Mopar Muscle Association UK

Figure I’ll start with this thread, since I spend more time working on upgrading this than I do on actual project cars.

Welcome to my workshop, or at least it will be when I’ve finished it.

32’x48’ pole barn. I thought it was going to be an easy upgrade when we moved in, insulate the walls, epoxy the floor, stuff a gas space heater in it.... nope.

The Floor:

So looking at the property the previous owner had used the barn for a wood shop to chop logs down for the wood fireplace in the house (different story), thus the concrete floor was covered in about 1/4” of sawdust.

Once I swept it out I realized the floor was complete junk. Now my entire shop budget was in jeopardy to replace the floor.

If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it so I can park a tank on it. What we have now is 6” of 4500psi concrete with fiber mesh and rebar. Then I coated it with something that isn’t epoxy, supposed to be better. We’ll wait and see on that.

What you are looking at here is 50 yards of concrete!

WOW Just WOW


Would you like to adopt me

hello

how are you


Dave

nice

room for a couple of motors in there

Insulation - Phase 1:

Now I have spent all my money on the floor things are going to really slow down. Gone is the ambition of having other people complete the project.

Because Michigan has less than optimal temperatures for much of the year insulation is a must if I ever want to use this shop. Those of you that remember my Indiana barn will recall tales of tools and parts sweating whilst running the heater in winter and the complete inability to even go in it during summer! A couple of you will even remember my first barn when we moved to Michigan, it was perfect! Full insulation with a full hvac system, lovely!

The plan for this one is to land somewhere between the 2. That means less serious hvac and more insulation to make up for it.

The easiest way to get the job done here is to use spray in insulation, but that stuff is horrible, if you ever want to change the wall or roof panels you basically have to chisel them out. I could frame the walls then use blow in insulation, but knowing the local rodent population that would end up making a perfect home for them.

So I decided to do it the hard way. 1.5” closed cell foam (with foil face) between the girts (or is it purlins) of the walls to effectively seal the outside surface. That prevents the rodent incursion, plus the foil face is halfway to a vapor barrier. Then frame the inside and add batt insulation. I made a spreadsheet and everything, this works out the cheapest way to 30+R.

Picures show the phase 1 closed cell foam installation. Because this barn was hand built over 30 years ago nothing is really straight, so each panel has to be custom measured and cut.

Phase 1 Complete - On this wall at least.

Phase 2 Insulation - Framing and Batts.

With the outer walls done with the closed cell and all the edges sealed with tape, it’s time to start framing and putting the batts in.

Bear in mind the framing is providing no structural support, it’s just there to hold the insulation in. Before anyone points out how crap my building work is

Phase 2 Complete - On this wall at least.

Insulation Phase 3 - Inner walls.

Pretty straight forward here. A flammable 7/16” OSB to cover the flammable insulation. Perfect for a place I intend to weld and grind in!

We’ll fix that later.

Hand nailing all this is making me reassess my dislike of electric/air nail guns.

Aw that's just not fair...

morgan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 20 9:52 pm Aw that's just not fair...

an you thought you had a fair bit of room!

Wow is the word I think.

RobTwin wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 20 12:14 am

morgan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 20 9:52 pm Aw that's just not fair...

an you thought you had a fair bit of room!

Imagine how many rusty parts of broken Charger I could litter round THAT place !

Its the space around the car I'd love. Imagine being able to just work around it, with the doors wide open etc.
Nope. I stick with my first assessment. That's not fair !!!!

download/file.php?mode=view&id=129771

Almost the size of mine !!!
Fabulous, your a lucky guy, most repairs shop's aint that big here