Keep'em Rolling Barlow's Motor Pool build.

[barlow l]

I have been working on my shop for a little over a year now, I think. The last few years have run together as my Wife and I have built our new home 90% by ourselves. It has been one heck of an journey and I will be most pleased when the work ends and the fun begins.

I have done every step of the way with help from my Wife, Son, Dad, Nephew and best friend. In the very beginning of clearing, Dad would not let me use his backhoe. It was a chainsaw, Ford tractor and a '67 Deuce with winch that got the ball rolling.

All of this land had been timbered about twenty years ago. It was nasty, most of the hardwood was clusters of an old stump. you will see one Red Oak cluster in the photos. Long story short on the backhoe, Dad was over helping me pull stumps with the Deuce. After a couple hours of slinging chains and cable Dad said lets just get my backhoe over here.

I'll just start posting photos from the start without a lot of description as most will speak for themselves until I get up to date. Feel free to ask any questions.

My building is an Arco 40x60x14 clear span metal building.


Note that in the photos, the pile ole building has never moved from photo three to now. That will give you some reference as we clear.

 

[barlow l]

 

[barlow l]

 

[barlow l]

 

[rmack898]

Wow, that's alot of clearing, my back hurts just looking at those stumps.
I'm looking forward to weeing more so keep the pics comming and thanks for sharing.

 

[barlow l]

 

[RandyM]

This is a GREAT thread! Keep 'em coming.

 

[barlow l]

Batter boards laid out and string line squared. Now there needs to be 12 5 foot x 5 foot holes dug.




The low side wasn't too difficult. I will have to form above ground on this end.




This end was not so much friendly. I could rough out with the backhoe then we would dig the rest by hand. I am sure an experienced Operator could have dug mostly with the 'hoe but I am not that operator!




In some places the ground was so hard, we had to dig with an axe. My wife seemed to prefer the axe, not sure if there's an underlying meaning there!

 

[barlow l]

After all the pier holes where dug, it was time to start on rebar. I had been searching on craigslist for months for rebar and finally one Sunday an ad appeared, "rebar about forty pieces 20 feet long $5 each or offer on all". So I emailed my number and received a call back. He was 25 minutes from me so I ran over for a look. Well, it turns out to be a pile of #4 and WAYYY more than forty pieces.

I asked him how much for all of it so he started counting, got to thirty something and said, "I am not counting it, $125 will get it all. I could not pay him fast enough. Turned out to be 127 pieces, I needed 120.




I figured my lengths and cut all the rebar here then went to my buddies shop to use his Diacro bender, My son and I worked two days bending rebar.



Once all rebar was bent, I started assembling the cages with tie wires, just wasn't working for me so, I made a jig to rack all the pieces and welded everything.

 

[barlow l]

Now that all the rebar is welded, I started making the column forms and anchor bolt patterns.





I ordered my anchor bolts off ebay from Zorro, 3/4 x 18". Zorro was the BEST price I could find anywhere. I cut all the plywood plates to size then drew up in CAD and printed out actual size patterns for detail A, B and C. I glued the patterns to the plywood then drilled the marked holes.




All the rebar cages are in place. I get all the column forms in place.





Next step setting all the anchor bolts. I recommend rechecking your bolt placement atleast 4 times before concrete. I found a mistake on the four center bolts. The plans were a little deceiving, once I went back over the detail sheet, I realized my mistake and fixed it the day before concrete.





BREAK TIME!