A sad day on the farm

[YanmarFever]

Yeah but how long ago was that? I wired my other building myself and I had over $10,000.00 in it and that was 15 years ago. I need 4, 50 amp circuits and one 60 amp circuit and the runs are going to be roughly 34' to almost 60'. The wire alone is going to cost a bunch, have you priced wire lately? Also I have called at leaste 6 different companies before I found this guy. Come to find out he is a friend of my oldest son and I believe he will do me right.

Sounds like you have a grip on it....

 

[mx842]

I have OSB on the inside of my shop. You can paint it sort of just to make it white and brighter. It’s also strong enough you can hang stuff off of it that’s not real heavy. The bad is it’s not as fire resistant as metal. I’m not sure if I posted in this thread earlier or not but I bought a bench grinder stand. Before it was mounted to a wall and throwing sparks against the OSB. Your post made me get the stand so I can drag it out away from the wall in the middle of the concrete floor for safety’s sake.

Nawh it was hunting season and I had not done anything in the shop for like 2 weeks before it happened. Also I had almost 3500' sq feet of osb on the walls and most of the celings. That was the main reason the fire was so hot all of the heat was contained within the medal walls until it finally burned through the roof at that point no amount of water wood have done any good.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Maybe just insulate the part you'll be working in. As others said electric in steel conduit you could do yourself. My garage I have high current things near panel box so really no voltage drop or long heavy gauge wire runs. The welder outlets and panel box near door so I can weld outside if I want.
The more you do yourself you save money.

 

[civilian]

I made my own wire chases along my garage walls and inside the wood working shop. I ran 2 pieces of 2"x2" horizontal along the walls about 6" apart. Ran all my romex in there and covered it by screwing OSB over top of them. Then I can remove the OSB and add more circuits or outlets etc. The walls were OSB in the garage and drywall in the wood working shop. Jon

 

[Jstpssng]

I had a 316 ss border as a base board in every room in the building. Also I had medal panels 14' high on all of the walls where I welded and at my plasma table. The walls that were exposed had 2 coats of fire retardant paint. I don't know what else I could do accept maybe find a new hobby like maybe crocheting or needle point.

I was really referring to the posters who still have wooden walls. I once started a grinder fire on the rare occasion that I was using somebody's garage... luckily I saw it and was able to put it out. That's just another reason why I don't believe in borrowing.

 

[Glenndg]

Awful news!! I would rather my house burn down than my shop.

 

[mslisaj]

Some of you may remember what I went through building my pole barn that turned into my giant man cave. It was my place away from home that I spent many hours in playing with all my toys. I had all my most sacred things that I had gathered over my life time. All my machines, two lathes, my mill, all of the tooling, my Bickford 21" Super Service, 2 more drill presses. Three welders, Dynasty 300, millermatic 252 and an older miller AC/DC buzz box and all the stuff that went along with my welding shop. I never realized how much stuff I had in that building until I started going through the rubble. I never thought about how much in dollars I had laying around. In just different clamps and vices I have found over $7,000.00 in the rubble. It hasn't been too hard to find things because I had everything in there own spaces, plumbing, electrical, AC, hydraulic stuff, test equipment, welding equipment and consumables all had their own little spot in the shop.

One of the hardest things I have had to deal with was all my civil war relics, my native american artifact, bottle collection and my fossil collection. it's hard to lose stuff I have spent a lifetime collecting but all my books for the different habbits, my research papers and recording books that took more time to do than the actural collecting itself.

Everything was gone in less than 2 hours from the time it started to when there was nothing else to burn. In the end all that is left is the siding and roof metal and what's few 6x6 post that are still standing. One of the firemen that was here told me that in 20 years of fire fighting this was the hottest fire he had ever been to. That huge trolly beam system I built and was so proud of now looks like a big pertzel still hanging from it's upright support beams. Anything aluminum or copper was turned to liquid, every where you look there are piles of melted lead, aluminum and cooper parts that were once motors, tools or anything else that was made of these metals.

After a little over a month I have finally gotten the go ahead from the insurance co to start clean up and that will be a giant under taking in itself. I have enough insurance to cover most of the contence except my historical items but The way insurance work it you only get a certain percent of the amount of what it would cost to bebuild the the house itself. I already know there is not enough in that part to cover the cost of what I had so I'll have to do all the clean up just like I built it to begin with by myself. It probably will take the better part of a couple months to get it all cleaned up so I can start over.

Such a devistating story and all our worst nightmare!! I too have a 3200 sqft shop and it's filled with tools and equipment from my father's gas station and then the garage our family ran until I retired and reassembled everything into this building. I just feel your pain and while I didn't want to read this story as I knew the ending I had to and shake my head in sorry with you. :-(

 

[Tinstafl]

That is so sad. My neighbor lost his barn a couple years ago now with a lifetime of things in it. James river came out to Powhatan with a backhoe and a skid steer with tracks and did the clean up for him. He lost a John Deere tractor and a gator.

 

[ray66v]

A couple modern pole barns have burned down in my area, as the OP said, they go real fast.

It would seem, that is largely because of all the exposed wood.

Steel siding, the other popular interior finishing material, seems like a good idea for fire prevention, but it actually has a zero fire rating.

I suggest the use 5/8" fireguard drywall, on as much of an interior as possible, at a minimum, on the ceilings of the shop areas, where a fire is more likely to occur. One layer of 5/8", gives you a 2 hour fire rating.

Finishing drywall ceilings on large pole barns requires special techniques, because these buildings move so much. You need to use some type of expansion joints, to allow for the truss up and down movements.

I like to use Trim Tex Majic Corner for this. It can give you a rubber joint over the top of the butted edges of the drywall, rather than in a space between them. And, it comes in 200' rolls, so it is always long enough. No cracking, or ridging, when I use this product.

The drywall may not prevent a fire from doing serious damage. But, it could slow the fire down enough to give the fire department a chance to save something.

 

[schulzie]

I feel your pain, my small barn with attached workshop/man cave burned down 2 years ago. Lost a lot of relics/tools etc. We've rebuilt and started over. Luckily I was well insured, but the cost of rebuilding during COVID was astronomical. Never would wish that on anyone.