Building my DREAM WORKSHOP Pt.2 Readying the pad! 

Hi Matt, I had to stop working in mid December due to cancer related issues. At that time I discovered your Diesel Creek videos on RU-vid. I just got back to work on 3/14 after numerous treatments and procedures. Your channel helped me get through it all from your Farmall tractor to this video of preparing for your new building. I've been a machinist for over 40yrs and restored a few vehicles and various machines. Watching you work on all of these projects gave me peace and took my mind off all my ailments. You have restored my faith in the younger generation. Many thanks for what you do.

I can only imagine how much effort goes into creating these videos. It's beyond my capabilities. Thanks for all the effort and good luck with the new building.

my 2 favorite things are restoring old autos and watching heavy equipment work. This stuff is great buddy!

Matt to the deliver driver: "Drive off slowly so I can place some cribbing under the trusses as they come down." Delivery driver: Full send.

The truss delivery driver deserves a mad -as-hell phone call to his boss. There is absolutely no reason for him to not wait and make sure cribbing was in place to drop the load.

Congratulations on passing 400,000 subscribers! You produce quality interesting content! Appreciate your videos!

Love watching shop build series over and over every night

Way to go Matt !! You started! As a 30+ year builder in northern CA, don’t rush your “dream shop”. Remember, YOU ARE THE BOSS! , don’t let others rush you if you are not ready, they have a very short term investment in your project, but you are investing now for the rest of your life time. If things don’t line up due to weather or what ever, it can wait a little longer to make sure its right, build it the correct way, the first time around. I was cringing when I saw the mud and you said the builder wanted to start soon. Double up the number of support kickers under your roof trusses and plastic wrap them tight, you do not want them to get wet and expand, that’s bad for prebuilt trusses. (Manufacturer should never have delivered so soon, and in the mud!, they don’t care). Keep them fully supported (like every 6 feet) in a flat plain, and dry, guard them against any damage as the shop goes up. Good luck with your exciting project Matt, and don’t hesitate to ask questions, they will save you grief and money. Keith

That delivery driver just said "I'm not waiting around anymore, this guy's got a fork(skidsteer) and I've got other places to be"

Love when the delivery guy is on a time crunch. "Where you want it? Here? >plop< See ya!" Must have been a friday delivery.

I'm from France. It's always interesting to see other colleagues of the Construction industry at work.

Howdyyawl from the land down under. Preparation is the key. Gota get the ground work so to speak done right. It takes time and effort. Keep plugging along & you'll get there. Do it once, do it right😊.

DON'T RUSH THE FROST BEING GONE LET IT GO NATURALLY....will make for an excellent strong foundation....don't forget to put 2-3 floor drains in 👍

Keep the banding holding the trusses together in place. It will help prevent the wood from twisting or warping.

Please film the tri axle and the fill process! Love watching this kind of content! Show us everything Matt! Thank you!

Very surprising that so much fill was needed. Glad to see the fabric under the rock. That will vastly improve the stability of the rock and ground. Good job sir.

Maybe moving the containers and roof structure to the low ground and the dream building on the high ground might of been a possibility

just make sure the trusses are laying flat..no bend from end to end level is irrelevant.. they will be very difficult to set properly if you don't

Something oddly satisfying listening to a cold diesel crank over. Can pretty much hear each revolution and how it's coming along

Matt is so practical.

I'm all in on this built that when done I cannt imagine the content that will then come as the result of having a great place to do what you do so well, Matt stay the course captain, txs for sharing

You got a lot of work ahead of you with all that fill, good thing the contractor was able to push you back a month so you can get the ground the way you want it. It won't be long and you'll have your dream work shop.

You realize your contractors are going to want to hire you after he sees all your equipment and all the things you can do! 😄

I guess we mess the official ground braking ceremony. Lol. Glad to see you post a video I know you have been busy. MAN it going to take a ton of fill to bring that pad up to grade. We will be wanting for your next video.

Missed you Matt!! So glad you've uploaded 👌👌

Having worked in building construction for several years early in my work life I know people don't appreciate all that goes in to getting ready to build, especially at the end of winter. You can sure go from looking good to what looks like a quicksand swamp practically over night when the ground thaws. That needed fill too....I feel that. Where I am going to build my shop is in a small town with a very shallow sewer system that made for flat drainage on my side of the road. I'll have to put it tons of fill to get good fall to the main. It's good you got the builders backed off so you can get your site prep the way you want it. You sure don't want to get rushed then be fighting the problems that come from that, from now on. I was not impressed the way they dumped your trusses in the mud while you were obviously trying to get them up off the ground. keep on truckin on the shop, it's going to be great.

