Barbershop Construction Blog

Welcome to my humble little blog. I have never written one before, and the same goes for building a barber shop.
We are based around Fort Hood in Killeen Texas. On a good day there are about 43,000 military with hair that needs to be maintained. So, Killeen is full of barber shops, pawn shops, and car dealers!
Why another barber shop? Well, all the shops that I have seen are at what I would call the Walmart end of the scale. This is not to say that I don’t like the other barbers. We just think that it is about time to have a gentlemens barber shop where both the environment and service is top-notch.
My fantastic wife has been a barber for seven years and has an excellent customer base so we have decided to open our own barber shop. Rather than just lease space we have bought some land right next to the main highway downtown and are going to construct new. I am going to be the general contractor, something I have not done before, so it will be a steep learning curve. I have been preparing for this since the begining of the year so I have had time to educate myself a bit and get a good team of subs together.
The first hurdle was that there was a derelict duplex on the site which we needed to demolish. Turns out it had small traces of asbestos in it so we had to have asbestos abatement done before we could demolish. So, it is costing about $13,000 before we even start construction. The lesson learnt here is don’t tell anyone that you are going to erect a commercial structure. Then the abatment is not required.
Where we stand as of today is that the duplex is now demolished and the crew are busy clearing the site. I have one last tree to cut down Monday.
I shall be writing this blog as and when I can grab a few minutes. I shall also provide image links so that it makes more sense. Input and comments are very welcome as we go along. By the way, we are hoping to open the begining of August!

Here is a pic of the duplex prior to demolition:

This is after the asbestos abatement when all the walls and ceilings had been removed. We removed a lot of the oak flooring for later use in our house after I have planed the planks. I also removed some of the floor joists and studs to make a tree house for our son, Logan.

This is after Bobby the Bobcat man demolished the structure. Watching how the machine was an extension of him was poetry in motion!

Today’s little challenge revolves around the last tree to be felled. This one is on the property boundary and the upper limbs are rather close to an overhead power cable running to an apartment complex. Called TXU Electric and had 5 minutes of what they couldn’t guarantee to do. Time being short I shall have to see what other route we can take.

Went on site but no sign of Bobby the Bobcat man. I guess he was still trying to replace the hose.
Juan the concrete guy did show up whilst I was there and we discussed the boundary and the trees which will be where he is going to be puttting the retaining wall. This raised another issue regarding a water meter on our property which has a line running through and out the back to the apartment complex. We could go for the double and leave them with no electric and no water! After contacting the water dept. I find out that the line is the apartment owners property and not the city, so I am going to have to track down the owners and make them aware that their line might get broken when we try to remove the tree stumps. taking another look at the overhead cables I am definitely not going to mess with that tree and risk getting fried. Hopefully TXU will call me soon on it. If we have to move on and tackle it in a weeks time so be it.

Located the owners of the apartment complex behind us. Nice people They were aware of the water pipe and seem pretty keen to have it re-routed. Spotted the Asplundh contractors who do the tree pruning for TXU Electric as I was driving through town. They do work on the side and said they would come over at the weekend to sort out the remaining tree. I think it is worth the extra outlay rather than waiting on TXU to get it organized.
The demo crew turned up late afternoon and laid into the remaining concrete foundation with much gusto. I chainsawed one of the tree stumps with the Bobcat giving the final push. The site is almost clear, should be finished by the end of tomorrow.

A day where nothing happened. The city has not swopped out the dumpster so demo crew can’t move forward.
My main concern right now is that they break up the concrete small enough so that Juan can bury it.

The demo crew just about finished today. They did a fine job of breaking up the concrete foundation into bite sized pieces which we can bury under the fill.

Talked with the apartment owner and I suggested that I grant her an easment on the north side of our boundary where there will be no concrete, just earth and shrubs. I told her that she will have to pay for the legal work and there will be strict stipulations. It seems only fair and it means that she shouldn’t have a repetition of this problem should we sell.
Juan will be arriving tomorrow to start work on the leveling of the site. Hopefully he can help with the removal of the remaining tree stumps.

First day for land leveling and when I got there at 10:00 Juan was busy digging deep trying to get one of the stumps out. He had already buried some of the concrete.
Made contact with TXU again and they seemed very helpful, and contrary to what the Asplundh guy had said reckoned they would get the tree cut back in the next couple of days.
Also spoke with Phil, the architect, and passed on the info from the city regarding minor details for the plans. hopefully everything will come together by next Wednesday when I need to get the plans approved by the city.

