Bronco Barn

[Void_of_Light]

Ive been working out of a 28x32 garage for about 15 years. I have managed to fill it with tools, lawn equipment, a gym and most recently a 74 Bronco that needs a complete rebuild. Needless to say I'm out of room. May of last year I decided to build a pole barn.

I had a tree in the way so me and a few friends took it down. This was the first and only fully grown tree I've ever cut down and I'm pleased to say it landed right where I wanted it to.😁

I lucked out and my neighbor was dating a guy that sold turn key pole barns. $26k later this showed up.

That's a whole 40x40x12 shop aside from the trusses.

Another $1,700 gets you a guy with a dump truck and dozer to make you a nice pad.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Two guys showed up and got to work. These guys did all the work, no crew, no crane, no tractor just two guys and some ladders. They didn't even have an auger for the poles. They dug 3 holes in the hard red clay and went to town to buy one.

Unfortunately we went out of town during this and didn't get any more progress pics. We came home to this on Sunday. It took them 4.5 days from start to finish.

 

[Void_of_Light]

It's 40x40x12 with 2 12x10 doors and 1 man door.

I dug a trench for water. I'm going to have a faucet, urinal and a sink in there. I'm also going to have natural gas for a heater later on. I also put several pieces of conduit in the ground for future use.

 

[backchat]

Urinal for the win. I ran across a free one and put it in my shop. Forget the crazy prices for the valves. I have a 1/4 turn ball valve on mine and plan to rig up a foot peddle system to flush it.

I like where this is headed. Carry on. Thanks!

 

[Void_of_Light]

Urinal for the win. I ran across a free one and put it in my shop. Forget the crazy prices for the valves. I have a 1/4 turn ball valve on mine and plan to rig up a foot peddle system to flush it.

I like where this is headed. Carry on. Thanks!

I am shocked at how hard it is to find a used urinal, and really shocked at the cost of new ones. I may find a beer keg and make one. I had already thought about rigging up a hand valve for it, good to hear it works like I thought it would. I have missed out on 2 all stainless medical sinks with foot valves. They sell in hours and are never close by.

 

[Void_of_Light]

It took about 2 weeks but the concrete guys showed up.

I had a pretty good handle on what most of this stuff was going to cost. I was good until I got my quote for power. My brother and my dad both have shops on their own meter, fed off the transformer in their yard. Both of them paid around a grand to have it hooked up. My quote was $4,500😮

I made multiple calls and even went down to the co-op office but they wouldn't budge. I am at the end of the line and they said there wasn't enough power available to put in another 200a connection without upgrades. They were more than willing to hook it up for a $1,000 deposit and I could pay the rest off. They gave me a whole 6 months.🤬 I made the last payment yesterday.

During the power install I get a call that they cut my gas line. Of course they don't have anyone to fix it and it was going to be in the 30s that night and its my only source of heat. I managed to get a compression fitting and my dad knew someone that could install it. (they are super easy, but I didn't know that)

I finally got around to running wires and installing bookshelf studs for the insulation.

I had my first visitor. My neighbors goats got out and said hi.

Started putting up insulation. R19 batts. They were cheaper than rolls.

 

[Void_of_Light]

All of the AV stuff is leftover aside from the ceiling speakers. It's been in a closet waiting for the say I built a shop.

Started putting up OSB

I found a killer deal on some scratch and dent shelves. I got 2 90" and 1 77" for about $250.

I also found a price mistake on some led lights.

Usually $24 often on sale for $19 during black Friday they were marked at $15 I picked up 10 and they rung up at $24ea showed them the sign and they said it was a mistake, but sold them to me for $15 anyway. 😁

 

[Void_of_Light]

Did some painting. 1 coat of Kilz oil based primer and 2 coats of the cheapest white paint Lowes sells in a 5 gallon bucket. It covers surprisingly well. This was where I ran out of Kilz from a previous project. I also caulked the spaces between sheets if there was a gap.

I built an entertainment center to hold my crap off the floor.

Painted it black. It took several coats to look decent.

Mounted it along with all the other AV stuff.

Got some help and mounted the old 58" plasma that used to be in the living room. Damn those things are heavy compared to new ones.

 

[IUsedtoBendCars]

How are you going to insulate the roof/ceiling? Cause you won't be able to hear the tv during a rainstorm without.
I'm guessing tin going on the bottom of the walls?

 

[Void_of_Light]

How are you going to insulate the roof/ceiling? Cause you won't be able to hear the tv during a rainstorm without.
I'm guessing tin going on the bottom of the walls?

Yeah, R panel in either white or galvalume on the underside of the truss with blown in insulation above it. it will get a charcoal wainscoting at the bottom of the walls too. It is super loud when it rains now.

Gotta wait till the economy settles down before I buy more materials though. I’ve still got a ton of little things I can work on.

I was putting outlets in this weekend and ran out. I don’t know if it’s a supply issue, or if everybody’s doing home improvement projects, but there are no cheap white outlets available in town. I had to order them off amazon.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Been a while since I updated this. I've gotten a lot done, but it doesn't really show in pictures.

To set the mood, let's see how hot its been.

I rented a trencher, (best $100 I ever spent) and ran gas and water to the meters. I also ran conduit for cat6 to the house.

I finished up almost all of the wiring and buttoned up the breaker box. I have 5 welder/plasma outlets and 1 50a oven outlet. I also went ahead and ran a 50a RV plug outside just in case I ever buy an RV.

I scored a sink for $25. We have a store called Dirt Cheap that mostly sells crap that people have returned. I usually walk out without buying anything, but sometimes you can find some stuff you actually need. That is where all the husky shelving came from too.

