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After putting everything in front of my own needs and wants I'm finally going to build my shop. I poured the concrete slab in 2012, installed the lift this past Momorial Day.

The plan is to lay 2 courses of blocks around the parimeter and stick build the walls and add a metal roof. It will have 2 10 x 10 roll up door, a 36 inch walk through door and 2 3 x4 windows. I will add insulation and sheetrock after everything is wired and dried in.

To start things off I unloaded 200 hundred cinder blocks in 40 degree rain. I got a deal on 100 of them, FREE, so yes I will load and unload blocks in the rain. The reason for the blocks being 2 high at the is due to the past water level during Hurricane Michael. As things progress I'll post pictures and look forward to your comments and suggestions.

TIP: Drill the sill plate anchors before you lay the block wall...then fill that web as you build with mortar or concrete.

Looking forward to your build!

Mike B

I was the former inspector for the JERICHO CONSTRUCTION CO., so I’ll come over to certify the walls as safe and plumb. I always announce my arrival with a short musical number played by my small band of trumpet players. Since you live in a flood area, my brother Noah can help with timber framing if needed.

Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a Southern Bolter's gathering to help put this together.
Count me in!

I'm a big fan of concrete aprons. When your trying to move something on wheel dollies, or a floor jack for that matter, bricks or gravel can be a pain. With an apron, you can roll it far enough out of the shop for the tow guy to get to it. At my buddies desert shop, I always have to deal with a 4-6" drop from his shop door to desert sand. Makes it a pain to get things in and out of the door opening from the back of a pickup truck. I keep threatening to come by and make him a 10' concrete apron!

Gotta, gotta, gotta have an apron. I think my concrete cost as much as the shop did.
Pull the truck out and have a party inside the shop!

I have asphalt right up to to the slab. The transition is so close I can push a truck in and out by myself, did it today with project "Death Trap"
I got all my rebar today, going cut the lengths I need tomorrow. I'm building the shop on the cheap, not that I'm cutting corners I'm just doing to myself and paying for it as I go. I would love to have an old fashioned barn raising but that would require me to have all the materials on hand and that's just not in the budget. The shop is going to be built in stages, walls, trusses and roofing. I will close in the sides once the roof is on.

Great! We’ll just drop in every now and then to tell you what isn’t right. You know, just enough criticism to cause minor regret but not ruin the whole project.

One thing I did that I was happy with, was my garage has 10' 2X6 walls and I put 1/2 plywood on the lower 8 feet with the top 2 feet dry wall. You can mount things on the walls so much easier. I also splurged and put radiant floor heating in, but I live in Canada so it can get cold and damp on the west coast. The shop is only 24 X 36, but the city made me get it engineered for an extra couple of thousand. Dang that hurt. It has 7" of concrete on the floor, and the first two feet of the entrance has 24". Don't ask me, that was the engineers idea. Good luck when it ever comes time to tear that down.

Craig, I'm excited for you. I've built a garage at every place I've lived (4 total). I can't imagine not having a place inside out of the weather to work and play.

Keep us informed on your progress.

John

I excited too, anything will beat what I'm working out of currently. I out grew my work shed years ago. We all know how life gets in the way but now I'm going to finally take the time to build something for me.

I like your idea using 2 coarses of concrete blocks and framing up from there. One suggestion I would make is to rod and fill all the blocks with rebar and concrete in addition to your required anchor bolts before framing. In the past, I've always done it (rod and filled) on the most important wall (in my mind) but in every case it would've been a better had I filled them all.

John

Although on second thought, the ground freezes here and it might just be over kill in your area.

John

John, I had already thought about that. We may not have frozen ground but we have Hurricanes, I want to have a solid base.
I was just laying out where to place the rebar. I plan to set the rebar 4 inches and epoxy them in. I will have 12 inches in the lock to fill with concrete. I discussed the layout with Alvin and the was one of his suggestions.
I have a few questions, should I set the blocks back from the edge or flush with it. I shouldn't need to run rebar horizontal with the course should I?