When I have time I am working on my son’s tree house. I feel it’s my duty as a father to provide one….. it’s a dad thing! The timbers from the the old duplex are making a sturdy frame work. Being about 200 yards from the house I invested in a cordless screwdriver which makes the job go faster and saves blistering the palm of my hand.

I have an idea in my head for the roof design and hope it translates into reality with no problems. We’ll see…

Sometimes real estate takes over all my time and there is none left for other activities, such as this.
As of today we have all the crushed gravel down and Juan is ready to start on the form work for the slab.
The big pain at the moment is the last defiant tree. If only it was 6 inches further over it would not be an issue. We need to take it down now because it will be falling across where the forms are to be set up. Also, we can’t finish spreading the gravel out until we have the retaining wall built, which we can’t do until the tree is removed because the tree is in the path of the wall. This tree has too much influence over this project right now!
The TXU contractor came around very promply yesterday. Unfortunately they pruned a tree on an adjacent property. So I had to call them and plead for them to come back and do the right tree. There is only one tree on the lot, it can’t be that difficult.

We did have our plans turned down by the cityon it’s first review. I was told this happens 85% of the time, so no big deal. Most of the issues were ones that I was already aware of and the others seemed minor. I Have given the details to our architect who will make the neccessary amendments. I want to get the revisions into the city asap so we can get final approval and keep on track time-wise.

Late yesterday afternoon I heard that TXU had been to the site and had pruned back the tree, right back to to the major limbs.
Went down early evening and saw that the footings had been dug and most of the foundation forms set up. The building footprint seems so small. The square footage is small, I know, but this looks tiny!

I shall be taking down the remainder of the tree today.

Juan and his crew made good progress Friday with the retaining wall which is being constructed from railroad ties. This is quite a common solution round here and it is very economical compared to other materials.

Speaking with another of my contractors yesterday I learned that any retaining wall over 4 feet will require an engineers report to meet city requirements. Right now we are at 40 inches. I am not sure whether the 4 feet includes a concrete curb or not. I will have to check that out Tuesday.
Yesterday I cut some more branches off the last tree and today I will take down the trunk. I think I will need to invest in another new chain, I’ve resharpened this one 5 times now and it seems to have worn out.

When ever I look at photos of the site There is always those derelict houses behind. Hopefully the city will come along sometime soon and bulldoze them. Once the wooden privacy fence is erected it won’t be such a visual issue.
Yesterday I looking at our cabinet options again and realised that the choice I had selected awhile ago really is not of a good enough quality. So, after talking with a sales associate have gone with a better quality unit design. This will only put another $600 on that budget so I am okay with that. Still looking for a good checkout console. Searched on the internet and just got frustratated. Maybe a bit of lateral thinking is required here.

I managed to get hold of a structural engineer who was kind enough to come out at short notice to look at the retaining wall. He said he was quite happy with it’s construction but advised me to have the concrete parking slab tied into the top layer of railroad tie to give it extra strength. also he suggested that we compact the dirt at the bottom of the exposed side of the wall. His fee was one well worth paying for peace of mind.
I gave a copy of my survey to the complex owner behind us so that she can have her lawyer draw up the easement agreement. We need to m ove this along because as soon as I get approval and pull the permits the plumbers will be getting busy.
The city have been most helpful in disposing of the tree that I cut down, and their charge was so reasonable. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting a hefty bill.

This last week has been a case of just waiting for the revised drawings to be submited, and stamped by the engineer, before I can get final approval from the city and move ahead. Most frustrating! Hopefully we can get going next week.

After what seems an eternity the waiting is now over.
We have received our licence number and hopefully can pull the permits this afternoon.
The plan was to have the concrete slab poured today as we are going on vacation tomorrow for a few days and it would have been ideal timing for it to cure. After so much waiting and frustration for so many months a few days doesn’t seem to matter anymore. I think this will change now that we can theoretically forge ahead now.
The plumbers should be on-site this afternoon doing the rough-in, and the concrete is being ordered. There is a 5-7 day wait for the concrete so it looks like we will be pouring after the 4th July break.
This morning I ordered to porta-loo and set up the Builders Risk Insurance, two important items that would be folly to overlook!

We had a great, if but brief vacation down on the gulf. We stayed at a delightful cottage a stone’s throw from both the beach and the harbour.

Apart from catching some fish we also got completely incinerated by the sun!

What with Monday being the 4th nothing got done, but Tuesday the plumbers were on site trenching and getting the lateral laid.

Today, Juan, my concrete contractor was out in the blazing heat putting down the vapor barrier and setting the rebar. His brother was kind enough to mention about putting warning tape around the site to warn people off entering and getting injured. So off I went to Lowes and purhased a roll and some stakes. With the temperature at 98 degrees I was sweating like a pig on a spit banging the stakes in and taping off the area. It’s a small detail but when considered definitely not one to overlook.

