INFRASTRUCTURE WORK, INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT BUT

it is the most tedious, patience testing, sometimes hard situation in doing a buildout. Then add in doing this in the 10 deg weather and no heat in the shop yet and the time do the simplest operation probably doubles. Just adds to the frustration. Makes it go very slowly.  

GREAT!

Now that infrastructure work on the outside is done (boring, hard, and very tedious which makes it spectacularly unexciting!) I'm going back to work on the inside. I'm continuing with the electrical and at the same time going to complete the work above the ceiling. This will house the exhaust system, some additional lighting, alittle structural work for the trusses I built and installed and blowing in about 18 in worth of insulation I ask myself why I'm putting myself through all this, well when it comes time to fabricate great race car parts for our great race car it will be done in a great shop! Sure does test a persons patience tho!

IT'S ALL BACK FILLED!

It's all back filled! Lines are in the ground (except for a short distance for cable & phone) the back filling was hard work mostly because I did alot of it in the rain. The mud sticks to everything, the shovel gets heavy, your boots weigh 15 lbs. each and I was getting wet. Anyhow it's done for now and let it all settle until spring. Also had Beaudry moved the propane tank, installed new gas line to the house and shop, supplied a new regulator for the shop. Took the gent about three hours to do all this. Charged very little for labor. I paid for the gas line, fittings, and the regulator. I feel it was a bargain since it took so long and he used a small boom truck!

our view off our deck. The propane tank is soon to be moved.

Moving the propane tank. A very good gent from Beaudry moved the tank. He also intalled gas line for the shop and house, installed a new regulator for the shop.

Moved the propane tank about 150 ft to the backside of the shop. This whole process took about 3 hours to complete. It was a very good price since labor was very inexpensive and I paid for only the gas line, fittings & regulator and he used their small boom truck!

A very nice view now with no propane tank.

Tank is now set on 4 concrete bricks that I leveled. Here the trench is back filled and the new shop regulator is visible.

Visible here is the 5 in corrugated tube with the insulated pex going into the shop. I will wrap the pex with insulation for more protection.

This the cable and phone lines. I will dig this trench in the spring by hand. This doesn't need to be nearly as deep and the distance is much shorter. I couldn't get the trencher in here because it might have gotten stuck getting to close to the pond.

The back filled trench going to the house. at the Y, going left is the gas and right is the phone & cable.

All back filled (ti was alot of work simply because I did it in the rain) Just pex to the junction, the pex, gas cable & phone all in the same trench until about the wheel barrow, the cable & phone go off to the shop, gas & pex continue.

Gas to the house, cable & phone to the right-bottom of  pic.

Cable & phone to the house.

PEX IS IN THE GROUND!

Got most of the pex in the ground yesterday. It's tough to handle because it's stiff in the cool weather. I'll back fill as much as I can now, but ultimately finish that in the spring. To build a high quality, energy efficient, inexpensive to operate shop, takes time. By making use of the wood boiler, in-floor heat along with a lot of insulation in the walls and ceiling, this will be a energy efficient shop.

This where the pex comes into the shop.The yellow tubes are the infloor pex for the floor heat. When I get it finished there will be a 3 port (6 port counting in & out lines) manifold with isolation valves & temp gauges, a thermostatically controlled pump, a relay box and a mixing valve all mounted on the wall here.

This is an outside view coming into the shop. I'll get some help to finish getting the pex inside. It's to stiff to handle alone. The trench going to the right is for the gas line. It shares the same trench as the water lines. The propane tank will sit just to the right of the picture. The trench from the back of the shop is for the gas line from the tank going into the shop for the backup ceiling mount heater.

135 ft away is the boiler. The cool weather makes handling the pex difficult. Ground is frosty about 2 inches deep, trench is about 18 to 24 inches deep. I'll try to back fill as much of the trench as I can but ultimately finish it in the spring.

