dream shop build- whatcha got, what would you do? not do?

40x60
(3) 12x12 doors
Anchors in the floor in the front of each bay for a winch.
Separate tool room/workshop
Compressor outside
LED Linear hi bay lights
Full Bathroom
AC
Wood furnace
Big exhaust fan
Bitchin stereo so I can listen to gangster rap while I booger weld shit together.

No beer fridge? You sir, are a poor example of a Mud Devil. :D
 
There are some great points already mentioned. I'll add my own.
My current shop is 25x75 and it works, but I have no room for additional personal projects. Beyond that, we want to continue to store our camper indoors to better keep it in great condition
I want to build a 40x100 at our next house. The garage doors will be set up so I can pull in with truck and trailer, drop off after a weekend of wheeling and deal with unloading later in the week. I'll set up the workbays so the trailer won't impede workflow.
Got to have a mezzanine area for storage and general cool factor.
A chain hoist on an I beam along the work area is imperative also. Plan to put the compressor outside to keep noise down inside.
It will have a clean room/office/parts room where things can kept cleaner than in the regulator shop environment. In the bathroom, a stand-up shower for obvious reasons
I want to fully plumb it with airlines outside each corner of the shop for trailers, campers, etc.
 
Last edited:
I had a 40x60 built coming up on three years ago. I had looked at a bunch of different buildings over the years and a buddy of mine had a 40x60 and I thought it was a pretty good sized building. My building is built like a stick built building but it is all metal construction. I looked at the red iron style buildings too, but decided to go with this approach because I thought it would be a little easier to finish the inside out if I ever decided to do that.

I had three 12’x12’ doors put on mine, all along one wall. Sometimes I wish I had a door on the backside so I could pull through. I decided against a door on the back because I couldn’t see it from the house. The way my garage is now, I can look out the windows on the back of the house and see the doors.

My garage is 13’ tall. I didn’t really think about how tall I wanted the garage when I was getting it built. I just knew that I wanted 12’ tall doors. If I had to do it again I would have gone 14’.

I see a lot of people recommend putting pulling anchors in the floor. I put 6 of the Champ pulling pots into my floor before the concrete pour. I haven’t used them even once. I know there will be a day when I need one, but for now they just sit there. But, that is OK, because they are recessed. Also, the floor. I had my floor poured 6” thick with ½” rebar placed throughout. The guy building it said it was overkill, but I figured it was just as easy to do it now. The labor is the same to finish a slab no matter how thick it is, at least to a point. It did add some cost to the concrete. Between the floor and the footers, it was 56 yards of concrete.

I had three rows of cinder block placed on top of the floor to put the walls on. Almost every building I had looked at before had the walls and insulation going all the way to the slab. It seemed to me that almost all of them had a little water damage somewhere along the bottom. I like to wash my shop out every now and then, so I like having the distance between the floor and the start of the wall / insulation. I figured out where my water and power would come in before they poured the floor and placed the block and stubbed up conduit to some through the block. It makes it neat on the outside of the building to not have conduit and a 3” LB fitting sticking through the side of the building.

Sorry to ramble on, but that’s is what I did and what I would do different now that I have built one garage and learned a little bit. It took me several years to get the money together, but it was worth every penny to me. My wife puts up with it, because now I am home almost all the time that I am not at work. Before, I was always at somebody else’s garage working on stuff.

Here is a picture of it about a week after they got it dried in.
IMG954265.jpg
 
Last edited:
I had three rows of cinder block placed on top of the floor to put the walls on. Almost every building I had looked at before had the walls and insulation going all the way to the slab. It seemed to me that almost all of them had a little water damage somewhere along the bottom. I like to wash my shop out every now and then, so I like having the distance between the floor and the start of the wall / insulation. I figured out where my water and power would come in before they poured the floor and placed the block and stubbed up conduit to some through the block. It makes it neat on the outside of the building to not have conduit and a 3” LB fitting sticking through the side of the building.
This is a very good idea. I wish I had done something like that with my shop.
 
Along those same lines, if you are running power underground from your house, spend a little extra and stick an extra 2" pipe or 2 in with it. That way you can run Cat6/water/etc out there easily in the future.
 
Don't have any fully finished pics, but just finished my new shop and pretty happy with it so far. I have a window unit to add AC/Heat to the wood shop and man cave area also. I also had a piece of granite left over, so it got thrown in as the countertop. I know I will catch crap for that one.

I will say, build larger than you think you need. I never thought I would grow out of my previous 30x30. Put a 2 post lift in, all your tools and 2 project vehicles and you are OUT of space. Hopefully this one will serve me for many years.

40x60
- 10' x 40' lean-to off the side for storage
- Wood Shop and man cave separate from the rest of the shop
- interior metal wall panels to keep crap from piling up and force me to stay organized
- loft for extra storage
- Full bathroom with shower
- Laundry room with washer and dryer







 
Along those same lines, if you are running power underground from your house, spend a little extra and stick an extra 2" pipe or 2 in with it. That way you can run Cat6/water/etc out there easily in the future.
This and go ahead and put a pull rope in the conduit to make fishing the new line through easy later. I wish I had run cat6 and cablevision coax alongside the phone and water to my shop.


Whatever you think is big enough, add two bays to. I wish my home 24*30 was a 30*30 which is the biggest allowed in my zoning. I could have used the extra half bay to put my equipment like my engine stand and cherry picker.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
 
go ahead and put a pull rope in the conduit to make fishing the new line through easy later.

Tie a length of masons line to a paper towel, and suck it through the conduit with a shop vac. :beer:
 
Back
Top