# Keep'em Rolling Barlow's Motor Pool build.



## barlow l

I have been working on my shop for a little over a year now, I think. The last few years have run together as my Wife and I have built our new home 90% by ourselves. It has been one heck of an journey and I will be most pleased when the work ends and the fun begins. 

I have done every step of the way with help from my Wife, Son, Dad, Nephew and best friend. In the very beginning of clearing, Dad would not let me use his backhoe. It was a chainsaw, Ford tractor and a '67 Deuce with winch that got the ball rolling. 

All of this land had been timbered about twenty years ago. It was nasty, most of the hardwood was clusters of an old stump. you will see one Red Oak cluster in the photos. Long story short on the backhoe, Dad was over helping me pull stumps with the Deuce. After a couple hours of slinging chains and cable Dad said lets just get my backhoe over here. 

I'll just start posting photos from the start without a lot of description as most will speak for themselves until I get up to date. Feel free to ask any questions.

My building is an Arco 40x60x14 clear span metal building. 


Note that in the photos, the pile ole building has never moved from photo three to now. That will give you some reference as we clear.


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## barlow l




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## barlow l




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## barlow l




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## rmack898

Wow, that's alot of clearing, my back hurts just looking at those stumps.
I'm looking forward to weeing more so keep the pics comming and thanks for sharing.


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## barlow l




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## RandyM

This is a GREAT thread! Keep 'em coming.


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## barlow l

Batter boards laid out and string line squared. Now there needs to be 12 5 foot x 5 foot holes dug.





The low side wasn't too difficult. I will have to form above ground on this end.





This end was not so much friendly. I could rough out with the backhoe then we would dig the rest by hand. I am sure an experienced Operator could have dug mostly with the 'hoe but I am not that operator!  





In some places the ground was so hard, we had to dig with an axe. My wife seemed to prefer the axe, not sure if there's an underlying meaning there!


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## barlow l

After all the pier holes where dug, it was time to start on rebar. I had been searching on craigslist for months for rebar and finally one Sunday an ad appeared, "rebar about forty pieces 20 feet long $5 each or offer on all". So I emailed my number and received a call back. He was 25 minutes from me so I ran over for a look. Well, it turns out to be a pile of #4 and WAYYY more than forty pieces. 

I asked him how much for all of it so he started counting, got to thirty something and said, "I am not counting it, $125 will get it all. I could not pay him fast enough.  Turned out to be 127 pieces, I needed 120. 





I figured my lengths and cut all the rebar here then went to my buddies shop to use his Diacro bender, My son and I worked two days bending rebar.




Once all rebar was bent, I started assembling the cages with tie wires, just wasn't working for me so, I made a jig to rack all the pieces and welded everything.


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## barlow l

Now that all the rebar is welded, I started making the column forms and anchor bolt patterns.






I ordered my anchor bolts off ebay from Zorro, 3/4 x 18". Zorro was the BEST price I could find anywhere. I cut all the plywood plates to size then drew up in CAD and printed out actual size patterns for detail A, B and C. I glued the patterns to the plywood then drilled the marked holes. 





All the rebar cages are in place. I get all the column forms in place. 







Next step setting all the anchor bolts. I recommend rechecking your bolt placement atleast 4 times before concrete. I found a mistake on the four center bolts. The plans were a little deceiving, once I went back over the detail sheet, I realized my mistake and fixed it the day before concrete. 









BREAK TIME!


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## CoopVA

That place is gonna be bomb proof!


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## barlow l

Ok, a bit of an explanation on my footer. I wanted a supported slab as we have always done in the past around here. As all of you that have built anything in the last couple years know, local and state codes have become ridiculous if not down right dumb. 

Monolithic slabs is about all you can get approved now. With a grade of 23 inches from one side to the other, it would have required massive fill and about ninety plus yards of concrete.  So I had a engineer design stand alone piers. No slab was on the drawings therefore no inspection requirements for the slab. 

I emailed in my footing inspection request on Sunday the 2nd. Inspector came out that Monday morning and signed off on my work. 

That evening I commenced stage two. 

Dig out the entire parameter connecting all the piers with a continuous footer. 











There is my wife with that axe again!






We are now ready for concrete!


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## CoopVA

Wow!  That's a beefier footer than I've seen for some commercial buildings...  Great job!

Love the Deuce anahalf...


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## barlow l

CoopVA said:


> Wow!  That's a beefier footer than I've seen for some commercial buildings...  Great job!
> 
> Love the Deuce anahalf...





Well, I'll have some green toys much heavier than the Deuce rooming in there.


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## CoopVA

barlow l said:


> Well, I'll have some green toys much heavier than the Deuce rooming in there.



Sweet!  I got to drive CUCVs, Deuces and 5 tons when I was in...


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## jeep534

too cool,  I am jealous 

archie


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## barlow l

This past Saturday we poured concrete. If you want to find out which of your friends are true friends, call them and tell them you are pouring 21 yards of concrete tomorrow morning at 8am and need help. Well, I had more help than I expected arrive at 7:30. 















