Ask yourself some questions before you start, also thinking about the future. How many bays do you want? Work area and planned equipment. Electrical needs, HVAC, lighting, windows, high ceilings for a lift, and the list goes on.. My current shop is 28x40 with a full upstairs, fully insulated with HVAC and 200-amp service. 2 bays and an ample work area. Building materials (especially concrete) is expensive now adays. I don't think you are going to find much cost difference between Metal buildings and stick built once you factor in everything.
One thing to remember about codes is even if your local jurisdiction doesn't care about them insurance companies do so if you plan on insuring and ever have to claim not following building codes can and probably will lead to a denial of your claim.
On the quote to pour your slab. Does that include them doing the digging? If you dig it yourself or even hire neighborhood kids to do it it could save you a crap load of money
I probably should have been a little more specific when I said my shop is in a storage park. At 82, I have considerably down-sized my life to the point that I am now living in a seniors apartment complex. I still have my shop (which is much more important to me than my residence). When I retired up here, it was to a lakefront condominium. I knew I wanted a shop, but had no place to build one. This is boat country, and everybody has one, plus water toys, golf carts, 4 wheelers, etc., etc. etc. People needed space to store these things, so condominium storage parks started springing up. They come in a large variety of styles, sizes, and levels of finish in a variety of locations. I was lucky enough to purchase my unit 20 years ago when I first got here. I own it. There is an association that takes care of the maintenance, utilities, and other day to day obligations. They monitor a full time security system for the site. As such, I am limited to what I can do outside of my unit, but for me, that's a benefit, given my slovenly nature. The inside is what I want and need, and I have it the way I want it and need it. The cost of ownership is surprisingly low, and I have a rapidly appreciating liquid asset on my hands. It is win-win all around. I am pointing this out bas just another alternative; it certainly has worked out well for me. I don't have to worry about permits, construction companies, etc. Just unlock it and go in. When I go south, I just make sure everything is in good order, turn the key and leave. As you get older, your life needs and choices change more than you can think. If I had built a big house and a shop, I would have been forced to lose my shop if I decided to downsize. This way, I have more flexibility.
I'd start by going with a pole barn and just keep it a bit smaller. Like maybe 30'x40' and 3 rollup doors. Put gravel down inside to start with, and as funds get more available you can get concrete poured. Might even consider pouring one area to allow it to have a good work surface first, then leave the storage areas in gravel until you have the funds. Better to have something less than your dream shop, than to have nothing at all.
To add to @1971BB427 thoughts, the small concrete area would be set up for a hoist. There are a ton of the small sheds for sale here. Not great to work in, but better than a carport or those rotting pop up fabric shelters. This is the bottom end, I'd rather save for a site built, but we each have a budget. https://azreadyspace.com/building/lofted-barn-12-x-28-v3022/
That's great when you are retired and can go to your shop anytime you want. It would suck for someone who has family and a job to have to drive to another location every time they want to do something. Most who are not retired are trying to get shop time in on evenings and weekends when they have a little free time. I have to pick a couple of hours here and there and if half that time was used up getting to and from the shop it wouldn't happen at all.
Whatever you decide to do, if at all possible, put two of your overhead doors on each side, opposing each other. It’s amazing how much breeze can flow through my shop when the wind is hardly blowing at all. Plus it’s handy for pulling a trailer straight through.
If this isn't your forever home, I would go with something that adds to the value and doesn't take up a ton of space, like a good sized 3 car garage that will help the house stand out but won't be extraneous to most buyers. If it's a long-term home for you, build something that is or can be changed into something that meets your long-term needs.
And, I think I paid about $45k including doors, concrete, and electrical if I remember right. That was about 7 years ago.
7 years ago is about as relevant as a price from 30 yrs ago these days with the massive increases in pricing on everthing.
With a pole barn can't you start with a dirt/gravel floor and have the concrete poured in at a later date?
A little history before we get started. This has been my shop for about 40 years. Before that it was a machine shop with drivelines in the ceiling and belts connecting the machines. The building was unused about 20 years before I bought it. So, as you can imagine it was the falling down building no one wanted. In the original post you asked for pictures, inside and out, plus dimensions to give you an idea of space. Bear with me as I try to explain pictures and the size of areas seen. The first picture is the front or south elevation, the original machine shop is 24'x60'. The block walls are 9', the interior center height is 11'. The front (south elevation) overhead door is 8'x8', the east elevation has a 10'x10' overhead door. To the right or eastside I added a 14'x24' area. This became my wood working area. To the left or westside I added a 12'x24' lean to. Later I sealed that space and brought the roof line to match the original machine shop. This space is hold's my metal working equipment. Next post will have indoor pictures. ras
Yes you can. This was my original plan for my new garage, I didn't think I'd be able to swing the concrete floor. But someone (very correctly, and much to my dismay) pointed out to me that I'd have the building full end to end within a year or two and then I'd never take the time to drag everything back outside to do the concrete. Sad but true. So luckily I pulled the scratch together and had it poured after the building was up but before I moved anything into it. Really glad I did, concrete got WAY more expensive over the last couple of years.