Final pic of my state of the art network rack. I ran 2 lines for cameras, 1 for an AP and the rest to the TV area for whatever I put there. I also brought out an old laserjet printer that we weren't using anymore. I figure it might be useful to print stuff off from time to time,

I am going to pick up the metal for my ceiling and wainscoting tomorrow. Hopefully I can get the ceiling in and insulated so it wont be so hot out there.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Got the metal for the ceiling and wainscotting picked up.

Did 1 wall yesterday.

 

[rattle_snake]

nice. plan to enclose the ceiling?

 

[rockota]

Final pic of my state of the art network rack. I ran 2 lines for cameras, 1 for an AP and the rest to the TV area for whatever I put there. I also brought out an old laserjet printer that we weren't using anymore. I figure it might be useful to print stuff off from time to time,

Find yourself a single gang blank... drill a 1" hold in it, deburr... make your TP wiring look nicer.

 

[Void_of_Light]

nice. plan to enclose the ceiling?

I picked up some 29ga galvalume panels for the ceiling. I still have some painting to do, and I need to pressure test the gas line before I button it up. Looking forward to getting some insulation overhead.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Find yourself a single gang blank... drill a 1" hold in it, deburr... make your TP wiring look nicer.

I was going to put an actual wall rack in, but figured screw it, its a shop. I'm going to get a desk grommet to shove in there if I can find one the right size.

 

[Void_of_Light]

I got some more work done.

I painted the top 2x10s to match the rest of the trim, and got most of the wainscoting installed.

I pressure tested my gas line to 35psi and it hasn't lost a pound in over a week, so I called it safe to use and started putting up the ceiling metal.

I ran gas, power and a thermostat wire to the corner where my heater will go. I flush mounted 1 box and quickly decided the rest will be surface mounts. Just ignore my sloppy paint job, I'll fix it later.

I managed to mount my boxes and lights using existing screws so no additional holes had to be drilled.

And here is where I am currently. I have tomorrow off and hope to get a lot more done.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Time for an update

Got some of the trim on the wainscotting

Built some boxes to house the speakers in the ceiling

Almost forgot I wanted to put lights above the doors before I finished the ceiling

Crappy picture of what it looks like at night now.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Finally finished the ceiling

My brother decided he needed a 2 post lift for his shop, and who am I to argue? Why buy 1 when you can have 2 at twice the price. We saved about $400 driving to Dallas and picking them up. They are still on the trailer in my shop. Hopefully we can borrow dad's tractor this weekend and unload them.

I went by my favorite second hand store and they had all home improvement stuff 75% off. I found 5 cabinets that needed a little glue and re-assembly for $214

I also got water hooked up last week. So far no leaks so I can close up the rest of the walls.

 

[Pt_Ranger_v8]

Diggin' it man.

What's your total invested so far vs what you expected (minus the power )

 

[Void_of_Light]

Thanks.

Between 40-45k I borrowed 30. That took care of the building and dirt with a little left over. I paid out the electric over 6 months. The rest has been out of pocket. I still need a compressor, a heater and I’m building a workbench using HF toolboxes. I’m hoping for some Black Friday deals. I still need to insulate the ceiling too. The rest is just trim and installing stuff I already have.

 

[Pt_Ranger_v8]

That's not a bad price. Figure another 10K to get it fully set up, between insulation, heater and compressor.

Nice shop for sure

Needs 4' higher sidewalls though :D

 

[Void_of_Light]

That's not a bad price. Figure another 10K to get it fully set up, between insulation, heater and compressor.

Nice shop for sure

Needs 4' higher sidewalls though :D

well, you see, what happened was, I asked for 12ft walls thinking that meant 12ft ceiling. It wasn’t until it was built that I realized my mistake. 14ft walls would have been perfect and would have probably been cheaper in the long run. Other than that I’m perfectly happy with it.

 

[Pt_Ranger_v8]

Good to know.

I still don't know if I will end up stick built or steel building when I build my shop, but little details like that are key.

 

[arse_sidewards]

How much did those roll up doors set you back and how much of a bitch to install were they?

 

[Void_of_Light]

How much did those roll up doors set you back and how much of a bitch to install were they?

I'm not sure, I paid for a turn key shop, I didn't get an itemized bill. I wasn't even in town when they installed the doors. I'm sure like most things it would take 5x as long to do the first one as it did to do the rest. When I built my garage it was cheaper to buy and have the doors installed by a garage door place than it was to just buy them from Lowes. I would get some installed prices before I did it myself. I'm all about DIY unless it doesn't make sense to DIY.

 

[72blazer]

What was the cost on your slab? I’m in the early stages of building a metal shop but I know the slab is what’s gonna really set me back.


shop looks killer.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Thanks.

The slab was included in the cost of the shop. I didn't get a breakout on it. The cost of everything right now is stupid high. I would wait if you can, I doubt I would have built mine if I had to pay current prices on stuff.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Got the lift installed. WE put my brothers up first as practice. Neither one of us wanted to go first. 🤣

I forgot to get a pic of it all packaged up. The legs were stacked on top of each other in the crate. We unloaded them from the trailer using a tractor, but completely ignored the fact that we needed it to unpack the lift. It was already back at my dads before we made that discovery. Oh well, adapt and overcome.

Once they are on furniture movers they are easy for 2 people to move and stand up

They get held down with (10) 3/4" concrete anchors.

 

[Void_of_Light]

I had to lower the safety bar about 8" to account for the low ceiling.

I cut a piece of plate to fit behind the pump to mount electrical boxes to. I have seen people mount things directly to the lift, but I really didn't like the idea of putting extra holes in it.

Still need to put the arms on, adjust the cables and add hydraulic fluid. Should be done tonight.