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09-13-2017, 12:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2017, 12:27 PM by Wild Turkey.)
How big a shop is "big enough"? Your experience please
I'm getting ready to pour the slab for a shop. Right now I'm looking at 30'x40' with a 12' ceiling.
But I will get quotes on making it 30' x 50'.
I plan on one side being my metal/automotive working side with the woodworking machines on the other. (Yeah, I know there will be conflicts, but two buildings aren't in the budget)
Will 30'x40' be big enough? How much difference will the extra make?
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Wild Turkey
We may see the writing on the wall, but all we do is criticize the handwriting.
(joined 10/1999)
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Location: Front seat on the Struggle Bus
Went with a 36x40 + 10' overhang at my parents house last year. Trusses were 46' wide.
Still working on the inside & getting power, did have it sprayfoamed already.
Went with the 36' inside as that's the width of the finished part of my shop, I know what fits and I'm comfortable with it.
I'll get a few current pics tonight.
Ed
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I would build as large as you can afford. I have a 24' x 24' garage and wish it was bigger. It would be nice to have a dedicated spray area, better wood storage, a sink, and more room for works in progress. It's hard to work on larger items in my current shop. Not complaining but 3o' x 50' would make a generous shop.
Lonnie
PS Definitely go with the high ceiling.
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(09-13-2017, 12:23 PM)Wild Turkey Wrote: How big a shop is "big enough"? Your experience please
I'm getting ready to pour the slab for a shop. Right now I'm looking at 30'x40' with a 12' ceiling.
But I will get quotes on making it 30' x 50'.
I plan on one side being my metal/automotive working side with the woodworking machines on the other. (Yeah, I know there will be conflicts, but two buildings aren't in the budget)
Will 30'x40' be big enough? How much difference will the extra make?
Have a 24'x30' basement shop, generous but would like to have more space. As was said earlier, go as big as you can afford.
Doug
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Bigger is better up to a point. Depends on the kind of work you want to do. If you just want to change oil and turn pens smaller might be okay, but storing and working with sheets of ply or spraying entire vehicles is another matter. I am packed into a two bay garage and I'll spread into outdoors if my project is bigger than a chest of drawers. I hoard wood though so taking up space is easy.
Use the size of plywood sheets to determine size, and the length of studs to determine height. Cutting a sheet of plywood or a stud short of normal size seems wasteful, since you pay for the total size anyway. Having running water and a toilet come in handy, when it's pouring down rain, if the shop is detached from the house. Sometimes it's more than length and width and height. More windows means less lights another expense.
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My advice is to go as big as you can afford. I started my business and worked for years out of a 20’x20’ shop. It was tight but I made it work. A few years ago I moved into my current shop which is 30’x40’ with a separate 20’x25’ area dedicated to wood storage and a spray booth. At the time if felt huge but over the last three years I have grown to fill it. There are a few more tools that would be nice to have tools that I will never buy because floor space is more valuable to me that the machinery. Even now I want to move my wood storage to give me room to build a small show room. I hated the crowded feeling in my last shop and refuse to have that problem again. Since you will be sharing space this will be even more important. I guess my point is no matter how big you build your shop you will grow to fill it and more than likely see a use for more space so go as big as possible. The one limiting factor here will be the cost to heat and cool the shop if you plan to do so. Spray foam will help with that though if you opt for that. If you foam the shop once you have the slab heated or cooled it should be fairly easy to maintain. One thing I did not take into consideration though is my lighting and the heat it produces. My shop has a whole lot of lights. I believe I have 126 4’ florescent tubes in my shop and you would be amazed at how much heat they produce. In the winter it is great because I don’t even need to run heat. In the summer I can take the shop from 72 degrees to 84 degrees in about 6 hours if I don’t run AC. As the bulbs go out I am bypassing the ballasts and adding LED bulbs which has made a difference. With 126 bulbs this will take some time and money though.
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09-14-2017, 05:38 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-14-2017, 05:39 AM by fredhargis.)
Well, I went 32x 50 and divided it into 2 rooms (there's a post around here describing it somewhere), for much the same service as you describe. I kept the ceilings at 10', but if you want to put in a car lift that wouldn't do (I don't think 12' would either). More important to me was that it have 6" walls...not only to keep heating costs down, but for summer use it might be a little more comfortable. That said, I'm sure every piece of advice will say go bigger......but 30x 40 is nothing to sneeze at, and I would be very happy with that size building. My first one was 24x 28 because that's what i could afford, and it was nice. My second was 24x32 because that's what the property had when we bought it. I can't say I was unhappy in either one, though I did sometimes wish for more space.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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My shop building is 25 X 44 inside dimensions with 12' ceilings. We bought our place pre-existing, so it was already here and I didn't influence the design. The shop building was originally envisioned as a 4-car garage (twin two-car bays with 16' overhead garage doors) with a stairway in the middle that goes up to a 700 sq ft loft area.
It's big enough for my needs, but I wish that I could separate the two areas, primarily to cut down on heating needs in the winter. I don't spend a lot on propane, but I think the woodshop would be more comfortable in the winter if the north bay was easily closed off. Of course, I could always mod that and do it, but the layout doesn't make it easy.
If I was building new, I'd opt for a smaller 30X40 place if it freed budget to add upgraded insulation, plumbing (my current shop doesn't have plumbing), and perhaps upgraded HVAC.
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09-14-2017, 07:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-14-2017, 07:23 AM by Handplanesandmore.)
Assuming you work with mainly power tools, 30'x40' should give you enough shop space. While it is true you should get the largest shop you can afford, the downside is that a shop too big could also mean you have a lot of walking to do, not to mention that if there is a lot of empty space, you'll find ways to fill it up, meaning hoarding or spending on things unnecessary.
Many people can produce decent work in their two car garage shops with all the common machinery in them and I don't see why 30' x 40' will be too small for you. 30' x 50'? It is, of course, better, if money is there. I would put a moveable partition between the finishing room that can be ventilated (to keep the smell and dust away) so it can be used for other purposes when it is not finishing time.
Simon
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