When I went to the site late this morning it was good to see that the sewer and water lines had been completed and that the inspectors had inspected both this and the foundation. This is a bit of an assumption because the writing on the stickers is totally illegible. But, there are three of them and there were three tasks that needed inspecting.

The concrete is going to be arriving at 11:30 tomorrow so this is excellent timing.
I called my framing contractor this afternoon and he is ready to start Monday morning, so I paid a visit to the building supply company to get that sorted out. We are going to have three deliveries on consecutive days which will minimize the security risk.

An exciting and busy day. The concrete was delivered on time and took about two and a half loads. I was surprised at the high water content of the first two loads, but Juan reassured me that this was a good mix. When the third load turned up it was very dry and more water had to to be mixed in before it could be off-loaded.

Both the framers and sheetrock crews turned up which was very good as a line of communication was opened and we were able to sort out who is going to do what when it comes to things like window and door installation. Earl, the framer, suggested that I got in touch with the building supply company to make sure that we got construction doors. We want the sheetrock in the building before the framing is completed, for ease of access, and I don’t want an $1,100 mahogany front door sitting there unguarded during construction.
I spent about an hour at the building supply company paying for the framing and the window and door packages. The time was spent trying to figure out what doors we needed emergency kick bars on and whether the construction doors would work okay in those. On the way back to the office it dawned on me that at the pace we are setting I will need the bricks fairly soon. I seemed to remember the rep saying that there was something like a 45 day order time so I called them staight away. I was discouraged to find that Hanson Brick, who manufacture this particular brick, no longer use this distributor so I had to call their head office in Dallas. The time was 4:57 so that call was doomed to failure. I shall have to pursue this on Monday.
By the time I went back down to the site in the evening the form work had been removed and one shiny slab was revealed in all it’s glory.

My wife and I inspected it with great satisfaction, the sweet smell of success was somewhat overpowered though by the the nearby porta-loo! I will need to call that company on Monday before we get complaints.

The last two days have seen great progress. I was very impressed with the framers, they completely framed the building including the roof decking in two days. It was good to be able to walk around inside and get an understanding and feel of the spaces. With the 9 1/2 ft ceilings the work area seems quite impressive for it’s size. The storage area in the hallway seems massive and should accomodate all our needs.

I have set up the order for the bricks, which will be delivered from San Antonio. It is a 5-7 day delivery time so I will be overnighting a check to them. The framers say they can’t set the window and door frames until the brick masons start, so for the time being we will just have to screw paneling on the doors until we can use the construction doors.
I met my roofing contractor yesterday afternoon and he started work right away, putting the roofing felt over the decking.
My framing contractor seems quite keen on making the cupola for the roof, I think it will add a real touch of class!

By the end of yesterday the roof was on. I had had a small amount of reservation about the lightness of the shingle but now it is up there it looks just fine.

Speaking with my electrical and air conditioning contractors it looks like they won’t be able to get on site to do their rough-in’s until late next week at the earliest. That’s okay, we can continue on the exterior. The brick and the car park can be done in the interim.
I went to see the sign company and Geoff, the owner, said that he would like to get the pole for the sign erected before the concrete for the car park is laid as cutting through concrete is not the best choice. I assumed that when I pulled my permits that I had all of them, but it turns out the sign one is seperate. This was confirmed when I called the city. I went down to see Bill, the plans inspector, with plans in hand. The land we are building on has a 25 ft building set-back line at the front and a 7ft easment down the sides. After taking those areas out of the picture we were left with only one choice for the location of the pole in an area about 10′ x 2′ ! Also I found out that the minimum height to the bottom of the sign must be 14ft for clearance by fire trucks. I shall go and see Geoff today and finalize plans.

I finished the tree house awhile back but never got around to uploading a picture of the final product, so here it is:

This last week has gone well with the electrical, plumbing, and air conditioning rough-in’s getting done.

For the first time I had a budget over-run. My electrical contractor had to revise his estimate for the job as raw materials have increased since he gave me his original estimate six months ago, and also we have included some additional task lighting. This has pushed the cost $3,000 over the original estimate, but because we have made savings in other areas we are still on course to come in on budget.
I was pleased to notice that the a/c contractor has installed vents in the restrooms as this was not on the plans but was something that I wanted.
A bit of a drama when I went to the site on Friday morning and found a small pond on the right side of the building with it’s own little waterfall. At first it appeared that it was eminating from under the slab, but I traced it back to the shut off valve. I called the plumbers and they shut off the supply. Hopefully it has been fixed.
First thing Monday I am going to call in for the rough-in inspection so that we can start insulating the walls Tuesday. Also the bricks should be arriving Monday or Tuesday.

