Self Storage- Building a New location
Day in the life- Constructing a New Facility location
23 June 2020, 08:39
We are starting our 8th and final storage location. I will try to give an update as we go through construction. Although this will be instructional, you will probably also get to see the "thinking" and "concerns" about the project from my viewpoint at different stages. Things I would forget to tell you, if you said tell me about building a location. 330 unit drive up facility.
8th and final-
A. As you build each location, you have to put in so much equity up front. Could be 10%/15%/25%/40%. At some point you ask yourself how much do you want to extend yourself., We are expanding at such a fast rate, that we have not let the prior Storage location's equity buildup to support these final projects for collateralization.
B. Even though we have a very efficient system to handle multiple locations, at some point you tap the point of enough is enough., We run all of our business through one phone. Its not that bad once you are rented up, but can be a little hectic during the rent up stages.
C. Not to get into specifics but we also have other Life ambitions and other Financial alternatives we are looking at, to both diversify our assets (Teak Trees) and to enjoy different aspects of our lives.
Before Dirt Work Started-
A. Looked for a site that was "SAFER" from other competitors storage expansion. This location was under a "Planned Community" (PC) zoning, which I normally would not have known to look at. Luckily the realtor knew about the Special Condition/Use permit potential for Storage.,
B. The hilly topography doesn't lend itself to storage. There are only two more locations that are flat enough and they both have issues with them.
C. Engineering costs- We spent far more on engineering than expected. We were working around the lay of the ground for drainage and trying to fit as many units as possible to justify the project. $$$$
D. Hidden items- These were issues staring me straight in the face, but I didn't "See" them. The Fire hydrant on the property was a private hydrant for the property attached to the North, that could not be used. Originally both properties were owned by the same person. Plus the city requires all road side properties that don't have water to put in a line along all of the roadside. $$$$$$
E. Hidden items- The soft wet spot in the middle of the field was the hillside pushing water to the surface at the base of the hill. Although not a Spring, it is still too wet to build on top of. We will need to put a series of Drain Tiles underneath to take the water away. $$$$$
Day 1 of Dirt Work:
A. Contractor called the day before and said he was ready to start. Waited for him for 5 months to finish a large government project. He was both going to be available, cost was lower than other competitors and I know him professionally and personally.
B. Pulled up with 2 Scrapers and hopped the curb. This is a major Bike path and dog walking sidewalk. 3,000 vehicle per day traffic count, off major artery. So we decided on one construction entry spot. That way if we broke the sidewalk, we would have only one spot to fix and one issue with the path users. Our actual facility entry way is further east on the road. But we don't want to use it, otherwise we will bust up all of our concrete roads after we pour them.
C. Went to pull Dirt Permit and State Storm drain permit, the dirt contractor will need to do it and show them their license. About $3,000 for permit.
D. To build Office, the General Contractor who is building the pads and buildings will need to submit his license.
E. The final Building prints are not approved. I just had to give them a letter saying I would put Wainscot on the street visible side of the buildings. This was part of the agreement with the Planned Community zoning. They are also requiring Barred fence, versus chainlink fence.
F. Stopped off at the General Contractors office to start the order for 5 of the buildings. We will build these late in the fall after we can't put anymore pads in (before the ground freezes). We will put the office in, right off the bat, so the Electrician, Plummer, Security and Construction crews will have a place to stub all of the main controls and also have a warm bathroom to use.
G. These 5 buildings touch the fence line. So I want them built so we can put the fence in around the construction site for safety.
H. Stopped at the Retaining Wall group. We have two retaining walls to help with Dirt elevation. We did not want to haul any dirt off the location, so it was cheaper to build retaining walls in key spots and use the dirt there to flatten the site. Both the Retaining wall company and the dirt work company need to work hand in hand. The retaining wall company needs the dirt cleared about 8 feet back from the wall. This is so they can use Geogrid fabric as a Deadman to keep the wall from pushing out. So the Dirt company doesn't have to move the dirt twice, he needs to know to keep it back and also to clear out the dirt for 8 feet.
I. Attached are some pictures of Day 1. Should have a dry day tomorrow, then rain.
J. Using Scrapers versus Bulldozers. Bulldozers can only push dirt, Scrapers can carry it. Far more efficient to carry the dirt, if you have a lot and the distance is over 100 feet. The Grading company and I decided to bill me on an hourly rate, versus per day. Any break downs, partial rainouts or getting stuck, don't get billed to me.
K. Usually you would compact the dirt as you go. These scrapers are compacting the dirt, so we don't have a compactor running behind them. Also without getting to much into the site most of the building site will be the original dirt (compacted) and not moved dirt. Since the driveway and parking will be over where most of the dirt is being moved and we don't plan to build there until next year, it will have a chance to compact over Winter.
L. Will move in 3 inch "Clean" rock at the work entrance and out on the property as a hard surface for the construction vehicles and to clean dirt off prior to driving onto the roadway. We are required to have 75 feet of rock to clean dirt off. Keep the neighbors happy and so we don't get fined.
M. On the bottom right of the drawing, is the Storm retention pond. Give you an idea of how much land you have to give up for drainage, if required.
replied 5 months ago
24 June 2020, 06:24 $$$$ are relative to the project and the person. Lets just say ouch.
Don't really know the mix of readers. Operators, owners, future owners, investors. Some will see this and say great. Others will see this and say, that is why we buy locations and don't build. Others will say, boy there are a lot of potential ouch's. Again, Start small and make your big mistakes early.
Made decent headway today. Will send out day 3 pictures tomorrow and go over some discussion points, issues, and mid stream choices we need to decide upon.
One dirt prep point to note at this stage. If you look at the pictures above, you will note grass and weeds. Normally you would do a clean scrape of the greass so that is not in your fill dirt. I made a calculated choice not to scrape. You can't tell it, but I used chemicals last year and burned all of the growth down. This spring everything was brown and little debris on the surface. This green you see is light growth.
We also are building this site to a 1% slope. When you put fresh dirt on top of grassed dirt it does not necessarily seal together all of the time. If we had a greater slope, I would have disked the ground so the two dirt's would mesh better. The top dirt could slide off the grassed dirt if on a steep slope. I know the grass has very little thickness when pressed between two masses of dirt, but they don't seal very well.
What you might notice years later is cracks in your building or pavement and wonder why. It could be due to lack of compaction or the above. Also don't use two types of dirt. We are in the freeze zone all winter. Different types of dirt freeze and expand differently. This will cause cracks in your building or concrete.
Folks if you have any questions throw them out. Other people will have them or would like to know yours.
H
replied 5 months ago
26 June 2020, 08:54 Think this is Day 3.
The dirt excavator got a lot done. We met this morning and saw where we are at and adjusted plans from the Engineering plans. We have a lot of stumps and trees to move. Luckily we have a ditch and more acres we can push this on to. Have 8 acres, but only about 4 of them are usable since the rest goes up a very steep hill. Decided where we would put the stumps. The other option would be to haul offsite and this would be about $25,000. We are in city limits and they will not let you burn. These piles are at the back of the property and no one will see them.
The engineering drawing files are loaded into the Bulldozers gps. At the very far side of the property we have issues with putting in two retaining walls to hold dirt and the edges of the last building being right on the existing dirt grade, requiring a lot more dirt. The bulldozer is within 3/10 inch accuracy to the survey and engineering drawings. So we drove around looking at the building sites. This saved a lot of time. I would have had to have the Surveyors come out, which would have taken 3 to 4 days. Stopping the excavation. Plus they would have charged an additional $3,000 to do a partial survey. Surveys cost more in the city.
Retaining walls. Made two decisions.
A. If you look at the drawing above on the left there are 13 10 x 20 units. We would have to cut into the hill at the top and also place a lot more dirt at the bottom of the building. I told them to do what they can with the site without cutting into the hill, but don't hold to the drawings. I will lose 2 to 4 of the units, but this will take out the need for the two retaining walls at $40,000 total. It would take us about 30 years to pay these off.
These building will need to be moved forward about 10 feet since I don't want to move so much dirt. To keep all of the rows of buildings, we will narrow the aisles down from 25 feet to 20 feet on the last two aisles. Not quite as generous travel lanes, but this is not next to any of the longer buildings and long driveways. Once we get the site totally cleared, I may switch the last two building to one building and change the dimensions to 12 wide versus 10 wide; and 10 tall versus 8. This will help with the Sparefoot ranking for "Recommended" by having more sizes. Also these sizes are for a different client than most competitors can fit.
B. Referencing the drawing again, in the upper left corner there is extra parking concrete. Parking on new concrete does not make money up here. We did away with about 1/2 of this space. This allows us not to have to cut into the hill above it and then have to put in a retaining wall. We will keep a 3 to 1 slope, which will be okay with the city. Just plant some grass.
The first picture below shows the grade of the land. If we followed the plan, we would need to put a 12 foot high retaining wall. By giving up some buildings, we can keep the land at a 3 to 1 slope and just grass it and mow.
The second picture shows us pushing a lot of the tree waste up the hill. Again, this and the ditch saved about $25,000 hauling it off. This is also the same spot where we had planned to have more parking area. By reducing the parking area, we don't have to cut into this hill pretty far, and then put a retaining wall in. Again, both of the actions save $40,000 of retaining wall. We lose about 30 x 100 ft of parking space. But this saves about $20,000 of concrete plus labor.
In the second picture, if you look closely you will see Waves in the ground. The high spots are the buildings and the low spots are the roads. Again the bulldozer is within 3/10 inch accuracy to the drawings. They set the bulldozer and the blade raises and lowers to make the dirt the correct height. Normally you would think, you wanted a flat site. This saves the Road contractor having to come in and move a lot of dirt during construction. They will still need to trim the roadway out, but a lot less dirt. Again, we did not have to call the surveyor in, and have to wait on them to come and cost more.
If you have questions just ask. If you have a different aspect you want me to cover, just ask. Again, if you asked me after the fact about building a site, I would not remember a lot of this.
replied 5 months ago
11 July 2020, 03:37 Day 18.
1. Construction Insurance. Didn't cover this topic earlier. Your normal Storage insurance companies won't cover this. We use our State Farm office. About $250 for $2,000,000 coverage. Pretty inexpensive.
2. Been really dry, which is good for the dirt work. Have about 2 days left to finish the ground. Have a meeting next week to discuss re-orienting the buildings so we can get more units on the space.
3. Picture one shows Soil retention fence and grass mat along the front road. The Soil retention fence is plowed into the ground and staked. This cost $2.35 per foot. Actually not to pricy considering you would need to buy the fence, posts, plow the fence in (equipment), and then attach to posts. Got lucky and found a local road contractor. They also do grass seeding and grass mats, but we did this ourselves to save money.
