Here is my Charger Garage Build thread.

[PocketThunder]

So i'm building a garage in my backyard for my Charger.  The house garage has been over taken by the mini-van and kids bikes, wagon, strollers, etc...  This garage will be specific for working on and parking the Charger and i can close the door at a moments notice and get back to it whenever i have time.

Dimensions are 26' x 26'.  It will have scissor trusses with a 9'-4" wall height.  The city limit on roof height is 12' at the midpoint so i have to use scissor trusses if i want to get a lift someday.  I have radiant heat in the floor.  We placed the slab yesterday and it came out very nicely. 

Paul

[PocketThunder]

 

[69bronzeT5]

I'll be watching this very closely

[PocketThunder]

 

I whipped up a little fire pit with some left over concrete.  The kids got to stamp there hands in it along with the date, 2009.  The side blew out though when it was almost full so we had to pull it back together quick with some rachet straps.  

[Old Moparz]

I'll be watching this very closely

You should go help like Paul's kid is doing.   

[Sublime/Sixpack]

You're going to love that heated floor when you're under that Charger on a cold winter day! Great idea!

[Dans 68]

Did you install any root shields?    Looks very nice (yes, I am envious....   )

Dan

[mopar_nut_440_6]

How much rebar did you use in the slab and what size? I also have a 26 x 26 shop I poured a couple of years ago but will be using radiant heat. You will love the floor heat!

[PocketThunder]

Did you install any root shields?    Looks very nice (yes, I am envious....   )

Dan

Root shields?  No.  I did bring in 30 tons of sand though and i didnt dig into the ground too far so i dont think any roots are going to come up into the slab area.  But i'm not a tree specialist so i dont know that for sure.  thanks.

How much rebar did you use in the slab and what size? I also have a 26 x 26 shop I poured a couple of years ago but will be using radiant heat. You will love the floor heat!

The rebar in the thickened footing is two rows of #4.  I ordered the concrete with fibers so there is no reinforcement in the slab area.  We put in-floor heat in my Dads shop probably 10 years ago now and it was the best thing we ever did.  Even though it was about a $1200 increase in cost for this project, i had to do it. 

[moparstuart]

looks like you had expert help     

[FlatbackFanatic]

Looking good Paul!

[Shakey]

I like the projects you take on Paul and the photos that come with it - very cool!

[PocketThunder]

I'll be watching this very closely

You should go help like Paul's kid is doing.   

Ya i could have used help laying out the formwork from the property line.    I have a funny story for you Bob, and any other surveryors out there..  So i used to work for a land surveyor durring one summer back in college and you "think" i could lay out a square box into a perfect 90º square corner.. .but nooooo, i pull 10' from one side, 10' from the other side and put temporary stakes in.  Then i go back to lay out the string lines on my batten boards and i decide to be safe and pull 11' from each property line.  There is a 10' utility easement.  So i pull the 11' in the far back corner and mistakenly only pull 10' near the left hand corner, about 10 over because the wood pile and tree were in the way. 

Then thinking my back line is good as gold i square up off that line and lay it all out and finish my formwork, foam and tubing.  The inspector comes out a few days before the pour and we pull a tape from the lot line and the one corner is 11' and the left corner is 9'-6"!!!!     I'm doing this >>        and then this >>     So he tells me i can either apply for a variance for the 6" shortage or move the forms forward 6".  I chose the later and took a half day from work to get all this done by Friday when he came back to verify.  He pull the tape and it came in at 10'-0 1/2".  Uff Da!

Now i will stop telling people i used to work for a surveyor... 

Paul

[PocketThunder]

I like the projects you take on Paul and the photos that come with it - very cool!

Thanks Mike!

Someday soon i'll start putting all this money into my car instead of the necessary steps to get to that point.  Should be all set now though, my family is taken care of with a nice house to live in and now my car will be also.  My goal when i was a kid was to have a '69 Charger and a garage to work on it in.  I wanted to do that by the time i was 30, and i just turned 34 so not to bad.   

[Charger-Bodie]

Geez Paul your little guy is really growin!  He will be doing your work for you before you know it!

[tan top]

going to be a nice size garage     good stuff 

[Charger_Fan]

Then thinking my back line is good as gold i square up off that line and lay it all out and finish my formwork, foam and tubing.  The inspector comes out a few days before the pour and we pull a tape from the lot line and the one corner is 11' and the left corner is 9'-6"!!!!     I'm doing this >>        and then this >>     So he tells me i can either apply for a variance for the 6" shortage or move the forms forward 6".  I chose the later and took a half day from work to get all this done by Friday when he came back to verify.  He pull the tape and it came in at 10'-0 1/2".  Uff Da!

I can easily see that very same thing happening to me.

Looks great so far, it's gonna be sweet when you're done.

[General_01]

Looks good Paul.

[1969chargerrtse]

Wow looks great. is it exspensive to heat a heated floor, and is the heat on all the time?  How long to get the heated floor up to heat?

[PocketThunder]

Wow looks great. is it exspensive to heat a heated floor, and is the heat on all the time?  How long to get the heated floor up to heat?

That i dont know just yet.  I plan on tracking my heating costs once i get the boiler up and running.  I'm planning an electric mini boiler and i'll see if i can put some sort of meter on the electricity to it so i can track just how many Kwh it is using and compare that to the amount of natural gas i would burn if i was using a hot dawg heater or something similar.

Once you get the concrete slab up to temperature is doesnt take a whole lot more heat to maintain it.  At least thats what i read about on the internet and have observed with my Dads shop floor.  Not sure how long it will take to bring the heated floor up to temperature.  I will find all this out next winter.

thanks

Paul

[Old Moparz]

Now i will stop telling people i used to work for a surveyor... 

