Big garage in my future

[Mr_Snips]

Okay in the next several months i will be moving back to indiana (currently active duty in the Marines) and buying a good little swath of land. I want to find something between 100-150 acres. I will be building a house on it as well as a nice work shop and studio for my photography business.

My plans so far are 50x100 (16-18 tall) structure. It will house some basic machining equipment (think cnc lathe and cnc 5 axis mill) as well as the more common things like drill press and all the pneumatic tools.

I am very much in the planning phase right now but have been thinking something along the lines of about 50x60 being my shop area with a dividing wall in the center with the other 50x40 being my studio area.

I've been doing research on here and talking to a representative from anthem steel about this project and i'm trying to narrow down on more of what i want from the building itself, foundation, electrical needs, and plumbing needs. So i'l start off here with what i have gathered so far then you can all laugh at me and tell me whats right and wrong

BUILDING:
50x100 with steel siding with a divider at the 60ft mark with sound deadening properties to seperate the shop and studio. I will also have several "offices" inside as well as facilities.
FOUNDATION:
I really have nothing here. I'm much more of a motor and mechanical guy. What should i ask for or demand for the area in southern indiana (i realize a surveyor and ground survey will yield more accurate results).
ELECTRICAL:
I will need 3 phase 440v most likely but not real sure what goes into it other than it is easier to get when i build it than put in later. Any special considerations on this end? Most of the photography stuff doesnt use much power and isnt super high load stuff.
PLUMBING:
I want a full facilities out there. Nothing less than a bathroom on each side with a shower on both sides. I assume that is more straight forward but anything special i should take into consideration or ask/demand for?

If anyone has any helpful comments, concerns, or especially advice i'm all ears. I'll post up my initial terrible sketches of alittle what i'm thinking of when i get some time.

 

[justanengineer]

Sorry, but I just gotta ask.....get out bc you won the lottery? Ex-marine millionaire? If so, oh wontcha be my neighbor?

 

[Mr_Snips]

Sorry, but I just gotta ask.....get out bc you won the lottery? Ex-marine millionaire? If so, oh wontcha be my neighbor?

No lottery...some bad luck that turns out to be worth a fair share of money and some wise investing. This wont be a money is no concern type build but i also wont settle.

 

[HotRodMan]

I was a photographer for 20 years back when we used film. I have also built two garages. One of the best things I did in the planning stage was this.

1. Get some stakes and string and get on the site and lay out all your walls so that you can walk around it and get a sense of where ever thing is. Do this over several days or a week changing the strings as you imagine what you are going to use the area for.

2. Make a drawing of all the structures to scale including the size of the property the buildings will be sitting on. To start you can use the scale of 1/4 inch equal 1 foot. All you need is a right triangle and a pencil and a ruler or yard stick. You can use a big piece of cardboard for the drawing board. Make front, back, side and top views of the buildings. After you study the drawings you may see some things you want to change, then go out and move your strings around to see how you like it.

3. Build a scale model of the buildings, driveway, distance apart from each other, the whole thing, with cardboard again using the scale of 1/4 inch equal one foot. You can make it bigger using the scale of 1/2 inch equal one foot if you want to. Again you experiment moving things around until you get what looks good to you. You will have a miniature set up of what you are planning. Get several people to look at it and consider their feed back. All of this pre planning cost you very little and will save you tons of headaches later on.

4. After you have done all this planning you are ready to start construction. Make a material list and shop around. I saved $300 just by shopping around. Once you get a price for materials, add several thousand dollars and you have a good idea of what it will cost for materials only to build it. Even if you hire someone else to do it, this gives you an idea of what you are being charged for labor.

