My shop started out @ 4500 sq. ft. then I rented the place next to me as well, and it is still not enough. Just bought 6 acres and am building 8000 sq. ft. 20 ft. walls with 3000 out side covered. Go big or go home. ha ha Good luck to anyone building there garage or shop. If you are near me swing by anytime!
i made an initial down payment last week for my 20x30, but after reading this thread i called the guy thats building my shop and told him to up it to a 30x30. i might have to eat beans and rice for a few months, but hopefully i will have enough room. the shop will be 30x30, with north and south 10x8 doors, and a 20x20 carport on the north side. no room for a "man cave" it is a shop, and it will be used as such. if i wanna play pool, i'll go to the bar. no couches, or arcade games, just shop stools, and wrenches.....
YOU HAVE A SHOP ????? you are lucky .... i'm sitting on around 2 acres out here in the hot Arizona sun .. just a few tarps to keep me from getting cooked in the 115 degree weather .. just renting ... $400.00 month - 3 bedrooms and 2 acres .. landlord says i can build anything i want ,, but it stays when i leave .. so i'm not going to invest anything ...
It's the extra 20 ' you just added on, it's the extra 20' you just added on & on & on. My shop is 52x40 . Could use another 20'.
30' x 40' is about as small as you'll want to go, and that's for a ONE CAR at a time shop. Plan on having other storage available, you don't want to have to store stuff where you're working.
My shop is 24 x 36 with 10’ side walls, and raised ceiling to 15’, and I love it. It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to heat and cool, and I do both. Nothing like working in a nice dry area with the A/C maintaining a comfortable 76 degrees when it’s 98 degrees and 99% humidity and bugs outside. Here in south Texas, A/C is mandatory, and my workshop door stay closed at all times unless I’m moving something in or out. That is my workshop, and I am very anal about keeping it as that and that only. Not a storage/utility shed. I have 3 ½ acres with other storage buildings and garage. If it’s in the workshop, it’s the project I’m currently working on. If I’m not working on it, it gets moved to one of the other buildings.
Man I miss Baskerville, he hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I think one hotrod is to much, just never seem to get everything done...
I had a 30x40 and found that 30 feet could hold 2 vehicles if you turned one crossways but you couldn't work on either one so my new shop got cut down to 27 deep but stretched to 48 long. Before I got the old shop empty, the new one was full. Added 24 feet more for a 27 x72. Yeah, its full too.
Mine is 40X60 with a 15X60 over hang on one side and a 12X60 loft inside and its has been big enough so far. I have lots of room to expand but getting old enough that I think what I have will do.
I built my 30 X 60 shop two years ago and wish I had made it 30 X 80............or 40 X 60...........or BIGGER.
around here 40' wide (clear span)is a good guideline because truss' are cheaper ...anything over 40' is getting up there....length is whatever you can afford.... i can heat my 2400 shop with my RSF wood stove to t-shirt temps in 4-5 hrs in the worst part of winter...it would be in the $1000s if it was gas or electricity
thanks... that's the way it was when i bought it 4 years ago... the wife hates that i have more shop space than she has house space... lol
A friend of mine built a 48'x72' pole barn with 14' ceilings with a bathroom 2 hoist, overhead storage and also had 3 different types of heat so that it was not to expensive in the winter time to heat. He had alot of friends and it filled up fast and after several years and heading into retirement it was time to downsize. He moved to another place and built a 30x40' brick garage which he says is the right size for him and he has plenty of room but the funny thing is, he does not have near the friends that he used to have and it is not because of his or their age. MAYBE SIZE DOES MATTER ???
Well i built a 40X50 then next year added a 40 x100 with a basement and a man cave ! Toke me 30 years to do it this way ! still need more room and just finished the spray booth !
That's what I call "the goldfish theory". It used to amaze me when I was a kid that if you kept a goldfish in a small bowl, he stayed small, but if you threw him in a pond, he grew five or six times larger. My garage is 30x48, and is packed full.
My current garage is 12x20. Good enough to park the Essex in with enough room to "tinker" on it. I have plans to build an 18x22 garage this summer on the opposite corner of our lot. It will become the workshop, with the smaller one being for storage only. I would kill to have a bigger shop, but finances and space are working against me.
i'm currently trying to take over the storage facility near me. i have a 22x65, with a 12 by 22 office and a 12 by 22 loft above it. then i needed more space, so i got 2- 12 by 36's. then i needed some outside space for my campers. so i got a 25 by 50 foot outside space. i need to downsize, because i am mow garage poor. haha.
Mine is an old Mobil station/garage. It is 80' x 40' with 40' x 30' mezzanine. I also have a 20' x 30' shed. A 40' container. A 20' container. 1 acre of land. Still not enough room.
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