The new Farrington Garage/Shop build

[bonecrrusher]

Tom - nice update - and congrats to you and Sam!



As for the beard - I started Movember back in September... LOL.

[tommycomfort]

I really like the sheer size of the shop. The different shots you have posted with the cars parked in there really give you some perspective. I am sure you may not think so, but it seems to be coming together pretty quickly.

Thanks Stephen. Considering that Deb and I do have jobs and we started framing about six weeks ago it is going pretty well. Just like everything else though, never fast enough.

[SSLance]

Hey Tommy, was thinking about your shop project and was just curious if you all got a roof on the shop before winter started to set in?

[tommycomfort]

Hey Tommy, was thinking about your shop project and was just curious if you all got a roof on the shop before winter started to set in?

Lance,

Still no luck on the roof. I'm trying not to let life get me irritated when I can't put in full days working on it...

[tommycomfort]

Yep, I've been meaning to update the build thread for a long time now and couldn't quite get to it. I have figured out the problem though. During the summer/fall when we stopped working at 6-8 pm we still had plenty of light so I could get decent pictures and update what we had just done. So, now it gets dark at 5 pm and we work until we can't see anymore and then clean up. At that point, we can't get updated pictures so I don't feel like showing stuff that is even one day behind. Oh well, just how my short circuited brain works...

Lots of things slowing us down including jobs, weather and moving out of the old shop but we're still pushing forward even in the bad weather.

First set of pictures is moving out of the old shop. It was 28x44', two stories and we built it right at ten years ago. Minus a couple of trips overseas, we have been working in it for that long. Before we started going to P-T events and while we were building the 66 we traveled the country picking up Chevelle parts cars and of course just stored massive amounts of parts that we would probably never use. And honestly, it seems like since we put the 66 on the road in 2010 it has been one whirlwind thrash after another. I say all that to say the shop was cluttered and not easy to move. Even though I had a lot of friends offer to help, I only bugged a few when the time came. Deb's parents did come down a few days early for Thanksgiving with the purpose of helping us move. We abused that relationship to the max... Great in-laws and incredibly hard workers!

Upstairs before


Upstairs after


We moved everything out of the upstairs so we could "organize" as much as possible.




Completely moved out. Fairly sad when I handed over the key to the buyer.


Basically two 16 hour days and one 6 hour day. Three trips with a large U-haul and countless trips with the truck and trailer. Wow!

[tommycomfort]

On to what people really care about. When we first started building, each update showed real progress. I don't think anything will look too exciting until we get the roof on...

One of the most recent. Sam's friendly wave as we finished sheeting the gable. That would be one big ugly side if we just sided it, but our plan is to come out 22' with a lesser pitch roof that will be 22' wide. It will help break things up and be a nice place to park and work on decent days.


Now that all the trusses are up you can get a good idea of how tall the 12' ceilings will be.


Metal roofing for the complete shop. We really thought this would be a couple of two foot stacks of material, but this is enough for the whole thing. 25' 4" long and hauling it on our 20' trailer was entertaining. Negative tongue weight made for a long trip home.

[chevy4life]

Tom, this garage is anyones dream garage. Really looks fantastic. I am about to start my own this winter. Im sure you'll get some nice and cold weather during the winter, so how are you planning on heating this monster?
Anthony

[parsonsj]

I love it. I'm living vicariously through you guys, as I move around stacks of wheels in my mini-shop to try and get enough space for a drivetrain as I send a body off to paint.

[SSLance]

Thanks for the update Tommy. Looks like you are making pretty good progress.

Your big end wall is pretty close to the same size as the ones on the front and back on my shop. Curious, did you use a truss on the top of the end wall you framed in or did you frame the top of the end wall in by hand?

Reason I ask is we used trusses for both ends sitting on top of the walls and we played hell trying to keep the wall\truss joint from flexing in and out after it was up. I think the 2x4s on the end truss being flat not perpendicular like the wall below it led to a weakness that let the wall flex in and out. Not long after mine was framed up, I was inside the shop talking on the phone while leaning up against the back wall, and the wind outside was blowing about 25 mph out of the South. The freaking wall moved about 2" in and out with the wind gusts while I was leaning up against it... Having the garage door right in the center of my wall didn't help but still it was so huge on basically no support on the inside, the wind pressure would make the wall flex horizontally at the wall \ truss joint and vertically at the middle of the garage door.

I built a stiff back and ran it along the end truss above the joint and then put a bunch of stiffeners along the two inward trusses attached to the end truss and that helped a lot, but it was still out of plumb and would still move when the wind really blew.

This is what it looked like not long after framing it up.



and from the outside




In this picture you can see the stiff back on the wall, the supports I ran from the trusses to the end wall, and the chain and come along I used to pull the middle of the wall the 2" in it was bowed out when I built the apartment along the back wall of the shop.



Once we had the ceiling of the apartment\loft floor joists in and the 3\4" plywood down, we pulled the wall tight up against the framing and secured it from the outside with a bunch of long screws and it stayed tight and hasn't moved since.

Only reason I'm bringing this up is to relate what we went through with a somewhat similar designed end wall and to hopefully help you from having the same problems. That is a LOT of wall and it catches a bunch of wind if the wind blows.

Shop looks great! Did you move everything out of the old shop into the back part of the new shop for now?

[lzdick]

You think we'd at least get pics of someone shoveling snow...LOL

[tommycomfort]

Alright, Rich wanted it, so here's a picture of what has been going on with the shop build all winter... I'll have some more exciting pictures to come within a day or two. I promise!

[Yelcamino]

Brrr!

[72BBSwinger]

It's supposed to start warming up next week.

[Gary's66]

Looks about as cold as it is up here.
They look sad, cold and dirty.
All temporary of course.

[tommycomfort]

So, the big news is that we made the decision about a month ago to pay a contractor to finish the roof. Of course the plan would be that he came right away and seal it up, but snow, high winds and sub zero weather has kept them away until yesterday. Two days and these cats are done! Sam, Deb and I had it down to 30 minutes per sheet and with 44 left, simple math told us it would take us 22 hours. Sadly, Deb and I both have a couple of jobs and Sam has school and parents with lots of projects. We hate to spend money on stuff we can do ourselves, but man it feels good to not worry about shoveling snow out of there anymore!

Yesterday's progress


When I got home from work this morning it was 8 degrees and they already had their first sheet up.

[67speedfreak]

That is going to be one awesome shop ! Would love to have something that size !

[silvermonte]

That roof had to be slick.

[andrewb70]

I would like to officially petition for adoption into the Farrington family. I have useful skills and am fully house broken. I am also an amazing cook...

Andrew

[dontlifttoshift]

Looks good!

Sometimes it's best to do what you do and pay someone else to do what they do. At least you went outside to take pictures of them working, I would have shot it through the kitchen window.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

What gauge metal is the roof? Awesome shop!