Phase 3: Finish
Work
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Shop
Planning
Phase 1: Site Prep and Foundation
Phase 2: Framing
Phase 3: Finish Work
Phase 4: Shop Setup |
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Insulation and Wall Coverings
Early in the planning
process, I decided to seek an insulation contractor to
do the insulation in the building. Costwise, it is
often less expensive--or the same--to hire this work out
than it is to buy the materials and do it oneself.
When building my
shop in North Yarmouth a few years ago, I was unable
to find an insulation contractor who would even consider
bidding the job; all were so busy with the local
building boom that they weren't even entertaining
one-time jobs. So I installed the insulation
myself, a thankless job. This time, I vowed, would
be different, and fortunately Bob knew a good insulation
contractor, and sought an estimate from him for the job.
I never even hesitated to accept.
For a while, I wondered
if the insulation would ever be installed. Delay
after delay plagued the construction, and though I
worked hard myself to ensure that all interior work was
complete in plenty of time for the insulation, no firm
booking date was ever presented. At the beginning
of January, it seemed as if I still might have to wait a
couple weeks for the job to begin. |
 Then,
just at the lowest point, things looked up. During
my visit to the site one Friday (January 6), Bob
mentioned that he had talked to Neil, the insulation
guy, and that he might actually show up later that day
to at least look at the job. (Though he'd
committed to the job, he'd never seen the building.)
That sounded great, and suddenly it seemed that the job
was back on track; with insulation soon to be had, that
meant that we could get the heat installed and up and
running soon too--something that I was anxiously
awaiting. |
 My
visit that day was a relatively quick one, to plow the
recent snow and check up on the job, as I hadn't been
onsite all week. The next day, I decided to head
up and deliver some windows that I had picked up.
I was completely taken by surprise when I walked into
the building. Not expecting anything, it took me a
second to register that there was a bundle of insulation
on the floor ahead of me. I was just beginning to
comment on that when I happened to glance around and
noticed that one of the walls in that bay was not only
insulated, but covered with my white plastic!
Looking around further, I noticed that many of the walls
were already stuffed with insulation. Obviously,
Neil had gotten off to a good start. I was
thrilled. |
 Work
remaining included completing the exterior walls'
insulation, the ceiling, and hanging the white plastic,
which Neil had agreed to do, although I was prepared to
do this myself if needed.
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It took two more weeks before the insulation was
completed, during which period the
heating plant was installed and energized. I
became a little annoyed at the delay in the final
insulation, particularly once the heat was up and
running, but fortunately we experienced a week of
above-normal temperatures that surely eased the pressure
on the heating plant while the bulk of the shop was
uninsulated.
However, it finally got done, with batts in all the
walls and blown-in insulation in the attic spaces, and
Neil and his helper Josh hung the white plastic over the
ceilings and exterior walls, leaving only the interior
walls for me to cover with plastic. Since I was on
site the day they finished (they were finished by 1300),
I jumped right into the plastic hanging on the remaining
walls, so that I could be done with the pipe staging and
so that the bays would be ready for use. Hanging
the plastic alone went extremely well, and I was pleased
with how easily it went. The plastic finally
defined the various bays and spaces in the building, and
made a huge difference in the overall feel of the place.
Thanks to the new high-output shop
lighting that I had installed earlier in the week,
the bays were blindingly bright.
This time around, I
selected white 8 mil shrinkwrap plastic for the walls
and ceiling. The shrinkwrap had the added benefit
of being available in 16' and 20' wide rolls, meaning
that there were no longitudinal seams on any of the
surfaces. I purchased 2, 160' rolls of the 16'
plastic and a single 200' roll of the 20' plastic, which
were more than adequate to complete the job as needed. |
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This page was originally
posted on January 8, 2006 |
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