4700 sq ft Shop Project

[jtillery]

Well I think the old adage that you can never have enough garage/shop space is true. I just recently completely my 3200 sq ft shop project, the build thread is here:

Build Thread

The 3200 sq ft would be enough space, however since I started a motorcycle repair business in there it does start to get cramped and it makes it harder to work on personal projects. I was getting ready to knock down my old 2 car garage at home, and replace it with a 3 car, when I ran across a 4700 sq ft building for sale. I ended up getting the 4700 sq ft building for $26,000 it was a no brainer since it would have easily cost that to build a 3 car garage at home.

Here are some pictures of the new shop:

Exterior:

Front Area - Approximately 40'x40'

Rear Area - Approximately 45'x70'

Damaged area on front wall:

It came with a nice 3 phase air compressor:

Overall the building really is in good condition. A car slid through the intersection last winter and hit the front of the building busting out a 4'x4' hole in the wall. It was inside the bathroom so all the plumbing fixtures are trashed. It has been sitting for several months with the hole in the wall and the rest of the wall didn't shift at all.

The electrical is updated throughout the building. There are (2) 100 amp single phase meters/panels and (1) 240 volt 100 amp three phase panel/meter. Since the power was off for 12 months, the electric company required a city inspection to get the power reconnected. I passed the inspection yesterday so the power should be restored early next week.

The car also hit the gas meters so they were removed but the gas company is taking care of it Wednesday for no charge to me. The water meter was also busted and spewing water, but that was fixed no charge too.

For heat there are 8 Reznor heaters located throughout the building. I don't like how loud they are though, so I am considering switching to overhead radiant heat. The radiant should also be alot cheaper to run.

We are going to do some renovation, but nothing like my 3200 sq ft shop. I am going to put a large office/poker room in the front of the building, and redo the bathroom. We are going to powerwash the walls and floors, and paint the walls. Other than that, I plan on adding a bunch of shelving for storage, workbenches, car lift and painth booth. I will try to keep this thread updated with progress and pics.

 

[Goobzilla]

Don't see how you could go wrong there, congrats!

 

[blazemaster83]

Dude look at all the spirit orbs living in your building! oh.............i mean dust. Nice place!

 

[Venumb]

Very nice score! Best of luck with your business!

 

[WhatThaFrig]

Nice building. You should have enough room.

 

[Venumb]

Be sure to post some pics once you get it filled up with bikes and tools!

 

[Kjbakke2]

awesome score man

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looks like somebody started to remodel it before you got it. I'm sure the drains in the floor were not cheap.

 

[mrb]

$26,000 ?!?!?!? what the hell man! Near me that would cost around a million.

 

[sstruckguy]

$26,000 ?!?!?!? what the hell man! Near me that would cost around a million.

Well. I'm not sure about the million part, but the 48 x 64 I purchased with a home, (some years ago) was valued a $25,000.

You seem to have a steel...literally

 

[cletus66]

I guess the way the economy is going, more of these deals may pop up. We should all keep our eyes open. Congrats on your find !!!

 

[jtillery]

There definitely is plenty of dust to go around

I think I got a great deal on the building. There were 3 recent sales $55,000 at the sheriff's sale 10 months ago (the bank bought it), $145,000 in 2006 and $300,000 in 1998. Based on the amount of the Sheriff's sale the recent appraisal was $95,000. That being said, there are quite a few other deals like that out there in my area, and I am sure you can find them elsewhere.

The drains will be nice to have, they were added about a year ago when the building was rented to a car detailer. They were not there long, as soon as it went into foreclosure they moved out. They only downside to the drains is they didn't smooth the concrete out it some areas. 75% of it is great, but the remaining is raised up as much as 3/4' than the rest of the fllor.

I am anxious to get started on it, the bulk of the work will get done in December since I have a couple weeks off of work. We will make progress in the meantime so I will post pictures as we go.

