Building a New Shop!

[BOSSMAN]

Been a long time coming for this (10 years actually) and I'm finally breaking ground on my new shop!
Building a 40' X 63' pole barn with 14' sidewalls. I'm going to have a 40' X 40' area for my cars with a car lift and a 23' X 40' machine shop with two levels. Upper level (has scissor trusses) will be for my office and parts storage. The lower level will be divided in half - one side will be a clean room with my flow bench and the other side for machining / porting. I'm not sure what I will do with all of this space now but something tells me it will be full within a week LOL!

Here is the progress so far. We are digging footings this weekend, pouring footings early next week, and doing the block wall that weekend (weather permitting......). I will post pics as we go but thought I would post a cool "build thread" on it.

[Bob Holmes]

I didn't realize that you had that much slope. Great to see you breaking ground.

[BOSSMAN]

Yeah me either LOL. We had to dig 6' into the hill and move it over to the low side (in the back corner - fill 6'). A total of 12' difference from high spot to low spot! I now have to build a 8' block wall (13 courses) 63' long and 14' foot in on each end. I have a TON of people trying to help me out to keep the costs down for me - SO THANKFUL to have good friends!

[ls7gto]

Good for you Nick! Man, nice dirt, not a rock in sight , my land is nothing but limestone!

[TheSilverBuick]

Way cool!

[BOSSMAN]

Luckily the next door neighbor owns an excavating company. He said it was real nice dirt (alot of clay) and it compacted pretty good.

[DanStokes]

Excellent! Love to see some other idiot making the investment that I've made (repeatedly as I move from house to house). I'm guessing you know that it's too small. They always are!

Best of luck
Dan

[BOSSMAN]

HAHA no doubt Dan! I have battled with my city since September of last year. They finally approved my building in April just so happened to be near my birthday so that was a nice gift. The size of this thing is over twice what's allowable and luckily I presented a really strong case and did tons of leg work to help my odds for approval. Our location also helped out being out of everyone's view. Getting to this point has been a rough road and luckily things ended in my favor.

[dulcich]

Nick, that is awesome news. I'm sure you will put it to good use. Congrats!
-dulcich

[BOSSMAN]

Nick, that is awesome news. I'm sure you will put it to good use. Congrats!
-dulcich

Thanks Dulcich!

[Big Dave]

Excellent! Love to see some other idiot making the investment that I've made (repeatedly as I move from house to house). I'm guessing you know that it's too small. They always are!

Best of luck
Dan

Nick I just built a 40 x 60 and it's too small already, don't forget the "Man Cave" area.

[milner351]

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!

[DanStokes]

HAHA no doubt Dan! I have battled with my city since September of last year. They finally approved my building in April just so happened to be near my birthday so that was a nice gift. The size of this thing is over twice what's allowable and luckily I presented a really strong case and did tons of leg work to help my odds for approval. Our location also helped out being out of everyone's view. Getting to this point has been a rough road and luckily things ended in my favor.

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

[milner351]

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!

[BOSSMAN]

Nick I just built a 40 x 60 and it's too small already, don't forget the "Man Cave" area.

It will certainly get some "Man Cave" touches.