I have been still visiting this site regularly to see what everyone is doing.My truck is on a big hold right now because in March I sold my side buisness (still working full time) then took two months and got to do stuff around the house that needed done.Then a house around the corner came up for sale and we jumped on it.So then we had to get our old place ready to sell.In August we moved in and now I only have a single car garage thats packed full of my truck and other thing that dont fit in the house thats a 1000 square feet smaller.The good news is we came ahead with a little money to build a new 2 garage shop(with my great wifes encouragment) on the side of the house.My question being for those that have build a shop what they would have done differently or some does and donts.I am thinking 28x30 with 2 doors a man door and windows.I was even thinking of colouring the concrete when they do the floor.I can only have a 15' high peak on the roof so a high ceiling for a hoist would not work.(dam bylaws)Any comments or suggestion would be welcomed.

 

One thing I would suggest is not to have a door entering your house directly from the shop as handy as it seems there is always a ton of dirt entering the house and then you have to deal with your cleaning lady. So that's how I ended up with a second shop with her blessings.

 

I debated a "grease pit" when I built mine. If you build a shallow enough pitch on your roof, you might still be able to put in a lift.

 

Build it as big as money and space will allow. You can never have too much room. In a place that size, which is basically a large 2 car garage, to gain extra storage space, have your roof trusses built like they would put in a house with a bonus room over the garage. That will give you about half again as much floor space overhead, with virturally no added cost, to put all the things you want out of the way so you have room to work on the important stuff.

Go with a dedicated 200 amp service for the shop so you'll have plenty of juice for welder plugs, range plugs, small water heater, furnace, lighting, air compressor, you name it.

If you want colored concrete, that's fine, but I would think there's more useable places, shop-wise, the money could work for you. Putting a sealer on regular concrete would make it just as pretty, be cheaper and make the floor easier to keep clean, too. My 2c.

 

I've got a stained floor for my house. It cost $5000 to have it done. I would go with a white epoxy or sealer for the floor instead.

I agree with Wayne, too. Box trusses are well worth it. If nothing else, it gives ya a spot for yer man cave.

 

200 amps would be luxurious, but I'd argue a 100 would be more than adequate and that savings could go for more sq ft. My house only has 100 amp service, so I could only go 50 on my new garage. I haven't had any issues with a 220amp stick welder, and a 2 HP compressor, plus lights etc. Electrical on mine was around 25% of the total cost, and I didn't go crazy (as much as I'd have liked!)

I echo the call for max sq ft. Will this be a stick-built garage or a metal building? 28' deep would be nice if you have a crewcab-long bed truck to park, just make sure it wouldn't require posts in the middle of the floor. Mine is 24 x 32, and it gets tight in front of/behind an extended cab long bed, but it has no interior posts.

Roof insulation is a must, walls not so much IMO. Where is Guelph? Insulation's value in walls depends on your winter weather.

Hot water heater and a laundry tub would be great but then you have to keep the garage heated all winter (if that's an issue). An important consideration is that if there is water in the garage, many of the outlets will have to be on GFCI, which is a PITA.

 

I have reeled cords hanging from my ceiling. My ceiling is 14' high and the reels keep extension cords off the floor. I also have plenty of light zoned off so I can turn on lights in the area I'm working in and leave lights off in the areas I'm not using.

I paid a small fortune to have my floor professionally coated, biggest waste of money. Almost any chemical used for car repair will screw it up. Granted the chemicals that affected the floor were quite powerful, brake fluid and lacquer thinner, but they're common chemicals and they melted and pulled up the coating. Simple cement seal is the way to go.

If you can afford heat, and you have the ceiling height, gas fired radiant heat is the way to go IMO. I have it in my shop and it's great. You don't really feel the heat, it's just there. It's not like forced air where you're either hot or cold. It also doesn't pressurize your shop space like forced air so when you open your big door all the heat doesn't blow out. The radiant heat warms objects, not the air so everything stays warm including the floor. The drawbacks are the radiant system costs more but from what I read, they make up the additional cost with energy savings. It also takes a little longer to heat up the space but once heated it stays warm. You also have to have the height for the units.

Just as important as heat is ventilation. I have extra windows in the back of my shop to aid in cooling the place off in warmer weather. In the shop I rented before I had my present shop built I only had two overhead doors at the back and although the shop was only 30' deep I couldn't get any air flowing throw on hot days and the heat just lingered.

Insulation is also very important all year long. I have 6" walls fully insulated and 12" of insulation above the ceiling. During the coldest months my total utility bill, electric and gas, is less than $200. I average over 40 hours a week in my shop. During the summer, during the hottest periods I can keep my shop at least 10° cooler than outside by keeping the doors closed for about 3-4 days until the temp inside evens out with the temp outside. I don't have air conditioning in my shop though I wish I did.

