The Silver Buick wants a garage.

[TheSilverBuick]

420 Cat. 8ft wide bucket.

*And Mark, he *gasp* drove it 9 miles down the highway here! Then did it again back!

[Scott Liggett]

Wow. A terraced back yard. Hopefully, you don't get too much rain in the spring or you may get mud slide.

[TheSilverBuick]

We're a desert and there is drainage.


I forgot to upload pictures of the Backhoe.

Five minutes in he had taken out a couple trees.


Then the last bit was grading the ramp.

[BOOOGHAR]

420 IT E - I hate'm. E = Extending Stick

[TheSilverBuick]

We have a 420D in my department. It works pretty hard. When it breaks, I never know if the down time is long because our mechanic's aren't really backhoe mechanics (light vehicle shop instead of the main equipment shop) or if it's the machine itself is that problematic.

This one looked pretty brand spankin new. I know it was bought this year, but not sure when.

[Dan Barlow]

For ideas only - obviously this guy has endless money - but ideas none the less:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=12234

Oh my there went 13/4 hrs. of my life. Couldn't stop!

[milner351]

Nice work Randal! That guy is GOOD to get all that dirt moved and leveled in 3 hours! Yowza - money well spent for sure.

Have you considered putting up two buildings on two terraces? One for storage only - maybe even a corrugated metal round top style, no heat, electric, etc, just "covered parking" basically - cold storage.

The other being the work shop - concrete floor, insulated, full electrical system, air compressor, furnace, etc. Perhaps put the work shop closer to the house to make the runs of wire, etc, shorter. 12 ft walls so a hoist could be installed. If you're working on one care at a time, there's no sense in heating and insulating a giant building -especially with your excavating challenges - can you make one terrace big enough for a 32x40? That would be a good work shop size and not cost a fortune, even a 24x32 would beat the heck out of your car port!

[DanStokes]

My 30x40 is big enough - barely. It's all the lot they would let me cover. But you have a SERIOUS amount of land there - I say "go for it". Cool to see you're making some headway. Don't forget to meet hurricane standards - um - never mind.......

Dan

[Stich496]

who needs a house with a shop that big

[milner351]

One of the smartest guys I know lives under the radar. Built a pole building on agrictulture zoned land. Built a 1600 square foot appartment "loft" inside the pole building - no windows on the sides, only the back of the building which can't be seen from any roads.

From the road it looks like a typical pole barn. In the back yard, he's got a hot tub, deck, couple sliding glass doors, balcony, the works, it's a 3 bedroom 2 bath loft with a full kitchen and hard wood floors, he built it all himself. Walk out the back door to a staircase that leads down to the shop - the rest of the pole building is his shop. Two post lift on one side. Underneath the loft is his office and a bathroom for the shop. Nice set up - and super cheap property taxes since it's an ag building. Not a permit was pulled for the inside of the building, the last inspector to see it saw a metal shell with a concrete floor.

[Stich496]

One of the smartest guys I know lives under the radar. Built a pole building on agrictulture zoned land. Built a 1600 square foot appartment "loft" inside the pole building - no windows on the sides, only the back of the building which can't be seen from any roads.

From the road it looks like a typical pole barn. In the back yard, he's got a hot tub, deck, couple sliding glass doors, balcony, the works, it's a 3 bedroom 2 bath loft with a full kitchen and hard wood floors, he built it all himself. Walk out the back door to a staircase that leads down to the shop - the rest of the pole building is his shop. Two post lift on one side. Underneath the loft is his office and a bathroom for the shop. Nice set up - and super cheap property taxes since it's an ag building. Not a permit was pulled for the inside of the building, the last inspector to see it saw a metal shell with a concrete floor.

tax evation isn't something I'd be willing to chance tho.. remember don't steel the irs doesn't like comp..

[milner351]

True enough - I don't completely understand his reasoning - but I admire his resourcefullness. I'm not sure how he files his taxes, and truthfully it's none of my business.

In Randals case - it's a mute point - he's already got a comfortable home to live in up in the front of the lot - and his daily driver of the day can be parked in the carport ready to go to work.

I'm leaning more toward the two building solution after seeing more pictures of the terraces.

Pour two slabs, lower one is storage only, upper one is the shop. Build shop with 12ft walls (could be a standard 8ft wall garage kit on 4ft of concrete block), slab thick enough for the hoist (6" preferred) in one area, 4" for the rest, run a trench down from the house with electric, cable, water, and gas if you can, use larger conduit than you need so you have the option of pulling something else through in the future.
Put a 100amp sub panel in the shop with a run of wire to a lean to off the side to put the air compressor in, run the compressed air lines around with that new pushlock stuff - way cheaper and easier than iron pipe.
Put a radiant tube heater over head if you don't mind paying for gas, or a waste oil burner, or a regular old furnace, wood stove, whatever. Insulate the bageesis out of the place so you won't require a ton of heat to get it to a comfortable working temp - spend the money on good insulated garage door(s) they're worth it when you're trying to heat the place.

[Stich496]

ya it's a good idea.. but big buildings are not hard to heat if insulated and radant floor heat..

[milner351]

Radiant floor heat totally rocks - if you're out there all the time. I'm not sure how much it would cost to keep a building at say 45-50 degrees 24-7 with a boiler and radiant floor heat. It's a great option if you can do it though. Another reason why a smaller workshop building, or, splitting a larger building up into sections is a great idea - only insulate, heat, and light the area where you'll be working.

[STINEY]

Its evasion, though, steal, and competition.



Randall, it may have been considered already, but with your new pictures I can see what I would do in your shoes. I just couldn't pictures it before.

How about a terraced garage? Share a wall between the two levels (I'm thinking thick poured concrete here) and then do the back walls/floors/sidewalls at their own levels. The lower level roof would have a single slope to it, going downhill from the shared poured wall. The upper level should probably have a normal roof pitched both downhill and uphill, with the uphill side having plenty of gutter/downspout capacity and drainage to below the lower level to help prevent the potential mudslide issue?

It is looking like you have your plan though. Looking good!