Home/Shop combination Advice/Ideas

[TWINCAM666]

I plan on building a home / shop combination place as soon as I find a good plot of land in the DFW area. But I would love some ideas from anyone here that has done this or have seen some......???

I am open to all ideas right now but heres my general thoughts. I want the Home to be at least 1200 sf. and shop around 2500 to 3000 sf....I am trying to do all cash with no loans/ mortgage and have no idea what this might cost???????

That's not set in stone but it's a starting point.....
and thought, ideas, pictures??????

I posted this in the wrong place first (Gallery) so if anyone can remove that???

 

[036.6turbo]

That's a tough question to anwser, so many factors involved. I have (2) garages at my home, a 22'x22' attached, where my wife parks her daily drivers. And then my "shop", behind the house, it is 26'x35', it is where we do our "hobbies?"

We are into cars, trucks, snowmobiles, harleys and dirt bikes. The shop is used for maintenance, modifications, and storage.

My buildings were in exsistance, when I bought the home. That limits a lot of what I can do. If I were starting from scratch, as you are, and knowing, what I know now, mine would look differently. But the changes I would make, are a result of how I use the space.

If I were you, start by identifing how the space will be used, then ask more questions, on forums like this one.

For instance, I paint my own cars. I do not have a spray booth. Nor do I feel I ever would, (unless I hit the lotto). But if I were to do it over, the ventalation options in my shop would be different.

I would also have a taller cieling, to allow for a bridge crane, my HVAC would be very different. I would do in floor heating.

This summer I plan to cut open the floor in my shop, and fabricate a recessed pit, to make my siccor lift top, fluch with the floor.

See waht I am saying? It depends on how you plan to use it, and the funds to have to spend.

Oh, and when you think you know how big the shop needs to be, take that figure, and double it! Then in (5) years, it will be too small!!!!

Good luck, have fun!

 

[zmotorsports]

If you have worked in a shop quite a bit prior then you more than likely already have a pretty good idea of how you need it arranged. When I built my first one behind my parents house while in high school I made many mistakes as I had not worked in a shop much prior. From that point on I worked in several and liked the way some owners did things and did not like others. This information came in handy when I built my current shop behind my house.

I would recommend that in addition to asking on this forum that you also go to some local 'professional' businesses and see what catches your eye as far as things that you like and don't like. Things like how they are arranged and how much room is needed between various pieces of equipment and such. A visual idea is always better than thinking about measurements in your head.

One thing I would definately recommend is if you are building it from scratch is to not attach it to your home. I know there are alot of very nice garages/shops on this forum that are attached to the home but that is more than likely due to lack of options as many were probably already attached when the owners bought the home.

We have a 24'x26' attached to the house for parking daily drivers, lawnmower, grille, bicycles etc. and then our 34'x34' "shop" is detached in the back yard. They are seperated so the wife doesn't have to listen to or feel the air compressor running or air tools when I am working and she is in the house.

I made this recommendation to a friend a few years ago and he attached his double wide/double deep shop onto the house because it was one less wall to construct and he could continue the roof line of the house and thought it would be cheaper in the long run. It may have been a little cheaper but doubtful. He informed me shortly after it was done that his wife is constantly complaining about the noise from the shop so he tries to work out there only when she is not home.

Another thing I did was ran the power completely seperate for the shop right from the power off the street (meter head). This way the electrical for the shop is in no way tied into the house. I did this for two reasons, first the wiring would not be overloaded from the meter head to the house panel in high demand situations and second, if welding (especially A/C) sometimes there can be feedback in the electrical wiring and it could interfere with television and computers in the house.

This is another thing my friend failed to listen to me on and his wife informs him of it when he is welding in the shop.

I am sure you will get a lot of good information from other members on the forum here but those are just a couple off the top of my head. Mike.

 

[TWINCAM666]

yea, I've worked in shops for years. I will maybe be adding an outside booth later, if not I'll build a stall to paint.......I will have a 2 post lift, maybe a frame rack and misc tools....3000sf shop/1200 to 1600 home will be plenty for now and probably all I can afford. So 4500 to 5000sf max.

I plan on using, surplus and recycled any way I can to save $$$$ and have some stuff stockpiled already.....

 

[Falcon67]

We actually considered this when we lived there. I would have built either a block wall building with a nice facade, or just a small house with a shop close off the back corner (what I'm about to do right now LOL). Same building is convenient, but You'll want a good firewall of some sort between the two spaces and be mindful of fumes, etc.

 

[rsanter]

a couple of things...
where do you live now? what does it cost you?

if you can buy the land then you have a couple of options.
one is to buy a single wide and live on your land to save rent and put money aside
tward your project.
the other option is to start with the garage/shop so you can start to store stuff and do work there and then add the house later
you can also buy several storage containers and use them as a sort of garage/storage

lastly, I would not be afraid of a morgage espically if you can just have it be a small one that is easy to pay

bob

 

[schwalby]

I am in the same boat as you. I hope to build something in the next couple of years and my girlfriend and I are doing what you are, trying to figure out what and where we want things. One thing I have been doing is talking with my friends a lot since they do the exact same things in tier garages that I will be doing in mine. Another thing we are planning on is building a 2 bed room above the garage to live in while we finish off the garage, again sounds the same as what you are doing. I am lucky in the fact that once our house is built we will be able to rent out the upstairs. There are a ton of people in my area that are more then will to live above garages.

I will be watching this thread closely.

If I were you, start by identifing how the space will be used, then ask more questions, on forums like this one.

For instance, I paint my own cars. I do not have a spray booth. Nor do I feel I ever would, (unless I hit the lotto). But if I were to do it over, the ventalation options in my shop would be different.

I would also have a taller cieling, to allow for a bridge crane, my HVAC would be very different. I would do in floor heating.

This summer I plan to cut open the floor in my shop, and fabricate a recessed pit, to make my siccor lift top, fluch with the floor.

Do you mind adding to your post about why you would make these changes?