Finally, in October, the new floor was poured. Took a lot of prep to get it here.

Pretty darn level for being a fairly large area without being able to drive pins. I specified no pins, as they would compromise the vapor barrier. New floor is 45 wide, 25 deep.

It is very level for 20 feet, then a gentle 5 foot slope to the existing floor on the lower level. Space for the gantry crane, welders, sandblast cabinet, grinder, etc. Even have room to park a couple of cars well out of the work area. That way, if I run into a snag on one car, I can roll it over to the side, and still use the lift and flats on other projects.

Still needed to contend with that big 6 foot by 6 foot square hole in the floor with a well in it.

What I had at this point was a new concreted work area that abutted the existing concrete work areal. The old area is all clear span, thanks to the massive double 18 inch LVL beam that we installed and an even larger cable supported beam set up that was done some time before WWII (the big one, as Archie Bunker would say). The first pic below shows how they replaced two (2) support posts with the cable tie system. That would be interesting to watch.

To go clear span on the entire work area would have required new construction to the point of meeting all modern building codes. I don’t believe we even had a modern building code when this was built in 1919; and I sure wasn’t willing to try to bring this structure up to modern standards. May as well bull doze it and start over.

I posted the pic of the couble 18 inch LVLs a while back, but here is a reminder.

The cable beam is very cool :biggthumpup:

This chapter involves getting a manhole cover installed over my well. I believed that filling in the well and concreting over it would have resulted in a disaster. Instead, we kept the well and integrated in into our drainage system. I wanted to be able to service the permanent sump pump. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent staring at the darn thing. Even today I find it creepy and cool at the same time. Measured it about 100 times. My plans were dictated by the largest manhole cover I could find. Believe it or not, there is a foundry right here in OK that does both cast iron and composite. I definitely wanted composite, so that lifting the cover would be a one man operation. I also wanted LARGE so that I wouldn’t need to engineer a tapered cone system over the existing well. The stones come almost to the surface. A cone would have dictated removing many of the stones to get it to the correct height. If I left all the stones, then I only needed to engineer a concrete ring. Much easier.

I chose this one: https://www.ejco.com/rest/product/ge...rProduct=false
Pretty sure that link will not work if you are not logged in on the site. Converted the PDF to a jpg, and included a pic of the specs.

It was kind of funny when the delivery guy brought the manhole cover and frame the my law office. I had borrowed my son's Suburban to take it home, as it was too big to go into Sherri's Lexus RX 350. The driver asked me: "Why in the world does a lawyer need a manhole cover? We have a bet going at the loading doc. I bet none of them bet I was covering up an anitque well with it INSIDE a building.

After the floor was poured we were left with my 6 x 6 frame around the well. It took a while to get all the vapor barrier pulled through after removing the wooden frame. I am pretty certain that even a 500 year flood rain would not get the water this high at this point, as we have so much perforated pipe under the concrete, I can’t see it getting overwhelmed. In addition, the permanent sump pump would be pulling out water as needed. Ground water can be really weird though, so I wanted every precaution possible. We packed gravel in and hand tamped it with my super heavy home made tamper, then taped a 6 x 6 patch on to the existing vapor barrier (with a giant round hole in the middle for the well). I then made two rings out of Masonite; one larger than the other. I also made four rings out of 5/8 rebar to go inside the Masonite forms. That was a challenge without a bender. Used a vice mounted to my 400 pound steel work bench to bend the rings. I had to mortar a few bricks and stones in place before placing the rings and rebar. I then tied all four pieces of rebar together with short pieces in about 8 places so they would be evenly spaced around the finished ring.

Here is what we ended up with. The spec sheet on the manhole cover indicated it was 5 and 1/16” high from the base of the frame to the top of the cover. Either I measured wrong, or the spec sheet was wrong. The top of the cover ended up being about an 1/8 inch above the grade of my floor. Oh well, not much taper as you will see in the finished concrete. Still very easy to drive over. I think I am safe, as it is rated to support 50,000 pounds. Not planning on driving any tanks in there.

Now I had a nice clean, reinforced ring to attach the frame to. Then it was just a matter of pouring concrete.

Here is the cover ring attached with tapcon screws. You can see the 5/8 rebar we placed and connected. I didn’t have chairs for the rebar, so we just held it up with rakes until a little over half of the concrete was poured.

I needed almost a yard of concrete. That is about my cut off for deciding between redimix delivery and mixing it myself. But, I decided I wanted to do it on a Sunday, and no delivery available. So, off to Ace Hardware for a pallet of concrete.