Boiler sits on this concrete pad, with a formed area for the pex lines to get in. The green lines are for the house where there is a heat exchanger mounted in the furnace plenum. Here is seen the continuously running pump (only draws .7 amps so it very energy efficient and spins at over 3000 rpm!) Ball valves on both side of the pump so it can be serviced with very minimal water loss. The new pump will go on the flanges just above the incoming lines. The silver wrap is the insulation. One line will be shortened and connected to the ball valve just to the right. So the pumps are attached to the high ports taking hot water from the boiler and the lower ports are the cooler returns. Inside the panel are the electronics for the boiler, wiring schematics, on-off switch, micro processor for draft door operation, fuse, pump outlets, and temp sensor for the water in the boiler.

PEX IS HERE

The pex arrived today. I saved about $60.00 by having it shipped to a business in town. Shipper wanted $120.00 to ship it to a home address. So now we got 135ft of insulated pex sitting in the entry way! The whole thing weighs only 120lbs, so I unloaded it off my trailer myself. Two 1 inch water lines, wrapped 3 times with insulation, inside 4 inch corrugated plastic tubing. Bury the whole thing under ground in the trench. Heat loss is minimal @ less than 1 deg per 100 feet. I'm starting to get excited! Another step closer to heat in the shop! The end goal is to have really nice shop to base our race car operation inside.

DUG THE TRENCHES

Dug the trenches for most of the under ground stuff the day after Thanksgiving. Rented a Toro Dingo with the trencher attachment. Worked great just kind of cumbersome, can't maneuver in close quarters very well, and does not turn very good when trenching. The turning when trenching may have been more related to the slippery grass than anything. Does great in a straight line. The only trench not dug is the one just past the garage for the the phone & cable. I didn't want to get to close to the pond since the tracks were already spinning on the grass.(didn't want to get stuck). I did do some by hand where it curves around into the boiler and back by the shop where the water lines enter.  Anyhow there is the layout for the underground stuff, just need to get it all in the ground now.

INGROUND STUFF FOR THE SHOP

A lot will happen in the next two - three weeks. I will be doing the under ground infrastructure install for the shop. Along with that I'm having the propane tank moved to the back of the shop (150 ft). I'll be putting in the ground, 130 ft of hot water insulated pex lines from the wood boiler for the infloor heat, approximately 175 ft of gas line, 150 ft of both telephone and cable. I'll rent a trencher for half a day or so for all the trenching. Then the attention turns to hooking all that stuff up. I'll start first with the gas line for the heater in the shop so I can get some heat in there, then turn to the infloor heat. I'll need to build an area on the wall at the back of the shop to hold all the equipment & lines for the floor heat. It'll have a stainless steel manifold with three water circuits (8 water connections, a supply in & out, 2 lines for each circuit, with flow & temp gauges), a thermostatically controlled Taco pump, mixing valve, and associated wiring for all this. They're not exciting, (inground stuff never is) but here are some pics to see whats happening.

 Boiler on the right, trench will go all the way to the back corner of the shop. Just past the wood pile on the left is where the trench will split off for the cable & phone lines to enter the shop.

 Standing in front of the boiler, the trench will go up towards the house around the Oak tree to the right, near where the shovel handle is. This for the gas. Just out of sight to the left is where the propane tank is presently located.

 The stake at the bottom of the pic is where the trench will "T" into the long trench. This is cable and phone line

 At the bottom of the pic you can see the top of a stake. This again is for "T" into the long trench up to the house. On the side of the house are the boxes for phone and where the cable will be picked up.

 The side of the boiler is open, you can see the Taco pump & water lines that presently go into the house. Visible is the connections for the shop with valves. I'll have to dig by hand here, remove the lower side of the blue panel beneath the open door to get the water lines in. There is a little micro processor that runs a solenoid for the draft door on the front door of the boiler . Right now the draft door cycles open at 175 deg and closes at 185 deg. The max temp is adjustable, I may raise it up to 195 deg. The 10 deg swing is not adjustable so if I raise the max the lower temp automatically gets raised also. The yellow stuff is spayed foam insulation from the factory, the entire water tank is insulated. This holds approx 385 gallons of water. That alot of water to keep that hot. Underneath the black plastic is all hard wood we cut and split ourselves. It's all walnut from downed trees in a walnut grove located on a relatives farm. We're going to fire the boiler up on Thanksgiving day.

 This is the view from the corner of the shop. The bricks are where the propane tank is going to be located. I made sure they are level and parallel with the shop.

