Time to Design a New Shop

[460.465USMC]

Oh, and I've had 4 post lifts with casters...I would never get under one unless it was bolted to the floor. I understand the lift doesn't rest on the casters when in use. In my experience, the posts sway a bit when not anchored, and it made me too nervous when wrenching on something that weighed a ton or two, suspended above my head. I moved my lift around from time to time, but when in use, I bolted it down with 16 Redheads in 16 holes I'd drilled in the floor. Rock solid, and it only took a few minutes to remove the Redheads if I wanted to move the lift.

Greg

Dave, congrats on your new shop. Looks like it will be amazing.

I'm very late into this conversation, but I second Greg's comments above about a 4-post being anchored to the floor. I've owned the Bendpak HD-9 since 2016, and have moved it to two different houses since then. Yes, Bendpak says it doesn't need to be anchored to the floor, but the pucker factor when you're standing underneath a vehicle (even a light Cobra) that's several feet in the air says otherwise. I've done it both ways with mine, and there's no doubt I prefer to have it anchored. I also have Bendpak's casters--allowed it to be easily moved it last October via flat bed tow truck.

I inherited a metal pole-style building in our move last October. Spent the winter insulating it. I used OSB for my walls (third garage I've done that), and still love it. Definitely not as pretty to look at compared to sheet rock, but pretty enough for me. I had a Mitsubishi 24K BTU mini-split heat pump installed (24'x30' building with 12' walls). Boy, those are efficient. Gets plenty cold here in Spokane, and hot in the summer--no humidity, thankfully. I keep the temp at 80 in the summer, and it doesn't use much energy. Lastly, I installed a couple six foot ceiling fans that can reverse direction. Handy for winter v. summer air movement. They really make a difference in comfort.

Enjoy your new shop! I look forward to seeing the finished pictures.

[Papa]

Dave, congrats on your new shop. Looks like it will be amazing.

I'm very late into this conversation, but I second Greg's comments above about a 4-post being anchored to the floor. I've owned the Bendpak HD-9 since 2016, and have moved it to two different houses since then. Yes, Bendpak says it doesn't need to be anchored to the floor, but the pucker factor when you're standing underneath a vehicle (even a light Cobra) that's several feet in the air says otherwise. I've done it both ways with mine, and there's no doubt I prefer to have it anchored. I also have Bendpak's casters--allowed it to be easily moved it last October via flat bed tow truck.

I inherited a metal pole-style building in our move last October. Spent the winter insulating it. I used OSB for my walls (third garage I've done that), and still love it. Definitely not as pretty to look at compared to sheet rock, but pretty enough for me. I had a Mitsubishi 24K BTU mini-split heat pump installed (24'x30' building with 12' walls). Boy, those are efficient. Gets plenty cold here in Spokane, and hot in the summer--no humidity, thankfully. I keep the temp at 80 in the summer, and it doesn't use much energy. Lastly, I installed a couple six foot ceiling fans that can reverse direction. Handy for winter v. summer air movement. They really make a difference in comfort.

Enjoy your new shop! I look forward to seeing the finished pictures.

Chris,

It's good to hear from you and I hope you're getting lots of miles on your car. The shell of my building is done except for a few bits of trim that they still need to put on. Next will be the concrete guy to get the grade set and then do the floor. My electrician was over today to plan out his attack, but needs to discuss it with the building guys before he can get moving. I'm also doing OSB on the inside walls up to the 8' height, then metal above that to the ceiling.

Dave

[JimLev]

Are you using wire mesh or fiberglass strands in the concrete?

[Papa]

Are you using wire mesh or fiberglass strands in the concrete?

The concrete will have 1/2" rebar 2' on center.

[Papa]

Almost finished with the new shop ... lots of delays along the way due to weather and availability of contractors.

[Higgybulin]

Looks great Dave!! I am sure you cant wait to fill it up!
Higgy

[gbranham]

Honest question...many of my neighbors have these sheet metal shops as well, and most of them have them built on a gravel slab, THEN have the concrete poured. Why? Wouldn't it be easier to pour a concrete slab, then anchor the structure to it? Maybe I don't understand the process.

Greg

[JimLev]

^_I was wondering the same thing.

