New Shop Planning

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beck3906

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
2,166
Location
Belton, TX 76513
A dream of my life is about to begin.

My wife and I should be closing on 2 acres within the next couple of weeks. We're just waiting for the final documents to be completed and we'll schedule a date with the title company to complete the paperwork.

Our desire in looking for land was to get enough that we could build a shop of some type without the deed restrictions often found on property. We got lucky and found land where the basic restiction is that out-buildings must use new materials for construction. I can deal with that.:smile:

We need to build the shop before we begin the house because I have to unload my current garage to get our house in a sellable condition. :rolleyes: This is a really sad situation, but my wife agrees we've got to get my stuff moved first. :biggrin::biggrin:

My choices now are for size and construction material. I'm thinking size in the 1600-2000 sq ft range, probably closer to 1600. I plan on having a small office, a finish room, a small bathroom, and a separate room for my lathes so I can heat and air condition that room without cooling the entire shop. I also want to have the dust collection system and air compressor in a separate room to cut down the noise level. Room sizes wil be about 10x10 each.

Construction materials include stick framing the building and I'll finish out the insides. I've also been pricing a metal building. I plan on insulating the building to help with the Texas heat and what little cold we have.

I'm looking for thoughts on what should be considered in designing a shop. I've been to Curtis' shop and using ideas from his shop as a guide.

Please offer whatever thoughts you would consider. Cost is a factor, but I want to do this right as possible. Would there be an advantage of normal frame construction over a metal building?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
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My shop is 30x50 metal building. Inside there is a 12x16 heated and a/c room that I do 98% of all the work/turning. the rest of the shop contain my tablesaw, radial saw, chopsaw, the compresor is out of the shop covered with an awning. If we had it to do again I would put a lot of windows in to bring in the light. good planning can be a great thing. My shop is about 50 yards from the house to do over again would have put it a little closer. good luck.................
 
I have a 30 x 40 pole building on my prop. Windows are key to bringing in lots of light. Mine was here when we moved in and it has none. A big attic like fan would be good to help remove the heat. I like my pole building with wood construction, it was easy to add electric b/c I just ran it along the walls and attached it to the 2 x 4's on the walls. I do not have the walls insulated yet but will someday. Add lots of outlets both 120v and 220v outlets. Also create zoned lighting so you won't them all on all the time.

Shame your down there I have some metal halide that I could offer you for your building. They are very expensive to ship. Each one puts out 30000 lumens...I am going to put two more in and that will give about 120 lumens/ sq ft.

When you run your conduit for electricity, consider running phone line and Internet out there to. Cheap to add when the thrench is dug, exspensive to add later.

Best of luck,

Grub
 
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I would add to John's message; You want to ahead plan (pun intended)!:biggrin:

If you want a bathroom, you'll need sewage, Hot water? Electricity? All the outlets in your shop except for the lights should be on full blown GFCIs. Surge Protection. Lightning protection. Make the ceiling high enough so you can use the ceiling for storage, to run dust collection. Hurricane clips on rafters and tie rafters to foundation.


Added later; Small room for Dust collector and compressor this keeps the noise down.


Wish I could build a proper shop, but that isn't likely.
 
you're going to want more room.

doesn't matter how big you make it, you're going to want more room.

congrats and good luck!

Oh yeah, you're going to want more room as well!
 
Building New Shop

What Jon said! We just finished a new house and added a separate 3rd car garage for the shop. It is an additional 5 feet wide and 15 feet deeper. Total square footage is about 600. Need more room. Not all equipment can be stationary. Likely table saw, planer, etc., will have to be moved in and out. I do like the hot and cold water and the hot and cold air!

So, lay it all out then add 50% to the square footage.
 
You will never ever think "Dang, my shop is just too big"!

If you go 40x50 you could turn that last 10' into a auto-shop, if you need to. Or spare garage for your motor-home when you start doing remote shows. Or....

The other thing I would recommend is have a some sort of "garage door" so you can back a truck in and unload it. A ceiling hoist will help with the unloading the truck and loading of your lathe if you start doing big turnings.

Lots of power. Figure out how much you will NEED then install at least 2 times that. 4 times the number of 220 circuits you think you will need. That's another never: "Dang, I just have too much power".

Lastly, when I was dreaming of building a shop I found this place that makes fully-insulated building walls to spec. It ended up costing less than 2x4 and insulation walls, at least around here, and your entire building can go up in 3-4 days with just 3-4 guys working on it.
http://k-tect.com/sitepage.php?_p_=2

Enjoy and have lots of fun.
 
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Given that you want about 1600 Sq. Ft, I presume you do flat work.
Couple of things I'm real glad I did:
1. Floor to ceiling is 11'; full 8' sheets of plywood and long stock are handled no problem.
2. Double-doors in front of the outfeed side of my Unisaw; a single door is
behind it and is centered on the blade.
On occassion, I've had to make 16' rip cuts and being able to feed straight thru without obstruction was great.
3. With my 11' walls, I ran transome windows practically all the way around the shop.
The natural light is a great feature.
 
Adequate power outlets, individual circuits for everything, and extra bright lighting.

Go and visit as many nearby shops as possible and get more visual ideas. Visiting Curtis was an excellent opportunity for you.
 
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