I would set the blocks flush with the edge of your concrete pad. That way when water runs down it will go right past and not have a chance to work through any cracks or crevices that may show up over time.

I've only run rebar horizontally in block one time and that's because the block wall is also serving as a retaining wall (holding back about 48" of dirt) due to the slope of the grade. In that case I had two coarses that utilized a v-shaped block filled with rebar and concrete. I believe it was called a bond-beam or something like that.

Unless you will have side pressure against the block I don't think it's necessary.

John

I built a foundation for a greenhouse and use the blocks with open ends (U-shaped cross section) for the top course and laid a horizontal rebar in there before filling the cores with concrete. That would tie everything together on your foundation. If you're talking rebar drilled in every 4 inches along the wall, that's way overkill, or I'm misunderstanding what you said about that. If you already have blocks with solid ends, if you're careful, you can knock the webs out to give space for a horizontal run of rebar. If you tie the horizontal rebar to the verticals, that will make it pretty much hurricane proof (I welded them together, which was probably overkill, too.)
I would set the blocks flush with the edge. That prevents rain from puddling on the slab at the outer edge if they were set back.

Concrete block will make it nice for the inside. When you do the 5 year cleaning (10 year?), scrub the floor with a degreaser and hose the place out. You won't have to worry about wood or drywall getting soaked.

I meant setting the rebar 4 inches into the slab. I have the rebar spaced at 16" around the parameter and will fill each core with concrete before setting the J bolts for the sill plates.
I think setting the blocks flush with edge makes sense for drainage. I don't think a horizontal rebar will be necessary.

Speaking as a former USCG architectural technician, I would recommend that when you've finished the CMU work and have allowed the mortar to cure, be sure to seal the outside of the CMUs with a concrete sealer. If you don't, over time you will see the salt from the concrete (that the blocks are made of) and the mortar driven to the inside and crystalizing on the surface. This is called "efflorescence." This is the same preventative step that should be taken when a basement is constructed. Putting a sealer on the inside surface after the fact is useless. The efflorescence will build up under the sealer and force it off. This was a constant problem in the light house towers that had failing outer protective coatings (usually thick paint), and much newer brick buildings (boat haul-out structures and such) that I dealt with.

I put an epoxy coating on my floor AFTER the building was up. I went with a medium gray and left the speckle flakes out of the epoxy. In my opinion, searching for a small screw or washer etc would be MUCH more difficult if the floor was speckled.

Link to video.

You may consider the wire mesh they use between the horizontal joints. You only have two block high so it may not be necessary.

Today I got all the rebar cut to length. I marked the lay out for drilling the concrete to set the rebar. I spent a minute or two on the phone with Alvin, picking his brain.
Brian, what type of coating would you recommend? Phil, I not sure I'm going to add anything other than the rebar as it's only 2 courses,

Will there be pizza and beer at this barn raising? Is Yuenglings available there? I'm just checking my schedule and need to know.

There are lots of exotic sealers on the market, but honestly you could use something from your local hardware store. I would recommend the product be a water based Silane product. I did a quick search and came up with this option:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/VITAL-C...er-and-Water-Repellent-VCX4405/314241631

These kinds of products are the simplest to use since you can spray them on with a basic garden-type sprayer. You don't have to mask off anything, like if you were using one of the latex paint style products.

Hope that helps.

I made some progress on the rebar today. I set the rebar into slab 4 inches with epoxy. Once the epoxy has a chance to cure I will start settling the corner blocks.
I bought a Bosch SDS Hammer Drill from a pawnshop this week, using this to drill the holes for the rebar was like butter. I had priced a new Hammer Drill ($300.00 - $400.00) I thought I got a good price on this used one at $120.00, even had the case and a few bits.

I have finally gotten the first course of locks set. Seems that there is a shortage of people willing to take my money for work. I had my nephew jump in on the project but he didn't seem up to the task, he had worked in construction but not with masonry

I was tired of waiting for someone else to call and decided to take care of it myself. I'm not afraid of a challenge but really didn't want .y first attempt at laying blocks to be something I would look at for the rest of my life. I started on the back wall and just worked wat way around. The hardest part for me was trying to get the mixture to the right consistency, that's a trade secret I guess.

