Building a Shop - Vehicle Egress

Today, I finish the gravel work and move cars into the shop/barn/garage. I should point out that where the last post ended was where I took some time off from the work and went to Seattle for the weekend. We visited the zoo and went to my grand-niece's first birthday party. Very fun. With Labor Day well behind us, Pacific Northwesterners know that we are now in the short days before the seasonal rains return for the duration. With this is mind, I have been spending whatever energy and muscles I can on getting the broken cars moved into shop before it hits. We have been experiencing overnight lows in the upper 40's and gloomy clouds every day. Some nights have brought rains, giving us all a strong prod to finish out outdoor projects. This past week, we have had rain every day, so I am very glad I was able to get this work done in time.

 

Picking Stones

egress complete

The north east corner of the building is over a foot above the ground and the earth slowly climbs nearly 6 inches moving westward to the northwest corner. If you look at the picture at the top of my last post, you can see how significant the drop is. Since this is where the big doorway is and where cars and trucks will come and go, a 7 to 12+ inch lip is more than most cars and trucks can manage. So, I need a smooth egress. To describe the intended pitch of the ramp, I laid a 10 foot long 2" pipe pointing north from the north east corner (you can see it in the pictures). We had a small pile of rock-wall rocks intended for the storm outfall, so over the course of a day and a half, I moved all of them over to the north edge of the garage/barn/shop. Yes, I know. I need to settle on what I'm calling it. It looks like a barn to me, but it's going to be my shop, so we'll call it a "shop" for now. Anyway, a bunch of big rocks really only showed me how much more I was going to need.

 

Boo went to a couple of rock places on the west side, but no one had softball to volleyball sized crushed stone. The few sources we could find had larger crushed rock for a very high price (pushing $1k for a couple yards). It was the wrong size and way wrong price, tho. So, I hit craigslist and found a guy giving away broken up concrete from a patio demo. Well, the concrete guys used broken up concrete under the concrete they poured and the inspector really liked it. So, if it's good enough for a foundation for a building that's getting inspected, it is good enough to go under a gravel drive up to the shop.

 

before broken concrete

Boo and I drove over to Saint Johns the day the bridge was closed for an over-turned truck (just lucky, I guess) and proceeded to overfill the truck weight-wise with broken up concrete. I had been checking the squat of the truck with my foot, shoving it between the top of the rear tire and the wheel well, and it was fine until the last barrow of concrete. We did not realize how bad it was until we could see the tire nearly pancaked and the truck mostly riding on the bump-stops. Yes, I know this is not good for the long-term health of a suspension; I'll not do this again. We decided we had all day to get home, rolled over to the 76 station around the corner and aired up the tires to 45 pounds (tire listed max is 51). This moved the rims up off the sidewalls and the sidewalls up off the ground as well. Because the bridge was out, traffic getting across the river was a mess anyway, so we were not slowing anyone down. We took our time, but found that the bumps in the road became unnoticeable above 20mph, so I kept our speed just above that as much as I could.

 

Stacking and Shifting 

Once home, Boo flagged me all the way back down the lane-way so the truck's rear bumper was nearly where the concrete bits needed to go. I spent a couple hours moving concrete from the truck bed to the egress, stacking some, wedging others so there was the beginnings of an angle from the dirt to the shop entryway. The picture below right shows what I mean.

 

with broken concrete

Once the broken concrete was gone, Boo headed out to get another 1/2 yard of gravel dumped into the truck bed. I gave my self a break from moving the gravel and instead set the line for where the driveway would be and where it would not be. I marked it with some logs, pointing mostly north from the edge of the step where it meets the big garage doorway. To add clarity, I moved a bunch of foundation digging spill (read: dirt and rocks) from the eastern elevation around to the front of the step. The picture at the top kind of shows the effect: the step will disappear into just a gravel landing with it's north exposure being dirt, wood chips or grass. We have not decided on which yet. With some clarity to the driveway edge, I could return to moving the 3/4=1-1/2 drainage gravel, this time on top of the concrete pieces. Before I got very far, Boo returned. We backed the truck all the way back and I spread that gravel on top of the concrete bits before spreading the last of the original drainage gravel I had piled closer to the house.

