Building a New Shop!

[BOSSMAN]

Fabulous! Are you putting stick framing on top of the block courses or will it be all steel? Sounds like for once we got a win for the good guys - most folks I know that have applied for variances have gotten a resounding no from the township/county/city.

Certainly nice to have talented friends willing to help! I'll enjoy this build thread!

Yes, the block wall side will be stick framed and the other side will be 6" X 6" laminated poles. Having that block wall like that worked out pretty good for me in my machining area cause I was worried about keeping the walls clean. Now all I have to do is paint the block and it will be real easy to keep clean vs dry wall or metal.

[BOSSMAN]

I covered all of my lot with building that they would allow. My issue was that the county (we're just outside the city limits) was SURE I was going to open a business in there, which somehow is a no-no. I had to sign a document limiting how many "race car drivers" would be in the shop at one time (hey, it was their words!). Evidently I can have hundreds of fabricators and mechanics but no more than 1 "race car driver". They REALLY aren't car people!

Dan

I was in a similar situation with this, so to ease things I told two of the neighbors its just a "hobby" LOL! I've been doing business this way for 10 years and according to my city ordinances its perfectly fine but if you simply attach the word "business" everyone freaks out even though I work by appointment only and there isn't a ton of random traffic just stopping by. I had to contact the 3 surrounding neighbors, explain what I was doing, and have them sign a paper stating that they were OK with it. The neighbor to the West (excavating guy) signed cause he knew exactly my intentions and he is also a fellow drag racer. The neighbors to the East signed it and the next day freaked out wanting their signature off till I reassured them with my intentions the next day. They were initially my biggest concern since we have never gotten along with them but they know I have good intentions so they calmed and are OK. The neighbor to the South was initially pretty cool (everyone said he has a nice old guy......) signed it but battled me about rear setback and runoff. The land behind our place is about 4 acres of trees before you get to his house which you can see roughly in the pictures. The typical setback on something like this is 10' and this guy showed up to the three hearings I had and asked for 70 FEET!!!! We have never had a runoff problem from our property to his and I even had to get the mayor up at our place after a torrential downpour to prove it to him everything was fine. I ended up having to do a 25' setback to appease this guy but since I got so many people on board, researched everything to a "T", and acted very politely (even though I wanted to strangle this guy) they sided with me. The other issue with him has been a lot line dispute. His old barbwire fence is technically on our property by 7'. We never pursued anything with it cause it didn't seem like an issue at the time. He started to look into lot surveys and he decided that ours didn't match his so he decides to pull our lot pins - WTF???!!! That started WW3, things got pretty heated, sheriff got called for questioning, I put the pins back, and now we have a legal issue to deal with once I get this building done!

Not easy being a car/racing enthusiast but I don't think some of these people understand my passion or commitment to what I do. I basically got to the point on this deal if things didn't get approved I was ready to pack things up and MOVE! Luckily everything has worked in my favor so far and I get to live within blocks of both sides to my family. Rough road but you guys can see what I went through now LOL!

[DanStokes]

I can relate!

Dan

[Loren]

Man, I remember when our garage was at that state, 12-or so years ago.

Deal with all the crap now and save headaches later. Then make a nice-looking building, don't ever say "business" or let it look like one, and enjoy the asset.

[ls7gto]

I found an interesting loophole in our township regs while talking with one of the inspectors (one of the rare helpful ones).

If it's a separate building, there's one set of limits for the size, if it's "attached" to the house, it's an entirely different set of limits.

"Attachment" can be as simple as a covered walkway connecting the house to the shop.... with that in place you can cover 30% of the total lot size with building. WIN!

Unfortunately - our current property doesn't lend itself well at all to building - so I continue to scope out properties near by.


Sorry for the highjack - I look forward to updates - here's to a safe build with no smashed fingers or other injuries!

Milner, you actually need less than that, My neighbor used the same loop hole to build his, and its like 2 4x8s covered with vinyl siding.

[Bob Holmes]

We have a neighbor with an adjoining fence issue.

He stated that our western fence was 2 feet onto his property and we needed to move it. We told him that if his eastern fence line was misplaced he could show us the survey and move it at his expense.

Fence is still where it was when we both bought our respective properties.

[SuperBuickGuy]

adverse possession, Bob. In Washington, if the improvement has been there more then 10 years - it's your property, not his. I suspect California has similar property laws. Open, Notorious, Hostile, without permission. Of course, it's a pain to sell property that's been adversely possessed; but even that's possible.

[Deaf Bob]

Same here in OR... My lot in town is 2 ft wider cuz the PO built the fence like that.. Been here 30 years. All new fences go where the old wire was...

[truckpuller]

A couple things, after you have the block layed see about having it tiled with gravel above and below the tile 6" below and 2' on top before being backfilled, make sure you give the mortar plenty of time to set before backfilling. Clay is not very good for a block wall, I have a house we just bought that the foundation is tipping in, and there is also a shop that is also tipping. Also make sure you have a gutter put on at least the block side of the building. I am dealing with foundation problems right now and I also have a seamless gutter business on the side. You are about 2 hrs from me, I may be able to cut you a deal on gutters for it depending on when you need them. Let me know if you are interested........

[BOSSMAN]

Thats exactly what we are doing with the drain tile and we will let the block wall and poured wall set for at least two weeks before we backfill. I was going to tar the block wall and add styrofoam board to help insulate. I plan to have gutters on both sides and french in the drains. Not sure if my builder is doing the gutters (I believe he is) or not but I'll hit you up if I need a bid.

[abadwillys]

Nice!! good luck with it..
I too just started on my new 40x60 shop, that is why i am not racing this year..but my site is all done.. just awaiting building permits.. i also had to cut into a slope about 6' but man your dirt is some fine lookin dirt LOL. i have rock and actually had to move my building due to rock ledge, wish i could go bigger but that is all i could fit in my lot

[BOSSMAN]

Lots rain this weekend here, hope I can dig and pour footings by Tuesday.....quite the time crunch.

Glad to hear other guys are doing something similar. It's always cool to see what others are doing to get some ideas from.

[BOSSMAN]

Made some more progress today. It's been a real struggle trying to get things and people lined up but at least its moving in the right direction! Super hot and humid today in Nebraska so we waited to get to work towards sundown. Footings are now dug.


After numerous calls and some stern words from myself I finally got my block and rebar that was supposed to be delivered today. Unfortunately they delivered 1/2" when I purchased 5/8" rebar so we had some adjustments on placement to make use and push forward. Rebar is laid out, cut to length, and ready to be tied together in the morning before the inspector shows up. Hope to pour some concrete shortly after.

Interesting truck that had forks on the back of it to unload with. Also pretty sketchy on where they unloaded at on our hill, traffic had to be slowed and stopped - what a treat that was!

[Deaf Bob]

Interesting truck alright...
Why not use one of those hay loaders... Shorter and all that.. Or was the truck itself the one that pulled the semi?
Most are cherry pickered trucks.. At least those I have seen. The truck jack knives into the semi bed and uses the picker to unload it the oposite side...

[BOSSMAN]

Interesting truck alright...
Why not use one of those hay loaders... Shorter and all that.. Or was the truck itself the one that pulled the semi?
Most are cherry pickered trucks.. At least those I have seen. The truck jack knives into the semi bed and uses the picker to unload it the oposite side...

It was the truck that pulled the trailer. He just unhooked and started using the forks on the back.