Sometimes there is no more space but in durally's pic my ideal would to be a sercice cart generally sits where someone dumped the items in the door, move the big box to right of window, laundry tub unser window and some modified shelves leading back to catchall at the entrance door.
The service cart would get the hi cycle things tended to be needed for inside and outside while reducing the walk on the inside. The air and electric and the air were good additions here and worthy of the effort. I can see this being a pretty easy place to work in.
The blue box is the shop/farm tools. A lot of people coming the door to grab them. Red box is next to window with metric tools as well as some specialty tools that are used less. Trash can usually sits next to toolbox but hasn't been moved back since the last party.
I would like to rearrange that wall someday though, but right now its lower on the list than some other priorities. Some of the guys have their own carts/boxes they use for around the shop. The bigger snap-on box in the later pictures is mine.
The air is nice to have, the electric is very nice because extension cords always disappear, especially in the winter. Cord reels do not. Adding a few more as needed also. Would like to add a nice roller passthrough for each set of reels. Really would like one for the DEF, but that has to be large enough to fit the entire nozzle, needs a switch for pump and still needs to be able to deal with our winters.
We have a doggy door between walk in and overhead door that gets used for running air hoses outside when needed.
I see some shops with 3 bays wide but I suspect the center quickly fills up. I like your setup with car hoist at the back. Its not a deal to drive thru the building, its better. The place isn't a quick lube but general maintenance shop. I remember you posting the barrel rack, I like these overalls.
Someone did a pretty good job with this design, this ranks up there with better ones I have seen here. There have been more expensive but not much better.
I see the side door location now from better pics... poster case should be worth a look to anyone building a shop. I got side door, I can but didn't use it all winter. I just don't need it but in summer its beautiful with door open. I didn't have man door there and don't regret it, one door open even in chilly days is still nice.
I look some closer, like where the red box sits. Is that a hot hi pressure washer sitting there?
I have my office bathroom up front corner, I have seen this done both ways. I got the coffee clutch there and my traffic flow is about as good as it gets. My guess that who designed the shop in pics above had done it before though.
Thanks for the compliments.
Too much space can be an issue, theres day we wish we had more but with no extra people working it would just fill up with more stuff, keeping it smaller keeps projects moving in and out.
A drive through semi bay would have been nice but its not bad without it. We couldn't do drive through because of where we built it, too close to other buildings. It was where we needed/wanted it though. Wanted it in the middle of the farm and thats where it worked out. Its 60x80 so theres enough room for a semi with one of our trailers to fit inside with hood open, even the sleeper semi and still have room behind it. A 53' van and longer semi do not fit as well though. Our trailers are 40-45'
The lift in the corner is nice because its out of the way. It usually has something on it though anyways. The only thing we did wrong was put it too close to loft. When we built the wall for office the lift ended up tight to it. Not a big deal though. Its a little too close to loft on the other side also. I usually back trucks onto it so I have more room to work in front of the truck, with some trucks they will hit the loft when positioned right on the lift. Not a huge deal, just turn them around and they are fine.
The side door is nice to pull small stuff in, or when front doors are blocked. It's nice if we can leave it open to work, but we usually have the doors closed. In Wisconsin it goes from needing the heater on to needing the A/C with nothing in between. The Nice days in between are always too windy/dusty to have the doors open.
Being a dairy, we park a lot of stuff inside daily during colder months. That is related to the one major thing I would change with this shop. More floor drains. We only did the one up front and left the back half of shop level for projects. Bad idea, wet vehicles on lift drain to right behind my red toolbox, stuff to the other side drains there as well. As you can see that is where long term projects and/or junk sits so its really annoying having a pool of water there. Floor heat helps keep things dry but cant keep up to that much water. I like the drain in front, but would put one running the length of the shop down the middle as well with everything sloped to it. We don't "layout" anything on the floor anyways. It was something we heard a lot of people think was important when they built their shops, most don't have the volume of snow covered vehicles inside that we do though. I use some portable dikes to channel the water when needed and squeegee a lot.
We actually designed it ourselves after looking at a lot of other shops. Saving a lot of pictures, and making a lot of notes. After a few years of ideas we built it. Aside from the drains the one other thing I'd do is just make the loft run the full length on the one side and then run a gantry crane between there and the opposite wall. Would need bi-fold doors for this to work but after working in shops with them I wish we had them built in. Portable ones work fine though too just not as convenient and they take up more space.
The oil rack was built and designed by our oil company. I told them what I wanted and how I wanted it, they made it all work and did a beautiful job. Works great, takes up very little space, no messes anymore and everyone is happy.
Heres a few more pictures, some very old, that show more of the layout. First one is aerial pic. Its our only crooked building and that was intentional to make it easier to back semis in.
These pictures are very old, from the first year we had it.
The spot where the saw, bench grinder, drill press and hose making equipment is located is going to have a steel rack there instead. I'm moving the hose making stuff upstairs. We make a lot of hoses but it doesn't need to be downstairs in the way. Bandsaw will stay where its at. Welding table we got cheap, too heavy to move so it stays parked where its at. Its out of the way, but near the rest of the metal working stuff.
Oil setup you mentioned. May add dispensers for the common stuff someday.
Waste oil and DEF reel along with waste oil burner that heats floor. Waste oil is pumped to tank from sink under spigots. DEF tank is near oil rack and pumps to reel.
Old shop was a converted corn crib.
