Any advice on new workshop build?

[JimCC]

Hello all,

So, we've taken possession of our new house and I'm in the process of trying to work out how to squeeze everything in.

I've included some photos of the space I have to work with, which is 6850mm x 3160mm (approx 22' x 10' - I guess this is an American forum, and I'm asking for help, so I won't complain).

The space at the rear gives me roughly a metre between the back wall and the architrave. And I have 2450mm (8') under the steel beams and about 2350mm (7.7' - is that legit?) clearance under the pipes.

I have my eye on two Lista cabinets to go either end of the back wall and I'll build a bench to go across the whole space, with shelving above. The cabinets are the 36E units at 850mm high, so my bench would then be about 28.5" deep and about 34" high. I'm 5'11" with average reach, FWIW. I've also attached a rough drawing of the layout I have in mind. I drew this before I'd seen the house and taken measurements. Nothing like putting the cart before the horse, eh? I'll bet most of you would be much the same though.

After seeing on this forum many amazing examples of workshops I've gleaned a few ideas about storage up high around the walls, and will be filling the space with lighting and power points. I'll also be building drop-down benches to go on at least one of the two side walls. Oh and although not shown in the photos there is one small window on the right as you look to the rear.

I'll need to keep the place ****** tidy as one of the cars will be in there on a frequent basis. I suppose it'll help me keep things in check. Unlike my previous Tardis of a workshop.

I'll be using this area for anything and everything. Cars, bicycles, woodwork, misc. home renovation work, grinding, welding (in time). I'm going to go timber or heavy ply bench tops and will use thick gal sheets where required to protect the surface.

As far as vices, grinders, etc. are concerned I'm hoping to use a combination of receiver hitches on the main bench and post mounts on concrete-filled wheels. I can't think of any other way to make that work. And that movable mount would need to be shorter than the bench in order to be stowed away. This is going to be tricky...

I have a lot of gear given the size of this space. And I want more, such as a drill press for example. I don't know if I'm being unrealistic though. And I certainly need to store large items such as my mitre saw, jackhammer, etc. Although some of that can go in the living room I suppose where I think I might have to store the garden equipment and camping gear...

I'm just wondering if you guys have any suggestions on how I might make best use of this space. Anything you could offer apart from "buy another house" would be greatly appreciated.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Hi JimCC.

Looking at your space and plans a couple of things that stand out to me are:

1. You will need to take full advantage of your available height and what you have drawn up for the bench looks great. I will give you the work area you will need and quite a bit of space above to store stuff. I would consider a set of flat pack cupboards from Bunnings??

2. Mobility will be the key for your larger stuff such as your drill press. There are some great examples of support frames with casters that you may consider.

3. here are some great garages with similar issues and some innovative solutions. I am not sure whether you have seen these yet?

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147886

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=300276

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183123

Regards and I trust these help.

 

[jloehlein]

some fold-down workbenches may make sense to give you more bench space for projects that you could fold out of the way when you've got the car in there.

 

[1/2 Cup]

some fold-down workbenches may make sense to give you more bench space for projects that you could fold out of the way when you've got the car in there.

Top idea JimCC, you will find some examples in the links above.

 

[bluestripe67]

some fold-down workbenches may make sense to give you more bench space for projects that you could fold out of the way when you've got the car in there.

.

I second this thought.

 

[bczygan]

Hello all,

So, we've taken possession of our new house and I'm in the process of trying to work out how to squeeze everything in.

I've included some photos of the space I have to work with, which is 6850mm x 3160mm (approx 22' x 10' - I guess this is an American forum, and I'm asking for help, so I won't complain).

The space at the rear gives me roughly a metre between the back wall and the architrave. And I have 2450mm (8') under the steel beams and about 2350mm (7.7' - is that legit?) clearance under the pipes.

I have my eye on two Lista cabinets to go either end of the back wall and I'll build a bench to go across the whole space, with shelving above. The cabinets are the 36E units at 850mm high, so my bench would then be about 28.5" deep and about 34" high. I'm 5'11" with average reach, FWIW. I've also attached a rough drawing of the layout I have in mind. I drew this before I'd seen the house and taken measurements. Nothing like putting the cart before the horse, eh? I'll bet most of you would be much the same though.

After seeing on this forum many amazing examples of workshops I've gleaned a few ideas about storage up high around the walls, and will be filling the space with lighting and power points. I'll also be building drop-down benches to go on at least one of the two side walls. Oh and although not shown in the photos there is one small window on the right as you look to the rear.

I'll need to keep the place ****** tidy as one of the cars will be in there on a frequent basis. I suppose it'll help me keep things in check. Unlike my previous Tardis of a workshop.

I'll be using this area for anything and everything. Cars, bicycles, woodwork, misc. home renovation work, grinding, welding (in time). I'm going to go timber or heavy ply bench tops and will use thick gal sheets where required to protect the surface.

As far as vices, grinders, etc. are concerned I'm hoping to use a combination of receiver hitches on the main bench and post mounts on concrete-filled wheels. I can't think of any other way to make that work. And that movable mount would need to be shorter than the bench in order to be stowed away. This is going to be tricky...

I have a lot of gear given the size of this space. And I want more, such as a drill press for example. I don't know if I'm being unrealistic though. And I certainly need to store large items such as my mitre saw, jackhammer, etc. Although some of that can go in the living room I suppose where I think I might have to store the garden equipment and camping gear...

I'm just wondering if you guys have any suggestions on how I might make best use of this space. Anything you could offer apart from "buy another house" would be greatly appreciated.

First two questions.

What does the rest of the house and lot look like? Do you have an attic or basement? What can you do with the rest of the lot? Can you add on to the garage or build a shed or another building for a shop or garage?

And what are ALL the functions you need to accommodate?

I find that multiuse spaces become difficult to use. The more I can separate functions, the better.

Storage especially, must be separate from spaces used for work.

And while you can make things movable to increase the usefulness of the space, it becomes a pain to move things around all the time.

Don't think of how many things you can fit in the space. Think rather, of how many things ou can keep OUT of the space, and either put elsewhere of do without.


Bill

 

[JimCC]

Cheers guys.

1/2 Cup, I'll definitely check out those threads. With the exception of the 12 Gauge Garage (which is how I found this forum in the first place), I'd not seen any of those builds. I do keep noticing though that every garage I see that fits my ideal is significantly larger than the box I've been landed with.

Bill, to give you a better idea of what I'm working with I've attached another picture. You'll see that there's very little room to go out. I can't go down as basements are not a feature of houses here except for those with wine to store and cash to burn. And the roof space isn't usable as an attic as it's up a story and a good ten to twelve feet from the floor.

A proper shed is also pretty much out of the question but I've been thinking I might build a lean-to of some sort (mindful of the termites) on one side of the house, in which I could store my garden tools and seldom used gear such as the heavy construction/demolition tools.

The carport you can see at the front of the house has some space for storage under the roof, but it's not exactly secure so I'll want to be careful.

Long term I'll be ripping down that carport and building a double on the other side and directly in front of my garage. That should allow me to free up some space inside, but it's a little way off. I'm pretty sure i could also blow out the side wall towards the right-hand boundary (as seen from the street) , but that would be tough to do while maintaining the character of the house.

So, I think I'll be putting my time as a mariner to use and coming up with all sorts of ideas for storing more than reasonably practicable into a space far too small to make sense.

Multi-use is, I'm afraid, unavoidable. I know exactly what you mean about the annoyance of moving things around. Inevitably whatever I need to access will be boxed in by a project or some item that I can't store elsewhere. It's going to annoy me, that's for sure. And yes you're right about trying to keep things out, but my options are limited at the moment.

