How big is big enough?

[Warrensparadise]

Hello! I'm a couple plus year lurker from Northern California and am looking to build a new shop. I had a 30x50 plus 15x30 mezzanine at my previous house and since I have lived at my new location (3 years) have been using our horse barn for my shop.
The time is coming in the "semi" near future to use the horse barn for its intended namesake and I need to build a new shop.
I have been considering a 40x60 with a mezzanine over about 2/3rds of it.
I'm looking to maintain space for 4 classic cars, half a dozen full size vintage motorcycles a couple quads and a rzr. I will of course want space for tools and equipment I.e. Compressor, toolboxes, welders, lathes etc. does anyone have a setup something like this? I want to make sure I can lay out this space to encompass my needs.
Feedback would be greatly appreciated.


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[stonesg]

If you can (As I wish I could) separate "shop" and "garage".

In other words how about a dedicated storage garage for the vehicles that are not being worked on and a shop space for working.

Now this can still be all the same structure with a wall to delineate space. This will help with organization, cleaning and heating/cooling.

And as always.... go large.

 

[rsanter]

There is no such thing as to big if you are a member of thins board.
Go as big as you can, big as you can afford.

I agree with separate areas for work and storage if you can get away with it. You could always enclose the bottom of the mezzanine for parking and have the top open to the shop.

Even with a big shop, I have become a fan of having a couple shipping containers. It's nice to have a place for long term storage that is not in the shop

Bob

 

[Thirdyfivepickup]

figure out exactly how much space you need.... and double it.

Maybe triple it.

 

[tjdux]

I have always fancied and L or maybe or P shaped building... Although the line portion of the P would go at an angle to the box portion. Like a / at the bottom of a ....


/ but conncected.

The / would have 3 or 4 door bays for car storage and thr is the shop space. Obviously that would be crazy expensive but i feel would be eye catching and help break up a big chunky building.

When you say 2/3 of it is mezzanine is that going to be how you seperate shop from storage? How tall is the building planned to be? Do you have a forklift or tractor or other good means of moving work back and forth?

Could thr mezzanine be strong enough to store the cars? Is thag within your budget? If you have a good sized hillnto build the shop into you could make 2 story drive up. That would certainly be unique.

There is a program called sketchup that allows 3d design very similar to autoCAD but its free and easy to use. (Google some tutorials on youtube). A find a great way to see if/how something will fit or work is to build it in 3d on the computer and move through it and put in the tools and features. Its basically putting what you can see in your imagination down into somwthing with real scale and measurement to get a true feel of the space.

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[Warrensparadise]

I am familiar with sketchup, although my sketchup skills are not great. I do like the idea of potentially building it into a slope which I have an abundance of. I had thought about a freestanding building with 16' sidewalls, tall enough to have 8' bottom story and 7+ish feet upstairs. I had also thought about designing the mezzanine with a freight elevator to put seasonal toys like snowmobiles on the second level.
I very well may attempt some layout In sketchup. Thank you for the suggestion.


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[Strouty]

My dad built a 40 by 80, it is filled to the gills, I would say 50 by 100 would be nice, but not too much walking. It all depends on the size of the equipment and vehicles you want to work on. If all you ever do is what you described, it may be fine. If you buy a crew cab dually and a trailer it may not, if you end up with a large RV you may have an issue with the doors. My shop is 30 by 60 and only 12'6 high, I could never get everything you described inside with room to work, it would be a nightmare.

 

[tjdux]

I am familiar with sketchup, although my sketchup skills are not great. I do like the idea of potentially building it into a slope which I have an abundance of. I had thought about a freestanding building with 16' sidewalls, tall enough to have 8' bottom story and 7+ish feet upstairs. I had also thought about designing the mezzanine with a freight elevator to put seasonal toys like snowmobiles on the second level.
I very well may attempt some layout In sketchup. Thank you for the suggestion.


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8 ft is a little short for a lot of things but I guess you will have the bead room in the 1/3 thats not mezzanine. I do a lot f wood working and its nice to turn an 8ft 2x4 end over end occasionally.

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[930dreamer]

X2 on having finished vehicles storage away from the work area, it would be nice for finished cars/etc to have very little around the perimeter. 60x80?

 

[matt_i]

I'd offer that you have a pretty good gauge of what you have right now and what it will hold, and what you like and don't like about the horse-center.

Use that info to improve upon existing and move forward.

I echo the statements about having a "dry roof" to park cars out of the weather, which can be more cheaply done, and then a temp-controlled interior-finished space for your tools and equipment. I, personally would keep any stationary equipment on ground level/concrete floor. Use the mezz level for hangout space and storage of stuff.

 

[cvairwerks]

Time to play paper dolls for a little bit. Pick a scale, say 1/8"=1'. Now make a cut out of all the toys, cars, ect, but oversize them so that they are a box with a 3' space on every side...so a 8'x 19' car would now be 14'x 25'. The extra space is to give you some walking and moving room around everything. Now lay it out how you want to store them, taking into account how much moving is required if you park things in a deep arrangement. With that, you can start drawing a building perimeter around everything. As you develop the plan, it's easy to change things around for a better work layout or storage. Be sure to include cut outs for stationary tools, benches, cabinets and the like.

Once you have it like you think you want, create the drawings with the dimensions in Sketchup. Then, actually go out in the area you plan to build and stake out the building corners and use some of the big yellow tape and make the walls, staking the doors ect. Now wander around in there off and on for a couple of days and verify that it's what you really want. Make changes as necessary and once you are satisfied, then head for the architect or building vendor and get going.

 

[Warrensparadise]

Tons of great advice. I really appreciate the responses.


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