The SugarTree WoodWerks Demolition Man
As you may recall, I am forced to perform a hard reset on the SugarTree WoodWerks shop due to a tree causing a lot of damage. This has been a tough pill to swallow. What is one to do but make the best of a poor situation. With a bit of hard work, determination, and planning, this unfortunate occurrence can be salvaged into one that is to SugarTree WoodWerks advantage.
This weekend’s mission, to tear down the shop. The generator is out of service, and has some unknown amount of damage. In order to get it serviced, well, I need to remove the shop from it so it the lid can be opened.
First I had to empty the shop of tools, lumber, machinery, etc. This was a great opportunity to purge all the garbage and nonsense that I have accumulated over the years. I am bad about saving every little thing and piece of scrap. I took my time sifting through all the items, sorting piles to keep or discard.
The items that I kept, are being stored in an area under my house and in a spare room in the house. The items that are being discarded. For now, I am adding them to the trash pile. This trash pile includes, the shattered wall, and other debri that spilled out of the shop when it slid off the foundation.
Once I removed most of the items from inside, I needed to start somewhere. I decided to get started with roof. Top to bottom seemed like a logical way to dismantle the shop. I climbed to the roof with a shovel to remove the shingles. I grabbed a sledgehammer and used my brute strength to remove the roof plywood. Or at least begin too. There was wires, insulation, and rafters in the way.
So I took a break to begin removing all of that stuff.
To remove the ceiling panels, I had to tear down the insulation. I mean that has to go anyway right? I couldn’t help but think about how it took a long to time to install the insulation, but seconds to remove haha.
Any way, I just commenced to ripping everything off and tossing into the big trash pile. I will deal with all that in the next phase.
Continuing on with the demo, I removed wires, lights, and the ceiling joists. My Dewalt Sawzall really was MVP of this demo. Stay tuned for my review of that beast of a saw! Like the rest of the items, I tossed it all into the pile.
As I finished removing the ceiling and joists, I moved on to the walls. Using the sawzall, I decided to cut the entire wall into manageable sections. Manageable is used sarcastically, since they are heavy still, proving to be a challenge to maneuver. Cutting through the wires was a bit tough, but once that was done, the wall sections were able to be moved and stacked.
It is probably about lunch time. I started this demo process, at about 7am. It is 12:30. 5 hours of time and about half way done. Not too bad. I was not sure how long this was going to take. For now sandwich time.
Returning from lunch, I’m starting to feel sore haha. But refilling my coffee cup, I get back to it. Time to remove the floor. I spend time unscrewing floor plywood to review the joists. To make things easier for myself later, I used the sawzall to cut the plywood flooring into smaller 2’ by 2’ pieces. I hope I will be thanking myself later when I am moving all the garbage down the hill. It is just me and a wheelbarrow afterall.
The sawzall made quick work of the floor. I am now the owner of two eighteen foot four by fours. I am sure they will come in handy later. I have to say. it is very odd to not have a structure there. After alot of work it feels good to have started on the process of rebuilding. I was finally able to was to inspect the generator for the damage. It appears the damage was somewhat minimal thank goodness. I will call the company to come and inspect everything and make sure everything is good.
What a weekend. This was a very cathartic experience. Although this disaster happened, it felt good to purge nonsense from the shop and literally press the reset button. This gave me time to say goodbye to the workshop. I was able to think about what and how to get a shop built in place. I have a rough idea, and will write about that soon.
Over all this took about 2 days to completely demo the shop, and organize the pile of debri. I also surprised my girlfriend who thought this was going to be a huge ordeal that would take weeks.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of coffee mixed with a highly motivated individual.
Next up is getting all this material out of here. I will probably order a dumpster and start humping this material down to it. More to come.
For now, I am going to enjoy this cigar. I feel it is well deserved and a great way to say goodbye to the old SugarTree WoodWerks wood shop.
Feels good to be started with this unplanned upgrade!
Cheers