That is where I am at as of today. It has rained non stop since Sunday evening. I have broken down a few forms but has just been to nasty to work.  God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll get all the forms down and cleaned up Saturday. I have block to haul over and get everything ready for the following weekend which we'll lay one course of regular block then one course of shoe/slab block.


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## Vladymere

Your work looks good.  There will be a lot of pride in the finished project.

You shouldn't worry about the Creeks, they where/are not a Virginia tribe.

Vlad


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## John1961

That looks like some hard clay. Hope your wife's name isn't Lizzy. 
Good luck with your project.


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## barlow l

Been working on getting all the forms torn down.









Hauled all the regular block over from my Dads. They came from my Great Grand Mothers house Dad and I tore down several years ago. Spent a little time chipping mortar and saved a few hundred bucks and have a little Family history in my building. 




Ordered the shoe blocks Tuesday morning and received them that afternoon.  Weather showed rain Friday evening and Saturday afternoon so we planned to start laying block Sunday morning. Went to Farmers Service Saturday morning and picked up mortar sand and mortar. 


Waited for the sun to come up Sunday morning and worked clearing the water and leaves off the footing. My Cousin and nephews showed up around 8:30 and we started.


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## barlow l

A couple more to finish out the block. 








I have a mess to clean up before I back fill and grade. I can not work in clutter.


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## CoopVA

Nice!



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## John Hasler

Love the truck.  Is it yours?


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## rmack898

Nice work. It's good to see a family come together on a project like this. The family history block used in you foundation is pretty cool too.

Are you going to put radiant heat in the floor?

Thanks for sharing and keep the pics coming.


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## barlow l

John Hasler said:


> Love the truck.  Is it yours?



Yes the Deuce is mine. She is still a work horse. everything works but the fuel gauge.


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## barlow l

rmack898 said:


> Nice work. It's good to see a family come together on a project like this. The family history block used in you foundation is pretty cool too.
> 
> Are you going to put radiant heat in the floor?
> 
> Thanks for sharing and keep the pics coming.



Negative on the in floor radiant heat. While I start long johning up and whining at 50 degrees, it realy doesn't get that cold 'round here.


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## Reeltor

You have more work and money in your foundation than most guys have in the entire building.  It's nice to see quality workmanship.

Mike


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## barlow l

Reeltor said:


> You have more work and money in your foundation than most guys have in the entire building.  It's nice to see quality workmanship.
> 
> Mike




I can not imagine what the labor bill would have been if I had to pay someone to do the work my way.


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## mattthemuppet2

wow, that is some impressive work! Can't wait to see what the rest of it will look like, though not as much as you I'd guess 

Reminds me of when my folks built their house - we lived in a 10x28ft mobile home/ trailer for 9mths and I spent a lot of fun days carrying bricks and stuff around for the builders (I was 9). I even built a set of shelves for the shed out of scrap lumber, didn't even cut the stuff, just nailed it together with whatever was laying around and it's still around. They've just closed on the sale after being mortgage free for the last 25 years and I'm a bit conflicted about the whole deal. There's a lot of emotion and history tied up in land and bricks.


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## barlow l

mattthemuppet said:


> wow, that is some impressive work! Can't wait to see what the rest of it will look like, though not as much as you I'd guess
> 
> Reminds me of when my folks built their house - we lived in a 10x28ft mobile home/ trailer for 9mths and I spent a lot of fun days carrying bricks and stuff around for the builders (I was 9). I even built a set of shelves for the shed out of scrap lumber, didn't even cut the stuff, just nailed it together with whatever was laying around and it's still around. They've just closed on the sale after being mortgage free for the last 25 years and I'm a bit conflicted about the whole deal. There's a lot of emotion and history tied up in land and bricks.




Yeah, it's still a little tough when I ride by my Great Grandmothers place and see the new home someone built. But hey, hopefully they will make their own wonderful memories of the place. I have some of her blocks in my house I built as well as the shop.


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## GK1918

Nice work;       interesting =  NO ROCKS


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## barlow l

GK1918 said:


> Nice work;       interesting =  NO ROCKS




But there was, ONE rock the size of a football about 7 feet down. Came up with a red oak cluster stump.


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## barlow l

OK, there is another item added to my list of things I NEVER want too do again, *Spreading and compacting sand*. Photos to follow as soon as I can lift more than half of one hand!


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## jeep534

What no updates..... 
I wanna come visit. 

archie


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## barlow l

My apologies to the group for falling behind on updates. I received a call and a rather subtle chewing from fellow hobbyist Archie so i'll get right on it.

I really didn't know how to determine the proper compaction of sand was so I spent many hours running the whacker packer. I would spread around five inches then pack and pack and pack. spread five more inches and repeat. Once I was close to the last layer, my friend whom knows this stuff came over.  I filled him in on what I had been doing and after he laughed told me I had probably wasted forty hours packing packed sand.


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## barlow l




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## jeep534

keep the pictures coming..... excellent by the way 

archie


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