 

[jtillery]

I have been making some progress on the shop, but it is going much slower than planned. I thought the utility reconnections would be simple, but it turned out to be a big hassle. For some reason the power company decided to take 3 weeks to reconnect the power once they received the approval from the city. The gas company wanted to run a new service to the building, so that took nearly a month as well. The water meter must have frozen, because when they turned the water on it started pouring out from the base of the meter so that had to be replaced too. Now that we have all that sorted out though, the progress is going quicker.

The first thing we did was patch the 4'x4' whole in the wall:

Next we built a 16'x16' office in the front of the building. There is also a 5' high storage loft on top of it. It will have RaceDeck Flooring and electric baseboard heat. The walls/ceiling need to be sanded one more time then it should be ready for paint.

We eliminated the bathroom in the front, and moved it to the rear (there was one back there at one point too). It is 6'x12' and will have RaceDeck Flooring and electric baseboard heat.

I had the same person that did the HVAC in my other building install (3) 100,000 BTU/hr 20' radiant tube heaters. We just got them up and running yesterday, the only thing left is to hook up permanent power (they are running off extension cords right now). The heaters seem like they are going to work very well, it makes it feel warm almost instantly, and it should be alot cheaper to run than the 8 Reznor heaters that were there when I bought the building.

I decided to put a paint booth in. I kept going back and forth about buying a used booth or building one. I couldn't find any decent used booths in my area, so I decided to build a cross draft. We are almost finished with the framing. The booth area is 14' wide, 26' deep and 9' high. There is a 32" deep x 14' wide area where the exhaust fan will draw the air through. I am using a 24" explosion proof fan and there will be (20) 20" x 20" filters on the front wall and the doors.

My main project today was swapping out the (2) 8 circuit subpanels with larger panels to accomodate the additional circuits I am adding. I ended up using Siemens 24 circuit 100 amp main breaker panels.

I also fired up the drill press I just purchased. It is an old industrial 480v 3 phase. I have 240v 3 phase, so I reverse wired a 480v-240v transformer to get the 480v.

I also got a deal I couldn't refuse on a 4' sheet metal shear, it will handle up to 16 gauge:

After I fired up the compressor that was in the building, I realized the pump is going to need to be rebuilt in the near future. I ran across this 6 yr old Curtis for $1000 so I jumped on it. It is 15HP (240v 3 phase) and 200 gallon. It is about 55 SCFM @ 175psi. I am going to hook up my refrigerated air dryer to it as well.

Here are some general pictures of the building:

Front Area:

Rear Area:

 

[nate379]

Are you doing anything to fix the front left corner of the building in your first pic? It looks like the wall over the door is coming down and pushing the left part of the wall out as well. Not sure what is going on with the new brick??

 

[930dreamer]

Can you open the old vault/safe? 930

 

[Mr Mushman]

Man this is awesome, what a great fine and what a difference already between the before and after pictures, even though you have just started a few weeks ago. You could not go wrong with the purchase price and you quickly saw the potential of the space. Keep the pictures coming, love pictures. How long did you give yourself to finish this project and be fully operating

Great job, it's always nice to hear good stories like yours where we see that we don't have to spend a "small fortune" to built something really cool.

Congrats ! !

 

[jtillery]

Are you doing anything to fix the front left corner of the building in your first pic? It looks like the wall over the door is coming down and pushing the left part of the wall out as well. Not sure what is going on with the new brick??

The front wall is actually fine, the picture is deceiving. The new block/brick is there because the cut the opening bigger to install a larger door. The flashing on the roof is longer right in front of the door, so it makes it look like the roof dips down, even though it is perfectly level.

 

[jtillery]

Can you open the old vault/safe? 930

I got the safe from my uncle, he got it from a jewelry store several years ago. I do have the combination and have had it open. It needs to be sandblasted and painted, but otherwise it is in good condition. It weighs about 4500 pounds.

 

[jtillery]

Man this is awesome, what a great fine and what a difference already between the before and after pictures, even though you have just started a few weeks ago. You could not go wrong with the purchase price and you quickly saw the potential of the space. Keep the pictures coming, love pictures. How long did you give yourself to finish this project and be fully operating

Great job, it's always nice to hear good stories like yours where we see that we don't have to spend a "small fortune" to built something really cool.