The functions I'll be wanting to accommodate are things along the lines of: auto maintenance and mods, with a resto in my longer term future; bicycle maintenance; woodwork, with a view to doing some more advanced cabinetmaking in time to come (meaning more gear, such as a table saw...); sheet metal fab; soldering, brazing, grinding, welding (once I buy a welder), general tinkering, etc., etc. I did a trade as a plumber long ago and still keep my hand in, and I'll be doing pretty much all the renovation work on this house myself, so that will involve anything and everything you can imagine.

I may be asking too much but this is all I have to work with for the time being.

 

[1/2 Cup]

JimCC, I get the picture now, this is my garden shed I built a few years back. I am thinking of building a pigeon pair. It gets all the garden stuff out of the shed so one more would get rid of all the domestic type stuff out as well..

View media item 27578
Regards

 

[JimCC]

Cheers 1/2 Cup. Yeah, maybe I'll end up having to build a shed somewhere. Something small and suitably camouflaged along the back fence (opposite corner to the cubby house you can see there from above) may get across the line with my better half.

If you're wondering why there's only one picture in my previous post, I got curious about how easy it is to find images on Google. Holy hell! No matter what image I used to show my place from the street Google managed to find it and link to my address, purchase price, etc. No thank you.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Yep nothing is sacred these days.

Cheers

 

[bczygan]

Cheers guys.

1/2 Cup, I'll definitely check out those threads. With the exception of the 12 Gauge Garage (which is how I found this forum in the first place), I'd not seen any of those builds. I do keep noticing though that every garage I see that fits my ideal is significantly larger than the box I've been landed with.

Bill, to give you a better idea of what I'm working with I've attached another picture. You'll see that there's very little room to go out. I can't go down as basements are not a feature of houses here except for those with wine to store and cash to burn. And the roof space isn't usable as an attic as it's up a story and a good ten to twelve feet from the floor.

A proper shed is also pretty much out of the question but I've been thinking I might build a lean-to of some sort (mindful of the termites) on one side of the house, in which I could store my garden tools and seldom used gear such as the heavy construction/demolition tools.

The carport you can see at the front of the house has some space for storage under the roof, but it's not exactly secure so I'll want to be careful.

Long term I'll be ripping down that carport and building a double on the other side and directly in front of my garage. That should allow me to free up some space inside, but it's a little way off. I'm pretty sure i could also blow out the side wall towards the right-hand boundary (as seen from the street) , but that would be tough to do while maintaining the character of the house.

So, I think I'll be putting my time as a mariner to use and coming up with all sorts of ideas for storing more than reasonably practicable into a space far too small to make sense.

Multi-use is, I'm afraid, unavoidable. I know exactly what you mean about the annoyance of moving things around. Inevitably whatever I need to access will be boxed in by a project or some item that I can't store elsewhere. It's going to annoy me, that's for sure. And yes you're right about trying to keep things out, but my options are limited at the moment.

The functions I'll be wanting to accommodate are things along the lines of: auto maintenance and mods, with a resto in my longer term future; bicycle maintenance; woodwork, with a view to doing some more advanced cabinetmaking in time to come (meaning more gear, such as a table saw...); sheet metal fab; soldering, brazing, grinding, welding (once I buy a welder), general tinkering, etc., etc. I did a trade as a plumber long ago and still keep my hand in, and I'll be doing pretty much all the renovation work on this house myself, so that will involve anything and everything you can imagine.

I may be asking too much but this is all I have to work with for the time being.

If your house is #20 (The dark one), can you temporarily enclose that carport and use it for the car? And it looks like a small shed in the back yard. Can that be expanded in any way? A portable ladder could make attic space available for seasonal items. Any other rooms, like spare bedrooms that could store things? I would even go so far as using spare closets or even cabinets or furniture for storing things. I've even been thinking of using an old entertainment center, designed for the old CRT TV's for storage. They give them away now. Stick one in a room, in the corner, and fill it with your oils and coolants and brake fluid and windshield washer fluid.

