weight & quality Emcoturn

Karl,

I hope that you either own the building or that you live on the ground floor on concrete.

I'd get cabin fever in an apartment/condo.

wolfgang

Thanks for the spec. page. Looks like a real good candidate for me.

Karl

If you don't already own the condo...

Look for one with a garage and a "Bonus Room" on the ground floor, with a nice concrete slab floor. It's a popular floorplan around Los Angeles area, and the Bonus Room can easily be converted to a Home Shop.

It usually gets used for an entertainment room or home office, as you can be a little noisy into the wee hours while someone else is sleeping up on the 3rd Floor.

The only killer is getting the machine in and out from the garage, you will have to cut a large door through the garage firewall wall- and to fill in the hole you have to get an oversized (4' wide or 6-foot doubles) that is a 2-Hour Rated Fire Door with a matching rated steel jamb.

Garage catches on fire, you really don't want that headed upstairs via the stairwell, so the integrity must be restored. And the HOA Board will have kittens if you don't ask them first...

I would NOT try hauling any iron up the stairs, even a "lightweight" machine will be a stretch and can overstress the floor more than a waterbed - and some Condos forbid them. And you have neighbors on either side who will complain if you make noise and vibration, even 9 to 5 - some people work nights and/or have no life. Wood framed floors will vibrate like a huge drumhead and transmit the sound.

And there are some buildings that have odd units tucked into the corner that get an oversized garage, but you almost have to study the floorplans and buy into a brand new building to get that choice unit. (Most people would see that as a liability, but you would consider it a bonus.)

Or there might be an "Unused" HOA storage room off the garage that you can rent from the HOA for a low monthly rate, and fit it out into a shop area. I know a few buildings that have a 20 X 40 storage room that has no defined usage (other than the power meters on one wall) and gets filled up with old crap... Clean up the clutter, and put a wall up so you keep the meter readers out.

And there are the underground open garage style buildings that have several "dead corner" spaces that nobody can park in. Put up a curtain wall, run in a power line, and there's a little shop space.

Read the CC&R's and the HOA Rules paperwork early on - look for any obvious "Gotcha's" before you buy and get blind-sided by them.

-->--

Don't own it yet. Very likely will soon. I think price of housing may start to recover in a year and I'll buy then. I do know the place will be in 'cane country - no first floor enclosures. Can't afford the houses there unless I win the lottery. So, it will be your basic two bedroom unit on second floor. As a plus, they are concrete structures. I should be able to fill a room with my toys.

Karl

Forgive me if I have you confused but don't you own an apple orchard?

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Yeah, I thought "Is he retiring, or just looking for a more permanent setup in the winter?" I guess you need something to do when it's not fishing weather. I know this is not my favorite time of year for fishing here in Texas, although my brother tears up the reds in deep holes in the river in the winter. It's actually against the law to pick up specks which turn to cordwood in the cold snaps such as last month.

Pete Keillor

On Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:10:15 -0500, the infamous Wes scrawled the following:

Evidently, Karl's out of his tree, as it were.

-- Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. -- George Bernard Shaw

Ditto.

Has something happened that we should worry about?

Regards Mark Rand RTFM

It's about 500 lb, so about like a 5 foot upright piano.