My 30' x 40' tractor garage

[eepete]

So here is where this stands today. I still have final grading to do, I'll do that after the solar project is done since a lot of that is seat time in the cab loving my TnT and iMatch.

The 1st picture is a stitched shot of what it looks like today. The hay fields are coming in just great.

The next three shots are the interior with some junk errr? stuff moved in. I assure you it will never look this clean or uncluttered again. And those empty shelf spaces will fill up with time. And the last shot is the new riding lawn mower. I had door openers installed so I can open the doors from inside the cab. Put in all the wiring for it, AC and low voltage during that phase. Nothing makes me work harder than something that lets me be lazy.

I also beefed up the PT plywood behind where the MX6 rotary cutter is. Added 2x4 supports, boxed it in, and used a piece of 3/4 PT plywood. That way, when I back the mower wheel into the wall some day it won't take out the back of the building (I hope).

WOW, that's a lot of typing. I hope this helps those thinking about a building with both things to do and the overall flow of the project.

As for costs: I'm not bragging or complaining here, just trying to help those thinking about this sort of project. Ok, I might be bragging about the garage door openers.

The Morton Country Craft building with additions of 5" concrete, insulated doors, 8.5" tall door, and aprons was about $23K.
I spent about $1800 on electrical. That was more that I thought. I had a friend who is an electrician be the electrician of record, and paid him for a few hours as a way to thank him for working with me. He also kept me up to code. All those little conduit fittings and boxes added up. The flood lights were about $90 for the 12 of them. The 3/4" sticks are $1 each, very deceptive when you're having that box store planning idea moment. The length of the wire run was 170 feet, so 4 runs of #2 copper was a lot. Used 3 500' #14's and 3 500' #12s with a bit left over too. So the wire alone came to about $900. The panel box and 100 amp breaker is expensive, those 2' boxes aren't cheap either. It all adds up.
I spent about $500 on adding the studs and the interior wood. The 3/4" plywood adds up in a hurry.
I spent about $120 on the water line. It's a 200' length of 3/4 160 PSI black PE. All the fittings add up in a hurry too. At the house, I have a shut of and drain valve, the line was run so it can be drained in the winter (has a single high spot).
I spent about $500 on rebar (too much, but wanted 20' long pieces). Paid for delivery too.
I spent about $350 on PEX and manifold.
I spent about $3100 on the insulation, it's about R13 walls and ceiling. There might start to be some issues with how well it would stay put if I went thicker on the walls. The ceiling was on the 1/4" bubble insulation that comes with the building, so could have gone thicker there but the 50 degree goal did not justify the cost. It was a nice one day job. I did all the prep and covering, they helped when it was time to swap halves and re-do the door covers.
I spent about $100 on the concrete finishing
I spent about $130 on the shelf on the wall. The big brackets for a heavy weight section were expensive! About $20 each. 4 years ago they were $12. Used cheaper brackets on the rest, it just changes what you can store there.
I spent about $400 on painting, paid a friend who paints to help me. Paint, sprayer rental, about $100 in time.
I spent about $900 on the door openers. The 12' wide door had to have a funny opener that goes on the tension bar, and the remote controls took that up a bit. Almost didn't do this, but as time goes one I know I'll appreciate it more and more.
I spent about $80 on compactor rental.
I spent about $1000 on gravel. A load of pea gravel, a load of rail road ballast, two loads of crusher run.
The box blade was priceless. Grading (course and final) estimate was about $1K, box blade was $1600. It's icing on the cake when a project leaves you with "leftover implements" you have to keep.
I spent about $600 on metal shelving. Got the heavier gauge stuff (20 gauge) from Grainger. Big Box stores don't sell any good shelves.

That all works out to about $28 per square foot and a _lot_ of labor for me (probably about 5 weeks worth).

I've got the TnT for the 4520 now, so when I get around to the final grading I'll fire this thread back up and post the pix to close out this project. I'm also building another Morton building to replace a shed that fell down this winter, but it will be left in it's "original form". The shed that fell down was also a little hit in the timeline for this project. As for the replacement for the collapsed shed: It's a shed, not a garage.

On to my next project, the solar array!

I'm through singing now

Pete

 

[eepete]

Flusher, I'm a MAC user. Have a PC for a few geek things than only run on a PC, and do other work under parallels on the MAC. I did edit just about all the pix using a MAC program, and their sizes should be between 200 and 500 Kbytes. I had _lots_ of problems uploading, as you can tell by the pauses in the postings. Maybee the data pipes were just clogged at this time of night... Had to reboot my wireless router twice

I don't miss the PC; the reliability, big screens, etc. of the MAC are good. But sometimes it's annoying because not all software is available for the MAC, and parallels has some bugs in it too. MACs are just as "bigoted" in their view of the world as PCs, it's just that the dictator is a bit more benign.

