AussieMatts Mancave project - The planning phase

[AussieMatt]

Hi All,

Have been gathering a huge amount of inspiration from the sensational Garages on the forums and thought I might get a few ideas and suggestions from you all on my upcoming 2012 project.

I have been planning in my mind a work space for some time and have decided 2012 will be the year to start making it a reality, so with that in mind over the next couple of days I will post pictures and info on my ideal set up (keeping in mind this is my first real garage - used to working out in the open and under carports) and invite your feedback so that I still have time to make necessary changes to the plans before commencing.

The Garage will be 30 foot wide by 40 foot deep as that is the maximum space I have available on my regular town sized block, there will be street frontage on the 30 foot side and the whole space will be predominately used to store and resto / mod my cars in, (have a few Old Holdens from the 50’s and 60’s) so all the space and functionality will focus on metal work and space to rebuild them and store parts etc.

Other considerations will be the house I have is 115 years old weatherboard cottage, the shed will need to fit in with it and other similar local architecture. So plans are to buiild a steel (carport like) skeletal structure and roof, stud it out externally and clad in weatherboard, insulated and fully line it, it will have 5 inch Concrete floors - Coverings undecided but like the look of the Epoxy Flake floors). The local township and all my neighbours have similar styled Houses so have to try and keep them at least a little happy (small township of less than 750 people)

Also wondering if anyone can suggest a good garage design program (free preferable) to download to use so I can make up better plans than my hand drawn ones to show you all my thoughts so far?......................

Many thanks
M@

 

[joe14580]

Google SketchUp

 

[HOTFR8]

We will need photos Matt

 

[Drew_flux]

SketchUp is a nice program once you get the hang of it.

 

[RobSmith]

floorplanner.com I used this once..not too bad doesn't have machinery symbols but I just adjusted other appliance dimensions to suit. I'm using another one at work right now (Work has some serious spam and virus filters and this one gets through) but I can't remember what it is...I'll send you the address when I go back to work on Friday.

 

[BevoZ06]

I used the free Grizzly Workshop Planner to lay out my floor plan, but it is not usable for laying out electrical or plumbing, etc.

I used Grizzly's machinery equipment symbols, but re-sized them to reflect the actual sizes of my own cabinets and equipment. For instance, I resized and relabeled the Grizzly drill press so it became my shotshell reloader machine. For cabinets, I just used their rectangles and resized or rotated them as necessary. Grizzly does have door and window symbols also.