Feedback on Initial Plans, auto shop garage

[bambbrose]

First of all, thank you to everyone on this site for all of the great information. I've been a lurker for years and have used this place to dig up info on old tools, vises, etc. Always a pleasure!

Now on to my post. Its finally time to build "the car shop"

This shop will not be for woodworking and is primarily for mechanical work only.

I live on 5 acres and have space to build what I need here, so I'm not limited by space, but only by budget. We are paying cash so that is a major limiting factor. The goal for 2017 is to get a pad in, get it framed, sided, roof and doors. Trying to get just the shell together this year so we can park the cars indoors over the winter and I can have a place to start wrenching once again.

We just built a home and this is going next to the home as indicated in the site plan pic I have attached.




The plan:
-Detached garage 34' x 40'
-2x6 construction w/ engineered trusses
-Front faces west
-It is the primary garage for our home (i.e the wife has to use it too)
-This is the "auto" shop and where I'll keep the tools, compressor, and an automotive lift (on the right).
-The attic needs to be house storage/general storage, aka where all my wife's junk goes.


Some possible uses:
-General and heavy automotive rebuild
-Full auto restoration, including welding and paint would be awesome (on the right side).
-Work benches for metal working and tools related


My Questions:
-I may have a full size pickup, but its not lifted and I'm not into that kind of thing. Do you guys think I should increase the height of the right door? I'm trying to balance Aesthetics as well. It's at 8'

-What height of stem wall should I use, and is it cheaper to go higher here and save on the 2x6 wood, or should I stop at 12" and use the taller studs? I haven't been able to find a solid answer on this.

-Is it big enough for two cars deep? I have an "addiction" per my wife. I am a lover of all things automotive, and currently have a 72 K5 blazer, a 98 Acura Integra R, and a 1927 Ford Roadster project. Yes, varied taste I know. I would need to be able to keep 2 projects in the right side at any given time, yet still have sufficient space to work on them without pulling things in and out of the weather.

-Would you change the size/position of the doors relative to the front? My intent is to have the wife park all of the way to the left, my daily next to her, and then all my "projects" on the right including a lift.

-I'm still waiting on the truss design from the truss company, but what if anything would you do regarding the trusses, and keeping ceiling height high on the right side for a lift? As it stands, I should be able to get nearly 12' or so. I asked the truss guys to see what they can come up with to maximize height. One solution may be to put support columns in between the two doors along the length.

-Lastly, where would you put windows if any?


Any other pointers you have for things I should be thinking of now, lessons learned from your build, or ways to save money are appreciated!

Thanks guys

 

[matt_i]

Would be helpful to know your location. PLease place it in your profile.

The expense I see, at least if it was built here, would be the tie-in to the septic system. Seems like a pipe and a tee but it would be a significant approval process.

I would go with a higher roof pitch so you can have an attic storage truss. 6:12 would be minimum, really nice attics are possible with 10:12s. The red line you have drawn is going to drive costs significantly higher. Lower cost = simple, straight lines. You could try a hybrid of attic storage + scissor trusses to max height, but keep in mind max height is going to be at the center, virtually none will be out next to the sidewalls.

I think you should consider building it larger, I think its going to be jammed with vehicles the minute you finish with barely a place to park a workbench. Save money by eliminating the restroom - walk to the house and simplify the truss design.

 

[tjdux]

Bigger door may be useful if you ever invest in a small tractor. Even my dads very small mahindra will not fit through my 8ft door with the ROPS up

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[dave89iroc]

go larger if possible, and can you add an interior wall to wall off 1 bay? since you said it would be the wifes parking area as well.........

 

[sleek98]

You really will want to go 50 wide vs 40. That way you can flip the attic trusses. to go the length of the building. stop it short of the right bay then do scissor truss for the last bay to get the height. The extra 10 foot will get you 2 more parking spots or alot more working area for projects. With a couple small changes below it might not even cost that much more.

