Building a Shop - Steel Building Erected

First, my apologies for how infrequent my posts have been. The team I work on lost a team member to a promotion and the replacement has not been very successful. As a result, I have been doing the job of 2 people since the start of the year. This removed pretty much all of my slack time at work so lots of things have fallen by the wayside. Take, for example, Hapy, the 1972 VW Camperbus sitting in my driveway. The transaxle is still out, the engine is still on the ground and he has been that way for weeks. Anyway, this is where we are.

 

Oregon Carports

I will start with a call out to the fine folks who I worked with to get the building in the first place. From start-to finish, everyone connected with Oregon Carports and their parent company US Steel Buildings were great to work with. All communications were prompt, email did not sit unanswered for more than a couple of hours and honestly they spent more time waiting for me than I did for them. We arranged build-day around their other jobs, but the crew arrived within 15 minutes of our intended start time (early afternoon 15-July) even though they were driving from California. A 3 person crew arrived in a crew cab truck hauling a long trailer. They backed into the lane-way along the eastern fence and immediately got after it.

 

We had our fair share of hot days this Summer and this stretch of days was no exception. By 5PM it was over 100*F (38*C), but they were not relenting. I supplied them with ice and water from the fridge and encouraged them to not push too hard. They pushed hard anyway. They left around 7PM and were back the following morning by 7AM. They pushed through and completed the building by dark on the 16th. They did not want to spend another night at a hotel in Oregon and instead pushed towards home when they were done.

 

facing North from inside

In transparency, we did a complete walk-through and before I could spot things, the job lead was pointing things out to his crew to resolve. We had originally designed the building to have a person-door on the front, but when they were doing the work I didn't like the design. So, after a quick call with Oregon Carports, the door was removed, my invoice adjusted and we moved on. Very easy.

 

Rain Water Management

With the building in place, my next challenge was around managing storm water when the rains inevitably return. I had received a coupon for those gutters you don't need to clean, so I had them come over and sell me. To my surprise, they could not design a gutter system that would work. It turns out that the design of the building, or should I say the design of the steel framing of the building does not leave anything near the roof line to attach a gutter that could have any kind of warranty. Sure, they could slap some gutters up there, but if ice forms, or if there is a heavy downpour filling the gutters, there was not enough strength behind the soffits to support and the gutters would fail... and then fall. So.. I needed a new plan.

 

Building Final Inspection

trenching

While musing over the gutters, I thought we were ready to have a final inspection and be done with the county. I was mistaken. I scheduled the inspection and while the building construction passed, he could not pass the job as final. The building did not have any doors, and had large openings where they would eventually go. I explained that we plan to have doors, but everything is so expensive lately, those plans are on hold for a while. He indicated that the building needs doors and the people door on the north face will need a landing or step since the building was a little over 7 inches above grade at that point. He assured me that once the doors were on, final inspection would be a quick confirmation. Meanwhile, the permit stays active and open without penalty. The reasoning around the doors is that the building has certain specs around wind resistance and those numbers do not hold up when it lacks doors / is not sealed. The inspector had no interest in gutters. They were never on the plan, and the plan was approved without them, so that tracks. It just seemed odd.

  

Trenching

I figured that if I could not catch the rain at the roof's edge with a gutter system, I would dig trenches along the eastern and western sides of the building, and install french drains to manage it. That sentence took about 15 seconds to type and the better part of 3 weeks to execute. I started with taking lots of measurements to determine how deep I would need to go, and made 2 sets of plans. Plan 1 was to route the water from the eastern and western edges back to the rear of the building and then into a storm outflow I had dug out when the foundation was done. This plan would have required the southwest corner to be dug down nearly 2 feet to account for the ground pitching from southwest to northeast.

installing pipe

Plan 2 was to dig the trenches towards the front of the building, cut across the future vehicle egress and into an abandoned well on the property about 40 feet away from the northern edge of the building. While this plan involved more linear feet of trench and more pipe, the trenches would not need to be nearly as deep, digging down no more than 9 inches from end to end. I decided plan 2 made more sense, and proceeded to trench 30 feet along each side, 24 feet across the northern edge and then another 40 feet from the north east corner diagonally across the future driveway to the abandoned well.

 

Drain Pipe 

Into these trenches, I laid french drainpipe wrapped with filter sock. The trenches along the sides of the building got the less expensive flexible pipe. These pipes cannot withstand much weight, but being right along the building, I would not expect them to. Across the northern front of the building and across the driveway, I used the hard pipe which is designed to handle considerably more weight. Still, these pipes were 6 inches below grade, so weight would be somewhat distributed. The last 20 feet between the driveway and the well, I used flexible standard pipe (not french drain) as this passed through a garden area. Practically all of the rest of the pipe was french drain wrapped in filter sock. I added a drain clean out in the northeast corner.

