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Workshop construction from dream to reality.

15K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  DalyArcher 
#1 ·
conception...

Well, after much debate and discussion it appears as though I am finally on my way to having a real live workshop all my own!

My wife and I bought our current home with the idea of flipping it and buying something else with a large yard and shop. Take a couple years, add a little one to the mix and plans change. Our location is great, walking distance to schools and stores and work. We had considered selling and looking for something else, but we bought at a great time and the property prices have more than doubled since we bought. To find something which would make us both happy would mean tripling our mortgage and forfeiting anything fun in our lives like holidays, hunting trips and new tools. So here I remain. My city lot measure 70 feet by 130 feet. I will be constructing a modest 20 foot by 24 foot shop in the rear of the property.

Our home is a 1200 sf split level with full basement (2400 sf total) built in 1970. Currently I am working out of a bedroom in the basement. I have churned out a fair number of projects from this little space, but I am certainly overdue for an upgrade.

A major part of this project will be to upgrade the current electrical service to 200 amps from the current 100 amp service. The first step however will be to have two 40 foot tall gnarly, knotted old pine trees removed from the back yard where the shop will be located.
 
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#2 ·
Best of luck to you! I am just finishing up a 20Ă—20 shop in my back yard. Very cool to have a shop space out of the house.

Like you, I was in the basement. Columns, low ceiling, just not the best space. Now I have something I can really work in, and soon you will too! I'll be following along - enjoy the process!
 
#3 ·
It begins!

The first real step toward the workshop build took place today. Had a local arborist come in and remove two large, knotty pine trees from the back yard.





Nest to find an electrician to discuss a service panel upgrade and then some further site prep.
 
#6 ·
breaking ground

Saturday morning I was finally able to coordinate my time with a friend with a tractor and we set to work exercising the stump left from the large pine which was felled. The machine was admittedly small for the task at hand, but I was limited to the size I could get in the back yard. I only have about 7 feet between my house and the neighbours fence.

Tire Plant Wheel Vehicle Window


I did not think a pine tree would have so many tap roots! We found a half dozen roots as large as my forearm running straight down. We had to undermine the stump with a shovel and just keep working at it until it broke loose. 4 hours later and it was finally free!

Plant Wood Land lot Vehicle Tree


We then set to work with rough lay out and excavating for the thickened edge slab:

Fence Plant Land lot Mesh Groundcover


Plant Property Sky Tree Grass


Plant Property Slope Tire Tree


I now have a large pile of dirt that the little guy loves, was climbing to the top of it not 3 minutes after being outside. I also have a large piece of "New Age Yard Art" I am going to try to sell on Craigslist to offset the cost of the shop build:
Plant Property Window Building Tree
 

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#7 ·
breaking ground

Saturday morning I was finally able to coordinate my time with a friend with a tractor and we set to work exercising the stump left from the large pine which was felled. The machine was admittedly small for the task at hand, but I was limited to the size I could get in the back yard. I only have about 7 feet between my house and the neighbours fence.

Tire Plant Wheel Vehicle Window


I did not think a pine tree would have so many tap roots! We found a half dozen roots as large as my forearm running straight down. We had to undermine the stump with a shovel and just keep working at it until it broke loose. 4 hours later and it was finally free!

Plant Wood Land lot Vehicle Tree


We then set to work with rough lay out and excavating for the thickened edge slab:

Fence Plant Land lot Mesh Groundcover


Plant Property Sky Tree Grass


Plant Property Slope Tire Tree


I now have a large pile of dirt that the little guy loves, was climbing to the top of it not 3 minutes after being outside. I also have a large piece of "New Age Yard Art" I am going to try to sell on Craigslist to offset the cost of the shop build:
Plant Property Window Building Tree
How cool is this, look fwd to seeing your progress. Nice stump….
 

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#8 ·
gravel and forms

well, after getting the stump out and foundation excavated it was time to move in some gravel:




And because a wheel barrow full of gravel isn't heavy enough:



I wound up having two loads delivered at roughly 8 yards each. Did not use all of the second one. I compacted between lifts of 2 - 3 inches. The first night after the gravel was delivered I moved 35 wheelbarrow loads by myself. I stopped counting after that.

We then set forms:




I need to rebuild my deck, so I opted to use 14 foot PT 2Ă—10 for the forms, running the ends long so I did not have to cut them and wrapping them in poly rather than using a release agent. The thickened edge is 18" by 18". The bottom 9" of the forms is filled in with 1" Styrofoam, backfilled and temporarily braced to the inside of the form. Once the first few inches of concrete is poured I will pull the duplex nails holding the bracing and the backfilling will brace the Styrofoam from the outside.