4. Grass Mat costs about $70 per role. This will save on the bare soil eroding and causing a rough lawn mower ride and also to keep dirt from washing. Mid July is one of the worst times to plant grass. Normally I plant week 1 or 2 in August for fall seedings. Since the dirt is already loose and it is dry (won't sprout) went ahead and seeded and put the mat on. If you do a lot of matting buy a Staple driver or stick. This will save your back so you don't have to bend down to the ground. Load staple and stab into the ground.
5. Picture 2. Putting grass mat on back side hill, after seeded with Oats and Brome grass. Oats for quick germination. Brome grass since it will seed by the roots later. If we didn't seed an area very good, the Brome will fill it in, through the root system.
6. Picture 3. Putting a 6 inch drain tile in the ground. We were going to continue the ditch down the hill. But this will cause a severe rut where it drops about 20 feet. The tile will get the water down the hill without eroding. This ditch is catching water from above the site and diverting about 3/4 of the water from coming through the facility from the hill above. The prior owners had a ditch there, that we just cleaned out and removed the trees.
7. Picture 4 shows the storm pond. We built a construction entrance over the head of the pond. This will be taken out when we are completed. On the back right side of the pond will be a pipe connecting to the City storm drain. There should be no water in this pond normally, so it will probably fill in with cattails. It should empty out within about 8 hours of being filled.
8. The Engineer has to calculate/certify the Storm pond size versus the drainage area. This pond serves two purposes. One so water does not run off too fast downstream, due to our "Concrete footprint". Second, is to trap sedimentation to a small degree. Luckily the Storm drain pipe we attach to is on our side of the side walk and we don't have to cut the sidewalk.
9. Make sure your contractors are getting the city inspections as they go.
10. Picture 5 in the center is the end of an 8 inch plastic pipe. It brings the water from the adjoining apartment complex parking lot, onto our ground. You have to let the water flow, the way it is supposed to, so I can't stop it. Originally both properties were owned by the same people. Our engineer had this 8 inch pipe replaced or connected to a 24 inch drain tile. I'm nixing that and having it reconnect to an 8 inch drain tile and getting a bid to bury it and run it down to the storm pond. This was going to cost about $20,000 to run 380 feet. The quote should come in near $3,000 with the 8 inch versus 24 inch pipe.
11. Picture 6 is 3 inch "clean" (without the fines and dust) rock (recycled concrete). Once the grading is done, we will have this hauled from our other location to this new location and spread it. This will be the work surface on the dirt so we don't get stuck or track mud onto the street.
Have some more water items that we are getting quotes on and discussing with the engineer. Want to go with more surface drainage versus the Storm sewer system he developed which is quoted at $80,000. I had not planned on that since we are on a hillside. Will go over them once discussed with Engineer and get quotes.
Although the storage unit builder is listed as the General Contractor, I'm covering most of the items other than the building.
If you have any questions or suggestions, just ask.
replied 5 months ago
Currently in a holding pattern. Have about 2 days of work left. Contractors have pulled off working on another project. Will have them lay out the corners of the buildings so we can see how the whole project looks.
For Future Readers, we are in the beginning of the Covid period.
You've heard Self Storage is recession proof. That is true for existing storage. Out of 800 rentals, we only lost one account because they lost their job. One of our other locations we just completed phase 1 230/ phase 2 200/ phase 3 200 however is at 17% occupancy. I am used to 30% first spring, 20% first fall, another 30% second spring and then the final 20% second fall. March and the beginning of April were close to zero activity.
You might ask with one location in rent up, why are you starting another location with all of the "Uncertainty" in the world. It is based on my market study; should have 3,600 units, but only has 1,400. About 25% of the 1,400 are old and dilapidated. I'm adding 630; another company 430; another company 200 more. The new site is also in a hilly, hard to zone location, making it hard for competition. Plus it is in the higher income. We will do part of the build out this year. Finish most of the units next year. Even with a 330 unit location, your a small player with the construction, paving, sewer, electrician and other contractors. Do the work when Mother nature and the contractors allow. Costs in interest, but you get done.
Project has slowed down a little. The dirt contractors had to pull off for a large job, they have a penalty clause based on Completion date. Also the owner who was working on our job, rolled a dirt scraper and got crushed by it. Waited to include in this stream until he became stabilized. He is out of induced coma and is stabilized. Head and spinal cord are fine. Crushed his left shoulder, internal organs and hips. No one can see due to covid. Family says he is out of danger, but a long long road to recovery and several surgeries to go.
replied 5 months ago
Further update. Continuing to plant grass seed and grass mats on bare ground. I usually like to wait till the first week in August, but since the ground is worked, want to use it now.
To put the grass mats down our store where we buy the mats from, loan us the above tool to put staples in. I have never loved a tool so much than this. Saves my back and I can go about 3 times as fast.
Had the Bulldozer operator set flags at the corners of each of the buildings. This is so I can tell how the land lays compared to what we designed. I am trying to get as many units on the property as possible to help improve the return. Example: Normally I do 50 foot turns at the ends of the buildings, we may reduce these to 35 foot at each each. A reduction of 100 versus 70 to get an additional 30 feet or 6 additional 10 foot wide units per building.
To gain further ground in the picture below where the edge of the hill and white flags are. We will put a retaining wall. This will push into the hill and should give us another 10 feet. We gives us another 10 feet on each building. Will add about 2 more units per building.
At the front entrance of the property the engineer Stair stepped down the buildings to get to the road elevation. One building, but with 3 stair steps in it. Creating more cost and snow removal issues. I am having him in the next picture add a retaining wall behind the lower building which will be along the grass front. This will help raise the ground and level it, taking out the need for the stair step buildings.
This is also the drive in area. I'll have him do the first 30 foot off the street flat. Then do an incline to get to the building levels for the road. The electric service below cost $15,000. They had to run it underground from about 200 feet away. The silt fence was needed for Federal clean water regulations. Cost $2.25 or $2.35 per foot installed. Cheaper than me doing it, since I didn't have a "plow" to put the bottom into the dirt. Plus we had about 400 feet to put in, which I didn't want to do with a shovel.
The next picture is at the far end of the property. The curved ground with the red flags and the clods of dirt making a curved area, where we will build a retaining wall. Otherwise we would have "sloped" the dirt out about another 10 foot away from the ditch. This action, plus now seeing how the land lies relative to where we have the buildings, we will be able to add 30 feet to two of the buildings, adding another 12 units. Hard to see these adjustments on the drawings or until the dirt is moved. Problem with these changes, we will need to go back through the city which will add another 2-3 weeks. If the buildings get too long, they may request a split in the middle with a 10 foot fire break. We had to do that at our other building.
As you can tell by our efforts, we're betting we will come out of Covid. Plus this gets us in position late spring. Hope to open the entry section up with a few buildings this fall, to start renting. This is a prime location from both a Demand/Market standpoint, but also it is very hard for "loose" money to come in and buy a site. Both the zoning and topography are very difficult for storage.
Talked with the apartment manager, who covers our two states where we are at. He thinks end of August the renter past dues will open up and they will start eviction processes. Also home loan issues should start to shake out. Again, Storage is about life situations.
replied 5 months ago
Dirt contractors have been offsite for about 3 weeks. This has helped since we had changes to get through the engineer. Got those resolved Thursday. He will send through City again for review.
Ended up grading the remainder of the hillside with my skid steer versus waiting on the dirt contractors. Able to put down more grass seeding and start the next project of putting in a retaining wall. Cleared the face along the hill. Wall will be about 4 to 5 feet high. Contractors are coming on Monday to install this and some other smaller walls.
Also below is the Construction entrance. Originally had a small plastic tube in place, but the dirt was to high and would have eroded with all of the heavy trucks. Got an old steel tube, I had and moved to a shallower area in the drainage so it doesn't sit so high.
Last picture below, you can see some of the earlier seeding we did. We've been lucky with rain. The oats sprouted real easy. The Brome grass has taken off. We should have a healthy stand by this fall. Can't get a good shot of the Turkeys. They come down during the day to feed on any of our oats that are still on the surface. Even driving the skid steer they come within about 100 feet. They are used to people since there is an apartment complex right next to us.
replied 4 months ago
You guys must find this boring. Only one vote thus far.
Anyone can buy a storage location, thought folks might want to see all of the nitty gritty. Will this project get done based on the cost estimate, will it fill up?, what will Mother nature throw at us?, etc.
Several items moving forward, slower than I would like, but actually nice, giving me a chance to take it in and make adjustments.
1. Layouts- finalized revised layouts with Engineer. He will take through the city to get build permits. Key issue was to take out "stepped" buildings at the entrance. The "footings" cost more than its worth to build from a profit standpoint. Should start concrete pads for buildings in 2 weeks.
2. Retaining wall started. This gives us more buildable surface. Added on 20 foot to the buildings in the middle.
- These pictures will show the bottom footing space dug out. -The bottom block is about a foot down in the dirt, to keep the dirt behind the wall from pushing the footing out.
- They put pea gravel or rock chips in the bottom of the trench. This is easier to level, when lining up the blocks and making sure they are level.
- As they go up, they put gravel behind the block a foot, then behind that dirt. Then a small compactor comes behind it.
- Next is the Dead man or Geo Grid. This goes on top of one block then a block is put on top of it. Then the mesh is pushed back, and gravel and dirt are put on top of it. This ties the wall back into the hill, so the blocks don't get pushed out.
- Next will be a drainage tube to take water away from the wall. I'm gone for the next day, so it will probably be in place and no pictures.
- Setting the first course is the hard work. Then they will fly laying blocks and packing the backfill.
3. Construction Entrance
- moved rock from last years build site to this one, today.
- spread out rock for parking vehicles on if it is wet.
- put "Clean Rock" at the front entrance. City requires this, so any dirt and mud gets cleaned off of the tires.
- This is 3 Inch "Clean Rock". Actually recycled concrete. 3 inch because it is sorted. "Clean" because the "Fines" or smaller particles when you crush the rock down to size is not included. "Clean" rock is better for making the Initial base. Smaller rock tends to get pushed into the ground and disappear. This is a rough road, which is good for cleaning tires. If we wanted a nice road, on top of the 3 inch after it has been pushed into the ground, we would put 1 Inch rock with the "Fines". This makes for more of a flat easy riding surface. This rock entrance will stay in place until the project is done. This is so the heavy concrete trucks don't drive on our brand new roads as we pour them. They would bust them.
4. Gas Line
- This location has been "Located" for utilities twice, with no gas line.
