Shop Update

Here’s an update on the progress of the shop. We got the floor going. It took 5 tri-axle dump trucks of limestone, 100 tons in total, to fill the shop and bring it to level so the concrete could be poured.

We decided to put in radiant heat, so that put a little delay in getting the floor poured. We used double bubble bubble white insulation on top of the fill. This stuff is made for going under cement. Next we put down 6×6 wire mesh. This stuff comes in rolls 5′ wide by 150′ long. It’s a bear to work with. It really likes to coil back up, so you need to bend it back the other way. It took 2 1/2 rolls of this stuff.

Once that was down, we laid out where the walls were going to go, and spray painted it on the floor. The 6″ square grid of wire made this really easy.

Next we put the tubing down. Again, not fun to work with. I got two 1000 foot rolls of oxygen barrier PEX tubing. This stuff is rolled out and spaced one foot apart. I ran four loops, two for the main shop, one for the weld and finish shops, and office, bathroom, and mechanical room. Marisa and Sam did most of the zip tying. It had to be tied every foot. 1800 feet of tubing, 1800 zip ties.

Here’s a couple shots of the floor ready for cement.

Looking In

Looking North

Looking East

Looking West

Tubing and Plumbing

Plumbing and Tubing

We had all of this done on Monday. Tuesday the concrete guys came out and did some prep work, and Thursday they poured it. It took about 2 1/2 cement truck loads to pour the floor, and another 1/2 load to pour the apron in front.