A New Shop
Posted on January 24, 2008
 

It finally happened.  I received a commission that I knew I wouldn't be able to bring up the stairs from my basement shop.  I've wanted an above ground shop for quite some time.  My wife and I discussed at lengths moving out to the country where there is more space but we found that our location (our kids school in the back yard, a 5 minute bike ride for my wife to work) had too much to give up.  So on Aug 21, 2007, I submitted plans to the city.  After some revisions and waiting, I received the permit on 21 Oct and excavation began in late November.  In order to get maximum space the shop would be attached to the house off of the garage.  This would allow a footprint of 24 x 31 ft.  Since the shop would be attached to the house, this allowed for a full basement: great for storage and dust collection.  14 truckloads later, the hole passed the city inspection.

In mid December the Masons had a window of 2 days to get the foundation done while temperatures hovered above zero.  They managed to lay 12 courses and parge within the two days.

The original plan was to use engineered floor joists but once I told them the weight of teh machinery going in, a beam was needed.  To save some money we went instead with dimensional lumber: 2 x 12s, 12" on center.