Glad you liked the post, tnx for the pix tip.

Pete

 

[SPYDERLK]

Very nice! Lots of thinking is apparent in that job. I too am building a shop .. er-r garage. It can be nerve racking at times. Will you be sealing your concrete?
larry

 

[eepete]

SPYDERLK I did seal the concrete. Not high grade stuff, but it worked. After I did it, and some higher humidity returned, the concrete did not have any "sweats" on it. Between the plastic on the bottom and the seal on the top, it stays dry now. I'm sure it will get scraped and dinged up.

Pete

 

[Gale Hawkins]

That is so nice. Wish I had as flat of land as yours. If I had a shop like that the wife would never see me much.

 

[Mousefield]

eepete, looks like I posted earlier before you had loaded everything. I do stand by my comments. Very well done and thanks for the info and pics.
Just to let you know your pics come up right away when I click on them. Not sure why others seem to have problems loading them. Again well done. :thumbsup:

 

[scoutcub]

Very, Very nice job! Either you're a contractor or work for National Geographic, with your level of expertise and documentary skills!
I'll be ~attempting~ a similar project later this year, a 30X30 garage.....you've given some great insight. And, greatly appreciate the cost breakdown, many threads don't include that, and it's very helpful for planning.
Thanks again!

 

[EddieWalker]

Pete,

Love the riding mower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice shop too, congratulations on a job well done.

It looks like you are building driveways with your rock. I think that in time, those grass areas between the rock will just become a pain to maintain without any benifit. You might consider rocking it all in solid to increase your parking area and have less grass to maintain.

Eddie

 

[flusher]

Flusher, I'm a MAC user. Have a PC for a few geek things than only run on a PC, and do other work under parallels on the MAC. I did edit just about all the pix using a MAC program, and their sizes should be between 200 and 500 Kbytes. I had _lots_ of problems uploading, as you can tell by the pauses in the postings. Maybee the pipes were just clogged at this time of night... Had to reboot my wireless router twice

Don't miss the PC, the reliability, big screens, etc. of the MAC are good. But sometimes it's annoying because not all software is available for the MAC, and parallels has some bugs in it too. MACs are just as "bigoted" in their view of the world as PCs, it's just that the dictator is a bit more benign.

Glad you liked the post, tnx for the pix tip.

Pete

I resize my 350KB digicam images to 40-60KB for posting on TBN and fast loading. Those smaller images are adequate for these TBN forums.

 

[eepete]

Gale: The flat land wish is funny. We have some friends from West Virginia, the covet the flat land. We know some people from flat areas, they love land with some hills. Sometimes human nature is such that we want what we don't have more than we should appreciate what we have. I do have some hills on the property, so it's a good mix. This is the "hilly-est" plot that the farmer who cuts the hay works on, so it's a good mix.

Mosuefield: tnx.

Eddie: Tnx. The change over between grass and gravel is always a problem. I've tried the plastic edging, but things settle too much to make it mowable. If the grass area between the driveway is a pain I'll boxblade it up. I was hoping it might work as a big welcome mat where I could wipe the mud of my feet. Time will tell. Around the house I used landscape timbers between the pea gravel boarder around the house and the grass. Works OK, just a bit costly and more work to put in. When the final grading and landscaping pix are posted, I look forward to your comments on all this.

flusher: I'm always torn between detail of pix and size/time. It would be interesting if there was a way (perhaps via the "My Home" data) to find out what the average and mean speed of TBN members internet connection was.

Everyone: I re-read and clean up the post this morning, just little stuff. One thing I did not mention was what sorts of low voltage I ran out to the building.

There is a sensor on the people door for security. There is a speaker that is part of the whole house automation, so I can hear what's going on. I have wires for a video surveillance camera inside the building and outside. You saw the phone by the people door in the pix. I also have a temperature sensor for the building. Here's a shot of how the building temperature vs. outside temperature did for the last 24 hours. This sensor is also used for fire detection. I also have a 12 volt power feed for the cameras and other automation electronics down the road. There is a CAT5 for the wifi hot spot for the garage. There are 3 spare CAT5's. Finally, the wires for the automation for the solar project are there.

Pete