Building a new shop

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Yes the elevator makes the storage in the loft so much more useful. Of course you have to have to the structure designed for the load. The company that built my shop could not understand why I wanted the second floor built with such a high load in mind, they usually built barns design for hay in the loft.

But the thing that makes the loft so much more useful is well designed and laid out storage shelves. You can easily double usable sq.ft. of storage space of the floor. The elevator is the key to getting those truck truck transmissions and engine store away.

The unexpected side benefit was using the elevator platform as an adjustable height work bench.

Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Picked up three shelving units yesterday from a rather large warehouse yesterday just outside of Milton. I went with 96” long, 24” wide and 60” tall. Now I can finally get some organization going on with the “stuff”.

First picture is of the suppliers warehouse, and I thought my shop was pretty big.

[Jordan Baker]

It’s been a busy time getting the shop floor prepped for the concrete pour. About 20tons of gravel was brought in and levelled off. I then spent the better part of an evening running a compactor around and around getting everything packed down. HotRock insulation panels were put down followed by 2000’ of PEX and then about 100 pieces of rebar. Lots of time was spent by myself getting this all set and just right. The cement guys put in a couple of rebar spikes for height pins. They went in about 5” then stopped. Turns out I got the base compacted pretty good.

Today the guys showed up before 0630 to get ready for the concrete pour. The first truck rolled in at 7 and the last one left around 10am.

Finally the site supervisor wanted to come out of the house and take a look. After pointing at everything, he approved.

[David Dunlop]

Very nice, Jordan!

What length of cure time did they give you for that size of pour, and will you be sealing/coating it before rolling the vehicles in?


David

[Jordan Baker]

David,

They told me to wear slippers if I go in tonight to turn off the lights and lower the doors a bit. They are coming back tomorrow to put some cuts in and also apply an acrylic sealer. Then it’s wait at least a week before anything heavy goes in.

After about 7-8 times around with the power trowel over the course of about 5hrs, they and myself were quite happy with the floor and it’s smoothness.

[chris vickery]

I’m really surprised to hear they are applying sealer right away.
My concrete contractor suggested a minimum 28 days for a full cure then after that do whatever I wanted.
Mine was cut next day as well using a green saw for uncured concrete.
I used a water based epoxy on mine after careful prep work and it’s held up great after 9 years.
Looking great, I’m sure you will enjoy your new garage.

[Mike Cecil]

Good job, Jordan. A great result for all your hard work.

The LED lights: are you still happy with them after the 10-odd months they have been installed? I'm currently evaluating lights for our new shop and would be interested in your experience.

Mike

[Jordan Baker]

Chris

It’s an acrylic cure sealer that goes on the next day. It slows the curing down and can be applied once the concrete can be walked on. I don’t have the particular name of the product used.

Mike,

I love the lights. They are super bright and we’re easy to install. I did have one bank on a unit stop working back in the winter but then has been fine since early spring. I never was able to open it up and see why. I suspect it could have been an issue with the push in quick connects that came with the lights.