And camouflage. Put some stuff on pallets in the yard and cover it with a tarp that lets some firewood show around the edges. Looks like a firewood pile. Or get a free above ground swimming pool with cover, and use it to store yard and garden equipment under. Think outside the box.

Bill

 

[JimCC]

Hi Bill,

I'm going to struggle to respond without sounding like I'm being negative, so apologies in advance: it's not deliberate!

Yes, it's the dark one (heaven only knows why the previous owners went with a dark roof in this climate).

As far as enclosing the carport goes, I want to be ripping it down within a year, so any work to it now would be uneconomical. The replacement double car port could probably be made to include a lot of concealed storage though, despite not being secure.

Seasonal isn't a term I'd apply in this location. It tends to be either hot and wet or less hot and dry. I find that the things I'd want to store out of the way but indoors would be camping gear and the like, which isn't feasible to put up there. And it really is a looong way up into a very small manhole. I think that apart from maybe some archives, I'll leave the roof space to the wiring and the geckos.

The house has four bedrooms and an office. The office and one of the bedrooms are adajcent to the garage, and in the short term I'll be able to stow a few things in there, but my wife will make sure it's temporary as every room is spoken for. As far as the fluids go, I was thinking of building a very shallow cabinet and fitting it near the garage door, vented to outside. That would store everything flammable and hopefully reduce the risk of fire inside in a vulnerable area. Obviously if I do erect a shed that's where that would go. Oh, and what you see in that photo is a cubby house, not a shed. I could potentially enclose the underside (currently a sandpit) and use it for storage. We'll see.

The pallets are a good idea, but I suspect the humidity here would make light work of anything outside, and with such a small yard the pool idea (and especially a dummy one used for storage) would never fly.

I think the bench and cupboards at one end, drop-down/fold-up benches on one wall, and very slim storage racks/shelving along the other wall, with overhead storage maximised, all in that one area, is about the best I can hope for for now. Once the proper carport goes up out the front I can start to steal back real estate on the floor.

 

[bczygan]

Hi Bill,

I'm going to struggle to respond without sounding like I'm being negative, so apologies in advance: it's not deliberate!

Yes, it's the dark one (heaven only knows why the previous owners went with a dark roof in this climate).

As far as enclosing the carport goes, I want to be ripping it down within a year, so any work to it now would be uneconomical. The replacement double car port could probably be made to include a lot of concealed storage though, despite not being secure.

Seasonal isn't a term I'd apply in this location. It tends to be either hot and wet or less hot and dry. I find that the things I'd want to store out of the way but indoors would be camping gear and the like, which isn't feasible to put up there. And it really is a looong way up into a very small manhole. I think that apart from maybe some archives, I'll leave the roof space to the wiring and the geckos.

The house has four bedrooms and an office. The office and one of the bedrooms are adajcent to the garage, and in the short term I'll be able to stow a few things in there, but my wife will make sure it's temporary as every room is spoken for. As far as the fluids go, I was thinking of building a very shallow cabinet and fitting it near the garage door, vented to outside. That would store everything flammable and hopefully reduce the risk of fire inside in a vulnerable area. Obviously if I do erect a shed that's where that would go. Oh, and what you see in that photo is a cubby house, not a shed. I could potentially enclose the underside (currently a sandpit) and use it for storage. We'll see.

The pallets are a good idea, but I suspect the humidity here would make light work of anything outside, and with such a small yard the pool idea (and especially a dummy one used for storage) would never fly.

I think the bench and cupboards at one end, drop-down/fold-up benches on one wall, and very slim storage racks/shelving along the other wall, with overhead storage maximised, all in that one area, is about the best I can hope for for now. Once the proper carport goes up out the front I can start to steal back real estate on the floor.

Sounds like you are thinking of every available nook and cranny. Good! That's what I hoped you would do. Good luck and show us what you do. We love photos.

