couple pics of my shop

 

All electricians, regardless whether residential, commercial or industrial must comply with the National Electric Code, which is a minimum requirement for doing electrical work. When you classify a building as a garage you must adhere to the requirements for electrical installations in a garage. Any added circuits above the minimum requirements of the National Electric Code is on the owner.

 

The electrical requirements for a "garage" are different than a "shed".

 

There is a lot of good advice for your garage.
Your building location will have a great impact on the construction methods. A cold climate is much more expensive since your footing needs to be below the frost line.

I always put in extra conduits of various sized to accommodate future updates including water lines and electrical. Putting these conduits in the concrete floor, extending to the outside has saved me a lot of time in the past.

When I have water lines in a cold climate, I install them in 2 inch conduits. These are buried deep, below the frost line. If they ever need replacement, it is a simple job of digging down on both ends and using the old flexible water line to pull in the new one.

Good luck on your build and post some pictures when you get a chance.

 

Well, It started out as steel framed 40x80x16 with a large overhang for some outside storage, and an in-set corner patio and a 20 ft separate interior section with a loft...Until the first salesman's estimate came in, LOL. "That. is. more. than. our. house. cost." she said. My son in law's input was, "You'll never be sorry you made it too big". So, the dimensions are a compromise between the Chairperson of the House Ways and Means' budget, and the absolute minimum amount of needed space. I want a lift, concrete floor, some room to work, and shelter from the weather while doing it. And some storage.
-I will check on seismic issues, we do have occasional earthquakes.
-I will ask about the moisture barrier, that makes sense about the concrete curing, and then later sweating possibly?
-I think I'll skip the drains, they were more bother than they were worth where I used to work. And Smelly
-The roof is as low as I can get a lift under and still match all the neighbors around me.
-Spray foam is the plan for insulation, but next year, tho, budget allowing. Electrical first because a power pole relocation is involved. Both $$$.
-I'm going to ask about the 2' clear section facing south. I didn't know that was an option! Natural light is good. The lean to got cost-cut from the original plan, but the space is there for one, later. Maybe.
-I think my 20' F250 CC daily driver will just barely fit in the large door/lift area with the door down. I know the '52 pickup will, her Fusion, etc. The trusses over the lift are 'engineered' up out of the way. Supposedly
-The Code Enforcement officer has already stamped approval, so that's good to go. The 2' space from the fence matches the neighbor on the other side of the same fence. No grass is gonna grow, so seems like wasted space. Theres enough room to get back there, if I ever had to chase one of the chickens or fix a shed wall or a fence panel I guess.
-No bathroom means no womenfolk. Same as the deer camp Also, same reason, no telephone. The people door to the garage will face the back door of the house, which is also the laundry room/back bathroom. Very short walk from garage to house. My only concern with that relates to a rule from the dealership I retired from: there had to be two people around if anyone's using the lifts, just in case. I'll have to be extra careful or train the dog like Lassie.
-I wanted the steel frame mostly to be able to hang things, but the price of the wood frame gets it done. Windows and insulation are planned after the lift. No contractor needed, just me and my can-do attitude son! The electrical and possible heat A/C have a spot in the floor plans, and a contractor lined up for next year hopefully. Really nice, but those are cherries on top, once I get this built. 200 amp for a welder and compressor, LED's, movable outlets and dual circuits, check!
-Thanks, for all the info! I'm really looking forward to having this done. Safe indoor storage, a place to keep my tools and stuff, work on my truck and stay out of her hair, LOL. I really think it'll make getting other things done easier, as well. Y'all are the best!
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When I built a 60x80 building for storage 2 years ago I went with 16ft high walls and a 20x14ft overhead door. The concrete guys loved that because the mixer truck could back right inside of the building to discharge the concrete.

 

Another thing to consider for the lift. I had the 8' bay door track go up the same height as the 12' door track so not to interfer with a raised vehicle.

