself. Thanks for the suggestion! A blast cabinet is already on the wish list.

Epoxy is another thing that I hadn’t really considered. Clearly, more research is needed. But it totally makes sense to do it before moving in!

Speaking of stuff, my GF has already said (more than once) that she wants her Christmas stuff stored in the garage.

Which is fine, I suppose, especially since she’s helping to pay for this project. Now I just have to figure out where to put it. Probably on shelves, high up on a wall, so as not to take up valuable floor real estate. Hopefully it won’t take up too much room.

Of course I will strongly resist further incursions.

But we all know how that could go…

You can epoxy the floor yourself but I wouldnt do that this year.
Depending on where you are I might not even try it next year.
I used to be in the epoxy coating business.
I would let the floor cure for a couple of seasons and check the concrete cure before I tried to coat it.
A cracked or spalled concrete pour is a mess.
An epoxy coated bad pour is an absolute nightmare to remove.
Imagine trying to jackhammer concrete but all of the chunks are glued together.
And the goo gets hot and clumps on the chissel.

 

[thinger2]

Thanks! I hear you. For context, this is a working farm, but the cropland is rented out, so the farmers use and maintain their own equipment. They have the big stuff.

Our smallish 1970 JD row crop tractor, which unfortunately doesn’t have a cab, is the tallest piece of equipment we have. At first I thought that we don’t actually need that 10 x 10 door - until I measured the tractor with me sitting on it.

Taking the door into account, and using the high-mount door rails suggested by @Trio, a 10 x 10 is large enough to safely drive the tractor into the garage. So I think we’re good on that front.

But now you have me thinking that I may want to swap one of the 9 x 8s for another 10 x 10. The reason is that the lift is currently planned for the 10 x 10 bay, but I may want to pull the tractor in, but not where the lift is.

While we’re on the subject, any thoughts on a minimum width between doors? I’m thinking 2’ from the left hand building corner, and 18” between the doors, resulting in the maximum amount of wall space between the right hand door and the building corner where the workbench will be.


That’s a good idea. He’s going to pour an apron, but we haven’t decided how wide it should be. I’ll see when I get his bid, and adjust accordingly.



This is something I haven’t quite figured out yet. The eaves run across the front of the building, so rain will drip down in front of the garage doors. Not ideal. even a small shed roof would help this. I’ll ask the sales gal what it would take to fashion some sort of shed to the front.

That is something that I hadn’t thought of, and could definitely build myself. Thanks for the suggestion! A blast cabinet is already on the wish list.

Epoxy is another thing that I hadn’t really considered. Clearly, more research is needed. But it totally makes sense to do it before moving in!

Speaking of stuff, my GF has already said (more than once) that she wants her Christmas stuff stored in the garage.

Which is fine, I suppose, especially since she’s helping to pay for this project. Now I just have to figure out where to put it. Probably on shelves, high up on a wall, so as not to take up valuable floor real estate. Hopefully it won’t take up too much room.

Of course I will strongly resist further incursions.

But we all know how that could go…

My friend you must make a stand and draw a line between your shop and your tools and the slow sneaking insipid incursion of chritmas decorations and any other type of easter bunny thanksgiving 4th of july crap.
If left unchecked, That **** will overcome your shop like blackberrys or Kudzu weed.
And you will be forced to put it into the rafters just so you can try to salvage some working space for yourself.
And then eventually you have to go up into the rafters to find all of that crap.
And all of it will be bad.
And that is exactly how we end up at friggen walmart.
Becuase your shop ruined all of her decorations while you were outside playing with boats and cars and trucks.
And she has to buy a new carpet cleaner because when you passed out from exhaustion and fell headfirst through the back door you forgot to leave your boots outside in the rain and got dirt on her brand new Martha Stewart collection doormat.
That is just another reason why my ex is my ex.
If you want to be happy?
Find a woman who ******* hates shopping as much as you do.
There will never be a time when everything is perfect.
It may be days, it may be months, it may be years.
But you will, no matter how hard you try.
You will stomp on the feelings of someone you love and she will stomp on yours.
That is just how friendship and partnership and marriage happens.
When things go sideways between you the first thing you need to do is bite your tongue and shut the **** up and listen.
You need to be a man and dont say things that you can never take back.
If she wants to play games?
Dont play those games.
If she or he gives you an ultimatum where they will only agree to love you if you jump through some flaming hoops like a trained poodle?
Leave. No matter what it costs my friends.
Just leave.
Walk away from all of the fuckery they have planned for you.
And that, if youve said your vows before your family and friends after making them fly across the country and bought a house and done all of that other picket fence married **** you are supposed to do?
That was ******* hardest thing ive ever done.
I walked out the door of her and my job and my house and my cars and 280,000 dollars and bought a 1990 f-150 and just drove away.
Tools, guns, truck and camping gear.
There was nothing that she could do to me anymore.
Nothing.
That was twenty one years ago.
And I still have to pull my credit report 3 times a year and look at every damn statement to make sure she hasnt bought a house or a boat or a ******* airplane with my name.
Check this stupid **** out.
I suspected that she was cheating on me.
The evidence was when she tried to put her boyfriend on my ******* car insurance thinking that I wouldnt notice.
I noticed.
Allstate sent me a letter.
The all your fault you forced me to do it babble giberish was really spooky to see.
And that is why everyone on this forumn needs a truck and some tools and good quality luggage
Life is way to short for you to forget about telling everybody to **** off and just do it again.
Were all gonna drop folks. Aint no way outta that.
But you do get to pick who is around when you drop.
Dont spend your time with *******.