My shop is my business shop which measures 40'X50' but I do have space I use to work on my projects. It sure is nice to have a warm place to work on a car or truck when it's -10° outside.

 

Thanks for the comments so far. Good advice.Guelph is about an hour west of Toronto.Insulation is a must. It can get mighty cold up here in Jan-Feb.A seperate electrical service would not be cost effective.A seperate meter would run about $50 a month plus the usage.Will be using sticks to build with roof truss so there is no posts.

 

Have you ever been over to the Garage Journal? Part of the HAMB, it has some really good discussions.

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My shop (hate to call it a garage since the 56 is the only vehicle that stays inside) is 28x28 free standing two story with a 12' ceiling downstairs it has no posts, just a steel I beam supporting the 2nd floor. Build in modules of 4', i.e. 32 rather than 30' since you will not be wasting materials the extra sq ft will cost next to nothing and be mighty useful. I used a 1 part moistured cured urethane industrial coating by sherwin-williams for my floor. It was easy to do and chemicals don't touch it. I coved the corners between the concrete floor and block foundation walls with a epoxy based filler (also by S-W) then carried the floor coating 4" up the walls all around. Makes the floor seamless with no crevices for insects or small parts to hide in. Very pleased with the results. Even tho I am in the South I still insulated fully (for future AC) and paneled the walls in OSB over the insulation. I put the panels up with screws in case I ever need to access inside the wall cavities. I painted the paneling with white gloss waterborn epoxy (another S-W industrial product).
My garage has separate 200 A service, with 4 20A outlets every 4 ft on 2 alternating circuits, and 12 double tube 4' flourescent fixtures (on 2 switches) and separate positionable task lighting over the benches, you can never have too much lighting or outlets.
I speced an oversized 20'x8' insulated steel double door rather than two single doors. I would make it 8.5' or 9' high if I had it to do over, I still can't get my enclosed trailer inside. The overheight door was a minimal additional cost, just 1 more panel. I used stainless steel restaurant prep table tops from my local metals recycler for my bench tops with LVL beam cutoffs underneath for solid dentproof support. All my benches are cantilevered off the walls, no legs touch the floor.

 

I'll second Bob's comments. Spending any money on beautifying the concrete floor of a shop that you actually intend to work in is a waste. Save that stuff for a storage-only space. Apply that money to maximizing square footage and a good heating system. A local guy I know built a new shop two years ago and used radiant hot water heat in the concrete floor. I highly recommend it! He just uses an electric hot water heater and a small circulation pump. It's always warm in there and his utility bills are low. I know you said that there are regulations about building height, but if you can figure out any way at all to wrangle a 12 foot ceiling, then do it. My shop only has a 10 foot ceiling and I hate it because I can't put in a lift. Lifts are cheap and extremely handy but you need a minimum of 12 feet overhead clearance to make them worth having. I want one so much that I'm considering adding on 16 feet to my shop with a 12 foot ceiling just so I can have a lift bay.

 

I must agree. My new shop is going up as we speak. They put he metal roof on today. It's going to be 30 x 30 with a 12ft ceiling and hot water circulating radiant heat in the floor. I can't wait!

Dave

 

A bathroom with shower... Wife will love you for not bringing in the oil, grease and dirt into the house....

 

I guess I am in the minority for wanting/having a finished floor, but I decided that if I wanted to work on grease and dirt I'd have just pitched a tent in the backyard and worked under that. Oh wait I did that for many years... maybe that's why I wanted a finished floor. Total cost of the floor finishing was < 1/2% of the construction cost, money well spent IMHO.
Here's with (fresh) raw concrete:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...118704&width=0
and with the floor finished:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...133330&width=0
If you do decide to finish your floor, be sure to specify no accellerator or hardener be added to the concrete.

 

That's one thing I wish I'd have been able to do was a single, wide garage door. I wanted more space between the stalls, which would have required a truly wide single door, so I was talked out of it. But I should have made the double doors wider, because I have to angle in from the driveway, always a panic over scraping a fender. Space between stalls is great, tho, you don't want a floor jack handle to smack your other vehicle. I have almost 8' clear between vehicles.

AX is that material you coved the floor-to-wall transition with like concrete, or like cured urethane? I have to agree on SOME kind of floor coating. I went with Behr's two-step system that is a primer and topcoat. Cost $75 to do the whole floor (768 sq ft). Really hard pounding on it will scratch it, oil and brake fluid don't touch it, and it's easy to touch up. What I don't like about coatings is that it makes you realize there's dirt there, and you end up washing the floor -- housework?!?!