America's Best Shops: Bring It Together

Mark Glessner, of Glessner Farms at Swayzee, Indiana, has been raising up more than five years a collection of Morton Buildings -- expanding and consolidating space to bring his equipment and trucks from farther-flung storage areas.

The corn and soybean farmer recently completed his main shop, 100 x 170 feet and 28 feet tall to the rafters. Nearby are a pair of 81- x 300-foot enclosed cold storage buildings with gravel and recycled asphalt floors, and a new office space with a garage-style configuration, which will one day be connected to the shop by a service door. That office building is 42 x 60 feet.

Glessner runs a typical lineup of equipment for a Midwest corn and soybean farmer. He also owns semitrucks to move his grain. "I had equipment in more than one spot, so I consolidated it -- I wanted to get it all into one spot," he said. "But, believe it or not, I still rent another place about 6 miles away."

He utilizes his newer buildings well, he said. "They (Morton) build a fine building. Not cheap. But you don't get a good building cheaply." His own home is a Morton Building, built in 2012.

The Morton shop is a hybrid building with steel trusses and wooden columns, no center posts. The rafters are arched, creating 28 feet of clear space from the floor. Glessner wanted high overhead clearance to better fit his maintenance and repair needs. He added Morton's acoustic package to muffle sound and vibration.

"It's really nice, and I would have made it bigger, another 30 feet to make it 200 feet long," Glessner said. "But I would have been into the neighbor's property by then." As it sits, it is a gigantic, 2,500-square-foot-sized improvement over the still-standing 60- x 75-foot Quonset-style shop he put up in 1978.

THE NEED TO EXPAND

"We just ran out of room," Glessner said. "I have a little International combine out there that will tell that story, because that was a big combine for its time. Now, it's half the size of a big John Deere. It's kind of mind-boggling when you look at (it). I mean, wow, that's what we used to farm with."

The shop has two overhead doors. On the east is one that's 35 x 18 feet wide. On the south wall is a door that's 30 x 18 feet wide. "I didn't want gigantic doors, because they are a waste of wall space. But it's big enough to get 12-row heads off inside." Or he can pull a semi into the shop through one door and drive out the other.

Winter heat comes by way of two liquid propane gas, radiant heaters. "The heat just falls over you," Glessner said. He figures winter heating consumes about 2,000 gallons of propane. "It's not terrible," he admitted.

High Bay LEDs light the shop. "I wouldn't put anything else in. They run on a tenth of the juice as the old ones. They are very energy efficient," he said. Some of the LEDs spill 50,000 lumens of light onto the shop floor, and they have thousands of hours of lifespan. "The shop is well-lighted," he said.

Glessner brought 200-amp service to the shop (supplemental generators are available) with outlets run all around the wall, the wire enclosed in conduit.

There are no runs of compressed air lines mounted to the walls. Glessner said they disrupt shop functions. "You'd be chasing air lines all over the shop," he said. Instead, he moves compressors around the shop on a forklift.

He does not use as much compressed air as he once did. "Cordless tools, impacts and those kinds of things are such an improvement over what they used to be, it's really hard to believe. I've got a Milwaukee out there that can easily change semi tires, tractor duals. We have a big battery-charging rack with 30 batteries on it. Batteries last much longer than they used to. They will build arm strength, though," he said with a laugh. "But you don't have to worry about dragging a hose around."

The best thing about the shop? "The best thing I like is that it has two wash bays in it, one in front of each door" Glessner said. "It is nice. We can clean semis and combines inside. It's not such a cold job anymore."

What can you say about the office? Home-like features, such as a kitchen. But also entertainment. A pool table (for him) and an electronic bowling machine (for his wife, Jill). He laughed at this. "We like to play pool, make some side money." You will put down $100 to play, he added.

The office will eventually connect to the shop through a service door. The framing is already there for it.

And those 300-foot-long cold storage buildings? "We started at 200 feet. But, then I told the salesman, 'I'm only going to do this once. So, let's stretch them out to 300,' and the price was going up, so we did two."

Last piece of advice. And it also will make the salesman happy, he said. "Always build a little bigger. Given the sheer size of equipment, take what you think would be good and double it."

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

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