Paul

LOL.....there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to attempt to layout my shop alone. I had to design my garage to fit in between an angled property line, my septic system, meet the 5' setback distance to the line, & keep it a minimum distance of 10' from my house. Fortunately, the guy I used to work with helped me locate my property lines & house, ran the info in his computer, & we set all the stakes with his transit.

I like the projects you take on Paul and the photos that come with it - very cool!

Thanks Mike!

Someday soon i'll start putting all this money into my car instead of the necessary steps to get to that point.  Should be all set now though, my family is taken care of with a nice house to live in and now my car will be also.  My goal when i was a kid was to have a '69 Charger and a garage to work on it in.  I wanted to do that by the time i was 30, and i just turned 34 so not to bad.  

Interesting, this plan is similar to mine, but I didn't actually call it a plan when I did it.....LOL

I decided a long time ago not to tear a car apart to restore it until I had my own shop. I've been setting things up for so long now that I'm starting to lose interest. 

[BigBlockSam]

 

[moparstuart]

Now i will stop telling people i used to work for a surveyor... 

Paul

LOL.....there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to attempt to layout my shop alone. I had to design my garage to fit in between an angled property line, my septic system, meet the 5' setback distance to the line, & keep it a minimum distance of 10' from my house. Fortunately, the guy I used to work with helped me locate my property lines & house, ran the info in his computer, & we set all the stakes with his transit.

I like the projects you take on Paul and the photos that come with it - very cool!

Thanks Mike!

Someday soon i'll start putting all this money into my car instead of the necessary steps to get to that point.  Should be all set now though, my family is taken care of with a nice house to live in and now my car will be also.  My goal when i was a kid was to have a '69 Charger and a garage to work on it in.  I wanted to do that by the time i was 30, and i just turned 34 so not to bad.  

Interesting, this plan is similar to mine, but I didn't actually call it a plan when I did it.....LOL

I decided a long time ago not to tear a car apart to restore it until I had my own shop. I've been setting things up for so long now that I'm starting to lose interest. 

Your like general  Mcclellan in the civil was  prepare prepare prepare , but when it comes time to go to war he didnt want to go   

[xs29j8Bullitt]

Wise choice to build your shop first Paul!  Looking good so far... spending the money up front to heat the slab is probably a good move as well.  Looking forward to more progress pics...       

Allen

[69 OUR/TEA]

Hey PocketThunder,
       congrats on the new garage build!!!I will give you my input as I have radiant floor heat in my garage.
    First let me just say it is the cats a$$ for heating a garage!!!Knowing I was going that route,I dug my floor to be 6" thick because the thicker it is the longer it is going to hold the heat.The insulation I used was a 1/4'' bubble wrap type for this application,besides it being the insulation it is also my vapor barrier.Next I used 6''x6'' 10ga.screen to tie the tubing down,and also be my guide as it was designed to run 12'' on center as best you could.I used 1/2'' Wisbo Hepex tubing and per my design,ran 5 -250' loops.In the middle of the slab I set a electrical box and ran a conduit back to were my pump station is,this is for the slab mounted bulb sensor to set your temp.T-stat is a Wirsbo dual,slab,air or to set on slab/air.I just use it on slab,set it and forget it.
  Next,my heat source.For my application because I have various other things around my house to feed,I went with a Weil-Mclain Ultra 155 high effeciency modulating condensing boiler(NG).I made my own pump station rather than buying the expensive wirsbo made unit,and being my loops are within 20% in length of eachother,no balancing was needed,via circuit setters.
  With that said,once my system was up and running,here was my experience,started it around the first week of Nov,avg was 45-50 deg that week,set my slab temp for 57 deg,and at that it took almost a whole day to bring it up to that.Also have to add,the water temp I am sending through the floor is around 85.When winter and the cold temps hit these were the avg run periods I noticed it did.When the t-stat called for heat and turned the pump station and boiler on,it would run for around 5-8 minutes to satisfy and shut off,thats it!!!!Now the big kicker is talkng about how efficient it is for radiant heat,I noticed it would turn on as as little as every 3 hours and as far as every 6 hours depending on what the temp was like outside.Was worth every penny I paid to do this!!!
  On another note,take an infrared thermometer,everything in that garage was my slab set temp of 57,the walls,the tool box,wrenches in the tool box,the seats in the cars,the engine block in the cars,etc!!!!!This is because the radiant heats objects,NOT air!!!!Not to mention that your feet and ankles are'nt killing you when in there during cold days.Main thing is get it where you want and leave it.
   Now as far as your garage,a couple of things,my noticings are that you are detached,so first I would strongly consider running glycol in the system,and don't know if you are aware of this,but this type of system is not a closed loop like in your car where you fill it and put the cap on and you're done,but needs a continuos water make up w/regulator to drop from your water supply pressure at the pump station ready to add to the system if neccesary.Basically you would need to run a pipe out to that garage,plus would benefit having water out there.The elec instant boiler is a good idea for your source of water,just make sure you put in an expansion tank as well.You can also go with a reg water heater too.And obviously the more you insulate that garage ,the better it will hold your heat.
   One more thing that suprised me and is not rocket sience,this spring all my vehicles batterys were just as I shut them off last year,fully charged with no battery tenders or additional chargings.Can't tell you how many spring times I had dead batterys in all the cars before it was heated,pain in the ...!!!Another perk to the system!!!!
  Once again ,congrats and good luck with your build!!!!!