Bill

 

[1/2 Cup]

Sounds like you are thinking of every available nook and cranny. Good! That's what I hoped you would do. Good luck and show us what you do. We love photos.

Bill

Have to agree Bill.

 

[rvieceli]

Jim take a look at this thread Workshop 88.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=202500

The space is about the same size but Eric(Mr 360) doesn't park in there.

If you can figure out someplace to store all the yard maintenance stuff outside the garage you''ll have a lot of extra space.

 

[JimCC]

Thanks rvieceli. Eric's done a great job with that small space. I envy his finds and also the winter weather and the justification for a wood stove. What I wouldn't give for proper winters...

 

[JimCC]

The more I think about the layout of this space the more I wonder about my current design.

Firstly, I'm questioning the viability of having a recess in the bench for a stool. I'd still use the back wall for storage, but maybe I'd be better off with full depth cupboards or even a shallow cabinet at the very least. And Grumblebum's kickplate storage drawer idea is too good to ignore. Will I miss the room for my knees?

Secondly, I'm wondering if I'd benefit from having a return on the right hand side of the bench. I always find that returns lead to junk accumulating in the far corner, and I don't think you gain anything in the way of storage underneath. But it is a neater way of linking the items and workspace on the two walls rather than having a void for the drawers to open into.

I'm now thinking that my grinders, drill press, etc. could possibly be mounted on that right side using separate dedicated platforms hung off the studs. That keeps the bench clear, leaves the floor space unaffected, and I'm guessing I could make them quite shallow.

And as much as I'd like to sheet the ceiling I think I'm going to simply rely on a fresh coat of paint and downlighting under my cupboards to illuminate the space. I need those exposed joists so I can sling my mitre saw, timber, ply, pipe, etc. somewhere handy and sheltered. What do you reckon about a couple of pulleys and a cleat to secure the saw upside down up there?

By the way, it's about 370mm from each wall to the rail for the garage door, and about 470mm to the door frame. If I aim for about 300-350mm depth for storage on the left wall I should be okay. And on the right wall (driver's side down here) I can put my drop down bench(es) and if I space the grinders, etc. properly the driver's door can open into a gap between them.

I guess I'm just thinking out loud now. Sorry.

 

[1/2 Cup]

I like your thinking out loud, what you have described sounds great.

Regards

 

[JimCC]

Here's the latest iteration of my musings. Excuse the scale.

French cleats to the right, maybe. There will be more shelving in the cupboards to the left, too.

If I set this up right, store elsewhere all the things that don't belong (here's hoping), and cull everything else, I think this should be enough for the long term. All I think I'd then do once I can reclaim all of this real estate would be to build a proper woodworking island bench and use the fold-away on the right as a dedicated welding/metalwork bench.

One query: how might I fill the gaps between the upper storage left and right and the taller cupboards to the rear? Is there an easy way you can think of to blend one into the other? If I go with sliding doors I could make an L-shaped door to fill the gap underneath. Or maybe just put the one hinged door on either side in that little nook. I've just knocked up another drawing to show the spot I'm talking about.

 

[dwysywd]

Don't forget, whatever you end on for size, add 20%. You will never regret the upgrade! LoL

 

[nadogail]

Good luck in your efforts, I have found my workshop to be a "work in progress" both my equipment and expectations are continually evolving.

 

[Terrick down Under]

G'day, its hard to work out sometimes, hey.
A buddy of mine uses a couple of supercheap winches and made some flat racks that lower down from the ceiling with the gear he doesn't use all the time. It goes up enough to clear his head when walking around. He also lined the bas with white colour bond so no sparks get up and hides what he has up there.
Also his side work bench folds up so that the passenger car door clears the bench because the kids have no idea.
Keep going.

 

[easternceiling]

To use plastering works for renovating workshop. it may have low cost and looking a pleasant view. Now a days most of them try to renovate or build there any of construction work with plastering work.