Building large garage/shop

[yakdriver]

I have a 45x50 pole building hangar. I put a a drop ceiling in it and 2x6 walls. Have blown in cellulose insulation on the walls and ceiling. 7" in the walls and 18" in the ceiling. I put 7/16 OSB for the walls. I have a 250,000 btu propane heater. I keep the thermostat on 45* all winter and turn it up to 65 when I work out there. I work an average of 25 hrs a week and use less than 200 gal of propane all winter. I always fill my propane in August when the price is the cheapest. If I keep the big door closed in the summer it never gets over 78* even on a 100* day. Don

 

[txflyer]

Unless the shop is right there near the house, I know I'll never build another one without a toilet and a sink.

You don't realize how often you pee until you don't have a place to go ...

At least a sink. Momma ain't happy when she get's a grease ring in her sink ... you need to wash your hands often if you're like me when I'm working. While you're at it, make it a deep commercial sink for putting buckets in you can fill up.

 

[EdFred]

Unless the shop is right there near the house, I know I'll never build another one without a toilet and a sink.

You don't realize how often you pee until you don't have a place to go ...

At least a sink. Momma ain't happy when she get's a grease ring in her sink ... you need to wash your hands often if you're like me when I'm working. While you're at it, make it a deep commercial sink for putting buckets in you can fill up.

I pee outside all the time. The joys of not living in the city.

 

[airdale]

All of the above and plenty of simple electrical plugs on every wall.

It grinds your gears when you have to run an extension cord for everything.

What I have done in two different shops is to put outlets overhead. In one shop, in a garage, I had a false ceiling over my work area and I just screwed metal outlet boxes to the ceiling every three feet or so along the 18' length of the workbench. The ceiling was low enough that I could reach to plug things in. In the second, in a basement, the ceiling was too high so I put the metal boxes on pieces of conduit about 18" long so they hang down like upside down lollipops. I brazed a couple of steel mounting straps to the top of the conduit so I could firmly anchor them to the joists above.

In both cases, the line of overhead outlets runs about a foot out from the edge of the workbenches. This way, cords hang beside or behind me and are almost never in the way.

 

[BigBadLou]

Great advice here.
I too built a 20x40 garage ... ahem ... storage building for my boat and truck. Was all fun and stuff until I got raped by the city a-holes.

Be very careful with inspections. KNOW your inspections and the building code, do not rely on a dumba** monkey inspector because if they make a mistake, you will need to bend over, grab your ankles and let them search for another few grand to pay to satisfy their greed. Don't ask how I know.

Other than that, the actual act of building is a lot of fun, I had some friends to help and put my building up in a weekend. I have a video timelapse somewhere .... if I could only find the HDD from 8 years ago. LOL

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Weren't we talking about changing it later? chip was referring to altering later.

Very easy to install conduit in a steel arch.

Nope. I was talking about building the original structure. Working with wood is a bunch more forgiving than working with steel.

But it's all good.

 

[iRyan]

Go with spray foam. It's worth the extra money. Disclaimer: I own a spray foam company

 

[SoonerAviator]

Unless the shop is right there near the house, I know I'll never build another one without a toilet and a sink.

You don't realize how often you pee until you don't have a place to go ...

At least a sink. Momma ain't happy when she get's a grease ring in her sink ... you need to wash your hands often if you're like me when I'm working. While you're at it, make it a deep commercial sink for putting buckets in you can fill up.

Just depends on where you live. Out in the country we just walk around back to pee. The house is 30ft away, so it's not a long walk if full-facilities are needed. Running water and sewer/septic lines was too much of a pain to tie in, so we just keep GoJo on-hand in the shop and the parts washer. It gets you clean enough to get inside the house and not upset the missus. If we were 100yds away from the house, then yeah I'd spend the money on a separate septic and water hook-up.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Be very careful with inspections. KNOW your inspections and the building code, do not rely on a dumba** monkey inspector because if they make a mistake, you will need to bend over, grab your ankles and let them search for another few grand to pay to satisfy their greed. Don't ask how I know.

I have never ran into a difficult inspector. If you treat them with respect, they generally will be quite helpful. In fact, when you drop your plans off, find out who the inspector will be, introduce yourself. Ask him a couple of softball-questions, some advice.

Call and ask him a couple of quick questions during the process.

Inspections are a breeze if the inspector is treated with respect.

 

[cowman]

Given that I'm zoned agricultural and knowing the character of the area, I can't believe I'd have any issues with permitting/inspections... if they even actually inspect it at all unless I do something just unbelievably stupid.

