Technical So, if you could build the dream shop what would you incorporate

Roothawg, here in Oklahoma, cooling is more important that heating and your going to love those 16 ft walls. I can add, make sure you insulate it, add as many doors as possible for ventilation, and add huge exhaust fans in the ends of the building. Bury lengths of chain at about eight ft intervals, around the perimeter,leaving about four links above the concrete, for anchors, for straighting frames etc. Plan and build your work bench out of heavy steel and put it in before the concrete is poured. And weld things to the feet of the bench and dig out around the bottom of the feet. That way it is solid and when you put a vice on it and put some leverage on it your bench won’t give. Lots of outlets and lights. At least one light switch at every door, so no matter what door you come in at night you can turn on at least one light, to see and not trip over something on your way to the big light switch.
Overhead storage a long the walls to keep stuff off the floor. Air lines plumbed all over the shop. Just a few things I did in my shop and a few things I should have done!

Edit. Wire your air compressor outside or as far as possible away from your work area, so you don’t have to hear it running. And get the largest compressor reasonably possible.
Run some extra wires, for future things. Doesn’t add much to the building, but will save you head aches down the road.


Might want to consider building a shop with in the shop that is for one car, insulate it real good and air condition it for most of your work here in Oklahoma in the Summer.



Bones

 

a Jay Leno type of shop, complete with a couple of mechanics

 

WOW ! Now this Is Ultimate Garage/Man cave, I'm sure there is a work area to match. I'm thinking his decimal point is in a different place than most of us. I'm Happy/Proud with what I have, just as this man is, looks like he has all the bases covered, building/cars/collectibles , Very Nice Collection.

 

I can add one more thing if you insulate, and I highly recommend that, is to put up either plywood or sheet metal along the inside walls up eight feet, to protect the insulation.








Bones

 

...And swimming pool lights mounted flush w/ the floor under the 4 post lift. Coolest idea I have ever seen .

 

Just finished my 4th and last shop. Its smaller than the last three. 1500 square feet, 12' eave height, 10 x 12 office, 5 x 8 restroom, two post lift, one drive through bay. WIFI, Epoxy floor,LED lighting, plenty of shelves and overhead storage above office and restroom. Plenty of room for my '50 Sedan Delivery and '38 coupe and thee wifes '65 Buick Skylark.

 

My first toy box was 40x104 with 14 sidewalls. I was looking at skylights like my dad's old shed . He talked me out of the skylights out of the roof but run a set of eaves light around the top edge. glad he talked me into that. Leaves a lot of light in, heat in the winter and keeps the moisture out.

He also talked me into going 104 versus the 100 ft. I wanted. The extra 4 ft. doesn't cost no more and it is easier and faster for them with no cutting. you might ask about it. My crew liked working in 8ft. increments.

I went 14' high but wish I had gone 16'. not everything fits when you play with construction equipment. Glad I went that high though because the concrete truck only had inches to squeeze in other wise we would have been wheelbarrowing some of it in.

2 years later I remodeled the inside and made a 40x40. ft insulated heated shop on one end, then a 16x26 I believe paint booth on the back corner of the shop and made the rest just cold storage. after the paint booth entrance that left me a 24 span so I was able to put a 16 ft. garage door between the heated shop and cold storage plus enough room to put a service door just in case I need to grab something small.

Put up pallet racking and a loft on the cold side.

I also put a lift in the shop but I put it in 16 ft. so I cold park a vehicle behind it. because I play with big toys at times I wish I moved it back a little farther but when I designed it I didn't want it to far in because I might not be able to get to it then when needed.

Wish I would have added a floor drain. it was planned but we had trouble that week and we had the concrete truck coming in the morning so we skipped it and barely got it ready when the truck pulled up.

then 6 years after the shop remodel I built another shop out back that is 40 x88. I t'd this into the sidewall of the old shop so it saved me money. this is another reason why I wish I went a little higher with the first one. but for cars, pickup and normal vans it is high enough. Being t'd into the sidewall with the lower roof span very few knows it back there. One neighbor asked me when I was building the second shop I talked about and told him I did 2 years ago and walked around the corner and he couldn't believe how well it tucked in.