You could also drop the wall down 2 foot, it eliminates the need for a beam takes alot of exterior siding out. 8 foot doors 9 foot walls, 4:12 inner will give you a 13-14 foot peak which is plenty of room for a 2 post lift. It would give you a roughly 24 x 35 attic room upstairs. Move the stairs to the back left corner, it would be deep enough that your wife wouldn't hit it coming into the garage.

 

[Falcon67]

I have both a F150 Super Crew and a 1993 F350 DRW that is every millimeter of 20' long and 8' wide in the hips. Both fit through a regular 16x7 door opening. Only the antenna clips the door.

If you intend to have any sort of "clean room" area for working on things, 34' deep is going to get tight quick. 36 or 40.

My standard recommendation - grade stakes and 1000' of twine. Stake it out, stake out the car locations, lift, benches, doors, etc, etc, etc. Walk it, talk it - full size visual aid.

 

[bambbrose]

Would be helpful to know your location. PLease place it in your profile.

The expense I see, at least if it was built here, would be the tie-in to the septic system. Seems like a pipe and a tee but it would be a significant approval process.

I would go with a higher roof pitch so you can have an attic storage truss. 6:12 would be minimum, really nice attics are possible with 10:12s. The red line you have drawn is going to drive costs significantly higher. Lower cost = simple, straight lines. You could try a hybrid of attic storage + scissor trusses to max height, but keep in mind max height is going to be at the center, virtually none will be out next to the sidewalls.

I think you should consider building it larger, I think its going to be jammed with vehicles the minute you finish with barely a place to park a workbench. Save money by eliminating the restroom - walk to the house and simplify the truss design.

Added my general location. I can't go much higher for aesthetic reasons, my garage needs to be lower to prevent overpowering my home. This is why the slope was chosen. My septic is nearby and I have a backhoe so that is just time and materials for me. The county will not bother me on fees to connect since there are no living quarters, they go by the number of bedrooms for some reason.

Bigger door may be useful if you ever invest in a small tractor. Even my dads very small mahindra will not fit through my 8ft door with the ROPS up

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I do have a 30 hp tractor but the ROPS fold down. That was a concern early on and thank you for bringing it up.

You really will want to go 50 wide vs 40. That way you can flip the attic trusses. to go the length of the building. stop it short of the right bay then do scissor truss for the last bay to get the height. The extra 10 foot will get you 2 more parking spots or alot more working area for projects. With a couple small changes below it might not even cost that much more.

You could also drop the wall down 2 foot, it eliminates the need for a beam takes alot of exterior siding out. 8 foot doors 9 foot walls, 4:12 inner will give you a 13-14 foot peak which is plenty of room for a 2 post lift. It would give you a roughly 24 x 35 attic room upstairs. Move the stairs to the back left corner, it would be deep enough that your wife wouldn't hit it coming into the garage.

I hadn't thought of this. I originally wanted the truss orientation the way I have it so I can load up the south facing slope with solar panels, but I will rethink the value of this. Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'll draw a new layout.

 

[bambbrose]

I have both a F150 Super Crew and a 1993 F350 DRW that is every millimeter of 20' long and 8' wide in the hips. Both fit through a regular 16x7 door opening. Only the antenna clips the door.

If you intend to have any sort of "clean room" area for working on things, 34' deep is going to get tight quick. 36 or 40.

My standard recommendation - grade stakes and 1000' of twine. Stake it out, stake out the car locations, lift, benches, doors, etc, etc, etc. Walk it, talk it - full size visual aid.

I have it staked out but I need to do it again. Unfortunately we are parking where it will be on some gravel right now so I can't leave it staked up permanently.

go larger if possible, and can you add an interior wall to wall off 1 bay? since you said it would be the wifes parking area as well.........

I do like the idea of adding an interior wall to keep the shop separate from the garage, so to speak. I may plan on this. It could keep truss pricing down.



Thank you all for the feedback, its getting me thinking again with a fresh set of eyes.

 

[bambbrose]

I roughly redesigned in a home design software as a 36x48' with trusses oriented along the doors. This will significantly reduce the complexity of the truss layout.

