I have a chance to buy another acreage with room to build a bigger shop. First let me say....I know you can never build them big enough but...... I am planning on a 40'x60' with a 14' sidewall. How would ou break it up as far as fabrication areas, paint areas etc.? I want it to stay fairly clean and organized ...THIS TIME. Hopefully this deal will go.
Root - I used grey epoxy on my floors and I love it. Cleans easily, very scratch resistant, and easy to find nuts and bolts that fall. My only suggestion as to space utilization is to have storage raised over office or parking space so that floor space is used for work only. If you have a paint booth, you can have storage over it. I don't have a need to compartmentize my garage, so I'm not much help there. By the way, I hope to get up to my buddy's place in the next week or so on a trip to Ohio - Do you still want pictures if his race trailer?
Wonder if your sold on the 40 x 60 versus 25 x 75 or something like that. Just thinking that if your gonna paint, it might be more feasible to have the paint wayyy down at the other end and heavy fabbin stuff at the opposite end. Just thinkin out loud here! dusty
I used to work for a corvette restoration shop, their floors were white epoxy finished I know Iknow White? Its really not that bad to cleanup and you work cleaner something about the white less lighting you could actually work under a car with out a work light...no kidding
I would think about letting in some natural light, with translucent windows high on the wall or skylights or both. think about how many cars you will have inside, two or three being worked on and one or two waiting? if you are working on more than one in the same phase of construction each area has to be that much bigger. you will need more than one dirty area, like for teardown, fabrication and sanding bondo etc. you need more then one clean area too, one for machine part assembley and one for final assembley. you need space to stand back and really see your work, and a place to relax and have people over. 40 by 60 won't do, you better double it. Paul
I kinda thought about going longer and narrower. Like 30x70. It is a little smaller but I wonder about wasted corner space etc. What about getting stuff out at the back? Maybe a door on each end?
I framed up a 32x30 garage/shop this week. Can't afford bigger now. Later on going to build bigger shop, use this for car storage only. That white epoxy floor sounds like a good idea. Hey Root, thought you were going to Roundup? I don't have my 32 street legal yet so we are just gonna go down tomorrow, 1 1/2 hr drive.
Root, 30 deep and 70 wide...... so everything is spread out and deep enough for benches in the back and room to get around the entire car. (or to fit a 59 caddy).
All I could afford was a 24x36 84lumber kit with 12-12 roof rafters that gives you a secomd floor for storage. I put in a wall splitting the space into a 12x24 shop area and a 24x24 working garage. I ended up heating the whole space but you can burn up a lot of hot rod dollars heating a huge garage in the winter. Divide up the space to get a clean heatable area. I think it gets cold enough in Oklahoma to concider the heating (or cooling) requirements for a huge box. If it takes an hour or so to get it comfortable, you probably won't go out there for an hour or so. You can stick a window shaker A/C unit in the wall of the shop to take the humidity out in hot summers. A friend of mine built a wide 2 story garage. The second floor stopped at the last bay. The lift was in that bay allowing the car to be lifted high enough to work under. He only needed 1 lift so the 14 foot walls end up wasting space that has to be heated. Either way wire it for ceiling fans to bring the heat back down where you are working.
tommy hit on a thought I had- why not build three smaller buildings.....that way you could heat otr cool each one independentlyand completely seperate.....the cost may not be any more but actually less- as I reemember lots of places offer a specialgarage kit price for say a 24x24 size........I think thats what"RAD RIDES"/Troy Trepanier has is a group of smaller shop buildings arranged around a paved lot area.......
I think there is an advantage insurance wise if you have a dedicated paint shop and it is separate from the rest of the shop(s)also. Talk about muddying the water. Just when you think you have it figured out, here comes the HAMB contingent throwing in all their ideas! Good luck Root. I am sure you will "get it right" for you.
Just helped my bro-inlaw with his 40x60 with an attached 3 bay cold storage for cars and parts. Main shop is 2x6 with max insulation. Ceiling fans really do the job and the place warms fast and then the furnace hardly ever comes on. North front corner has a small office and head / shower. Behind that is a wash / paint booth with the floor sloping to a center drain with a back entrance. It can be closed off from the rest of the shop with a pull curtain. The back wall has a full length stnls covered bench. Hoist is in the south end and two large elect. doors at front. Bookoo 110/220 outlets ( can't have enough ). Also has a inside entrance to the cold storage wing. On hot days the place really seems to stay cool. Oh yeh ... it's too small already.
tommy- I'm planning on building a 24x32 (big as the city will let me build in the space available) and I was planning on a second story with 12/12 pitch also, and I was wondering if you had to use support columns with a beam. I would really like to have the space open, but I'm not sure it would work out.
Forgot .. What was really KQQL was that about 10 of us buds ( all rodders ) did the whole job. NOTHING was hired out. A couple guys were in the building trades, 1 a electrician, 1 has a painting business, 1 was a draftsman and drew up the plans for permits etc, etc. So Chuck got his dream shop for the price of materials ( and that was at a discount from buds ) and a hell of alot of food and beer. It was actually a fun deal. I take that back, he did hire out the concrete finishing.
Tucker .. Chucks 40x60 was just trusses but the office and about a 3 foot stub wall at the wash room door entrance was considered a bearing wall, so it's all open other than that
I would keep it 40' deep... that way you can easily have two cars and a workbench... I think 30' would be too small... just in my 'dreaming stage', I did make a scale drawing, and cutouts for my current cars and wanted cars too... plus living area, office etc... 50x80 is what I want...with 18' ceilings...
As for the floors i also used grey epoxy,it seems to be holding up to the abuse I put it through.Tommy had the right idea about splitting the shop up, thats the way I want to do my next shop.I only have a 24x24 shop, not even close to being big enough.
Root, I am planning mine right now. I am going with tinted concrete. You add the tint to the truck before pouring. We did this in a hydraulic shop a few years back. It looks good and cleans up well. If you want, a clear sealer makes it impervious to oil staine etc.
[ QUOTE ] tommy- I'm planning on building a 24x32 (big as the city will let me build in the space available) and I was planning on a second story with 12/12 pitch also, and I was wondering if you had to use support columns with a beam. I would really like to have the space open, but I'm not sure it would work out. [/ QUOTE ] I used a 10" I beam to span the 24x24 bay eliminating the lolly column and providing a beam dolly for the engine hoist. The 12x24 shop bay was spanned with 3 sandwiched 2x12s. Both sit on top of sandwiched 2x4s buried in the partition wall. I extended the cinder block footing 12" higher and used standard 8'framing on top to get a 9' cieling. The upstairs storage area under the 12-12 rafters. Lots of room for stuff. The original 84 lumber plans were for a 24x32 using an 8' shop. I added the extra 4' width. I knew nothing about framing so their kit made it simple to follow the detailed plans that had the details a carpenter would already know.
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