Building a new house and shop (5 Viewers)

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Like I said before very jealous and what a awesome location!

Thanks.

Making lots of progress in side the shop and apartment; electrical and plumbing in all the shop and walls, foam insulation blown in, power company is burying the permanent line from the last pole to the permanent meter, 2-post lift has been bought and is scheduled to arrive next week.
 
Shop space is pretty much finished, except I decided at the last minute to have the floor epoxy coated; that should happen week after next.

Local power co-op hooked up the permanent meter to the poles (underground) and to the main breaker box, so the shop has lights and electricity now. Still working on the drywall in the apartment walls.

 
Installing the Dannmar D10/ACX asymmetrical 2-post lift. Track steer makes a great ladder/work platform:



All mechanical/hydraulic components except the arms installed; only needs the electrician to hook it up to 220 volts (built into the ceiling in anticipation of this very thing), hydraulic fluid, and final adjustments. Will install the arms after the floor is epoxy coated next week.



 
1911,
Coming along nicely. I wanted to share an upgrade for your lift that I did to mine. The hydraulic reservoir on newer units are plastic and secured by four small cap screws and are left to float out there. After install,I bumped into the unit and noticed the flex in the now filled reservoir, I always think of the worst case scenario and realized the mess I would have on my hands not to mention the added weight placed on the plastic flange if broken off. I ended up making a shelf for the unit with a 2" lip or of 10ga. The reservoir is now rock steady and has protection. I did place a piece of neoprene between the tank and shelf as well. I hope this helps.
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1911,
Coming along nicely. I wanted to share an upgrade for your lift that I did to mine. The hydraulic reservoir on newer units are plastic and secured by four small cap screws and are left to float out there. After install,I bumped into the unit and noticed the flex in the now filled reservoir, I always think of the worst case scenario and realized the mess I would have on my hands not to mention the added weight placed on the plastic flange if broken off. I ended up making a shelf for the unit with a 2" lip or of 10ga. The reservoir is now rock steady and has protection. I did place a piece of neoprene between the tank and shelf as well. I hope this helps.View attachment 1399265View attachment 1399266

Thanks for the great idea; I was surprised that the tank is plastic and only hangs from the motor/pump, considering that it holds 16 quarts of hydraulic fluid. Once I get all my tools moved in, I will have to make something like that.
 
Moving right along, it looks great. You'll wonder how you lived so long without a lift. I love the exterior, makes a huge difference in the feel of the place.
 
Moving right along, it looks great. You'll wonder how you lived so long without a lift. I love the exterior, makes a huge difference in the feel of the place.

Thanks Stan. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll really like the lift. At 61 years old, I'm tired of working under cars and trucks on the floor, with my nose inches from hot exhaust and my arms tired from holding them at funny angles. Not to mention having to get up and down to fetch tools and etc.
 
Right there with you, I'll be 57 in a few days. I really wish I had installed the lift when I was building bumpers primarily. Working at chest height makes all the difference in the world. My lift gets tied up with a body more and more often here, last 3 builds have been body off. I have a body dolly but it is a POS and needs work and the time on and off the dolly a concern etc.

Heather and I were talking about it this past weekend and how a body off pretty much takes over the shop using both working bays. So she suggested I build an addition to the existing shop. Right now we are at 26'X 50', 3 bay, bathroom and clean room on the end, lift in center bay. I want to clean up and sell a 3 acre property we have up the mountain in Hendersonville, NC. We are hoping that will fund the shop build and then some so we will not add to the monthly budget. Did I mention I love my wife :)

She is a huge advocate of buying better equipment over hiring help. "Ya think you can do what you need to do with 5 bays and two lifts all on one level? "
 
Mrs. 1911's impregnable fortress chicken coop and run, made of 2" square tubing, metal purlins, and welded hog panels. The hog panels on the sides of the run are buried at least 2' deep at the bottom, so that nothing can dig under them. The run is 8' high so even I can walk under it easily, and will be covered on top with a screen shade. Water from the well is plumbed inside the run, so no more hauling water for the chickens. Electricity to the coop and run as well, if ever needed/wanted.

 
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Epoxy coated floor applied to the shop and apartment. Very happy with the way it turned out. Makes it a lot brighter in there, and so easy to keep clean - just run a dust mop over it.





On that last photo, you can see the bathroom in the back corner of the shop. A real luxury for me, not to have to go outside to pee or back to the house with greasy hands and clothes to take a s***. Even put a shower in there, so you can clean up out there when you're finished for the day. Or if you need to flush your eyes or something.

Now I can go ahead and install the arms on the lift. Still waiting for the electrician to hook it up to the 220 v power run overhead for just this purpose.

Meanwhile, the excavation for the main house has begun. Daughter for scale:



I think I mentioned before that this will be an earth-sheltered home, dug into the side of a big hill.
 
The floor looks amazing! Cant wait to see the earth-shelter build, very cool indeed.
 
