I've been lurking for years and read a lot of the shop threads in the last year or so. Now it's finally my turn!
BLUF: Wife and I bought a 1400 sq ft house and now are building a 2400 sq ft shop. We need help with Shop layout in relation to yard, garage door placement, and 2 post lift placement.
The wife and I bought our first house in October and now we need to finalize shop layout and placement before lumber and steel get any higher. I plan on documenting my shop build on here; however, I'm horrible about taking pictures. To go along with the title, the house is 1400 sq feet and the shop will be 2400 sq feet. The wife is excited about the shop and can't wait for it to be built since she'll be able to park in the 2 car garage and we can start working on my FJ40 and building our race truck.
I need your help with the following items. Placement/orientation in yard, Garage door placement ((3)16x14 overhead doors), and (1) 2 post 12k lift.
The plan is a 40x60x16 foot shop that will be used for storage, a craft/painting room, and for fabrication and repair. It will be insulated and heated via in floor radiant.
The imagery is of our 1.1 acres. 200' across the back and 260' down the sids. The red line shows where the edge of the grass is now, as the previous owner didn't want to pay the high water costs for such a "large" grassed area. The house footprint when you include the garage and make it rectangle instead of a "H" is 38.5' by 59' (do not include the deck and patio) if that helps visually.
The drawing is to scale with the yellow rectangle being 40x60. The only thing that is off is the property line angle, it's closer to 90*, but the measurements off the side property line to the grass are correct. The dashed line inside the property line is the stand-off required by the county. It's 30 from the rear property line and 20 feet from the side property lines.
There will be a "craft/painting" room for the wife that's 10x16. I'd like to put a 10x10 "clean" room next to it for engine and shock building. This will also create a nice mezzanine for storage.
No bathroom since I don't want to pay to install a new septic tank and the septic tank is on the opposite side of the yard. However, it will have a floor drain and 4 spigots, the county doesn't require that to go into a septic or oil/grease separator unless the building is for commercial use.
For the layout in respect to the yard, I'd like to be able to pull through, but I don't see that happening with a trailer. The property next to us is a rental and they said they'd get me the owners contact info to see if they would be willing to allow an easement so that we can use the driveway to their shop. I do not want to lose of any more of the grass area, so door placement needs to be taken into consideration there. I'd also really like to be able to see most of the doors from the house for security reasons and then I can also work with at least one door open for the wife and dogs be able to easily walk back and forth and such.
For the shop layout, I'm thinking the doors in a "T" if the pull through is really that important? The pull through would be closest to the back fence (one door to the front, and then the other two doors facing the sides of the yard). If I do that, where should I put the lift? My F-350 CCLB will live in the shop most of the time. The two trailers (20' open deck car hauler and 8x26 enclosed) will be stored outdoors.
Any other advice? I can't be too picky about free advice, right?
Thanks for the help, I've been staring the pictures and my backyard (which I've staked out the shop dimensions and setbacks) for a month now and still can't make up my mind.
BM
BLUF: Wife and I bought a 1400 sq ft house and now are building a 2400 sq ft shop. We need help with Shop layout in relation to yard, garage door placement, and 2 post lift placement.
The wife and I bought our first house in October and now we need to finalize shop layout and placement before lumber and steel get any higher. I plan on documenting my shop build on here; however, I'm horrible about taking pictures. To go along with the title, the house is 1400 sq feet and the shop will be 2400 sq feet. The wife is excited about the shop and can't wait for it to be built since she'll be able to park in the 2 car garage and we can start working on my FJ40 and building our race truck.
I need your help with the following items. Placement/orientation in yard, Garage door placement ((3)16x14 overhead doors), and (1) 2 post 12k lift.
The plan is a 40x60x16 foot shop that will be used for storage, a craft/painting room, and for fabrication and repair. It will be insulated and heated via in floor radiant.
The imagery is of our 1.1 acres. 200' across the back and 260' down the sids. The red line shows where the edge of the grass is now, as the previous owner didn't want to pay the high water costs for such a "large" grassed area. The house footprint when you include the garage and make it rectangle instead of a "H" is 38.5' by 59' (do not include the deck and patio) if that helps visually.
The drawing is to scale with the yellow rectangle being 40x60. The only thing that is off is the property line angle, it's closer to 90*, but the measurements off the side property line to the grass are correct. The dashed line inside the property line is the stand-off required by the county. It's 30 from the rear property line and 20 feet from the side property lines.
There will be a "craft/painting" room for the wife that's 10x16. I'd like to put a 10x10 "clean" room next to it for engine and shock building. This will also create a nice mezzanine for storage.
No bathroom since I don't want to pay to install a new septic tank and the septic tank is on the opposite side of the yard. However, it will have a floor drain and 4 spigots, the county doesn't require that to go into a septic or oil/grease separator unless the building is for commercial use.
For the layout in respect to the yard, I'd like to be able to pull through, but I don't see that happening with a trailer. The property next to us is a rental and they said they'd get me the owners contact info to see if they would be willing to allow an easement so that we can use the driveway to their shop. I do not want to lose of any more of the grass area, so door placement needs to be taken into consideration there. I'd also really like to be able to see most of the doors from the house for security reasons and then I can also work with at least one door open for the wife and dogs be able to easily walk back and forth and such.
For the shop layout, I'm thinking the doors in a "T" if the pull through is really that important? The pull through would be closest to the back fence (one door to the front, and then the other two doors facing the sides of the yard). If I do that, where should I put the lift? My F-350 CCLB will live in the shop most of the time. The two trailers (20' open deck car hauler and 8x26 enclosed) will be stored outdoors.
Any other advice? I can't be too picky about free advice, right?
Thanks for the help, I've been staring the pictures and my backyard (which I've staked out the shop dimensions and setbacks) for a month now and still can't make up my mind.
BM
Last edited:
