Building the Wood Shop

Bulding the Wood Shop: Part X - Siding, Soffit, and Paint

Submitted by Leif on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 8:09pm

The weather warmed, and the shop was ready for some finishing touches on the exterior. I had thought over and over about what the exterior finish was going to be. The original idea - way back when - was to use a board and batten, of cedar. The method of construction didn't lend itself well to a vertical siding, however - and cedar was much too far outside of my budget. Next I thought maybe I could do a cheat of a board and batten - basically use a plywood and nail battens on top of it. This was most tempting, but truthfully it didn't match the neighborhood, nor did it match the house, which is currently T1-11 Besides that, the plywood used today simply doesn't have the quality of the plywood used just 20 years ago unless you buy the highest priced stuff out there - which kind of defeats the purpose of using the stuff to my mind... . So - for those same reasons I considered T1-11 and just as soon abandoned it. Another choice could have been steel or vinyl lap siding - but that just doesn't turn my crank at all. I hate the monotonous fields of vinyl lap siding cropping up in cramped subdivisions, so I wrote those off of my list.

In the end, it was budget that made the call, I'm sad to say. There were two choices in my price range - fiber cement lap siding (HardiPlank by James Hardie) and composite wood lap siding and trim (LP's "SmartSide"). It was a tough decision to make, believe it or not... Tough because I didn't like either option - but basically needed to put something up, so here's how I decided. Whether it makes any sense is up to you, but it seemed all quite logical. Of course if I had my druthers it would have been something a little more elegant, but then again one has to draw the line somewhere. It's not like I live in a neighborhood of million-dollar homes, nor do I have that sort of income.

Building the Woodshop: Part IX - Some Misc. Stuff

Submitted by Leif on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 7:54pm

The speed of construction slowed dramatically after I had to go back to a full time position with a local firm. My shop hours were reduced to just a couple of hours of productive work a week, and since winter was on, it was also quite cold and daylight was limited to weekends... The exterior was buttoned up enough to get by until spring, and I still wanted to get the permit signed off on before I had to spend the money to extend it... As it is, I'm getting very close to having these updates be live... I think that there's only 2 or 3 more entries before it is.

Before I do get there, this is a good opportunity to go over some miscellaneous "stuff" - things that I haven't gone over directly but should be... I'll use this opportunity to touch on a few different subjects I hadn't gotten to earlier, or that don't fit well into the narrative.

My main goal after getting the roofing on the building was to get the inspector to sign off on the building. To get him to, there's a few things I needed to do. Before, I concentrated more on getting the shell up - now was time to add a few structural items to stiffen the frame.

Building the Woodshop: Part VIII - Roofing

Submitted by Leif on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 8:00pm

 

 Ah, the hard work was done...  Or was it?  I got the roof framed, and it was time now to get it shingled.   Before I get to that, the last little bit of framing needed to happen - the cupola.  Here you can see the base I had constructed while framing up the roof:

Roofing

You can also see the roofing materials nowhere near I wanted them to be - I wanted them on the roof, but there they are on the ground...  Of course, they are the heavy ones - architectural layered shingles, which basically means each bundle weighs twice as much as a regular bundle...  but I digress... 

Here's a rear view of the building, showing the cupola framing and the rear overhang I neglected to include in the last installment of this unending adventure:

Roofing

Building the Woodshop: Part VII - Framing the Roof

Submitted by Leif on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 6:48pm

The idea is simple enough - all you really want is to shed water and hold heat in, right?

When I was designing the shop, I investigated several different methods for constructing a roof.  First was manufactured trusses...  I ruled those out because I knew I wouldn't be able to place them myself.  Another option was to use wood I-beams... This was a really tempting option, and now that I've finished, this is the route I would take today, if I were to do it over again.  Finally, I looked at doing it "old school" - with honest to God 2x10 rafters.

I didn't have any real reason for going that way except so I could say I did... a bit of a romantic notion, I think, of older methods.  I hadn't built anything with rafters for a while and was itching to try out my new Milwaukee circular saw, which I treated myself to as part of my savings for doing all the work myself.  My old saw has been dropped one too many times, and while it still works, it's just a little "shook".

Building the Woodshop: Part VI - Walls

Submitted by Leif on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 1:22pm

Part VI

With the foundation finally out of the way, it was time for my part to start - framing. I find framing fun, so long as it's not my regular job... and I have done it in the past, so I wasn't too nervous about doing it, except for one thing - the wall framing would be full of angles and small complications that would challenge my abilities... but then again, I like a challenge.

