Slowbuilder
Well-known member
I've been mostly lurking for some time, but now I need to tap into the wisdom (and opinions) of the GJ Gurus.
We recently moved into a home where there is room to (and no HOA to veto) build a shop. My objective here is primarily car repair and restoration, but there will be other projects (light woodworking, metal fabrication, etc.) included as well.
Already existing on the site is a 20x27 Tack Room/Garage/Man Cave, which sits in the corner of a 43x40 slab. Next to the current garage is a 23x20 canopy that was used to protect the hay supply while there were horses on the property. My initial plan was to keep these structures as-is (mostly), and build an "addition" onto the back of the garage, but going the full width of the slab (the 43' dimension), and about 25' deep. The garage has an interior height of 8' at the edges, with the center of the building at 8'4", so not alot of overhead room. The addition would be 14' tall inside to accommodate a lift at some point in the future. So the addition would be 25x43x14, the existing garage 27x20x8, for 1615 sq ft of shop space. I planned on opening up (as much as is structurally wise) the common wall between the two, giving me an ell shaped area inside, with a 20x23 covered area outside, and a 43x13 apron in the front. The existing garage is stick built, vinyl siding, asphalt shingles. It really doesn't match the house in any way.
But I started playing around with a SketchUp sketch of the structure, and got to thinking (a dangerous activity) that it might be more cost effective, and provide more usable space to remove the existing building, and build a 43x36 (1548) or 43x40 (1720) structure on the slab. Taking this approach would save the cost of the new slab, and free me up from any constraint (real or imagined) to match the existing structure, i.e., a metal building, rather than a shingled and sided stick built structure. Plus, I think a rectangular shape would provide more usable space than an ell, especially since I would need more large doors to provide access to the "inner" parts of the ell.
So which is better? A rectangular box, or an ell?
I've attached a couple of sketchup views of what the proposed ell shaped structure would look like. The existing structure is in light blue/grey, with the slab shown textured grey.
BTW, I'm in Arizona, so while A/C is a must, freeze/thaw cycles are not a concern.
We recently moved into a home where there is room to (and no HOA to veto) build a shop. My objective here is primarily car repair and restoration, but there will be other projects (light woodworking, metal fabrication, etc.) included as well.
Already existing on the site is a 20x27 Tack Room/Garage/Man Cave, which sits in the corner of a 43x40 slab. Next to the current garage is a 23x20 canopy that was used to protect the hay supply while there were horses on the property. My initial plan was to keep these structures as-is (mostly), and build an "addition" onto the back of the garage, but going the full width of the slab (the 43' dimension), and about 25' deep. The garage has an interior height of 8' at the edges, with the center of the building at 8'4", so not alot of overhead room. The addition would be 14' tall inside to accommodate a lift at some point in the future. So the addition would be 25x43x14, the existing garage 27x20x8, for 1615 sq ft of shop space. I planned on opening up (as much as is structurally wise) the common wall between the two, giving me an ell shaped area inside, with a 20x23 covered area outside, and a 43x13 apron in the front. The existing garage is stick built, vinyl siding, asphalt shingles. It really doesn't match the house in any way.
But I started playing around with a SketchUp sketch of the structure, and got to thinking (a dangerous activity) that it might be more cost effective, and provide more usable space to remove the existing building, and build a 43x36 (1548) or 43x40 (1720) structure on the slab. Taking this approach would save the cost of the new slab, and free me up from any constraint (real or imagined) to match the existing structure, i.e., a metal building, rather than a shingled and sided stick built structure. Plus, I think a rectangular shape would provide more usable space than an ell, especially since I would need more large doors to provide access to the "inner" parts of the ell.
So which is better? A rectangular box, or an ell?
I've attached a couple of sketchup views of what the proposed ell shaped structure would look like. The existing structure is in light blue/grey, with the slab shown textured grey.
BTW, I'm in Arizona, so while A/C is a must, freeze/thaw cycles are not a concern.
