Metty's 20x30' Garage Build

Like many of you, i have wanted a shop for many, many years. Like since i was 14 working on my first car and having to move it so my mom could park her E34 back in our garage. Drove me nuts and ive wanted my own space where i can leave a car in pieces and not have to worry about it. 

My wife and i have moved several times in the last couple of years but we are finally in a house that we dont plan to leave for a long time. Since i am stuck working from home for the foreseable future, we decided now was as good a time as any to start. Unfortuneately, everyone else in america is thinking the same thing (time for home improvement projects) and lumber prices have spiked accoringly. 

My dad is a home builder and i grew up working for him in construction so ive gotten a lot of inside help. I had him work up a list of lumber and i had it dropped here at the house back in August

the plan was originally just to put up a basic 20x30' wood framed shop with a loft in the back 8' running the full 20' width. As things do, the plan began to snowball a bit as my wife and i discussed things. by the time we got to the slab work, we had added a full bath and were planning on a mini split for HVAC. The loft was now a guest suite, which means no extra storage but at least the space is multifunctional. 

more to come, heading to dinner now

Awesome!

Great to see, got one in my near future too! 

Congrats on the work thus far!  Been planning to build one for 2 years now but thinking about just moving now to be cheaper.  Our quote has almost doubled what we were at due to cost of materials.  That and the HOA thing is starting to get on our nerves. 

Luckily i live in a pretty sweet spot for my municipality - nice neighborhood with breweries and restaurants around, well mainted homes, looks like you would have an HOA but we dont! total freedom with my property....

i went through 4 concrete contractors before i found one that 1) seemed legit and 2) wasnt double what i was willing to pay. I ended up paying right around $8k for the slab. this included bringing in two loads of dirt and crush fill, digging footings, form work and some grading. the slab is 5" thick in the middle with an additional 12"x12" rebar reinforced footing around the perimeter. it is 4kpsi concrete which is an upgrade over what is standard here (3kpsi). 

as you can see, i added a full bath in the slab. this seemed like a simple addition but i ended up paying a plumber to do all the work. it was $3500 for the rough in but he was here digging and working 3 full days so maybe its not so bad?... I think its easy to look at the pictures and say "thats like $200 of PVC, he is making a killing" but i think most of the cost is in knowing what to do and what the code is. 

anyway, we got the slab poured 10/21 and we started framing 10/23

i called in some help for the framing - my dad, brother, brother in law and father in law drove in from the raleigh area (im in Cornelius, north of charlotte) and we got a ton of work done in one weekend

standing up the back gable wall was exciting. it was about 17' tall and fully decked with OSB. we winched it up using some trees as an anchor point. that took the better part of a day to build and stand up, things moved quick after that

the side walls were easy in comparison, each was built in two 15' sections, skinned with OSB, stood up and bludgeoned into place with a 10lb sledge. you will notice i didnt have any anchors placed in the slab, i chose to drill the sill plates in place after the structure was up and use expanding wedge anchors. we will get to that later...

of course any job like this you have to make a run to HD for more wood...poor taco is suffering!

we worked friday and saturday from 7am to 8pm and sunday from 8-4. looong days but it was worth it!

starting to get the loft structure in place

Getting the ridge board up was a bit of a trick, its 2 17' long 2x12s which you can imagine is pretty heavy. we made it work with some clever balancing and acrobatics on the ladders. you can also see the 2x8 rafters which came back to haunt me later...

thats me up on the sketchy scaffold of death!

by sunday afternoon we were here. the whole building was up and sheathed, tyvek installed, half the roof decked and tar papered. not bad for 4 guys and 3 days!

So back to the concrete anchors...

I didnt have any put directly in the slab because it would have been a bear to 1) build the walls in place or 2) stand them up then pick them up over the anchors. Luckily a coworked loaned me his mack daddy hammer drill. 

now, we are doing this to code and code says you have to have an anchor at least 7" in the slab + 1.5" sill plate = i needed 10" wedge anchors. anyone who has drilled that deep in concrete (1/2" diameter) will tell you it is not fun getting the dust out of the hole so the anchor can go in. You only get one shot with the wedge anchors, once it starts down the hole you are not getting it back out. 

luckily my 13 year old son decided running the hammer drill was super fun so he took over and drilled 22 of the 25 holes for me. thanks matthew!

the following friday, my FIL came back and helped me finish decking and papering the roof so the building was somewhat dried in. 

about a week after that, i had a roofing crew come in to do the shingles. It was around $1500 in materials and i considered doing it myself, but i found a guy that would do the labor for $1300 and i pulled the trigger. I dont have unlimited time and working on the roof is a hazard that i dont want to take if i dont have to. i have three kids...