I also put in:
-1/2 bath under the stairs
-Small room (shown as a kitchen for my wife's future commercial cooking/baking goals)
-Divided shop space

I'll be playing with it some more but I'm liking this layout. Thank you for the suggestions everyone

 

[xyster101]

I have a 24x48 shop designed to hold 4 cars. Let me tell you, once I put my workbench, shelves, and tools in there, I can fit 2 cars. I have a 1500 truck and it takes up 25% of the space. My garage door is 8' and the truck fits fine.

Suggestion: Go as big as you can. Your attic space will fill up fast to. Are you planning on the single door side being your work space? I like the idea of keeping things separate from the other daily side.
Might want to do a wall that follows the stairs up. This way if you are moving big things up to the attic, you can swing them out over the garage space from the steps.

 

[sleek98]

Looks good.

 

[larry_g]

I can't go much higher for aesthetic reasons, my garage needs to be lower to prevent overpowering my home. This is why the slope was chosen.

Where is it written that the garage cannot dwarf the house? I've read this so many times here and do not agree. The shop is where the money is made and should be as big as it needs. If you have a backhoe and a tractor then you should have a building that will accommodate them. My first shop was built along the idea of building hot rods, and it worked well for that. But as moved through life things changed and ag equipment came along and it would not fit in the shop. Nothing worse than working in the driveway in front of a heated shop cuz the rig won't fit inside.

My building will accommodate a backhoe and it is nice to get it in there for servicing. It also makes a nice work platform when servicing the lights or other high areas in the shop. Take a look at my build below and you can see how I worked a mezzanine into it for the wife's craft room, and my machine shop.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[matt_i]

Do you know what your foundation requirements are (frost depth, etc) for your area? The dirt + concrete work is generally not cheap. I'd recommend looking into a "frost protected shallow foundation" to avoid serious excavation and still get a good foundation.

While you are working on that you also have to put in your plumbing and any buried electrical (main service, low voltage stuff like Cat5-6).

 

[bambbrose]

Do you know what your foundation requirements are (frost depth, etc) for your area? The dirt + concrete work is generally not cheap. I'd recommend looking into a "frost protected shallow foundation" to avoid serious excavation and still get a good foundation.

While you are working on that you also have to put in your plumbing and any buried electrical (main service, low voltage stuff like Cat5-6).

Foundation requirements are not known, just whatever IRC 2012 is going by. I need to look it up.

I do need a permit here but it doesn't have to be engineered plans. The county will likely call me out on the foundation/footing detail.

I spoke with a few contractors here and many of them just to a monolithic slab with the thicker base, 20", on the perimiter, to save on costs. The frost depth here is typically 30", and all of my water lines are 36" or deeper.

I appreciate the feedback as I need to research this more.
Since I want a stem wall, I assume we are going to need two pours either way and a monolithic slab isn't possible, so maybe I pour the proper 36" foundation + 24" stem wall as one, then come back for the slab pour and a few thicker areas for the shop lift, etc.

 

[bambbrose]

Where is it written that the garage cannot dwarf the house? I've read this so many times here and do not agree. The shop is where the money is made and should be as big as it needs. If you have a backhoe and a tractor then you should have a building that will accommodate them. My first shop was built along the idea of building hot rods, and it worked well for that. But as moved through life things changed and ag equipment came along and it would not fit in the shop. Nothing worse than working in the driveway in front of a heated shop cuz the rig won't fit inside.

My building will accommodate a backhoe and it is nice to get it in there for servicing. It also makes a nice work platform when servicing the lights or other high areas in the shop. Take a look at my build below and you can see how I worked a mezzanine into it for the wife's craft room, and my machine shop.

lg
no neat sig line

I appreciate your thoughts. I do have a tractor and I agree, having it in for service is a must. It has a ROPS which folds down but who knows what I'll own in the future. I will keep this in mind.

Regarding the height of the garage, there is no code on this. It is my personal decision to keep the garage shorter than the home entirely for aesthetics. Our home, although 3800 sqft, is modest in appearance and feels much more like a cabin. It would be odd to have a massive shop next to a cabin.