Thinking I may be able to build a shop this fall, but am having a hard time finding plans or ideas. I don't really think a metal building would be much cheaper and the house is a country style with hardi panel lap siding, It would be nice to match the house some. I would like something like this but would like to make it 30 wide by 40 deep and have a bay off to at least one side 10 feet wide with gravel floor to park tractor, implements, camper etc. Ideally some day I would like to get a 38ish foot race car trailer with living quarters and that would pretty much take up that whole side bay. I am just not sure how this design would look with side bays.

 

IMO, if you plan on pouring a slab for the floor, I would make the building to that size. Then put a lean-to off the side to "continue" the roof side down further. with a seperate door for you implements. This way you're not constantly sweeping the gravel off the floor. You can heat (or cool) it seperately from you working area, too.

IN this older pic, you can see my unfinished woodshed being the lean-to, off the main garage part. Your's would be on a grander scale....it's just a thought.

 

Gary-
While planning the new shop don't forget to think about ceiling height for a lift, probably at least 12' in the lift area. Are you thinking all the doors on the eave side or just one?

 

I am in the planning stage of having a building built for my business. The builing I am getting into is a somewhat new idea, at least in this area. It's going to be part of a business condominium developement. The developer builds separate buildings consisting of two units, you can either buy one unit or the entire building. From the couple of descriptions posted so far this is the type of building you're looking for. I am saying you should go the route I am going but you could get ideas for your building by taking a look at the ones I am getting into.

http://www.businessbungalows.com/





The developer has told me that they have sold a few of these units to private people to use as a "Dog house", a place to get away from the wife when he gets into trouble. If I could afford one for my play house I'd certainly get into a lot of trouble at home so I could spend a lot of time there.

I this idea is going to take off, in this area there just isn't any smaller space like this for the money. I would also like to add that there might be some truck space in my new building.

 

My vote goes for the 16' ceiling, when you put your rig on the lift ( you did plan on a lift..?)..,you can leave the hood open and still stand up under it..,
It also gives you more HT for Havi's lean-to addition, your big new trailer should have plenty of room. How tall is the trailer?
My garage is 26 by 40, with a truck all over the place, plus all the other crap, I would like alot more space, almost need 3 bay's for one vehicle (disassembled) plus enough room for your shop equiptment.Hey Bob, do those bungalows offer kitchen and bath's?

 

Scott - Great Photo

Be that a 4dr Comet in the photo ? Vintage '63 ???

 

I know you said that you didn't think that you were interested in the "metal Building", but I was going to do one of those out on some property that I had and it was the best price out there for the size of what you want. I also wanted a 30'x40' with a 16' ceiling ht. With the concrete slab and structure w/roll up doors was $13,000. The house that it was going to sit next to was of the "lap board" style and they would have looked real good together in my opinion. So I would at least look into it, can't beat the price!!!

 

Close. 1962 Mercury Meteor 4dr custom. I have good bumpers for it now. still need a radiator and ignition cyl. Then I can try to get it running. That photo was taken before I totalled the Jeep, which is about 3 days away from the 1 year anniversary. The trusses are for my current home, as I'm standing on top of the mobile home taking the pic. The woodshed holds all the parts to the '48 in the pic now.

Like Mertz, said, the higher the ceiling, the bigger the lean-to will be, and should allow plenty of room for the trailer. Albeit, it may not look cosmetic enough.

 

You have them build them any way you want. The developer said one of the private owners bought one for his exotic car collection and has a fully stock bar along the back wall with canned recessed lighting, whole works.

 

Yeah!,..I would get in trouble with that Ha Haa
It would be nice to do business in one side,lock the door behind you as you go to the next, just to be able to get away from it for awhile, take a shower,relax on the strato-lounger,recharge ,and go back at it....
Come to think of it, that's what I do now,..only with a 50 min commute...

 

I just read my first post and found a typo. The highlighted part should have read "I am not" I didn't mean to seem like I was pushing my idea on anyone.