 

Grading and Graveling 

graveling

With the pipe down, I could see that there were some spots along the building where water could slip past the pipe and run away from the drainage system. To remedy, I used fill dirt from the foundation dig to build up the downhill areas from the drain pipes. As I layered in silty clay, I watered it in so it would not wash away during the first rain (it didn't). Satisfied, I ordered 4 yards of 3/4=1-1/4 drainage gravel delivered into the laneway, about 75 feet from the building. With a shovel and a wheelbarrow, I filled the building-adjacent trenches and the small valleys I dug along the trenches, creating a gravel stripe about half a meter wide.

 

One Small Step

steppin up

With the trenches done and filled in at least as far as the front of the building, I started after the step or landing that the inspector required. I looked up the code and the step needed to be at least 1 meter square (width of the door, square). I decided to make it bigger, running from the corner of the building to the edge of where the driveway egress would start, and then make it the required 3 feet deep. I used some outdoor grade 1 by 8 we had lying around with a couple of 2 by 4's for corner re-enforcement and drove it into the ground. After checking level and stuffing some rocks underneath to hold it level, I put a layer of melon-sized rock on the bottom and filled it with some of the drainage gravel I had.

 

---

 

This is getting long, so I'll stop here. I will say that the work on shop/barn/building/garage has been my sole focus this summer. So, almost no car work has happened at all after the grand dismantling of Hapy over Independence Day weekend. I did spend a different weekend replacing the oil pan in my niece's Jetta TDI after she drove over a tree stump, but that's just being an uncle. It took a weekend because I had to go get the car from the middle of the woods where it was left, drained of oil, so yeah, it actually took a weekend. I will go into more detail on Hapy's flywheel replacement effort once it reaches a Hapy conclusion.

 

Thanks, as always, for following along. 

Building a Shop - 106 Inspections and Concrete

Has it really only been a week? Between the daily news feeds, routines, managing brush and this construction project, days really just zip by. Today (24-June-2025), we got the concrete poured, but we had some inspection adventures along the way.

  

Inspection One

I brushed on the finishing of the rebar in my last post. The guys completed the work on Monday, June 16. In between were a few partial days around other projects to get the rebar set up and to dig out the trench and set in the PVC pipe for the lift controls. Feeling we were ready, I scheduled an inspection for Wednesday, June 18. Since this was the day before a US holiday (Juneteenth), my scheduled inspection was met with multiple other projects trying to get their inspections done before the weekend AND multiple inspectors deciding to call off, extending their respective weekends by another day. The result? The inspector was pissed before he got there, which is never a good set up for an easy inspection. We did not pass for 4 reasons:

1. rebar lying directly on the compacted gravel, not physically suspended 2" above
2. overlaps of rebar were not a minimum of 20"
3. rebar in footings supported by rebar driven directly into the ground 
4. type of PVC used (white, not grey) for the controls is not rated as electrical conduit

The rebar lying on the compacted gravel, while a fair observation, may not have been entirely fair. I have learned that it is a fairly common practice to lift the rebar as the concrete is poured. I am sure the inspector was right to point it out, remaining within the letter of the regulations. Ultimately, I want / need a floor that will not fail, so now that I've bashed him for not being fair, I'm good with it. I mean, even if the concrete pour-er does lift the rebar as they go, how do they decide how high and keep it relatively consistent? And then, when the concrete is super wet, what is to stop it from floating back down to the bottom anyway? So.. physically suspended makes sense.

Once the inspector explained that the overlap is what creates the strength at the transitions, I understood the 20" minimum overlap. This is especially important in the footings which will be supporting the weight of the building. Then, there's the rebar driven straight into the ground. The inspector felt that this would encourage premature rusting of the rebar as water would be in direct contact with the rebar beneath the concrete and rust would then leach up into the rebar within the concrete, eroding it's strength.

 

The last item about the PVC was 100% my fault. I watched numerous videos by homeowners installing their own lift in their existing garage floor and they used basic white PVC. The PVC is intended to house the hydraulic hoses for the lift plus the low voltage emergency shut off. Because the shotoff is electric, the PVC has to be rated for electrical conduit, which the white PVC is not. So, Wednesday night, I ran off to HomeDepot and got about 7 meters (20 feet) of 2" grey PVC conduit and a corresponding grey 90* bend.

 

Solving For Inspection One

wrong copper wire on left

On the afternoon of Juneteenth, Vai and his crew arrived, dressed for a barbecue, carrying bags of little concrete blocks. While a couple of his guys dug out the white pvc (under and around the rebar) and installed the grey, the other guys were removing the vertical supports and suspending the rebar on top of the little concrete blocks. In less than an hour, they had resolved all of the things that the inspector identified and then left for their family barbecue.

