Greetings from the corn belt

[monumentmaker]

Hi all, I'm starting the process of building a new shop for my business and some personal use and I thought I could pick up some helpful tips here since I don't have a clue where to start. As my name says I build monuments for a living and unfortunately I do not own the building my business is located in. Sometime in the next year or so we'll have to move. I'm looking for a permanent spot so I don't have to move all of our material and equipment ever again.

Anyway, I hope by lurking around here I can learn a lot and know exactly what I want when the time comes.


In my spare time I like old cars and old tractors. I also do a bit of farming on the side.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

 

[wrnchtwstr]

Hello from OK. Welcome aboard. You are at the right spot for ideas for that shop. Keep us up to date on your project. Oh, I'm a car guy too.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Welcome to the GJ, monumentmaker as always enjoy.

Have a great Christmas as well...

 

[drivesitfar]

MM: welcome to the forum. while you are lurking feel free to make posts asking questions to things you can't find in searching and also share some of that knowledge you have with others on the threads you like to visit.

good luck with your new projects.

 

[rburke65]

Welcome from Ohio! I suppose a starting point might be, how many square feet is the shop now and is that sufficient..... Need bigger? Do you need to rearrange the layout nor are you happy with it the way it is now? Form follows function, so lay it out how you would like to see it.... going to need a budget and the at least double or triple it. What type of construction....pole, stick, concrete, CMU, or? Utilities? Lots to think about. Good luck.

 

[monumentmaker]

Welcome from Ohio! I suppose a starting point might be, how many square feet is the shop now and is that sufficient..... Need bigger? Do you need to rearrange the layout nor are you happy with it the way it is now? Form follows function, so lay it out how you would like to see it.... going to need a budget and the at least double or triple it. What type of construction....pole, stick, concrete, CMU, or? Utilities? Lots to think about. Good luck.

Thanks for the thoughts. There is definitely a lot ot think about. Right now I'm leaning towards stick, but that's not set in stone. Our current area would technically be around 200 sq ft bigger then what I'm looking to build. However That square footage is almost unusable for our business other then a big junk collector. Our shop is also painfully laid out with big gaps between our prep area and work area. Then we have to move the granite back through the prep area to the cleaning area. Previous ownership just didn't have a clue when it came to setting up a shop.

So with all that said, I can certainly compact things and make them much more efficient which is a big goal with the new place.

The lot we would be building on already has all utilities in place and ready to hook up so that's a big plus.

The idea of needing triple my current budget scares the **** out of me. lol I'm really hoping to get it done for around 50k. Not sure if that's possible. I can go more if need be.

Edit: Thanks everyone else for the welcome. I'll try and post what knowledge I do have when it's applicable. We do have a 40x80 shop at our farm which has served us well for decades. Unfortunately we've out grown it a bit as the equipment has grown. Still it will last us a while longer.