Congrats ! !

Thanks. I don't have a set deadline, but I was planning on having the walls finished/painted throughout the shop and having the paint booth functional by now. I need to get it done ASAP though, since I really need to start getting one of the Neons racing to race this spring.

Buying a commercial building can be a great way to get a nice shop for a reasonable price. When it is all said and done, I will probably have $40,000 ******* in it, but there are people on here that probably spend that much building their 2-3 car garages.

 

[gts340]

Looks like it's coming along nicely. This is exactly what I have in mind, I just need to find the right building for the right price.
I have tried to find a bigger house in the small geographical area that I need to live in that has adequate garage space but I've come up empty handed. Having a shop like this opens up more opportunities for a bigger house without needing all the extra garage space on site.

 

[nate379]

Makes sense. How about the blocks on the left above the red post, are they coming apart or just looks like that in the pic?

The front wall is actually fine, the picture is deceiving. The new block/brick is there because the cut the opening bigger to install a larger door. The flashing on the roof is longer right in front of the door, so it makes it look like the roof dips down, even though it is perfectly level.

 

[jtillery]

Makes sense. How about the blocks on the left above the red post, are they coming apart or just looks like that in the pic?

The area that looks like a crack is from the morter being redone in that area. I am not sure why they redid it, but the entire front wall is very stable now. The building hasn't been painted for 15-20 years so any of those repairs could have been made awhile ago.

 

[stangkid14]

could you please update this thread with detailed pictures and writeup of your paintbook you are building, i plan doing doing one just like it, thanks!

 

[jtillery]

could you please update this thread with detailed pictures and writeup of your paintbook you are building, i plan doing doing one just like it, thanks!

My advice is if you want a permanent paint booth, buy one, don't build it. I have seen at least 5 used booths on Craigslist in the last year for $1500-$2000. In the past 2 months though I haven't seen any, so I decided to go ahead and build one, since I will need to use it within the next month. I will be lucky to finish it for less than $1500, most likely it will be closer to $2000.

My booth isn't an copy exact of this one, but it is pretty close:

http://www.paintboothtechnologies.com/pdfs/Crossdraft.pdf

I will update the thread as we finish the booth, but the pictures above show its current state.

 

[Cobra4B]

Subscribed

 

[jtillery]

The semi truck showed up yesterday with my Direct Lift/Atlas PV10 2 post lift. It is a 10,000 pound capacity lift that has arms that can be configured asymetrically or symmetrically. That was a big benefit for me, since I regularly will lift everything from small cars to heavy pickup trucks.

I only had an hour and a half to unpack it and start installing it, so we still have quite a bit to do, but the posts and the top cross bar are up:

I also had to move some cars out of the way, so I moved the Neons to the paint booth. I attached a picture of it so it is easier to tell the actual size of the booth. Granted the Neons are small cars, but there is at least 16" from the side of each car to the wall and 6" between the centers of the two cars. The 3rd Neon is 2/3 of the way into the booth and there still is a little more room to get it in further.

 

[hunt]

you must heart dodge neons

 

[jtillery]

you must heart dodge neons

Not really... I just started racing in a FWD 4 cylinder class last year at my local asphalt track. The Neons are real competitive since they have good horsepower for a 4 banger and they are lightweight. I am really a Ford guy so it kills me to even drive a Dodge.

 

[jktruck150]

I followed your other build and was impressed then!! This is awsome you are increasing your space, and at such a cheap price! I suppose we all wish we could be that lucky. Did you end up keeping your old shop as well? Are you just going to move everything over to this new one? Do you mind if I ask what you do on a daily basis where you have enough time to fix that place up, or are you there every night after work working on your shop? I am looking forward to this build. I am sure you will do just as good as the last one! Good luck with it and the cars too!

 

[TA^Guy]

Great little shop, I would love something like that but around here they are a little more pricey.

