24'x48' Motorcycle Workshop - Orono, MN
Local zoning limited me to a 1200 sq. ft foot print, a bit smaller than I wanted. Building was built to store a horse trailer, a truck, and about half dozen motorcycles, to provide space to work on motorcycles and cars and to allow for some toy expansion.
After a bunch of playing around with different layouts what I ended up with was a 24x48x14 building. I considered building a taller building and putting in a mezzanine floor, but came to the conclusion that the limited foot print would make a taller building look disproportionately tall. While considering a mezzanine, I struggled over how I would lift motorcycles up to the second level and came up with the idea to get a four post lift. I ultimately came to the conclusion that 4 post lifts are cheaper than mezzanines and that pallet racking is even cheaper so I ultimately designed the space around using pallet racking and a 4 post lift to gain the floor space I wanted and to keep the building short enough to look proportionately reasonable. Due to the height of the horse trailer and width of the truck and trailer 10'x18' garage doors were necessary.
Construction started after I had the site filled. leveled and compacted.





Once the building was completed utilities (Electric, gas, water, Internet, Satellite) for the building were pulled from my home via directional bore. With utilities at the building the electrical work was done. There are 88 4' T8 6500K bulbs in 4 rows against the ceiling and 24 over the workbenches areas and open areas overhung by pallet racking. The workbenches are 2x12 boards cut to fit between the pallet racking beams, and the same approach was used to make the decking for the motorcycles that sit on the racking. The floor was coated straight gray to make it easy to find stuff that gets dropped. The building is heated and air conditioned by a horizontal mount setup mounted high up in one of the corners of the shop.







Couldn't have built and setup this thing without all the informative posts of those who have gone before me on this forum. Thanks to everyone here for their contributions, insight and ideas on how to build and setup a garage!
Local zoning limited me to a 1200 sq. ft foot print, a bit smaller than I wanted. Building was built to store a horse trailer, a truck, and about half dozen motorcycles, to provide space to work on motorcycles and cars and to allow for some toy expansion.
After a bunch of playing around with different layouts what I ended up with was a 24x48x14 building. I considered building a taller building and putting in a mezzanine floor, but came to the conclusion that the limited foot print would make a taller building look disproportionately tall. While considering a mezzanine, I struggled over how I would lift motorcycles up to the second level and came up with the idea to get a four post lift. I ultimately came to the conclusion that 4 post lifts are cheaper than mezzanines and that pallet racking is even cheaper so I ultimately designed the space around using pallet racking and a 4 post lift to gain the floor space I wanted and to keep the building short enough to look proportionately reasonable. Due to the height of the horse trailer and width of the truck and trailer 10'x18' garage doors were necessary.
Construction started after I had the site filled. leveled and compacted.





Once the building was completed utilities (Electric, gas, water, Internet, Satellite) for the building were pulled from my home via directional bore. With utilities at the building the electrical work was done. There are 88 4' T8 6500K bulbs in 4 rows against the ceiling and 24 over the workbenches areas and open areas overhung by pallet racking. The workbenches are 2x12 boards cut to fit between the pallet racking beams, and the same approach was used to make the decking for the motorcycles that sit on the racking. The floor was coated straight gray to make it easy to find stuff that gets dropped. The building is heated and air conditioned by a horizontal mount setup mounted high up in one of the corners of the shop.







Couldn't have built and setup this thing without all the informative posts of those who have gone before me on this forum. Thanks to everyone here for their contributions, insight and ideas on how to build and setup a garage!
Last edited:


