Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

I wish I lived next door to you Frank. Between your big stuff and my normal human sized stuff, we could build, fix and/or rule the world.

Funny thing.. When I get the emails from here showing pictures and snippets of new threads, I can usually tell if it's one of yours just by the pictures.

Rikk, that could be said for half the guys here on HMT.net
It seems though that I have Larry & Curly for helpers.
Everything was halted today around 10Am due to 40° weather misting rain and 25MPH winds.

[Frank S]

A little better progress today even thought eh wind was 20 to 30MPH most all day

[Frank S]

3 days of climbing scaffolding dozens of times, hanging off the rungs of the scaffolding while welding is just about to get old for this old man. However I can see the light in the tunnel growing nearer with each passing day I think it may the a search light on a UFO or a train but the shop is coming along.
now have 4 of the 5 trusses in place and some temporary x bracing welded in place just encase things have to go into slow motion for a while I don't want the wind to wreck what I've already done.



that's me playing monkey while welding



Just after sundown yesterday

[Frank S]

To be honest I should start a thread called how not to build a shop building.
A few things I have been thinking of doing to it as time goes along. First off I have a School buss that is just sitting in the woods collecting weeds around it. It has a good diesel engine I need to pull out to be installed in one of my "B" model macks that I want to turn into a pickup or a flat bed straight truck the buss though body wise is in great shape and would make for some really good mezzanine storage atop of the shipping container So what I will do is remove the body from the frame cut it off right at the windshield cut the skirt off the body so the bottom of the floor of the buss will sit flat on top of the container roof This will make a great storage area up out of the way of everything else.
There is a good chance that I may do this to the 2 trusses on the West or Entry end of the shop a lot depends on how much excess materials I have laying around

If I do then I can construct a 15 by 68 ft. office space between them and still maintain the clear span opening for a 3 top hung sliding door opening allowing me to have a 44 ft wide opening from either side or just open a 22 ft. wide single section
this will also mean I will have a place to construct an elevator to lift materials to the mezzanine where the school buss will probably be placed and then on up to the office floor.
But it will also mean that the building will wind up being 28 ft tall in front instead of the 24 ft height at the center of the trusses now
But it will give me a lot more sq footage. Actually by the time the 45 ft machine shop van is attached to the South side and the 26 ft tool and bolt storage van attached outside of the East or the rear of the building I will have close to 6000 sq ft of useable floor space while still only having to pour a 4000 sq ft slab
The plans are also to add a 38 by 40 ft lean to canopy on the south side to park my tractors and other equipment under

[Frank S]

My Idea of acquiring a pair of old steel bridge trusses got shot down the County road department decided to leave the old bridge where it is as a hysterical monument
Not the one I showed in the picture but similar in design, about 8 miles from the house is an old bridge that has a span of 70 ft and is 17ft 4 inches outside to outside.
Last spring they were talking about giving it to anyone who would haul it way We checked with the county this morning only to learn they had changed their minds.
Anyway life and climate change is going to be in the way for the next week or so I have to rebuild a pickup engine and the weather is supposed to be rainy and in the 40's to low 50's for the highs the rest of the week.
Maybe I'll get the chance to order the "C" putlins in the mean time.

[metric_taper]

Frank, did you make those steel trusses, or trade? Are the perlins going to be steel?
You must not have an anal building department, or you can sign off as PE.

[Frank S]

Frank, did you make those steel trusses, or trade? Are the perlins going to be steel?
You must not have an anal building department, or you can sign off as PE.

I demolished a 68 x 100 clear span building about 6 years ago it had 11 trusses some were damaged so what I did was repair then double 3 of them, the 2 end trusses were undamaged so I attached the 12 x22 lb beam to the bottom of them.
the trusses in the old building were on 10ft spacing with almost zero bracing but they had crane rails hanging under the trusses at about 15 ft from either side of the building and a 35 ft long 2 ton bridge crane hanging on those the old building had stood for 40 years before the company who owned it sold it to a friend of mine they removed the cranes and the rails causing some damage to the trusses 10 years after my friend bought the building there was a freakish snow storm for the area where it was located the 15 inches of snow load was more than the damaged trusses could withstand or it may have been the 2" 16ga round tubular purlins the building was constructed with to support the roof either way one section of the building collapsed as it did the whole roof came down on 1 side in a domino effect further damaging the trusses I had removed a large portion of the damaged roofing and had started raising the trusses back to height the columns were also only made out of 11 ga 4" sq tubing 9 of these were bent during the collapse I had just about all of the trusses back to height and partially repaired but held up with temporary jacks with very little additional bracing I had all of the materials to construct tabernacle bracing from truss to truss when I became ill and I had to put the project on hold for a few days during that time we had an Ice storm very common here in Texas but not having competed the additional bracing the combination of the weight of 3 solid inches of ice inadequate bracing and 60 MPH winds brought the building back down this time we decided to just demolish it So I salvaged everything salvageable.