 

Oh, yea forgot the main thing. I put a 8x8 bathroom in mine with shower. Little tight but it does it job.

The daughter(step) moved in for a year with her kids one time when she had problems. I left my wife, her and her kids have the little house and I lived in my toybox that year. I was in my glory.

 

Better lighting, insulation and a heating system

 

For sure better insulation. Cost quite a bit to heat or cool a 1200 sq. ft. shop wouldn't it?

 

This is gonna be long............

I have 12'6" walls. I used 12' "studs" with a double plate top and bottom. I can lift any normal pickup with my 2 post lift. I would get a symetrical 2 post lift because its easy to make brackets to bolt to it and use it for the main support for an overhead crane. You can do that/not do that later on, but be sure the uprights are tall ones. For the roof I used 2x6 trusses which the company assured me were capable of the same snow loads as if I used 2x4 trusses every two feet. Have had 17" snow load on it. It was a lot cheaper as I only needed 1/3 the number of trusses. Mine spanned 40 feet, so I put purlins between them and made them into pairs. Then I had a crane lift them into place and they just sat there like a saw horse does. Had to pay for 4 hrs crane time but only took about an hour. Then I filled the purlins in between. Put a metal roof on, as shingles cost too much and are too much work. The metal roof lasts longer too and can be repainted. The ceiling in the shop will not allow drywall with the 6 foot span, so I used white metal roofing for the ceiling. I love it. Before putting the metal ceiling up you may want to put plastic up as you go. Apply rolled plastic to the bottom of the trusses and overlap it. Makes a nice barrier to keep blown in insulation from seeping between the panels. You can buy spray in insulation on line and just get in the attic and spray the seams . Probably easier. On mine I had a friend who owned a spray in insulation company and owed me a big favor. He sprayed about an inch of insulation in the attic, and then I blew about 8 inches of insulation on top of that. On the walls, the 12' studs were 2x4s, but with the purlins added on the outside I had room to install 6" fiberglass batts. Drywall is cheap, but getting it finished is not. I hung my own drywall and finished it. It doesn't need to be perfect. Put more electric plugs in than you need.....way more. They are cheap to install if you do it yourself, maybe $2 per outlet. Then when you figure out where all your cabinets and work benches and tools go.......some of the plugs won't be accessable but the ones that are will be convenient. My son bought a place last year with 22 acres and a dream garage 40x50. It has heat/AC/ bathroom. He doesn't have enough wall plugs. He used to laugh at me for putting so many plugs in my walls, but now he understands. He seldom uses the A/C and the bathroom gets used beacuse its there. I'd rather have the space. In my shop the bathroom is just outside. If you build a taller building you just have wasted space and all of your heat will be up there. A stud wall building is easier/better for insulating and hanging cabinets. As for the motor home, I would extend a lean-to off the end of the building where you can get it higher to clear the motor home. I have 10' high doors in my building so a large motorhome won't go in. I would put a rear door in your building (like old time garages had) so that a breeze can waft thru in the summer. You might try getting a taller door for the back door . I think you can get door rails with a close fit bracket and maybe use a 12' door with the 12'6" walls. That way a motorhome could probably be brought inside during the winter. That way, the front doors would all match.
I would wall off one end of the building to make a separate "garage/paint booth". The idea here is to incorporate a portion of the building that can house easily movable tools, cars, tractor, but build it so it makes a nice paint booth when you need one. I built a separate building years after I built my "stud barn". I incorporated used flourescent lights into cavities in the wall and ceiling. Then I put new LED bulbs in them. Added a vent in the ceiling with filters and inserted a small drum/barrel thru the back wall. I can put the lid on it to seal it in the winter. I added a squirrel cage blower outside to draw air thru. Use one of the squirrel cages that has a belt driven vane so you are not drawing paint over the electric motor. Another advantage of the walled section is that you don't have to heat it all the time when using the rest of the building. A lean-to with a concrete floor can add floor space . I put my tools on wheels and move them into the shop when I need them. Thats all I can think of right now and everyone is probably tired of reading too........

