Technical When is your shop/garage finally big enough?

When I run out of money, or stop breathing......whichever comes first,

 

When your wife tells you, you should strart sleeping out there.

 

Something that the echo takes a few minutes to get back to you or you need a cart to get to the other side. You need a large build area, a good machine shop/equipment area, a good paint area, a decent welding area, a large parts area (new and used) and a separate large area for done vehicles.

One can dream right .

 

Yes, I agree. Something even Jay Leno would say was too big

 

My shop is a detached 32 x 50 and it used to be huge. Not so much now, however. I traded off the "attic" for trusses so I don't have to work around support poles. I didn't consider a lift when it was built as I was 22 years younger then. Live and learn, I guess.

My two non-daily running cars and the current project live out there. It is propane tank heated and has running water with a floor drain. I'm considering a/c this year. If I were to clean the place up and put stuff away I would have plenty of room.

 

my garage is 20x20 OD. that's outside dimensions. i hate you all

 

I had a 32’x48’ shop built with 14’ ceiling. Had storage in the attic & a mezzanine in the back corner.I put radiant heat in the floor, 200a service & installed a 10k 2post lift.
The shop served my well until we moved last year.
I now have a 30’x45’ Morton building with 11’-10” ceiling (a little low for a lift)
& only 100a service. I really miss my old shop.
If I have another one built; it will be 40’x60’ set up like my last one.


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Tell me about your propane heater please. I have a large (about 3 foot tall, 18 inch diameter propane tank) and wonder how long it would last heating the shop in the winter.
Getting tired of burning wood and the PIA involved

thanks

 

It is a 500 gallon tank that sits outside about 30 feet from the detached garage. This tank runs the shop, the bbq grill and a fire pit outside and a make believe fireplace inside the house. The rest is all electric.

The tank will last longer than a year so I get it it refilled in the summer when the prices are down a little. The heater itself is a commercial ceiling heater jetted for propane and thermostatically controlled. Ceiling fans move the air around.

 

Mine is less then that, with a full size washer/dryer and water heater inside. Building/repairing in the garage/driveway/street sucks.

 

I see. You have way more than I was thinking. Sounds like a great setup!

 

Well yeah, 30 by 40 inches is pretty small!

 

We're just breaking ground on the new 34'x60' garage and even with a loft we're out of room before it's even built. Already sourcing a 2 car lift so I can start stacking them. Gotta do whatcha gotta do.....

 

Why did you move?

 

He has always been right.

 

50’x75’ here. Two years of my life is gone building it thou. AC, epoxied and polished floors, two levels in a 20x50 part. The garage door on the right is the lean to which is completely separate (wanted it that for for future painting). I don’t have running water is which the only negative. County requires a separate well and septic system. Still working upstairs, some of the carpet is being delivered tomorrow. Contains 6 cars now and the room is ok. If I had to do it again I would have made the lean to a full 2-story space. Starting to install the 8 camera security system this next week. Again, it’s been two years of all of my spare time and taken way more money than I would even admit. No cars will be done until 2021 at this pace. Took a full 12 months to get the asphalt done around here. I retire in 5 years if I don’t kill myself trying to finish it. Lol. Regards, Randy


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I bought another lot next to mine for a new building, but shoreline codes designate it wetlands. (On a river) No building now! Two year average for code approval.

 

Mine is too big and I have too much stuff.

 

I’ve got a 30x30 main shop and a 34 x 12 lift shop with a 4 post lift and a 34 x36 shop that I park finished cars in (2 cars deep) and I have a 94 x 30 shop with either finished cars or parts and project cars and I also have a 20x34 shop that my wife uses for her craft business. When you pull into my drive there’s 15 garage doors and it’s zoned commercial so nobody can complain With all that space, I still have to park my driver outside. There just isn’t room to park inside.


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I would say the size of rhode island is a good start, if I win the lottery

 

We humans are a strange lot , we collect stuff , then we need more room to store it ,So then we have room to get more stuff . And around and around it goes .....

 

I had a 30x50 when I had my business down in Florida . It was a 2 car garage and sometimes that was tight. Now I have a one car garage and a 10x 20 storage building. It has forced me to do most of my work outside which is great unless it's windy then the mig welder don't weld so good. Or it's raining and everything gets all wet or it gets dark and then I need to drag out lights. By next month it will be getting close to winter here in east Tn. and it will be cold.
You work with what you got otherwise just quit and go watch tv.

