Shop construction...

Kalindras

Kalindras

Joined
Aug 24, 1999
Messages
933
Okay, for the constructively-minded out there...I'm looking at trying to get shop together on some acreage I just bought...but I'm on a near-nonexistent budget.

Most of my expenditure for the structure, at this point, looks like going into pouring the slab to build the silly thing on, and I was wondering--anybody out there ever built a shop with a packed dirt floor? I realize that there are problems inherent to this (watch that quench bucket!!), but it may be the only way I can get this working without waiting for several years. I'd like to build something sizeable enough that I won't have to rebuild in the foreseeable future, maybe 12'x24', but to get a 12'x12' slab poured will probably cost about 5 grand, from what I'm hearing from those in the area.

The basic structure is looking like being a half-and-half, with the forge half being more or less open (railings to keep spectators away), with a back wall and side formed by the shop proper. The other half would be enclosed and lockable, used for the grinders, saws, and other assorted functions. The forge half will almost certainly be dirt-floored, anyway, and I was wondering if it might not be easiest to just continue that into the shop? How susceptible would this be to weather? What if the ground shifts? Would something like this 'settle?'

Any tips, thoughts, helpful advice?
 
I would think that since part of the shop will be fully enclosed you could just build the floor up a bit with packed dirt/clay. You could even mix concrete into the dirt and wet it down. Alternatively have you considered doing all the labor, (i.e. digging the foundation trenches, setting up iron reinforcing wire/rebar, etc.) yourself and just paying for the concrete pour? You could even make a float and do the leveling yourself.

Guy Thomas
 
Kalindras,

I was a concrete construction foreman for close to 20 years,
our winters are a lot more severe up here and the only problem with your floor (concrete) would be from expansion and contraction from warm to cold weather down there.(Meaning you won't get the frost in the ground we get)A 12'x12'x4" slab with a 6" deep by 8"wide trench dug around the perimeter to beef up for wall support would only take 2 1/2 yards of concrete, throw in some 3/8" rebar on 2' centers and your set. I don't know what concrete sells for in Texas, but I could pour it in Missouri for under $200.00 (doing it myself,all you need is a strong back and a weak mind :D ) If you need some help on how to pour the floor and frame the building e-mail me at camper@yhti.net

Bill
 
I had a 12' x 24' pad poured for an extension on my shop for $500.00 and they did all the digging,forming and finishing. It's four inches thick and eight inches around the outside for the walls. It sounds like they are really proud of their concrete where you live. It sounds like someone is trying to get rich in a hurry, $5000.00 is ten times what I paid down here in Alabama and my floor has reinforcing wire in it. I think I'd contact some companies that do that type of work and get some estimates.
Tom
 
Yeah, I thought that figure sounded pretty high, too...but the only thing I can think is that the ground is kinda sandy (and about 70 yards from a lake--a man-made lake, but a lake, nonetheless), and they might be reinforcing it, to keep it from shifting, settling, and cracking.

Still...if I can do it myself, I'm definitely hip to try it...Bill, I'll write this evening, if I get a chance, for some wisdom.

I love this forum.
:D
 
as far as the floor there are more qualafied people. but to get rolling i would look at those prefab, sheds out of aliuinm or steel
 
Gus, it does sound pretty high. It is pretty simple to do yourself. Hard work, but not complicated. You can go to the library and get books that show basic techniques, which will be plenty good for a shop. when the heat breaks a bit your friends will usually dig for free beer. The friends I've got would put you in the poorhouse furnishing beer. At $70 a yard there is not that much money in that small of a slab. Clean your form boards up good and you can use them in framing up your shop. Building a shop is a lot easier than building a knife.:) Give us a yell when you get started, we'll walk you through it. You'll save enough money to buy some nice stuff for the shop. mw
 
...getting together with ya at Spirit of Steel, M.L.!! Between the motor questions, and this, and about a thousand other 'little things', I'll be looking you up!

I think I've decided...now, to suck--er, 'entice' my compadres...

It's the attack of the Amish, Knifemaking Carpentry Brigade!!! Off to the shop-raising! :D
 
Kal, start scrounging construcion sites and hitting their dumpsters. You wouldn't believe how much building materials you can get for nothing that way.I scrounged for about 6 months before building my shop and at least half the materials,incuding a set of solid core double exterior doors was scrounged. Also, to avoid the cost of concrete I built a wood floor on stilts about 2 feet off the ground. That also gives you alot of storage space for things that weather won't hurt. For the walls we got a bunch of shipping crates from moving and storage companies.One even offered to bring us a 40 foot trailer load of them for free inclding delivery. Cleaned them up and nailed two layers on the outside of the walls and then nailed on some nice siding. It's survived 3 hurricanes without a leak.
 
You might try looking around where there is some demolition going on. I picked up four walls from a building being torn down for beer. The guys doing the tear down helped we took a chainsaw and cut the walls into 12 ft lengths and I hualed them off on a car trailer. got enough to build a twenty four x thirty six shop complete with insulation and siding.
 
Kalindras
I don't know how cold it gets down your way but if you just poured a footing and built up from there you would have your "building" up as cheap as possible. There is nothing saying you can't pour a floor later. Use sidewalk slabs, set stone or bricks in sand there are lots of "cheeper ways than concrete.
Make it as big as possible. Put your forge and smitty outside under a roofed "porch" area to save room inside.
You may want to pour a small area in a back corner for a clean/finishing room.
Think long and hard and draw out you plan on paper to scale with proper measurments. Then stake it out in a feild or somewhere to get a true life idea of the size and how things will fit in.
GOOD LUCK!!!
 
How about using a shipping container for the closed part. I bought a 20 foot long one for storage three years ago. It cost 2400 New Zealand Dollars which is about 1200 US Dollars. It was not the "condemned" grade. It is supposed to be "good for one more trip".

Cut some holes and install some recycled windows and doors. We had considered using a 40 foot one for a shop on our property. There is a guy here who used to set them up as site offices and temporary accomodations and was selling them.

For higher security, get a 40 foot one with sliding doors in the middle of one side and install your doors and windows on the inside of this opening.

Since it is not "permanent", no building permit would have been required.

It will cost you a few hundred dollars to hire the truck to move it.

Don't get the refridgerated one's. They are more expensive and they stink, literally.
 
darn, for 5 grand I'll fly out and pour it myself.

I'd consider pole construction, put them on 8 foot centers, in 2 rows 12 feet apart, (do you know anyone with a post auger?) put a beam across the top. set rafters across and put a roof on it. slat across your poles and put up tin, It's sturdy cheep and fast. if you want concrete, frame around the posts put down your steel and pour, sence there is no weight on the concrete you don't need a footer. the weight is on the poles.
 
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