Hey kids. I close on my own 5 acres of heavan in about 30 days. I have shops on the brain (even though I wont be building for over a year). I have been asking and measuring friends shops and have come up with a little question. What would be a good balance between size vs. heating costs vs. property taxes vs. building cost? It sounds easy until you start to really think about it. I am working in a pals shop that is 28x28 with a 10x10 tool room. That is enough room for a 10 foot brake, 6 foot lather, Hausefelt tubing bender, frame jig (off to one side) his A and my T (cars not body parts). But, he also has anothe garage the same size for daily drivers and such. Another pal has 38x38 for a shop which is even better but still feels like a garage. I think I might want bigger. We plan on building the shop/guesthouse in one step and live in it til we build a larger house. Then, the living area becomes a guest house and play room fo all my shit. So, what input do you guys have?
I have a 40x80 with a 20x64 loft. You can never build one big enough. Insulate well and put heat in the floor. Tempature doesn't very much and when you under a car the floor isn't cold. The biggest expense is putting it in and you can save a bundle by doing it yourself.
When you finally decide double it and that might be enough room. I've got a 30x40 and putting up a atleast a 40x40 with it. I also wish I would have put radiant heat in the floors. Howard
Well, remember that my guest house area will be another 1000 square feet. I plan on making it able to open up to the shop for a "showroom" effect. A person always needs a clean room to assemble finished parts anyway. And as far as cost, I am building the place myself, many years of building is worth quite a bit of savings to me.
hey Tman. If you have any Questions on in floor heating, ask me. Ive put alot of them in. they are difenitaly the way to go. ttyl.
I'll be talking to the bank next week. I wasn't going to go further in debt, but WTF, I'm tired of paying shop rent. I'm limited to about 24 X 48 (gotta talk to the city to know for sure) If they'll let me I'm going two story. That is the cheapest way to get more room and saves some on heat. Spend some time with paper and pen, and plan it out carefully. You've spent enough time in shops to know how important space planing is. I'm also going to get a 4 post hoist right away, along with an in ground. The in grounds are cheap to free, and are still legal right now where I'm at. The 4 post, with wheels will help with space, and doubble as an elevator for the loft.
sure! well first off you want to put styrafome down. the 1 1/2"stuff, folowed by some thick plastic (moisture can travel up through the concreet still if you dont) then you want to put down some 12" square mesh (the flat stuff,, not the rolled up shit) the longest run of in floor tubing you want to have is around 300 to 350 feet. any more than that and it will cause head preasure problems. when you start putting the tube down stay 6" away from the inside wall, then on your second pass, stay 6"away from the first pass, on the third, stay 12" away from the second pass. keep the rest all 12" apart. Diffrent shaped rooms will require difrent in floor patterns. to tie down the pipe use plastis tie straps. i usualy put them every two feet. to make the header look good use 1" pvc 90 sleaves. any more questions just ask. im more than happy to tell ya how to.
<font color="purple"> OK, do your research on the regulations. I know our county does not allow a second residence if not thier idea of acres per house allowed. And a friend down outside Manteca that after he bought the building he found out it was too big. They didn't allow a shop with more sq ft than the residence. </font>
Check city or county regs, depending on where you're at, and find out at what square footage they require fire suppression. May not be a factor where you're at. When I built mine (county, but city impact zone) over 3200 sq ft required fire system, so I built a 3200 sq ft shop. Insulate well. floor heat's a good idea.
Ahh Purple, you simple man. This is ranch country! Folks generally have TEN TIMES the shop footage over their house Dont worry, I have generalled some projects, I know some of those details.
we just signed a lease to rent a 30X50 shop and put two cars in there and realized it is gonna get filled quick. cars are alot bigger than they appear sometimes and if you plan on working on them you'll probably want at least 4ft extra around them.
I've got a 40'X80' 2 story. When I built it 8 yrs ago I could not imagine ever needing more room. Now I'm dreaming about a 30'X'80" addition along one side to catch the overflow. There is no such thing as TOO MUCH shop. Frank
But what about property taxes? I dont want to be a slave to this place. Not saying that I am lazy, but life is too short to work too hard. I wanna enjoy my new place not work 80 hours every week to afford it!!!!
Tman,I don't know how old you are,but when ya build your house,think about the long term things,such as how long it will take to clean,the usual maintenance issues,when ya get old whats it gonna cost to pay someone else to do these tasks,etc.Realistically,a person don't need a house as big as they think they do.Build small bedrooms for the kids,so when they go off to college,they won't feel the need to move back home to their comfort zone.They way I figure space needed is to open the doors on a car,measure,then add enough room to comfortably walk around the car,know exactly how you want things laid out.Spend a few extra dollars with an architect.