 

[LutzTD]

thanx so much for your service, and keep us posted on your progress. Planning is everything, an open mind and thought of all the realistic end uses will save you a lot of trouble later. you want to get a good plan to locate your doors and such where they are the most efficient. With a full span steel building its not quite so important, but I always believed in partitions that are carefully planned, this will give you a lot more walls for equipment and such and you can keep the dirty away from the clean

for power I brought in single phase 220 and have a 220 3ph rotary converter and a 220 440 step up transformer. I made the shop single phase because the box is so much cheaper, I also didnt like the idea of running 3ph all through the shop. my machines are clustered to take advantage of one wire run and my mobile phase converter transformer cart. But I only run one machine at a time. The other reaon is Im not real familiar with a 3ph main so I can still add circuits myself with the single phase

also to bring in 3ph was $8000, single phase was about $900

 

[pmiranda]

If you're handy with Sketchup, Visio, or a normal CAD program like Draftsight you can draw up a bunch of plans and see what's working. Put your cars and machinery in there and see if you have room to work around them. Don't forget storage and stairs to easily access all that extra vertical space you'll have.

I wonder if 2 full baths is overkill for a shop, unless you're wanting the flexibility to make it living space or rent out those offices. If you are planning that, beware you might have to follow commercial building code throughout to get insurance.
To save some money you could rough-in the plumbing in the slab for the one you're less likely to use and finish it off later. You'll want some budget left to buy toys to put in that shop.

I probably wouldn't bother with 3 phase unless you had some big machinery that really needed all that power. If it's just you, you probably won't run more than a couple tools at one time. Are you planning on building a fleet of electric cars?

Actually, forget all your hobbies and build an indoor electric go-kart track. Then I will visit you when we go the 500 next year

 

[Mr_Snips]

Two full baths is mainly so that If someone comes in for photos they don't have to use the shop bath and I don't have to crossover to the clean side to use the studio side.

Most of what I'll be using it for is race bikes. Nothing insane but definitely time and space intensive. I've been racing my entire life and I've gotten by with smaller setups but its certainly not ideal. I also want to start prepping a bike for road racing as well.

Someday I also want to build my own off road truck for lack of a better term. I've got plenty of experience with welding and vehicle design but never had the resources.

This area I want to be something that will last a long time and never leave me wanting more.

 

[pmiranda]

Awesome. Do let me know if you build that go-kart track, though

 

[Mr_Snips]

Haha. Yeah no go for the kart track. That'd be super pricey. However I will have paths and such for dirt biking on my property.

My biggest urge to overcome is to refrain from fortifying my property with c wire and fighting positions

 

[wedge40]

Southern Indiana?? I'd also check out DC metals and Graber Post and Beam for estimates.
For that large and comlex of build it would be advantagous to get a CAD package to lay things out. I'm not elctrical expert, but pulling in 440 3phase is something you'll want to consider when buy the plot of land as well. Not that sounther Indiana gets that cold, but what about heat? two separate systems?
Hope you got a good camera cause we're all gonna want to watch the progress.

Wedge

 

[Mr_Snips]

Oh yeah. It will be well documented. Ill get some pictures when the time comes. Most likely I'm going to need it to be zoned commercial. Two business ventures on residential property may raise some red flags

 

[wedge40]

Where is southern Indiana? I know of a few counties you might not even need permits.


Wedge

 

[Steve from Socal]

You will likely have to be in commercial/industrial area to get 480 three phase, you will also pay demand on the power.

50X100 may sound BIG on paper but, will get smaller and smaller as you chop it up, I would think about adding some extra space for growth. I have 35K sq ft and it is filling up much faster than I expected.

I would also think about a bridge crane while you are building, lots of used cranes in the upper Mid-west.

Steve

 

[Mr_Snips]

I've thought about going bigger but once I have the land ill do more. Right now I'm getting the concept figured out of exactly what I want and need. Tonight ill post some initial sketches of plans and ideas.

 

[Big Rick]

In floor heat. Insulate,Insulate,Insulate and floor drains

 

[Mr_Snips]

Yeah I want it insulated. Spend a little up front and save a ton in the long run. I'm also interested in solar but idk how feasible it is there

 

[LutzTD]

Yeah I want it insulated. Spend a little up front and save a ton in the long run. I'm also interested in solar but idk how feasible it is there

dont know for sure if your up on the platau in Indiana, but I did a college ME thermal project on a solar pool heater in Cincinnati. The number of sunny days makes it untenable, as a power source. With a chunk of land wind would likely be a much better option.

If you are stuck on solar though, they now make flexible panels meant to go between the ridges in a standing seam metal roof. Had those been available a few years ago I would have done my roof different to fit them.