My hiding place!

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gdrill

gdrill

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Just North of Montana
Somebody suggested I start a thread on my shop, so here it is. I broke ground in July of 2011 and am darn near finished now. I have done most of the work myself, excluding the cement pour and finish. I also contracted the electrical as I am away from home more than I'm there and I wanted it done right. So here it is from the beginning. This a 32' X 54' slab with in floor radiant. The heat is supplied by the boiler in my house.

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Once the slab was complete my brother in law helped me erect the building. He is a steel erector by trade so he was an invaluable asset. He also got me the building, so between his help and the deal he got me I saved a ton of money. Here is the building as it went up. Thanx to "a little help from my friends"!
Edit: This building was up with the roof on in three good working days. I did install a second man door to the right of the overhead so I wouldn't have to enter through the office area all the time.

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Once the building was at lock up, the real work began. The inside is sheeted with a round of 3/4" on the bottom and then 5/8" from there up. The ceiling is aluminum. It was a pain to put up but man is it nice now. I don't know how many screws I have driven, but there was just shy of 3000 in the ceiling alone. Ouch, ouch, ouch. The mezzanine is 12' X 32". The window in my office I salvaged from a building that was being remodeled. It was a car dealership in the past.

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The last time I was home I built my bench area. I am almost finished now. I have to build stairs to the mezzanine and a handrail along the top. This has been quite an undertaking, but I can't say how much fun it already is! :D Next is to move everything from the "Wife's" garage out here and start building the "SOAL Demon". SOAL stands for Southern Alberta, and if I ever get to retire I would like to open the shop under that name and do custom work for fellow enthusiasts.

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:thumblef: Now that is one hell of a shop right there!
C
 
As I was looking at the pictures of your shop I found myself saying words like PERFECT and NICE over and over again LOL
Love the work bench area with the loft.
AL
 
Thanx again guys. :D I am pretty happy with what I've ended up with. My layout should allow me to have three projects in there comfortably and I could squeeze in a fourth. Yes that is too much on the go at one time, but the "Senior Manager" of the property wants the "junk" out of her sight!
 
Very nice indeed! The in-floor heat is a must and the second floor storage is a great idea too. tmm
 
I saw the "boss" and her 2 cronies looking the place over. I think one of dem cronies was looking for a spot for his pillow bed!!! Nice place, real nice!! And I like the outdoor scenery, plenty of space between neighbors to make grinding noises well after hours!!!

Hope you get all moved in soon, I would be dying to do so!! Geof
 
Swinger340Canuc said:
That's an amazing Hiding Place, and its always wise to keep the Senior Manager happy.
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Thanx, and yes it's a must to keep her happy! :thumbrig:

toolmanmike said:
Very nice indeed! The in-floor heat is a must and the second floor storage is a great idea too. tmm
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Thanx, I haven't decided whether it is storage or a pool table and pinball will be up there!! :D

cosgig said:
I saw the "boss" and her 2 cronies looking the place over. I think one of dem cronies was looking for a spot for his pillow bed!!! Nice place, real nice!! And I like the outdoor scenery, plenty of space between neighbors to make grinding noises well after hours!!!
Hope you get all moved in soon, I would be dying to do so!! Geof
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Thanx, ya the cronies have claimed spots already! As for moving in, yes I'm dying to get going! :D
 
Looks great George!
I never saw the construction pics before.
I agree, it's quite fancy for a beer parlor. (which is what it was really intended for) :-D
I'll have to come over and see it some time.
BTW, i am not a crony, i'm an interlooper.
lol
 
Dartnut said:
Looks great George!
I never saw the construction pics before.
I agree, it's quite fancy for a beer parlor. (which is what it was really intended for) :-D
I'll have to come over and see it some time.
BTW, i am not a crony, i'm an interlooper.
lol
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Thanx Tom. Your welcome anytime. What's an "interlooper"?! :D
 
Wow!! Now that is another great shop build we have here :D
Congratulations gdrill :hello1: A warm floor + a happy hart makes for some great times out there in your hiding place :thumblef:
 
Nice shop! I've done a few floor heat systems about 11 years ago at my old job,and wouldn't hesitate to put it in my future shop.
 
Nice shop! I really like the outside scenery. Looks like miles of nothing but open land, my idea of heaven.
 
daredevil said:
Thats real nice. Tell us southerners a little about how that floor works.
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Thanx all.
It's actually pretty simple. If you look at the first few pics it shows 5/8" pex piping attached to the styrofoam insulation laid prior to pouring concrete. The styrofoam is optional, just better to retain heat. In one of the pictures you can see the manifold. It has 5 blue valves on top and 5 red valves on the bottom. The piping is laid out in "zones", so I have 5, with the valves controlling the flow of hot water entering each independent zone. Zones typically are not more than 300' per loop. The red valves are in and blue out. I have a boiler that feeds water to the red side of the manifold. Mine is roughly 170 F. It travels through the loop and circles back out of the blue valves into the red again. The boiler will continue to feed into the system until the water circling the loop is maintaining 110 F, outside temperature dependent, the colder outside, the hotter the water. Of course the floor will continue to cool the loop so the boiler will periodically push in more hot. I run my thermostat at 65 F. The shop will cool to that and the system will fire up to warm the floor. Generally it will fall a few more degrees before the radiant heat is fully taking effect, roughly 62 F. Then as the room warms and it reaches 65 F, the system shuts off. Because the floor is still hot the room temperature will continue to rise a few more degrees. It will usually reach about 67 F. So it does vary a little but not to the point that it feels any different either way. With this system each zone is independent so I can adjust certain areas to be warmer or cooler depending on where stuff is. Example, if I only have storage at the far end of the shop I don't need the floor to be super warm so I can pinch off the flow to that zone. Or in front of the overhead door I can run it a little hotter for melting snow off a vehicle that is just pulled in. Blah, blah, blah. Hope that wasn't too long, and maybe it was understandable!!
 
Heated floors are the cats azz! RThe best bodyshop I ever worked in was because it had heated floors! Makes it a real pleasure working on your knee's or underneath a car. For me I had to fight to stay awake under the cars. Nice cozy warm floor would lull me off to sleep every time! I guess having M.S contributes to falling asleep without provocation too!
 
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