Mr. GM, telll us about your Shop that you built back in the day

[Scott]

I'm getting ready to build a 32x48 or a 36x48 shop out back. I'm going to start with a pole barn w/8x8s and then the slab. I'll have power out there and eventually enclose it.

What I'm looking for is some hints and tips on what you did or would do if you had to do it all over again.

[GrassMaster]

Shop Talk!

Mr. Scott:

Mine was 30X40. As always I wish it was bigger. It was built close enough to my house that later in time I could have built on to it & connected it to my home. I did it like this because if it's part of the house, it does add value to your house. If it's not attached to your house it doesn't really add value unless the buyer is looking for a shop.

On the 40' side I placed 2 garage doors with a nice sloped apron making it easier to go in & out of the shop. The slab was built above ground so I would not have to worry about water getting in it.

We made a perfectly shaped + for the expansion joints. Here's several things I'm glad I did to it.

I sealed the concrete with a product I think called Silicon, it comes in 5 gallon buckets & it's like liquid Silicone. You can pour it into a container & when it hardens it looks just like dried silicone caulking. The 5 gallons was more than enough to be rolled in with a paint roller. I also had the slab treated for termites so it would all be legit if I did connect it to the house.

This stuff is Killer, my floors never stained from, battery acid, engine oil, transmission fluid. That crap several years later would just make that crap bead up, allowing us to put floor dry on it or a little dirt on it & no stains! No lie any of those fluids could sit for days & still not soak in the concrete. :laughing:

Another thing I did was, I started it at the slab & went up 3 concrete cinder blocks high. This made it easy for us to clean out with water hose or washer & if there was standing water, there was no wood going to the floor, so no rotting wood to worry about.

I bolted treated 2X10's on top of blocks. Then we framed it with pressure treated 2X6's. There were electrical outlets every where & we placed double boxes every where & most places they were high enough that they were just over the height of our work tables. Now where my side door & my bath room was they were regular height & only single boxes.

The 3 blocks high gave us 2 feet, then we slapped 8 foot studs on it, if I had it to do over again I would have used 10 foot studs. I think I would have been happier with a 12 foot head clearance than the 10 foot I had. Those 2X6's on the bolted down 2X10's gave us a little area to store stuff around the inside edge of the shop. Anything less in width would not have held much.

We had an entrance door on the end closest to the house & the farthest from the 2 garage doors on the side near the other end. I stubbed out plumbing for a commode & sink.

I also had plenty of outside motion detector flood lights & since the shop was close enough to the house, when people came down driveway it really lit the back & the driveway end of the house up.

If I did it over again, I would have built it with a second floor, it wouldn't have cost that much more to just have a rouged in second floor with a full bath in it. Later in time it could have been finished out and made living quarters, if the bottom floor had a full bath it could also be able to be converted into living quarters, a killer office or a place for Roscoe & I to go when we get put in the dog house.

You're really only paying for extra wall for 2 story part, stubbing in of plumbing & the rest could have been done over a period of time. Of course steps up there & flooring would have came first, serving me a nice storage area until it I could finish it out.

I kind of over did it on the 8 foot overhead fluorescent lights & I'm glad I did, you can't really have too much light in a shop. I placed 2 big Attic fans that I could turn on together or separately. This came in very handy when we were painting & welding in the winter.

Due to it being a very nice Shop (Tax Write Off) & Party house for me, it only made sense to me since it was closer to my 4" deep well (Watering 5 acres & home) & my Hot Tub, I decided I should wire both of them to my shop since it had a separate meter. LOL, if I had lived there much more I would have probably ran my house heat pumps off of it too! If I'm going to be paying taxes I just as well get as many legal write offs as possible! :laughing:

If I think of anything else about the shop I will add it here later.

One thing I did see later on was this guy built a shop similar to mine but he made it where you drove in the one end of it & he had a large side door on the other end. Yes you would be turning & going out the side, but it worked out good for him due to the size of his property. It allowed him to park a truck & trailer inside the shop at the same time. I think I would still opt for the 2 doors on the side.

[steve-o]

you had to ask GRASSMASTER.................

scott, you will be dead and long gone b/4 you can read his answer.

steve

[Scott]

I just emptied both of my 30x12 storage units and I have crap everywhere. The wife unit is not happy, my neighbors are looking at me funny so I might just go stay at a Holiday Inn Express tonight.

I live on the end of cul-de-sac with about an acre of land. I'm gonna put the shop on the most northern corner which is out back and the same side as my driveway. My lot is almost rectangular with the exception of that corner cut off at a 45deg. So I'll square it off with the house which will leave a big dead space behind the shop. I'll have roll ups on the front and one on the back w/personnel door on the side.

[MASTERMOWER]

Please don't forget to document the shop progress with pictures.

[Scott]

ok Meathead

[clclawn]

wash bay with floor drain.

[GeorgiaLandscaper]

I am almost finished with my shop. I got a really good deal on one of the steel masters metal buildings. (Not the round style, my building has almost 8' of straigt walls before it curves.) It is 30'x60' with a peek height of 14'. Will have a 12'x12' garage door on one side. The floor on the garge door side is sloped and has a drain in the center for washing euipment or whatever. Back 12' of build will be framed in for a office and ben/parts room. The roomes will leave me a loft like strutre on top for storage.

If I had any idea how to post a picture I would take some pics of the progress and let yall see.

[Scaper-S2k]

GrassMaster, do they still make that silicon stuff you used?



Scott, are you going to be able to easily see the shop from the street? Or are you going to put it so that it is more hidden behind your house?



If it's sitting on your property length wise front to back, I would put one garage door in front so you can pull right in. Then put 2 on the sides, even if #1 and #2 would interfere with each other. From the street it would look like a simply 1 car garage.



1 thing I love about our shop is that it has a drain going all the way down the middle of it. It's about 8" wide. That's something very easy to do with wooden forms just before they pour the floor.



Your garage doors can never be too tall. 220v is obvious. Bathroom if you can pull that off.



It's gonna get expensive. Keep us posted, sounds like a neat project.

Are there any parts you are going to try and do yourself? Heck, if you get the frame up, water/electric to the door, drain, and the poured floor, the rest is pretty easy. Walls, roof, plumbing, electric. Probably would save you many thousands of dollars.

[Scott]

the frame and roof is gonna be around 5k and I haven't had the time to price out the concrete and other stuff. I'll most likely do everything. My neighbor has a 24x36 that he built like a house with foundation and all that running around 13k w/o the driveway.
I'm going 8x8 poles w/14ft clearance from ground to top of pole.

[Scaper-S2k]

Sounds cheap, I would have been figuring in the $30k + range.

[GrassMaster]

Shoot if I know?

GrassMaster, do they still make that silicon stuff you used?

Erich:
There's a guy that comes to my shop every once in a while that might know about the Silicon. If I see him I'll ask him, if I can remember what his name is I'll contact him. It is worth putting on the shop floor.