 

One last item that the inspector wrote down, but did not fail me for, was a suggestion to install an "Ufer". The inspector recognized that since I had something that required an electrical conduit, at some point I would need a good electrical ground. While an Ufer is becoming more common, most electrical installations are grounded with two 2 meters long grounding bars driven into the ground 10 feet or more from each other. An Ufer uses the rebar in the foundation as a ground and is an accepted grounding practice, provided the Ufer is tied into the foundation rebar at at least 3 points and the segment tied to the foundation rebar is at least 12 inches long. When I was getting the grey PVC, I got a 2 meter section of thick copper grounding wire for this purpose. I later discovered this was the wrong material.

 

Inspection Two

west footing cleared

I scheduled a follow-up inspection for Friday, June 20th and we had the same inspector we entertained on Wednesday. He knew exactly what he was looking for, so he went straight to the trouble spots. Rebar suspended above the gravel? Check. Overlaps at least 20 inches? Check. No rebar driven into the ground? Check. Grey PVC? Check. Ufer? Not quite. The inspector indicated that the Ufer needs to be rebar and that the grounding wire from the panel to the Ufer is the material that I was using. Doh! Kindly, he indicated that if I did the replacement with rebar and sent him a picture, we would get the approval for the grounding Ufer. He also pointed out that we had too much dirt in the bottom of the western footing. Again, he said if I fixed it and sent a picture of it cleared, we would get approved.

 

I found a section of rebar in the construction rubbish that had a 90* bend in it, was 14 inches long to one side of the bend and about 4 inches on the other. Basically, it was perfect for this purpose, so I tied it into the foundation rebar at 4 points, pointing the short end straight up, about 18" south of the northeast corner of the foundation. So no one tripped over it, I spray-painted it orange. Last, with a hand-held digger and a plastic cup, I cleared the western footing of debris. I sent pictures of these things (along the right side, here), and we got approved.

Concrete Pour

orange Ufer

With the approval in hand, we looked at calendars and weather projections. We wanted to pour on Friday, but we had a strong feeling (that was warranted) that we were going to get hit by rain. It rained on and off all day and the here and there all weekend, so we were right to delay.. to Tuesday, June 24th. The concrete pump arrived at 8, Vai's crew appeared shortly thereafter and the concrete truck arrived around 930. Vai's crew wanted to confirm the placement of the lift forms and they firmed them up with some cross-bracing against the exterior forms so they would not move during the pour. Then, they solved for what I had been referring to as "the wings" on the lift forms. In the drawing, there are 2" wide by 4-1/2" deep by 9" long channels that jut out from the front and rear of the main lift recess. These are for the supports for the ends of the lift when it is all the way down. Frankly, they look like tripping or tool-losing hazards for when the lift is up, so I may create some fills for when the lift is up. To create the 8 recesses, we combined a 2x6 (actual size 1-1/2 by 5-1/2) to an old fence board (3/4 by 5-1/2), cut into 9" sections and then rough-screwed onto the forms. While the wood bits are slightly wider and deeper than required, I felt that was a better situation for the arms to descend into than slots which were either too narrow or too short. If it becomes a thing, I will solve for it then.

 

gettin after it

Once the forms were ready, they started pumping concrete and in about an hour the footings, and floor were poured. I went out to pay the concrete truck and Vai's guys were finishing the last of the floor with barrows of concrete. Somewhere along the way, one of his guys rotated the Ufer into the concrete, so we fished that out. While it's no longer orange.. it's more concrete color.. I am glad I asked about it. This serves as a reminder to check everything as you go. While they are the experts, you ultimately own it. Government inspection is to make sure no one gets hurt and it's structurally sound. Any small error that doesn't get into inspection territory is yours to verify. Anyway, Vai's crew stayed for a few hours floating it smooth and monitoring the concrete. The result at the end of pour-day is pictured at the top. Now, we wait for it to cure and then we can move forward with the steel building on top of it.

 

Wrap Up 

That's it for today. I don't have any car content as I honestly have not had any time to play on the cars this past week. Around managing the concrete work, Boo and I have been clearing brush around the tool sheds and weeds along the eastern and southern sides of the new shop space. I am still waiting for the new flywheel and clutch/pressure plate from Kennedy. I hope to have them in time for Independence Day weekend so I can do the engine-trans R&R over those 3 days.

 

As always, thanks for following along-

Building a Shop - Gravel and Form

We thought we were going to be ready to pour this week, but things got complicated. Once they complete the rebar, though, we will be ready for our formal "106" -or- "foundation and placement" inspection. Then, they pour and we wait. What's described below took place last week and the end of the week before.