like many of you, i hate working in shops that have piss poor lighting and not enough outlets. Some might call it overkill but i ran a 90 amp sub panel from the house using 2-2-2-6 MHF, buried 18" inside PVC conduit. i have a 20 (40?) slot GE panel with all the space i will ever need. each wall has a 20a 120v circuit with 4 outlet boxes every 4'. I also have 2 separate 240v 50a circuits, on on each wall for the welder or plasma cutter as well as dedicated circuits for the air compressor, mini split (yay HVAC!) and belt grinder. Lights are on a dedicated 15a circuit. i ended up using a full 250' roll of 14/3 and 1.5 250' rolls of 12/2, 50' of 6/2 and 50' of 10/2 for the water heater. 

that pretty much brings us up to present, my framing inspection (2nd go round) is on monday and as long as i pass that, they will come to spray foam the week after thanksgiving so i can get rolling on the drywall. 

I got a 6 pack of these led can lights on Amazon for $50. 2 of them went up in the loft, one in the bath and 3 under the loft. Very happy with the color and brightness. 
 

in the main shop area I have 4x 4' LED fixtures which I've now had in 3 different shops. I bought them at Costco years ago. 
 

also, my son Matthew did about 80% of the work on this ships ladder which we built out of the leftover scrap from framing. 
 

Looks great!!

metty said:

 

I like the handle cut into ladder. 

Looks like it should be a nice shop when done.

Working on boxing and siding this weekend, I was told doing the bird boxes would be difficult but so far it's not that bad?!

My dad had to take back his framing nailer so I bought this $90 Numax off Amazon. Seems great so far for the price

That's a great garage!  It helps to be in the construction business.  

My buddy was a carpenter and helped me build this 24x24 at my first house.  I did it all but the garage door and wiring.  

This cost $6000 in materials in 1987 and as I was not making much money I would've used better siding and windows today.  Kudos to you and your family!  
 

Got some fascia and siding up today with the help of my neighbor and son

my mini split also showed up this week 

Before you finish the interior I have a wiring suggestion.

When I rewired my garage, I used two pole breakers and 14/3 wire with split outlets everywhere.

Not only do you get two 15A circuits, you can easily switch any box to 230V with an outlet change.  It's really nice when switching over to big-boy tools.

Got that one side done and painted today 

 so the inspector that has been working with me all along is out on vacation this week and they sent another guy out yesterday for my plumbing and framing rough inspections. He apparently showed up, took a look around and failed me on both counts for a different set of things than the first guy. I called him and asked what the heck, he finally agreed to come back tomorrow and reinspect it. 

oh well, its only money right? $50 every time they come out here...

Lookin good. I love that you wired the hell out of it. I built a 20x25 that I want to add 10 feet to, but it's metal so the process is waaaay simpler than the build you're doing.  If i had a decent loft in mine i might be ok with it at the size/footprint it is, but it sure wouldn't be usable as guest housing if i did that. 

Really, i have enough stuff to 'need' an actual huge shop, but since i am air conditioning this thing in South Texas (one 23k btu 220v window unit now, 2 when i expand) i'd rather keep it manageably small and build other kinds of storage for all the stuff i cant fit into it. I didn't put any plumbing in the slab on this one, but partially on the knowledge/excuse that there's an RV parked right alongside it and if i ever get it fixed up there's my bathroom. 

Basically im full of bad ideas and if your inspector needs some perspective send him to  my place. lol

Was wondering how well painting the siding would go.  Wife and I were thinking of replacing our siding for grey but painting it may be a cheap option

Crazy how quickly this has come together! Really nice work. You're right up the street from me (I'm in Davidson) - I thought I recognized that Home Depot haha.

digital said:

Crazy how quickly this has come together! Really nice work. You're right up the street from me (I'm in Davidson) - I thought I recognized that Home Depot haha.

Hi neighbor! I grew up in the raleigh area but we landed here a few years ago and i really like it. Unbeatable mountain biking close by, lots of breweries, right on the lake, whats not to love!

Placemotorsports said:

Was wondering how well painting the siding would go.  Wife and I were thinking of replacing our siding for grey but painting it may be a cheap option

Painting the siding is the easy part, it takes about 20 minutes to do a side. The time consuming part is hand painting the trim. I had my kids pre paint all the fascia, soffit and trim boards so its mostly touch up and fixing the overspray from the siding. If you are doing a house, the trim is what gets you because you do 95% of it from a ladder. My wife is already asking when i can repaint the house trim....