 

my shed is about 30x60 and the only time it is big enough is when it is empty

 

Moved to a nicer rural small town with a better school system for my daughter.
New house is nicer than my last one, went from 2 acres to 11 acres. Only one visible neighbor (in the winter)
I’ll have another garage built......


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We have 2- 22x22 garages. One for the wife’s car, her lawn mower, Christmas stuff,etc. mine is stuffed full of two projects, Storage racks of parts, welders, tool boxes, etc. have to move a car out for welding or if I need full access to work on crap. Planning a 12x16’ shed forthe overflow

 

first one I built was 30x30 perfect, second was 40x60 , first wife ended up with that one, the one I have now is 15x24. new wife marked it out in the corner of the yard and I agreed. She flipped out when I stood the second floor up. She did not limit how high I could go. It's tight but I have enjoyed it for 21 years. It limits my junk collection. Thought about adding on but The more I have the more work it takes.

 

I bought my 1st house when I was 19, it didn't even have a garage, and no place to put one. There was a vacant parking lot across the street that became my work space, until I rented a 1 1/2 stall garage. After the 1 1/2 stall garage, there was an oversized 2 stall. Then there was the 6 stall. Then I bought a place out in the country, it had a 26' x 36' garage. We parked our drivers outside, along with several parts cars (at one point 13 parts cars). I had enough room in the 26' x 36' to work on one car inside. We lived there 16 years.
When I opened my welding shop in town, I started out with a 36 'x 40' and stayed there 3 years (still had the place in the country). After 3 years I moved my shop across the parking lot to a 40' x 60' building (still had the place in the country). That was actually a bit too big, I found myself having 2-3 cars inside all the time that didn't belong to me.
Then we sold the house in the country (7 days after listing it). The house we bought had a 24' x 30' garage, but my wife decided she was parking her car inside from then on. I scrapped out a lot of good stuff with that move. The surplus moved into the 40' x 60' my welding shop was at (it was a great excuse to get rid if the cars that didn't belong to me). That 40' x 60' was horrible to heat. $200 a month gas bill budget (fr 12 months) left me with a balance I had to cover at the end of the year of another $300 or so. I rented that place for 4 years, but the last couple years the gas bill killed me.
That forced us to buy our current location. It has a 24' x 24' garage, with a basement 24' x24' garage under the 1st one, and there were (2) 10' x 12' metal buildings. I got rid of a lot of stuff, again. I added an 8' x 24' extension onto the top garage, making it a 32' x 24' with a dividing wall. The bottom garage has poor access, so the mower and some parts, and other junk pretty well fill it. Both of the metal building got destroyed in a storm a few years ago and one got scrapped. I replaced the other one, but its at the bottom of the yard (about 200' away from the street), its pretty much empty. This place is zoned commercial so I can legally park stuff outside on the side yard. That side yard is big enough to put a 40' x 60' but at this point, I don't see that happening anymore. When we bought this place the original intent was to put up a 40' x 40' building on the side yard, but I was always short of the money to do it. That desire waned about 10 years ago. I've worked out of this 32' x24' garage for 18 years. When there isn't a paying job that has to sit overnight, my wife still parks her car in the garage. My coupe, my daily driver pickup, and sometimes my wife's car sit outside.
After I retired 2 years ago, I started building a new hot rod pickup for me. There are parts of that truck that sit outside along the garage until I'm ready for them. The 32' x 24' isn't big enough for all the equipment in it plus a disassembled truck and still have room to work on that truck, but by spring I hope to have it running. The garage will be plenty big enough then. I even have most of the side yard cleaned up. Gene

 

When younger I built my first car under my parent's house in a single car lock up garage, plenty of room under house for parts. Then when I moved out into my own place I built an external single car open garage to compliment the single car lock up garage, still not enough room.
My next house had double under roof lock up garage for DD and my old car. My DD was parked outside so I then built an open carport off the side of the house to work on my next project. Still not enough room!
The next house had a double under roof lock up as well as a double lock-up external garage for my next couple of projects and tools etc. Still not enough room as by now, as we do, I'd accumulated more parts and tools! Running out of room again.
Fast forward I demolished the old garage, carport and other structures at my son's house and built a high 3-bay lock up garage with hoist and an open carport as well. Same old same old, running out of room and I've lots of overhead storage this time around. When my latest project is finished that'll be it for me for the time being.

 

When you can put a test track on the roof!

 

When your garage is big enough to have it's own zip code, that's just about right.