Things are starting to roll on my building installation. Today, a local contractor stopped by and staked out the building location to get a grade reading. I have to keep the building under 14'11", from grade, to allow a 5' distance from the rear lot line. Over 14'11" would require 20' from the lot line, and that wouldn't work.

The building will measure 36'w x 26'd. We are going to pour a 6" deep floor to allow for a potential future lift installation. There will be 3 8'x10' garage doors and a 36" man door on the side. I'm going to pull electric and natural gas to the building from my home.

Now that I know the maximum building height, I will be waiting on building & foundation plans from the manufacturer, then pull my permits.

During this time I need to get an electrician to look over my home's breaker panel and service. Hopefully, I can squeeze out 70 or 100 amp service to the garage without upgrading the wire to my home. My houses's breaker panel is full, so I'm going to have to replace it with a new one. Looks like I'll be doing the electrical & maybe gas line work to keep costs down. Hoping to have the earth work & concrete quotes soon.

Send me a picture of your panel ,panel schedule and main breaker
To 970-904-0955 I might be able to help .

Thanks, I'll send you a picture tomorrow. The only electrician I know here is on vacation. I did a load calculation on-line, but am not sure I did it right, or really what it means.

Concrete stopped me in my tracks! But I am still excited to see someone else move forward!!

Interested in doing the same thing at my place. looking for recommendations for concrete companies.

Things are progressing. I've sent my final max height of the building to the manufacturer. Plans are being engineered, once they are done I can submit them to the county for a permit. It's going to be about 3 weeks before plans are done, and another 2 for approval. I'm working on what is needed for gas & electric in the meantime. Plus I'm making my final trip back to CO to grab my 39 Plymouth and clear out my storage locker next weekend.

I've got plans now. Should be submitted to the county for permitting this week. Working on how to supply enough electric to the garage. NV Energy wants a small fortune to upgrade service to my house from 100a to 200a. I'm going to work with an electrician and see if I can eek out 100a to the garage without the upgrade.

Picked up 8 of these floor anchors at work yesterday. I need to decide if I want to install before pouring the floor, or after.

Looking good Chad! I hope life is good in Nevada. I may try and sneak over to visit on one of my USA excursions.

Our first, 'best case scenario', had the building installed about now. Of course a couple 'never happened before' events have slowed things down.

First, the building manufacturer sent my plans in 8.5"x11" size. The county requires 11"x17" minimum (I included this info with my plan request). When I called the manufacturer they said "Weird, we've never sent 8.5x11 plans before." I've never seen blueprint plans in 8.5x11 either. 3 weeks later, I had new plans, in the required size.

Douglas County planning actually approved my plans more quickly than expected, in about 10 days, instead of the 2-3 weeks we expected.

Then we called for utility location services, which should have taken 2-3 business days. After 2 days we received approval to dig. I was surprised, because I could only find markings where my water lines were, no cable TV, no electric, no sewer, no gas. The next day, they rescinded our approval to dig (never happened to the builder before). 10 days & 4 trips to my house later, we received approval to dig, again.

Of course these unexpected delays screwed up the builder's schedule, so I've been waiting about 10 more days for his schedule to free up. He did bring a Bobcat with an 18" auger over and sink a hole for my gate post. I've set it in place, and installed a cheap ranch style gate. I have a friend here building nice gates, but I kinda splurged on a 3rd bay on the garage, and my budget is skinny right now. So the $170 Tractor Supply gate is up. At least the temporary fencing that kept the dogs in the yard for the last year is down, and I have a functional gate.

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And finally, today the real work began. One surprise, I had a frost free hose spigot at the back of my lot, unfortunately the line is not nearly deep enough, and will have to be reset below the frost line. I'll also be moving some sprinkler lines around this weekend to keep my lawn from dying for the next few weeks.


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Yeah the neighbor's yard isn't real attractive. Extending the 6' cedar fence is next year's project.

I suppose construction schedules are a lot like building a bronco...always double the time and $!

So much for a frost free spigot if the supply line is froze?? But it sounds like you are in a location where you might get away with it *most* of the time.

Looking great dude. Hang in there. Know you have heard it before but it’s worth it in the end.

Are you able to put a drain in the floor somewhere? or will the county code you to death? if your not already doing it i might throw a 3" or 4" schedule 40 in the ground and have it exit somewhere and then end it right under the concrete floor and have the concrete people skim it closed. Once you are done with final open it up and stick a drain top on it.. just a thought. Something I should have done.

I hadn't looked into that. I'll run it by the builder and see what he thinks. We are a long way from any sewer connection. Building regs are pretty tough here, not sure if I want to try to get away with that.

Cut the utility trench today.

Utility trench was inspected yesterday. Gas line, electric conduit, and new water line were buried. During the excavation, they found 2x 3/4" SCH80 conduit running from the sprinkler valve box to the back fence line. Both were unused. They are now stubbed up between 2 future garage bays, one will be used to run Ethernet (or maybe coax, not sure which is best) to carry internet into the garage.

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Final prep for concrete will be next week.

Thanks! That's awesome. Message on it's way.

