Shop progress

[lexrex]

Mark really got me thinking about lumber. My new philosophy is to leave every piece of wall empty up to about 36-40". So I'll put the lathe on the wall with the current lumber rack and put more lumber storage over the miter station/counter.

At least for now

[imahic]

I guess I forgot you said it was a basement shop. I guess that would limit what you can build down there. Basements are very scarce in this part of the country so we tend to not understand people who do have them....lol. Most basements around here double as storm shelters during tornado season. Look forward to seeing what you come up with. Based on my own experience, Leo's advise is true.....you WILL change things....lol

Mike

[sawduster]

Not to hijack the thread but . . .
The whole idea of basement access got me to thinkin about the couple places I have lived where we had a basement. One of the places had the first floor elevated from ground level about 3 feet or so. The stairs to the basement were actually two flights with a 180 degree turn on a landing 4 or 5 steps down from the first floor. These 4-5 steps down took you to ground level, and there was a door to the outside on that landing, which facilitated moving big things to and from the basement.

The other place with a basement had a single long flight of stairs that was accessed off of a short hallway between the kitchen and the dining area. Who ever had designed the house apparently considered access to the basement for large stuff as well. The back door to the house was straight across that small hallway from the door leading to the basement. Both of these places had been built years and years ago and obviously (to me, anyway) the designers had taken access to the basement as a serious issue. Wonder if that is still the case today in most new house construction. Not much to go by here in this neck of the woods as we have virtually no frost line to contend with, so basements in modern homes are almost unheard of.

[lexrex]

Basements are common in this area, I don't know why. They were pretty common in the places I lived on the east coast as well.

The house we have is a multilevel. There is a master bedroom and a TV room below it. The Master is only 1/2 story off the first floor and the TV room is sunken into the ground 1/2. The basement has 1 wall to the TV room, so there's a 1/2 wall of block and then framing and drywall.

Access to the basement is via the lower level TV room and it's a straight 1/2 stair to that level, you can come into the full room if you need to turn around and then another 1/2 stair to the basement floor. If I am bringing in materials I'll be trudging through the house. We'd have preferred a walkout basement but the lots we had access too left us with no yard space for the kids/dog in that case. So we went with a flatter lot and no walkout. Of course, if I were made of money I could sink a staircase into the yard but that's not happening.

I have an uncle with a huge house in VA. The basement was finished out and gave them another 2000 square feet I believe (6k total). They did a 14 course basement netting them 9' ceilings down there, it's HUGE. The builder sunk a concrete staircase, double wide. You could basically drive a small car into their basement. Talk about IDEAL!! Of course that comes at a hugely steep price tag as well.

[sawduster]

Basements are common in this area, I don't know why.

Up nawth ya'll got frost lines that are 3 feet and more below the ground surface and they've gotta put the footings for the foundations of buildings below that level to prevent heaving and breaking of the foundations from season to season. So, if they gotta excavate down 3 feet or more, they might as well go down a few feet deeper and put in a basement. For the cost of a little digging and a few courses of cinder blocks (or a few more yards of concrete for walls) they can pretty much double the space of the house (and most places don't tax those unfinished basements).

And dat's why ya'll up nawth got basements and most newer constructions down here in de south don't. Used to be some houses built down here with basements, but 'lectricity and refrigerators removed the need for root cellars for storin tators and the like. And folks don't do storm shelters as havens from tornadoes so much any more, either. ;D

[lexrex]

Jan 18, 2010 11:18:56 GMT -6 sawduster said:

Basements are common in this area, I don't know why.

Up nawth ya'll got frost lines that are 3 feet and more below the ground surface and they've gotta put the footings for the foundations of buildings below that level to prevent heaving and breaking of the foundations from season to season. So, if they gotta excavate down 3 feet or more, they might as well go down a few feet deeper and put in a basement. For the cost of a little digging and a few courses of cinder blocks (or a few more yards of concrete for walls) they can pretty much double the space of the house (and most places don't tax those unfinished basements).

And dat's why ya'll up nawth got basements and most newer constructions down here in de south don't. Used to be some houses built down here with basements, but 'lectricity and refrigerators removed the need for root cellars for storin tators and the like. And folks don't do storm shelters as havens from tornadoes so much any more, either. ;D

I didn't put 2 and 2 together there. I assumed there was some other reason to go below the 3'. You still see many houses around here with just the crawl space but digging the full basement is just another few hours with the backhoe and another 1/2 day laying block. Makes sense!

[Leo Voisine]

Jan 18, 2010 12:02:49 GMT -6 lexrex said:

Jan 18, 2010 11:18:56 GMT -6 sawduster said:

Basements are common in this area, I don't know why.