 

after much gravel

But we still need more. So Boo went to Cedar Mill Gravel and got another load and then another and another until we had a smooth egress from the northern-most french drain to the edge of the shop. Ordinarily, one would rent a compacter and really bang that gravel down so it was super-firm. I had told Clean Water Services that I was not going to have a compacted gravel driveway. They indicated that to them a compacted driveway was considered "impermeable" and would count against my total "paved area" of my property. Since I was already near the limits, we will go with not-machine-compacted gravel. Instead, I firmed it up by cycling between some hand-packing and light watering. During the multiple moves of the ToyoTruck, I noticed that the tire marks were still noticeable, but the truck did not lose any traction. We will see how well this works for cars, or cars hauled by garden tractor soon enough.Water does not pool at all, though, filtering straight through. So, to me, that's permeable, meeting the expectation set with Clean Water Services.

 

Foundation Details

When I had the foundation done, I planned for a few things ahead of time. I know that one day I will want a loft, for example, for storing larger items like bumpers, fenders, seats, etc. So, I had footings dug down prior to the pour so I have them ready for supporting posts. I also planned for a scissoring lift that would disappear into the floor when not in use. Yeah, that sounds really fancy, but when I looked into 2- or 4-post lifts, they are where they are, taking up space all the time, whether in use or not. I really don't expect to use the lift all that often, and certainly don't expect to leave a car suspended for long periods of time (Yeah, we will probably laugh about this assumption later), so why would I want the lift footprint to always be present? I intend to get an Amgo XL-9F, but the cost of this shop already has given me pause and that lift is another $5kUS (or more) today. I don't have that kind of money these days. With the way the economy, inflation and tariffs are going, I frankly don't know when I will. Still, I had the foundation prepared for a lift install. So, I have 2 large rectangular holes in the concrete ready for a lift, one of which you can see in this picture on the right.

 

I need to do more than simply "cover" the holes, though. The purpose of the hidden lift is that I can drive anywhere in the shop. In other words, I can drive over the top of the lift like there isn't one there when it is not in use. So, I need to be able to drive over the holes while I save up for the lift. I located the lift such that there would be just enough space to get a car around it on either side when it is in use. So, I could technically drive a car up and into the shop and not have to drive where the lift would be, but I would rather not have the standing risk of driving into a big hole.

Cap the Lift Holes

I had a large collection of drainage pieces to return to Home Despot anyway, so I headed there for lumber to build covers for the holes. The amount I got back for the drainage stuff almost completely covered the cost of the lumber, and it would have completely covered it if we hadn't cut one of the pieces wrong, forcing the purchase of another $50US sheet of outdoor grade 1/2" plywood. I had the Home Despot folks cut the sheets so I knew the cuts were straight, and so the chemicals in the "outdoor grade" didn't prematurely wear down my circular saw blade. I have all the scrap from the cuts so we have the start of some outdoor counters or something.

 

Once back in the shop, the assembly was fairly easy. I set the 2x6 boards down into the extended runs on either side and set a piece of plywood on top. Drilled a few holes, sent through some fasteners and repeated for the other hole. Just like that, the shop floor is effectively whole and flat-ish. I do NOT believe the outdoor grade 1/2" plywood resting on top of 2x6 outdoor grade lumber less than 2 feet apart will be able to support a car passing over it. I thought about adding cross supports, etc, but ultimately, I was just very careful about moving cars around the holes. At this point, they will be effective in preventing persons and dogs from accidentally falling into the holes, but nothing heavier than, say, a 200#. If I get a wild hair, I may add some cross supports to extend their use a little bit.