I haven't posted up in a while. Things have been busy, but not really on the garage. They did some trenching to help me rebuild my sprinkler system, which was cut by the excavation. They also 'pot holed' under each of the locations for my floor anchors. The concrete guy had reservations about trying to finish around them, so I'll core drill them after the pad cures. Each location is about 12"-18" deep once the 6" pad is poured, so plenty of beef around each floor anchor. There will be 2 near the front edge of the garage, we didn't pot hole them because they will be in the chamfer of the stem wall, with plenty of extra thickness. I used a pattern provided by the floor anchor manufacturer, but shortened the length from 24' to 20' and width from 14' to 12', to keep the anchors away from the end of the building where I might have a work bench, and out of the neighboring bays, in case I can get a lift some day.

Forms will be set early this week, followed by inspection, and finally the pour. Fingers crossed to see concrete on the ground by the end of the week.

Fixing the sprinklers this weekend trying to get some water on the lawn so I have something left before things go dormant for the winter.

Keep at it!! It'll be awesome when you are done!

Finally. Almost 3 weeks behind schedule.

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This area is going through a real 'boom'. Tesla, Panasonic, Hitachi, Starbucks are all building or expanding manufacturing plants here. Not to mention the influx of people/retirees fleeing California. There is more demand for builders than supply. Gunnison had a similar problem, but being a 'local' I always had a friend or at least a contact who would get the job done. I've had 7 or 8 different contractors not even return calls (concrete, insulation, electrical).

Regarding sealers, I spoke to a friend from Gunnison who does concrete work. I didn't want epoxy or anything that would be damaged by welding, etc. He recommended a solvent based acrylic 'Cure & Seal'. Several manufacturers make them, I found this one close by and went with it. 5 gallons was about $150, and more than enough for the 1000 sq ft pad.

https://www.whitecap.com/shop/wc/p/spec ... gal-cs25-5

Now to call the building manufacturer and schedule the installation of the building. They require 30 days cure before install, we'll see how things schedule.

I have an electrician who is going to swap my main panel. He's working on getting a better (or free) priced upgrade to 200a service from NVEnergy. They quoted me $2000 to pull new wire to my house. He was more than surprised, and said he just did one that was upgraded for free. Regardless, I can upgrade to 125 amp service, and that will be 'ok' for 100 to the garage. I just can't run the compressor, weld, cook, dry clothes and heat my water at the same time. LOL.

I'm planning at least 3 220v plugs for my welder and a 50 amp service to my compressor. That is way overkill for the compressor, but I'd like to upgrade to a bigger one someday, and they all run more amps than my current model. Working on insulation ideas and budget. Planning to line the walls to 8' with OSB and paint it white. Probably run white vinyl covered fiberglass insulation across the roof and down to the walls. Not sure exactly what to do behind the OSB. Unfortunately, spray foam was going to cost $4000+ for R14, and that just isn't in the budget or cost effective for a shop that will only be heated when I'm out working on stuff.

I made a big trip to Home Depot over the weekend, and bought most the electric, framing & OSB, etc to finish the building. I'm waiting on a replacement Mr. Heater 80k btu unit heater, as the first arrived damaged by Fed Ex.

I hope you can make up some time in the schedule. I know with winter fast approaching, you would love to be in there soon!

As to the painted OSB, you might not want that to contact the floor. Or at least figure out a good way to keep water out of that interface between it and the concrete.

I wish I could offer some ideas for insulation, but it sounds like you have a steel building. Do they have any suggestions?

I used Trex 4x1’s as my base boards and then Silicon glued them to the floor after I sealed the floor. The OSB sits on top nicely.

Good ideas, thanks.

I called the building manufacturer today and they now tell me they do NOT need 28 days for the concrete to cure. They asked what my concrete guy recommended. He said 2 weeks, so hopefully we'll pick up a couple weeks there. If things had been on schedule, I was worried about trying to work on the building in the summer heat. Now I'm worried about it being cold. I'm wondering if they will approve a service outlet or two in the building, gas line & heater first. It would be nice to have heat and light to do the stud work & insulation. The outlets on my home are all located in inconvenient locations compared to the new garage.

The manufacturer does not have insulation available.

I was thinking to use a Home Depot blower to fill the bays with cellulose or fiberglass, after the OSB is installed. Two downsides to that, is the product settles in walls over time, and if I ever need to remove the OSB or an outer panel, the insulation will fall out. I posted the question on a FB garage site, and was suggested to look at BIBS insulation. It is a more densely packed blown in fiberglass insulation, only select 'certified' installers can purchase the product. It doesn't settle like normal blown in stuff. Normally, a polyester fabric material is installed over the studs, then the fiberglass is blown in, then drywall is installed. I spoke to someone today regarding that product. He said 24" on center studs is the max that the fabric can handle without bulging. But it could be blown in from the top of the OSB wall, filling the bay from the top after the OSB is installed. I'm going to get a price quote and see. There is also a cellulose product that is sprayed 'wet' into framing bays and glues itself together, I haven't found a company that offers that yet. Funny, I'm not having luck finding a local source for the white vinyl faced fiberglass bats I want to install on the ceiling. The one company that was recommended won't return my calls. I left a second message today. I won't be calling a third time. I hate chasing someone down to spend my money with. They should be chasing me down. Just a pet peeve of a former business owner.

Today they diamond cut the slab, and pulled the forms. Also the builder returned and started finish grading the area around the foundation.

Not very exciting, but progress none the less

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So once it’s done, no excuses right? Hopefully it’ll be so enticing you won’t want to leave!


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