So what type of soil do you have? We have sand to sandy loam on the surface. I have been told by a couple of people, that I could just cut my beams in the sand, put up the forms, and pour concrete. But since we are on a big hill and watch the sand get washed away every time I rains. I worry that the sand would get dissolved and washed out from under the slab over a few years time. I also know that we have problems with base getting washed down hill every time it rains. So I am not sure what is the best material to build the shop. I am planning on doing something to direct water flow around the building, to cut down on erosion. I am afraid the water will wash out just about anything, if I let water flow around the slab.
I like the way you did the beams running between the trusses. I have been planning on doing the beams, like the building I am renting. That building, they just laid the beams on top of the trusses and welded them to the trusses. The way you did the beams between the trusses, I like the looks of more so, than the building I am currently in.
I have been thinking about the doors quite a bit. I really don't want roll up doors. I have worked in shops most of my life, have found roll up doors are your biggest air leaks, in the winter time. Then on occasions, you have problems with them, but usually not a big deal, not often, but it does happen. I have seen roll up doors, get blown down by high winds. Where my shop is at, one day about 10 years ago, some strong winds blew in out of the north. Not many of the buildings around me have doors facing north. But about every door that was facing north, got blown in. It just folded them and popped them out of their tracks. It left multiple shops wide open for a couple of days, till they could get a overhead door company out to fix them.
I have been thinking of making some large swinging doors. That will seal up better when closed and that I can insulate, just like the walls. I want to keep my shop as well insulated as possible, so it does not take a ton of heat, to keep it warm in the winter. For years now, the shop I have been renting, I have not run heaters in the winter, because it's just a waste of money. The roof is too high, too many leaks in the building and the walls are not insulated. I can run a heater or two or three and really not see any difference in the temp in the shop. But now, if you climb up on one of my large shelves, and get up near the roof. It will be nice and toasty up there, after I have been running heaters for five hours in the shop. After freezing my rear off in the shop for days, with the heater running, or heaters running. Then for some reason, I have to climb up on the shelving to get to some parts, and get to experience how hot it is up at the top of the shop. It became even more obvious to me, how much I was just wasting money trying to heat that building. So eventually I am going to do as good of a job as possible at insulating the whole shop. The first thing I am going to do, is come up with a better idea for doors. I can stand near a door on the north side of the building in the winter and feel every gust of wind blowing in the shop. I don't want that crap, in my own building. So I am not going to use roll up doors. That is the first or second step in making my shop easier to heat. The other plan, is to keep the roof as low as possible. I need it to be tall enough that I can put up my lifts, but I don't want the shop much taller than the lifts. It's just more space to heat, in the winter time.
I am going to work on doing something to keep the roof from getting so dang hot in the summer time, I have a couple ideas on that, but not sure which direction I am going to go. We are on a very tight, small budget.
Your shop looks pretty dang nice, I like it. I am going to build my shop mostly by myself, mainly because I can't afford to hire someone to build it. So like you, it is going to take me a while to build. We took out a $25,000 personal equity loan. The closest source of concrete, in not a bad deal. In that department there are only a couple of choices, only one that is close. All of the rest would have to come from a long ways, I know the fuel prices will cause my concrete prices to go way up, if I use one of those other companies. So We are going to use the closest one.
I found the steel pretty dang cheap, after talking to a lot of people and doing a lot of searching on the internet. Renting equipment to get the land cleared and ready to start, is eating up money fast. I am not sure what all of the electrical is going to cost, that at this point, is the big mystery for me. I can figure the concrete costs, metal costs, base costs, but have no idea what is needed for the wiring. I want as many lights in my shop as I can afford to buy. They will all be LED. I noticed it looks like you got power to your building before finishing it. That may be a pretty good idea. I was not going to worry about electric, till I have the building completed. I can seen some advantages to running the wiring before finishing the building. I will have to look into that idea.
Your building does look very well built, hope you can get it finished soon, looks like you are not far from the end of your project.
I like the way you did the beams running between the trusses. I have been planning on doing the beams, like the building I am renting. That building, they just laid the beams on top of the trusses and welded them to the trusses. The way you did the beams between the trusses, I like the looks of more so, than the building I am currently in.
I have been thinking about the doors quite a bit. I really don't want roll up doors. I have worked in shops most of my life, have found roll up doors are your biggest air leaks, in the winter time. Then on occasions, you have problems with them, but usually not a big deal, not often, but it does happen. I have seen roll up doors, get blown down by high winds. Where my shop is at, one day about 10 years ago, some strong winds blew in out of the north. Not many of the buildings around me have doors facing north. But about every door that was facing north, got blown in. It just folded them and popped them out of their tracks. It left multiple shops wide open for a couple of days, till they could get a overhead door company out to fix them.
I have been thinking of making some large swinging doors. That will seal up better when closed and that I can insulate, just like the walls. I want to keep my shop as well insulated as possible, so it does not take a ton of heat, to keep it warm in the winter. For years now, the shop I have been renting, I have not run heaters in the winter, because it's just a waste of money. The roof is too high, too many leaks in the building and the walls are not insulated. I can run a heater or two or three and really not see any difference in the temp in the shop. But now, if you climb up on one of my large shelves, and get up near the roof. It will be nice and toasty up there, after I have been running heaters for five hours in the shop. After freezing my rear off in the shop for days, with the heater running, or heaters running. Then for some reason, I have to climb up on the shelving to get to some parts, and get to experience how hot it is up at the top of the shop. It became even more obvious to me, how much I was just wasting money trying to heat that building. So eventually I am going to do as good of a job as possible at insulating the whole shop. The first thing I am going to do, is come up with a better idea for doors. I can stand near a door on the north side of the building in the winter and feel every gust of wind blowing in the shop. I don't want that crap, in my own building. So I am not going to use roll up doors. That is the first or second step in making my shop easier to heat. The other plan, is to keep the roof as low as possible. I need it to be tall enough that I can put up my lifts, but I don't want the shop much taller than the lifts. It's just more space to heat, in the winter time.
I am going to work on doing something to keep the roof from getting so dang hot in the summer time, I have a couple ideas on that, but not sure which direction I am going to go. We are on a very tight, small budget.
Your shop looks pretty dang nice, I like it. I am going to build my shop mostly by myself, mainly because I can't afford to hire someone to build it. So like you, it is going to take me a while to build. We took out a $25,000 personal equity loan. The closest source of concrete, in not a bad deal. In that department there are only a couple of choices, only one that is close. All of the rest would have to come from a long ways, I know the fuel prices will cause my concrete prices to go way up, if I use one of those other companies. So We are going to use the closest one.
I found the steel pretty dang cheap, after talking to a lot of people and doing a lot of searching on the internet. Renting equipment to get the land cleared and ready to start, is eating up money fast. I am not sure what all of the electrical is going to cost, that at this point, is the big mystery for me. I can figure the concrete costs, metal costs, base costs, but have no idea what is needed for the wiring. I want as many lights in my shop as I can afford to buy. They will all be LED. I noticed it looks like you got power to your building before finishing it. That may be a pretty good idea. I was not going to worry about electric, till I have the building completed. I can seen some advantages to running the wiring before finishing the building. I will have to look into that idea.
Your building does look very well built, hope you can get it finished soon, looks like you are not far from the end of your project.
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