 

There aren't too many places left that you can just throw up a building without a permit and or be required to code
My friends just sold their place that is well "out in the country" and they had done a major remodel on it about ten years ago. When the inspector came out for the loan company to inspect it she had a binder of building permits for everything on the house including bringing the older part up to code. She also had every signed notice of inspection on different parts. Simply meaning that while you won't have city permits to deal with you most likely will have county permits. Plus if and when the time to sell comes you want it all up to code with certification that it is up to code.

I agree there over do things like the floor. Do it as if you were going to have semi trucks or heavy equipment in it even if you never do. Again that may be looking at the time that you decide that you need to sell it as the buyer will probably be looking at using it for trucks or equipment.

I was in a nice garage (and the place is for sale outside of Moses Lake Wa if a west sider wants to move to the east side. ) that had 3 nice bays and a full kitchen and full bath in it in one end where a 4th bay would be. The couple that have it built the garage first and set it up to stay in on weekends while they built their extremely nice house on a leg of the lake. Very low maintenance yard but not a place you can keep a bunch of potential projects outside.
A few years ago we tossed around the idea of building a similar size shop building and building an apartment in one end of it and having a drive though breezeway between the apartment and the shop.

As for lay out I'd say the bathroom with shower would be a must and a stand up pisser would be a good thing to have in it. An office/den isn't a bad idea either. Maybe as the rec room with big TV and room to hang out letting you have a smaller sf house.

A panel that will handle the amps and with plenty of circuits is a given. Plenty of electrical plugs so you don't have extension cords stretching across the shop is a given. 220 plugs placed around the shop where you might want to plug in a welder including by one of the doors.

My ability to get up and down off a creeper says that a hoist is a big plus these days were it may have been an extreme luxury 25 years ago.

Drive though doors on the ends or at least a pair on one end where you can drive in one side and out the other would be a plus. The shop across the road and up half a mile is set up for working on semi trucks and is 50 x 60 with a drive though bay on one side and a tall pull in door on the other on one end. If I had had the money I would have bought it when it was for sale a couple of years because it is only a bicycle ride from my house. I'd have built a mezzanine in the back corner for up stairs storage and sealed off a work shop under it that would be easier to heat or cool when the temp required one or the other and raise the doors when it didn't if I wanted to. No matter how big the shop is you usually only work in one section unless you have several projects going on at one time.
I like the idea of a dirty work area and a cleaner work area plus a parking area if that is the plan.

 

Was trying to add more pictures on last post but something wasn't working right, so here are the additional pictures.
This paint booth is actually a separate building on my property, but it could just be incorporated into the main building by making a vent and plenty of lighting. I put stainless "potato chip bag" clamps on the walls above the lights so I can put a clear plastic tarp over the lights and keep overspray off them.






OK, that ought to be enough stuff to keep your brain swirling when you try to sleep............

 

I agree with most of what you did, with the exception of the walls. You actually reinforced the reason for the 16+ walls! Heat goes up! Cooler in Summer. 90% of the time in a large insulated shop, in Oklahoma, you don’t need heat. I have worked out of my shop for twenty years, no heat, and usually get down to my shirt, even in winter! Now Summer..... that’s another thing! But I don’t plan on air conditioning a 40x70 shop! If I had it to do over I think I may go to 18 ft ceiling. My shop at work had 20 ft sides on it! But I had to lift tall stuff in it!

Just to put it in perspective, I could work comfortably on the floor ,on my Fire Engines, then if I had to work on top of them, 8 feet higher, I would melt! Just my experiences.






Bones

 

Personally I think an indoor bathroom is a waste of space. It doesn't hurt to rough in a drain pipe in case you decide to add something later after the concrete is poured. The thing is, you might want to consider building a basic building and then finishing it the way you want long after the inspector has forgotten about you. You can wire in a basic electric panel and a couple of electric plugs that will easily pass inspection. When you get into plumbing, you can open up a real nightmare. It varies widely from state to state and county to county. They can require you to have soil tests and systems that will break your budget. Be really really careful when you start telling them you want a bathroom in your shop. Plumbing can be reasonably inexpensive if you do it yourself, but if you have to meet any code standard for how you dispose of your waste, you may find your particular county may be problematic. I would tread very lightly about asking questions at your planning and zoning office. I have a weathervane so I don't piss into the wind and that works just fine for me.........