I didn't see it mentioned but what made you go earth-shelter build?

1. Almost zero maintenance; nothing to paint ever on the exterior, no roof to get hailed on or replace.
2. Very efficient / very low operating cost: utilities ~ 20% those of a conventional house. Soil temperature ~ 70 degrees year-round.
3. Tornado proof, bomb proof, termite proof; pretty much everything proof. Mostly fire proof; reduced insurance cost.
4. Windows and natural light in every room (excepting storage, utility, vault areas in the back of the house).


Also, what is the cost difference on doing earth-shelter build vs conventional style housing build?

There are trade-offs, but it's supposed to be less expensive than conventional. You save a lot in just labor, since the walls and roof are monolithically-poured concrete, and finished in 4-5 days, with a small crew. Offset somewhat by the cost of the concrete versus that of lumber. There will be some conventional interior walls to put up. There is the opportunity to do a lot of the work yourself, after the footers and domes are poured.
 
Sub'd. What kind of epoxy did you use on the floor?

I have several friends that live in the hamlet of Darwin, on a high desert plateau, that have built earth-sheltered homes. They work well.

@DHONDAGOD and I also know a guy in Yucca Valley who put a couple of cargo containers into the hillside, so his heavy equipment didn't compete for shop space. Only the end doors are visible.
 
Gorgeous land, Lee!!

Great shop and great ideas coming to fruition!!

I always loved your area of Texas... Anything that's tornado proof gets my vote in Tornado Alley!!
 
Sub'd. What kind of epoxy did you use on the floor?

I have several friends that live in the hamlet of Darwin, on a high desert plateau, that have built earth-sheltered homes. They work well.

@DHONDAGOD and I also know a guy in Yucca Valley who put a couple of cargo containers into the hillside, so his heavy equipment didn't compete for shop space. Only the end doors are visible.

Mark, I paid a custom floor company to do it, so I don't know the exact brand or type used. They ground the (new) concrete with a diamond grinder for adhesion, then put down three coats of epoxy: a primer coat, the color coat, then a UV-resistant clear top coat. You can tell at the end of the coating just beyond the shop doors that the whole thing is really thick. Lifetime warranty and cost me just under $3/sq. ft. I'm sure I could have saved money doing it myself, but I didn't want to screw something up on my learning curve.

Thanks for the encouragement on earth-sheltered homes.
 
Gorgeous land, Lee!!

Great shop and great ideas coming to fruition!!

I always loved your area of Texas... Anything that's tornado proof gets my vote in Tornado Alley!!

Thanks Danny!
 
The epoxy floors have cured for a week (recommended by the company that did the coating) so I started moving boxes from the current house to the shop. Plan is to move out of the existing house and into the apartment, and store all the rest of the furniture and boxes from the house in the shop, then put the house on the market and sell it, then pay cash for the new house. The bad news is, I don't see how I'll be able to use the new shop and lift much at all until the new house is finished and all the stuff gets moved out of the shop. :frown:

Meanwhile, the excavation is proceeding for the house. I'm disappointed how much clay is in the hill. There are a few beds of sandstone and a few limestone ledges, but most of that whole hill is clay. Hoping that there will be something else underneath the house, but not optimistic. I'm going to pay a geotechnical engineering firm to come drill two or three boreholes where the house is going to sit, and do a complete analysis of what is underneath for a long way.



 
How slick is the epoxy? That is always my concern with any of the epoxy. Previous owner put some in my current garage and when my feet are slick it becomes painful. But oil cleanup is very nice ;)

If you're in stocking feet, it's pretty slick! The floor guy said that if it gets wet it will be slick. But with any kind of rubber-soled shoes or boots, it is not slick at all.


For storage in the shop, I'd highly recommend getting some pallet racking. I was quoted $500 for 16 foot long 4 foot deep 8 foot tall with two levels of rack. It was brand new. I've heard much cheaper for used.

I was a little cheaper for 2 foot deep. I put the 2 foot deep in my basement and it is VERY nice to stack crap up :)

I put 1.25" thick plywood on the middle shelf and all the stuff on the floor got furniture dollies for ease of movement. Sadly no picture of finished rack :(

I have some 4' wide, 2' deep, and 8' tall stacks of that in my current shop that I will be moving to the new one. Wouldn't mine having some of those 16-footers though.


If you don't mind sharing, what were you hoping to find instead of clay?

More sandstone, limestone, or shale; anything that doesn't swell with moisture and shrink when dry like some clays do. The geotechnical lab will tell me exactly what kinds of clay minerals are there, and how much they swell. It's possible to treat it to abate the swelling, before the concrete footers are poured, but I hope I won't have to. The clay in the hill behind the house also means that it won't drain very well or easily. When I backfill the house and bury it, I'll mix some other material (from elsewhere on my land) with more sand and gravel in it, in with the clay that came out of the hill, so that it will drain better around the house. And put a big french drain all the way around the buried sides of the house. You want to keep water away from the house as much as possible.
 

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