New shop build, beginning stages with questions

[rangerfredbob]

Ok, I got the second end wall somewhat finished yesterday, this one has a window so it was more difficult... Still have to install the bottom trim on that and the first wall I did, but I put the top trim on the first end wall the day after the ladder incident... got the bottom trim on a few days later after I got leg movement back . Still not 100%, if I jump out of a high vehicle or off of the trailer it's still uncomfortable, but otherwise back to normal...

Still have 3/4 of the easy wall to go, it just has a window and a man door, but the metal is all flat on top and only 11ish feet tall instead of tapered and varying... the next section has a window, after that is the door then smooth sailing through the last section... I'll leave the clear poly top open until concrete is done...

 

[rangerfredbob]

I'm finally done playing with tin sheeting! Got the last wall sheeted today, including installing my first man door ever, yesterday I got the insulation on and installed the second window but stopped putting tin on when I got to the man door. Today I finished that, installed the trim at the top of the second truss end wall and installed all of the base trim. All that is left metal wise is corner trim and eave trim where the gutters will go eventually. I left off the clear panels at the top of the long wall for now until I get the slab poured, I'll likely leave those two corner trim pieces off for now as well, hopefully get the rest of the corner trim installed this week, then I can concentrate on the floor and electrical...

 

[rangerfredbob]

Here's some pictures, the only one with siding is from yesterday, that's the last of the tin sheeting, I still have to do the corner flashing and the eave flashing but that's it, I took the picture before I got the bottom trim on the man door side wall. The clear panels will stay off until I get the concrete poured for ventilation, unless that's not necessary...

The rest of the pictures are of the work party day, one is of my square that went for a ride

 

[EddieWalker]

thanks for the pictures. those winches on the tops of the posts surprised me. I've never seen this before.

 

[grsthegreat]

thanks for the pictures. those winches on the tops of the posts surprised me. I've never seen this before.

thats how they do it here in north idaho also. seen it done many times. its how they did on 2 of my 3 buildings. was amazing to watch.

 

[joeyd]

My pole barn trusses were "raised" the same way! The installers even let me climb up the girts and assist on one of the winches. So I guess you could say I helped build mine. :laughing:

 

[rangerfredbob]

I have a LOT of sweat equity in this thing... I've been stubborn and wanted to do as much as I can myself... Finally today I got my next order of gravel after a month of waiting (ok, not really urgent waiting, I had stuff to do, but I'm to that point now) so I now have 30 tons of gravel ready to be spread on the floor... Three of the post holes still had to have gravel put in them when I ran out and it rained, two of them had about 3' of depth to take up and when they filled with water they caved in. Tonight I dug 2' of mud out of one hole and filled it with gravel and tamped it every 8' as instructed... Still have one to go and moving the rest into the shop to spread to the bottom of the skirt boards...

 

[rangerfredbob]

I don't feel like pulling pictures off my phone right now, but I spread all the gravel between yesterday and today. Also ran the jumping jack around for the first round, need to get a laser level to get it level all around. Also realized that my math was WAY off on how much gravel I needed... I had gotten 2 loads last week and after spreading I still need another 7 yards if I estimate reasonably, so another load it is... I tell ya what, having a bigger tractor or a skid steer would have been nice spreading the gravel, on a rough estimate it was about 150 buckets for around 17 yards.

On another note, with the email I got from Harbor Freight I was tempted to go to get a new tool box for the new shop, ordered a blue 54" US General with top box and noticed the 4' LED Shop lights were $18 so I grabbed a couple and one of the two row versions for $35ish, installed the two row first then a single row and found out they were not linkable but whatever... The power to the lights is just an extension cord ran overhead from the shed for now so I'm utilizing the switches on the lights but those 7 lights are actually pretty bright together! While they're still on sale I'm going to grab 2 more to fill it out...

 

[rangerfredbob]

Ok, here's some pictures from the other day.

One is from the outside in near dusk, I had just finished moving the two truckloads of gravel inside...

Another is with the jumping jack off to the left, I'd just got done with the first round of compacting

The other two are the progress of the lights, the pic with 3 lights, the two on the left are the cheap ones from HFT, the bluer one is the dual row linkable more expensive version... For the difference I'm going to get more cheap ones and keep an eye open for the better ones on sale... With 7 of those lights it's pretty bright in there. The cheap ones are $18 ea no coupon needed until the 11th...

 

[rangerfredbob]

I have another load of gravel added to the floor and think I'm still a little short, but will try to tackle that this weekend, I have the whole thing tamped and will try to borrow a laser level to check on things.

Filling in time and getting things done that need done anyway I tried like heck to figure out how to get the lights just up there in a quick and easy manner using extension cords wrong and such but it was almost as much work as doing it right so I decided to wire up the lights but put a scrap of romex with an extension cord repair end sticking out of the switch box for now until I get electrical figured out... Got all the wire ran and boxes installed tonight, 4 of the outlets are installed but the rest are missing the screws to attach them in the boxes! Gotta get 8 more outlets, I'll leave those other outlets for wall sockets... Thursday I should be able to have all the lights on switches instead of 7 pull chains! And I have 8 more lights to mount so I'll get on that...