New Sugar House build!

So after 56 years in the same sugar house, we're moving in. Granted I have not spent 56 years there, I'm the 3rd generation in my family to run that sugar house. We've rented/leased our last sugar house on a hand shake for all of those years with payment made in syrup. Its been a great location for our growing retail business. Its been great because it has that old charm, considering it was built in 1928. But its become to small in many ways and its time to move on for so many reasons. The first and most is that our new sugar house we will own, no more renting/leasing. The second and very exciting is that we will have running water and a BATHROOM! We're expanding, growing from 1300 taps to around 4000. The old location wouldn't allow for more tanks, and more syrup being made, barrels being moved, etc etc.

That all being said we're building a sugar house on our land with direct road access to a major highway, with more off highway parking. Its going to be 24x48 with a 14x48 side shed for sap and wood storage attached to it. We'll have a 8x12 RO room for our new 1200gph machine, concentrate will be stored above the RO room with permeate stored above the retail room. The evaporator room is 20x20 and the retail room is 20x20 with the bathroom in this area. Overall we're much larger than we were before but we're probably already to small!! Anything will be an upgrade and will be nice to have our own thing.

I will try to keep updating with pictures as i can.

Weve had the site cleared, grubbed, moved and crushed the mountain of rock. They've got the leach field completed and are starting to bring grade up with sand for the sugarhouse itself.
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That sounds like a great move. Keep us informed.

Sounds and looks like a ton of work ahead!

With that much work ahead of you will it be operational for 2020? It sounds like a great improvement for your family.

We do plan on being operational for 2020. Actually kind of have to, since we've told our landlords at the old one we were moving out. We've also moved everything except the arch and the RO out of the old sugar house.

Construction update. Yesterday I had to cut to large oaks down that were already starting to die, from to much sun and root area disturbance, easier now than when concrete or building is there. The leach field is complete, the septic tank is in, the forced main and D box will go in soon. The trenches for the footings are complete. They are hoping to pour footings on the 29th. Well is scheduled to go in second week of August.

More pictures to come as I get the chance, drive by it every day but never seem to make the time for pictures!

Thought I should update everyone on the build so far. Pictures are hard to get up and running but its coming along. We now have power poles up, which means power is on its way. a well has been dug. 260' with 6 gallons per minute, thought that was pretty fantastic. We've got power and water lines to the building. We've got water/sewer/electric lines buried so when we're ready for the slab it can be poured. Septic tank, lines, and leach field have been approved. Driveway is getting the finishing touches this week and site work guys plan on moving out this week. Builder is still a little iffy on his start time but we're still being optimistic. Besides that I'll take some pictures hopefully this week so we can get some progress for people following us.

Thanks!

Sounds like you are going to have one hell of a sugar house.

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Originally Posted by VTnewguy

Sounds like you are going to have one hell of a sugar house.

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Its going to be a dream come true after many years discussing it and thinking about it. Its already to small but the main thing is our retail room is twice the size that it was and people flow should be easier. If we can't sell syrup we can't "make any money." It should look nice pretty sweet when finally finished.

I wish you the best of luck in getting up and running. We tried to expand the bush one year in preparation for a new sugarhouse build to handle the expansion and then some. We are still putting in the expansion in the bush. We were up and running for this last season, but did not have the sap we wanted.

Keep plugging away it will come along. The step is well worth it. We built a 28X60 sugarhouse. It has a 28X20 evaporator area with inside sap and permeate tanks. The heated RO room and kitchen are both 14x12. The other 28x28 is for tool/vehicle storage (ATV, tractor, excavator) and the oil tank. This area is walled off from the other areas. Already wish it was 30 or 32' wide and maybe another 4' longer too. But that's what additions are for right?

For sure. The old rule of thumb when building is: Decide how much you will need, then double it. You will then have half enough.
I should have used that wisdom when I built my sugarhouse.

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Originally Posted by maple flats

For sure. The old rule of thumb when building is: Decide how much you will need, then double it. You will then have half enough.
I should have used that wisdom when I built my sugarhouse.

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So true.

We did not quite double it, but added about 8 or so feet in each direction. The evaporator's actual space is designed to accommodate a larger unit if ever needed. However a larger RO would be the first step and the room can handle that.

So the dirt work is completed and we have a finished driveway, all the edges have been seeded and actually have a pretty good grass growing already. It makes it look much more finished than just dirt. Gives it some definition. Builder showed up last week and has started punching away at getting the posts up. The rain will slow him down this week, and next week he takes the week off for bird hunting in Maine. We're excited to say the least and hopeful we'll be finished by the time the season comes!Attachment 20281

Guess its times for an update after 3 months. Life gets in the way and we were a little busy everywhere. Last post was about putting up the main posts for the main building. Well we're now about to get the metal roof on. Its been one hell of a ride and we're excited about the building but it certainly has had its ups and downs. We fired our contractor cause he was dragging his feet and costing us money. Probably put us a month or two behind. We've taken over the build and are moving much faster than he was. Sucks when you realize a couple of dumb tree guys are moving faster and doing a better job than a guy with 30 years experience. We won't have concrete poured this year in our side shed, got frost in the ground and won't pour over frost. Which also means we won't have a bathroom this year.

We've got the the whole building up, roof sheathed with wide pine under and advantac plywood on top of that. Paper/tarp underlayment for the standing seam roof is on and also provides us with a dry building. Never knew how much a dry building meant! Roof guy is showing up end of this week or the beginning of next week to make it truly water tight. Will be happy when we don't have to shovel/roof rake that roof. We've got one side of the building sided and should move fairly fast on the rest. We did under the side shed first as we wanted to get our firewood stacked before our college kid went back to school. Cutting siding around every rafter slowed us down immensely. Hope to have the chimney for the wood stove in place for the roofer as well. Last minute decision but think it will be a welcome addition to the retail room.

The season is knocking at the door and hope to have a functional building for it. We should be close!
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Guess I can only do 5 pictures at a timeAttachment 20469Attachment 20470Attachment 20471

Looks great. Lots of pressure building a new sugar house this time of the year and hoping you make it in time, but in the end it will be well worth it. You still have time to get it functional enough to boil this year.

Looks like your coming along just fine. Its to bad about the contractor dragging his feet. You appear to have moved the process along very well. You will like the addition of the wood burner keeping things warm. Keep plugging away and before you know you'll be looking at your completed building, saying, wow, We did this. That will be awesome.

We spent MLK weekend with my cousin installing almost all of our electrical work. We have lights on switches and no more temp panel! Its was an awesome and very cold weekend working with friends and family to get the whole place wired in 3 days essentially. All the outlets, lights and additional electrical work has been done except for the woodshed. Worked late into the night and got things done. So happy that we got the woodstove functional before the weekend started as it was our only source of heat. To cold even for the propane heater to work, the propane froze up and blew more cold air than it was worth. No door yet so we improvised with plywood doors and tarps to keep the wind and "some" heat in. Brought the temps up from single digits with negative windchills up to manageable temps to keep working. Roofer showed up yesterday to start in on drip edge and hope to see the roof on by the end of the week with any luck!