I mixed 46 bags in a wheel barrow with a shovel. Only took a couple of hours. Sherri kept the bags coming off the trailer while I mixed and dumped. She also kept pulling up the rebar to get it closer to the top. It doesn't reinforce much sitting on the bottom.

Although I was done pouring after a couple of hours, this stuff took forever to set up. I was down there at 11:30 pm finishing it off.

Forgot the pic
 

Here it is installed.

Finished product looks great, nice job.

Amazing work, looks awesome.

Looks great, Lynn! Man, I had to mix a few bags of the redimix stuff making a pad for the split A/C system for Kelly’s tack room. What a pain. And mine didn’t seem to turn out quite as nice as yours.:hmmm: Actually, the Freemasons showed up and after the laughter ceased, they took my membership card.:blush::eek2:

Looking good!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Well, I THOUGHT I would have all kinds of time to update on my workshop after my shoulder surgery. Oh well. Kept finding things to keep me busy.
I have this very cumbersome 12 x 12 sliding door to my work space area, where I have the two post lift. It is a giant pain (literally) to open and close. The part of the wall that I have circled in the first pic is completely rotted out behind the corrugated tin. So, I decided to open that up, frame out for a roll up door, rebuild the wall, reinforce with OSB, and then install some siding. Got my permit, and started to work.
The next few pics show how bad that wall was. In the third and fourth pics, you can see I had already started removing some of those bricks that were added at some point. I managed to smash BOTH of my thumbs. As i write this three months later, neither is completely healed yet. Those bricks came out really easily. 30 inches down I ran into another old footer. At least there is something solid under there.

The rest of the South wall (left of the door) was deteriorating something fierce. The brick stem wall was crumbling, and the bottom 1 to 2 feet of the 2x6 studs was all rotting away. Here are some before pics. If you think you could just reach down there and pull out some bricks, well you would be correct.
I needed to build a frame for a 16 foot wide roll up door. I also needed to support that part of the roof while I was doing so. So, I built a temporary wall with 2x6s with stiff backs on them. Then, to keep that wall from racking, screwed OSB to it. I placed some of the old floor joists (100 year old Douglas fir with no knots) on the floor to spread out the load and screwed a 2x6 to the ceiling for a temporary top plate.
This all went up real fast using a scissor lift and a buddy who helped me for a couple of hours. Also put up a couple of shoring posts under the existing door frame just for insurance.

Oops; forgot the pics of the South wall to the East of the door opening.

Next, I needed to pour some substantial footings to support the walls just outside of the roll up door frame.
I had to break out some serious concrete. Whoever poured the old floor, just poured it 5 inches thick. However, by the door way, some of the concrete was 11 inches thick. I cut it up the best I could with my concrete saw, but it only cuts 5 inches deep. I got out the 10 pound sledge and hit that first piece of slab 35 times (yes, I counted… I was going to quit at 100) before I saw the first little crack. No wonder I am feeling old.
Got the concrete all busted out at the East end of the door way. On the West end, it was just a matter of removing the crappy brick job someone did many years ago. Those bricks were not original to the building, so done some time after 1922.
Started digging down for my footers. I wanted to go minimum of 30 x 30 x 30. I was a little apprehensive given all the ground water that was under that old wood floor. I was prepared to put in ANOTHER drainage system, especially considering how unusually wet we were last year. To my surprise, I never hit water. Finally, something went right. Dug down 30 inches on the East side of the door way. Removed bricks on the West side until I hit an old footer at about 2 feet. I don’t know how wide it is, because I didn’t care to excavate just out of curiosity. I was already tired of digging. Whatever it is, it is wider than 30 inches, so I figured it was plenty strong to hold the new footer. I drilled a few holes with a 5/8 masonry bit and hammered rebar in those holes to tie the two pieces of concrete together.
First two pics are of the East end of the door before digging, but after removing the slab.
The rest of the pics are of the holes, rebar and poured footers. I talked the local concrete guys into delivering 1.5 yards on New Years eve morning. Met the driver at 7:30 and were done pouring by 8. Its great when they can just back up the truck and start dumping. As you can see, I wet stabbed three ¾ x 16 anchor bolts for my bottom sill plate to bolt to.

At this point I am getting a little nervous. I haven't even ordered the door yet, it is New Year's day, there is a two week lead time on the door, and I am having major shoulder surgery on the 23rd.

Poured mini stem walls a couple days later and attached sill plates. I had to open up an area for my door header, but couldn't knock out the whole wall West of the door or critters (and thieves) would have free reign of the shop, and I already had a bunch of stuff in there.

I bought two 16 inch by 2 LVL timbers 20 foot long to build my header. A bit of overkill, bit I hate saggy buildings. Besides, my labor on this deal far exceeds the extra $180 bucks for going double.