 

More Framing

Before the gravel could get poured in, another frame inside the initial frame was needed to hold the gravel out of the 1 foot footing. This inner frame is very similar to the outer frame they had done the prior week. It was just 4 inches shorter and 1 foot inside the first one. While a few guys were banging on that, Tim the front-end-loader guy prepared the landing zone in front of the farm house for the gravel by scraping the wood chips out of the way.

 

Graveling

By mid-morning 6-June, a Friday, 2 dump truck loads of gravel appeared. They first moved gravel with a muck cart (motorized tracked walk-behind that looks like a bathtub on treads). The muck cart broke at some point so they switched to the front end loader moving it. After a day of grinding, they got the inner frame filled with gravel, plus a little mound in the center to account for compacting. They had some left over in the truck, and rather than just leave with it, they laid down gravel across the end of the driveway 3 meters in, leaving a 6 by 3 meter rectangle of gravel.

 

Gravel Mop Up

marking the "graves"

The next morning, I was out there with a shovel and a garden rake, leveling the gravel on the driveway. I hosed it down and let it bake in the sun for the day. The next morning, I moved the old wood chips on top of the gravel, approximating the look of the driveway prior to their arrival. We believe the gravel bedding will help reduce mud from appearing at the end of the driveway where delivery trucks and the mail man inevitably park. This part of the driveway has always been the muddiest historically, and when our friends and family visit, it is inevitably where they park and walk. So, this is selfishly important too.

 

Framing

On Monday, 9-June, the guys were back to continue the preparation for the concrete pour. They had planned for compacting and rebar. We discovered a complication after the compacting. One of the items in the drawings from the beginning was accounting for a lift to be set down into the concrete. This required 2" PVC pipe to be run under the concrete in a few spots as well as the recesses for the 2 lift arms. I acquired the PVC over the weekend, but the guys needed to dig some trenches in the gravel after they got the compacting done. Similar to the excavation, lots of measuring and marking came first, to make sure it was where the plan said, and the right size.

Since the gravel had been compacted, this made the digging harder, but the hole retained it's form. Had they not compacted first, digging the rectangular holes for the lift would have been like digging a hole at the beach: the sides would keep caving in. Instead, they dug what looked like a pair of shallow graves. Inside the little graves, they framed in the forms and sent the 2" connecting pipe (for the hydraulics and electrical) between them. Last, they dug the trench and set in the pipe from the lift over to the future wall where the controller will be. All said, this took them the better part of the day.

 

Rebar

The guys were working on another project most of the rest of the week, coming by near the end of the day for a few hours to get after the rebar work. As I write this, there remains a few hours of fit and finish before we will be ready for inspection. The rebar is laid out in a grid with the ends near the framed forms bent down into the trench to give the walls the same stability that the floor will have.

 

The pictures above were taken before the rebar started but the rebar work is not yet complete. Also, I did not have a 2" PVC 45* angle to put at the end of the controller pipe to route into the box near the lower left hand corner of the last picture (into the south east corner of the framed-in form). That has since been remedied but it was not available locally for some reason. Anyway, at this rate, I expect a few more partial days of work by the guys and then we can schedule the inspection. For example, they were here yesterday for a couple of hours laying and tying the rebar into the footings. The actual concrete pour just keeps slipping out in time. I imagine lots of projects are like that.

 

Cars Update

On the cars front, I ordered the flywheel and clutch package for Hapy (72 VW Camperbus) so we are just waiting for production and shipping so I can start the engine/trans drop. I had hoped to do other things while the engine was down, like swapping out a bigger oil cooler or replacing the exhaust, but the longer this leans into Summer, the less I want Hapy in pieces and the more I want to be able to drive him. I may do the oil cooler swap anyway since it is really just swapping out parts, but the exhaust will have to wait. As I watch the shop form, I have increasing difficulty in containing my excitement for getting after Hapy details, Oliver's (78 MGB) final pieces, restarting the Zed project (79 Datsun 280ZX).. and, of course, starting on Nina (64 VW Beetle). I anticipate many fall weekends in there, out of the rain, off the mud, getting my wrench on. I cannot wait.

Thanks, as always, for following along. I'll post the rebar and concrete pour as they happen-

Building a Shop - Excavation

I return to the construction effort today. I expect this to be brief.

 

Measure Twice Dig Once

driveway approach

The concrete company we chose to work with arrived mid-morning and set to measuring and stringing lines. As they started, I talked to the supervisor/owner Vai and we agreed that since the eastern property boundary was 100% confirmed and the west was squishy, we would base all measurements off of the east line. The southern line was not as clear, but the pin in the south eastern corner was still protruding from the ground, so that was a known good point. We extrapolated where the line was, but since the minimum rear setback (distance from rear property line to a permitted structure) is 15 feet and the shop was going to be 50 feet, there was little risk of getting dinged by the inspector for possibly being a few inches off.