Here in Australia we use 'ag pipe', its a ribbed pipe with holes you bury under aggregate in trenches, absolutely magic for drainage.

Hi Mat would definitely suggest putting Geo mat membrane beneath your gravel it will stabilise the soil beneath and you will have a much better surface in the future it does cost a bit but it’s well worth it. Ray Suffolk England 👍

Knowing your tenacity and imagining the upkeep required by your equipment, I can't imagine the off-camera preparation you do. You are an amazing young man. I love watching your channel, your work ethic is most impressive!

Matt, it was a wise decision to wait and to add a drain. Doing everything in a hurry now is just increasing the costs like hell. //R

Holy crap that is a ton of rain it's flooded down in them trees you got a river Flowing Now 10:20 @Diesel Creek

Glad you called it Matt right call. Get it ready and do it right.

Hi Matt, good to see your catch up video. Stan the Handyman had a good idea, to use your large concrete blocks to help retain the lower edge of your fill, I thought. A bit of experience I have to help with your groundwork is use what I call a farmers' turn when you are processing a ground area. First go around the outside of the area wide enough to turn into and out of. This is called the headland. Next divide the area into sections that are wider than your turning circle. Proceed by making the first swath along a long edge. Turn into the headland when you get to the end. Go along the headland say 1 1/2 turning circles, then turn back through the area parallel to the first swath & progress the swaths across the area turning the same way each time. When you finish the last swath on the first section turn across the bottom headland and pick up the next 1 1/2 width for the next section and so on. You will find that this is much quicker than doing a 3 point turning at the end of each swath or covering areas unnecessarily, thus saving time and fuel.

From buying and fixing stuff, landscaping, and building. Your videos are awesome to watch. Keep it up Matt!

Matt the purpose of getting a good floor is to find sound ground to build on ,maybe dig a hole in middle of the new work shop and put some piles down to help take the weight . It’s a big area to chance it on the ground compacting enough,and keeping control of the costs 🇬🇧👍Dave

What a marvel. I never knew there was such method to work with the land.

Excited for your big build,been watching you from the start just don't comment all the time,always love your witty ways of saying things that's what has really attracted me plus I like watching things brought back to life! Amen Brother!!

Hey Matt! Good for you, I am really happy for you. All of us guys wish that we could do the same. Congrats on your shop build and congrats on 401,000 plus subs! 👍

Saturday morning, hot coffee, and diesel garage! Life doesn’t get better

Boy have you got that picture clear. Makes a difference!

Put in sub-soil drain between new building and road with 2 or 3 sub-soil drains running underneath new building towards the valley below. Use that existing run off as one drain under new building

Looking good, my background is land reclamation. Having subsurface flow under your building will be an issue as it settles over the years, one way to reduce the risk of surface saturation is to install a few wick drains in crushed stone about 6ft - 8ft deep with the ends draining out on the lower elevation would work great.

Try this Matt...Used this method when my old dad and I raised 6 trusses to the top of an 8 ft. sidewall...and they were 10 inch x 6 inch JARRAH [ from Western Australia ] and much heavier than your pine stuff..and held together by half inch steel rods . So here we go...fix a long pole [ or tree trunk...you have plenty] to the end of your building, with an endless chain fixed to the top. haul the trusses, one by one, straight up the side of the building to a height just above top plate height, then swing them 180 degrees over the building. Lay them over so they hang upside down with the eaves resting on the top plate...then "walk" them down the building to where they will finally be fixed in place. Stand them upright again and fix with temporary slats. When all are up there [ singly, one by one] fix with longtitudinal battens from end of building to the other end. These long battens will what will carry your roof sheets/ tiles . Hope this is understandable. We had NO lifting machinery on site , only the endless chain...and muscle power. Just us two...No necessity to break your back lifting. Let me know how it goes...Cheers Gary,

Loving the new Tune's. Sounds good.

Matt's a true Jack-of-all-trades, I never thought I could watch another guy work for nearly an hour, but hear I am at the end of the video, lol, thanks for sharing Matt.

We did a job 2 years ago for a building 87 ft long on a hill and took ten feet out of one corner and built up seven feet in the opposite using the 6 inch lay and compact method. It worked very successfully but had to ramp the extremities on the outside to stop the compression moving sideways instead of downwards. Something you may want to consider yourself. Look forward to seeing your progress and videos and wow the new shop.

Matt you’re very knowledgeable on heavy equipment. And construction 🦺

Big job, so glad you pushed the build back.

Matt. Civil engineer here that does DOT work in WV. Good work. I would suggest looking into geo grid. Its basically snow fence. It fairly inexpensive and will great strengthen your clay soil when building your fill. Just take a layer ever 12-18 inches.

congrats matt, it's very nice to see your dream coming true, thanks for sharing with us!

