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

No , it's not 5' down plus the foam reflects the room / slab heat instead of letting it escape ...

 

AFA security , with the abundance of effective battery operated side grinders , most any lock, latch , deadbolt or hinge is pretty easily defeated ...

 

I just hate a Bastard that steals anything . I will give you anything , I’m not using as token of friendship , don’t steal it from me and get caught . Things get ugly fast . If as much time was spent working as is stealing , they would have all the long folding green they need . My Buddy’s got busted into . He set a bear trap your the window and never repaired the window . I saw this a tripped the trap with a shovel handle . The trap jumped 4 ft in the air and snapped the handle like a tooth pick .

 

We're not talking Illinois, we are talking about Oklahoma

 

without reading every post. living here in Wisconsin and winter. the one thing I would change is the heating system. the 4000 sq ft. hobby shop up behind my house I built 30 years ago has forced air heat. The 10,000 sq foot commercial body shop I built in 2001 had radiant heat. what a difference ,no cold corners , even the floors where warm. you can see one of the units hanging from the ceiling above the 39 Pontiac in the one picture and venting out the wall above the 53 truck I chopped and extended the cab on. Radiant floor heat is great to but if the unit fails you have to bust up the floor. The ceiling units are easy to service or replace. Ceiling heights are the concern. The big shop was set at 16 , the hobby shop is only 10. Sold the big shop in 2007 and retired from building cars for a living. Sure miss the shop though. Larry

lori 004 by 0NE BAD 51 MERC posted Jan 31, 2011 at 10:44 PM

lori 002 by 0NE BAD 51 MERC posted Jan 31, 2011 at 10:44 PM

larry 005 by 0NE BAD 51 MERC posted Jan 31, 2011 at 10:44 PM

 

You're trying to maintain the temp within the building , not beside , above or below it ...

 

Plastic floor tubing is really cheap , the last 2 buildings I used it in we put in 50% more tubing than called for , instead of 8 individual loops we had 12 , 4 could fail and be shut off and still maintain adequate + capacity . We also mapped out & took pictures of tube placement to avoid damage in the future ..

 

I don't know how theft is in your area,but windows are just another way to get in,and steal your stuff.A buddy of mine has no windows,and he installed a people door that's steel,and reverse hinged....it opens out ...not in.I asked him why? He said everyone has heard of kicking a door in,but you cant kick one out.Seems the steel frame has a full length raised area that you cant possibly kick in throught.The thief will never figure out why the door wont give...it cant.

 

You have to build different shops for different places! Today it was 40 degrees out, I worked in my uninsulated home shop, and was down to my shirt! Kinda depends on the guy, too, and how hard he works.
I know you guys up North-are concerned about heat! Sorry about that, but here in Okla it is not that much concern. But when the temperature gets to 105 and the humidity is 80%, cooling is a big concern.
Different strokes for different folks!








Bones

 

Quotes are rolling in. Need to get a few more for comparison.

 

A word of caution on floor heating. A shop with an insulated slab will get a lot hotter when the temp is over 85F. A guy I know did his airpane hanger with a heated slab and came into another hanger (uninsulated floor slab) complaining about the difference in temperature and wondering why his was so hot. I purposely did not insulate my basement slab or basement walls when I made my house and am happy I did not as it provides refuge from the heat in summer when it is hot outside. even in western Oregon where the climate is mild. I prefer cold to heat as you can easily dress for cold but if you strip down for heat you are a target for mosquitos.
My shop has its own meter but that costs money every month so be aware of that.

I grind and stick weld in another building and paint outside all by choice.

Traditional dairy barns make good shops if you have good door access.

 

This is interesting, I had never heard of this. Makes sense though, the cool ground can't absorb slab heat in the summer due to the foam insulation acting as a thermal break.

I'd still rather have floor heat though, especially where we're at, it's basically Winterfell haha

 

I knew a guy in Iowa that did a geothermal, so he got the best of both worlds. Heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.

 

I've been working on finishing this out for a while.