 

With stakes and string Vai and his team defined the target space. Using a level, they determined, and then showed me, that the grade from south to north was actually at least as pronounced as the west-to-east grade that sent us down that straw wattle search. Because of the grade, the south west corner will be the closest to the ground, leaving the north east corner (the corner opposite) the highest at nearly a foot above grade. Since the entire building will have a 1-foot tall footer, there won't be gavel spilling out from under the foundation, but it does raise the driveway entry, creating a new problem to solve later: garage access for broken (and working) cars.

 

The Dig

diggin

I will admit that when I first thought about the excavation, I expected to have to manage many yards of dirt. I was grossly mistaken. Because of the grades we discovered, most of the digging was along the southern and western edges with only a slight scrape at the north east corner. The biggest removal of dirt was for the storm outflow at the back (south east direction, but still at least 15 feet from the property lines) and the trench leading from the back of the building to it. The operator lost one of the hard rubber tracks, but otherwise they would have had the dig complete in a couple of hours.

 

Framing and Ground Shaping

With the trenches done, Vai and his team framed in the outer edges of the foundation and leveled it. We could really get a sense of the foundation at that point. They added some large blocks of broken up concrete into the space near the eastern edge, leaving space for the footer. The idea is that having the large concrete blocks is superior to 8 or 10 inches of packed gravel under a foundation pad. That much compacted crushed rock can still shift where having large concrete shapes mixed in underneath the upper layer creates more stability.

 

Preliminary Inspection

south west corner

At this point, Vai wanted to have the county inspector come in and consider the work so far. Since we based all measurements off of the eastern line, we wanted to make sure the location of the structure would be approved before we got gravel and rebar in there. Washington County, while it has its flaws, has been highly responsive to my engagements for this project. Getting a preliminary inspection was no different: go to the website, request a 106 (foundation and locating) inspection and then in the comments explain that you want a preliminary inspection. The inspector arrived first thing and after handing him the packet of permitted plans we walked the property, and I explained how we arrived at the location. He agreed with the process, checked the measurements and approved our progress. He even approved of the use of the broken up concrete and explained to me why it was a good thing. His approval went into the system, attached to the permit and it generated an email to me indicating the the location portion of the inspection has passed.

 

Wrapping Up

storm outflow

This is where we are at this point. The reason our bid was so good was in part because our job was getting fit around other ones. So, Vai and his team are floating concrete on another job and the gravel is due in the new few days. They will be returning to place and compact the gravel, do the rebar and everything else shortly after that. At least that's the plan.

 

car stuff:

Hapy: After talking with the fine folks at Kennedy Engineering, I just ordered a replacement flywheel with a stage1 clutch kit. It will arrive in a few weeks. In the meantime, Hapy is in one piece and could be roll-started into service if needed. I am looking forward to seeing the condition of the old flywheel and clutch once I get things apart and on the ground... which won't start until after the new flywheel/clutch kit arrive.

Building a Shop - Execution Planning

I get that the topic of building a shop/garage may not be terribly applicable to many folks. There are whole chat rooms and websites dedicated to the topic, so what do I know. I accept that for most people you probably only ever build one, if that. So, for those who are thinking about it, maybe these posts are useful since I am a total noob documenting what I am learning as I go. There wasn't much to take pictures of so I included a shot I took from the roof of the house we rented in Mexico and one of Nina, showing the license plate registration year.

 

Survey?

sunset in Mexico

I mentioned in the last post about permitting that I talked to a senior inspector and he indicated that having clarity in the property line was important for a swift inspection prior to pouring concrete. I started pricing a general survey of the "back 50" and the numbers I was getting were disturbing: high 4 figures to find and mark the monuments (corner medallion perched atop a 3' long iron bar driven into the ground) and lines. I discovered that one of the guys I bang around on guitars with is a surveyor. He hit the county website and identified when the monuments were installed (1950) according to county records. Since this is the back of a few different peoples' properties, one would presume they had not been disturbed. So, he lent to us one of his metal detectors to find the iron bars.

 

When he offered a detector, I had a mental image of a speedo-wearing dude walking around the beach with one of those things with a big disc at the end of a stick, getting waved across the sand as he shuffled past, plucking up lost jewelry. Yeah, that's not a surveyor's detector. A surveyor's detector is purely magnetic, and only registers iron. So, since most of the fences around that part of the yard are wood, I was able to find most of the markers very quickly. The marker in the southwest corner, however, was buried by whoever put the wooden fence in, and that fence intersects an old cyclone fence made back when they had higher grade steel than the ones built today. So, that fence made the readings a little less clear, but I felt confident of what I identified as the corner pin.

