Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

This is what has been keeping me offline for so long..... 28 x 40 w/ a 13 x 40 w 8' ceilings upstairs. I haven't finished the upstairs yet, that will be a little down the road. As you can see, I didn't waste any time getting a parts truck that I had in there and torn down........

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

NICE SHOP! I moved in July of 2006 to Vienna, Austria from Manassas, Va. How far is Amelia from Manassas? Now we expect to see project pics.

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

Awesome garage!!!!. I thought you would have been required to run an I-beam with a span that far.

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

No I-beam required Jim, at least that's what the engineers determined. They said I could use the top floor as a "normal" living space, but no slate top pool tables up there or anything really heavy like that.
Bishop, I'm not sure exactly how far I am from Manassas but I would bet it's between 1 1/2 - 2 hours from here. Thanks for the props guys, a lot of hard work and time went into this shop..........Jerry

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Here's a pic of my first "paint job" in my new shop. I also painted the front end on a friends '98 Suburban in there. I am really happy with it........Jerry

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man that place is bomb proof!!! nice!

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Hmmm....Cowboy fan in Va? :D

Very nice shop!!

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nice shop. whats the first thing to be built in there?

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Hey Kelly, I've been a Cowboy fan since Danny White and Gary Hogeboom were fighting over who could be worse. :( I've pulled for them since 1982-3.

Oopstruck- Right now I'm doing little side jobs (painting) in there to help PAY for it, but my '67 will be the first project in there. I've been collecting parts on here and ebay for 5 years now and I hope to start the build really soon. I'm planning on doing a "build" thread on this in the near future, but here's a sneak peek......... Thanks again guys for the good reviews, and my advice on anyone else thinking about building a garage, build it as big as you can financially, because you will regret settling on a small shop, at least my brother in law does every time he steps in mine.........Jerry

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

Ttt:)

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Very nice. I've thought about building a shop with block walls also for the strength against storms & such. Did you do material only & labor hours cost estimating compared to stick frame/ pole building etc? I'm Especially curious on the materials only, as I don't pay myself very well anyway :rolleyes:

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

Nice.

1st floor has plenty of room overhead for a chain hoist of some kind plus there's stand-up storage upstairs. Excellent! Very functional.
Congratulations.

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Yeah, 13' ceilings downstairs to accommodate a twin post lift somewhere down the line. :) The upstairs room when finished will be 13' x 40' with 8 foot ceilings, it will be a hangout not really storage......
As far as block vs stick built, I have an Uncle who is a brick mason by trade and he agreed that as long as I was handing him block, he would put them in the wall at no charge. It really is a blessing to have a big family. My brothers-in-laws also agreed to set the trusses and put the roof on. The only thing I had to outsource was the concrete floor, the garage doors and the vinyl siding, and the doors and siding were done by some great friends that I go to church with so they cut me some pretty good deals. As it sits now I have $12k in it, that is with an unfinished upstairs. I have plans very soon of adding on a paint booth to the rear of the building and installing some sort of a/c heat pump for the main section.................Jerry

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yup very nice shop ya got there. plenty of room. do you have plans on putting a wall up after you finish your truck as to keep it clean and not get over spray on it? seems you would have the room.

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nice..... good job

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Nice shop, you dont see many block buildings being built around here.

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Hey tlc, I'm actually planning on adding on a spray booth that will be right outside the door that you see in the middle of the picture. It will lead out into a 18' x 20' booth. Thanks for the compliments............Jerry

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Wow! I cannot even imagine paying that kind of money for that. That is a smokin' deal. I have been playing with the idea of a steel building.

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:jdp: :jdp: :jdp:

Wow you are 1 lucky guy. I want a block garage, but always figured that the cost would be too high. Only bad feature is that you don't have any windows (any reason you didn't put them in?) How long did it take you guys to put up the block?

Did you ask you uncle what he would have normally charged to do that job?

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:cong: AND :phat:

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Breeh- I looked long and hard at a steel building before I talked with my family about getting together and helping with this one. They aren't bad at all, just sometimes hard to heat and cool. I am sure I would have been happy with one of them also. :)

My uncle says the average price around here to lay block is $1.25 ea. All in all I saved around $3,000.00 by him not charging me any labor. I can only imagine what the labor charges would have been on setting all the trusses, nailing on all the purlings and screwing all the metal on the roof. Needless to say since I did go the "buddy" route, it took a lot longer (almost 2 years total), but it was the only way I could have done it. As far as windows go, I don't need them, and they're just one more way someone with ill intentions can get in my shop. I've got a good light setup and I am very happy with no windows that will cast a glare over a paint job or such while I'm trying to paint................Jerry

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Thats one nice garage. Im thinking of doing the same thing. How did you fasten the cabinets to the wall?

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I used tapcons to screw the cabinets to the walls. You can pick them up at Lowes or home depot. Just make sure you use a hammer drill with them or you'll burn the bits up. Get a box, you'll see what I mean..........Jerry

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Looks good Jerry, I might have to stop in some day and test it out...