Tied in all my rebar and just awaiting an inspection before pouring. The pour looks to be around 18 yards. I cannot get a cement truck to the rear of the property. A pumper truck is $1000.00 just for the truck, in addition to the near $2800.00 for concrete. I may be making a congregational call out for a few brothers to come forward with wheelbarrows in exchange for a good meal and plenty of beer and whiskey after the pour!
 
#11 ·
The big pour

Well, 17 yards all placed by wheelbarrow. I simply could not commit myself to the extra $1000.00 I was quoted for a pump truck. My friends scoffed when I relayed the estimated costs to them and all unanimously responded with "I have a wheelbarrow".

A date was set, men recruited and at 8:30 on Saturday morning the first truck arrived.


Initially there were only 4 of us and after the first 5 or 6 wheelbarrows were dumped, it was looking like we were going to be there a while. By 9 oclock though there were 8 of us manning wheelbarrows and starting to screed. The truck was empty by 9:35.

It was around this time that speculation began to rise that we were perhaps not quite halfway full. No time to make adjustments for the next truck as it was already pulling into the driveway. 45 minutes later, all worry was cast aside as were full up.


a quick screed and run of the bull float. Made a few necessary impressions:


and by noon we were cracking beers, eating pulled pork sandwiches and enjoying hot cinnamon buns.
 
#15 ·
coming together

Time for an update I suppose.

My little buddy helped me strip forms a few days after the pour.


The pour turned out great. No cracks or low spots. Not a polished finish, but I do intend to put a subfloor over top so I am not too fussed about the finish.

After the pour I ordered the material for the walls and began sinking 3 1/2" ardox spikes with my trusty, yet seldom deployed framing hammer. In short order I had two large sections of wall framed and wandered over to ask the neighbour for a quick lift. The next day the process was repeated and I filled in the short sections of remaining wall myself.




Last week a friend of mine came by an we raised the trusses. I was battling a throat infection gifted to me by my loving son and what should have taken a few short hours took most of the day.




Over this past weekend another friend volunteered himself and we installed the gable overhangs, the fascia and sheeted the roof.

We got the last sheet nailed down just as a thunderstorm started really kicking off, complete with a nice show of lightning and some gusting winds.

I spent the last few nights completing the wall sheeting and have a framing inspection tomorrow. After that I will be able to install house wrap and shingles.

Oh yeah, a couple weeks ago while outside pluggin away, my little man looked up at me and said "Daddy, I have belt too?" well, obviously a shortcoming we had to rectify, so looked around and ordered him a right proper piece of kit:




My wife has yet to pick a siding colour and my electrician is out of town until the beginning of August. Doors should be here in a week or two. In the mean time I printed off one of those workshop layout templates and started playing around with different layouts.

I hope to have the shop wired by the end of August and insulated fairly shortly after that. I got a moose draw this year and I hope to get after an early season mountain goat as well, so we will see how we progress. I love woodworking but only my wife and son take priority over bowhunting!
 
#17 ·
A bit stalled but chipping away

Well, I certainly put this on the backburner didn't I?

Well, following the sheathing of the roof of course I very quickly managed to throw the shingles in place. The local Canadian Tire had a coil roofing nailer on sale for around a hundred bucks and I fugured I could loose on that even if I only used it once.
Plant Wood Flooring Line Grass


I dug the electrical supply trench with "help" from my little buddy.
Plant Wall Grass Slope Agriculture


I installed doors and a window and had the shop rough wired through the close of summer. I had rather optimistic hopes of having the shop drywalled through the winter of 2016. Alas, this just did not happen.

That Christmas was the year my sond contracted some form of meningitis and nearly died. I wont relive it here again, but suffice to say, I drove him to the hospital far faster than one should at 7 am on Christmas morning with him strapped butt naked in his car seat. Waitign for the ambulance proved too hard a thing to do. A week in the hospital while waiting on test results on top of the fact my wife was 6 months pregnant made for a stressful time.

Fast forward to March 2017 and on the 29th, almost 2 weeks late, my darling princess, Amelie Marion Daly decided to finally bless us with her presence. Kids aren't terribly exspensive right off the bat, but loosing the income from my wife staying home hit the shop budget pretty hard, hehe.

Anyway, through 2017 I chipped away as I could. put trim up twice - wife didn't want the rough look, planed the cedar to smooth it, but forgot to account for the rainscreen and ended up 1/8" to thin when installing the hardi-plank. oh well, lesson learned, back to the mill and now I have a supply of 1Ă—4 smooth cedar for my boy and i to build some birdhouses.