 

For each marker that I found, I took one of the many white 10x20 canopy posts I have from the failed canopies and drove it over/around the marker. From these markers we could determine measurements. I could also assess the neighbor's fences and determined that the fence installers who buried the monuments also did not follow a straight line and the fence bows into our property by a couple of inches. Is what is, but it challenged our stringing a line between the posts. I was able to find monuments along all 3 of the sides of the back 50, however, so we can determine the positions for the excavation.

 

Concrete Bids

Nina

I also mentioned at the end of the prior post that we were soliciting bids for the concrete. I was not happy with the 3 bids we had, so I hit Yelp, looking for another one. Yelp has that little checkbox asking to include others, and I hit that too. After clicking send, I had second thoughts, full of visions of getting overwhelmed with spam, my phone blowing up, etc. Those were unfounded, though. I did find myself juggling 6 more concrete companies, but this allowed me to get far more competitive bids. All but one company made a site visit and had a conversation about the work, the distance from the street, and options for various aspects of the work. Including excavation, it will still run us in the neighborhood of $15k, though, so our vision of a concrete slab with a steel building sitting on it has a growing price tag approaching $40k... and it doesn't have a garage door nor lights nor gutters and downspouts yet. I did not account for any of the costs other than the building when I started this. I am learning that while the building is the largest single cost, it might only represent half of the overall cost once complete.

 

Ultimately, we went with one of the companies who did a site visit, and the company was on the lower end of the bid spectrum. Their bid was so competitive, we decided to have them do the excavation as well. We had intended to have our friend Glenn do the machine work while we helped with site lines, laser-level depth determination, etc. When I shared the bid with Glenn, he was very direct: have them do it.

 

Excavation Planning

future shop location

Even though we are hiring out the dig, there are a few things we need to have sorted before the machine shows up. The pitch of the site is only a few inches from west to east, but when the spec for the footer is 1 foot and for the floor to be 4 inches of concrete atop 4 inches of compacted gravel, a few inches makes a big difference. Since we get lots of rain here (newsflash: it rains in western Oregon), we felt it was very important for the floor to be above grade by at least an inch at the most uphill point, or the western edge. This meant that the soil at the most downhill only really needed excavation for the gravel, leaving most of the concrete above grade. Since I will be hauling / pushing inoperable vehicles into that garage, we elected to set aside a meaningful pile of extracted dirt for leveling in front of the garage after the concrete sets. I recognize that I will probably need to pour a concrete ramp eventually, but that is not on the permitted plan. At this point, we talked about digging a little bit extra on the west (highest) edge so after the concrete is in I could put in a french drain, routed over to the downspout plumbing and on to the storm outflow.

 

storm outflow site

The storm outflow also needed some thought. Recall, the storm outflow was required by Clean Water Services so storm water run-off from the roof doesn't become a water management problem for our (slightly) down-grade neighbors. The minimum size for a storm outflow is 4 feet by 8 feet by 18 inches deep, and they get larger as your building footprint grows. I don't know the rate of growth, but our 720 square foot building is still well below that threshold, so we get a minimum. Regardless of its size, it needs to be at least 15 feet (5 meters) from any neighboring property line. I had added it to my site drawing at the point closest to the southeast corner, 15 feet away from the lines. When I went to that location, I decided that it was too close to the large black walnut tree and digging there could damage the roots. So, we moved it 3 meters north, further into the property. This is still well within the property line proximity specification, and I will learn if the inspector cares about the storm outflow location accuracy regarding the site drawing or not when s/he/they inspect the site. In the image on the right, the outflow is marked with yellow tape. This is the new location. The tree in the right rear of the picture is the black walnut I am trying to protect.

 

Wrapping Up

We will be signing the agreement before the weekend, and with a gap in the concrete contractor's schedule, the excavation could start next week. This weekend, in order to make room, I will be pushing Nina (new-to-me yard-find 1964 VW Beetle, in the image above) out of the path to the build site and whatever else is necessary to make the job site as accessible as possible. Before you ask, no those are not US-spec tail lights, they are the euro-spec tail-lights with the yellow turn signal section. There are a few not-original-spec or missing-original items on this car, like the bumpers, but that's part of the discovery fun.

 

Boo and I are stunned that this is happening so quickly. If he hadn't had a gap in his schedule, we would probably be looking at 3 or 4 weeks. Those were the timelines I was getting from the other contractors and those schedules were filling. It seems that when the rain stops, pouring concrete is a nearly round-the-clock business, until it starts raining again. I recall the painting business was the same way back in the day when I did that.

 

After the job site is accessible, I will be trying to get Hapy to start again, with a 4th starter replacement. This time, I got a new Valeo starter as directed by TDI guru and great guy Justin. I hope this one will last longer than a few hours. For everyone's knowledge, I tried and got burned by...

