Hi FireBrick,
Glad to let you and others know...
The engine room was already roofed and roughly framed as an addition to a
larger garage and had been that way since I moved to this place 11 years ago.
Other things always got in the way of finishing it until a Listeroid needed
a home...
The foundation walls are sitting on floating footings just below
ground level but there was no floor. The walls were framed with
2x4s sitting at the outside of the 8 inch thick cement block
foundation and the roof held up by trusses. So the basic structure
was in place with dimensions of about 9' x 20'.
The exterior walls were studded again on the inside and fiberglass
batts installed. I had meant to use mineral wool batts on the inside
but too much fiberglass got delivered so I went with that. I had read
that mixing different insulation materials was good for sound deadening.
The exterior was clad with 1/2 inch chipboard, the interior as well.
The ceiling got R30 of fiberglass and sheathed with 3/8 chipboard.
Everything was covered in 6 mil poly and the joints well taped.
Door and windows had been taken off the house last year and were sitting
ready to be used.
The floor is close to 8" of 4,000 PSI concrete. The foundation walls
and footing are all separated from the floor with 2" styrofoam insulation
board. There's 2 inches under the whole floor as well. The end of the room
with the engine is also separated from the rest of the floor with 2 inches
of styrofoam to hopefully isolate vibration. The entire floor has steel
mesh in the concrete, the engine end also has rebar.
I had a roll of 1/2 pex tubing ready to put in to allow for heating the
floor in winter (hey, it gets cold here!) but the cement truck arrived
early so we didn't have time to get the pex installed.
The outside was finished off with vinyl siding. There is also 2 inches of
styrofoam on the outside of the foundation wall covered with wire mesh
and a coat of cement.
There are four 3/4 inch bolts in the floor. The ends had several piece of rebar
welded to them splayed out in order to increase the contact area with the
concrete.
Still to be done is interior paint, eavestroughing and some grading of
the ground around the perimeter.
The original doorway was on the side of the building and that was left
open to get the engine in. It's all closed now but the new door location
will allow the engine to be removed if necessary, but only just.
The engine, btw, is a 10/1 from John Ferguson. John also made the
base the engine and generator sit on. The actual install went smoothly
as a neighbour did the big lift with his John Deere.
In the floor, but just not viewable in the interior pic, is a large plastic
sump liner. It's covered with a sturdy piece of plywood. The idea is I can
pass electric lines and hot water lines (supplemental heat for the house)
into this hole and thence out underground below the footings. There's another
real sump hole with a pump near the new door to keep things drained below the
floor.
I'm pretty happy with things aside from the ceiling height which is under
8 feet. I'd have preferred 10 or more but didn't feel removing and replacing
the existing trusses was worth the cost. I'd also have made the room wider
if the foundation hadn't already been there. More room to move around the
engine would be safer plus I'm having to have a custom rectangular cooling tank
made as a 40 gallon water tank would be too tight a fit. The 3 windows won't
help keep the noise in but I'll trade a bit more noise for more light any time.
I started the work last fall but had to stop over winter. As warm weather arrived
my time and energy to put into the project were limited so a local handyman did much
of the work for me.
Cost? Just over 3k. More than I'd planned but I wanted to have something that looked
okay and would be comfortable to work in.
I can't yet comment on how the room is actually functioning because other than
a quick test run the engine has yet to get to work. This week I should
have the steel across the frame to the bolts to hold it to the floor....
If you have any questions or would like more pics just let me know.
RobC