- For some reason the Gas company came out and they found part of their line to the apartments behind us runs through where we are building. The pipe is plastic, thus their metal detectors didn't catch, plus I think the Apartment complex told them it was there.
- They don't have an easement. Again, both the Apartment and the ground we bought used to be owned by the same people, so they didn't keep things clean. They will have to move the line over.
- They found part of the line by using a power water gun to dig. The white flags are where I "Water Witched" and marked the rest of the way to their gas pipeline.
replied 3 months ago
28 August 2020, 03:41 PM1. Retaining Wall finished on the large wall and a curved wall. Still one left to do at the front but not to big. The large wall was about 380 feet long and 3 to 5 feet high.
2. You can note the oats and brome grass has started to sprout on the side hills. This is helping with soil erosion and to make it a smooth lawnmower ride with no ruts.
3. Dirt excavators are set to come back on Mon/Tuesday to finish up. Their owner who rolled the Earth scraper and got crushed by it, is out of the hospital. Working on his rehabilitation. Shoulder/armed healed, internal organs okay, and needs to rehabilitate with his hips.
4. Permit got held up. The sewer line for the apartment line above us runs through our property. Used to be owned by the same owner. They never recorded an easement for their private sewer line. City would not issue permit until I put an easement in. Another $2,000 for the engineer to draw up and record. I was okay with tearing out, but City Engineer said the apartment would win in court since this pre-existed the split. Didn't want to tell him that the city should have required it 10 years ago when the two pieces were subdivided.
5. Ordering half the buildings on Monday, once permit is signed off. Will build half this year, since I am going to let some of the ground settle over the winter and compact.
Slow but sure. If you don't have your own construction company you have to work with all of the subcontractors.
Sept 2nd,
Excavators re-leveled site. Need about 15 more loads of dirt to be brought in. They pulled off to work on another job, until dirt comes tomorrow. So close to done with dirt work. Once they are done, a small retaining wall needs to be put up.
Met with storm drain contractor and went over what he needs to do. He has to wait on the excavators to get done. Like standing up dominos, one has to fall before the other.
Fall tree supplies are showing up at stores. Attached below is the Landscaping Tree and shrub plan. Running around trying to find them and buy while the supply is new and fresh. Just stock piling until a little cooler. Note the Engineer group puts together the tree/shrub planting list and spacing. You could tell them up front. If you want to change you have to get the city planner to approve. Second picture is the code map. Example: "R" for red oak.
Set flags for them today. Will rent a miniexcavator and dig the holes first to loosen up the dirt. Then plant by hand. Mulch/Stake/Water.
replied 3 months ago
3 September 2020, 05:54 PM Movin on up. Today bulldozer work almost done. One more day before the Labor day weekend and we will be done with all the major dirt work. The Contractor who got in the accident actually drove his car to the site to check on it.
Had some Rip Rap 6 to 18 inch rock brought in. See the pictures. This is on top of the Black mesh you can see in one picture that I am driving over. These are where the site water run off that discharges into the Storm retention pond will hit to slow the water down so it does not scour out the pond. The Black material is "Engineer Fabric", get the Woven kind. This comes in 12 foot wide or 15 foot wide rolls. Bought two 25 foot sections from the local landscape supply house. This is place under the rock, so the water does not eat away the soil. Use this same material if you are doing rock driveways. You don't need as much rock and you will never have potholes.
Next week the contractor who is putting in the Drain tiles and Apartment drain tiles will start to put his pipe in. The ends will be pointed at this rock, so I got it in ahead of him.
Updated Retaining wall contractors to come finish small wall.
Underneath this pond is a private sewer line going up to the Apartment complex on the left. Our Attorney is working up an easement to allow their line on our property. This was never recorded. The Development folks won't give us a build permit unless we get this in place.
We were originally going to tap into it, but our Engineer said to tap into the Main line. That way if any maintenance is ever needed on the Apartment line there is no dispute who has to pay. About the same distance and cost either way.
Building contractor is working up both his final bid and the order for the Phase 1 of the buildings. He can start working on building pads next week after the holiday.
Will meet next week with the Electrician to put in a temporary service so the contractors can have electricity.
Road curbs will get cut next week so we can drive in smooth versus over the 4 inch curb.
Everything is now going smooth, just need to stay ahead thinking for the various contractors.
replied 3 months ago
5 September 2020, 03:53 PM I cheated. Know this weekend is called Labor Day, but I just didn't want to work that hard. Have about 100 Tree and shrub plants to put in. Decided to rent a mini excavator to dig the holes. The construction dirt and the untouched dirt was hard all around due to how dry it is. Cost $325 with the trailer for 8 clock hours. Have it till Tuesday after the Holiday. Got all of the required plant holes done. Will go back sometime and put some extra holes where I want to plant more. Started at 9 and was done by 2pm digging the holes, putting in tree stakes (used two steel T posts) and filling with black topsoil. Ended up costing about $3.25 per hole, not counting my time or replacement fuel. Lets say $4.00 per hole. It would have taken me a week in this hard soil to do by hand.
Second step, is to put in black top soil. Luckily my neighbor who does trucking for one of the potting soil companies has a mountain of it for some reason. Had him deliver a dump truck load or 12 yards for $350. Saved me about 5 pickup loads and loading/unloading it. Filled in each hole with about five 5 gallon buckets. Only got have of the holes filled. To hot. Will finish another day.
Put two T posts in every other hole for the trees. Shrubs won't need.
Will show you later how I make tree guards out of 4 inch drainage tile about 4 foot tall. This is to tie the strings around the tree, and also to keep the deer from shredding the new trees with their antlers. You can re-use these forever. They don't deteriorate. Take them off as the tree outgrows them.
replied 3 months ago
Still a ways off before we open. Started interviewing night watchmen. I think I have a candidate. Passed the neck strength test.
replied 3 months ago
10 September 2020, 05:40 Started planting right before the temperature dropped from 100 degrees one day, then down to 55 for a high the next day. Will be cool and wet for the next two weeks. Dirt was bone dry, but now, due to two slow days of rain, we're good.
Dug the holes with the mini excavator above.
Put steel posts in for tree support.
Cut tree guards out of 4 inch corrugated drainage pipe. Used the Chainsaw to cut down the middle. Then with someone holding the end, I cut them into 3 to 4 foot sections.
Put the guard on the tree first. Then plant the tree. Tie plastic string around to hold the tree. This will keep the tree upright and protect against deer rubbing the tree.
Might not be able to tell from the tree picture. Built a little dam up front and left a little low in back. This will help in both catching rain water and as we needed to water the tree. It will get and keep more water.
These guards will come off in about 2 to 3 years. If the tree grows faster than that or if I forget, the plastic will expand and open up as the tree grows. No bugs or diseases inside, plenty of air flow.
replied 3 months ago
15 September 2020, 03:51 PMPaid for Permit last Friday. $19,000 which is under budget. This pays for the whole project, even though we will build part this year and next.
Our surveyors are out laying out the first set of buildings. Not real clear, but the tall stakes are the actual corners of the buildings. The smaller stakes are "offsets". In case you have to dig up the corner stake, you can triangulate from the smaller "offset" stakes back to the corner. They give you two of them at exactly 90 degrees to the building corner. Just measure equidistant from both, at 90 degrees and that is the corner.
Ground is a little soft from our recent rains.
Building contractor will start to move equipment in and setup to start putting footings and pads in.
Plumber is waiting on a Storm drain, then he will come put that in and the Office water, sewer, etc.
Retaining wall company has just a little new section of wall to build.
Paid 30% down for the building material. Back log puts us into late November or December to erect buildings.
Would like to get all Phase 1 building pads and roads in. As we get good weather throughout the winter, then assemble.
The office will be the first building assembled, so Plumbing, electric, and Security can start to use it for all control panels.
Will be tight with the weather. Would like to be operational on some units going into next spring, just to get our location "out there" with the public.
22 September 2020, 07:10 PMHouston we have take off.
Two contractors moved on site to do work.
The building contractor is putting footings in for the Office first. That way the plumber, electrician and security contractors can start setting up and trenching to the main hub.
The parking lots drains from the neighbors. We are putting in trenches to our Storm water retention pond.
I will break this up into a couple of posts.
Below is the office footing which just got poured.
a. Our building contractor recommends a floating slab, but our city requires all buildings to have footings. We would have needed them for the office anyways since it is heated during the winter. But for the rest of the project this will cost about $400,000 more than is needed per the building vendor.
b. The pink styrofoam is required by the city. This office will have a 10 inch trench with 2 inch foam and 8 inch concrete. All other buildings will be 8 inches. The city has no requirements on thickness. We could have gone with 2 inches. They just require a footing.
c. The builder is cleaning up a "Corner" form. They built these to put less effort into the corners. Otherwise they have to build a corner form. She is both cleaning the form which was pulled about an hour after the concrete was poured. Then she will spray in down with oil to make it easy to pull out on the next pour. Will show a picture of them pulling our of the corner using chains on the top holes.
d. Didn't show a picture, but down in the trench is a 20foot piece of rebar that is built in a "L" shape. The long side is in the ground and the short side will stick up about 6 inches on the inside of the building wall. The electricians will attached a copper cable to it and the building. This will ground the building from an electric strike. This will save all of the cameras and lights. Also this will prevent the opposite end of the building from the Lightning strike from being blown out.
e. What should happen next, is we would form and build the pad on top of this, before rain and dirt get on the top of the footing. But we will probably wait a week until the Plumber has a chance to dig underneath the footing (his preference, versus beforehand) and set the Sewer, water, etc inside the building.
f. Electrician will come from under ground outside the buildings and not through the concrete.
replied 2 months ago
22 September 2020, 07:23 PM Next is the trencher they use. This group custom builds a lot of their equipment attachments since they have a machine shop also.
a. They used to use a Terabite, basically a mini excavator with an arm and scoop. This took a very long time. They bought and modified this trencher just for the jobs they have done for me and use it for any other buildings they do.
b. Note the teeth. This is the set up for an 8 inch trench. The office due to the 2 inch foam had to be 10 inches. I missed taking a picture but they built extended teeth to make this a 10 inch machine. Then they just took them off, to get back to 8 inches.
c. This machine flies compared to the Terabite. The only problem they have run into is if the ground is wet. Then the machine has a hard time getting a grip to pull the trencher. They then will attach a tractor or skidsteer in front to give it more grip, or just wait a day till it dries.
d. The third picture shows they have measured the footprint of the building and have marked the trench with orange paint on the dirt. If you magnify the front of the machine you will see about a 10 foot bar out front. This is used as a guide for the driver to follow the line out front, since he can't see directly in front of his machine. Just like a gun sight.
e. Picture one you see the Augur wheels. One for each side. This takes the dirt that is being scooped up and throws it away from the trench. This keeps them from having to both clean dirt out of the trench (totally clean bottom) and also moves the dirt away from the trench so they don't kick it in as they are putting the rebar in. They used to have to move the dirt away with rakes and shovels. They built this.