Skip to the current building 5 trusses on 15 ft centers 2 single thickness trusses with 12' beams 2 trusses that are doubled with 2 1/2" spacer tubes between them additionally held together with 10ga by 6" by 12'' long strips of metal welded on top and under the trusses tying the 2 sections together making a truss that is 4 times stronger than a single width truss the 5th truss currently is 2 trusses sandwiched together but I damaged it slightly in moving it around previously so I will re build it and possibly use my remaining materials laying around to make it a triple width truss
What I call Tabernacle bracing is essentially a lattice type brace that would resemble a bar joist down the center of the building the full height of the center of the trusses there will also be a grid work of horizontal bracing run diagonally between the trusses.
By the time the building is complete it should be capable of withstanding the errant 100 year snow or ice storm
As far as the building and plans department of this county they called me last year to offer consultation for a proposed project in town but I had to tell them that I am not a licensed PE

[metric_taper]

You are lucky your living in the free state of Texas. Here the local county elected supervisors have all taken campaign donations (bribes) from the contractors, union carpenters, masons and other labor-trades organizations, so they have enacted county ordinances that are extremely against a private land owner from doing work themselves. Inspectors leave the contractor work un-inspected, and harass a DIY home owner. When I built my big garage (dinky compared to yours) in 1984, and started it without a permit. I got caught, as the roof was up and on it, but I had to pay a fine to continue work. They did let me show them my calculations for the steel beams, and I was lucky they did not force me to hire a licensed PE, I had the strength of materials course during my engineering schooling, but never had the desire to be a PE, as I worked for an avionics company for my career. The inspector that caught me, had a vendetta and showed up at all the zoning variances, and acted as a dictator. At the time they had an ordinance that prevented a detached garage from exceeding 1000sqft, so I had to request a zoning variance. And the inspector was hard over putting me not in a residential garage classification, but an industrial classification (factory workshop). Some requirements were good for a 2hr fire wall to the adjacent property. Our set back here is 3ft on detached buildings. So I ended up with the water resistant sheet rock 1/2in under the vinyl siding, and 5/8 fire rated on the interior side. I'm out in the county with no fire hydrant to service the volunteer township service, and they have to haul water via tank trucks. It took many years before this inspector stopped being an ass. I had to get a permit for electric wiring, and at the time I had to take a test to show competence with the NEC requirements, before they would issue a permit. He overrode the NEC by requiring me to install the bonding screw in the outbuildings circuit panel to ground the neutral and grounding buss bars together, for reasons that I've never understood. He was the boss that wrote and administered the electric test, and he never worked as an electrician. That is the problem with inspectors, they all want to make rules vs. inspect compliance to the codes.
I built a 2 story garage, the base is 32x30, and the 2nd floor 40x30, as I found out that I needed 22 ft Ibeams, but they come in 5ft intervals, so 30ft was available and shipped from Chicago to a local seller, and I ended up with a 8ft cantilever overhang that makes a great car port over the 3 garage doors. I have the machine shop at the back of this as an 8ft by 30ft space, (way too small) and the 3 stalls are 22ft deep (only baby 1/2 ton trucks fit in this). I'm filled to capacity with a Model T Ford truck, the skid steer, and the 96 Dodge 1/2 ton consuming most of the space.

I can imagine your fighting the weather, and that's going down hill fast. You clearly have a worry about wind loading racking the building over, those trusses are big sails.

[Frank S]

Metric Taper we call it the free state of Stonewall county as much of Texas especially the cities are run by idiots with less than a little common sense. But even out here you wouldn't want to put up a permeant structure without some due diligence of mother nature. Most who have lived around here for a while all know that when you build something over 8 ft tall you need to take into account that the winds have at times reached nearly 90 MPH during storms and the hail storms can pitch base balls at you horizontally so no one it their right mind has composition or cedar shake roofs and steel roofs on the houses are secured with 3" long screws through the decking into the rafters and lots of them.
I have a 53 ft trailer load of 2 to 4 inch cold storage PIR closed cell double backed insulation to install in the roof that is in 4 ft by 8 ft panels stacked 8 ft high on the trailer, that I got for hauling off I will install straps to the bottom of the purlins then wedge the panels between the purlins as I install the sheeting on the roof It won't be a perfect insulation technique but as good or better than the 2 inch vinyl clad rolls that are normally used.I'm not as interested in the heating in the winter as mush as a thermal barrier from the sheet metal roof in the summer.

[metric_taper]

PIR closed cell double backed insulation

OK Polyisocyanurate, I think this is the stuff the home stores sell with aluminum foil on both sides. I've seen this thicker stuff show up on craigslist by the truck load, it's used, so I don't know what industry had it for surplus.

I hope the weather holds so you can make headway.
We had our first snow Monday night, and some more tonight. This is way earlier then normal, by 1+ months. As well highs in the upper 30s to low 40s for the next week, statistically 55 is the norm. I'm still not done with outdoor chores for the fall.