Ultimate in space management?

[Roothawg]

I am pondering one more move before we retire. I have about 9 years left and there are some things happening in my hood that I don't approve of, so we are pondering a move.

With that said, I would be leaving a 40x50x12 shop with 3 doors along the non gabled side. Actually, 38 of the 50 foot sidewall opens.

My question is this: I am wondering what would be the most efficent use of floor space when taking into consideration door placement, depth of garage etc.
I made this shop 40' deep because I could double stack my hot rods.

Not sure having all the doors on one side was a good idea.
I was wondering if I would be better to build say a 30'x80' with a single door for each bay, say a 12x12 door instead of a 16x8. Keep in mind I build hot rods and vintage travel trailers, so being able to not have jockey cars and trailers around is a plus.
Or would a 40x60 be more usable?

 

[jloehlein]

How many projects do you work on at once? I debated the same question a few years ago when I was designing my shop. I tend to work on ~2 projects at once and needed some additional parking space, as well. Most of my cars are pretty small (Miata, Porsche, etc). I also didn't want to have to shuffle things around to get in and out.

I ended up with a 32x80 metal building. Each "bay" of the building is 20' wide. One bay is a 3-car garage with 3 doors on the 32' side. The next 20' bay is my wood shop with storage above. And the last two bays are workshop (32'x40' total) with doors on the 40' side. I have a full height interior wall separating the workshop from everything else, so I only need to heat and cool half of it.

It's worked well for me, and in a pinch, I can cram a bunch of small cars into the space and still be able to work on them.

If you stick build your shop, you could get better door spacing, as well. I was limited because of the 20' bays. If I wasn't, I'd probably have 3 doors and a 50' wide workshop, which would comfortably fit the lift and 2 additional cars side by side.

 

[matt_i]

I think a 30x80 would be nice if you have the large property that can handle the "wide front" and potential large driveway area. The cost of all the doors (& openers?) would add up, you could install them yourself, its not too hard. The doors also could pose an insulation conundrum if the shop is to be heated and cooled, there are insulated doors but keeping them air-sealed is tough.

I think the 40x60 would be more economical on materials overall and be more of a general purpose building for setting up stationary tools and equipment if one didn't have a specific need for lots of rolling-stock in mind.

 

[Roothawg]

How many projects? That's kinda funny. I have about 4 right now, but it surges sometimes to 6. Trying to scale that back.

I have a 40x50 now.


15x25 of one end is a paint booth, the remaining 15 feet is my welding shop. Above that is my mezzanine (sp?). It has an office and storage.

The rest is open bay with a 2 post lift towards the back wall, opposite the door.

I am thinking of using a ribbon style door in lieu of the standard roll up doors. That way the openers could be mounted to the wall instead of hanging out in the way.

 

[jloehlein]

With that many projects, I assume some of them are longer-term, not in and out on a weekend. In that case, double stacking them doesn't seem like that big a deal. My suggestion is to just lay out a bunch of different options to scale on graph paper or your choice of electronic formats and envision where the doors are, where the cars go, where you've got benches, storage, etc. That way, you can think through your own individual tradeoffs. Also, if you can build it bigger, do it!

 

[Roothawg]

I am the king of making things to scale on drafting paper! My wife calls it playing with paper dolls, but it helps.