 

[South VA]

You can epoxy the floor yourself but I wouldnt do that this year.
Depending on where you are I might not even try it next year.
I used to be in the epoxy coating business.
I would let the floor cure for a couple of seasons and check the concrete cure before I tried to coat it.
A cracked or spalled concrete pour is a mess.
An epoxy coated bad pour is an absolute nightmare to remove.
Imagine trying to jackhammer concrete but all of the chunks are glued together.
And the goo gets hot and clumps on the chissel.

I’m probably going with paint, rather than epoxy.

Would the time to cure apply to paint, as well?

 

[South VA]

My friend you must make a stand and draw a line between your shop and your tools and the slow sneaking insipid incursion of chritmas decorations and any other type of easter bunny thanksgiving 4th of july crap.
If left unchecked, That **** will overcome your shop like blackberrys or Kudzu weed.
And you will be forced to put it into the rafters just so you can try to salvage some working space for yourself.
And then eventually you have to go up into the rafters to find all of that crap.
And all of it will be bad.
And that is exactly how we end up at friggen walmart.
Becuase your shop ruined all of her decorations while you were outside playing with boats and cars and trucks.
And she has to buy a new carpet cleaner because when you passed out from exhaustion and fell headfirst through the back door you forgot to leave your boots outside in the rain and got dirt on her brand new Martha Stewart collection doormat.
That is just another reason why my ex is my ex.
If you want to be happy?
Find a woman who ******* hates shopping as much as you do.
There will never be a time when everything is perfect.
It may be days, it may be months, it may be years.
But you will, no matter how hard you try.
You will stomp on the feelings of someone you love and she will stomp on yours.
That is just how friendship and partnership and marriage happens.
When things go sideways between you the first thing you need to do is bite your tongue and shut the **** up and listen.
You need to be a man and dont say things that you can never take back.
If she wants to play games?
Dont play those games.
If she or he gives you an ultimatum where they will only agree to love you if you jump through some flaming hoops like a trained poodle?
Leave. No matter what it costs my friends.
Just leave.
Walk away from all of the fuckery they have planned for you.
And that, if youve said your vows before your family and friends after making them fly across the country and bought a house and done all of that other picket fence married **** you are supposed to do?
That was ******* hardest thing ive ever done.
I walked out the door of her and my job and my house and my cars and 280,000 dollars and bought a 1990 f-150 and just drove away.
Tools, guns, truck and camping gear.
There was nothing that she could do to me anymore.
Nothing.
That was twenty one years ago.
And I still have to pull my credit report 3 times a year and look at every damn statement to make sure she hasnt bought a house or a boat or a ******* airplane with my name.
Check this stupid **** out.
I suspected that she was cheating on me.
The evidence was when she tried to put her boyfriend on my ******* car insurance thinking that I wouldnt notice.
I noticed.
Allstate sent me a letter.
The all your fault you forced me to do it babble giberish was really spooky to see.
And that is why everyone on this forumn needs a truck and some tools and good quality luggage
Life is way to short for you to forget about telling everybody to **** off and just do it again.
Were all gonna drop folks. Aint no way outta that.
But you do get to pick who is around when you drop.
Dont spend your time with *******.

I agree. Life’s too short to spend it with someone that doesn’t float your boat.

Fortunately, except for the Christmas stuff (and it’s really not all that much, fortunately), the GF and I are good on most everything. Can’t ask for more than that.

That said - I will remain vigilant.