22 September 2020, 07:43 PM Next up is the drain tile contractor. He will be putting in two drains for the Apartment complex parking lots above us. He will attach them together where they meet.
Then he will put in a "Drain" tile along the Retaining wall. This is to catch underground seep water from the hill above, which was causing the field to have a wet spot.
Both contractors had a hard time getting on site. The building contractor had a blow out on a trailer coming up and had to send someone back for an impact wrench to change the tire. The drain contractor had his skid steer trailer stolen, then found, notified it was at the police impound, so it took him a while to get his skid steer on site. He uses it to place rock in the bottom of the ditch and also to put the drain pipes in the trench.
He is putting in a 24 inch pipe, starting from the Storm retention pond and working backwards. This will narrow down to a 10 inch pipe for the far parking lot drain and also the "Drain" field tile. I asked him to switch buckets when he gets to the 10 inch pipes so he both doesn't dig out as much dirt, but also so the dirt will settle and compact quicker on the 10 Inch line, versus using the bucket for the 24 inch line. These trenches are being built where concrete roads will go. The more they "settle" the less cracks I will have in the roads. He will compact as he goes, but it still won't be as good as solid dirt.
*******************************
25 September 2020, 05:44 PMThe excavator completed putting in the 24 inch drain pipe for the parking lot drainage from the apartment above us. Next he capped the 24 inch pipe and then inserted a 6 inch field drainage pipe. I didn't catch this operation. He did change the shovel heads to a smaller shovel. That way we have less dirt that needs to compact and less chance for our roads to develop cracks in them.
The guy in the ditch is measuring the depth versus the tripod gps locator. They are putting in a 2 % grade to have the water drain out.
The drainage pipe is on a large reel behind the pickup truck. As they hold it at the end, then someone drives forward and unreels it.
The close up of the pipe shows the slatted holes for the water to seep into the pipe then run down the pipe. There are three ways to "Rest" the pipe in the ground: a. Put the pipe in first and then put loose rock in above it. So water will seep down to the pipe. This is the revers of a sewer field where you want to loose the grey water. There you would put the rock down first, with the pipe above it, so the water seep down., b. Your pipe has a "Sock" over it to keep dirt getting into the pipe and clogging it up., c. This contractor for this type of pipe is just laying it into the ground and covering it up. Since it is not very heavy duty, he can't tamp the soil above it down. This leaves greater risk for the concrete road above it to develop cracks since the soil may not have compacted over the winter.
replied about 2 months ago
26 September 2020, 12:00 PM
Had someone ask why we weren't using perforated pipe.
Thanks for the question. I don't always cover everything. Just to make sure we are all on the same page. There are two reasons to put a pipe in the ground:
1. If you have your own septic system, behind it will be a leach field. This is to remove the grey water from your system.
2. Is to take water out of the ground to dry it up.
Both of these work with the same concept but in reverse.
The water and soil have a "wicking" process. The water will go to the soil where there is less moisture.
In the septic system you have a lot of water, thus it goes away from the pipe to soil with less water. The soil actually draws the water.
In the field drain system the dry pipe with air in it draws the water from the soil around it. Our field drain pipe will "wick" or draw water from 40 foot away on both sides. As the seep water from the hill above our property comes close to this line, it will start to draw the water.
Back to the question of why we didn't use perforated pipe?
Perforated pipe is normally used in septic drain systems. They have bigger holes since you want to "get rid" of water. To keep them clean because the holes are so big; you should put "clean" rock (rock without the dust and fines) both underneath it and on top. On top of the top rock, you should put garden mesh so the dirt doesn't filter through the rock and into the pipe, clogging it.
The agricultural field drain pipe and system was designed to take water out of the ground, not require tons of rock and to also not silt in. Thus in our situation we went with the Agricultural drain tile. You would think the water once it came into the pipe would also leave the pipe through similar holes. Due to this pipe having its end open to the air, a suction effect occurs and the water travels down the pipe and out the end.
Thanks for the question. If you have one please ask. I don't fully explain all aspects.
29 September 2020, 03:03 PMGreat weather so far, plus next 14 days. Going through a drought which is good for building. Luckily temperatures are going down and the crops are finishing for the season.
Thus far we have the footings for the Office done. We will not pour the pad on top of it until the Plumber digs his drains and waterline up through the floor. Just marked out all the sinks, commodes, shower, drains, hot water heater with flags. This will be the first building we put up, so the Electrician, plumber, security, etc can start putting their main switches and boxes in the office.
The next two small buildings they have poured the footings and now have: a. placed rock grit on the ground, b. put plastic moisture barrier down, c. laid rebar across. If you can tell the rebar is a green color. They have switched to using Fiber glass rebar versus metal. Its stronger than steel and doesn't rust which can cause problems with the concrete bonding to the metal. Costs a little more, but easier to handle, stronger and doesn't rust. These are ready to pour the pad, but all of the concrete plants and trucks are backed up till Wednesday.
In the mean time they are trenching the next two pads. I have already showed you the machine they use to dig the trenches. After they are done trenching they have to dig the loose dirt out at the corners. Since last week, they have a machine shop and just bought a skidsteer; over the weekend they made an attachment on the skidsteer so they can drag it on the bottom and clean out the loose dirt at the corners. This saves a lot of time since the dirt is about 40 inches down in a narrow trench. Hard to get it out with a shovel.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 2 months ago
2 October 2020, 06:25 PM Beautiful weather. Dry and cool. Concrete construction crew is rolling along.
Got two of the small pads poured and frames torn off.
They just poured the second two buildings footings. It will take them Mon/Tuesday and Wednesday to get the sand, vapor barrier sheet and rebar in place.
Plumber is supposed to come on site next week. They will install the storm outlet drain and the facilities to the office.
Kind of excited to see the plumber tap into the sewer and water lines. I always thought they cut the service off for everyone and then cut into the line and added an extension. But I guess they "tap" or drill into the lines while they are live and attach. Have to see how they do that without getting sprayed.
They are moving a lot faster on this project with the skidsteer to move the trench dirt, removable steel corner forms and the attachment to clean dirt out of the trench corners.
Have one more pad site where the white trailer is, to do, then we will be done with these small buildings at the entrance.
Move on to three larger building pads, 230/250/250 long 40/30/40 widths. Have to check next week on the delivery schedule and the building crew.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
Learn something everyday. The pad below is 40 foot wide. To give it a smooth surface they are running a "float" over it. Made a comment about using the Bull float, and they said no, this is a "Fresno" float. Guess the Bull float is used to level the concrete a little better than the power screed they use. Then they use the Fresno float to give it a better finish. Two people pushing and pulling. The person on the far side to pick it up and move it to the side.
Electricians are working around everyone. Plumber and Concrete. They really laid a lot of underground line out this day. They will have to come back when the other trades are further along. Decided we would run two underground cables. Since the site is so long, one cable will handle the near buildings and the larger cable will handle the farthest 1/3 of the buildings. This is due to the distance and losing voltage over that far.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
3 November 2020, 05:03 PM Retaining wall finished up. All our fences and walls usually are about 1 foot off the property line. The first picture looks like it is coming across the straight fence line, which it is. About 10 foot to the right of the wall out of the picture is our corner boundary and the property line runs along the back of the cars facing the fence. They have an easement for this land. Both the apartment and our land used to be owned by the same person.
The second picture is to help support the land for the pad to the right of it. Has dirt on it, so hard to see. Same pad in both wall pictures. This is a 15 foot wide pad. Originally I was going to do a 20. But we have to plant between the wall and the building so I shrunk the width down. I won't plant the shrubs on top of the wall till spring, so the building erectors don't have to step around it. I did go ahead and put grass seed down and grass mat. Really to late in the year, here for seeding, but put it down anyways. Should sprout in the spring.
All of the retaining walls combined equaled about 2,000 square feet. Ended up being $36,000. Cleaned the edges of the property up on the two pictures below. And the real long wall pushed the hill back to we could add about 28 more units. Will be close penciling out to revenue, but makes the property look a lot cleaner.
Also put a "Dry" wash area to drain water from behind our building and next to apartment complex. Otherwise water would back up into part of the apartment. Used a skid steer to dig the ditch out. Then put extra silt fence material I had down to prevent soil erosion. Then put rip rap in it to slow the water down and to hold the fabric in place. Again this is to get water around the apartment building to the right which our property line is only about 4 feet off their building corner.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
Forgot pictures on last post.
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Jason Turgeon Realtor from Boston, MA
replied about 1 month ago
Thanks for putting so much detail into this thread! I live in the congested East Coast where finding an 8 acre site is more or less impossible, and if you can find one it will go to a 9 figure development with hundreds of high end condos. But it's interesting to learn about all the site work and engineering and everything else.
It's also interesting to note that no matter how long someone works in this business, their best estimates about time and cost never seem to work out. My first rehab I remember sweating $400 cost overruns. Then I moved up to sweating $4000 cost overruns. This year I had a $40k cost overrun and made it work. And you are dealing with a $400k overrun and it seems like it is causing you about the same stress. Guess I know what to aspire to!
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
My saying is "Start small and Make your Big Mistakes early." Obviously I don't follow my own rule. Luckily the bigger we have gotten, it is all relative to the size of the location.
Land/Storage can be found anywhere, even in the middle of Boston. Read my Zoning, I3???? post. I'm sure there are 3 bare acres right in the middle of Boston proper waiting to be purchased.
On the detail. This is our last Storage location we are buying or building. Thus I thought to pass on the experiences. A lot of people buy and sell, but have not developed with all of its issues. Moving on to our next type of investment.
Building is supposed to start mid December when the buildings get here. About half way thru with this thread.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
Great weather today around 75. Normal should be 50. Had both the Road and the pad contractors going to town. Racing Mother Nature. The limiting factor right now is everyone is crushing it before winter sets in and no concrete can be poured. You have to schedule three days in advance for concrete. Concrete offices open at 6:30 and if you haven't called by 7:30 all the slots 3 days out are taken. Once the ground freezes you can't pour concrete on it, unless you keep the ground warm with heat blankets which is expensive and time consuming. And then you have to keep the poured concrete warm. Concrete generally has to be above 40 degrees, otherwise the concrete won't set and you just have mud and gravel.