 

That's a great tip. I will say that when my 14' door is open all the way you get a lot of natural light and my door is up high enough to not worry about when my lift is up.

yes on the moisture barrier, the slower the cure the harder/stronger the concrete

 

I did a 30’X50’ and wish I could have gone bigger but my neighbors property line stopped me, jerk. I have already out grown it.

I would plumb the toilet, sink. and water before the concrete is poured. It is easier to cover the small holes for now than break concrete later.

My plan was a 2 bay for my truck and parts, wife took over a 1/3 for a pool table, couch, basically a pub. I also did a wood / paint room for other projects and parts restoration.

I am in East Texas so it is not too bad but I put in two heaters and a foam drop ceiling. It gets warm enough to do some work and no open flames.

Also think about WiFi, helps a lot when you need to use Google in a metal building as well as adding security cameras.

 

That was good advice about the plumbing. You could install a 4 inch line, 12-1/2+ inches from the finished wall and have it stubbed out a side of the garage for future use. If it is plugged with the internal plastic break away plug, just below the finished surface you would never see it. I put two in my Barn like that.
I also installed several 1 inch conduits along with a 2 inch and 1-1/2 inch conduits so I can add anything from power, cable, water etc, later. I used a 1-1/2 inch conduit to pull some 3/4 inch PEX A through, for a water line.

 

Ahhh, you are thinking ahead.

You are going to really like your garage. More wrenching time under better environmental conditions means a happier life.

 

I have two buildings at my house, a 60X80 for storage and a 36x48 that's a workshop with a guest apartment upstairs. In the workshop a friend of mine who is an electrician told me that before the floor gets poured do home runs so I took his advice and ran 8 1in PVC conduits from the breaker box to points all around the building. Then later when it was all farther along and I had figured out what was needed for circuits we pulled in the wires. They terminate in junction boxes and then from there I ran Romex to outlets, furnace, AC unit etc. It worked great and saved a TON of wire.

Also later when I added a phase converter to run my honing machine, cam grinder etc I put in another 100 amp branch panel at the rear of the building. To do that I just pulled the old wired out from the nearest home run and pulled in what I needed for a feeder, very handy.

 

Also later when I added a phase converter to run my honing machine, cam grinder etc I put in another 100 amp branch panel at the rear of the building. To do that I just pulled the old wired out from the nearest home run and pulled in what I needed for a feeder, very handy.[/QUOTE]

You have a cam grinder!! I drove a 1200 mile round trip from Maine to Buffalo NY (actually North Tonawanda) to duplicate the grind on an early and not available antique camshaft. I could not recover if the 2 camshafts got lost in shipping. I pre arranged to drive straight, create a master from the grind on the borrowed cam and duplicate the grind onto my cam and drive back the next day.

 

Yes I have a cam grinder, a Van Norman 253:

I bought the grinder about 3 years ago. It came from Crane Cams. Crane went out of business in 2009 and it sat neglected after that. When I got it it looked terrible but I rebuilt the whole thing and it grinds really nice. Crane had done some modifications to their Van Normans over the years, my machine has a variable speed DC drive for the work piece and hydraulics for the rapid in and out and the dresser.

In this picture I'm making a master from a Ford roller cam. The masters are a big thing when it comes to cam grinding. I have about 200 now, some are new designs that I had made and some are copied from existing cams.

 

Wow, the concrete is here already. That subcontractor doesn't fool around. I spoke to him yesterday, and there doesn't seem to be any concern with seismic issues. A dump truck brought a load of very sandy red dirt to go underneath. Maybe that provides a seismic cushion and keeps the concrete away from the moisture in the ground. Or keeps the ground from absorbing the moisture in the concrete? I'm not clear on that, but they don't use plastic barriers unless its for a house with a floor that's getting carpeted. The only plan change so far is the west side wound up needing to be 3' from the side fence. And 2 chickens escaped, so I had to tarp the top of their temporary fence area LOL Oh, and the backyard grass has definately had to take one for the team.