 

[jtillery]

I followed your other build and was impressed then!! This is awsome you are increasing your space, and at such a cheap price! I suppose we all wish we could be that lucky. Did you end up keeping your old shop as well? Are you just going to move everything over to this new one? Do you mind if I ask what you do on a daily basis where you have enough time to fix that place up, or are you there every night after work working on your shop? I am looking forward to this build. I am sure you will do just as good as the last one! Good luck with it and the cars too!

My area is probably unique since we have so much manufacturing, but it shouldn't be too hard to find similar buildings/deals in other areas as well. The biggest advantage for me is since I live on .15 acres I do not have enough land to build anything at home, but both buildings are within 3 miles of where I live and they are 1 mile apart from each other. I rented shops previously that were 15-20 minutes away and alot of times I would spend as much time driving as I would working.

I plan on keeping both buildings. I plan on leaving any motorcycle related stuff and the majority of my tools at the original building. All the cars and car related stuff will be at the new shop. I will still have a reasonable amount of tools there, but I will likely need to run to other shop to pick stuff up specialty stuff for large projects.

I work 50+ hours per week at my "day" job, but spend all my spare time working on the buildings or car/motorcycle projects. I only sleep 4-5 hours per night so I get alot done. My motorcycle tech has worked full time for me for the past year. If he does not have any customer bikes to work on, he works on the buildings, he probably has done 50% of the work, maybe a little more.

This shop is not going to be as nice as the other one, but it will be clean and functional. The paintbooth will be the only additional drywall going up. The bathroom and the office are the only areas that will have RaceDeck, the rest will be bare concrete. I decided to do a 2 tone paint job with accent stripe on all the walls throughout the shop, it will be a good way to make it look nicer without spending an excessive amount of time or money. I will post some pictures of the progress after this weekend, I am hoping to get alot done.

 

[jtillery]

Great little shop, I would love something like that but around here they are a little more pricey.

Thanks. Keep an eye out, you may be surprised the deals you will find. Similar buildings recently sold for 5-10 times as much as I paid for mine.

 

[yellow2000S/R]

Not really... I just started racing in a FWD 4 cylinder class last year at my local asphalt track. The Neons are real competitive since they have good horsepower for a 4 banger and they are lightweight. I am really a Ford guy so it kills me to even drive a Dodge.

Neons do good... Escorts and ZX2s do as good depending on the driver... if you're a Ford guy get an ****** or ZX2 for a few hundred. I've dropped way to much into my ZX2 and am still going (Think its up to about 12k worth of parts, not what I paid tho)


I'm completely jealous of the shop, I do work out of an oversize 2 car garage and it's just too cluttered when doing any fab work and it'd be nice to have a dedicated place to paint.

 

[jtillery]

Neons do good... Escorts and ZX2s do as good depending on the driver... if you're a Ford guy get an ****** or ZX2 for a few hundred. I've dropped way to much into my ZX2 and am still going (Think its up to about 12k worth of parts, not what I paid tho)


I'm completely jealous of the shop, I do work out of an oversize 2 car garage and it's just too cluttered when doing any fab work and it'd be nice to have a dedicated place to paint.

I'll give you a few hundred for your ZX2

Seriously though, I originally planned on getting a ZX2 or a probe. I looked and drove several of each. I was having a hard time finding a decent car to start with at a good price. I decided to go with the Neons for several reasons. The DOHC Neons have 20-30HP more horsepower stock than the ZX2. Because Dodge's are junk there is way more Neons at Pull-a-Part to get cheap parts. I also figured if I got more serious about it that I could use Neon ACR parts and have a better suspension than the competition, but still remain "stock".

My first Neon was the DOHC 5 speed sedan that has the doors and fenders off it now, that is the one I raced last year. I picked up the SOHC 5 speed sedan (with the flaming 21 numbers) for $1200, I got receipts with it for over $12,000 in parts in the engine and suspension, it is setup for SCCA autox. I planned to start racing that, but decided it was too nice to beat up, so I am going to keep it for autox. The most recent is the DOHC 5 speed coupe, that is going to be my main race car. I am going to build a full cage that extends front and rear and tie it all in to make the chassis nice and stiff. I will also throw all the ACR suspension stuff from my other car on it. It should be a good running car.

