Once all the beaurocratic b.s. was put into its place...construction began with a flurry and was then hit in the head with all kinds of weather delays...it was now well into the first of March (we thought we would begin the end of November) and in Oklahoma the spring is always wet. The day construction began it was raining but not so bad as to keep them from leveling the lot and bringing in the "fill" to level the pad area.
A week later caissons were drilled for the upright supports...they then set for two weeks with water in them...were bailed out twice then finally after about a month the uprights were placed, braced and concrete poured into place.
We poured the slab for the building after the stucture was up and skinned out. The reasons for this were as follows...we saved a lot of money not having to construct forms for the concrete... by now we knew the time for concrete was going to hit in the hotest time of the year and the added shade from the structure would insure a more controlled pour...a tight seal would be assured with the concrete poured right up against the structural walls. All these wisdoms came from the building contractor and while they made sense at the time if I had it to do over I think I would have opted for a pre poured slab...the reason being our concrete contractor was not as atentive as we had hoped and there were a few voids found after the pour around the door sills and nothing can be done about it now. (nothing structually serious just agravating)
It took nearly another two weeks of bad weather before the structure could be continued and with on and off weather patterns the construction seemed to be going together at a snails pace then one day it cleared and the contractor finished it all up (even with the fits and starts of the north overhead door the city didn't want us to have) In just a matter of days. All the trusses were build (from scratch) out of 2"x2"x1/4" angle and spanned 65' (north to south)...they were built in halves (32'6" each) at his shop then transported to the site and were placed one by one attached in the center to an upright 4"x4"x 22' upright column (6 columns in all spanning 45 east to west /or front to back).The entire structure is welded together with all the uprights 3"x3"x1/4" Angle at the corners and 2"x2" uprights between. All the purlins (horizontal stringers) were also 2"x2"x1/4".
Even with the sporotic construction the total time on the site for the contractor ended up being only about 5 days with a crew of 4. (Tho it didn't seem that way at the time)
The next step turned out to be the most time consuming... the contractor was ready to put the "skin" on when we found out the city was renigging on their agreement to use a "spray foam" insulation ...after spending the best part of 2 weeks trying to find a suitible foam... we gave in for a vinyl back (appropriate for a sign shop don't you think?)fibreglass insulation. Code requires an R-19 rating for the roof and an R-13 for the walls...once it was approved the contractor decided to use an R-19 continuous membrane from the ground on one side over the top to the ground on the other side.A mistake for him (the rolls weighed about 400 lbs each) and made them nearly impossible to handle and hard to screw down on the side walls because the material was nearly 6" thick...but a god send for us (the insulating qualities have already proven above and beyond the call).
I need to mention here that the city would allow the "foam" if we would sheet rock right up against it... which was never stated in the original proposal and would have added nearly $10,000. to the budget to "rock" the ceiling (that hadn't been accounted for due to the cities refusal to be specific). I'd like to mention here that the "foam" was suitable for the cities renovation of one of their city buildings (sans sheet rock) but we were told since our situation was "new construction" ...not the same rules applied. (isn't this fun?)
Just as the contractor was ready to "skin" out and insulate, the spring winds started and we were at a stall once again...the roof panels are a continuous piece of metal 32'6" long and 24"wide and they had to be handled at the same time the roll of insulation had to be stretched and applied. Having worked outside in the wind most my life I understood this problem and never once suggested they try such a dangerous move,everything came to a halt now for over a month and a half waiting for a wind free day.
Next ...Chapter 6 / Construction "Rock n' roll"
[ October 06, 2002, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: Steve Shortreed ]
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
Monte, don't let it get to you, as much as it may already be doing. If there's one thing I am learning is that God slows things down for a reason, whether we like it or not. Besides, now you will be "tornado" proof!
-------------------- Deb Fowler
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney (1901-1966) Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Hi Monte, yes I am enjoying you story. I think I must have missed chapter 4 though I rarely miss a day, so I'm surprised. I will look it up.
You may want to put together 5 links to the other chapters, then you could easily copy, paste, & add one new link on each chapter, so any late-comers (and those next year & later discovering it via "search") can get the whole story.
I tried to send you the following email Monte, but it came back to me (The main message was the code for the above list of links followed by:) It is easy to edit it. After you paste it into the boards post entry field, put you cursor just before the [/list] tag, then in the ubb code buttons down below where you type you will see "list item" click this, then in the box that pops up you type "Chapter 6" & hit OK. Then after you've created the Chapter 6 thread, copy the URL from your browser while on that page. Then back in the post editing screen where you,ve added the list item click the UBB button for URL. In the box that comes up, paste the URL and click OK. Then another box comes up & here is where you type "finish work, painting, or moving in or whatever" this will become the blue "link" text.
Play around with it. Anyone who can put up a shop could do this in their sleep (speaking of which, I think it's about time I went home to bed...
Aloha
P.S. Good story, keep it up!
Let me know if you want the code to paste elsewhere, & what email to use.
[ October 08, 2002, 07:33 AM: Message edited by: Doug Allan ]
Thanks again for posting the story of the journey to your building. The delays are nothing short of astounding!
I had posted earlier about our project hopefully going ahead soon. Well we were stopped in our tracks before we got the chance to start. The land we were hoping to build on was leased... only we had to buy the right to lease it first and then lease it. Our offer to lease was returned the other day... at eight times what we were willing to pay. downright unreasonable in our view.
So we are now considering plan B... buying some nice acreage and sort of retiring. We'll still run the golf in summers but the rest of the year we'll play on our own land. And just know that we'll not build something ordinary.
Plans are underway now. I can imagine how squirrely I'd be if we run into the kind of troubles and delays you ran into on your project.
To be in it now and enjoying it must make it really enjoyable after all the torubles you went through. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8762 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
(speaking of which, I think it's about time I went home to bed...
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