Building a Shop

[CorbLand]

Get big doors. Not just tall, but wide. Makes getting trailers in and out a lot easier.

Think of how many electrical outlets you need and add 50% more. Nothing worse than not having enough outlets.

 

[PineBrook413]

haha not quite hanger doors on my shop. But it did do one 20'wide x 14.5' tall and one 14'wide x 16' tall door.

 

[Dust Rider]

I went 35x70 and wish it was bigger with a ADU. 4’ deep foundation walls insulated with 2” blue foam board. 3 drains in slab at vehicle bays. 12’ high studs, but with foundation wall proud of slab its 13’ 4” to trusses. Natural gas, Cat5e, CCTV and 400 amp service. Lots of windows for light and one larger bay for bigger equipment. Framed back side behind big bay door to add another door in future for drive thru with trailers and boats. Same siding and shingles as the house. Tried to make it as efficient and simple as possible to keep costs reasonable.
What most don’t talk about is how a big nice old shop adds lots of value to your property, and adds thousands onto your property tax bill too.

 

[Dust Rider]

I'm telling ya, hangar doors are the shit! 35'-40'ish door is awesome

View attachment 610102

What is your aircraft? My uncle has a Cessna 170b. Hangers are the bomb

 

[NRA4LIFE]

The heck with the aircraft, I want that stack of plywood!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I have 40x40. 15’ ceiling height, stick build. 3 rolling doors. I Added cover storage of the back that gives me another 18x40 for boats and trailers and such. Tools and storage along the walls. Basically have one bay open for basketball goal for my kid and multiuse. One is my gym and workout area and one for work bench and projects / working area. It can fill up faster than you think if you have a lot of tools and toys.

figure out where you want your work area to be and make sure to wire in things like your 220 outlets accordingly.

if I were to do it again, I would go 40x60 with enough height for a partial second floor. A pull thru (door on each side) set up would be nice For trailers and cross breeze.

 

[Iowafarmer]

iI want some advice from guys that have been through the process of building your own shop.

I'm a Concrete contractor so that whole aspect of the build I've got under control.

I'm curious if buying one of those metal prefab's is the ticket or if I should wood frame the whole thing myself....any cost differences?

Also I'm thinking 40×40...its a 20 acre lot so I have plenty room. Is that too small? Does anyone regret doing a 40 and wish they went 60?

Not sure what you’re putting in there but 40x40 sounds to small the only time you’ll regret going bigger is when you write the check mine is 60x80 1 semi couple pickups welder compressor ext. then pull some equipment in to work on it fills up

 

[roymunson]

back in 2019 i built a 30x40' shop with a walk out basement that we could keep some small livestock in.
I concreted the top floor and have 2 parking bays for the kids vehicles when they get older. Wish i'd gone about 40x50 tho. I built a room for gun stuff and we put in a countertop for deer processing. Love the building. Wish it was bigger.

 

[FatCampzWife]

40x60, loft, sink/toilet, plenty of electrical outlets (110 & 220), big door, walk thru door(s), reinforced shelving, workbench (or two)...being able to keep all your finishing & framing supplies organized takes space. Make sure it's wide enough to pull in your trailer & load all your stuff without having to worry about knocking in to stuff. Worked (for pay or as an indentured spouse) in ag, general contracting/concrete, home shops of different sizes & amenities, & if I was building one, I'd want room to move... moving project piles around to do stuff drives me crazy.

 

[MallardSX2]

I got a 30X30 with a 15X30 lean to on each side. One is enclosed and one is open.

I put board and abttor on the entire thing on the inside. Every single board in that garage came from my own logs on my land that I cut down and then sawed on my sawmill.

It is/was a lot of work but I like it.

I am going to do as steel ceiling with an exhaust fan in teh peaks to get rid of some of that summertime heat though. I was going to insulate it but I decided that that is just isn't worth the cost. Insulation is high right now and its "just a garage".

My labor of love. It was a lot of work to do it all by myself. A borderline nightmare actually. lol

You are looking at about $55K sitting there for just the building and cement. If I had to do it over again, I would have added more windows.

 

[Silveroddo]

Sit down and sketch out how you plan to use it, how many rigs you want to park, storage area, work area, etc. Ive got a 30x50 heated shop and would kill for a 40x60.

