Workshop Build: Day 2

I couldn't work on the workshop the last 2 weeks because of family parties and such, but yesterday I was able to get working on it again.

It was great to have Jeff, Paul and Anthony help at various times through the day to make some much needed progress on it.  Of course, there is much more to do, but it is starting to take shape and I am very excited!!

We started the day by laying out the rest of pressure treated bottom plates so that we know where all of the walls will go.  We used my carpenter's square to square up our corners.  The walls are definitely "closing" in the workshop, but being that it is large, it doesn't really matter.

During the week, I built the bottom landing.  The reason I put a landing and didn't just leave the bottom step is that since I only have 1 door into the workshop, I wanted to make it as large as possible.  By making a landing, I can put in a 36" door.  Originally I was going to put a door that swung into the workshop, but after looking at the code about doors, I had to modify it.  The code states that if the door opens over a landing that it can't be more than a 1.5" "step".  So, since I don't want it swinging into the stairway because it seems like a hazard, I decided to put in a pocket door.  I LOVE pocket doors anyway, so it was nice to actually finally have one.

 

Here is a picture of the staircase with the railing removed.  During the building of the landing, I had to move the supports for the stairs.  I didn't want to disassemble the shelves, so I just cut my pieces to fit in between, but to land on top of each other to still have continuous load.  I had to move the stair supports so that I could build a wall directly against the stairs.

This shows the closet for the dust collection system and air compressor.  I will use soundproof "Roxul" insulation to help keep the noise down.  There will be a 36" door to get in and out of the closet.

This will be another closet for the electrical and plumbing.  The base that you probably find odd is where the sink will be going.  I wanted to secure the sink to the floor.  I am actually going to have to build a platform for the sink to sit on so that I can get the necessary 1/4" per foot needed for the drain on the sink so that it doesn't back up.

We built the wall on the floor and actually attached the sheet rock to the wall before we put the wall up.  This made it so much easier than having to try and attach drywall between our wall and the stair stringers and screw it into the studs.  Since we knew that the pocket door was going to be on the right side of the wall, we left the full 8' sheet without cutting the end of it off.  Then after installing the pocket door frame, we were able to screw the drywall to the frame.

Note:  Be careful when screwing drywall into the frame.  You don't want to use too long of screws otherwise you will screw into the door or scratch it as it opens and closes.

There were 2 different types of pocket door frames at Lowe's.  The first one was $60 and required assembly.  The 2nd was $80 and was pre-made.  I went with the pre-made one and am VERY happy I did this.  It made the installation a breeze.  Basically, you attach the top header to the pocket door frame and then hang the frame.  Level and plumb the frame.  Attach the brackets to the door and install.  Voila!! 

 Closed door!  BEAUTIFUL!! 

 The sink.  You can now see that I will have to lift the sink to get a working drain.

The wall behind the air compressor closet.

Looking down.  This was before fastening the drywall to the pocket frame.  Matches up to the other drywall perfectly and will make it easier to tape and mud.

So, you can see that we made a lot of progress, but there is still a lot of walls to build.  Electrical to run and plumbing to connect.  But progress is progress!

Now that my wife has seen the progress, she has already started discussing putting a craft area on the other side of the workshop area at the bottom of the stairs.  I think we should have enough left over studs to complete this.  We may need to pick up some more pressure treated bottom plates.