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60x40x16 Shop Build “Tow Strap Garage”

GWeakland620

GWeakland620

THE CK5 Crayon Eater
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Location
Toe-peek-ugh, KS
This has been a slow process to get to this point, and I have enough documentation that I decided to start a build thread for my shop. My brother and I started dirt work a few years ago which was sparked by some water runoff issues. So, we decided to think ahead and move dirt in order to plan for the future shop as well as mitigate water runoff.

This was the record breaking rain that brought the decision. 5” of rain in an hour.

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The water damage was very minimal and we got away with very little work to clean it up.

So spring of 2020 we started breaking ground and bringing in fill material in the form of old concrete from a job my brother was working on.

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We got to work on removing the original curb around the current driveway as we were going to be using the original driveway as the approach for the shop/pad. That made it easier to also access the work area without having to drive over a decent sized curb.

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The curb ended up being more of a footing as it was almost 18” thick and rebated into the rest of the pad. It took quite a while to break that bad boy out.

After the curb was cleared, we started getting the base set by removing too soil and setting it aside.

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Once the top soil was removed we started setting the base with clay and other fill material.

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A few months later (boating season started and we basically lost a summer of progress lol) we started the long process of bringing in free loads of fill material, packing the fill material, then coming behind ourselves and top dressing with gravel.

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Even enlisted the help of the Warden to run 2 loads at a time with the wife’s help.

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Over the next 2 years we slowly filled and packed and covered our tracks. When fill loads weren’t available we dug down in the back yard and borrowed fill material to keep things moving along.

Of course, my boys had to be involved every time those machines fired up.

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During that time we finally ran into the issue that the propane tank was in the way and needed relocated. Picked it up with my brothers track steer and set it east to west and closer to the dead space against the retaining wall for the lower back yard.

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Sat with a large gravel area to park on and pack down over the next couple years while we gathered funds and a final plan as to who was going to do the work. Myself, my brother’s company, or a different company.

Once my brother said he was interested in doing it, we started the final pass with fill materials and gravel to get the pad ready for laser leveling. We finished this stage with a smooth fill transition and some top soil to make pad access easy from all sides.

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We sat at this stage for a while to allow the dirt to settle and wait for my brother to get freed up. We were also saving funds at that time.
 
Fast forward to just a little over a year ago and we get to the part where I prove my brother is as good with a machine as I said he was.

We started with fixing the rear approach to the back gravel pad we made to store trucks so they weren’t in the way.

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Once that was mostly set we started building up the perimeter to allow for 2x10 concrete forms to start up.

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At this point in the picture below, my brother had not checked grade or level. He is definitely one with that machine.

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I was gonna comment that your neighbors house positioning sucks, looking into your back yard, but I'm betting the shop blocks it now. I hate when houses are behind other ones giving no privacy.
 
Truckman4life said:
I was gonna comment that your neighbors house positioning sucks, looking into your back yard, but I'm betting the shop blocks it now. I hate when houses are behind other ones giving no privacy.
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The crazy thing is, both neighbors houses are back behind me. And, our house was built first so it’s not like someone built this one house too far forward.
 
Once the main grade was set we started the process of getting the pad to the exact level we needed and started setting the forms.

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We did the outside forms with a 2x10 that tapered into a 5” pour in the middle. Tons of rebar and tons of packing and repacking 1/4” chip gravel.

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The night before concrete we were finally ready as the sun set on us. Oh, and we set in a 6” drain that day lighted to the south so north wind wouldn’t come in via the drain.

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We ran into issues with the first 2 trucks. Both were late and the concrete was way too thick. We waited forever for the drivers to put more water in, and it caused the 3rd truck to sit too long so that truck had to go back. It finally started to work out, but the pour took a lot longer than it should have. I believe we ended up with 7 trucks total.

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Once it was cured enough, we went ahead and seal coated it. Took about 10 gallons to cover the surface.

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The next following weeks involved a lot of sittin, drinking, and looking at the shop pad.

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Next on the list was an actual list. The lumber list. It took my brother a hot minute to get me the lumber package so I could send the list in to the lumber yard. Then the order was placed for the trusses, which also took a hot minute to get built and delivered.

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Waiting for materials took most of the summer, which is tough to do when the pad was poured late spring. The pad sat for almost 6 months before walls finally started to go up.
 
Unfortunately this is where things really slowed down. The roof panels took almost a week to put up. There’s a lot more to it than that, but not the place or time to go into those details.

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The shop stalled out for over a month waiting on more metal and someone to step in and take over the project.
 
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, and I hired a couple of crews to work for cash and knock out some metal work. They came in and in one weekend they had the metal up on all 4 sides.

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I have another crew that is working during the week that is finishing up trim and other small stuff. They should be done next week, and then all that’s left is the doors and it will be dried in.
 
Which brings us mostly up to date.

Winter weather is not far around the corner, and my main goal was to have dry storage for a few things as well as a dry place to work on a couple winter projects.

We cleaned up next to the house that had been cluttered with parts for years and got it relocated into the shop.

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The 2x6’s on the floor are roughly where the work area will be and a covered storage area. There will also be an upper storage/loft.

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