40x64x20 with a 10x40 porch, 16x40 front "showroom" with an 8x40 balcony above, 16x20 office, 20x32 shop with heavy duty Akon industrial curtains to keep the dirt in, 9000# 2-post, 75,000 BTU propane forced air in the shop, 12x12 upstairs room with a single bed (I'm old and need my naps), forced air electric in the office and 40x48 upstairs party room (complete with 16'x9' movie wall), baseboard electric in the upstairs nap room, all of the interior walls are shiplap (no drywall or strand board, 2700' so far). All of the 1st floor interior rooms have double doors you can roll a car (or boat) through. Since this picture was taken, site work has improved things quite a bit. Right now, I'm wiring a zillion outlets and feeds. I'm insulating most of it after that. Whatever you do, go as big as you can afford. I filled my 24x32x10 first barn 2 days after it was finished.

 

That's really nice!

 

I would incorporate a full size bathroom, large shower, elongated high rise toilet and a deepsink.......then a locker room bench for changing and a small row of lockers to store work clothes, boots and street clothes. I don't like messing up my rides when I'm done working.
Oh yeah, a liquor cabinet and beer fridge.

 

Been working on this for about a year. Got real tired of all my stuff getting covered in dust when it was on Sam’s Club shelves. Decided to build shelves from floor to ceiling, 24” deep and stout enough for BBC and Hemi heads. Didn’t want it all hidden behind doors so I’d forget what was where. At SEMA last year ordered these Window Walls from Goff’s out of Wisconsin. Easy to install and work great!

 

If I could build my dream shop what would I incorporate? That is the question. Well, I would need at least two four post lifts, a frame table, workbench, central heating and cooling, central vacuum cleaner, full size shelves for parts, oh and at least one photo of Ms. Linda.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I'd trade amenities for size to be honest. I'd want the biggest damn shop I could fathom. 50x100 is really big, but it fills up fast. If you can go bigger, do it. Once you have the space, you can be flexible with the use of it.

Separate electric service is probably a given. That way the shop has no bearing on the house and vice versa. There should be 220v outlets all over the place, and should be mostly dedicated. I'd also put standardized plugs on everything; welders, compressors, etc., which gives you ultimate flexibility if you want to change the layout later on. The idea being that if you had to work on something in the center of the room, how you you get your tools there? I generally don't put more than 2 sets of duplex boxes on 1 20A 110v breaker.

Someone raised the idea of a bathroom, and that's a good one. Doesn't need to be special. A basic shower stall would be great. The problem with out buildings like this is less to do with getting water in rather than getting water out. Do you really want to put a septic in? Can you tie into an existing system? It's much cheaper to drill a well rather than install a septic. But in a dream shop, it has a small, functional bathroom big enough to clean up, use the toilet, and get changed.

An epoxy floor is an absolute must. 100% solids only.

I'd imagine you're talking about a steel "pole barn" type structure. That's perfectly fine. Either way, use a steel roof. Consider how you're going to frame the walls, insulate them and cover them (ie sheetrock or other covering). The price of spray foam will make your fucking head spin. R19/R30 is so much less expensive I think I could spend 30+ years in my shop before I broke even price wise.

A paint booth would also be on my list too. Which can also be a dedicated prep space as well. You'll be able to wash it out with water you have too.

I don't understand the hype about heated floors. It's expensive as fuck, and if it breaks somehow you've got to dig up concrete, whereas a basic forced air furnace is cheap, runs on oil or gas, and heats the room just fine. You won't be crawling around on the ground if you have a lift, who cares if the concrete is cold to lay on? Besides, that nice cool concrete is what's going to keep the temps moderate in the summer. A $50 Wifi thermostat will save you thousands in heating expenses.

Speaking of which, be sure you have good, hardwired internet. Keeps the tunes going and allows you to peruse the internet. I can speak from experience that having a TV in the shop has been a wonderful addition. A basic $40 Roku gets the job done with a mount from HF for the TV.

Someone had mentioned something about an area for finished cars and I agree completely. If I had a dream building big enough, I'd have a separate, tall room for finished cars, separate from the work space. In it I would have 4 post lifts to double parking. It would also be on a separate zone for heating, and would be kept at a reasonable 40 degrees in the winter.

I'm sure you're fairly well covered tool-wise, but a metal cutting band-saw, vertical mill (Bridgeport or the like), decent sized lathe, and modern TIG welder would be the bare minimums. ALL tools (perhaps with the exception of the mill and lathe) would be on easy to move casters to be conveniently stored to not take up too much space when not in use.