Moving Cars

Zed and Oliver home'd

With the shop ready enough for storing vehicles, I took last Friday (26-Sep) off work and started moving cars which have not moved in a while, starting with Zed, the 1978 Datsun 280ZX. He hasn't moved since I moved him here in November of 2022 (See Zed Moves), so I dealt with things like locked-up wheels, a dead battery, etc. Ultimately, I was unable to get him to start nor easily roll. The engine turned, but did not catch. I think it is a fuel delivery issue. I jacked up and verified that each wheel could turn freely so I snatched him from behind with the ToyoTruck and a trucker's chain. Once I got him out of the sunken holes his tires had been in, I was able to roll him down the slight slope to the lane-way. About this time I took a break and moved the stacks of tires I had stored under tire covers near the cars, moving them into the southeast corner of the shop. Returning to Zed, I moved the truckers chain to the lawn tractor and, with Boo behind Zed's steering wheel, we hauled him to the edge of the gravel where the tractor lost traction. We switched back to ToyoTruck,hauling Zed up the gravel drive into the shop, and sending the truck just out the opening at the far south end. We eventually got ToyoTruck out through some creative Tetris and then pushed Zed into the far southeast corner, lightly touching the stacks of tires. With the one car in place, and taking almost the entire day to get there, I hoped the others would be easier.

 

Oliver (1978 MGB) started and moved around last Fall (See MGB Carb Circle Back), so I had higher expectations for him. I slapped the battery charger on him before calling it a day. The next morning (Saturday), I was unable to get him started. There was plenty of charge and even with fresh gas in the tank, the fuel pump didn't change tone. I applied vacuum to the fuel line at the carb to get fuel up to it, but it still would not start. Again, the pump didn't change tone so I think the pump may be faulty, failing to deliver the pressure needed for the carb. Regardless, I was not going to fix Oliver, I needed to move him. So, again with Boo behind the wheel, we pushed him down into the lane-way and again hauled him to the edge of the gravel with the lawn tractor. This time, we did not use the ToyoTruck to haul him up the driveway. Instead, I used a come-along. Earlier in the week, I had looked at buying a winch at Harbor Freight and by mid-day Saturday I started regretting not buying one. With the come-along, I could move Oliver 4 feet at a time before chocking a wheel, resetting the cables and moving another 4 feet. His final spot is the northeast corner, near the big door opening. With the tires in front of Zed, Oliver just barely stuck out of the west end of the shop. So, I moved the tires over by the southwest corner and shoved Zed and Oliver the extra meter south. By now, it was early afternoon so Boo and I grabbed lunch and made the decision to keep pressing forward rather than punt on moving Nina to Sunday.

 

Nina (1965 VW Beetle) has a stuck engine so I already expected to have to haul her. Of the 3, she was the lightest, and we followed the same pattern: Boo and I pushed her into the lane-way, Boo behind the wheel, me on the lawn tractor, we hauled Nina to the edge of the gravel. Then, she was come-along'd into the shop. Once on the concrete, she was an easy slide next to Zed. While Nina is our newest acquisition, both Boo and I are really enamored with her. We are both very much looking forward to getting her working again. The rain did not appear on Sunday, so Boo and I did all the yard-related work we needed to do before the rains arrived.

 

---

 

Monday, the rains started and it has been intermittent rain ever since. The weatherpersons indicate that the rains are supposed to end by the end of the week with clear weather returning for almost a week. At this time of year, that's fairly rare but I'll take it. I still have gutters to clean and Hapy to move. I have been monitoring the ground around the shop and there is absolutely no standing water anywhere.I will accept that as positive news about the quality of my french drain install. If nothing else, I can recognize that no water is impacting my neighbors from my shop install, and ultimately, that's what most concerns Clean Water Services. Regardless, I am greatly looking forward to solving the various won't run issues on Oliver and Zed, but Hapy is first. I very much want to have him whole and driving again.

Thanks, as always, for following along-