Hey SYD did you check out both kinds of lites working & inside a bldg ????? how big/brite flourescents ????:cool-smiley-011:

stick with MH low-bay unless mounting height is above 20'

Flourescents dont seem to give off that much light even when they do walls & cielings , our shop has 36 - lites with 300W rough service reg bulbs and is'nt brite at all with 36 bulbs goin .are the mh lo bay pretty brite ???thnx:rolleyes:

I have a metal halide temporary light in there now, and I just don't like it. My ceiling height (bottom of rafters) is only 12'. The bulbs are all relatively the same, its just the lens/reflector config in the low-bays that make them more suited to lower ceilings. My neighbor has a metal-arch airplane hanger type building, and he has MH high-bays; and they work great. But his ceiling height is probably 20' high.

Trust me, I have given the MH every chance in the world to impress me, but I don't like the warm up time. I don't like all of the IR, UL, and radiation that they put off (bad for fading paint, and I wear contacts which is also not so good). They are at their brightest when they are new, and they lose brightness gradually over time.

I am going with 11- 8' High Output-Zero Degree Ballast Fluorescent Strips at $60 each.
vs.
6- Low-Bays at $250 each.

I am basically duplicating James' barn in this post:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...4&postcount=62

His building is 74' long with 3 rows of lights, 5/4/5. I am going with 3 rows of lights, 4/3/4 in my 60' long building.

Here is a pic of my neighbor's building with MH High Bays.

Good choice Brian , you will not be disappointed. You see how BRIGHT mine is.

Yep. Here is a picture of James' place before he had the inner ceiling installed. Its still plenty bright.

SYDWAYZ in the 2 pics the flourescents look way brighter ,are you getting some bigg watt tubes ???

They are very bright and come one instantly, THe bulbs are
F96, but the 4100 lumens is what you want to get it bright.
There is one step even higher but it puts off a blue effect , does not look natural. These are supposed to be as close to daylight as you can get.

SYDWAYZ sorry to hijack buddy , but i have to get these
High Output-Zero Degree Ballast Fluorescent Strips that sydwayz spoke of earlier ??? Menards or electric supply house ?
thnx

Got them at Capital Lighting and Supply (CLS) I paid about $56.00 per light with the bulbs. When I put the white ceiling in it even got brighter.

excursion/James' and mine are coming from a local commercial electrical supply here in Richmond, VA. I plan to pull the trigger tomorrow, and should have them early next week. I'll find out the exact manufacturer. James did all the research. I'm getting the same ones.

Home Depot locally sells some with the same general description as above. They take 110W bulbs; but I do not know that they are same exact as James has in his barn, and I will have in mine. Home Depot's are $70ish without bulbs.

Great place Brian, I know you will be glad when you get 100%. Keep some pictures coming. Let me know if I can help with the lights

Let's see we got doors & lights, it's gettin close to party time :evilb::ernaehrung004:

You should contact Linny, he let me purchase the lights thru his company and get a good discount.

I was in Linnie's office this afternoon discussing such. I'm all over it. Thanks James.

Great!!! Linny saved me big time one the lights, and got the right stuff that I wanted. He knows alot about construction and I listened to him.
You will really enjoy the lights. If you need any help let me know.

Hey Excur & linny do i need High Output-Zero Degree Ballast Fluorescent Strips even if the toy box is at 70 degrees ? guys down here at the supply house said only for cold storage high output .and reg flourescents will mage 5200 luminares .what gives ?
thnx

Whats up with the sonic in there james??:rolleyes:

No you do not need 0 degree ballast, but I would go electronic ballast more energy efficient. They use the smaller bulbs not the large bulds. The 5200 series are the ones that look BLUE.

That is my brother-inlaws boat and we were changing out the gimble rings. What a job that is, had to pull both motors and drives, get the transom assy. and replace the rings. Saved him about 2 grand.

Thnx Excursion yes we picked up 30 of the electronic ballast w/F96 bulbs /says 75 % brighter and we put up 2 so far and these 2 are brighter then with all 36 of the old bulbs .we're gonna need frickin sunglasses and tanning oil when we fire em all up:cool-smiley-011:
thnx again

30 !!!!! What are you lighting up , WALMART?????

You are going to really enjoy them. I only turn on the center row when need light, but when need DAYLIGHT flip all the rows on and you can see perfect.

When you fire them up you want to let them burn in for about 45 minutes to increase lamp life.

Bryan,what do you think of thes kits?


http://diypolebarns.com/kits/

Tim,
I did a quick quote of a building similar to what I built with Pioneer on that site. Including labor, it was less than 15% difference in pricing between the two. I have no idea on lumber quality of the DIY company. If you are getting close to pulling the trigger, give Pioneer a call. It's end of the month and end of the quarter. See what you can negotiate.

I will look at them not close just looking.I am not buying anything till my house is paid of and I am close:drink:.I need to take a bunch of trees down around the house the ones that were little when I built it are now getting big.So will move the tree line back for it behind the house when I do that.I go back 600 feet past the house so there is plenty of room.