Once I set the second course I will fill the voids with concrete and set the "J" bolts for the walls.

You should have called me! I was the “chief block layer” for the Jericho Construction Company. Haha! (That’s an old one from the TV show Get Smart.)

I would love to build a shop/garage but I don't have the room. Municipal rules say that only a certain percentage of your property can be used for additional buildings. I have a garage built in 1934 into which my truck fits like a glove - literally. Can only open one truck door and cannot walk around the truck if the overhead is down.
I still have about 5% room available which means I could widen the garage by 4 feet but not worth the cost. However I am glad that at least I have a garage to house my truck.

An update on some of my progress. I have 2 courses of block set around 3/4 of the perimeter, I still need to fill most of the blocks but have completed one section.

I will leave one side wall for last, I need to move the shed I currently working out of prior to finishing that area. The an is to frame the walls and add the trusses and metal roofing so I will have a covered area to down load the shed. I'm handling everything twice but it seems the best option as I can't move the shed while it's loaded.

Looking good! Have you done a cost comparison between doing it all in block vs wood framing? With todays lumber costs block might be cheaper and it doesn't need siding...

Mike B

Mike B, I know the price of lumber is sky high but blocks aren't cheap either. I don't have the skill set to build a12 ft block wall, I can handle framing.

I have worked in both block buildings and steel , I prefer being able to mount plumping or electric without running conduit or boring holes through concrete blocks.

Bought a load of lumber this week, this should get most of my framing done. I tried to purchase lengths that would give me the least waste. I also worked on laying out the sill plates.

Going forward I'll post the actual total of the materials, the lumber was $1038.20.

Yikes! Probably why I haven't bought the lumber yet to replace my fences!

Up here in northern NH? lumber prices, concrete and roofing, siding, misc. supplies are up 60-100% plus from two plus years ago before the pandemic. Designed a shop addition to stick frame and decided to hold off. For the same price two years ago - the size of the building would have been 50% larger than the same price paid today. Ugggh! Inflation - recession, material shortages, supply chain issues, deliveries,....it hurts hard in the back pocket where my wallet remains.

I have a section in the yard of 8 foot high piles of stacked pine I logged and milled and several piles of stacked pine beams...was going to save these for another day - but seeing that prices are so high now - I may end up timber framing and using up these materials than buying dimension lumber. My timber framing skills are basic - so I need to take another class to do that. Might as well use up what's on hand than buying at inflated prices.

Keep sharing your shop project. Its helpful to see how and what you are doing and helping me think that maybe I should tackle the foundation myself too. NIce work!

This is the cost associated with this project so far: $5797.06

I originally poured the slab, 28' x 40', in 2012: $4200.00

Concrete blocks: $277.00 (200)
Concrete Mix 80 Lbs. bags : $198.69 (22)
Hardware (rebar, J-bolts, deck screws): $83.17
Lumber ( 60-2"x4"x12'
8-2"x4"x16'
4-2"x6"x16'
8-2"x8"x16') : $1038.20

I had 10 80 Lbs. bags of Type "S" mortar donated to me by a friend

Keep that lumber strapped together while it’s sitting there or you may end up with pieces that get too twisted to use. Lookin good!

And keep it out of the sun so it dries evenly...

Mike B

And cover it with a loose tarp

All of the lumber is pressure treated, the lumber yard had it bundled out in the yard. I have it tarped and set along the side of the house in the shade.

I'm going to use deck screws to assemble everything, I don't have a nail gun and honestly prefer the holding power of screws. I don't claim to be a professional carpenter but learned a lot from my Dad and Grandpa, both were great at building anything. I did all the drawings for the permits, just hope it looks as good when it's done.

Nail guns are cheap considering how much time you save. You'd be surprised the holding power of those nails.

John