Above 1200 Sq/FT Shop Layout / Floor Plan Input

[Doubled33]

I am building a repair shop from the ground up and looking for some input on the attached layout.

My lot is about 180' wide by 190' deep. As of now I only have only front access to the building. I could increase the depth of the building and make it shorter and have a front and back entrance to the shop with front and back bays. My goal is to have 8 bays. I need the 6 car storage at a minimum.

My Primary vehicle will be long and wide cars. (Think Land Yachts and not Ford Escorts).

I do not want to be wider than 60' due to cost of a free span structure. Right now i am at 50'

My bays are about 15' wide, not every bay will have a lift, some will have a 4 post, some a 2 post, and one with an alignment set up.

I need to widen my doors to 12' wide and thinking 12' tall.

I want 16' ceilings at the eve, but wondering if this will be a little high and should go for 14'. Not sure on Bar joist or pitched trusses yet, so watching the layout above the bays is something I will have to do if I go with 14'.

I am not a fan of the built in tool / wash areas, and may ask for those or most of those to be deleted.

I need an equipment area for the typical and non typical shop tools- Battery testers, tire machine, Road Force balancer, Oil Containment, small lathe, milling machine, pullers, brake lathe, welding machine, etc..

Parts will be kept on hand, but I may have too much room. Not real sure on this one. Think aftermarket exhaust, timing belts, suspension parts, starters, alternators, AC Compressors, carb kits, gaskets, oil filters, oil in bottles, etc.. Probably parts on hand for three or four different vehicle brands.

Thoughts on one more bathroom with a urinal/toilet/decon shower?


I worked in a few shops years ago that were all different layouts so I have some ideas of what I did not like.
Shop A- was a center drive in aisle with lifts angled on the left and right sides. This was the most congested cluster I ever worked at.
Shop B- was 100' by 35' with 6 repair bays and one "bay" on each end of the shop one for an office the other for tools. This shop felt small.
Shop C- 100' x 60' but had a big office and a storage area. 3 bays in front and 5 bays in back with a common center area between front and back. Not bad but tight when all bays were full.

 

[Lou's Garage]

What an amazing layout! It's very customer facing, technician oriented, complete and functional. You've obviously put a lot of time into the design. It does look expensive to build, though.

I do see something else to think about regarding the overall size: you have a 146' building on a lot that's 180' wide. I don't know your local zoning but by the time you deduct for setback on the equipment room side, you may not have enough space to easily make the turn into the storage bays, especially with "land yachts."

Your planning on the bay sizes was solid. I determined a long time ago that you need (minimum) 12' x 24' to easily work on a car. Your 15' x 23' along with the walking space in front should suffice unless you are working on a lot of twenty foot long barges, then you might want more depth.

Review your lift choices carefully. You didn't mention how many technicians, if you are going to be working yourself, or what type of repairs you'll be doing. Those factors will help you determine exactly how many and what type lifts you will need. It seems to me that the equipment room is very large.

I would enlarge the doors. I think 12' x 12' is a good size. It is wide enough for easy entrance if you aren't perfectly straight or backing in with a trailer or flatbed in the dark or rain. It is tall enough to accept lifted pickups or even medium duty trucks.

In my personal building, I have 15' walls so I can have a 12' x 14' door for my motorhome so 16' doesn't seem like overkill to me. It would also allow for a mezzanine if you require more space at a later date.

I don't think your parts room is oversize but I wouldn't worry about trimming it down a bit if needed. Oil, coolant, and fluids in general require a lot of space to store and keep organized. Exhaust requires a lot of space, usually wall space to keep it hanging out of the way.

I would definitely leave some of the wash areas. I tended to wash my hands a lot when working but that was before gloves were a standard. As far as built in tool cabinets, there is no reason for them unless you are supplying the tools.

Customers should have their own bathroom. The second one you show on your floorplan should be enough for 4 or 5 people. If you anticipate more, then think about a larger/second bathroom. Accidents happen and when they do a shower is a great thing to have but not necessary. Do you have a bathroom plan for female employees?

I hope that helps. Like you, I have worked in or around many different shops and assisted with design/layout of other shops and parts departments. Your floorplan will make for a lovely and functional shop. You might want to take another look at the waiting room depending on how many customers you think will be waiting for their cars at any given time.