 

[yellow2000S/R]

IF you run a ZX2 you can pull a rear sway bar from an ****** GT because it runs a 21mm in the rear compared to the ZX2 running a 13mm.

ZX2 also had a S/R version in 99 and 2000 that came with performance stuff from the factory. It is up one class as far as autox is concerened from what I read but its still competitive.

I used to have a S/R (was my first car) but I totaled it in 06 and I've had 2 ZX2s since then. Here's a website I own for my ZX2... LOL. I need to update it and no shows happened in 09 as I never completed it. http://www.projectzx2.com/index.htm

Facory S/R Specs:
Borla muffler
B&M Short throw shifter
Centerforce Performance Clutch
Energy Suspension Bushings
Eibach Lowering Spring
Roush intake (1999 year model only)
Iceman intake (2000 year model only)
Leather shift boot
Silver gauge surround
Tokico Struts
Upgraded seats w/logo
Visteon PCM
205/55ZR15 Goodyear Eagle tires
4 wheel disc brakes
150 MPH (240 KPH) speedometer
Ford Blue valve cover
Available in zinc yellow, red and black.



HP and Tq were bumped up from the "tuned" computer

Specs:
0 to 60 approx. 7.5 seconds
1/4 mile approx.15.5 seconds
Horsepower 143 bhp
Torque 150 lb.-ft.
Skidpad 0.87g**
Slalom 62.5 mph

 

[hmbemis]

Thanks. Keep an eye out, you may be surprised the deals you will find. Similar buildings recently sold for 5-10 times as much as I paid for mine.

Mind if I asked how you found this one? Most of the real estate sites in my area seem to cater to homes, not many for commercial property, so I'm wondering if you were working with a realtor, or just happened to stumble on it.

I've thought about a small shop for mix business/personal use, but it would need to be a on similar budget to yours (~$40K) and even then it would not make me any money, just be an expensive hobby shop... right now I pay a couple of hundred per month for a self-storage unit, but that's just a place to keep tools and projects, no working allowed there.

 

[bazzateer]

Cool garage, subscribed. I'll go and look at your other one now.

I had a Neon a few years ago, 136bhp IIRC. Really liked it but boy did it drink the go-go juice!

Edit: Just had a look on-line for similar properties near me, found just the one - 2,500 sq ft (1,000 sq ft each on two floors and a 500 sq ft mezzanine). A snip at just £250,000 (maybe $400,000?) or I could rent it for £15,000/yr rising each year. I think I'll have to stick with my back yard!

 

[jtillery]

ZX2 also had a S/R version in 99 and 2000 that came with performance stuff from the factory. It is up one class as far as autox is concerened from what I read but its still competitive.

Thanks for all the info. I didn't realize they had the S/R version. That looks like it would be real competitive in the racing I do. Looks like you had a great start to your ZX2. Did you keep all the performance parts to build another one?

 

[jtillery]

Mind if I asked how you found this one? Most of the real estate sites in my area seem to cater to homes, not many for commercial property, so I'm wondering if you were working with a realtor, or just happened to stumble on it.

I've thought about a small shop for mix business/personal use, but it would need to be a on similar budget to yours (~$40K) and even then it would not make me any money, just be an expensive hobby shop... right now I pay a couple of hundred per month for a self-storage unit, but that's just a place to keep tools and projects, no working allowed there.

www.loopnet.com is the commercial equiivalent of the MLA (residential listing services). In my area nearly all commercial properties are listed on LoopNet. Most of LoopNet is free, but there are several features you get with a paid membership.

The 4700 sq ft shop was listed on LoopNet and the MLA through Howard Hanna.

My 3200 sq ft shop was only listed on the MLA. The city I live publishes a list of commercial/industrial property for sale or lease. On the MLA is listed it as a 3 bedroom house with a 3+ car garage so I didn't bother looking at it. On the city listing though it showed the actual size of the building.

The best way to make it work financially is to find a fun way to make some money each month out of the shop. It could be a simple as selling off parts that you have laying around.

 

[dodgepolara500]

What a transformation! Good price on the building as well.

What does the outside look like now?