(1) a rebuilt Bosch starter from a reputable online vendor, 

(2) a brand new "SEG" starter, apparently a rebrand of a good starter manufacturing company, from a different reputable online vendor and then 

(3) I had my original VW starter rebuilt by a highly regarded alternator and starter rebuilder in Portland's east side who has now retired.

All 3 failed within a few hours of installing. Since I used to be able to move Hapy around the driveway just by using his starter (yeah, I know. Don't do that kids), this is not a case of "it's Hapy's fault". No, there are just that many poorly built starters and these TDI engines need reliable hi-torque.

 

Thanks, as always, for following along.

Building a Shop - Permits

In my last post which was my first in, like, 6 months, I mentioned that I had been working on getting a 2 car garage / shop built on the back of this property. Today, I will go through some of the steps and offer them up in an order that would be the path of quickest completion versus the order in which I took them which was "taken as discovered". It is probably important to point out that this is for Unincorporated Washington County in Oregon. If you are legally within city limits, you will probably have their permitting department to work with. Regardless, I suspect many of these same steps will be needed, though the specifics may differ a little bit.

Where to Begin

The first step, of course, is to decide what you want, but the very next step will be figuring out if you are allowed to do that in your space. For example, we originally wanted a much larger building. In retrospect, it really would have been overwhelming the space, but anyway, we start with finding out what the zoning will allow from the interactive map at the county website (link here). From the map, there are a few useful links, including the "District Overlay" which includes your zoning and setback (how far from property lines the structure can be) requirements. If you click on the little "additional information" blue text, the information rectangle on the left unfolds to show the lot size in square feet at the bottom with a "Shape.STArea()" label. For overall building size, you need to consult building code 430-1.1B (link here). Using the lot area size and the % allowed from the code, you arrive at the size building you can add to your lot. We arrived at 800 square feet, and planned for a 24' x 30' relatively standard oversized 2-car garage.

Build or Buy

While not exactly part of the getting-a-permit process, this decision definitely influences all of your future steps. You could order plans and have a structure built either by you or by a contractor. If you go the contractor route, you may still need to do the permits. I thought about going the stick-built route and concluded that there would be much more permitting and inspecting if I did. Instead, I ordered a pre-fab steel building that is assembled on-site by the manufacturer. At the time of the order, they provide engineering plans for permitting purposes that have your building's specifics already included. Since our shop/garage is a standard size and shape, special engineering was not needed. We did request for extra strength to be added to the roof so we would have the long-term option of adding solar panels. The current canopy is prohibitive right now, but not all of the trees creating that shade are healthy, so the situation may change. Better to have the stronger roof and not need it, I figured.

Draw Your Site Plan

Because of when and how I did my plan, I literally had to do this 4 times. I started with a screen grab of my site map from the county website that included the map scale, pasting it into MS Paint. For my final site map, I then stretched the image so it nearly filled an 11x17 tabloid piece of paper - set landscape (so 17" side wide, 11" tall). I pasted a sanitized version to the left, here. Include all measurements and the reference numbers as well as a short description of anything which might create confusion. The planners need to see the setbacks, zoning "R" number and the height of the building. The Site Plan must be in landscape form saved as a PDF to be accepted.

Water Planning

Next, we have to consult with 2 different departments within the greater permitting group at the county: Grading and Clean Water Services. The first group (Grading) considers whether your planned structure meets zoning code, whether you need a grading permit and how you are managing stormwater. As an output from their review, I needed to add a stormwater outfall to catch the downspouts to my site plan. This is required for basically every structure which requires a permit in Washington County now, and the outfall location guidelines are more restrictive than the building. For example, the building can be 5 feet from a side property line, but the stormwater outfall cannot be within 15 feet of any line.

Next, we consult with Clean Water Services. They consider your water sourcing, water waste and erosion implications. Since this is a garage without plan to build a bathroom, water sourcing and water waste were not a concern. Erosion control during construction, however, was of interest. This lot is virtually flat, with a slight west-to-east pitch. So, Clean Water Services indicated that we need to have those long hay bale/tube things (called "straw wattle") running along the eastern fence to prevent any erosion or water runoff to impact the neighbors during construction.

It is important to note that the soil CANNOT be disturbed prior to sign off from Clean Water Services. This includes stump grinding, but obviously also includes use of any moderately heavy equipment or excavation. I had been told that the permit was only needed for the building and not the flat-work. This is absolutely false. If you start preparing the ground for concrete before Clean Water Services issues their permit, things will be much more difficult and you will be on the permit folks radar for the rest of your project.