[PMD24]

Wow, that's a really nice building! Just wrapping up a shop build. Worked on it for 2 years. Some things that come to mind from that project are below. Might be too late, but decided to send anyway. Sitting indoors with a bad case of the flu and bored stiff. Sorry about the length but I kept thinking of stuff from the past 2 years.
> Take a look at Trusscore for your walls. I knew I didn't want drywall (just not durable) and searched for a very long time before choosing Trusscore. It's a 1/2" thick corrugated PVC panel, 16" wide, and various lengths up to 16ft. (I did mine vertical) Comes in white and light grey. I can send you some photos if you like. I also wrote dimensions from corners or slabs on all studs, furring, and blocking. Then took photos. Filed photos in both print and electronic form. Then when I want to hang something I pull out that info to hit something solid. Has worked well so far.
> Radiant slab. I'm a mechanical engineer with a background in HVAC design and building construction. Have designed tons of HVAC systems. You will never be sorry for installing a radiant floor. Amazing comfort, stable temperatures, and efficient.
> Look at metal ceiling liner instead of drywall. Glad I made that choice as well. Looks great and it looks more like a nicely finished shop ceiling versus the inside of my house. Easy to hang too.
> On one wall I hung flooring boards horizontally tongue nailed to OSB... just for an accent wall. Looks great. Glad I did something different there.
> Floor drain. You can check local codes but do one if you can. Building inspector approved mine.
> Utility sink. A must for stuff you don't want in the bathroom sink.
> I decided against spray foam. Foam is an awesome product especially for reno work and insulating areas that are not easily done with other products. Killer for air sealing challenging areas too, so if you have some odd shapes in your structure, you could use it there. I'd recommend dense pack cellulose. Same stuff that they blow into attics, but it's densely packed into walls using either a wet or dry method. Better r-value for the unit dollar as well. I used dry in the shop, wet in my home. Prefer wet but their machine was down when I did the shop.
> Make all outlets 20A, all lighting 15amp. 12ga for outlets, 14 for lighting. yellow wire for 12, white for 14. Easy to keep track of during and after installation.
> If you want to tinker with software for your lighting there's great free stuff out there. You upload your layout, pick a fixture (like a good commercial LED), choose a lumen/sf level, and the software will produce a lighting layout and lumen map (looks like a topo map) for the specific fixture. Very cool. And the map shows you lumen levels so you can add, change, or delete general lighting, or even add task lighting, like at a work bench or desk, and it maps that.
> Minisplit is a great choice for AC but plan ahead for the location of the indoor units and where you want the outdoor unit and the somewhat ugly thing that will run up the exterior wall. There's also a physical limit on how far the refrigerant lines can run. Might have to use more than one. Just need to plan for it. Like Jeff, I too prefer no AC and it's been fine so far. A few hot days I ran a fan which was fine. If you want to do both heating and cooling with forced air you would likely want a cold climate air source heat pump. Take a look at the Water Furnace website.
> Things I'd do different or add: 1) less grit in the floor coating. It still wouldn't be slippery when wet and would be easier to sweep and clean up spills (it shreds up paper towels) 2) Run air lines in the wall (Type L copper) to a few key spots around the shop, back to where my compressor is. 3)Install a wall penetration and exterior vent cap for a heat recovery ventilator. My building is so tight I'm finding that I need some fresh air during the winter. The code will likely require one for your house but not for your shop because it's not "living" space. It's just a box with two fans and some heat exchange medium. It brings in fresh air, pumps out stale indoor air, and exchanges the heat in the indoor air to the cooler fresh air coming in. I'll be adding one. 4) Vents through the wall to hook exhaust to.

I have good records on everything and happy to share info or photos.

[PMD24]

Just saw the latest post with your progress, so double sorry for my lengthy reply. Hopefully some of it will still be useful. Enjoy! It looks great!