 

We are working on my friend, next door’s shop! Just got done with the floor!Then his ex wife finally turned loose of all his stuff he had in his former garage! So a 24 ft trailer full of stuff sure changes things!

 

When I tore into my '51 (avatar pic) with my grandpa in the '90s, he couldn't work out in the shop in the winter for very long, the cold floor was killer on his feet and legs. So I think in cold climates the heated floor option is well worth the money for anyone that might be still be in there beyond 60yrs old. I hope to. So my new shop will have tubing in it, then I can hook up the floor heat later when I need it.

 

So the question is a large shop with separate rooms better than an open floor plan?

 

Yes and no

 

I built my dream garage in 2006, I should have made the ceiling tall enough for a lift and added a bathroom - I also should have doubled the size and added a upstairs apartment,,\

If - If's & but's were candy & nuts what a very Merry Christmas it would be! HRP

 

I'd say that a few factors are involved with the either and the or on that.

Size and layout of the shop in general. I'd say that most guys who start with the crusty project cars would like a "dirty room" separate from the rest of the shop where they could tear stuff down, cut and grind and what not and not have the dust and debris going all over the rest of the shop area.

A separate garage area where the cars that are finished or even not being worked on are parked. I know of a half dozen nice paint jobs that got messed up by grinder sparks or shop activity (guy bumped into his finished car moving stuff around in the shop and put a big scratch down the side) plus just the dirt and dust from working on other stuff.

I had though about building my shop so that I could partition off a smaller area with overhead or sliding doors so that I only had to heat that area. Or use a room size window unit in it to cool it during the summer without trying to keep the whole thing (that isn't going to be that big) heated or cooled.

As far as dream shop:
big enough to house all my projects with a separate "garage" to park the finished ones.
Hoist to work on my projects with.

Dirty room, fabrication area and finish assembly area somewhat divided from each other or having the ability to partition them off maybe with cubical dividers from Habitat or some other used stuff source.

Decent bathroom with a shower. No one's wife wants his car buddy walking into the house to use the bathroom. Plus your personal convenience makes that pay off.

Resource room, I won't call it an office but a room where you have a computer and your book shelves with your reference library. That would probably make a lot of wives and especially mine real happy when all of that reference material got moved there. Easier to find the old Hollanders, old Tex Smith book or that catalog that showed the part in question too.

Area for a fridge, microwave or Toaster oven and coffee pot so you have beverages of choice and snack fixings handy.

Separate and insulated from the shop area compressor room. I use to do a lot of work in my buddy's shop and the noise from that air compressor sitting right there next to where you worked was tiring to me. About three hours in it and I was beat from the noise and he would turn the radio louder to hear it over the compressor. That actually might be number one on my list.

Locking store room to keep those parts and tools you don't want everyone to see out of sight. It doesn't have to be big but you don't want folks to be able to see everything you have either when they walk in or in the background of a photo.

 

A separate enclosure for the air compressor (already mentioned) and a place OUTSIDE for a blast cabinet.
A wash basin, but no need for a bathroom, I can just walk to the house....I probably need a break anyways.

 

Here's a quick CAD animation of the garage we broke ground on 3 weeks ago.

 

timely that someone should bring this thread back up....we just bought a new house, and are in the process of moving. Going from a 4 car 1320 sq ft shop and 6 car parking garage, to a single 30x50 metal building, plus two car garage on the house.

I'm thinking I want to build a room inside the building, so I can have a place do welding, grinding, machining, etc. and not make a mess of the cars that will have to be parked in there. I have some ideas, but it's still a bit fuzzy in my mind.

I have a feeling that this huge space is going to get very small in the next few months

 

Jim, I agree with your thinking about containment areas. I don't have that because my space is so small. You are going to run out of space instantly. Years ago, I helped a friend move into a nice sized building for his business. He drew each piece of equipment to scale in paper and we moved them around until we found the optimum in usage and and work flow. We spent hours doing that. He never has changed the layout so I guess we did pretty good. Also, there have been several comments about in floor heat. I have worked in both. The in floor deal is wonderful in the winter. I was surprised at how much nicer it is for us cold blooded types.