 

Almost everything I was going to suggest has already been mentioned by somebody. This is an awesome topic with lots of great ideas. I agree with you on the 16 foot sidewalls. I have 14 foot sidewalls on my 50 x 80 dream garage and have learned that that 2 feet of extra height would be very beneficial. I would also do one door that is 14 foot tall by 14 foot wide in case you ever get a tall camper on the back of a pickup truck or motorhome, or have to back a trailer in.

The one thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet that I'm really really glad I did on my shop is I installed a six mil poly vapor barrier over the compacted gravel before I had the floor poured. That keeps moisture in the ground from wicking up into the concrete and into the building. My building is extremely dry because of this and I live in a moist climate. My cars never get rust underneath. The concrete installers complained about it and tried to talk me out of it because the concrete cures from the top down instead of the bottom up and that makes her job harder. But it was worth it. Good luck with your building!

 

I never thought about it like that, but after thinking about it.........I'm not sure its correct. Seems to me that the temperature when standing on the surface is going to be the same no matter how high the roof is......unless the roof is low enough to radiate heat downward. If someone has a ceiling with insulation above it, the roof should not radiate much all the way down to floor level. Basically at floor level I think the air temperature should be the same no matter how high the ceiling is ......when the doors are open. Last summer my son and I put two 35' long beams up for a crane in one of his out buildings. The roof had no insulation or ceiling, just the metal roof. While we worked comfortably at ground level, when we climbed the ladders we got a lot hotter.....quickly. In that case the roof was radiating the suns heat down and a higher roof would have helped while on the ladders. I don't think it made much if any difference at ground level. Usually in summer we either tolerate what the outside air temperature is, or just grab a fan. My well insulated 40x60 "stud barn" takes a fair amount of natural gas to heat in the winter. To me, I'm more concerned with wintertime costs. I honestly think raising a ceiling won't affect surface temperature inside an insulated building in the summer............but I have been wrong once before.

 

Make darned sure that you know if there's any zoning districts or any kind of extension/area of the town's jurisdiction. I live in an area where even though I'm outside of the city limits there's a requirement to meet local and/or county zoning and permit requirements. You can find yourself upside down with the local constabulary pretty quick if you try and do things without their knowledge, permission or permit. As a Registered Architect, I'm pretty much obligated to play by the rules and not thumb my nose at them if I want to keep my license to practice.

 

If I was building a new shop I would go 20 ft. bigger in both directions, (50 ft by 60 ft) and include a enclosed corner insulated and heated for a BAR!!

 

insulated, radiant floor heat, aux heater air conditioning unit, 80 x 120, split down the middle. Section off a 20 x 100 side to incorporate a 4 bedroom apartment and office. rear of the building contains a 25 x 25 paint booth, small office with small apartment, second floor above booth and office for storage and misc. Side room for 10 - 275 gal tanks for run off from the roof for watering plants. solar panels on the roof for aux power. OKLAHOMA: 15 x 15 storm shelter under main floor connected to a oil change pit.

 

I realize we are in completely different climates, but there are some things that hold true no matter where you're at. Insulation is one of them. My walls are sip panels. I can't recommend them enough. Air tight, very easy to put together with all the windows and doors already cut out. Mine are 8" thick giving an r32 wall. Ceiling is r50 blow in. But even in hot climates you should insulate well to keep the heat out in summer. South facing windows. My heat hardly runs during the day in winter even when it's -40 here. My sectional doors are r25. Place receiver tubing into the floor in some spots so you can put a vise in the middle of the shop, or as I've done to be able to winch vehicles into the shop. I also put some heavy pipe and chain in my floor so I can pull down to the floor. (Straighten a frame or front end loader). In my old shop I used train track as side supports for a rolling gantry that will reach any corner. That shop was only 18x25 though. The new shop is 60x64 with a 60x14 cold storage with mezzanine, so I just set up some well casing as posts to swing an I beam off to do engines etc. If you add an addition on the side or back, be sure to put a garage door for access. And perhaps a garage door to the mezzanine that you can lift stuff up with a forklift.