Attachment one below showing you two things. The metal rod with the orange safety stop so you don't trip and stab yourself is the Electric ground for this pad. It is about a 20 foot piece of rebar bent in a long L shape with about 2 1/2 feet above ground. This will help with any lightning hits or electrical issues, from frying your camera or computer systems, or blowing the back wall out of your building.
At the base of the building you can now see how the building Rain guard lip and then the Road work together to keep water out of the building. The rain guard lip is about 1 inch below the floor. The black rubber guard on the roll up door will provide a sill so the rain doesn't blow under the door. If it does, then the 1 inch concrete lip keeps the water out.
The road is also set about 1 inch below the pad, helping to keep the water out. Also if we have frost heave, the road will still be below the pad or at worst even with it, thus keeping water out.
Second attachment are forms I placed while they were pouring the concrete. These are on the corners of the buildings where we will put steel post bollards. We could have let them pour over this, but then we would have to pay about $100 per hole to have a concrete "core" driller come out to use a circular saw to cut a hole. We will come back later with a post hole digger and dig down 3 feet. Then put a 7 foot steel post in. Then we will pour concrete into the hole. I do it the lazy way. I pour water into the hole. Then I slowly pour the dry concrete into the hole. That way I don't have to mix the concrete above ground. Will show you later.
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Jason Turgeon Realtor from Boston, MA
replied about 1 month ago
Still enjoying this. Always cool to learn about different construction techniques. The photos you linked give an error message when I click through, looks like some kind of forum we need to be members of to see the pics.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
Beautiful days and a lot getting done.
Road crew are pouring the final half of a section. We normally do 25 foot wide roads, you could do 20. Splitting that is 12.5 feet half sections. A concrete truck is roughly 8 feet wide. Thus they are able to back down and pour the last half.
By doing to slab halves they are able to put a V in the middle to let the water run down. Normally you don't want this to occur, because if water gets between and underneath, it will erode out the wall. I will get a close up picture how they interlock the two slabs later.
Again on the picture above in the right front corner, you can see I put in a cardboard circular form to come back later and put in our Bollard to protect the corners of the buildings.
The next picture they are pulling a brush across the fresh driveway concrete. This bristly brush will put a rougher texture to the surface making it safer to drive on, versus leaving a smooth surface.
The next picture shows the grey foam they are putting between the building pad and as they pour the road. This is expansion joint so as the ground heaves or thaws the road and the building pad move separately.
Below is our existing office front. On the ground you will note a metal ramp to get into both the office and the bathroom. We have to be ADA compliant and we forgot to pour the concrete for the road higher to meet the office. Don't have a picture, but we remembered and got it right on this site. My builder did a great job on the ramp and securing it, but its just one snow push or knock away from dislodging.
Its Thursday and we can't get anymore concrete this week. So the builder will work to get the final and last pad ready to pour. He has 1/2 of the previous pad to pour on Monday. Since its Thanksgiving next week, he will probably not start the pour on the last pad.
The road crew won't get concrete till next week, so they are forming up the roads and getting ready for next week. Once everyone is offsite this weekend. I need to go and lower the dry wash area I did. Its about a foot high in about a 10 foot area. Otherwise water will dam up behind it a little. Also need to build another drywash area, which I will explain later.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied about 1 month ago
Also got the Bank Officer out to see the jobsite. Walked him through the status of where we are at and then what will be accomplished the remainder of this year and then the final push next year. We will have a footprint for about 360 units. But I think I will change some of the shorter buildings down to 12 or 15 wide; 12 foot tall and 30 or 40 foot long. To expand the offering. First set of buildings will come in mid December and hopefully get completed by end of February. Although we won't have many rented out during the winter, the community will start to see us and we will be ready for the Spring rental push. This winter hope to get about 150 units finished and start renting.
The second Phase we will probably start building pads and roads again in May and hopefully complete around August. March and April, the "bottom" usually drops out of the soil. Over winter the soil freezes. Right when it thaws in the spring, some spots really get spongy and a pothole forms. So we will wait till May to start again.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 29 days ago
Covering bathroom. Each city is probably different. Ours requires 60 inches circumference for a wheel chair to have clearance to turn in. This room is 10 x 10 way to big. Our next location bathroom is about half this size. In the picture above our plumber had to replace the sink since they put a 4 legged sink in. You can't get a wheel chair under. The wall next to the commode they had to build an extension, since the commode was to far from the wall. So much for following the engineering drawings. I had to pay to fix both. As noted the concrete out front has to be at door level for a wheel chair.
Our Electrician did a great job. The light sensor on the left turns the lights on and then off. You can adjust the sensor to different heights. If it goes off you just need motion. The heater is to the right. It has a dial, so you can set and it will turn on/off on its own depending on temp. Keep it low around 50 so pipes don't freeze.
This is the bathroom air vent. This was a little tricky at inspection time. The city requires an HVAC contractor to install "Mechanical". My Electrician came back later to install since I couldn't find an HVAC person to come and install just this little fan.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 11 days ago
Weather is about to shut us down pouring more concrete. The driveway itself is finished, but it runs through a sidewalk, which we might not get poured this year. Really wanted to get this done since this is a major walking and bike trail.
The above is our last driveway between two of our large pads. 60 degree day, The next week is 35 highs with precipitation.
Our building contractor will only come on site if we have concrete hard surface all around, or rock base to work off of. We will have all roads done, except for a small part where we will put rock down.
They don't want to work in mud and also track mud onto the building pads.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 11 days ago
The farthest pad was our last large pad we put up. We now have all of our pads poured. Final thing we were trying to get done were the roads.
Tuesday 15th, the Building manufacturer is set to deliver the buildings on site. We will have them use the last pad as the laydown pad and take material from there.
So hopefully next week will send you some Building Erection pictures. We will probably not open up until Early Spring since the entrance is not totally down and we still have one section of road not completed. Just depends on the weather for the next two weeks.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 11 days ago
Below is a Lien Waiver form. As I pay off the larger vendors, I have them sign this for our bank. This says they have paid all of their vendors related to this project. You would hate to pay your Road crew the full bill, to find out months later the Concrete company has not been paid and they want you to pay the bill a second time.
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Steve Cheslock Specialist from Charleston SC
replied 11 days ago
@Henry Clark this is such an amazing thread. THANK YOU so much for doing this. I’m finishing up the rehab on my first facility and looking at a new construction build for project #2. This was so helpful.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 11 days ago
Its not polished, but definitely something for everyone, even my mistakes.
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Steve Cheslock Specialist from Charleston SC
replied 6 days ago
Originally posted by @Henry Clark :Still a ways off before we open. Started interviewing night watchmen. I think I have a candidate. Passed the neck strength test.
Haha... my first dog was a very big Rottie. Love it.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 5 days ago
Our first portions of buildings have been delivered. Starting erection as of day 2. Although its cold, luckily the sun is out, no wind. Everything is on concrete paving or rock so no mud or ice. We have been 10 degrees below normal and with snow/ice on the ground, which we normally don't have. Next week temps will pick up a little. Won't be up and renting this winter, but 1/2 of the buildings will be in place ready for the Spring season.
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Henry Clark Developer from Iowa
replied 11 minutes ago
Had two days with 50 highs. The road contractor was able to pour the two sidewalk edges. This is a major bike, jogging and dog walking section. So I really wanted to get this in, before winter closed out pouring concrete. This is the last work we will do until around March of next year with concrete. The orange rubber bumps are required by the city to assist with visually impaired at crossings. Will give the concrete about 7 days to cure, then will remove the barricades. Get back to being a good neighbor, yahoo.
Probably wait till spring to do grass and landscaping.
Sorry, I deleted my blog by mistake. Reposted.
************Dec 23rd
Being from Louisiana, sometime I just have to say Honey, I love you.
Just got our ice and snow removed about two days ago from the Shady side of our buildings. Now our next snow storm is moving in. Hopefully it will be light. And we have some 40 degree days following.
Again, part of this post is sharing my failures and hopefully lessons learned. The building above is double pitched roof one side facing south and the other facing north. The north facing side gets no sun and takes forever to melt. You can get the ground cleaned, but the snow and ice on the roof keeps thawing and re-freezing, making the road below slick.
The next picture is a 40 x 200 building on our new location. We ordered with a single pitch roof facing the south. Should melt off fast and keep the road clear. The north facing sides we will just need to remove the snow/ice on the ground and not worry about liquid from the roof.
Merry Xmas
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January 10th 2021
Everything averages out. As much trouble as we had with our contractors erecting buildings on our last project, this crew is just knocking it out of the park. Next week we will have sunny days, highs of 45 and lows of 25. This is great weather for our area. They have one 30 x 220 building left to do and to wrap up some of the smaller buildings they have half finished. Took them over some Korean bulgogi, tagi gogi and chop chai for lunch. That hit the spot, they couldn't talk, they were eating so fast.
Below is the office. Where you see the bottoms on the outside not done, that is where we have to put wainscot. Will walk you through that process later. Glass doors are to be replaced with solid doors for security.
Multiple steps and in order have to be performed:
My site contractor needs to partially finished the interior walls and ceilings.
Then my plumber has to install fixtures in the wall.
Then spray foam.
Then finish interior walls with same clad.
Then Electrician and plumber have to finish.
Next picture is side of smaller units. Again, bottom wainscot has to be installed. You can see we had 6 inches of snow on the ground. The large 40 x 200 building was erected but without the roof when the snow fell. So we have a lot of snow in the buildings. With the 40 degrees weather next week, we will open the doors so it can melt off, versus spending the time shoveling.
You might note the roofs are single slope towards the front of the building. Normally we would do to the back of the building to get the water out of the travel area. The Storm pond has extremely steep sides, so I did not want the water to steadily erode the banks. It will go to a road drain and then into the pond.
Will have to get closer shots, but the roof ridges stand higher. This is because it is a Standing Seam roof, versus a screw down roof. Costs a little more, but less chance of leaks and screws working themselves out. Will get some close ups and process.
Addl info. We went with a "Standing Seam" roof for these buildings. A little higher cost than normal screw down. I will do a separate post on this.
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Jan 12 2021
Standing Seam Roofs
Our latest location we decided to do Standing Seam roofs, versus screw down. Costs a little more, but will last longer with less leaks and need for future (15 to 25 years) checking on loose screws.
Now I did not and am not giving a definitive answer on which is best and etc. My local distributor and prior contractor had both mentioned and recommended it, so decided to try it.
Comparison:
Cost wise, I don't have the difference.
