Workshop size
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7 Second Club
iTrader: (11)
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,758
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From: Port Tobacco, MD
Workshop size We're getting ready to put up a workshop at our new home site. The house will have a 3 car garage so we're putting up a workshop for the lift and all of our tools/equipment. What size do you other guys have and whats recommended. We're thinking.... 30 x 40, 40 x 40, 40 x 50.
Go as big as you can afford.
My 30x30 is too small.
Though it keeps me from accumulating more projects. 
30x30 can't hold 2 working project cars side by side (along with shop tools etc). It really only holds one project 'well' (once you factor in all of the tools & shelves). I can get 3 cars in my shop, but it ain't pretty.
We have a rule at my house - wife gets the garage, I get the shop. I don't get to store anything in the garage, she doesn't get to store anything in the shop. I get 1 spot in the garage to park a car, that's it. The rest is hers. I'm OK with that.
Go big!
My 30x30 is too small.
Though it keeps me from accumulating more projects. 30x30 can't hold 2 working project cars side by side (along with shop tools etc). It really only holds one project 'well' (once you factor in all of the tools & shelves). I can get 3 cars in my shop, but it ain't pretty.We have a rule at my house - wife gets the garage, I get the shop. I don't get to store anything in the garage, she doesn't get to store anything in the shop. I get 1 spot in the garage to park a car, that's it. The rest is hers. I'm OK with that.
Go big!
We're getting ready to put up a workshop at our new home site. The house will have a 3 car garage so we're putting up a workshop for the lift and all of our tools/equipment. What size do you other guys have and whats recommended. We're thinking.... 30 x 40, 40 x 40, 40 x 50.
6 & 8 Second Club
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,284
Likes: 0
From: Illinois, RT 66 dragway area
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40' X 72' & it's packed with junk.
The nice thing about big, is you can pull the rig in, set alarm & go. No unloading, tools, parts & car ready to go.
Jump in your car & drive home, or walk to house if shop is in yard. When I had an open trailer & a normal 3 car garage,
I had to load & reload every morning & night when getting home.
Bad thing, it's BIG & gas bill can get up there, trust me. Good luck.
.
40' X 72' & it's packed with junk.
The nice thing about big, is you can pull the rig in, set alarm & go. No unloading, tools, parts & car ready to go.
Jump in your car & drive home, or walk to house if shop is in yard. When I had an open trailer & a normal 3 car garage,
I had to load & reload every morning & night when getting home.
Bad thing, it's BIG & gas bill can get up there, trust me. Good luck.
.
I'm building a 30X60 in my backyard now. It's not finished and after pulling a car in the bay I already wish it was 40 wide. My yard is long and narrow and I was trying to avoid blocking access behind the building by going 30 wide. I say go at least 40X40, but if you've got the room and the funds to spare go longer.
Like my Dad says no matter how big you build it you will fill it up. I Plan on building a 2 story 40x50 or 50x50 so I can have my shop on the bottom and live up stairs. I will not built a house I like to do it once and be done.
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There is more to building a garage than the size or square footage. I just built a 30 X 30 and yes its tight to get two cars in side by side. You need to check into height restrictions first thing, most counties and there all different but most have a max hieght for secondary structures around 15 feet. Do the rise and run calcs and figure out where your lift is going to be. If you have a standard 10' wall and a typical roof pitch your gonna be around 13.5' at the peak. Now if you try and layout where your lift is going to be youll find that the rise and run is not going to allow you to get two cars in a 30 foot area because the lift is too tall and needs to be more centered. You can combat this two ways wider building or taller building. I was able to push my builder to make me an 11 foot wall and that put my peak @ 15' which on a good day will pass code inspection on a bad(aka the code guy didnt get any ***** last night) it would not pass. So check your hieght restrictions and make it all work for you. Dont rush it and plan extensively. I made scale drawings with scale patterns for things like my compressor and lift and cars. Use these to layout where your stuff is actually going. Take your time, i planned mine for 6 months before i even poured concrete.