I'm watching this and I saw the trusses coming in. That company is a little over an hour from me. I built trusses and everytime I see some I look at them and see if they meet my standards. Perfection is key in my book

Matt, the OCD was really calling the shots to have to have the new shop floor level with the shipping containers. Personally, I would have graded it to the highest point of the new pad and sloped a driveway down from the shipping containers. 6 feet of fill seems like it would be unstable, but you know a hellavu lot more about these things than I do, that's for sure. Good to see you building your dream...it's going to be a beauty!

I drove concrete truck for many years. I had the pleasure of pouring for a farmer who poured 200 yards with him and his son. It was a 30 foot wide by who knows long grain silage pad. He had 8 inch pipes for the forms and used an I bean 32 foot wide with (2) 5hp engine mounted to it to vibrate and screed. He mounted the I beam to his tractor and drove in the concrete dropped on form pipes started engine and backed out. It was amazing how much money you can save.

Good, the builder covered the trusses. It is enjoyable and interesting to watch your site preoarstion. As they say, you cannot do too much preparation. You will be glad you did once the construction is underway. Looking forward to see your new shop get built.

Hi Matt picked up diesel creek channel recently cant believe what your allowed to do moving trees ect would not be allowed in the uk without planning permission from your local council that would take 3 months at least your attitude is fantastic bringing back to life "old iron" keep going Matt, your work ethic does you credit and my final comment what an arse the deliver driver was

YAY a new video from Diesel Creek. My world makes sense again

I’m going into civil engineering here in two months, and this video has taught me more about construction than at least the past 2 years! Thank you and good luck!

Don't worry about getting videos out on some other project!! I am quite sure all your followers, like me , will be quite happy seeing you getting the site prepared for the new structure - awesome mate. To bring the levels up by that much will involve you totally if you are to be ready for the builders to come on site. Let's just hope that the weather stays drier and those trees get to sucking up that water - big time!!! Really looking forward to seeing all aspects of this build!! Take care and stay safe Matt. Cheers.

With the wet subgrade issue, when we do highway work in VA with constant wet conditions, etc. the old engineers/contractors would add Portland Cement on top and roto-till it in up to 6" making soil-cement - in the age before geotextile grids.

For many years I delivered precast concrete products. I observed lots of different operators and you are VERY good. Keep up the great videos. 👍👍😁😄

When you started the dozer, I was waiting to hear, "Contact," It didn't happen, so I figure that it's used only to help with the restart of repaired, or rescued old iron after it has been sitting for a while. I was beginning to wonder🤔 if I watch too many Diesel Creek videos.😬 I ran it by my buddy, Johnny, and he said "Naw, can't be done!" Man, was I relieved!😄

thanks for sharing the journey 👍🏻👍🏻

That building is going to be a game changer. Can’t wait til its done

So glad you pushed off the contractor, you're the customer this time and he won't hesitate to lay out on you because of bad weather. Gotta get that grade right, that's the whole enchilada and yeah that ground was pumping💪🏻. Now I'm not one to give you grief over pushing over a tree, but when you started shoving the black dirt over the hill I'm like "damn Bro, that's hundred dollar bills", but I see you will be able to git to it from the end of the garage The reverse slo-mo time lapse with the 70's porn music was epic. Great job Matt.👍🏻

As a tradesman whose career was spent dealing with buildings that had already been built, I find it fascinating to watch how they are put up in the first place, especially when done right. Interestingly (to me anyway), most of the buildings I worked on used scissor trusses. It will be interesting to see how they are implemented in your new shop.

Exciting for sure. Can’t wait to see your beautiful new shop. Congratulations Matt.

In my area we would have had to have slit fence up and protection of the river to keep runoff out of the river. All the topsoil pushed up would have to be removed from the bank. Tractor Crack to the rescue with the roller starting! As to the pumping adding lime would firm up the soil, a 6" layer of lime stone, compacted then adding your fabric and remaining fill if the weather permits. If not then adding 6" of 3/4"- limestone and compacting to the site would keep the water from accumulating if you removed all the stripped topsoil from the far edge new the river.

I really liked that slow motion reversal when you were movin the topsoil.

Great video Matt I used to deliver trusses and that is indeed how it’s done I used to try and get them up in n cribbing when the customer asked thought!

Nice. I take it the roller-from-hell shaft repair was over the top. Too bad after all the work you put in it to get it to run. Life is just full of surprises. Good luck on the shop build.

Matt with all your heavy equipment I would give consideration to digging out a place for oil changes will make your life so much easier for all your maintenance items.

that cut off oil drum engine cover is brilliant lol

Maybe moving the containers and roof structure to the low ground and the dream building on the high ground might be the a better option?