Lou Manglass

 

[Doubled33]

What an amazing layout! It's very customer facing, technician oriented, complete and functional. You've obviously put a lot of time into the design. It does look expensive to build, though.

I do see something else to think about regarding the overall size: you have a 146' building on a lot that's 180' wide. I don't know your local zoning but by the time you deduct for setback on the equipment room side, you may not have enough space to easily make the turn into the storage bays, especially with "land yachts."

Your planning on the bay sizes was solid. I determined a long time ago that you need (minimum) 12' x 24' to easily work on a car. Your 15' x 23' along with the walking space in front should suffice unless you are working on a lot of twenty foot long barges, then you might want more depth.

Review your lift choices carefully. You didn't mention how many technicians, if you are going to be working yourself, or what type of repairs you'll be doing. Those factors will help you determine exactly how many and what type lifts you will need. It seems to me that the equipment room is very large.

I would enlarge the doors. I think 12' x 12' is a good size. It is wide enough for easy entrance if you aren't perfectly straight or backing in with a trailer or flatbed in the dark or rain. It is tall enough to accept lifted pickups or even medium duty trucks.

In my personal building, I have 15' walls so I can have a 12' x 14' door for my motorhome so 16' doesn't seem like overkill to me. It would also allow for a mezzanine if you require more space at a later date.

I don't think your parts room is oversize but I wouldn't worry about trimming it down a bit if needed. Oil, coolant, and fluids in general require a lot of space to store and keep organized. Exhaust requires a lot of space, usually wall space to keep it hanging out of the way.

I would definitely leave some of the wash areas. I tended to wash my hands a lot when working but that was before gloves were a standard. As far as built in tool cabinets, there is no reason for them unless you are supplying the tools.

Customers should have their own bathroom. The second one you show on your floorplan should be enough for 4 or 5 people. If you anticipate more, then think about a larger/second bathroom. Accidents happen and when they do a shower is a great thing to have but not necessary. Do you have a bathroom plan for female employees?

I hope that helps. Like you, I have worked in or around many different shops and assisted with design/layout of other shops and parts departments. Your floorplan will make for a lovely and functional shop. You might want to take another look at the waiting room depending on how many customers you think will be waiting for their cars at any given time.

Lou Manglass

Thanks for the detailed response.

A few points of clarification.

My set backs allow for the size.

Me plus one to start on employees. Hopefully max out at me plus 3. Me plus 2 is probably ideal.

Equipment room is large as I am not doing typical repairs. A bit of a specialty niche and will have some not to typical equipment. But I will look into the room layout some more. Thanks for the comment.

I was thinking the taller doors as well with a rollback dropping something off and not hitting the header. Trying to save the “pushing” the cars in as much as possible.

I am not supplying tools so good to hear on the built in’s.

I will ask the Arch on the female employee bathroom. We do have one ADA bathroom.

My waiting room is geared toward dropping off and waiting for a ride. I will have vehicles that are longer stays not the typical quick turn around time with waiting people. But I do want to re look at that and the office space. I think there is a better layout.

 

[AGuinn]

It looks like a lot of thought has been put into things so far, however I have some observations based on several decades in automotive service.

From a customer's perspective/experience, I don't see a reception area or service desk coming in. I'm welcomed by a bathroom. The office is to the side and walled off from the customer area - for a customer, it's not intuitive. Maybe move the entrance to the left and move the waiting area there. Is the coffee area off the waiting area intended for customers or technicians? I would want separate areas for my techs as much as possible - keeps the customer space cleaner and less disruptive. Maybe a small 'bar' area for my customers with a Keurig and a mini-fridge. Depends on if you plan on doing more routine maintenance work or more custom/resto type work.

From the business/office side, I see no pathway from the office to the shop area without walking through the waiting area, outside, and then back into the shop through a bay door. Inconvenient for employees and disruptive for waiting customers. Who is writing work orders and assigning jobs? That person needs a straight path between their workstation and the shop. Who is ordering parts and where are they being received? Outside of dealerships, I have never seen that much parts storage at *any* shop. Outside of consumables like brake cleaner, coolant, and lubricants, usually it's 10-12 SKU's of common oil filters, air filters, and maybe pads/rotors for shops doing a lot of fleet service. Shops that specialize in just one make (usually import) will stock more like timing kits, tune up parts, belts/hoses, and some gaskets, but their parts room is more like a small closet. If you plan to stock larger, oddly shaped parts - i.e. exhaust parts, maybe a mezzanine level?

