re: Blackie

I thought I’d use this area to show off my shop and the addition

This was started back on Spring.

Now that we are in the spring, it’s time for me to come out of my shell and break ground with the addition onto my shop, I started off by pouring 2’x 2’ concrete pads for the center blocks to sit on, the outer pads I centered 13” deep holes dug with a post hole digger to help stabilize from settling and movement, I used string line levels making sure all of the supports were plumb, Next came the wall to be demoed, I ripped out all of the sheet rock along with the insulation as the exterior siding will have to me knocked out from the inside, in order to do that I had to move tools and equipment out of the way along with my workbench to make room bunching them up together.
My current stand alone shop which can be viewed via my workshop here on the LJ’s site is 12’ x 16’ with an added 3’ x 5’ exterior closet which houses my DC on the opposite end from where the addition will be, the shop now is a bit crowded as it is, I will be adding on an addition 8’ to the end of the 12’ wide building making it 24’ x 12’ the max I am allowed in order to stay within my property boundaries.
Once the new addition has been erected and before completely removing the framing on the wall to be removed, I plan on putting in two 2”x 8” blind headers at ceiling level sandwiching the end truss on each side as even though it’s a common gable wall it still bares some weight and will need to be supported.
I also plan on upgrading the current #10 gauge wire feeding the shop from the main with two separate 30 amp breakers to a single 50 amp and #6 gauge wire single strand.

Showing where the addition will be placed, see all of that pretty grass, say bye bye but it’s for the better cause and besides less mowing :)

Showing the center blocks to be used, lucky my dad had these as extras so I grabbed the gloves and threw them in the back of my truck.

Pads are poured, so long grass.

I had to make some temporary boxes in order to make some concrete pillars as the pads were not quite even, all support blocks are plum and level with each other in all directions and with the existing blocks on the building.

More photos showing block placement along with exterior trim removed from the building.

Showing the removal of the sheet rock along with the insulation on the wall to be removed, bad lighting on this photo.

Showing the removal of the sheet rock along with the insulation on the wall to be removed, bad lighting on this photo.

Exterior wall is off and the new floor is starting to take shape, with the help of a good friend we have the outer frame locked in and square now comes the floor joist.

The new floor is tied to the old floor using large 1/2” x 3 1/2” hex head lag screws and is now complete with the top 3/4” OCB decking

The AC is out, the 8000 BTU AC unit was covered in dirt and dust and will be replaced with an 18500 BTU AC with heat pump.
Today we’ll start off with building the trusses, setting them aside, than the walls and will continue until this day ends.

The floor was complete so now came the Trusses / Rafters, 5 total were made, I made a make shift ceiling support on the inside of the building before tearing out the wall to make way for the header, we weren’t able to do a sandwich on each side of the end truss as originally planed due to obstacles in the way and also when my dad and I had built it many years ago we had made a catwalk truss (boards put together in L shape ) for better end support so we instead put the header under the end wall cap, I used two 2×8 x 12 for the header.
Note, the person in the pictures is the one that’s helping me.

Trusses being built.

Friend shown here is the person that’s helping me with this project.

Old wall being removed.

Wall is completely out and the header is being installed.

Completed framing in on the header adding the last two jack studs on one side removing the temporary stud holding one end of the header along with the temporary ceiling support and also removed the bottom floor wall plate was pretty much all I got done Sunday by late afternoon, it rained two days straight keeping my sitting in front of the TV.
Note; the new floor matched up very well to the existing floor after removing the bottom wall plate that was left in place.

Walls are up, locked in and anchored down with 4” ring shank nails hand pounded in :) , I used 6” x 1/2” Lag Screws to anchor the new walls to the existing walls along with nails, I have one window partially framed in with header, I built the existing rafter in place by attaching a 12’ long board to each end of the trim boards resting on top of the top wall plate creating a rafter and also attaching a second rafter to the outer side of that existing trim boards having two rafters / trusses tied together.
Tomorrow I’ll be completing the rafters and adding the roof sheathing.

OK rafters / Trusses are up and ready for the sheathing, This was a solo day for me, I alone hiked these behemoths up and secured them in place by using bar clamps, by far the hardest part since I was working alone today, since it was only 3 rafters I measured for placement over the studs hence they aren’t true to 24” some are on 25 – 26 center so I decided to tie them all together by notched out the top edge of each rafter at two 24” sections and to the building for better support, I used L shaped hurricane clips to tie the butt end of each 2×4 to the face board they are cut to 7’ length which also allows 11” over hang on the gable end, 11” on the end is all I can due in order to stay out of the easement.
The boards sticking up on the end of the gable on the end are just there to hold the end rafter when I was nailing it to the structure they will be coming off tomorrow before we put the sheathing up.

Got one window completely framed out minus the jack stud to be installed below the window base plate and re-framed for the AC unit by removing one of the studs, moving it over making it a king stud and installing two trimmers with a 2×6 double header and added cripplers it also still needs the bottom frame base plate along with jack studs.
With rain in the weather I had to work fast on getting a cover over the structure, so my friend that is helping came to my aid, we both got the sheathing and the paper up just in time as it started lightly raining on us half way through and once we were done the bottom of the clouds fell out.
Tomorrow not sure how much I will get done if any at all and Sat nothing at all will be done to the building, I’m taking a break with some wind in the face Sat, so Friday my focus is going to be on my Harley, getting it ready for Sat’s ride to see the spring color so I’ll be washing protecting the leather and waxing the bike.

Here is showing the open for window completely framed out.