I started by putting together a list of materials I would need, and set out to visit suppliers to get some prices. I'm fortunate to have a large number of building supply outlets all within a close distance to where I live... I didn't get to a fraction of them and I visited two borg stores, a lumberyard associated with a nation-wide chain, 1 local franchise lumberyard (several different locations, but all of them are located within a 100 mile or so radius), and two locally owned lumberyards to get prices. The borg prices were not all that far out of line - but those places simply aren't set up well for putting together large loads and they were the furthest from my house, not to mention the service was basically non-existent from these two places in my experience, so I ruled them out almost immediately.

Building the Woodshop: Part V - The Foundation

Submitted by Leif on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 7:02pm

Part V 

One of my favorite lines in a movie was in one of the Naked Gun movies (with Leslie Nielsen) where Ricardo Montalban was playing the villain.  When asked by Priscilla Presley how he could be so evil his response was something like:

"You forget I spent two years as a building contractor!"

Of course that's in jest (?).  You know - there are, of course, good and bad contractors, and I've dealt with my share of each - and the concrete contractor I used for this project was quite unfortunately of the latter persuasion.  I was really disappointed in his work - and I even gave him a second chance the next year to pour the slab out front of the shop for me - but that's for a later entry...  If you are looking for a general contractor, or even just a "sub" contractor, make sure you check references and investigate your choices with the local builders' association.  Above all - you will need patience and perseverance to be successful.  Don't expect perfection - but be ready to stand your ground when needed - and pick your battles well.  Know what's important, and what's not. At the time, there was a shortage of available contractors for me to hire, and I was not patient... 

Building the Woodshop: Part IV - Groundbreaking!

Submitted by Leif on Thu, 11/22/2007 - 11:05am

Part IV 

All right then! Here it was, around the beginning of April, and I had a plan for the new shop (more or less) in hand. It was time to go ahead with the construction... or so I had thought, anyway.

I got a contractor lined up to do the concrete. I had decided that work was simply too much for me to handle on my own, and that it would probably serve me better to have it done by somebody else. I didn't have the equipment, nor did I have the help (or the back) to put down the concrete by myself. I might have mentioned that North Idaho was undergoing an unprecedented building boom at the time. What that meant for me was a wait for the permit. Permits usually take just a couple weeks. Usually, this might not be an issue, but the concrete guy I had lined up had a very tight schedule. Well, it turned out I had a couple of issues that permitting wouldn't allow, mainly the bathroom I had discussed previously. With that, I took the plan home and removed it entirely from the design (which actually helped me out budget-wise), but as it would have it I couldn't take the time off of work to get back to the permit office for two week. When I did finally, it was two more weeks before I got the plan reviewed and approved. I called the concrete guy up, and turns out I was past his window of availability. I would have to find another.

A Good Neighbor Gloat

Submitted by Leif on Sun, 11/11/2007 - 12:58pm

Building a new shop can be expensive to do, but is sure helps to have good friends. This morning, my neighbor Mike (an HVAC tech) delivered these to me completely gratis:

Not just one - but two 5-ton heat pumps! Seems a well-off summer lake residence is getting remodeled, and both of these were being taken out to be scrapped... The one on the left is older, but was for the little-used basement of the house, and the one on the right has a new compressor installed last year which is still under warranty... Both worked well when removed... Either way, if one breaks - I've got a spare!

Later this week he's going to bring over over the mating air handlers (each with 20k supplement heating elements)!!! This in combination with the wood stove, I should have heat in the shop well covered. As well as air conditioning... Smile

Building the Wood Shop: Part III - Finally, a Little Style

Submitted by Leif on Sat, 09/29/2007 - 6:34am

Part III

Alright - so I had gone through designing a basic setup, it was time to go the other way and design (at least in my opinion) the ultimate shop - at least within the approximate footprint that would fit within the space it was destined to be built, and within some reality of budget in mind - and with the cold/hot climate of the inland Northwest in mind.

I've always believed that the space you work in can have a positive or a negative affect on how you work. If you work in a soulless box, for example - your work will turn out a little bit more toward the soulless side. If, however, you work in a space that gives you pause because of it very presence, your work can only be positively affected.

Building the Wood Shop: Part II - Design Options

Submitted by Leif on Wed, 09/26/2007 - 6:53pm

Part II

It was the dead of winter - and I'd made the decision to build a new shop, but I hadn't decided on just what I was going to build. No problem, lots of time to go before the snow left, so it was a good time for a little research. I've been an architect for a while now, and have been building homes and involved in building in one aspect or another for my entire life, and if I've learned anything, it's that ideas take time to gel - and will, if you actively pursue them. You don't have to spend every minute obsessing over it, but spend a few hours when you can and check out all of the options for yourself. It's time well spent.

For the shop, I figured I had 2 choices... I could do either a stick frame or a pole barn style. I had to weigh out the pros and cons of each... I wasn't too fond of pole barns, but I figured since I'd heard so many talk positively about them that I should give it an earnest effort and find out if it was an answer for me.

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