Ryan
Ryan
Yes this is something i wish i had as well, and dont skimp on the door width either get a 10 or 12 foot door you will reget it if you dont.
Speaking of garage doors, I have a standard garage door on mine, and it interferes with my lift (can't raise car to full height). My ceiling is 11' 6" so I had to use a low rise lift (floor plate). I'd love to put a roll up door in place of my standard, but I figure the $1k cost for the rollup door isn't really worth the extra 1 ft of working height on the lift. I'll hunch a little and save a grand.
Moral is, if you're going to have a standard garage door, make sure it doesn't interfere with your lift. And as mentioned above, my lift is smack in the middle of my shop, and it's placed at an angle due to my 12 ft wide garage door. I can park a car on the lift, under that car, and then a car (barely) next to the lift. I've had 2 Camaros and the Suburban in my 30x30 all at the same time, but I couldn't hardly breathe in there when I did that.
Moral is, if you're going to have a standard garage door, make sure it doesn't interfere with your lift. And as mentioned above, my lift is smack in the middle of my shop, and it's placed at an angle due to my 12 ft wide garage door. I can park a car on the lift, under that car, and then a car (barely) next to the lift. I've had 2 Camaros and the Suburban in my 30x30 all at the same time, but I couldn't hardly breathe in there when I did that.
Go as big as you can fit and afford. I built a 30x72 last year and it's too small now. I couldn't go any larger though. It doesn't cost much more to go a little bigger when you're building. It's very cheap to build up as well.
A neighbor up the street from me has a huge shop, it's probably a 50x90 or bigger. He has 2 very high garage doors on each end. He can pull 2 RV's inside side by side. I lust after his shop. If his house ever goes up for sale, I'm going to look at it.
If you're building a big shop, and you're going with a high roof, put in a tall door - if not for you, for future resale value. Whoever buys your house might like the tall door so they can pull an RV in to the shop. Also, an 8 ft tall door may or may not be tall enough for you to pull the car (or especially a truck) in there when it's on a trailer.
If you're building a big shop, and you're going with a high roof, put in a tall door - if not for you, for future resale value. Whoever buys your house might like the tall door so they can pull an RV in to the shop. Also, an 8 ft tall door may or may not be tall enough for you to pull the car (or especially a truck) in there when it's on a trailer.
6 & 8 Second Club
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,284
Likes: 0
From: Illinois, RT 66 dragway area
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I agree with door should be as big as possible. Mine is 14'H, 20'W. It's awesome, I can pull the truck & trailer in
& still have tons of room to pull in my big dually work trucks. If you know you will never pull a big trailer or big truck in,
then DO NOT build a 15' ceiling. Build it to fit a lift, if no lift, even shorter. The damn heat I waste on a 15' ceiling is amazing.
I have 6-7 of the giant factory fans. When I get something from the top shelf, it's still like 20* different than the floor.
Extra insulation is a necessity more now then ever.
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I agree with door should be as big as possible. Mine is 14'H, 20'W. It's awesome, I can pull the truck & trailer in
& still have tons of room to pull in my big dually work trucks. If you know you will never pull a big trailer or big truck in,
then DO NOT build a 15' ceiling. Build it to fit a lift, if no lift, even shorter. The damn heat I waste on a 15' ceiling is amazing.
I have 6-7 of the giant factory fans. When I get something from the top shelf, it's still like 20* different than the floor.
Extra insulation is a necessity more now then ever.
.
Mine is 30x30 and I dont have a problem having 2 cars in there. I also have 2 12x18 ft. doors. I live in az. so we dont have pitched roofs (no snow!!) so my shop has 25ft. ceilings in case I decide to add a loft later down the road.
I just built a house for an older couple, they are right on the runway and have 2 planes so we built them a hanger/shop also, Its 120x60 and has a 46' wide 20' tall door on it. Im so jelous lol. Although you dont wanna know how much just the door cost. Lets just say for the price of the door, I could go out right now buy two 2002 ss camaros and twin turbo them and have a lil money left over for what they paid for their garage door.