In these pics you can see my sill plates are in place. On the West side of the door, I am still working around part of the existing wall that will come out. This way, I can still close up the shop during construction. The roll up door is going to be in the inside of the wall, and the old sliding door is on the outside, so they don't interfere with each other.

Pics.

The shaded part of the concrete will all get busted out and a new approach poured.

Before we started on the frame, I spent a good 4 hours tuck pointing that vertical wall. I would not be able to get to that mortar once the framing was up.

Next, I had to figure out how to get two 18 foot 16x2 LVLs up there. First, I put screwed a 2x8 to the bottom of the old header (well, as much as I could… that header did not extend all the way across; it came up short on the West end.

We were able to set the LVLs on top of the scissor lift, get them hoisted all the way up, then put jacks underneath to push them up tight. I secured them temporarily with some 10 inch timber screws from above, along with a few steel straps just to be sure they wouldn’t fall.

After securing a 2x6 on the bottom of the LVLs, I quickly used three floor jacks with temporary posts to get the header up really tight. We then started building the king studs on the sill plates. Four 2x8s is for sure over kill, but why not?

After the door way was framed out, I removed the temporary wall. Here it is framed up. Now I could take measurements and order the door.

You can see that the two outside vertical studs don’t to under the LVLs. The one on the left goes up to an existing steel beam. The one on the right goes up to the wood beam that is under the steel beam. I didn’t want to attempt taking that beam down, so made the decision that a 10 foot high door was good enough for me.

At the other end, in the storage area, I still have a 12 foot tall door, just in case I want something really tall in there.

Lynn,

You are an animal and I mean that in a good way! Keep up the good work and the updates. It keeps me and likely many others motivated.

Jason

Now it was time to tackle that broken down wall East of the door way. I had to build another temp wall to hold the roof up, so I could cut off the rotted parts of the studs, and rebuild the brick stem wall. No building codes in 1922 to speak of, so there were NO anchors in this wall holing the bottom sill plate in. Not that it would have mattered. After I cut the bottoms of the studs off with a sawzall and removed the bottom row of tin, we just broomed off the sill plate. It was dust.
My good buddy Joe did the masonry work for me. I am comfortable doing brick flower beds, and tuck pointing. This was more serious.
I already posted some of the before pics of this stem wall. Here are pics of the progress.

Joe is just a prince of a guy. He works full time as an OKC Police officer. I believe he is on 8 days straight and then off 6 (don't hold me to that... but seems about right). He used to do a ton of masonry work, but has tailed off. Much easier just doing private security detail these days. He isn't as old as me, but is starting to feel the results of manual labor. But, he definitely isn't a millenial either (Millenials think manual labor was a Spanish war hero).

We were in a rush to get this done before my door got here and before my surgery. The weather would not cooperate. We got half done, but he had no more days off. The next Sunday we were expecting above freezing temps again, and Joe, great guy that he is, took off work a half day to finish the job. Then he got mad at me for paying him too much. Deal with it buddy.

Anyway, I got the wall rebuilt. There was no way to install proper anchors in that brick wall, as we only tore off the top 3 or 4 courses, down to where it was solid. So, when I put the pressure treated sill plate on, I just screwed tapcons through the sill plate and into the brick, at least one screw between each set of studs, and sometimes two. I was a little nervous when the City inspector came out to inspect my framing. He liked my 3/4 inch anchors in the NEW stem wall, and then asked about anchors in the old. I told him the building was built in 1922, there was no requirement for anchors at the time, and because I wasn't doing new construction, I did not have to comply with modern building code. Fortunately, he agreed. he gave me a few things to do on the "honor" system before I covered up around the doof frame with OSB. Good thing, as it was the 21st. Surgery was scheduled for the 23rd. I still had to go pick up the door at the truck terminal.

Got the door picked up on the 21st. Left right after the inspector left. One of the projects the inspector gave me was to nail metal strapping from the sill plate all the way up over the door header. Had to run to the home center on Tuesday the 21st, and luckily they had what I was looking for.

Jan. 22. Started nailing the metal strapping. Fortunately, I got help from my brother and my good friend Greg, along with his wife Sherryl. Greg has a fork lift. No way I am getting that door up there without a fork lift. It weighs over 500 pounds. Greg planned on showing up at 2 with the fork lift. It was crunch time (and both of my shoulders were doing a lot of "crunching" by now... after all, there is no cartelage in either one).

My brother came over in the morning, and he and I started putting up the OSB on the inside frame around the door opening. Meanwhile Sherri is uncrating the door. I should have downloaded instructions so I could read them before hand. Oh well.

