The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Too much garage?

Went I bought my house, is was ectatic about the 3 car garage and the 10x18 storage shed. I never anticipated running out of room. After all the shelves, cabinets, workbenches, cherry pickers, and the 54 it seems as though I'm out of room. My shed is bursting at the seems with bicycles/tricycles, table saw, Christmas decor, etc... You get the idea. I've been carefully planning my "dream garage" in my head, but it probably won't happen any time soon.

What are some of you guys working in out there?

I've been dreaming of a decent size shop since I was a kid. Now I'm in the second shop I have privately owned and can tell you that this time before building it, I new it wasn't going to be big enough either. I have a 36x56 with 14 high ceilings. I built mezzanines, drawers, shelves galore. The key for me is how I make use of all the available space I can find. I even made some compartments in the floor joists in the mezzanines for small stuff. I also made a stairs to the mezzanine with drawers underneath each step. You have to find a way to store the stuff off the floor. A handy outbuilding is a must also. So much stuff, needs not to be in a heated shed. Many things just take up space too much of the time. My next addition is going to be a 20' storage container. Perfect for my tractor/loader/snow blower, mower, etc.
Oh. A three stall garage is helpful too.

The three car garage would be alright, except my wife insists on parking our other vehicles inside, thus limiting the space. My next shop will be strictly MY space. No Bicycles, strollers, wicker baskets, pool supplies or anything of the sort(Ok, I can dream). My wife and kids can have their own garage and I'll have mine.

My Dad just built a garage at his house. One thing he did was go with 8X9 doors, instead of 7X8 like most garages. I gotta say I like his thinking. On my next garage, I'd like to have floor drains too. The concrete is poured at a pretty good slope in my current garage, the only problem is that in the winter it leaves a nice sloppy mess in front of the doors. If I squeegy it up, then I get a nice skating rink in the driveway. So floor drains are a must.

Oh, if only...

Most Americans live to the extent of
their paycheck.

Most Americans pack rat limited only by their storage space.

Dan Bentler

There is no such thing as "Too much garage".

At work they have an airplane hanger that comfortable fits two or three business jets and a helicopter. It is actually big enough to fly the helicopter around in there.

I would so put in a Mohawk lift, and have my 59 in there.

I have a 40x42 garage with 14.5 ft ceilings, a challenger hoist and 10 years later I can't swing a cat in the place....

Nature abhors a Vacuum (empty space will get filled!)

my garage is 22x30 and yes its tight i do have 300 sq ft of loft above that is packed. but storage and planning are the best things you can do. i built mine to play with old cars and trucks. i put the project in the middle and have plenty of room all around it to move. my walls are lined with tools and workbenches(which are not completely done yet). we live in north dakota but we do not park are vehicles inside at all. no mowers or any yard tools allowed either. i do allow the harleys inside in the summer but their stored elswhere in the winter. my wife is understanding on this but if it were any other woman i think i would be up a creek with no paddle. we use are garage more as a family room than a garage. like right now we are out here just relaxing and listening to music. so life is good

You could put a 13 foot high fence around your property with a roof on it, and down the road it still wouldn't be big enough.

I think the city would frown on a 13 foot fence. LOL. I'm already over my "land use" amount anyway. The only way for me to get more space is to tear something down. I wanted to get rid of the family pool, but my wife thought different. So for now, I'm going to have to live with what I got.

I've owned and built commercial truck shops so I learned a lot about what worked and what didn't. My latest home shop was built as much for looks and property enhancement as it was for the hobby. It is about 2800 sq ft and includes an office and full bath & closet. It has 12'12' OVH doors, and two shop walls have translucent material at the top for pleanty of natural light. 6" concrete floors in specific area and 4" elsewhere. 200 AMP service with lots of outlets and is plumbed for air where I need it. I have seperate wood, paint and repair area with an out of the way air compressor and wookbench area. Insulated for the local weather and a seperate 24x32 storage building for the farm equip and mowers, etc. I have enough building, I just don't have small enough vehicles. You can see it on my Picturetrail.com site below.