 

I have built two shops/barns, one in Ma and one in Maine (my current shop), both initially the size that you are thinking. Both are board and batten wood construction and lower profile to satify my better half. My first was just as you indicate 30 x 40 with a 10 x 20 lean to/shed roofline. I also initially had a gravel floor for a tractor in the shed area-later poured it. I built a pit with into the shop area with removable oak boards for covers when not in use-worked well. The heated area was the back 1/2 (20 x 30) of the main building. I later added two additional lean to 12 x 20 additions. All of that was pole barn construction with a poured floor. In the end every non heated bay had a garage door to the outside. IMHO you won't use a vehicle (car or truck) much if you have to move others to get to it. My two significant errors in the design was 8 ' ceiling and 4 inch wire mesh (not rebar) in the floors-they cracked badly.

My second and current (and final) shop is similar in size (1800 sq ft). Every stored vehicle has direct access via a garage door. I increased ceilings to 10 ft and planned on another pit. On this building I went with the thick lip slab rather than pole barn and put in rebar + old bad axles etc at the corners (high load areas)-zero cracking 14 years of Maine winters. Initial excavation revealed ledge. I abandoned the pit since I was not up for blasting. My mistake was not increasing the height to at least 12' for a future lift. My heated area is in the front of my current shop and is 22 x 28, essentially the same heated square footage but the previous 20' was not quite deep enough for a complete car/truck

Both buildings have 5/12 pitch with W truss roof construction with a plywood "runway" down thru the center for overhead parts storage with drop down stair cases. Almost free parts storage.
My major error was not planning for a future lift with either a taller ceiling in the shop area or an inverted vee style truss over the heated area to get clearance for a lift in the center of the shop. Heat costs money-lots today but more tomorrow so think heated volume in your layout particularly if you plan for a lift (and I would).
I apologize for rambling on a bit but I have been down the road twice and still would make some changes if I did it again.
Good luck with you plans. A climate controlled workshop is just the berries!

 

Hey buddy, if you want a good shop, then you might consider just building it yourself . When I was shopping for a building for my business, I found that metal building manu.,and suppliers are like a buch of used car salesmen.(no offense intended). Every one of them that I talk to ,said they had one that someone custom ordered and was slashed beyond belief. It was so funny, because all of them used almost the same lines. I think they read it from a script. One guy said he was just a warehouse guy,and needed to make room for more inventory. It was very funny to listen to these guys in action. I went to my local lumber store and bought a building kit. Basically it was just a list of materials that they knew one would need to build the type of building I wanted. I didn't need anything real big (28x32), but I wound up getting it for $4400. I was a concrete contarctor for 26 years so I did my own foundation. But ,I thought that was pretty reasonable for my shop. It's insulated and also looks very good with my house. It has one overhead door also.It came with 1/2" osb for the outside,and vinyl siding that will never need to be painted.,Just my .02 good luck with the project.

 

Great advice guys, I do plan on 12 foot ceilings, and a two post lift. I do want to keep the overall height down but for a camper or toyhauler you need at least 11 feet.

I am thinking of having all the doors on the gable or west side the wind and rain mostly comes from the south and I have not seen a garage door yet that can keep the water out, if facing that direction.

I do unfortunatly know that whatever size your shop is that you always should of built it bigger

Mason that is a smoking deal, I have found the kits to be around 10k concrete work for a foundation at $5 a foot ($3 a foot for patios) $6000 plus install, doesn't seem like it should add up to all that much but all the locals I have talked to have spent 50k on thier 40x60s I will research that some more.

cool 48 I know where you are coming from as well, I will have to do some more research with the locals.

 

I can't "ditto" enough the ceiling height!!!! I went with a 10 foot ceiling, but that was before I got my truck. Never thought I would have the truck. I regret the 10 foot ceiling almost daily, starting with the overhead radiant tube heater being too low, to not having the ability to put in a lift, if I wanted. I LOVE my shop, don't get me wrong, but would love it a LOT more with 16' ceilings!!

R