Chuck

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

nice garage..always wanted one...nice to ahev family and friends to help out...now look out for all the work they need done on theier cars..lol
the upstairs will be a great place to kick back and watch football games..i would put in abathroom with a shower to keep the wife happy..but my stuff id covered up in grease and dirt,,so they are a mess to work on,..

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68GMC454 - We are both on the same page. I'm planning on everything but the bathrooms. Too much hassle and it's only 25 steps from the house....

Hey Chuck, just let me know when you're in the area, I've got the grill over in the corner and a good time is only a couple steaks away...... :)

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Looks Great!! :thumbs:

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Thanks Brian. Anybody have any good ideas on how I should route/plumb compressor/air lines around the shop? Can I just use pvc pipe? Is it a special kind of PVC pipe that I should use? Should I only go metal? Thanks for anybodies help in advance............Jerry

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

man i wish my garage was like that. I have a building and its only 12x12...:(

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Hey smoked, If you had told me 3 years ago I would have one like this now, I would have laughed. Where there's a will (and a willing wife) there's a way........Jerry :)

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cool, very nice garage though. I guess Im still banking on the lottery...lol :)

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I've seen PVC used before, but I wouldn't trust it. Plus wherever you put an outlet it will be flimsy & prone to break. I used to have a 50' x 100" shop :whine: and I sweated all 3/4" copper thruout. Even the outlets with it was a little flimsy. I didn't feel like working with threaded pipe because of all the different lengths that it would have took, & the possibility of rust inside. I put a 3/4" ball valve at the end of the run to blast it clean once in a while.

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

Nice garage!

I ran across this the other day for air lines.
http://www.garage-pak.com/

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Hey Jerry, I'll have to take you up on that this spring, but you'll have to come up this way one Friday night once our cruise night starts...

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Hey Jerry,
I used regular 1/2 inch pvc in my garage, 200 psi pipe, used it for 2 years no problem. I did have it double clamped, above and below each outlet so no twisting or flex from the hose transferred to the pipe. I put a 1/4 ball valve below each outlet to drain water from the lines. I'm nearing completion of a new shop also and I am just starting on the air lines today, I'm going with 3/4 inch cpvc this time, more volume, 450 psi pipe(a little stronger) going to use the same 1/4 ball valve drains and running everything along the ceiling and then dropping down to the outlets. My compressor is located upstairs in a loft area so it just works easier to run the lines up high, out of the way. The cpvc pipe in this area is about $2.75 per 10 foot piece and with 450 psi pipe I'm not concerned about problems as long as the pipe is clamped in place. I use hose reels for my air hose also, so there really isn't any force against the air piping. BTW...shop looks great!!! post up some more pics as you progress along.

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Nice shop Jerry............but lose the avatar :) go 'skins'

quite a few people on the board have used cpvc piping for their shops with no problems and probably will never have any but all of the cpvc pipe manufacturers have published data that tells you not use it in compressed air installations.

check out this link, lot of info here

http://www.oldsmobility.com/air-compressor-piping.htm

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Hey Chuck, sounds like a definite plan.

Hey Gord, you have a pm.

Hey Tim, sorry brother, can't deal with the skins. Go Big D!!!!

Thanks guys for all the advice on air lines, if anybody else has experience with this, give me your .02 cents, I'm always interested in how other guys did it. Thanks guys, .....Jerry

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Very nice garage. I was VERY, VERY lucky when my wife and I went house hunting last winter we stumbled upon the perfect house for us. Well it had the garage I wanted and the kitchen she wanted everything else we changed.

I need to redo the roof on the garage and I talked to the building inspector but I am not allowed to go much higher according to code to accomodate a loft above. I was going to strip the roof and add onto the block walls and then reuse the trusses but I guess that is out of the question. I could buy new trusses but that is out of the budget as well. For now I guess that I will live with my 10' high ceilings. I think that for now I will build an office in the front right corner to store my collectible stuff and somewhere to hang out and then down the road deal with the height issue. There is also a car port the whole length of the garage on the right side which is great for my DD. Currently the garage is 25' W x 45' L. This picture was taken on the day of purchase it looks a little better now.

When I do my air compressors lines I am going to use Black Iron Pipe, my family owns a propane business so we have lots of threading machines and the tools to do it. We did my dad's garage that way in '86 and haven't had any issues with rust or what not.

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Good deal James, will they let you change the pitch and go with an attic-truss? When I first spec'd my garage out, I was going with a standard 5/12 pitch, only later did I change to a 10/12 with attic-trusses. The best decision I made on this building......:)

Re: Here's what I've been doing for the past year.... :)
 

Changing the pitch of the roof is doable, there is just a heigth maximum that I have to stay under (16' 4" I believe) half way up the peak or something like that.

The house on the other hand has attic trusses with a nifty storage loft, just wish that they had continued that into the garage. They even put lights and a window up there. I told my wife that it was her new scrapbooking room and she laughed at me. Something else that they did was they built a ramp out the back of the house into the basement as he wanted to store his motorcycle in the utility room. Some of the mods to the house are super cool, others you just have to shake your head. I am definetly going to have to look into those attic trusses, I will just have to figure out how to do that and still keep my car port, although it is not required I guess.

(My 4 month old son is helping me type this, oh the joys and tribulations of first time fatherhood.)