Up nawth ya'll got frost lines that are 3 feet and more below the ground surface and they've gotta put the footings for the foundations of buildings below that level to prevent heaving and breaking of the foundations from season to season. So, if they gotta excavate down 3 feet or more, they might as well go down a few feet deeper and put in a basement. For the cost of a little digging and a few courses of cinder blocks (or a few more yards of concrete for walls) they can pretty much double the space of the house (and most places don't tax those unfinished basements).

And dat's why ya'll up nawth got basements and most newer constructions down here in de south don't. Used to be some houses built down here with basements, but 'lectricity and refrigerators removed the need for root cellars for storin tators and the like. And folks don't do storm shelters as havens from tornadoes so much any more, either. ;D

I didn't put 2 and 2 together there. I assumed there was some other reason to go below the 3'. You still see many houses around here with just the crawl space but digging the full basement is just another few hours with the backhoe and another 1/2 day laying block. Makes sense!

Actually - there are LOTS and LOTS of houses built on slabs. round here. There are even houses built with just a crawlspace - though not common.

I don't think basements are just because of frostline. Years ago - say even when I was a kid - houses used to have a coal bin in real close proximity to the furnace. Coal was delivered in a coal truck and filled into the coal bin via a chute from the coal truck. The coal was then shoveled into the furnace to heat the house.

Over the years most houses were converted to oil heat. Safe, Reliable - oil heat. The coal bin was removed and the oil tank was installed - and the furnace now had a oil fired gun installed.

Basements were a part of life - and it was just part of a plan to build a house with a basement.

Basements are now looked upon as useful. Storage, extra room, can even be converted to living space. They are desired.

However, they are NOT mandantory - and a lot of money can be saved by not building a basement.

[sawduster]

As you say, Leo, in the olden days there were other reasons that basements were necessary, and lots of older houses here in the south had them. Down here those reasons were generally for root cellars or maybe storm shelters. Not much coal was used down here for heating as most winter storms could be weathered with wood burning fireplaces or stoves. Oil burners were also few and far between, but the delivery of plentiful natural gas allowed the installation of small "in the wall" gas heaters in each room, then later for central heating with either gas or electricity. Air movers/heaters, along with water heaters, fit quite easily into a six foot by three foot or so "closet".

Had a friend when I lived in El Paso who lived in an older house that predated water heaters. The house was pier and beam and had a crawl space. When the owner at the time went to modernize the house with a water heater, he dug out in the crawl space at about the center of the house deep enough to "install" a water heater sitting on a pallet, then ran the plumbing to get the water to the heater and from there to where the hot water was needed. Venting for the gas water heater was just barely to code as far as the required slope of the vent pipe running to side of the crawl space. Me and another fella helped to replace that water heater when it went bad. Talk about a PITA getting the old one out and the new one in.

I would venture to say that those slab built houses without basements up there are floated on top of concrete piers that extend below the frost line, or some other method of getting around the heaving of the ground beneath them.

Basements are quite handy for adding living space, but down here there is no frost line to contend with so there is no "need" for excavating. Cheaper to add a second story than to dig a whole deep enough to add that extra space underneath.

My house sits on land that slopes about three feet or so from one front corner to the diagonal rear corner. Rather than digging out to level, the builder used wooden forms to bring the back corner up to level, then back filled with the white clay found around here, then compacted the clay. They then dug trenches about three feet deep, about every ten feet running from front to back and from side to side creating a sort of checkerboard pattern of trenches. These trenches then had rebar installed which was then connected to the rebar mesh laid in for the slab. Then the entire thing was filled with concrete. All of this was not for frost heaving, but because of the limestone beneath the surface which has a tendency to slide. This sort of construction keeps the slab from cracking if some support from underneath is removed by slipping of the ground beneath the house.

[art3427]

I'd put the air compressor under the ts outfeed table. More centrally located meaning shorter hoses to deal with. (*I'm Assuming it's a pancaake style.) You could put the BS in the same spot set perpendicular to the wall and have plenty of room for sawing long pieces. Another query. How many of these tools are on wheels?

[lexrex]

Feb 8, 2010 9:23:28 GMT -6 art3427 said:

I'd put the air compressor under the ts outfeed table. More centrally located meaning shorter hoses to deal with. (*I'm Assuming it's a pancaake style.) You could put the BS in the same spot set perpendicular to the wall and have plenty of room for sawing long pieces. Another query. How many of these tools are on wheels?

Art you read my mind I don't have a compressor shown because I was thinking just that, it will be in the base of the outfeed which will double as a work table. I'll probably have a few pieces of masonite to throw on top to protect it. Also, some sort of insulation to muffle the compressor.

The planer, jointer, router, OSS, dust collector, and table saw are currently on wheels. This is because I'm coming from a much smaller space.

[imahic]

Here's a link to a shop vac silencer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKkbq1fcKz4

I've been thinking about doing something similar to what you mentioned as well.