I admire your patience and ability to make a quality video during “crunch” time. Trying to meet the deadlines of site prep during the spring with frost, rain and mud is challenging at best. Thanks for sharing your shop building project!

NO NONSENSE CHANNEL!! GREAT CONTENT!

You’re good. Those trusses will be fine

It's been many years for me, but I thought, ideally, that when compacting soil, you want a sheepsfoot for road or large areas and pneumatic for small areas. Steelwheel/vibratory was best used on sand, stone, or asphalt. But my memory might be faulty. Of course, none of it means a thing if all you own are steel wheels. Use what you got.

You and WatchWesWork are my favorite channels and i am always happy as an imbecile 🤪 when you guys post a new video, thanks and greetings from The Netherlands,

RCA #2.. RECYCLED CONCRETE AGGREGATE...THE #2 = SOME RED BRICK & DIRT.

Matt, I'm sure glad you decided to put of the start of the construction. Here's my 2 cubic yards of advice... I know it is your land, your dream shop. If I was you and thinking about all that fill dirt you have to bring in, the time spent making those trenches, drains and then filling them, compacting them and then adding 6", compacting it, adding 6" compacting etc for a 6' fill, I would move the shop to a more level area. I know that means taking down more trees, taking off the top soil and putting a base down, but I think in the long run it would be easier and a cleaner, more stable shop. I just hope that there is a space for that to be done. I built myself a SIP shop, 30x38, not as big as yours and so I really feel your pain with all that work you're going to have to put in because of the 6' of fill.

Nice! Glad to see it is starting.

we can't wait for the new barn build up

BTW, I noticed the new shoes for Christine !! Use a sawsall to cut the tires near the bead then a cutoff wheel for the bead steel

I’m envious. That’s going to be a nice shop. Since I retired I have been driving dump truck part time. Last summer we did a pad for a building similar in size to yours and in one corner we brought it up 10’ , your right, you’re going to need a bigger truck or more trucks.lol have fun

Really looking forward to this project. WOW 6 feet is A LOT of backfill. Do you think you might have to use some of those cement blocks to build a wall to contain it?

It’s gonna be a sweet building when it’s done! Great video, as always!

Great job. Getting rid of that water is definitely a chore. We are going to be building a 55 x 80 building probably a year or more away.

the new shop is coming along, slowely but surely! your taking your time to do it right and that is all that matters, you will be thanking yourself for what you did right, and kicking yourself on what you rushed or forgot to do! One thing that could help is when you are talking dates and time frames mention the date when you are talking about it. At the very least flash the date when you recorded the clip. That might help with the time jumps in the videos.

The thing I always did was mark the exact width of the building on all the trusses. Then use the trusses to set the wall plates top width accurately. When you string line one side, the other side straightens automagically.

great ,thanks for sharing the journey

Heave, is what we call pumping in the UK. You could rotovate some lime in, that will stabilise it, and allow it to be compacted properly.

Okay as a Metro Detroit city folk, I am jealous of all of your land. For sure all the grown up toys as well. Maybe one of these days!

I’ve been saving up for my shop for 6 years now, hoping the ground breaking can happen at the big 10 mark! Congratulations on starting yours! Please film as much as you can I’d love to see it all, congrats again Matt!

Such respect for you Matt. Making such great vids for extended Fam. You Rock it Dude. Thanks ..

LMAO, The driver had to have seen you stage the 4x4s to put under the trusses to keep them out of the mud. The look on your face was priceless! 😫

"Pumping" is also a term used when Rail Tracks move up and down on a soft trackbed . In the UK we call the "Ties" -" Sleepers". When this happens water can often be seen coming up past the railhead.

Just what the weekend needed more Diesel Creek :) But what a dick that delivery driver was with drop and run on those trusses!

Hi Matt, maybe consider using strips of geo grid material ( reminds me of snow fence product but heavy duty ) between lifts of rock and compacting when doing your footings , it'll hold the rock in place better and help with flotation issues. And just a thought, maybe a floor drain incorporated into your French drain type system under the building. You're a hard worker and I enjoy your videos, thanks.

You could put in reinforcement nets in the stone fill , it's not geofabric I'm talking about, doe. It is a plastic net that binds the rock fill together. Also to save fill, make the floor of the building with some mechanical trenches where the ground is low, these can be covered with 3" wood floor modules when not In use. Also you could store stuff in them like in a cellar.

Mat ,you needed a sheeps foot to compact all that raw ground with instead of that slick roller. But I understand that you have to use what you have . Thanks for sharing this project with us.