[ QUOTE ] hey Tman. If you have any Questions on in floor heating, ask me. Ive put alot of them in. they are difenitaly the way to go. ttyl. [/ QUOTE ] Kanandia, My concerns over this type of heat is this. The temps in Ohio get very cold and the times when I need it most is during the days that are below 25 degrees. The shop needs to heat quickly and the floor heat doesnt allow this to happen. Secondly, and most importantly. I have never seen a garage floor that hasn't cracked over the years of use, regardless of the installation. Any shift in the concrete will crack the floor piping and cause a leak. Whats everyones feeling on this?
tman, You got access to AutoCAD anywhere? If so I'll e-mail you a couple of versions of a 50'x100' shop/house I designed. I never built it, 'cause I found and bought the place where I'm at now, which already existed.
Anybody here desing buildings? My school shop is supposed to have a paint booth. I have the booth and a concrete slab, but no building to put it in. It needs to be a special building because of the paint booth. Special ventalation and whatnot. The estimate just to have somebody design the building was $1000, and we can't afford that. Can anyone help? -Shop Teacher Jeff
[ QUOTE ] I've got a 40'X80' 2 story. When I built it 8 yrs ago I could not imagine ever needing more room. Now I'm dreaming about a 30'X'80" addition along one side to catch the overflow. There is no such thing as TOO MUCH shop. Frank [/ QUOTE ] Frank. Do I need to spank you? You're shop is friggin HUGE. Most of these guys would die to have what you do
Trent I am sure you have heard this before but here is a piece of advice a contractor friend gave me. Design the inside of the house (shop etc.) first and then design the exterior to go around it. Dont come up with an exterior first and then try to make your stuff fit in it... Oh by the way, where is the land if I can ask?
Yea T-man what Dan said, you in town or out in the country?? Went out to eat with Gene ( the guy with the 54 vett at your show) last night. He showed me pics of Carl's and A & A's place. Two more places we could go next summer.
T -- Is this a personal shop, or a business space? If it's personal, I'd build it so there was one heated area with room to work on one car, plus room for shop tools. This would probably equate to about a 3-4 car garage space. One stall for hoist, one stall for chassis, one for body, one for equipment/work area. High enough ceiling for a hoist. Any other enclosed space that's just storage can be cold in the winter. Don't spend the money on more space -- it'll just get filled with shit. Spend the bucks on extras and details that will make the space more useable. I want to build our next house -- and there's a book out called "The Not So Big House" that has a lot of ideas on building smaller but more interesting and more liveable homes. A lot of the thinking applies to shop space too. First decide what you need to do in the shop. Then design it from the inside out, and concentrate on efficiency and useability, not sheer size. My two scents. Steve.
Steve, you are thinking like me, scary huh? atch, TomH, we will NEVER go to Carls or Dickhead Dans (the OTHER A&A). The next time I go there is for his estate sale, hopefully soon....oh thats cold! Tell Gene I dug his Vette, my fav of the show. And the land is 25 miles out in the country, it will be a personal shop. I have a buddy that is an architect and one that is a structural engineer. I like the idea of a smaller shop with more tools! Hoist, lath, mill etc....... We are doing straw bale construction which takes little to heat, I dont know the heat source yet, need to run some #s on costs. Kanadia, might look ya up. Thanks for all the info so far, keep it coming!!!!
If you build twice as big as you think you need! you'll end up with a shop thats half of what you'll want!! The most important thing is partitions. A couple of 30X40 work areas (one clean and one you can dirty) then a big storage area is required to keep a clean room clean. If you have good ventilation and heat its easier if you only have to heat sections instead of a whole building. I had a 80X144 and only used 30X40 area.I now have a 30x50 and can't get a second car in because I have no stoarge area. It sucks big time to have project cars sitting out side. I've sold 12 cars and still have 10 sitting outside for sale I guess my suggestion is no matter what size shop you have put up at least two walls even if there only one or two stalls and half of the total size should be storage, that you can put racks floor to ceiling and store projects or finished cars. so you don't have to compromise your work areas and you have at least one clean room and one fab and bondo room
I've got a 32 by 40 and love it. I wish I had room to store more cars but for working it is perfect. I devided it into two rooms. The wall between the rooms is insulated with an insulated double door in it. I can shut the doors and shut the heat off to that side if I'm not using it. The bathroom is the same way. I can just heat it if I don't plan on working in the shop. The small room is 15 by 32. I use this room for painting and other misc. stuff. The big room is 22 by 40. I wanted a big area to work on one car and have plenty of room for equipment. The shop has 10 foot ceilings and the windows are mounted high on the wall. The best part is I have a second floor for storage. Here's a pic of my big room with my RPU and Larry's truck in it. Clark
I built a 36 x 48 and went 2 story on the one side to give me enough height in the main bay for a hoist and a 4 post lift. Upstairs I have laundry, bathroom, storage, etc. and under it is the wood shop, machine shop, and cleen room. I put the compressor and paint storage on the other side in a room with 2 lavers of 5/8 drywall for fire protection, plus the walls in that room were constructed like a motel with staggered 2x4s so not to transfer the compresser noise to the outside.
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