 

[BigBadLou]

I have never ran into a difficult inspector. If you treat them with respect, they generally will be quite helpful. In fact, when you drop your plans off, find out who the inspector will be, introduce yourself. Ask him a couple of softball-questions, some advice.

Call and ask him a couple of quick questions during the process.

Inspections are a breeze if the inspector is treated with respect.

Doesn't help if you get a di*khead. I guess I just got unlucky (though from reports from other builders in our pot-smoking city, this is not a rare occurrence - afterall, it is a government/city job).
If you call your inspector and he says "have you poured yet? why are you bothering me now? pour and then call me for inspection", don't be surprised if looking at the fresh dried slab, he says "why didn't you call me before you poured? I needed to inspect the forms. Now you will have to pay us extra thousands of dollars for me to perform concrete soundings".
Now how do you politely tell a di*khead like this that you would rather kill him??

But I digress. There are di*ks in all professions but your own city employees might be an exception, who knows.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Doesn't help if you get a di*khead. I guess I just got unlucky (though from reports from other builders in our pot-smoking city, this is not a rare occurrence - afterall, it is a government/city job).
If you call your inspector and he says "have you poured yet? why are you bothering me now? pour and then call me for inspection", don't be surprised if looking at the fresh dried slab, he says "why didn't you call me before you poured? I needed to inspect the forms. Now you will have to pay us extra thousands of dollars for me to perform concrete soundings".
Now how do you politely tell a di*khead like this that you would rather kill him??

But I digress. There are di*ks in all professions but your own city employees might be an exception, who knows.

I have Contractor's Licenses in 3 states, work in some large, unknown amount of local jurisdictions, including State, County, and City inspectors. Many jurisdictions might only be once every couple of years. I have multiple employees who stand for inspection as Responsible Managing Employees.

They are all taught to be respectful, communicate in advance. Be respectful.

And, they almost always pass inspections on the first time, or, if something gets flagged, they are usually able to negotiate a timely rework/ ok to continue scenario. We have inspectors that will just tell us to "take a picture" and continue on...

The fact you use words that POA has to "bleep" out likely speaks more about your approach to the Inspectors than the competence and professionalism of the inspectors.

To the OP, be respectful, and, even better, engage them in an informal advisory role, and the inspectors will be your best friend and help your project move along.

 

[N801BH]

Go with spray foam. It's worth the extra money. Disclaimer: I own a spray foam company

Boy do I have a great deal for you...... Practically brand new Graco E-30 reactor with 100' heated hose, a 5 grand top of the line gun and a ton of spare parts.... 1/2 Price of new.....

 

[ChemGuy]

Boy do I have a great deal for you...... Practically brand new Graco E-30 reactor with 100' heated hose, a 5 grand top of the line gun and a ton of spare parts.... 1/2 Price of new.....

Seriously?
I may know some people looking for something like that.

I make up systems. Not spray foam anymore, too many people in the market.

 

[ChemGuy]

Go with spray foam. It's worth the extra money. Disclaimer: I own a spray foam company

Do you ever spray urea or urethane coatings?
I'm always looking for new customers

Oh and closed cell foam is the bomb. Unless you need to get to a pipe or wire behind it. That will make you curse a storm up.

 

[BigBadLou]

The fact you use words that POA has to "bleep" out likely speaks more about your approach to the Inspectors than the competence and professionalism of the inspectors.

Jose, sorry, I wasn't clear earlier. I dealt with 3 inspectors total. 2 of them were professional, courteous and respectful and I gladly returned the favor.
It was that one who had to spoil it for everybody, total dilettante. I have no respect for him. But like I said, every field has bad people, it is inevitable.

OP, as suggested before, good blue prints and good workmanship will usually get you the desired green slip. Not only that, you might even get thumbs up. Some inspectors are actually really cool.

 

[N801BH]

Seriously?
I may know some people looking for something like that.

I make up systems. Not spray foam anymore, too many people in the market.

Very serious.....

PM me for details...

Ps... Strange as it may sound,, The most interested parties so far are body shops.. Seems the E30 is such a great machine they use it for " spray on bed liners"..
Who knew..

 

[BigBadLou]

Boy do I have a great deal for you...... Practically brand new Graco E-30 reactor with 100' heated hose, a 5 grand top of the line gun and a ton of spare parts.... 1/2 Price of new.....

Where were you when I was building my garage? Could have used a spray.