Under the heading, ‘Custom Field Projects’, I got an interesting lead for a client that wanted some overhead garage storage shelves moved about to make room for hanging a recumbent trike from the ceiling, and I was immediately piqued!
At our first site visit, I was presented with a tidy drawing on graph paper showing a lot of details and a well-thought-out design. We walked the space, chatted about the project and my past experience, I gathered my pictures, measurements, and other details, and then headed off to the next meeting.
Putting my bid together could have been complicated, but I like to keep things simple, so I just made my materials list, and then wrote out each step. From there I figured out how many hours it should take me to do all of those steps, added my 10%, and submitted it.
From what I gather, I won the bid primarily because I was the only person that appeared to understand the project, and have a solid plan of how to get it done, which is surprising, but not unusual for me to hear.
To get started, I took a little time to set up my workstation and make sure I had my tools readily accessible. For over 20 years I’ve heard the same argument, and for over 20 years I’ve continued to prove that taking a little time in the morning to properly set up saves far more time throughout the day.
I got started by removing the inner shelves, furthest from the wall, cutting the joists they rest on, and then re-hanging them to the correct width.
Once that was handled, I set about mounting the custom track system for the hoist. It took some doing because the stud-finder kept giving me false readings, but I eventually found the joist and got my lag bolts with spacers and track into it.
Once I had that done, I tested it by jerking on it with my body weight, and it did not budge, so I’m convinced it’ll be there for a very long time. I did take a few minutes test it with some weight….
I came back on a second visit once the trike was on site to get it dialed in and hung where it needed to be. That part was the most fun because I got to use some ‘rigging math’!
Now the client has a simple system they can use to hang their trike out of the way, parking it AND the car in the single-car garage.
I really enjoyed this project, it was unique, had a few challenges to overcome, and is certainly not the every day mundane stuff we usually see!