Here is showing the re-framing opening for the AC unit, (wall mounted) I still need to frame in the base along with jack studs

Sunday, I completed with all the framing and wrapped the building with Tar paper, Today (Monday) I finished up with all the face boards on the front, back and the gable end reattached some of the tar paper on the roof, we had a huge storm blow in Sat night and lifted some of the paper up, I also installed the windows and installed 4 of the seven wall sheathing panels, tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll have help and will get back on the roof getting the shingles on it.

Monday and Tuesday I completed the exterior walls, along with getting half of the roof shingled, My friend was over to help me on Tuesday getting the shingles up, we still need to other side to do, I managed to get the primer and the paint on the walls, this morning I spent picking up supplies to run the electrical through out the shop, I plan on putting in a sub floor outlet as well, I had limited selection on the shingles but did my best to match what was already up there.
Today we have low clouds with a mist so not sure if any at all will get done today.

No pictures on this episode only to report that I pulled the 10/3 out and pulled the 6/3 in along with replacing the two separate single pole 30 amp breakers with a single double pole 50 amp breaker at the main, tomorrow will be a continuation of wiring up the shop and replacing the old 4 space sub panel with an 125 amp 8 space panel.

his morning started off with Heavy rains up til around 9:30ish when it stopped, I grabbed the 8’ ladder cordless drill with a 7/8 spade bit went up into the attic and drilled two holes through the top plate along side the already pulled wires and dropped down three more pulls one 10/3 and two 12/2 wires but with the fire blocks in the wall I had to remove a good portion of the sheet rock in order to feed the wires down through the fire block, I than created a make shift spool and rolled off the 6/3 wire into the underground pipe that was already there, I used the rope that I had pulled through the pipe when pulling out the old 10/3 wire, you might notice that the pipe is actually water pipe, it was pipe I already had from another project and so I cut my budget using it when I originally built the shop 10 + years ago, (Note) I did purchase 40’ of gray pipe ready to place into the ground in case I wasn’t able to pull through the existing pipe, since I was able to use the existing I will return what I don’t use, once I pulled through the pipe I finished fitting it through the LB into the shop, I still need to clamp the pipe to the building and close the LB.
The 10/3 is going to be a dedicated for the 240 volt 15 amp AC unit.
Inside I removed the old Gould 4 space sub panel and replaced it with an 8 space 125 amp GE sub panel, keeping it the same as what I have on the house than ran the wires into the box ready to be connected to the breakers.
In my last blog, I mentioned that I would cutout an outlet into the center of the floor of the shop, I decided to scrap that idea after measuring the width of the shop along with the width of the table saw it’s just not feasible with the shop being 12’ minus the 8” for the walls making it roughly 11’4” and with the tablesaw being 64” and since everything is going to be mobile anyway.

The white conduit you see running horizontal across the gray pipe I just ran is my air line from the air compressor which is located under the lean-to outside the shop, I don’t keep a constant pressure on it.

The building is now completely dried in, I completed the shingling of the roof today both side but due to the cool weather we are having this week, I’ll have to wait until the warm weather returns to calk the old shingles with Tar.
The Gable end is complete with the upper pieces matching right back with minor cuts on the pieces, still needs a bit more paint and the trim work done.
For the past few days we’ve been working on the wiring getting it all back in order, the sub panel is now complete with all the wiring done and breakers installed, still more to be done on the wiring, we ran into a snag though, not knowing how the wires were ran after removing the old wall and after installing a new junction box in the attic then attaching the left over wires together in the junction box thinking we were reconnecting the plugs, we had lights but no plugs we used a meter on all of the plugs with trying different breakers and also ruling out defective breakers, but no power to the plugs, we both looked at the old sub panel which was a 4 space only sub panel and I had all the breakers labeled, two breakers feeding the plugs on two walls, a single breaker feeding the outlet to the AC and the last breaker feeding the lights, which kind of led us on path to the issue, my friend left and we were going to tackle it the following day but I just couldn’t let it lie so I got on the computer to review all of the old pictures from when the original building was built by dad and myself and found that we had two hot feeds feeding each other creating a loop lucky I had an inline GFI plug that was tripping, once I knew what was going on I located both hot feeds and disconnected one and resolved the problem.
In the photos you will notice that I’ve optioned for recessed canister LED lighting in the new section and will also be replacing all of the fluorescent lighting through out the old section with all LED recessed lighting, in order to raise the ceiling reducing the amount of objects hanging down.
The 240 outlet has been installed still yet to install the AC which will come soon, it’s still sitting in the box on top of my wheel barrow :)

So much has been done I kind of forgotten where I left off at, :)
Wed most of the day was spent doing some house cleaning along with some more wiring and installing the ceiling duplex of plugs. I placed two 2×4s on each side of the wires leading down to the plug housing and one 2×6 to cover the wires for protection but after putting more thought into this I believe I will remove the 2×6 as I wouldn’t want to forget and run a screw through trying to hang something I’d rather see the wires and allow the 2×4s to guard them.
Thursday was spent installing the next two recessed lighting, installing another junction box in the attic to feed the rest of the plugs and lastly installing wall insulation, today was spent hanging the ceiling sheet rock, tomorrow will be hanging the walls along with the AC unit.
Hanging the sheet rock I used a 2×6 screwed to the wall studs just a few inches below where the sheet rock was to be screwed in on one end of the wall, I already had the jacks I just added some 1”x 3” boards screwed into one end of the jack to act as a support, I first leaned one end of the sheet rock so that it rested on top of the 2×6 and walked the other end up keeping pressure against so that it remained resting on top of the board, I then had one jack ready and within reach and placed it under the end I was lifting and then placed the second jack so that it raised the other end off of the board, I used my dremel tool with a spiral bit to cut the holes in the sheet rock with.
Warning! Lots of pictures to view :)