 

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought of that

 

Good idea.

I had thought about pouring an underground one. After the May 3, F5 tornado, things I never thought I would see in a lifetime were a reality. Asphalt sucked up off the highway, giant 20" I beams twisted up like a wet noodle.

That tornado created a new category, the F5. After that we decided nothing above ground.

 

I have been intrigued with the SIPS buildings, but I am afraid it wouldn't be cost effective. The clear span is what I am getting quotes on now.

 

Borderboy,
You have some very good ideas,,,and I like the way you did yours.
If you don’t have to run the heat much in winter,,,you are the man !

I also like your shop because it looks like you use it,,,it might be a little cluttered,,,,(no disrespect ),,,,but you can tell you work in it. It looks better than mine,,,(,part of a basement,),,, LoL.
Some of these other pics don’t look like a shop,,,they look like a house,,,I almost expect to see a sofa and love seat .
Good job.

Tommy

 

Lotsa work benchs and hidden storage for fasteners ,electrical , rubber , plastic and misc.plumbing pieces .

 

One thing I didn't mention on the garage plans is air conditioning. Rather than try to air condition over 34,000 cuft of AZ garage, I'm going to take advantage of cool air in shaded areas and the slab itself. An 18" louvered exhaust fan will be mounted on the top of the West facing wall. When the fan is turned on it'll draw air in from the East and North from the ground floor and exhausting the hot air at 17'. Will it be perfect? No, but a big ass portable swamper will help.....

 

I built a 30' x 40' x 13' sidewall pole building 3 years ago and finished out the inside myself. I learned the following;

13' sidewalls net just over 12' clear inside, which limited 2 post lift choices. I could not imagine life without a lift now, and you really need 13' clear to have unlimited selection.

4' led fixtures are worth the money... I have 4 rows, 14 fixtures. It is a lot of light and very nice.

Insulation is a lot of work, but cheap comfort. I did a very unorthodox insulation package, but it works really well in my climate. My shop is partially shaded most of the day as well. Without conditioning it has never climbed wbove 80 degrees in the summer, and never below 45 in the winter.

White metal panels! Ceiling, and two walls are full height, the other two are wainscot high. Great light reflectance and spark/hotball resistant. I also went over all floor to wall and corner intersections with a commercial Urethane sealant (NP-1) to seal up the joints from drafts and those aforementioned hot sparks.

Doors all face east, no windows. I don't do passive cooling, so no windows. Doors are insulated and away from wind and west heat.

Added a minisplit. All of the above was intended to accomodate a minisplit, which was added this spring. Worth. Every. Penny. Added 30 bucks a month to run my shop at 72 degrees in the summer. So far that same 30 bucks gets me 62 degrees this winter. Short sleeves and 45 percent humidity in the shop? Yes please!

All my gear on wheels. Boxes, benches, power tools, etc. I have reconfigured my space a bunch of times as I have settled in. Wheeled gear helps.

Laid the whole thing out, right down to the tools, in CAD software before starting. I use CAD software for a living, so this was easy, but it saved me a huge amount of hand-wringing. I pretty much knew the plan before we turned the dirt.

 

You all are quite a bit farther North than we are, so in Oklahoma we mainly concern ourselves, at least myself , with being cool in Summer and let the Winter take car if it self. I have three shops/ garages none of them have heat, one has A/C.
I can put on a jacket, or two in the winter, but can only take off “ so many” clothes in the Summer.
The heat at higher levels is due to heat rising, as much , if not more than heat radiating from a roof, especially an insulated roof. Here in Oklahoma lots of time in the Summer there are days with no breeze and fans can only do so much.
Since a lot of work on Fire engines are done on top of the engines, think red lights, I can assure it’s hotter eight feet above the floor than on the floor..... in most occasions.





Bones