Thinking on a new shop.

Lately I have been thinking if I sell my land to a UNiversity. Where I would move and what type of shop I would like to build on the property. I first thought that an 80 foot by 80 foot shop would be nice with 15 high doors to put big equipment inside. Then I thought to have a paint both inside of the shop. Then I thought that haveing a little office space with a bathroom in the shop would be a nice thing to have.So I would not have other people in my house useing the bathroom in the house. My Hobbie is growing around me and I enjoy it. I have this bug of restoreing old cars, trucks and farm equipment. When I sell to the University I am going to move out of the area I am now liveing. The city has grown to big and is pushing all of us out so my question is? What is a good working shop lay out to have for a person who has a hobbie like this? Can you give me some examples on what you might have in your shop that you find is the best thing to have.I hope you enjoy the pictures of some of my work I have done. Thanks Brent..

I know you can see my carport that is my shop right now. It is three stalls bye 12 feet wide and 23 feet deep built on to a portable unit used as a lockable alarm tool shed. Iam tired of being a back yard meachanic (L.O.L).

Brent,Sounds like you've got a pretty good idea on what you want,I have a paint booth in mine,big plus!,also you might consider a 2 post hoist on one side at an angle,I put one in a few years back and wish I would of done it 30 years ago,getting to old to crawl under cars.The bathroom is a good Idea also,can't make that happen in mine but would like it,make sure you have good lighting and of course high enough ceilings for a hoist.

I want a shop 30 X 100 with 16 ceilings and radiant floor heating.

Looks like good work! Neat old Case there.

Think about building two or more smaller buildings instead of one huge one. The reason is for fire protection. I've seen a couple of times where fire wiped out the insides of mixed use buildings. One case a guy lost a herd of early 70's Mopars and parts when some lumber in storage caught fire from a welder. The fire was contained by the fire dept (actually more than one) but the contents were a total loss.

You could have one just for parking finished projects, one for working on stuff and one with a paint booth and other flammable stuff.

Are you in Cali? I see terracotta roofs in the background.

One thing for sure.....you can't build a barn too big!

I'll second the 2 post hoist. Makes for great storage and will fit in a 12' barn.

If you werent so far away, Id help you dispose of that Mustang!

What ever size you build you need to build it half again as big as you think you need. You will be surprised how fast you will fill it. I built a 40x60 and should have built a 40x90.

If your already thinking of moving I sure would not build a nice shop there !

Also if I had the money it took to build one of these nice monster shops I think I'd just retire instead.

My thoughts. It is impossible to have just one building that is big enough to house a collection (the collection keeps growing) and provide the workspace needed for repairing and restoring. It would be better to have 2 seperate buildings. One that is big enough to house a growing collection, and the other one just big enough to house and provide ample work space for maybe 2 projects at the same time. I have a 36'x60'x10' building that is trying to do it all. It isn't working.

Now that is what I am talkin about. I knew an old gentleman who lived in newport beach he had nice older cars. But only had a two car garage that had tall roof. The two post hoist was used to store his four cars. one on top of each other. very cool nice picture.

I had drawn up a plan for a shop 80 foot by 80 foot to do work in. Just a working shop period the reason is simple tired of every body seeing what I do. I like the ideal of haveing another shop just for the restored stuff. That would be nice than I know that my finished projects would not get damaged and they would be protected. Yes I do live in Riverside Ca where at one time we had orange groves but now we have a big city. My dad was born here in the 1930's and I was raised here. Threw the years parents moved to Bishop and Iam trying to make plans to move to. Riverside is to big for me I plan to sell move to a bigger spot and build that is why I am asking about shop ideals.Thanks Brent

I think like that too. My son in law built a really nice big shop and the way I looked at it was, since it's not his bread and butter it's a lot of overhead--- and to justify it his spare time needs to be spent fixing other peoples' cars. Same can be said about BTO farmers, if they have the kind of money that takes why not just use the money to retire? (of course a lot of it may be borrowed)

I'm planning a new shop for next year or so. I think 40X60X15 will work. Room for a dedicated paint bay, or a separate wash bay, and still about 45X40 for work space- room for three vehicles plus. Fifteen foot sidewalls gives you room for a second story storage over one or all of the space, or for overhead/ two post hoist use without the storage area. I also want the heated floor, great insulation, and sufficient electrical distribution. Air is less necessary, A/C could work in part of it maybe. I am close enough to the house not to need a bathroom, lots of floor space used rarely, plus the septic needs. I use overhead doors for better closure. This should free up space in the 40X80 I have now, which will become storage only.

I would want a heated/cooled space to work in, not too large to hold down the cost of energy, and a larger cold storage space for the collection.

They used to have a road course at Riverside didn't they?

A separate place just to park the finished stuff is a good idea. You could even start with just a roof and add sides later if need be.
I know what you mean about being "on display" all the time when you're working. That gets old.

A few things over the years at shops I have run, owned, set-up etc.
-1 side of the building set up with floor drain and grease trap.
-12000 lb drive on hoist, ramps on both ends, above drain.
-Overhead doors on both ends so you can drive straight through.
-1 inch gas line run along the walls for air with plenty of drop downs to hook up small and large air lines, tap at the bottom of each drop down to trap and remove water.
-Plan for plenty of plugs 110 + 220v then double the amount.
this will serve well for the welders, pressure washers etc that you will have on wheels.
-Exhaust system along with make-up air.
-Plenty of lights. Plenty of lights. Plenty of lights.
-Small area for office, manuals, phone, computer, fridge, table, etc.
-Dedicated welding area with lots of power.
-White walls and ceiling make things nice and bright.
-Small shed attached outside to keep noisy compressor in.
-Plan out wall space to best utilize storage space, cabinets, shelves, tool boxes, equipment etc.
-Solvent bath, parts washer, sandblast cabinet, drill press, lathe, etc, take up a huge amount of wall space.
-Plenty of work benches, stationary and on wheels.
-If you are going to put in a washroom don't put it next to the office.
-A stainless double sink in the washroom works much better than a small ceramic bathroom sink, washing up, cleaning + cooling off parts etc.
-Concrete stub wall makes clean-up with a pressure washer a breeze.
Did I say plenty of lights.