Drawing of the trench layout. All the utilities will be in the same trench for a short distance directly behind the garage.

BEFORE IT'S REALLY COLD

The next part of the shop-home improvement project will require some coordinating. We're going to move the propane tank to the back of the shop. It's in full view of the deck off the dining room right now, so it's going to be out of sight when done. There are several things going to happen when we do this. Along with the gas line being retrenched under ground, the insulated water lines from boiler to the shop for the infloor heat, phone lines and cable antenna are all going to be buried. we will need to work with the gas company since they will actually move the tank. I will need to rent a trencher to do all this and work with gas company schedule for timing. I also will need to order and have shipped the insulated water lines. It's going to be about 110 feet from the boiler to the shop for the water lines & another 60 feet for the gas line. The cable & phone lines will split off from the shared trench with their own and enter the shop 40 feet closer. Let's hope it doesn't get to cold to soon!

Just watched the F1 race, got some inspiration, now it's off to the shop and back to reality.

AIR MOVEMENT - AIR EXCHANGE

One of the decisions I made when building this shop is to have very good air movement. I'm going to install 4 ceiling fans with wall mounted adjustable speed knobs. These fans are 5ft in diameter so their larger. This means that they can be on a low speed and still move a fairly large amount of air. This means a couple of things; first - they'll be quite and still move alot of air, second - with low rpms means less power draw, cheaper to operate. The goal is always to make this building as inexpensive to operate as possible. (another reason we decided to heat the shop with wood since there is heat water tubes in the floor) Sometimes this means a larger upfront cost. You'll be seeing this when I install a  lot of LED lighting. LED fixtures are more expensive, but far cheaper to operate. Another air movement- air exchange idea I'm installing is a exhaust system with several vents located in the ceiling and also hookups for running vehicles in the shop. Again I'll have a speed adjustable exhaust fan. Each ceiling vent will be able to be closed off easily from the floor. By being selective, this also will leads to lesser operating costs. I'm a huge fan of air movement in a shop so one doesn't get overcome by fumes and such and just plane feels better. I'll post location of the fans over on FASTDAD'S facebook page.    https://www.facebook.com/Fastdad-132790816771142/

GOOD MORNING

It's going to be a great day to work on the shop!

Got the exhaust finished up. The hardest part was getting the stack straight vertically.  Several trips up and down the ladder for tools and modifing the stack bracket on the roof sofet. The rest was getting the placement of the heater correct.

STRATEGY BEHIND ALL THIS

We (FASTMOM & I) wanted to move to the country for along time for the more active life style, see wildlife and just generally more peaceful. In order to do this the dollars had to work just right, needed to find the "just right" fixer upper and still be livable, with some sort of shop, either ready to go or something I could make into a shop. This property fit our goals. We've always been environmentally conscious so with the wood burning boiler being a renewable energy heating source was a real scoop for us. We have LP also but that will be our backup.  Purchasing a used outdoor boiler with enough capacity to heat our house, FASTMOM'S garage and the shop meant we had to get a good chain saw, log splitter, and a source for logs. Now that we're in (we moved in January this year when it was like 15 to 20 below!) the goal is to get the shop built out enough to get heat in it before the deep cold sets in. It's going to be close, I'm working on it all the time and the temp is starting to cool off pretty good. The pic is our boiler this past winter, heating just the house. I'll post more pics about the shop buildout and house improvements.

Since my last post we closed on our property 2 1/2 acres including a good sized pond covering about 1/3 of the property. A few out buildings and a 1200 sqft shop with heat in the floor. It's never been used as anything and the in floor heat has never been utilized. I'm in the process of doing a buildout to finish the interior and make use of the in floor heat. Three reasons for purchasing this was the shop potential, the property setting and the price. The house and shop are setup for an outdoor wood burning boiler so we purchased a used one. Being in the country we have a propane tank we use as a backup if needed. The whole strategy behind this move I'll cover in another post. Since I'm retired time is my best friend to finish all this at a very resonable cost. Here are some pics to see what we have and what I'm doing. The end goal with the shop is to have a fully self supporting Formula Racing operation.