My
brother purchased a semi April 2004. Maintenance of the semi proved
difficult during the winter here in Minnesota without a heated shop to
work on it in. We decided to construct a shop for the semi,
but at the same time we made it big enough to serve as the farm workshop
that we have always wanted. We came up with a building 44' x 56'
with 15 1/2' ceilings.
We
started be excavating a hole 3 feet deep, and then filling it back with 4
feet of sand. With the dirt work complete we started drilling the
holes for the poles and lifting the poles in place.
After
the poles were installed we started nailing on the girders.
We
are lifting one of the eight trusts into place with a boom attached to a
loader tractor.
I
am nailing the purloins on the roof with a friend and my brothers are
nailing boards in between the bottom of the trusts to form the ceiling.
We
are putting on the last piece of roof steel.
We
are leveling the ground and installing 2 inches of styrofoam in
preparation for the concrete.
We
installed 2500 feet of 1/2" PEX tubing stapled to the styrofoam.
In the winter warm antifreeze solution will be flowing through the tubing will provide
radiant heat for the shop.
Concrete
pour day. There are 12 people working on the pour.
We
poured 54 yards of concrete this morning. In the afternoon we
troweled the concrete smooth.
We
are installing the sidewall steel this weekend. This picture is of a
sheet on the south wall going up.
The
north wall of the shop is mainly doors. We have a service door, then
a 18' wide x 14' high bifold door that we built ourselves and a 12' wide
by 14' high garage door.
We
are finishing installation of the garage door and then the building will
be fully enclosed.
We
are sheeting the interior with steel that we recovered from a pole barn
that the wind took down this summer. The steel was dirty from being
on the building for the last 20 years, so we washed it before we installed
it.
We
installed a vapor barrier over the insulation before we started sheeting
the interior of the shop.
We
have started putting up the sheeting on the east and south walls.
The walls were taller than one sheet, so we have to add pieces later to
finish the walls.
The
first sheet of steel is going onto the ceiling.
And
then we can install the permanent lighting for the shop. We have 3
rows of 4 lights each in the shop. Each light has two 75 watt florescent
bulbs in it.