Screw down replacement, if you did have to tighten or replace screws on the Screw down system, just get larger screws so they seal better and replace.
Erection time. Standing Seam takes extra time to place and set the hidden clamps. Every 5 feet, so not a lot of time. But you do a lot less screws overall.
Picture below is of a normal screw down system. You will have screws all along the ridges and all across the sheet every 5 feet. These two Lips of the two different sheets show them not matching, which could lead to leakage.
Next picture shows the Standing Seam roof. The metal clip is screwed in place. This side of the sheet is clipped under the clip, then the next sheet will be laid on top and the two edges will be snapped into place. Invert your hands to each other. Then curl your fingers. Pull your curled fingers together and that is how the sheets are connected. The top sheet has glue on it, which gives an air and water tight sill to them. These also set about 3 inches above the "trough" or valley of the sheet, whereas "Screw down" method is about an inch high. Creates less chance for water or ice to come under the seams.
Next is the clip itself from front and back. The back side shows you the screw holes attached to the trusses. This is hidden under the roof. This clip is set in the ridge where the two sheets meet and are then pushed or snapped down to each other and this clip.
Next, I'm showing you the width of the valleys on the 'Standing Seam roof". Normal Screw down roof valleys are about a foot wide and this is about 2 foot wide, using my fore arm as a gauge. Can't wait to see how this helps with snow melting or blowing off the roof, compared to the narrower screw down valleys.
Below is an end shot of the Standing Seam roof:
Again which is better? Don't know the answer. "Standing Seam" costs more, but I don't have the figures for you. Should last longer (30 to 50 years) with less leakage problems. All my other buildings are "Screw Down" and no leakage problems thus far (1 to 6 years). I do have a "Screw Down" building we bought the location, that is around 20 years old. We are having leaks and we will have to take the screws off and replace with larger screws (so they "bite" the existing screw hole) this summer.
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01 11 2021
All of the other contractors always put the Doors on, before they put the roof on. Since the door is crammed against the roof above their heads they prefer to be able to stick through the roof and work at waist height. This crew puts the roof on first and then the doors. Did not ask if this is because its winter and they want to keep as much snow out as possible or if they prefer that way.
Below is the side of a door. The metal arm will be attached to the wall through the open bolt holes. Once attached, they will use a level and move the bolts up or down to level the door.
Next step is to "Tension" the door so it rolls up or down with ease. The special rod he has will be inserted into the sprocket hole and he will crank each side until the coil or spring inside is tensioned correctly for the door to operate smoothly. Always make sure you roll each door up and down before the crew takes off.
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Just started doing our year end tax work. Why, I have been doing a lot of posting the last day or so, just forestalling jumping into bookkeeping and taxes. I'm a retired CPA, Controller, and CFO; but I hate doing taxes. I am not giving any tax advice.
Luckily, I think we have gotten to critical mass, so we can start moving our bookkeeping to our CPA firm.
One note on Taxes and this project. The majority of your 15 year or less depreciable life assets can be accelerated in year one. Depending on the project status and the potential to bill prior to year end. I will contact all of our vendors and have them catch up their billings prior to 12/31 so we can pay.
Examples:
Electrical
Plumbing- road drainage
Road contractor
Security systems
Signage
Why do this?
In Self Storage you usually will have significant cash flow later, but at start up/rent up phase, you have less cash. This reduction of Income Tax, is a cash savings in the early stages. You will have to pay more in taxes in the future since you wrote of these assets, but you will have more cash then.
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01 14 2012
Building framing. They are building the last building for us this phase. 30 x 220. They have nailed the Studs to the concrete and then adding the purlins between the studs. They drill a hole in the concrete first, then they drill a threaded bolt into the concrete.
The next picture shows the side view. This building is a "Single Slope" roof to the right side. Studs on the back are taller and diminishing as they go to the front, where is the low side is. Will show you a side view, then show you the labels on the studs.
The next labels are on the front three studs down at the base. You will notice the last three digits are 118, 318, 518. This tells the erector the sequence to place the studs. These studs are on 5 foot centers. So if this was a 20 foot wide building with a Gable or double sloped roof; you would see 118, 318, 518, 318, 118. With the 518 being in the middle.
Will start setting up the location with signage, cameras, lights, etc. Also will start to finish out the Office and walk through that with you.
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01 15 2021
Just ordered our entrance gate yesterday. Will give you a run down on gate systems we use. We are in a blizzard so hey, got time. Over all our road ways are 25 foot wide. Use a 20 foot (drivable space) gate, the actual gate may be 30 foot long for offsetting weight and to stay on the rollers. You could go with a shorter gate. Make sure to put Posts or Bollards on each side of the gates, so no one runs into it.
We primarily use three types of gates on our properties. Two sided swinging/hinged gates for construction entrances, Walk thru gates- in case entry gate is down, and Entry gate- we use a Cantilever gate. If in the country side, we will do galvanized. If in the city we will use Black coated.
Before we get into the entry gate, if you look at the walk through gate you will note a "Blue" chain and lock. PEWEG grade 120, 1/2 inch "square" chain. Get at a "Rigging" store. Use this type of chain since it is impossible for Bolt Cutters to cut; and extremely hard to cut with a cutoff saw. You may see a youtube with a Vise holding it and cutting it, but they won't have a Vise outside. For a lock we use the below which is a Master Lock, model 6127A Key??????. If you keep the model and Key number, you can buy or have the locksmith key to the same Key. This is not even close to the "BEST/BEST" lock out there, but is less expensive and great. Due to the heavy neck and metal strength, no one has been able to cut through this lock with a bolt cutter. I like the moisture cover for the key hole, for our weather.
Don't remember exactly the prices.
Chain is about $20 per foot.
Lock is about $25
3 pictures above is a picture of our Cantilever gate. The next picture shows the Rollers for the gate at the bottom. There are 4 rollers, one at the top and bottom and then about 8 feet away is another set of top and bottom rollers. The gate rides on these rollers, and is called a Cantilever since the weight transferring over the rollers as you close and open, the weight on one side, helps offset the weight on the other.
Good thing about this gate, is it can be turned off and then easily manually rolled open or shut.
a. Your gate might not being getting electricity. Breaker switch could be thrown- long term you need your electrician to check if that is happening. Make sure your Electrician when installing puts the gate on its own Breaker Switch. Same thing with your NVR and Computers.
b. First thing to check though if gates won't open are the sensors. See next section.
First picture. To access these controls, you must unlock the cover. Then second picture, turn the switch off.
Third picture is the manual latch lever.
Fourth picture. You must use two hands and at the same time, pull back on the Handle sticking up in the air, and lift the latch that is laying down on the locking arm, to the second tooth position. Then just roll the gate open or closed.
Some folks may use "Lift" gates where there is just one fulcrum point. Then the whole gate lifts up in the air, until it is at a 90 degree angle to the ground. My contractor has this gate at his storage. He says the only issue he has ever had is in an ICE storm and the gate was to heavy. He has to go knock off the ice from the gate.
Ice is an issue with the Cantilever gates also. On the top bar, we take a small hammer and knock the ice off. Otherwise it builds up under the roller wheel and blocks the gate as you open. On the bottom bar and Rollers, I usually take windshield wiper fluid and pour on the two bottom rollers and bar.
First thing to check if your gate won't open are the sensors. See if weeds have grown up or trash is near the Beam or reflector. Or if humidity or frost are occurring.
a. Make sure you have hoods on both your Beam and reflectors to protect them from ice and rain.
b. Put Rain X on them to keep them clean of ice, snow or humidity.
c. You will have two sets of Beams and reflectors. One for the gate opening and one for the rear area where the gate retracts when opening. These sensors should note if there is a vehicle or a human blocking the signal and stop.
d. Also you may have in ground sensors on both sides of the gate where the vehicles drive through. The sensors, sense a vehicle and will stop the gate from closing until the gate moves. See the third picture below. After the driveway is poured, the Gate company will cut tracks in the concrete and lay a sensor wire there and cover up.
e. Some gates may use a Bumper sensor on the edge of the gate and if it hits something it will retract or stop.
All and none of the above may be required depending on your government/zoning entity, your business model or other considerations. Also the above are what I use, not necessarily all or the best solutions on the market.
These automated gates can be programmed in several fashions.
a. Keypad, we use just a push button. You could use a code or a fob. We don't want the extra calls on I lost my code or fob. To beef up the security just using a push button, we have about $8,000 worth of special cameras. Face camera when you push the button coming in and going out. Special license plate camera that is built just for that. Passenger camera and an overall camera. Both sides of the gate.
b. You can program the time the gate stays open when activated.
c. We have programmed only during the hours 8 am to 9 pm.
d. We have a hard lockdown we communicate at 9pm.
e. Gate is accessible through our phone. We are 25 minutes away. So if someone gets locked in after 9 we can open, or if we want to test because of frost, we can do this over the phone. Or if police need to get in after hours.
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01/19/2021
Kicking back listening to all the Beatles Songs, while I am having dinner at the office and paying bills. "Little Darling, feel like that snow is melting" "Here comes the Sun, it's alright".
Today made me think back to Xmas many many years ago. Could barely go to sleep the night before. Was that long present, my first BB gun?
The Erection crew has the final 30 x 220 building done. Just need to tension the doors and clean up the job site. Great team (one week 25 highs and 9 lows, luckily no wind). All buildings are completed except for the Office, which will take a while for us to finish the inside. Tomorrow the buildings will get turned over to us. We have already had several rains and snow melts. All the roofs are leak tight. Used a Standing Seam roof for the first time.
If you look back over the post, you can see all of the steps needed, potential missteps, etc. The biggest test is "Will they Come?". See my post on that topic.
As our Basketball coach would say, pat yourself on the back for a day, then get back to practice.
We are about half way there with this location and project. Still need to build more in the Spring, but all of the tasks are laid out. Will start setting up the signage, gates/fences, internet, Sparefoot, Security, etc. Then the race to 65% occupancy (breakeven).
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01/22/2021
Material came in, to do the Siding. This property is zoned PC or Planned Community. In Industrial zoning you can do whatever you want. In PC, you have to get approval for everything. In our instance, for any building side facing the street we had to have a Siding on the bottom skirt or wainscot. Some of our buildings where we could, we put end units so we didn't have to do the Siding. The fence we will need to do ornamental bar rails versus chain link.
We picked a plastic molded product to keep the price down. They would not allow us to do a different color metal for the wainscot. This application will cost about $20,000 more than just sheet metal. If we had gone with the false stone or brick face, it would have cost around $40,000; which we had already run into cost over runs on some other areas, so I took the least expensive route.