[Papa]

Wow, that's a really nice building! Just wrapping up a shop build. Worked on it for 2 years. Some things that come to mind from that project are below. Might be too late, but decided to send anyway. Sitting indoors with a bad case of the flu and bored stiff. Sorry about the length but I kept thinking of stuff from the past 2 years.
> Take a look at Trusscore for your walls. I knew I didn't want drywall (just not durable) and searched for a very long time before choosing Trusscore. It's a 1/2" thick corrugated PVC panel, 16" wide, and various lengths up to 16ft. (I did mine vertical) Comes in white and light grey. I can send you some photos if you like. I also wrote dimensions from corners or slabs on all studs, furring, and blocking. Then took photos. Filed photos in both print and electronic form. Then when I want to hang something I pull out that info to hit something solid. Has worked well so far.
I used OSB, which is what Morton offers. It's 7/16" thick and provides endless places to hang or attach things to the wall. The OSB goes up to 8' and then they used perforated steel the rest of the way up. I got Morton's "Performer" insulation package, so it may be different if you pick different options.
> Radiant slab. I'm a mechanical engineer with a background in HVAC design and building construction. Have designed tons of HVAC systems. You will never be sorry for installing a radiant floor. Amazing comfort, stable temperatures, and efficient.
Many people recommended this, but I didn't go that route.
> Look at metal ceiling liner instead of drywall. Glad I made that choice as well. Looks great and it looks more like a nicely finished shop ceiling versus the inside of my house. Easy to hang too.
Ceiling is metal.
> On one wall I hung flooring boards horizontally tongue nailed to OSB... just for an accent wall. Looks great. Glad I did something different there.
> Floor drain. You can check local codes but do one if you can. Building inspector approved mine.
> Utility sink. A must for stuff you don't want in the bathroom sink.
No easy way to run water to this building based on distance to the water meter and main tap.
> I decided against spray foam. Foam is an awesome product especially for reno work and insulating areas that are not easily done with other products. Killer for air sealing challenging areas too, so if you have some odd shapes in your structure, you could use it there. I'd recommend dense pack cellulose. Same stuff that they blow into attics, but it's densely packed into walls using either a wet or dry method. Better r-value for the unit dollar as well. I used dry in the shop, wet in my home. Prefer wet but their machine was down when I did the shop.
> Make all outlets 20A, all lighting 15amp. 12ga for outlets, 14 for lighting. yellow wire for 12, white for 14. Easy to keep track of during and after installation.
All outlets are 20amp, ran 4-wire 220v for the mini-split just in case I need a neutral wire in the future.
> If you want to tinker with software for your lighting there's great free stuff out there. You upload your layout, pick a fixture (like a good commercial LED), choose a lumen/sf level, and the software will produce a lighting layout and lumen map (looks like a topo map) for the specific fixture. Very cool. And the map shows you lumen levels so you can add, change, or delete general lighting, or even add task lighting, like at a work bench or desk, and it maps that.
> Minisplit is a great choice for AC but plan ahead for the location of the indoor units and where you want the outdoor unit and the somewhat ugly thing that will run up the exterior wall. There's also a physical limit on how far the refrigerant lines can run. Might have to use more than one. Just need to plan for it. Like Jeff, I too prefer no AC and it's been fine so far. A few hot days I ran a fan which was fine. If you want to do both heating and cooling with forced air you would likely want a cold climate air source heat pump. Take a look at the Water Furnace website.
Mini-split is planned to go on the rear wall. Nothing visible from the house.
> Things I'd do different or add: 1) less grit in the floor coating. It still wouldn't be slippery when wet and would be easier to sweep and clean up spills (it shreds up paper towels) 2) Run air lines in the wall (Type L copper) to a few key spots around the shop, back to where my compressor is. 3)Install a wall penetration and exterior vent cap for a heat recovery ventilator. My building is so tight I'm finding that I need some fresh air during the winter. The code will likely require one for your house but not for your shop because it's not "living" space. It's just a box with two fans and some heat exchange medium. It brings in fresh air, pumps out stale indoor air, and exchanges the heat in the indoor air to the cooler fresh air coming in. I'll be adding one. 4) Vents through the wall to hook exhaust to.

I have good records on everything and happy to share info or photos.

See my responses above. Thanks for the input.

[Papa]

Honest question...many of my neighbors have these sheet metal shops as well, and most of them have them built on a gravel slab, THEN have the concrete poured. Why? Wouldn't it be easier to pour a concrete slab, then anchor the structure to it? Maybe I don't understand the process.

Greg

^_I was wondering the same thing.

https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/...concrete-slab/

[Papa]

I got the 96" fan and my 6 x 35,000 lumen LED lights installed this weekend.