I managed to squirel away a grand or so and got the insulation for the shop over the winter. had my vapor barrier inspection last week, learned I really hate acoustical sealant - disgusting mess that stuff creates and just last week drywalled my ceiling.

A friend from church loaned me his homemade lift which made things pretty easy, even hanging the sheets myself. I decided to build some backer boards and land the butt joints between the trusses rather than dead on them. Not sure how I like this method, we'll see the benefit when I mud and tape this weekend.
Fixture Floor Ladder Wood Building


Wood Electricity Ladder Floor Gas


Wife is back to work now so hopefully by mid summer the electrician can come back to finish and the shop will be up and running in time to make some Christmas projects.
 

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#18 ·
A bit stalled but chipping away

Well, I certainly put this on the backburner didn't I?

Well, following the sheathing of the roof of course I very quickly managed to throw the shingles in place. The local Canadian Tire had a coil roofing nailer on sale for around a hundred bucks and I fugured I could loose on that even if I only used it once.
Plant Wood Flooring Line Grass


I dug the electrical supply trench with "help" from my little buddy.
Plant Wall Grass Slope Agriculture


I installed doors and a window and had the shop rough wired through the close of summer. I had rather optimistic hopes of having the shop drywalled through the winter of 2016. Alas, this just did not happen.

That Christmas was the year my sond contracted some form of meningitis and nearly died. I wont relive it here again, but suffice to say, I drove him to the hospital far faster than one should at 7 am on Christmas morning with him strapped butt naked in his car seat. Waitign for the ambulance proved too hard a thing to do. A week in the hospital while waiting on test results on top of the fact my wife was 6 months pregnant made for a stressful time.

Fast forward to March 2017 and on the 29th, almost 2 weeks late, my darling princess, Amelie Marion Daly decided to finally bless us with her presence. Kids aren't terribly exspensive right off the bat, but loosing the income from my wife staying home hit the shop budget pretty hard, hehe.

Anyway, through 2017 I chipped away as I could. put trim up twice - wife didn't want the rough look, planed the cedar to smooth it, but forgot to account for the rainscreen and ended up 1/8" to thin when installing the hardi-plank. oh well, lesson learned, back to the mill and now I have a supply of 1Ă—4 smooth cedar for my boy and i to build some birdhouses.

I managed to squirel away a grand or so and got the insulation for the shop over the winter. had my vapor barrier inspection last week, learned I really hate acoustical sealant - disgusting mess that stuff creates and just last week drywalled my ceiling.

A friend from church loaned me his homemade lift which made things pretty easy, even hanging the sheets myself. I decided to build some backer boards and land the butt joints between the trusses rather than dead on them. Not sure how I like this method, we'll see the benefit when I mud and tape this weekend.
Fixture Floor Ladder Wood Building


Wood Electricity Ladder Floor Gas


Wife is back to work now so hopefully by mid summer the electrician can come back to finish and the shop will be up and running in time to make some Christmas projects.
Life sure has a way of getting in the way and stretching out projects doesn't it? Good luck with your revised plans,
 

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#20 ·
So close, so very close!

This has taken a LOT longer than I had anticipated it would. Hard to believe I started this whole thing before my wife was pregnant with our little princess who is already a sassy, chatty 2 year old!

When last I left this blog I had just drywalled the ceiling. We stalled at this stage for a while. I actually thought we were going to sell and move. I was one signature away on a contract from accepting a new job and moving 1000 kilometers away and starting all over again. That didn't pan out, and we are still "here".

Life has a funny way of kicking the rug from under ya just to make sure you know where you are at it seems, haha. Every time I thought I could throw some money at my shop, the dryer would quit, the stove would die (LG recall missed us by a few months!), daughter needs eye surgery, flights, hotel, etc… Recovered from all that and can now safely say I am mere weeks away from final assembly of my cabinet shop.

The walls were drywalled last month. I put the third coat of mud on walls and ceiling last night after my two kiddies went to bed. I ordered a 4000 watt ceiling heater last week and picked up breakers for my panel and a new plug and receptacle for my General 350 and to convert my General International jointer to 220.

slight tablesaw diversion; I sold my old Delta contractor (guy got a good deal, sold all my jigs and sleds with it) and am putting the money to a shark guard and manual riving knife for the 350.

I am shopping for lights right now (led of course) and picking paint colours; I want to incorporate General green in some way. So very, very close!
Wood Floor Flooring Building Hardwood
 

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#21 ·
So close, so very close!

This has taken a LOT longer than I had anticipated it would. Hard to believe I started this whole thing before my wife was pregnant with our little princess who is already a sassy, chatty 2 year old!