Basically it takes a few more metal ribs, we screwed treated Plywood on, so it wouldn't rot, then you fit and screw down the molding. All of our buildings are now buttoned up. Just need to finish out the Office.
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03/19/2021
Things starting to move again on project. We are doing the inside of the office, which like a house requires different Trades at different times. Thus this part of the project is a lot of waiting for one Trade to get done, so the next can come in.
Spray Foam Insulation:
We decided to insulate the interior walls for both sound and climate. Went with an Open Cell versus a Closed Cell spray foam. This actually is what slowed progress down. We had to wait for a day that was over 40 degrees. The Truck with the equipment sits outside and the foam won't flow right if near freezing. Decided to do Spray foam since not only does it insulate by the material, but it provides a near 100% air barrier versus Insulation rolls.
Won't get to much into Open versus Closed. We picked Open because it has better Noise insulation. Generally Closed is better, for temperature control, rodent control, Building Structural support, but is more expensive. Ours was applied 3.5 to 4 inches thick. This was a 20 x 30 building. We used the normal manufacturer insulation for the roof. This had 10 foot walls, outside walls and interior walls. Total of 1,500 sq feet. Total applied cost of $2,755.
Provides a nice fit and your not cutting rolled insulation to size. Took about 2 hours to do the whole building.
Second photo shows the spray foam overlapping the roof insulation. If you look at the red or dark metal strip along the edge of the ceiling bottom, this is where we will attach the ceiling. Thus there will be an additional air barrier in the "Attic" for insulation.
Below we use a very small Air conditioner unit and 3 small wall heater units. At our existing location, which is built and insulated in a mirror image, 100 degree days and minus 10 degrees we are very comfortable due to the spray foam insulation. Spray foam may cost more, but we only have about $500 into Heating/Cooling units, which are easily replaced.
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03/21/2021
Getting closer to opening on this project, what I will call Phase 1. Two most exciting times for storage development:
1. Pictures below, putting on the Unit and size numbers. Means we are getting close to opening up and starting to rent.
2. When we hit 65% occupancy, which means we are covering Principal/Interest and all costs for Phase 1.
The unit numbers are 2 inch widths. Key to applying is to wipe the surface clean and dry. Air temperature must be 60 degrees or higher. Peel the back cover off, then apply. Scrape along the back several times all over to affix to the metal, then peel off the exterior paper cover. If it is the first time you use these, try with another number other than "1" to get the hang of it.
Unit Size number "10" below. We put this next to the door latch. We do self service, so customers can look for the size 10/15/20 without us telling them a specific unit number, since all of the doors are the same size and you can't tell the depth without opening up. This also helps us, since we are not sitting at a computer all of the time, and can't give them specific unit numbers and sizes off the cuff. Buy extra in case you mess up. You have to buy a minimum quantity and don't want to have to order one number.
Was afraid these numbers would fade or peel, but they have done really well over 7 years. The only time we have had problems is if it was too cold, or we did not get all of the moisture off the surface.
You might note the orange or red tape to the left in the first picture. We will put red tape up for "light" locations and green tape for cameras. This way our electricians and security camera guys know where to put them, without us being there all of the time.
Interesting fact. Below is a Cacao or Cocoa bean. The white internal portion is a covering over the actual bean. You can actually eat or suck the white meat off of the bean. It is super sweet. Other than money, always remember why your doing storage. We are enjoying investing in Belize. Just got back from checking things. First trip since last February and Covid.
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05012021
Can you say slow going?
Great weather, but contractors are really tied up and hard to get to close small issues.
Uh Oh. My wife just looked over my shoulder and got on to me for posting her beautiful picture above.
Assorted lose ends:
a. Will go for Occupancy and inspection next week. Was waiting on Plumber which is done., Fence/gate not responsive. Big Google project going on. Road contractor build form for parking and will pour next week. Parking is in the form. Need to put Handicap parking and regular parking for occupancy. Still have the handicap form from last project. Costs about $50. The dirt section in front will be where our Road sign goes. Still need to design.
b. Overview of phase 1, basically the buildings you see above. Phase 2 will be the two long buildings at the top of the picture below. Just need to pour the roads around them.
c. Phase 3, we will start doing pads on the bare ground above next week. Building cost went up about 25% since the units we built last year.
d. The storm retention pond drain is shown below. The drain is the large Concrete structure. Water can exit in both the round circle at the bottom and the small outlets at the top. Facing the side of the pond is the outlet which goes to the city storm drain. This pond has to be designed and sized by an engineer. They only count dry surface area as retention. If this pond had standing water, they would not count that area. The black tube on the left is the driveway drain. It is taking all of the water flowing from the buildings in "b" above for phase 1, into the pond.
e. Landscaping is almost done. Really dry here. Put seed, then grass mat down. Watering every night. My son and his friends will get home from College. Have them mulch all trees and bushes then. Also in the second picture, time to take the Silt fence out. Grass has mostly grown. Reseeding some. Have to get a zero turn mower to mow since this is a high bank and my riding lawn mowers wont work. The first picture where the two Bollards are in the concrete is where the security gate will go. You can also see a light green standing plastic stand. This is one of the connections where the Fiberoptics goes into the building. They just put in yesterday. Same security system as at our other location. Will go over later. Cameras are already recording in Phase 1.
f. City Inspection, will schedule next week. Kind of crazy, they have all of the inspectors come out at once. I will probably be the only one there. Contractors don't usually show. We will get a bullet list of items that need adjusted. Then we fix and just email a picture to them for approval. Just remembered on the bathroom sink, it has a plywood backing against the wall. It has to be painted, or the city won't accept. I noticed and painted today. Must be a plumber thing, that they don't paint wood. This was an exception at our last location inspection.
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05/04/2021
Parking pad poured today. Will need to dry for 7 days before we can use. Will paint handicap parking, put up handicap parking sign and penalty sign, then paint handicap path. The second picture below they are putting in the curb. This was part of the engineered drawing. Elsewhere I will try to get away with no curb, unless to catch water. Want to be able to push snow over the curb without hitting it.
Now that the parking spot is poured, we can put the road sign behind the two gentleman in the picture above. Stopped by my sign company and discussed what I was looking for. 4x8 double faced sign. He will erect with the bottom 4 feet off the ground. I will surround with landscaping blocks and fill in. The picture below is similar, but is using native stone blocks. Road signs are under a separate permitting process versus for the project itself, so a separate permit is required.
Called in to city permitting to get inspection. We are not totally done, but want to get the ball rolling. Still need to paint and put handicap signs, which I will do as soon as concrete dries. Also the Fence and Gate are not in. Stopped by the fence company. Our gate is third on the to do list in the shop, so should get done this week. The fence material is being rationed out, since they are short. But we have been on their list since last November, so we will get ours.
Shortages of material and price hikes. I have asked a Pool person in Phoenix and there is no Chlorine available for pools, Herbicide applicator for corn/soybeans who is almost out and it is just the start of the season, and Fence distributor. Plants are running, but the shortfall is due to fewer truckers. Back in 2017 E logs became Federally mandated for commercial truckers. A lot of the older truckers have decided to get out of the business.
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05/17/2021
Well its Monday and got sign off on the last inspection items for Phase 1 of our new facility. We won't have the security fence and gate in, they are supposed to be in over the next 2 weeks. But security cameras are functioning.
My son and I put our sign up. Always wait till ready to open. Our first location I put it up before we were open and had to deal with phone calls for 3 months, that we couldn't help.
The handicap and parking lines, waited till my son got back from College. Couldn't bear to think getting down on concrete to put the masking tape down and do the painting.
Tomorrow will put up to "OPEN" signs up along the road. Tonight turning on our Sparefoot new location listing. More calls, but hey, that's great.
Putting down the concrete sealer in the office. This will help to keep it cleaner and less stains. Waited till all of the inspectors were done. Will let it dry tonight and start moving in office equipment.
Yahoo.
Tomorrow is day 1 of renting.
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06/22/2021
Things are continuing to get knocked out. As mentioned before I have stayed with my "Local" contractors who have built all of my prior locations. These last two projects are a lot larger than my normal one building at a time, thus they have not been able to stay on the project, due to other customers.
Getting ready to put "monument" road sign in. Basically Clarkstoragellc with our phone number. Will be a 4x8 sign on both sides. My son and his friends will then build a rectangular retaining wall around the sign posts. Three foot high, and 4 by 9 feet rectangle. The two posts will be where the two orange stakes are. Then the wall around it. Then a Lily bed. Did a favor for my neighbor who has a Lily garden. Get to go get $300 of lily plants and will use for landscaping.
The fence and gate people are working. The black ornamental fence is up front at the entrance. Along the top of the hill in the second picture is the chainlink fence. This fence was supposed to be put in, last December. They are way behind.
The Building pad folks just put in another 40 wide pad this morning by 11am. We alternated 30 then 40. They decided to build all of the 40 pads first so the concrete trucks can pour from each side. This keeps them from manually having to move as much concrete.
Road guys are also pouring today. They will be completing the Circle around the lower units. Once this dries for 7 days, the people can make a circle versus having to backup.
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06/25/2021
Systems recap:
1. Sparefoot advertising- turned on. Working on getting the best ratings for distance, references, price, and recommended. Won't put a lot of effort into this, will focus on the build out still. Ranked 3rd out of 107 already for this zip code on the Recommended rating, thus we show on the first page of a search.
2. Webselfstorage- set up and turned on this operating software.
3. Insurance- use Ponderosa insurance for operations. Still have our construction insurance in play, since we are still building.
4. Gate system- not installed yet. Will use local PC based operating system. Been having to really put the bite on my vendor. Should have been in place months ago.
5. Camera system- For phase 1 they are installed and turned on. We have 16 cameras covering Phase 1 of about 40 units including the entrance and office. We run a ratio of 1 camera to 6 units in the regular storage area. Still have to set up offsite PC or phone camera access.
6. Alarm system- Have door entry phone notification. Also have our intruder alarm turned on, if the keypad is not activated.
7. Google- still need to set up a new location, so we show up on the Google map for self storage.
8. SEO- search engine optimization. Our SEO is working on this new site to increase the Google recognition.
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07/16/2021
Been moving ahead. Last two pad sites need to be poured. One is framed and will be ready next Wednesday. Then they will start the last pad. Road crew will come back and start paving around the pads.