Couple here in the area way away from town they built huge sheds with living areas so its all in one. Never know until you get close that way always room to expand and large roof area fine place for solar panels ect. Just dont go to high ceilings too much wasted space to heat and cool.

what about renting some place for now ?

In my area (Ohio) there are plenty of empty buildings from closed up businesses.

I prefer a large inexpensive pole barn for "cold" storage and a separate heated shop for working on projects. Misplaced tools seem to be easier to find in a smaller shop than in a large shed.

another vote for 2 buildings....at least 2.
good sized shop where you can do...anything.
then a huge pole barn to park stuff.
Keep them apart some, and the main work shop,
try to keep some distance from your house.
noise, stink happens......and no matter how careful, fire can too.

Brent I'm with you move out of Riverside. I lived in Riverside for 20 years. The house next door to me blows up one day (meth lab inside) that told me it's time to go. So I moved the family 950 miles north to Oregon the best thing we ever did. Are you selling to UCR or RCC? I hope you find what your looking for, and good luck with the shop I cant wait to build mine.

And yes CenTex Farmall - Riverside did have a great track. Back in the 80's it was out in the middle of nowere they built house's all around it. Guess who started complaining about all the noise... the new home owners. They tore it down and put up a dam mall. I think the mall was allways half vacant. I'm pretty sure it never generated as much $$$$ to the local economy as the track did.

Howdy think about this in your 30 X 100 you have 260 feet of walls to get 3,000 ft of floor space. If you take that 260 ft of walls and put it in a 64 X 64 building you would have almost 4100 sq feet. You probably had something you wanted the 100 ft long for but if you just made that same 100 ft building 40 ft wide you would gain a thousand feet at the only cost of additional roof. MOST time the closer to square you get a building the less the cost per square ft . The only thing is sometime spanning the wider spans cost more. But in your case I would sure look at 40 X 100. Just a old mans opinion....hope it helps O I am on my 5th shop and it is not big enough...LOL

Graph paper to scale comes to mind. Lay out what you have and what you want, I have never been able to build what I want at one time so drew it out to what I needed with what money I had....

If I could start over with cash on hand it I would go metal 80X100 are 60X120 both with 14ft end walls.. If I wanted a second floor in part of it then 16ft end walls...


I built my own exhaust system to hook up to running engines its overhead and a must as far as I am concerned...

my shop is 40x50 with 17 ft ceiling. The best feature about it is the 16x22x 10 inner room. I keep that room at 50 degrees, then nudge it up a little when I go in. it is insulated and the heat that escapes from it keeps the rest from freezing. I can heat the outer part if I have reason to, and I don't have to spend a lot on heat.

Hi I think most of it's been covered i wouldn't store your collection in the shop either. My shop has a couple tractors a combine and Baler in it most of the year It's taking up way to much space, The shops 50x50 and if I doubled it I'd still fill the space. I have to watch sparks on windshields and stuff like that pretty often depending where i'm working.Dust generated is a big problem to while working on certain things.

I would also say lots of benches with cupboards under them or tall shelved cupboards. My parents have this annoying habit of smaller useful stuff making a mess in the garage, so they clean the garage and then proceed to haul this mess in the shop. It gets dumped on the first bench they find( just inside the Door!), Then there is not enough storage to put it,when the shops a mess.

The World will end if this junk disappears in the scrap, I tried that once when I got mad about it. This winter I got to get nice 3/4" ply sheets and build 4 more 8ft benches with cupboards under to store this junk,and put nice easy to clean steel tops on to. They say junk expands to every available space. It does in this house I'm sure the fairies bring truck loads every night. Or Dads friends donate it to him when they retire. I got about 10 boxes of part used sickle sections and rivets that nobody will ever use he hauled home plus tons of other obsolete stuff. This guys got another truck load yet dads thinking of bringing home to, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
The other thing is costs and building codes are starting to get tough in certain areas. There are a few guys round here had to downsize shop plans considerably when the found out there plan was going to cost $175.000. They still ended up with 60 to $80.000 in the smaller shops they built by the time they turned the key in the lock the first day it was finished.

Regards Robert

I built a 42X95ft steel pole building and had them put a wall at 32ft so my shop is 42'X32'. Then I had an overhead door installed in that wall so I can move stuff from the shop to the shed without going outside. I put in radiant overhead heat. That's the best move I made. In my opinion, forced air is a total waste. Radiant heats the objects in the shop including the floor. Very comfortable and constant temp. I turn the heat down for the night and the next morning, in a few minutes, the temp is back up to where I want it. I laid down plastic conduit before the floor was poured so, almost all of my wiring is under the floor. That way there isn't much conduit on the walls. One building with a shop and shed. Less expensive than two buildings. To get in and out, I have an overhead door on the shop and two sliding doors on the shed. Had it for six years now and can't think of a thing that I would change except because of snow, if I had to do it over, I would put the sliding doors inside instead of outside.