This last week has been frustrating as all the rough-in’s have been done except for the door frames and doors.

The city will not pass the framing inspection until the doors are installed. The building supplies company is backed up so I have had to wait for them to fabricate the frames.
My framers did install the windows and now the building has some kind of character rather than being just a box.

The sign pole and box was also erected this last week. We were somewhat shocked when we saw it as it is facing at the wrong angle to the street and at the height it currently is it will be almost totally obscured by power and telephone cables. We also thought that the shade of green would clash with color of the trim on the building.
Geoff at the sign shop was as helpful as ever and said that we can chop about 4 feet off the height and roatate it to the correct angle.
Today should see the doors in and hopefully the inspection done so that we can start insulating tomorrow.

Well, the door frames were finally installed with the construction doors and the code inspection carried out.

I had a call from the inspector saying that everything was still not 100%. There were no vent hoses from the exhaust fans in the restrooms. Thankfully he said that we can go ahead with insulating and to make sure that the vents are installed and visible when he carries out the insulation inspection.
I was hoping to start on the masonry on Monday but my mason says that he would rather do it after the sheetrock is up. So it could be another week before that gets done. I want it done as soon as possible before the bricks start disapearing.

With the wall insulation complete and the exhaust fan ducts installed, along with the dryer vent ducting, I called for a re-inspection for Friday afternoon. I recieved a call from Danny, my interior guy, that there was a green sticker. I was prety sure it was going to pass but it was still a relief.

I have also installed the cabling for the TV’s and telephones.
We shall, at last, start sheetrocking on Monday. It’s scheduled to take 8-10 days.

Good progress this week. The interior is really starting to take form now. The storage area in the hallway needed a bit of rethinking so that we could the washer and dryer in.

Instead of side-by-side we will have to have them stacked. I went and priced them up and it came out $600 more than I had budgeted. The cabinet for the security equipment is a bit of a tight fit but will work.

The sheetrocking should be completed by Wednesday.

Wednesday saw the retaining wall completed, the concrete forms erected, and the reinforcing grid laid.

Thursday the concrete was poured. We were out of town and got back about 6:00 to find the rear car park completed. T he curb is not quite how I envisaged it, The crew free-formed it. The finished effect looks good though.

It’s been awhile since I last posted anything. This was partly due to someone stealing my camera out of my car.
Over the last week we had final confirmation that the adjacent property, with two derelict houses, is officially ours, in fact has always been ours. It seems that when the two properties, which were owned by the same person, were foreclosed on, they were combined into one legal entity.

Someone forgot to tell us this when we purchased 1015 back in November. We thought that we maybe able to renovate the back one but they are both beyond redemption.
Meanwhile, my interior crew have been working very hard taping and floating the sheetrock prior to texturing.
The bamboo flooring has been ordered and should be arriving at the end of next week.

On Saturday the brick masons turned up and got all their equipment and bricks set up for starting today. Jose the owner asked when my electrician was going to put the external boxes in. Oops! Thankfully John has said he will come today and install them, even though it’s labor day weekend. I will be going in shortly to see how things are going.

Here is a picture of the brick masons hard at work. I am really pleased their speed and attention to detail.

Since my last entry it has been quite hectic, what with ordering fixtures, chasing up on delivery times, as well as construction.
The interior is finished and the linen color works well. I think it will look even better once we have some furniture in there to break it up a bit.

The tiling has been completed and the bamboo flooring was going well until it was discovered that we are about 10 pieces short. We should those on Tuesday.

Another surprise was that when the crew went to pick up the cabinets they found that they were all flat-packed, not what I was expecting. So this weekend my wife and I are constructing the cabinets. Once a rythmn is established they can be put together quite quickly. The biggest headache, literally, is the heat. Even with fans going full blast it is still about 96 degrees inside.
On Thursday my concrete crew laid the concrete for the front car park and on Saturday they did the handicapped ramp at the rear entrance. An excellent job as always.

We have also started work on the siding. When we went to Lowes to get it they told us it was a 2 week wait, which is no use to us. By asking around we soon established that there was a supplier in a nearby city which had what we wanted in stock.

Due to circumstances, and just life in general, it has taken me forever to get around to photographing our finished shop.
We have cetainly learnt a lot in the process of building it, but we are pleased with how it has turned out. We still have a few minor things to tweak but we are just about there.