I am in the process of building a new shop myself and thought I would share some of what I did;
a) made paper cutouts to scale for everything that was to go into shop and laid it out on a large blueprint to make sure it all fit.
b) met with the zoning dept. to make sure what limitations they had for structures in my district and worked within them.
c) took the final material list to several suppliers for bid, there was about 15% difference between highest and lowest.Some of the features I wound up putting into my shop;
a) a full second story over part of it, lots cheaper than more ground level storage,
b) instead of leveling grade for whole building, worked with the existing 4' elevation change to have two levels,
c) this allowed a four foot deep stairwell/work pit in the upper garage area, and
d) a 4' high loading ramp to the outside in the lower floor area,
e) the floors are 6" thick, 4500 lbs mix, with wire reinforcing and PEX tubing for radiant heat,
f) for a few dollars extra, the trusses have an 8" energy 'heel' for extra insulation (a 12" energy heel around here increases truss cost by at least 30%),
g) there are four anchor points around the work pit/stairwell with 3/8" chain hooked over rebar inbedded into the concrete. This is all in a building of about 2000 square foot ground level, with an additional 1000 square feet of second story storage. It is built with convential stud framing, a shingle roof, vinyl siding and sits on a convential footing with block foundation walls just like a house. So far I have about $25K into it, without the wiring or insulation, and am figuring about $30K when finished, or about $15/square feet of ground level space.
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