For the city we broke this site into 3 Inspection or occupancy phases. Phase 1 is at 45% occupancy on 45 units. These are the small buildings at entrance. Phase 2 will have about 88 units, which are the two long buildings in the middle. Just need to finish electric next week and get inspection. Phase 3 which are the pad sites will have around 200 units. These pads should get finished in about 1 1/2 weeks. Then roads and run conduit under ground. Buildings are supposed to come in late August and start erecting Phase 3. Fence folks came out after they pulled off for 3 weeks and I told Sales person to set a meeting at their office so I could come yell in their faces in 2 hours. Original install was for December. Got a call 15 minutes later, saying team was coming out the next morning.
Continuing to work on sign. These blocks need to be cut down since they are supposed to be "staggered", but come in a perfect square. Thus the guys are measuring and cutting down. Told them $1,000 they can split versus per hour, to build sign base. Amazing how things get knocked out. Saves me cost and waiting on contractors.
To get Phase 2 inspected, we need to put up fire extinguishers. Had Fire marshal come out and pick locations for access and distance. Have about 15 of these to install. Just had our annual inspection at our other location for those extinguishers. Our security systems person also does extinguishers.
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07/16/2021
Just back from Belize. Some times you have to remember why your pushing and what Storage can do for you. Maracas in Orange Walk on the river. Its lobster season. These dishes are lobster. Ceviche, rolls, tacos and quesadillas. Actually didn't sell whole lobster.
Teak seedlings from last year are doing great. About 5 feet tall. Same as the replacement ones in the pickup, the original planting was I believe around October of last year. By December the old trees should be about 15 feet tall, from their current 5 feet. Had a historic flood last year due to two back to back hurricanes and killed about 2/3 of the seedlings, thus replacing.
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07/27/2021
Have enough concrete and dirt work done on the job site, that we can take out the silt fence down below. Used a chain to pull out the stakes. Then tied the chain and silt fence together to pull up the silt fence, by lifting up and going backwards. Glad to be able to mow this piece to get rid of weeds.
It was hot today. Finished about 3:00 pm and called it a day. Great to be in Self storage and not 8 to 5.
Decided to get a Jamocha shake at Arby's. A large one. Was thinking about it all the way over there. Ordered a large Jamocha Shake. They said they didn't have any Shake mix, to read the sign of about 15 items they were out of. Didn't list Shakes. "Are you sure your out of Shakes, they are not on the list?" "Yes, we are out of all of our Shakes". You don't really need to know about me not getting a Shake on a hot day.
But, our concrete pad guy said he could not get any concrete thru Thursday. Today was Tuesday morning.
We were installing corner Bollards yesterday. I went to Sherwin Williams to get Oil Based primer and Oil Based Safety Yellow paint. They were out. Asked if we could place an order or if any other metro store had it. Said no other store had it. We could order, but they aren't getting what they order, even regularly.
I would like to know what Jamocha Shakes, Concrete and Paint have to do with each other? These are some of the last things I would think would not be available.
Glad we pre-ordered our 2 flatbeds of re-bar for this storage site about 6 months ago. We were worried about prices going up and whether they would have any. Rebar, is about the only thing that could stop us from building our last 7 buildings.
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08/12/2021
Put in about 20 corner bollards. Got oil well drill stem cut to 7 foot lengths. 3 feet in the ground. Was hard to find. My neighbor who sales steel, quoted me $400 per bollard for new steel. My road guy found these for me. $3.75 cut to 7 foot lengths. Put in an order for 70 more while I can get them.
Normally you would pour concrete into the pipe to both strengthen the pipe and to not allow water into it.
Decided to cut corners for now. May come back later and put cement in. For now we are putting the tuff stuff foam in the top.
1. Picture one shows if you just spray around the sides and into the pipe. The foam will just fall down into the pipe.
2. Wad up some paper. Put about 3 inches down.
3. Spray the foam in to about level with the top. Wait about 5 minutes and let it rise. Adjust as needed how full you initially fill, so you don't get a huge ice cream cone effect.
Its a lot of work holding a 60 pound bag of concrete mix and pouring into water in the tube, while the concrete dust in flying in your face. So we didn't want to do write now. We normally put water in first, then the dry mix. Versus mixing and putting wet concrete in. This is just for fill, so you don't need to be exacting. Make sure you wash the concrete off or it will stick to the pipe and make it very hard to paint or clean off later.
If it grows to big, just shave off and then paint yellow.
The surface will expand and turn very smooth versus the rough look above. Also it well self spread evenly, so don't spend time trying to make it smooth and even.
*********
08/12/2021
Just posted that last post. Normally you get tunnel vision. But the question of why go through all of this popped into my head from possibly your perspective.
a. This location is in a higher income area, very hilly- thus hard to find a spot, and almost zero zoning that allows Self Storage. Makes this one of the safer risk locations we have done. Very hard to find a location like this. Most mom/pop build where they happen to be and most large REITS built where the zoning is easiest and there is population, even if everyone else can build there also.
b. This location will cost around $2.8mm. It will appraise out around $3.8mm before it is even rented and about $4.2mm when 90% occupied. It will be generating around $33,000 per month gross at 90% occupancy.
c. I enjoy developing.
You can't find nor buy a location like that for $2.8mm.
*************
08/14/2021
Friday, last pad poured at this site. Road crew is following behind and pouring between pads. Hopefully get those poured in the next 1 1/2 weeks. Buildings are set to deliver around September 23rd for erection. These will be useful going into the following spring season. Have enough 15's, 20's, 25's and 30's on the Phase 2 portion we started renting. This was a grueling week. Kept ice chest full of drinks available. Temps around 95, but humidity was 50 to 70% and made it tough. Gave the Pad and road crews $100 each out of the blue. They really appreciated it.
Picture below. The gentleman on the left is operating a winch motor attached to a cable on the far right. It "vibrates" across the concrete and smooths and levels. The guys in the middle are raking back excess concrete or pushing into low spots, to help level the concrete. They have extensions on this machine and do both our 30 and 40 wide pads with the same machine. The key to leveling are the wood forms on the outside must be level on both sides. This machine rides on top of them. The "light" colored rebar on the bottom right, is the fiberglass rebar mentioned earlier.
******************************* 09 20 2021
See pictures above. Crew has been pouring roadways on and off for the last month. Picture below shows the last roadway that needs to be poured. They normally pour 8 trucks a day, but they have been getting rationed, zero, 3 or 5 trucks a day. Thus they haven't been able to knock it out. Would prefer all of the concrete to set for at least a week before Building delivery trucks show up at the end of September. Running close.
Discussed with Concrete contractor. The picture below shows the construction site entrance. We plan to leave about a 20 x 20 spot not poured. See bottom left we have concrete "curbs". If we pour then the trucks will need to hop the curb. I will put more rock there. But decided just to wait and finish the work entrance, once all of the material is delivered and on site. The building erectors won't need the construction work entrance after that, and we can pour it then.
Also schedule for the security fence along that road side to be installed, as soon as all of the material is delivered.
****************************09 22 2021
Got the gate operational. Had to plug some things in to get going.
I prefer to have all of our equipment the same, but for our two large locations we got two different sales people and two different Gate operators. Also one is your normal Black security fence and the other was required to be a Black Ornamental fence to match the neighboring apartment. This is our gate system with the ornamental fence. Gate motor/operator on the inside to the left.
Will compare this one to our older location. New/Old references.
New at the top is plastic. Take bolts off, then keylock at bottom, the silver circle.
Old second below is a substantial metal box, with hefty locking system.
The one on the left is the more Advanced model and the one on the right is the more durable exterior. Can't have both together.
Both have exterior "Reset" buttons on the outside. New- black slide at the bottom, inside switch. Old- exterior black button at the top, left of the L in Liftmaster. Hit these to turn off the machines to manually roll gate.
My finger at the bottom is pointing to sawn lines in the concrete. Had them put metal sensors to detect if vehicles are approaching the gate. This sensor can be used to stop the gate and make it reverse and/or open the gate without a keypad. We are just using it for the safety purpose. We require all renters to push a button to get out. The purpose is to get a Facial picture of them with the cameras behind the push button, and to also align the front of there car in a position for a License plate camera. The Second picture below, the dial I am pointing to, sets this feature.
The blue dial below sets how fast the gate opens and closes (cycles). We turned ours to 8 seconds. On the old model we have to have our Security person set it.
The Red dial below sets the speed of the gate as it either starts up or stops. Ours is set to have a Gentle Start and slow down. This makes for less jarring of the entire gate system.
Now some of you are thinking you don't need to know the above. But if you are managing remotely or have an employee (who can leave); then you need to be able to operate.
Get good pictures. Maybe do a youtube.
Our security person has to come and set the Open/Close times. We use 8 am to 9:15 pm. Our close time is 9 but we added 15 minutes just because. If we wanted to get techy, remember the metal sensors in the concrete. We could have our security guy program the gate to open after 9PM if someone drives up on the "inside" of the fence and let them out. But we want their picture and license plate.
************** 10 08 2021
Phase 3 getting started. 4 trucks arriving today to unload. Erection crew on site. More trucks to follow in about 2 weeks.
Been getting complaints from the hired help. Wife (CEO) and son about all of the unit sweeping they have to do on the new units.
Not going to show them the picture below. Just tell them, I swept with a push broom. About $500 for the skidsteer and broom for the day. Used our trailer. This sweeps into a pick up bucket. Then you dump.
**********11/21/2021
Well I didn't take enough "between" pictures. They worked really fast and did a great job. Pictures are of the entire complex, left and right side.
Open items:
a. Missing some insulation, a door rail, and one overhead air flap. They will have delivered to this location and either they will come back, or have my local contractor install.
b. Electricians going fast.
c. Security system contractor will come behind the electricians, who are installing his conduit and wire. Might not get done this winter. Has about 60 cameras to install. Hard to work on little wires and connectors in freezing temps and wind.
d. We got done installing all unit numbers. Ended up with 356 units.
e. Even though we are still in construction, will turn on our normal insurance coverage.
f. Normally I would have built only half of these. But due to access and getting contractors decided to do it all. This will cost me about $60,000 more interest in carrying cost during the rent up phase. But due to the business climate, the last 2/3's of the building would be $400,000 more today, if I had waited. Will keep part of the location blocked off until the rest fills up.
g. Now on to Marketing. We are ranked 4th for this location on Sparefoot. I have been letting it slide going into winter slow season. About February, I will start managing it back to number one in that zip code.
h. One small patch of concrete to pour at the work entrance next week. Closed it off.
i. Building Inspection once electricians are done. They don't inspect Security systems.
Comments (1)
@ henry
@Henry Clark
I got to this post of yours today. Such a helpful post! Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with the BP investors! If you put all your posts together, it would be the best Storage selling books out there. I hope no one will steal your posts! I appreciate your effort!
Ashley Zhang, over 2 years ago