I have a 40' x 40' shop now, but we are looking at buying a home that has a 30'x40' shop. I mentioned to my wife that the shop at the new house was 1/4 smaller than the current one. She said that's not that much smaller and not a big deal. I told her that I could take 1/4 of the tires off her Tahoe and she could see how much 1/4 really is!

Agree, though, that whatever size shop you have, it is not enough!

Craig

The next time I purchase, I will get a shop/garage that comes with a house!

i had a cousin that was going to build a big quonset and just put a trailer house across the end of it. i quess he wanted to be close to his work. the weather would always be good if your yard was actually inside. if i was single i would think about it too.

A friend of mine was in the building biz and built a house using pole barn type construction. Heavily insulated, heated floor throughout, house siding and roofing, etc to the extent that no one knew it was a post type construction. Really a nice well built home. He had a huge shop building which he built from left over materials and only had the concrete cost in. It even had a rental apartment built into it. Now that is using your head. I wanted to build a two story shop with a rental unit upstairs but zoning prohibited it.

another guy many years ago up here in the north converted a big old barn to house/garage. the upper half was his house and the bottom or ground floor was a big shop. he even had enough head room for a hoist in there. pretty cool but it is hard to heat. now he rents it out to young guys so its more of a party place then shop. but extremely cool would have love to rented that back in the day

My shop is 24' X 40' with 12X12-foot doors. I've got a side shed down one of the 40' sides 10 feet wide, and I just bought a 53-foot road trailer to install on the other side. The axles and landing will be removed, and it will sit on a concrete block foundation. I'll have a 16-foot drive-thru between the trailer and the main shop, with a roof-over covering it and the trailer. The main shop is already so crowded it needs a major bail-out!
Jerry

How bout some pictures Jerry, we've gotten lots of advice from you over the years but
we never get to see any pictures of your projects. Do you have an album you could
share with us???
Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thanks,
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I've got a 40X60 with 20X20 apartment at our weekend place. (will build future retirement home hopefully)Shop has 2 8x16 doors & 10' wall. Also have attic space 8X40 wide that I still need to build stairs up to. I had been planning for years to have "too much garage" but now have determined that it's an oxymoron as the space gets sucked up with all the "stuff" necessary to enjoy this hobby.

I'm a builder as well. I built a 30 x 48 when we moved to our present location, then added a 13' wide lean-to when I bought the Chevelle. 5 years ago I built a 26 x 36 heated shop, just for me. It has 2 10x10 overhead doors as well as a hoist. I'm constantly guarding my space, people think that if there is room, it should be filled.

My main shpo is 44 wide x 60 deep with 16' ceilings. The main work area is 29 wide x 60 deep (4 bays), with a 12K pound 4-post lift. The door OVH is 12 x 20. On the other side of the shop (15 x 60) I put a 15 x 30 loft (office) with my wood/metal shop below and I have a 15 x 30 bay in front of the loft with 16' ceiling that serves as a paint and car wash bay, it has a 12x12 OVH door.

After that got full I built a 26 x 54 addition down one side for storage. The addition has a 10 x 16 OVH doors on the front and rear.

The shop has 200 amp service, telephone and water. I even have a washing machine to wash my shop rags!

Total square footage is right at 4400...

No mater how big you build it you will fill it up!

Mike B

Sounds like some nice shops. I am in 30x30 and when I retire I'd like a "big boy" 60x40 or bigger.