File Permit Request

In an ideal process, you would not even file for a permit until you have had consultations and site plan modifications to reflect those consultations. I was not following ideal, but I didn't know I needed those things until the permit process started and I was informed. Now you know better than I did. Anyway, filing for a permit to start is easy: go to the website, fill in the one-page form and pay the initial fee (there are multiple fees with more later). The process will start and you will learn all the forms you need to create including a checklist which identifies the things above.

I used the provided checklist to make sure I had everything before I started uploading documents and then uploaded them in a big bunch. Again, I did this 4 times. There are 2 folders, one for documents and one for plans. While I don't know for sure, the impression I got from my fumbling and re-uploading was that the engineers look at the "plans" folder and the process/zoning people look at the documents folder. With that perspective, I put the document index (numbered 001 per their instructions) into both folders. I also put the site plan into both folders, though I wasn't sure at the time whether that was a good idea, once I received my approval from Grading (meets zone and water management requirements) I concluded it was probably not a bad idea. I included the email from Grading indicating that a Grading permit was not required (adhere to the numbering scheme for all uploads), thinking that if I could provide every relevant scrap there would be fewer hang-ups and delays.

On the engineering side, because it is a pre-fab, mass-engineered building, I thought I could simply upload what was sent to me as-is. That was not correct. The engineering plans need to be individual pages, with their own 0-leading numbers, identified individually on the page index, and each saved as an individual PDF.

If you mess something up, the permitting system will be updated by the person handling that portion of the permit and mark the task incomplete and give you some indication of what is wrong. I found that the closer I was to having it right, the more detailed the "what's wrong" statement was. Like, when I just uploaded the engineering plans as one big PDF all I got was essentially "plans not meet convention" or something. Not terribly helpful, but I guess I figured it out because...

Current State

In March, I got the permit approval, pending paying the final fees. I think overall I paid close to $2k just in permit fees for a building without electrical nor plumbing. Since these are mass-engineered plans, I did not expect an issue, especially since the wind and snow load specifications are clearly on the front page. Also, since we requested the roof to be able to support more-than-typical weight, the extra support throughout the building should more than meet code. Once I understood what they were asking for, most of my work was actually at the front end, drawing the site plan and including all the little detail bits about the property that they need to triangulate into their various systems.

To prepare for the next steps, Boo got us 3 of those 25-foot-long straw wattles. It should be worth noting that these things, once abundant in the big home improvement stores, are for the most part no longer sold there. I say that because no one stocks them except Lowes and they charge 4x what they used to cost. We found them at United Rentals for the used-to-be-typical price of $30 each. Lowes is charging $120. Seriously. Bite me, Lowes; this is exactly why I never shop there. I set the wattles in place last weekend. Next, I will get Clean Water Services to come back and approve us for soil disturbance. Then the stump grinding will start, followed by excavation.

 

We have 2 concrete bids and we are waiting on a third. The first 2 were so different price-wise, I think Foundations First (the outrageously high one) was just giving us a go-away price. Once we have the 3rd bid we will start the excavation.

 

Closing Thoughts

I spoke with the county about inspections. I mean, what's the point of a permit if they don't circle back on the work, and the detail about when to contact for inspections was unclear. After talking to a senior inspector, I learned that for a pre-fab building without water nor electrical I need 2 inspections: one right before the concrete is poured ("a 106") and the "final" after the metal building is in place (but prior to any wall coverings). I do understand now why oftentimes folks will hire someone to do the whole thing, including the interactions with the county. There are so many details, it is easy to miss one and if you miss the wrong one, like getting the property surveyed before you start digging, you may have to at least suspend the work and at worst do it over again.

 

Obligatory car content

Hapy - currently not running. I believe I messed up the IP seal replacement and after replacing his starter multiple times he still won't start

Oliver - sits covered and untouched. I think I will be selling him next Spring (or earlier if someone offers)

Zed - sits covered and untouched. I pulled the cover this weekend looking for my feeler gauges and got me all excited to work on him again

Nina - did I mention that a 1964 VW Beetle fell into my lap? Yeah, so named after Nina Simone cuz it was built the same month as one of her albums dropped (can't find the reference I used to determine that), this car has not been licensed since the late 90's. Total yard find. Lots of work ahead to get it road-ready

ToyoTruck - daily driver, running like a champ. Still needs to get painted after the body repair a few years ago

Astra - Boo's daily driver, this Saturn just runs. Change the oil on schedule, and otherwise point and shoot

I know it has been a while. Work has been consuming most of my focus since my team lost a couple of my peers to lateral moves within the company. The back-fills have been slow to get up to speed. So, I have been doing the work of at least 2 people since November. Is what is. Thanks for tuning back in. I don't know when I'll have time to post, much less do stuff that's post-worthy. I started this one in February. LOL.