New Garage

[wayneh]

OK, we finally signed a contract for some additional garage space last week. I need to trench from my house to the garage, and I want to make sure I put all the utilities in that trench that I need. Here is what I am thinking.
1) Power (of course...) 100 amp sub panel
2) Air (from my two stage compressor in the current shop)
3) Phone
4) Internet
5) Propane
6) Water

Am I missing anything?

[75Crew]

I'd put in an extra piece of 2" PVC conduit with a nylon string in it, just in case you want to pull something else in later. Much cheaper now than then. I'm assuming you are putting the other stuff, especially the wires, in conduit. Of course, the power cable needs to be in a separate conduit from the low voltage wires. The phone, cable, internet, etc. can run in the same conduit. If you have a problem in the future, it's much easier to pull the old wire out and pull a new one in than having to figure out where to dig it up and repair it. (Been down that road before.)

[Desoto61]

If you don't do the empty conduit I'd suggest a piece of coax in case you wanted cable out there to catch the game while you're playing. Maybe a second piece of Cat5e/6. It can be used for carrying just about any type of data should the need arise.

[grover26]

Ditto what 75Crew said. It was common practice on my job to always add an extra conduit, or two, when running utilities.

When I had a wall open in my house, I ran wiring to the upstairs for future circuits, if ever needed.

[wayneh]

I'm certainly going to add extra conduit. On top of the electric, propane, air, and water I'll put in two four inch electrical conduits. Right now I have a couple of sticks to get to the local mill. I don't need all this wood, anyone need some poplar or oak? One large oak, and a couple of poplars.

Wayne

[Ron in Indiana]

White oak or red? White oak makes a nice bed floor in a truck once it's dried.

[wayneh]

The wood is white oak. Here are a few more shots on the way to the mill.

[W_A_Watson_II]

Ah, White Oak, Nice. I ended up having to use Red Oak on my Stake Bed, but it came out great anyway. Good Luck.

[wayneh]

Yea... we have a lot of poplar and red oak around here. This tree was straight as they come and no branches below 60 feet. Too nice to make it into fire wood!

Wayne

[Doc Dave]

I used local white oak for my bed, finished with marine spar varnish, and it turned out beautiful, imho.
I have promised Gordon to do an article on making one's own bed and will get around to it in the next few months I hope.
The conduit is a very important thing that you and the others mentioned. I did not do that with my wiring to the horse barn I built (100 yards from the house), and a lightening strike to ground fried one of the 110 legs out to it. SInce it was not in conduit I could not pull it, and the electric contractor could not find the "break" even with his sensing equipment. Lesson learned.

[wayneh]

OK, We're putting n two 4" conduits, plus water, air, and propane. Foundation walls are up now, just need to wait out this pesky Hurricane everyone is sweating....

Wayne

[wayneh]

After loading the first load of these sticks for the mill I took the easy route and had the excavator operator help out... It took him five minutes to put five sticks on instead of me fighting them for two hours... The second shot is the local mill (Garman's in Crownsville MD). I'm not a wood worker, but I wanted some oak for the work benches. As it turns out, they need more poplar than oak, so milling one load of oak was more than a fair trade for the two poplar trees. Interesting, they said each trailer load of poplar is worth about $100-$150.

[wayneh]

After some measuring and surveying, a bit of digging and a lot of concrete the walls are up. Our land drops off quite a bit in the back where this goes, we're going to need a lot of fill material. We're also planning on five concrete grade beams, three front to back and two horizontal.

I guess we'll see what this pesky hurricane Sandy has in store for us tomorrow... We were hoping to back-fill Tuesday... That won't happen now!

Wayne

[Bruce]

Weather ?

I have garage/shed envy!
On another note,
Are you experiencing any weather yet Wayne? So far just a bit more than an occasional stiff breeze.

[wayneh]

No weather yet. I expect our walls will be pool walls by Tuesday night.... What can you do?

Yes, I am very lucky to be able to get this garage going. My wife is the one who has been pushing for it!

Wayne