I now have 3 to 3 1/2 cars in my shop plus tools, plus parts, plus some house stuff. This picture I'm standing in the front or south elevation's service door looking north. The 24'x60' space. The gray car is a 47 Desoto, under the tarp is a 50 Olds, and you can barely see a rear fender of a 41 Desoto in the back. So, no small cars. in the front of the 47 is my 8'x8' overhead door, I could pull in another car if needed. Between the 41 and the other two is my 10'x10'overhead. This is where I bring in the daily driver if needed. The next picture I am facing south in that same 24'x60'space. It doesn't look like much but there is over 10' between where I am standing and the rear of the 47. This shows the north wall, or my pallet rack shelving in the 24'x60' area. You can see a piece of the 41's cowl. This picture is facing east looking into the 14'x24' wood shop area. Lastly is the 12'x24' lean to addition, this holds the metal fab stuff. First picture is facing south. You can see my 1/2 car. And the last picture is facing north in the 12'x24' metal fab area. Hope this gives you an idea about dimensions and space. Years ago a friend had a similar problem to yours. His ideas overcame the money. He first did a stick-built 24'x30' shop with 9' exterior walls. He designed it structurally so when money came available one of the 24' walls was opened up and another 24'x30' was added on. Then he had a 26'x60' shop. He did this one more time and finished with 24'x90'. Be for I had this property I worked out of a 24'x26' garage. Believe me it's possible. Now I've got to tell you a true story that happened to me. In the late 80's I was doing an addition to the house without a permit. Mind you back then the road in front of my place was gravel, only a couple of locals and farmers drove down my road. I'm at work and I get a call from the wife, "Rick there's somebody here at the house you need to talk to". I get on the phone and here, "This is #$*&, county commissioner for #$$## county". Mind you my additions rafters were hung and up until minutes ago I thought I would sheathing the roof when I got home from work. 1st question I got was, "you got a permit"? "No". 2nd question, "you got any prints"? "No". 3rd question, "where's your footer inspection"? "Don't have one". I was lucky. The man's family homestead was only a couple of fields over, he knew more about the history of the place than I did. Our conversation ended with me agreeing to meet him at his office at 9am the next morning with scale drawings of what was done and what was going to be done. Along with a check made out to the county to pay for my new permit. Like I said, I got lucky. Now remember what happened to me was over thirty years ago. Now counties have people looking at satellite images to check on building permits. Get a permit ras
Ok I’ll be the dick that points out that probably the majority of traditional hot rods got built on dirt floors
You will notice I used the word alternative in my post. A couple of things lead me to post this. First, it allows us older guys to continue to pursue the hobby when an on site shop would complicate matters; secondly, it was not even a possible solution until the opportunity dropped into my lap. (The developer was caught between a rock and a hard place during the economic downturn twenty years ago and made me an offer I couldn't refuse.) I would not have thought of it as an alternative before then.
Yep, it’s ridiculous. All I can say is that prices are continuing to climb at a faster rate than I think I have seen in my life.
The 1st house we bought didn't have a garage, didn't have space for a garage, and wouldn't have had any access to or from a garage if there would have been enough space in the back yard for one. I rented garages for the 7 years we lived there. I built dirt track cars, and worked on other peoples cars out of those rented garages, most were simple 2 car 24' x 24' garages. We bought a house out in the country on an acre of ground with a 26' x36' garage. I was on cloud 9! The garage was stick built with a full cement floor, some electric, an 8' high ceiling, one walk in door 9facing east) and a 16' wide garage door facing north on the 24' end of the garage. A gravel driveway was outside. Most of the garage was occupied with car parts (I sold used car parts as a side business), but there was no racking or shelves to put anything on, so everything occupied floor space on the far end of the garage. That left me a 24' x 24' work space. I ran a parts business, a repair shop, and a race car, out of that 24x 36 garage, and on the gravel driveway outside of the garage door, for 16 years. Our personal cars sat on the driveway beyond the "work space". When I opened my welding shop I rented a building in town (my house in the country was too far out of town, which we still kept). The 1st place I rented was a 30' x 40' shop with 2 16' wide doors. I had a lot of work space, but it always seemed like there was a car sitting in that far 10' x 30' space. I was there for a couple years when the building across the open parking area became available. that building was 40' x 60', with two 24' garage doors facing an open parking area. The parking area outside of the building was nearly flat (the old building was raised up and had a pretty steep approach to the garage doors). The rent on that big building was only $50 a month more then the smaller building. I was there 5 years. The larger building was nearly 1/2 occupied by parked projects, some of which were not even mine. The utilities for that large building were really high, especially the heating bill. While I was renting that building, we sold our house in the country. About 1/2 of the stuff that was occupying the garage there was scrapped (7,000lbs worth!), the other 1/2 moved into the new building I was renting. So lets fast forward. we bought the current house we live in about 2 years after we sold the house in the