Just as we were getting the supports mounted to the header, Greg shows up with the fork lift. He is a magician. Got it right up there on the first try, centered perfectly. From there it is just a matter of bolting everything in place. Greg had the fork lift back on the trailer and was headed home in about an hour.

I still haven't put the weather stripping on, and still haven't removed that little bit of dilapidated wall on the West end of the door way. From the outside, you can't even tell I have a roll up door yet. Still have to take the old one off, and remove that wall. But, I am not going to do that until we have some good weather. Boy, was I ready for a few days off when I had my surgery... the next day.

Lynn

I thoroughly enjoy your updates and have huge respect for the preservation and restoration of an old building. I live in a house built in 1846 and know every inch of it and can tell multiple stories for hours about it. I always tell people it needed lots of TLC= “Tons of Lumber and Cash” and thousands of trips to Home Depot, hardware store, bank, chiropractor and ER and they have all been well worth it. I compare it often to the love of our vehicles!
Lynn- where did you get your building skills? Self taught?
Thanks for sharing and if I lived closer I would definitely be helping!

Thanks. Our home was built in 1902... as a Livery Stable. Always a challenge.

Mostly self taught. One of my brothers has been in construction his whole life, and he usually has answers when I am not sure.

Well, I see I haven't posted in forever.

Been too busy, but have taken some pics and will update soon.

Getting close to putting up siding on the North wall (other three walls are brick).

Lumber prices have gone through the roof. I was thinking of using Smartside, but being wood based composite, those prices are up as well. So now, Hardie planks are almost the same cost.

With the Hardie, you never have to worry about rot. The down side? Stuff is really hard on saw blades, and the dust is horrible. I will never work with it again without wearing a respirator.

So, if you had to put up 2400 sf of siding, which product would you choose?

Hardie - for the reasons you mentioned.

My house is Hardie and it’s 8 years old. I did all the trim in composite as well. house was built in 1846 and I didn’t want all the upkeep of lap. It has held up well structurally and the color will need repaint in a year or 2

Looking forward to further updates and pictures. It's quite a unique project.

We have Hardie Plank that we put up probably 28 years ago. Still holding up fine.

Nobody has Smartside? They have a 50 year warranty on the stuff, and it is a lot easier to work with. I won't be around, unless I live to 117. Sherri will put it on the market as soon as I croak.

Would sure like to hear from someone who has Smartside on their building.

.........and it looks killer!

Went with Hardie.

we need pics!

I know. I have been sleeping like 4 and 5 hours a nite lately. REALLY busy on three fronts, and that doesn't include time with family, which we always put first.

Holy Crap. I haven't posted pics since March!!! Slacker.

Well, can give you a short "update" from last spring. You have to understand that the day after we put up the 16 foot rollup door, I had complete reverse shoulder joint replacement on my left shoulder. So, for a while, not much was going on.

First couple of shots are from the North, showing the new door from the outside. You can see, there isn't much concrete in front of it. What was under it was actually pitched in toward the building. I had not planned on busting all of it out, but didn't want a lot of water intrusion, so I made the necessary cuts with that hellish concrete wet saw (easy for a young man to handle, I am certain; me... not so much), then busted it all out. Some of it was 12 inches thick. Thank God they didn't put rebar in it. I hit that first piece with a 10 pound sledge about 30 times before I got a crack. I know, sounding like a broken record, but it was thick.

Next pic shows where we poured the new approach. I have #5 rebar every 10 inches going two ways. Hope I never have to break this out!

Final few pics are of the short driveway. We poured it on a really hot day. It started setting up way too quickly, but we got it finished up OK. My helper is only 43 (my oldest son's age). He said of all the things I have taught him, concrete work is his least favorite.

Seems every time I load pics from my phone to the computer, the orientation is wrong.

Looks GREAT Lynn. Thanks for the update and hope your surgery went well!!!

It did. I am having the right shoulder done in Nov.

Here's the two pics flipped




Attachment 174728



Attachment 174729

Last pic was of the wet cement on the approach.

Here it is a few days later. You can see that I had started forming for the next segment. I wanted a sidewalk the entire length of this North wall. Because I opted to not put in a ramp between the upper (warehouse) area and the lower (workshop) area, I figured I might need to move an engine block or other heavy item from the warehouse to the work shop. So, a nice wide (54 inches) sidewalk was in order. Besides, this way, when it comes time to side, I figured I could just drive the scissor lift down the sidewalk.

Well, I fubared that one.

Let's try again.

Hopefully HERE is a pic of the approach after it dried; along with the framing for the first part of the sidewalk.