[cornerstone]

I’m sure many of you have a dream shop. Like 67ChevyRedneck is currently building. A place where you can have enough space to spread out your work, maybe a lift or even a spray booth. How about a wood shop along side your wrenchin’ spot? I want one too.

I used to have a 20x30 with an 8’ ceiling on a slab that I built in my back yard at our last house. It was great, but we sold that place and moved out of town to have more land. We’ve been here over 10 years and still, no shop for me. 😖

I did build a pole barn a few years ago, and it is plenty big enough to use it for a shop, but it has a dirt floor still, and it’s farther away than I’d prefer...probably a lame excuse. I used telephone poles to build it and slapped an old used tin roof on top. It has a second story hay loft, because at the time we were considering getting into small scale farming and raising cattle or hogs. That structure is 40’ x 48’ with a 12 foot ceiling and doesn’t have electricity run to it.

I would like to build a shop thats 40’ x 30’ into the side of a hill so that the majority of the building is underground. I don’t need to tell y’all how hot it gets here in Texas. The place where I want it to be is currently where my well house resides, so I already have electricity there. I keep having this thought of having a garden on the roof of it, since it would be in full sunlight and, more importantly, that would just be the bees knees!

Then reality kicks in and I start thinking about stuff way beyond my pay grade like... how heavy is a few feet of dirt?

Hire an engineer you say? Nahhh. All the men in my family are engineers, well, except me. I figure some of their know how has to be in my blood too. I’ll just look at really strong structures (think bridges) and build it stronger.

I’ve been stockpiling steel beams, steel trusses, heavy square tubing and the like as I happen to find sweet deals. I’ve been drawing up some different variations of what I think won’t collapse and crush me or even worse.. my C10!

So if y’all don’t mind me throwing up some of my building ideas along with some pictures maybe you can help steer me in the right direction and perhaps save me a ton of work and cash-ola. Please feel free to comment, I’d love to get all the free advice I can get!!!