When last I left this blog I had just drywalled the ceiling. We stalled at this stage for a while. I actually thought we were going to sell and move. I was one signature away on a contract from accepting a new job and moving 1000 kilometers away and starting all over again. That didn't pan out, and we are still "here".

Life has a funny way of kicking the rug from under ya just to make sure you know where you are at it seems, haha. Every time I thought I could throw some money at my shop, the dryer would quit, the stove would die (LG recall missed us by a few months!), daughter needs eye surgery, flights, hotel, etc… Recovered from all that and can now safely say I am mere weeks away from final assembly of my cabinet shop.

The walls were drywalled last month. I put the third coat of mud on walls and ceiling last night after my two kiddies went to bed. I ordered a 4000 watt ceiling heater last week and picked up breakers for my panel and a new plug and receptacle for my General 350 and to convert my General International jointer to 220.

slight tablesaw diversion; I sold my old Delta contractor (guy got a good deal, sold all my jigs and sleds with it) and am putting the money to a shark guard and manual riving knife for the 350.

I am shopping for lights right now (led of course) and picking paint colours; I want to incorporate General green in some way. So very, very close!
Wood Floor Flooring Building Hardwood
Keep plugging along. We'll look forward to some picture updates of the new space.

L/W
 

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#23 ·
Moving in

From over a year of near complete inactivity to an absolute whirlwind of progress.

After chipping away at mud and taping the drywall (I hate ceilings) I threw on some primer and ceiling paint and was off to pick up some colour for the walls. I had a few different ideas going in but settled on a mild green (Caribou Lichen from the National Parks of Canada collection)

A friend from church came round and helped me install a 4000 watt ceiling mount heater.
Interior design Audio equipment Building Ceiling Room


The heater is great. Wall controlled thermostat, set it at 10 degrees, bump it to 17ish when I start working, plenty comfy with a nice Pendelton shop shirt.

Shortly after the heater, the lights went up. 6 4 foot led fixtures. I seem to recall them being in the 5500 Lumen range. Just installing the first two lit up the shop more than I am used to. The rest of the plugs got finished up, I converted my jointer to 220v, I put up a couple of exterior LED motion lights and started really moving in!

Table Flooring Floor Desk Wood


Wood Floor Flooring Shelving Table


mid way through construction I was able to acquire a 5 hp General 350 cabinet saw. For the last year and a half I have walked past that saw and been unable to turn it on. This was an incredibly painful time in my life. Shortly before Christmas I finally hit the green button on the beast for the first time and it was magical! I have never used a tablesaw with an intact guard before, but, being that 5 hp is a fair step up from my 1.5 hp contractor and the fact that my 7 year old boy will be in the shop a fair bit, I thought it best to set a good example. I reached out to Ron at SharkGuard and got a got a guard and manual riving knife which arrived on Christmas Eve.
Hood Automotive tire Bumper Automotive exterior Motor vehicle


Once I had the knife installed and adjusted properly I set to completing the extension wing on the saw and building a lumber rack to get some of my materials storage out of the house.
Wood Art Building Gas Rectangle


I am currently working away at an outfeed table and am awaiting delivery of a small dust collector. The shop is in a state of disarray currently, but everything will find a home soon enough.
 

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#24 ·
outfeed table

The first major-ish project in the new shop was to finish setting up the tablesaw. I knew I wanted a large outfeed table in place to support sheet goods. I did not necessarily want the table to function as an assembly table as I did not want the area to become cluttered with project pieces which would have to be moved to facilitate a mid-project ripping operation, so no t-track or over abundance of dog holes.

I picked up a few sheets of birch plywood and started sizing the cabinet components. I built a base of 2Ă—4 and set some insert nuts and carriage bolts in place to act as levelers. I wanted to incorporate my compressor in the cabinet, but other than that, plans were pretty fluid. I did have to work around the large motor door that swings open for my saw, which meant a few gables in place of full cabinets.
Table saws Automotive design Wood Gas Tool


I had envisioned a torsion box top for this project, but by the time the base was in place, I only had room left for a 2 1/2" thick top. I had originally thought to add cut outs to stash tools and such, but abandoned that thought as I envisioned it becoming a bad habit and a a catch all.
Building Watercraft Naval architecture Motor vehicle Vehicle


I ran some conduit under the base and set a 120 and 220 outlet in the cabinet to accommodate the compressor as well as my jointer, etc.

Table Gas Engineering Machine Electrical wiring


I am going to pick up some local birch for face frames and wrapping the top. I would like to add a laminate layer to the top and still have to cut in slots for the sled runners and add some drawers for blades, nail guns, etc. It has been a very "fluid" project. the concept changed multiple times and things were often re-worked or re-thought as it came together.
 

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