I'd would highly advocate for more space between the lifts and tool wall. The measurements show just 4' from the lifts and the wall, with what looks to be 2' of depth for storage/boxes and a 2' walking aisle. An Epiq box is 30" deep, double that with the drawers fully opened. HF boxes are 22" and Icons are 25". In my experience, I would want a clear 5' aisle minimum - 6' would be better. It looks like ~3' between posts in the middle bays - I would want them further apart to roll equipment through. Some longer vehicles - i.e. work trucks can hang a foot or more off the front of a 4-post lift for the rear axle to fit. I was service writer at a shop for ~18yrs and we had 33' from the tool wall to the roll up doors and functionally, I'm not sure I would want to go much less than that. If I could've kept carts to a minimum and everything *very* tidy, 30' may have been livable. You mentioned alignments - the newer machines (alignment and ADAS) need more bay depth for the targets/sensors than the old units. I would check with the manufacturers and see how much space is needed.

If you must have interior storage for 6 vehicles, might add 2 4-post lifts so you could stack cars and shrink the storage footprint.

 

[Doubled33]

It looks like a lot of thought has been put into things so far, however I have some observations based on several decades in automotive service.

From a customer's perspective/experience, I don't see a reception area or service desk coming in. I'm welcomed by a bathroom. The office is to the side and walled off from the customer area - for a customer, it's not intuitive. Maybe move the entrance to the left and move the waiting area there. Is the coffee area off the waiting area intended for customers or technicians? I would want separate areas for my techs as much as possible - keeps the customer space cleaner and less disruptive. Maybe a small 'bar' area for my customers with a Keurig and a mini-fridge. Depends on if you plan on doing more routine maintenance work or more custom/resto type work.

From the business/office side, I see no pathway from the office to the shop area without walking through the waiting area, outside, and then back into the shop through a bay door. Inconvenient for employees and disruptive for waiting customers. Who is writing work orders and assigning jobs? That person needs a straight path between their workstation and the shop. Who is ordering parts and where are they being received? Outside of dealerships, I have never seen that much parts storage at *any* shop. Outside of consumables like brake cleaner, coolant, and lubricants, usually it's 10-12 SKU's of common oil filters, air filters, and maybe pads/rotors for shops doing a lot of fleet service. Shops that specialize in just one make (usually import) will stock more like timing kits, tune up parts, belts/hoses, and some gaskets, but their parts room is more like a small closet. If you plan to stock larger, oddly shaped parts - i.e. exhaust parts, maybe a mezzanine level?

I'd would highly advocate for more space between the lifts and tool wall. The measurements show just 4' from the lifts and the wall, with what looks to be 2' of depth for storage/boxes and a 2' walking aisle. An Epiq box is 30" deep, double that with the drawers fully opened. HF boxes are 22" and Icons are 25". In my experience, I would want a clear 5' aisle minimum - 6' would be better. It looks like ~3' between posts in the middle bays - I would want them further apart to roll equipment through. Some longer vehicles - i.e. work trucks can hang a foot or more off the front of a 4-post lift for the rear axle to fit. I was service writer at a shop for ~18yrs and we had 33' from the tool wall to the roll up doors and functionally, I'm not sure I would want to go much less than that. If I could've kept carts to a minimum and everything *very* tidy, 30' may have been livable. You mentioned alignments - the newer machines (alignment and ADAS) need more bay depth for the targets/sensors than the old units. I would check with the manufacturers and see how much space is needed.

If you must have interior storage for 6 vehicles, might add 2 4-post lifts so you could stack cars and shrink the storage footprint.

Much appreciated. Very good points.

 

[larry_g]

I don't know what sized stuff you expect to work on in the equipment room but it looks to me that you may want to review the door sizes/access points to make sure that you can easily get stuff in and out of the area without disturbing others. Do you need a few pull points embedded in the floor to work from?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Doubled33]

I don't know what sized stuff you expect to work on in the equipment room but it looks to me that you may want to review the door sizes/access points to make sure that you can easily get stuff in and out of the area without disturbing others. Do you need a few pull points embedded in the floor to work from?

lg
no neat sig line

Good point.

Thank you