country (that is a long story). This current property is .6 acre, with a nice ranch style house. There is a 24' x 24' garage with a ground level 16' wide garage door facing south with a 16' wide x 88' long cement driveway. The property has a downward elevation change between the front of the garage and the back of the garage of 8'. The upper garage (with a cement floor) also has a 24' x 24' basement garage, with a north facing 8' wide x 7' high garage door, an 8' high cement ceiling and a cement floor, with a walk in door. There is street access to that bottom garage but it is a grass assess to the street that is 100' feet towards the west of the property. On the west side of the driveway is an "extra" lot that is a piece of 75' x 75' flat street level ground (the far west side, after that 75' level, and the north side, after that 75' level, both have the same downward elevation change that the west side of the garage has. The best part of this deal is it is all zoned business, and is 2 blocks from two state highways, with semi access if needed. The intention was to relocate the welding shop to the new house. The original plan was to build a new 40' x 40' building for the welding shop on that flat land. By buying this house that was already zoned business, if I moved the welding shop here, I would have saved over $500 a month, not even counting the sky high utilities (which more then doubled that amount) that the current rented building came with. Obviously, putting up a building would take some time, so after we bought the place, I added a 7' x 24' extension onto the east side of the current garage along with electrical improvements. With no other storage space other then those two 2 car garages (and the newly added space) that everything from the 40' x 60' building had to fit in, another mass scrapping operation took place. We had bought this place in Jan, and in April I moved the welding shop in. Once everything settled down a bit, I started getting prices on a turn key 40' x 40' building. Even at 2002 prices, that turn key building was coming in at over $50 grand, but being a business and being in town, it had requirements it had to meet. The new building would be put on hold a few years. I ran a welding shop and built several cars & trucks out of that 24 x 24 garage (with the extra 7 x 24 storage area). The new building never came, and now that I'm retired, I'm pretty happy I didn't do it back when I thought I needed it. The added property tax on that extra building never stops coming, around here, the tax is higher on extra buildings then it is on adding to an existing building. My advice to the OP: Check your local, zoning first, starting out on the wrong side of them isn't as good plan for long term. Start with a 24' x 24' (or maybe 24' x 30' or 32' sometimes the cost may actually be cheaper to stay on 4' centers), a ceiling high enough to put a hoist in is a good idea, but may add a lot to the cost. Have a cement floor in that entire building. Then, if money permits, add a roofed open storage on one side (or 2), but have that graveled. In the future its not hard to add the other walls, then add the cement floor.
I'm with tubman on this... after a divorce at age 62 my house with 20 X 30 garage went away. But, I got lucky and found a rental house with an adequate garage that worked. Fast forward 10 years and the rental was sold so I ended up renting a 20 X 40 space with a loft in a storage area. I can afford the rent on it, but wish I'd have bought one 20 years ago when they were 60K. The one next door to me just sold for 240K... no way I could afford to buy now. My only worry is that when the landlord wants it back I'll be downsizing into a very small garage and most of my larger tools will have to go. But, it works well for now and I'd be using even if I weren't retired...
I am going with a 24x31 carport. I had a bunch of dirt work done and a retaining wall put up. This is the north side of my house and plan to close the west wall and what little of the carport that will be espoused to the south. then plan on a lean-to on the east side to cover the the drive in my basement. This will be a fair weather shop as I have my basement to work in if weather get to cold. You can tell by the stain on the basement wall how much dirt I had to move. I went with a 26x35 pad. I bought a used carport and had to build taller legs to have the height I need at the walls for my lift. This is how it will fit up to my house. The poles will be just to the right side of the lift so the other half has plenty of room for a car on the other side of the lift. I was lucky that all of the cost so far has been funded by my sales on the market place. I do still need to buy metal for the roof. This carport had horizonal roofing and I will build it with vertical as I believe that is the best way to run the ribs for water and snow control. I think the roofing that came with this used carport will be enough to cover the roof on the back half and the wall to the west. This will give me new metal to do the front for better curb appeal. If someone is looking at the back side I need to know what their intensions are.
Taxes are the 1 thing alot of folks forget, its way cheaper to add on to an exist structure, So maybe its best in the phase approach. Build a Oversized 2 car, gable the ends and have it easy to expand in the future, once established and paying taxes it would take them a while to catch the expansion if not 4 times the size. See what Mueler will charge for one of their pre fab jobbers.
The outdoor covered areas are great for the disassembly line, too. Pressure wash pit, scrub bench, solvent tank and blast cabinet, one piece at a time. Keeps the junk out of the inside. You could even have a finish bench for taking pics of the extras you are selling off. Paint a logo on the bench so others are less likely to steal your photos.
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