New-ish here, new construction workshop and office advice requested

[Duckies]

Hey y'all, greetings from outside Charlotte, NC! I'm an amateur racer, middling wrench, decent enough fabricator, and professional engineer, with a dedicated race car (SCCA T3), an open-deck trailer that currently lives outside (not sure I'd change that if I put in a shop), and a kiddo who is almost certainly going to want to go karting in the next couple years (min age for the local track is 5, but he's definitely got the bug). We currently have 2 daily drivers, and my 2 fun cars (race car and street/mountains fun car). I'm looking for some advice on building a new workshop and office. I've staked out and cleared enough to build a 40x30 workshop, though my wife would prefer it stay closer to 30x30, and am looking to do the following (in no particular order):

• Have 2 doors for entry for about three bays, one leading to a 2-post lift, and the other leading to a 4-post tandem lift.
• 14' ceilings as I am tall and hate being hunched over when I'm working
• high lift doors so I don't accidentally crunch a hood (happened in my last shop... still have nightmares)
• have enough space behind the cars to put in cabinets, workbench, storage
• heat and cool the workshop year-round, so I'll need to insulate the walls, doors, etc
• place my office above the workshop as a second story with kitchenette, full bath, dedicated office room, living room.
• debating running air lines in the walls and putting access plates in for quick connectors
• equipment room in the shop for things like the hot water heater, air compressor, etc.
• coat the workshop floor in something that will actually stand up to being worked on. Five years ago that was Hellfire, what's the new hotness?

Budget for the build is ~100-150k. I'm debating going smaller (30x30) to save on cost, but my current 2-bay attached shop (4-post lift, floor to ceiling storage and workbench) got real small real quick, and it seems stupid to go through that again when I don't have to. What would y'all do in my position? What am I forgetting, here?

 

[35k0]

All I can say, I built a 30x44, 10' sidewalls, with attic space and I wish it was larger.
I also opted for a 18' wide door and I do like that over two smaller doors.
As the old timers always say, decide how big you want your garage, then build it bigger.

 

[mrbill55]

Having just finished (mostly) a 30x50 garage addition and whole house remodel (see link in sig) 2 hours south of you, with a similar amount of mental and physical thought patterns, we actually upsized from our original 30x30 to 30x40, then 30x50 after reviewing cost differences between all three. Sure, we squeezed 4 cars and the car trailer in to our old 27x27 garage, but that left my trailer and my daily driver outside. Given the weather recently (you got hit yesterday harder than we did, but we still saw pea sized hail), again, we chose to tighten our belts a little more, and expand the final garage size, and we are happy that we did. Depending on your driveway access, you might want to reconsider 2 garage doors, and stick with one central 20' garage door, which will allow easier access to the garage as a whole. Other than that, I think you have a good start to your specific wants and needs and look forward to watching your build.

Bill S.

 

[nadogail]

Welcome Aboard.

 

[Duckies]

I am unfortunately limited by physical space given the way my land lays, and the offset from a creek on property that feeds a protected lake. The shop needs to go between the house and septic tanks and the 50' buffer, which runs diagonally through our 3 acre plat. It would be much, much easier if the county (Lincoln) would let me put the shop closer to the street than the house structure, but apparently that's a big no-no?