 

[bozeman]

the bigger you build, the more junk you will buy to put in it......keep it simple. We are going 24X36, I am waiting on concrete now, dirt work is done. Will be a metal building.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

This is like an episode of hoarders. You need a 1,000,000,000 sq ft trust me. Never want to throw away that thing you haven’t used since high school

I’m building a stick framed 30x40x16 with lean too. Basically a man cave shed for storing hunting and fishing gear, tools, etc. Putting in a wood stove, metal ceiling with blown in insulation.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I can't speak for everyone but if you live in the northern climates it will be important to orient the building to minimize the effects of drifting snow. Mine is set perpendicular to the dominant wind direction. The eaves take the brunt of the wind and sliding snow so by spring there is typically 5-7 ft of snow on that edge. You don't want to have to dig your way into the building.

 

[Luked]

Family and I have built a few shops for people.
My brother is a contractor so its always been a side job gig for us.
Most we have done are all metal built trusses and sides. 8' apart.
The first one we built was my brothers 40x60 he bought the trusses.
The ones after that we built the trusses ourselves.
All metal outsides and fully insulated inside with some having full living area compleate with showers, washer/dryer, full kitchen etc.
The options are endless.

A 40x40 would be fine for most but most also wish they went bigger.
Another option is to put a lean to on each side of the shop on the long side. Not much as far as materials and will give you a nice area to put trailers if you have them etc. My brothers shop has 1 lean to on the back side that is 14' wide.
Another we built had lean to on each side both 14' guy keeps his skid steer and side by side on one side and trailers on the other.

 

[Pony Soldier]

A problem I encountered with storage was the demise of relatives. As each died I would be given the contents of sheds, barns, garages, etc but I didn't have time to sort it out so I needed a process area that was out of the way that I could process as time was available. After 20 years I still have small piles that I am going through now that I am retired. Some goes to the dump, some to my use and some to my kids.

 

[Wallace]

I have a 1200sqft pre-fab metal shop with an overhang at my house, it's used as a shop and indoor batting cage. It has electricity, but no plumbing. It works great, it was cheap ($14k w/ pad in 2019), no complaints. We get higher winds sometimes in the mountains, and it's had 2' of snow on it, no issues.

Last year I had a stick built metal building put up on 10' stilts for a duck camp. It's finished out with three bedrooms, 2 bath rooms, and everything else a house has, it's been great so far.

If I was going to build something for just a shop, I'd go prefab, too easy. If I was adding any type of living space or even bathrooms, I'd go with stick built.

 

[MallardSX2]

I had the contractor quote me to stick build a garage that size when we built out house and he told me $125,000.....so thats why I went the route I did. Got a sawmill for life now. sweet.

 

[stanginthe11s]

I'm curious if buying one of those metal prefab's is the ticket or if I should wood frame the whole thing myself....any cost differences?

go steel pre fab. the benefits to steel outweigh any savings you may have by stick framing it. when going with a pre fab, shop around. there are a bunch of things that most people don't know or understand when it comes to selecting or pricing a building. most common is dry in vs structure pricing. second is insulation. there are big differences between these both in labor and in material cost. one way to save some money with steel is height. be realistic with the height you need and have an understanding of roof pitch. a lower eve height is usually cheaper. as for putting it up, well if you can turn a wrench, you can put it up yourself. really easy to do. if you decide on steel, feel free to ask me any questions and I will tell you all about it.

Also I'm thinking 40×40...its a 20 acre lot so I have plenty room. Is that too small? Does anyone regret doing a 40 and wish they went 60?

get the biggest you can afford. we all wish we could build a warehouse lol. personally, I like to think in terms of yards. I want at least 20 yds to shoot my bow indoors so that's 60'.

 

[parshal]

I recently built an 11' by 40' enclosed shop within a 40' x 60' pole barn. I poured concreted in the entire barn with in-concrete radiant water heat in the shop with an electric pump/heater. I added a 4' x 7' rollup door on one side to easily move machinery and cabinets. I also added a toilet and shop sink which was the best addition even though it and the septic cost me $18k.

By far the most expense was the concrete so you're in great shape on that front.

I made a 30' bench on one side of the shop and covered it in brad nailed white HPDE sheeting. I can't believe I never did that on all my previous benches.