This is going to be different. I'll let the pictures do the talking. I'm still in the "foundation" phase. These blocks sit on a foot of gravel. Cheap concrete, I got a tt load (20 blocks) delivered for $1248. They'll make sense later on in the story. Of course I hit a layer of course sand that was full of ground water. That was about 180' of unplanned ditching. Fortunately I could "daylight" each end of the drain tile. To be continued...
I'm getting close with the concrete forms. I'm pouring a "cap" 12" thick across the top of the blocks. 1 to level the building surface, and 2- to accommodate the post brackets that will get pushed into the wet 'Crete. These are the brackets I made up. Half of the concrete will be below finished grade as I wanted a little more height in elevation and a tight (as possible) crusher run inside "floor". Concrete would be nice for clean up, but it's not something I like to stand on for longer periods of time. It's possible to add it later if I change my mind. It will have 3 large openings, each end wall and the south wall. All about 18' and I'm making provisions in this cap to allow for a rolling door for all 3, again probably in the future. The north wall is solid, that's where our weather comes from mostly, and the grade falls off into the woods. The oddball part of this building will be the roof framing, I ran into a deal for 11 "bar joists" @ 37'4" long. These are what you see when you look up at home depot or lowes and are generally used for flat (or almost) roofs, but I want a pitched roof to have a chance of shedding snow. Then I ran into a bunch (close to 30) of posts (8x8x20') for free, free is my middle name . So I'm putting a post under each joist, progressively getting taller until I get to the middle, then work my way back down. At 4' 1 5/8" spacing I'll end up with a 41' 4" by 37' 4" (framing) building and currently thinking of a 3/12 pitch to keep the overall height down, but I'd be happier with a 4. Probably make my mind up when the posts start talking shape.
As you can see, I'll need to resaw some of these posts. They've are under a huge and heavy sheet of rubber and when I get to that stage I'll assess them. A slight twist should be fine for the shorter posts, but will become a problem with the taller (like 17' iirc) posts. Then there's a big door opening that I need to figure out a beam or truss to span the 18' opening.
I wish I had the room for a building like that my whole place is a hill and I had to squeeze my mill shed in Yours looks like it is a big project I will be watching JB
Yeah JB, it's one thing to look at or walk across a "slope" and thinking this isn't too bad and another to make a decent sized building pad on it. Then there's dealing with the up hill drainage.
Looks really nice. Glad you beat the storms- my commute was a bit wild. Will you be doing ‘x’ bracing with cables? (Seeing the rebar loops) Did you design in some overhead lift points, or not necessary with your equipment (and shop)? I’m liking your deadmen, bracing the forms. I watched a video of a big barn build where they used a number of large blocks to hold things down and to pull against as they trued it up. Lots of questions- no need to answer now - I’m happy to just go along for the ride and learn as you get to those steps.
Yes, for diagonal bracing or adjusting the framing. I usually like to brace walls with wood but am unsure with my unusual design (based on my material scrounging) how the roof of the building will "tighten up" using the bar joists and they are not running from the eave to the ridge like....everything else These will go across with each post getting longer up to the ridge and back down. That's why there's so many post bases, there 4' apart!