Some little things that make them nice, some may be repeats:

1. Do the bathroom and shower, plus utility sink outside the bathroom with a hand cleaner dispenser (number 1 useful thing to do with plumbing) Make sure you have hot water here and in bathroom.
2. Security
A secure tool room that locks separately from the rest of the shop, security system, reinforced access doors that swing out, fence around the building with a big dog in it, windows up high.
3. Plan your electrical needs, with 2-3 50 amp 240 circuits for welders and plasma, 1 20 amp or better for air compressor, same for lift. Put outlets waist high or higher, to clear work benches and so you don't have to bend over, put outlets in ceiling for cord reels from above. Turn outlets over so ground is top prong and will be safer if flat bars of metal fall onto outlets. Like square footage, you can't have too many outlets.
4. Flat floor if you want to do your own alignments. 6 inches thick where your lift goes. Put some rebar pots in at floor level to hook to to pull things around (like frame straightening)
5. Outside water for washing vehicles, outside outlets as well
6. Separate building for outdoor equipment, wood shop, non-auto
7. Paint booth engine assembly clean room if you can swing it. Fabbing with welders and grinders dust everything with metal dust
8. Plumb in air with air-specific piping for air outlets before you sheetrock or otherwise cover interior. Don't use PVC
9. Insulate walls well, my shop doesn't need heat in winter due to insulation, heated upstairs
10. Don't forget A/C in the south I really need it, but not heat, but had to cut wall out after built to put in window AC unit-AND one more 240V outlet dedicated for this!
11. Have breaker box inside for security such as turning off garage door openers when you are out of town, resetting breakers if one acts up (GFIC's do this with one of my welders when I switch it off)
12. Lofts are great for storage without sacrificing floor space.
13. Consider outside room for air compressor to keep noise down, or insulate tool room and put in there.
14. Separate outbuilding for "dirty" stuff like outdoor power and hand tools, gardening/lawn mowers, wood shop
15. Put everything on wheels so you can move it about, unless you have a ton of room.
16. Paint concrete floor so oil doesn't stain it, reduces dust, looks better. Paint everything white so you can see things (you will get old)
17. Lots of lights, more than you think you need, plus don't scrimp on the fixtures, the better ones light better and don't flicker in the cold. Like outlets, you can't have too many lights. High windows are secure and still let in light. Beware skylights as entry point and leak point, but good for lighting.
18. If possible create drive-thru with doors on both ends for easy dropping or unloading trailers without backing up. Consider access in general and how will you move things that don't roll on their own in and out, where outside things like trailers can be parked
19. Don't forget phone/cable/internet services, internet is almost critical to a shop anymore. (you read it here)
20. No matter how big, plan for storage and accessibility for things like spare metal racks, tire/wheel racks, parts storage, stand up shop tools like bandsaws, drill press, shop press, a desk, multiple workbenches, bench grinders, engine hoist, gantry crane, multiple vises, and if you are lucky tire changers, balancers, parts washers, enclosed sand blasting cabinet, lathe, mill, beer fridge, etc.

21. Can't think of anything else...

Also make sure to have or build plenty of bench space and drawers and cabinets. I have one area of my 36x56 shop that is just for the nuts, bolts, and do dads. I built some stairs for the mezzanine and put drawers under each step. In the floor joists of my mezzanine, I built drop down cubby's for small or light stuff. I have one small portion sectioned off for bead blasting, grinding, etc to keep the grime down in the rest of the shop. Air drops every where. The big thing for me is to make use of every square inch and try to get that space built BEFORE you start any projects. That is my goal this time. I have put everything on hold (almost) until I can get the shop done and organized first.

I also think of all the stuff I have. Not that I want more stuff in the shop, but, technically, the more stuff you have in your shop the more economical it is to heat. All of your items are heated and are radiant.
I have a buddy with a shop and when I look up....I can see nothing but unused space in his shop. I do have lots of space where overhead clearance s needed, but the space of a mezzanine is critical to me. I even have a car on top of one of my mezzanines. I have a small area on top of one of my mezzanines that has a couple of recliners, TV and fridge so I can relax for a few minutes.

I've always said that If I had 30 garage stalls, I would have 32 cars.

I agree.

I sure don't know where that silly expression came from.

Its strange to think that when we first moved in here back in our "younger days" with just a K-car I didn't know what to do with "all that space" in my 26 x 28.

WAS I EVER STUPID!

All you guys pretty much covered the whole subject!