30 !!!!! What are you lighting up , WALMART?????:eek::lolhit:

thnx Excursion worked out awesome and would do it again the same :drink:

If you don't mind me asking how much did your concrete cost.

Bryan helped me with some questions when I built mine as well.

I also found that there was only about a 10% price difference between a DIY kit and having the barn company erect it. I am in Missouri and used a company call BCI out of Oklahoma.

As far as your land clearing is concerned I had to remove a forest for mine so I rented a highlift and pushed all the trees down. It worked really slick and I was able to clear the whole area in about 3 1/2 hours.

Good luck..

I have not poured the slab yet. I still have a gravel floor with thick plastic on top.


(This is actually a huge advantage of a post-frame construction building vs. girder steel frame or "aircraft hanger" type of steel building. Both require significant footings and high concrete costs UP FRONT.)

The portion of the property where my Toy Box is in a very wet area at certain times of the year. I had to build up the road with sand, and had to scoop out almost 2 full feet of natural soil where the barn pad would be, and fill it in with crushed rock, sand, under-road construction felt, and more sand. I have #57 crush and run that has been my "floor" for since I erected it. I wanted to make damn sure I was not going to have any settling before I went with concrete.

That said, I anticipate finally doing it this fall. I slowed my schedule due to this demolition derby impulse decision.

My concrete piers were poured by the barn company, which is what my posts rest on. They were then filled in with Sac-Crete. This was all including in the building/labor.

I anticipate 2200 sq ft of concrete including building floor and an apron to cost around $6K when all is said and done.

My brother bought a 30x40 kit thru them, that he and I erected a couple yrs ago. The kit was complete and everything was high quality and straight.

TTT....

Brian,

Did you use any kind of threshold under your garage doors with the gravel floor?

I am currently working on a 65 x 65 and will have gravel floors for a while while I spend money on insulation, etc. Just wondering how well it sealed up with garage doors on a gravel floor.

I've got 4-6" of concrete in there now.

As for when I had the doors set with the gravel floor, I laid out a 2x12 and a 2x6 on top, to simulate the thickness of the eventual concrete floor. I sealed up the corners of the doors with spray foam for a few seasons to keep mice and snakes out. That coupled with a couple of ultrasonic pest deterents, I didn't have any issues. I had 10mil poly (very thick) on top of the crush'n'run for those seasons as well. I definately had moisture wicking through the gravel. The back of the poly was always wet, but did not smell, mold, or cause any issues. I installed a few industrial ceiling fans that ran full blast for those seasons.

I'll attach a few pics of the concrete going down that I have handy. I have better camera pics somewhere.

If you look closely, the garage doors sit down into a 'little tray' that is the same height as the apron, about 1" lower than the garage floor. The apron slopes away from the barn on 3 different axis. This keeps rain water from coming in under the doors, and it works PERFECTLY. I spent a fortune building up the land as this was almost swamp land before I built. I didn't get 1 drop of water in the barn from Hurricane Irene and TS Lee 10 days later. The tray is formed by a piece of shaped angle-iron set into the concrete at the pour. The angle iron ensures I won't have any chipping there at the entrance. My good friend Tom, OSO member Bajario52, put all this together for me, and I am very thankful for a perfect job. We also put in many floor cuts to prevent cracking--not one crack either! It was 36 yards of 3500 lbs. psi concrete, with fibers; and steel mesh around all of the poles.

Great info, thanks :drink:

I was thinking of laying down 10 mil poly under the gravel to serve as a moisture barrier. I like the ceiling fan idea too. Your shop turned out great!

I had 10 mil under the whole gravel pad before they started, with about 4" of gravel over the top. By the time construction was done, after the auger bits, etc. etc., that poly didn't do much for moisture barrier.

I had to buy 10mil poly again, and lay it over the top of the gravel, and that was my top surface; with a couple of wheelbarrow loads of gravel spread out wide just to hold the poly down. I would recommend this for your application as well, especially since you will be insulating. The poly was actually not too bad of a floor to do work on either. It's much easier to find a dropped nut/bolt/whatever on poly vs. gravel. I think it cost me $150 bucks a for a roll which covered most of my 1800 square foot floor. I bought it from a local industrial/construction supply house.

hey Brian.....finally built mine (well, almost finished). I don't feel like re-loading all the pics so follow the link if interested :)

http://forums.boatfreaks.org/showthread.php?t=19878

Nice job Brian. I had no time to build so I went the easy route and bought an old warehouse.

160' X 60' 10 " stone base, 6 " concrete,wire mesh & fiber, with 8 floor drains , $ 68,000.00




ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:drink:

nice job , even a vacuum behind the joint saw :drink::drink::drink:


ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:drink:

Saw the pics, looks great! Now in know where I can tuck mine in for anfew days when I exopy my floor. :D Congrats!