Thread: Building my shop...

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glad 2 hear your moving along pretty good Dave, keep us all posted thanks 4 fixing my wondering problem.

Uncle Bob... If only I could get the wife to think like you do, I wish!!!!

Bill... My shop is not really going to be all that big at 25x27... It has drains built into the floor and a 10 ft ceiling with 9 ft tall doors... It will have one 16 ft wide door and one 8 foot wide door... It will have a seperate electrical box from the house and be wired with 220... The shop is actually detached from the house but will connect to the deck and will have a connecting roof line so I can go from the house to the shop under cover of the roof... Like I said I know it is not a very big shop but it will be a welcome improvement over the two car garage I have been working in... The big plus is that I will also have the attached 2 car garage so I don't have to scrape ice off the wife's windshield in the winter...

madgrinder... I wanted to go for the 12 ft ceiling so I could have enough room for a lift but it just was'nt in my budget this time... I've got about three and a half acres so who knows maybe I can add on later and plan for enough room for a lift!

treekiller... I wish it was moving faster, but I should be moving in in a few months... I will try to post more pics as it progresses...

Here is another photo that shows the back side of the shop (on the left)

Dave Brisco

Ya know Dave, an economical way to get the 12' you want, at least in one bay, would be to vault the ceiling. It may be too late for that, especially if you're using trusses and they're already ordered. But even with that, it might be worth checking with the truss manufacturer about adequate modifications that will still maintain integrity, you'd probably only need to modify 4 trusses. Just a thought.

Well Dave, I can see why you couldn't afford to add the additional ceiling height... you had to spend extra money on the foundation (nothing like building on the side of those Arkansas hills )

You're looking real good, I know you can't wait to get in there with a new project

Dan J

Looks like a great place. You will love the hot and cold water, even just for cleaning yourself up before heading back into the "wife's domicile" Plumb it for air lines as well before the sheet rock goes in. Not sure if you have a compressor or plan on getting one, but this is a nice thing to think of now that you will be happy about later on. I also learned the hard way that an extra 220 line is never a bad thing. I started playing with welding this year and had to add a 220 line after the fact. I agree, if you can now squeeze some more height, now is the time to do it. If you use a 2 post lift, there is really only a 2 foot section at most where the columns and cross bar goes that is of major concern. Also, factor in garage doors and where they are when open potentially. Worst case, just use the lift with door shut. I posted some pics in my gallery finally.

Dave,

Bob had an excellant idea. If your using trusses and they haven't been fabricated yet, you could get a modified scissor truss... something like this. If you had the head room to install a lift later on, I KNOW you'd be happy to have it (I would!).

Dan J

Dan, I assume you did that with your CAD. Can you lay on a graphic to show the door tracks running up the vault so everyone can get a visual of what TC described?

OK, I had to steal Dave's car (don't look in the garage now Dave) to see if I could fit it onto a lift and into his NEW garage... the one with modified roof trusses

The drawing is not to an exact scale, but you get the idea of how this arrangement would work.

Dan J

P.S. Dave, I think it would be easier to accomodate the lift now instead of having to wait until you can convince your wife to let you build another garage off farther into your property... Just thinking about asking the wife that question makes you a bigger man than I could ever be

Well done Dan. To get the doors to hug that ceiling is easily done. One of my doors goes essentially straight up the wall with about a 10 degree fall back angle. I used a conventional door with a chain drive opener. Pic in my gallery.

Dan, very nice drawing, I like the added realism with the roadster added ... Unfortunately, eventhough you can't see it ithe ceiling has already been framed out with a large laminated 4x12 beam spanning across the length of the center of the ceiling height, so it looks like a flat roof is in my future... You are right about the foundation!!! I guess that I could have built a pit...

ToyCollector, I had not thought of running the airlines underneath the sheetrock, I was thinking I would run them on the surface... If I was to run them under the sheetrock should I be concerned about any future air leaks?...

What about lighting... I am still unsure if I want flourescent lighting because of the added cost of the cold weather fixtures... Any thoughts?...

Dave Brisco

I used galvanized pipe with teflon paste for the fittings and joints. There is a tiny amount of air loss due to all the joints and outlets I have, but I am not worried about any surprise air leaks this way. I have friends who have used PVC as well with no issues.

The flourescent technology has come a long way. I am not sure what a cold weather fixture is, but the lights I got are quick start and do not hum at all.

Did some looking around and I think I found a lift I can live with and it should work with my 10 ft. ceiling height... Here is a link...

http://www.autolifters.com/m6.html

It is a 4-post lift, total height of the lift is 82 inches with a 5-3 ft. under deck height... Any of you guy using a similar lift in your shops... Cons??? Pros??? I would be interested in hearing your oppinions...

Dave Brisco

Dave, when and if you decide to get fluorescent lights, get the ones with an electronic ballast. They are a little more expensive, but they are the direction the fluorescent light field is going. Guys at Home Depot talked us into a set of them for our basement den. They are quite a bit brighter than conventional tubes. The price is supposed to be coming down, but it is not that much more. Apparently the old style is supposed to quit being sold, the fixtures at least. Just a thought.

We just built a garage, as well. Just got the wiring permit today. Ours is 24X28, I think. It is detached from the house, with a gambrel roof. We used to have a big one with 12 foot ceilings. It was nice, but in terms of SQ FT, this is bigger, counting the top floor. We built ours out over a ravene, so we had to deal with the same foundation problems as you. We found a neat, cost effective way to make them look presentable, though. We had a company coat the blocks with mortar, dye it different colors, then cut it out to make it look like rocks. Looks real from 10 ft. I'll see if I can get some pics up of ours tomorrow.

Dave, a fellow hotrodder down the street has a autolifters lift and loves it. I spoke to them personally as well and was going to get one and then switched to a two poster that they were practically giving away here after 9/11. Ended up a better deal delivered and installed but it may just have been lucky timing on my part.