tell you my shop wish list should i EVER get the chance to do something from scratch
full floor water piped for HEAT..with the ability to "bypass" the heater and do a coiling in a freezer for summer cooling
pre wired for "overkill" amount of LED light..those of us doing body work HATE shadows but this also prevents eye fatigue
4post roller/stacker, 4 post LONG(4dr long box anyone?), scissor.....i dont think id bother with a 2post unless is was the super duty versions built for long wheelbase trucks
8-10ft spacing drops..AIR and power, the sole reason behind this is short air runs, short power runs, the chance of never needing an extension cord....i did this in my 20x20 and id never live without it
main exterior power/air/water drop at each door
now heres where i start breaking things up a bit...and killing the "norm" of things
cubical wall covering
i had a chance to clear out a MASSIVE office of them for free, and did it for teh scrap metal as these are the steel mesh steel post type NOT the wood ones.....i quickly found out that they are fire proof, have an insulated core in them and due to the design are sound proof/muffling.....you do the interior walls of a shop in these and you loose ALL echo, insulate the shop, and make it very VERY hard to burn down...i took a cutting torch to one of them....while i could get a little flame for a split second after melting, they refuse to light and stay lit, the "tin box" echo of pole barns is HELL on a good day, and even a standard shop with any flat wall is echoy.....cubical walls are about 3inches thick..but oh soo worth it, with ZERO other insulation in the dead of winter with several feet of snow on the ground, fire up the wood stove and you could get the shop "workable" in about 3 hours and hold it at that point(zero ceiling insulation either), dead of summer 95+ with silly humidity, it was like stepping into a refrigeration unit at about 60-65 degs which it would hold till around 6-7pm when the temps outside would start falling it was time to open her up
compressor room
shut that bitch up! so you can hear yourself think
my plan here would be to build a 5x5 or so room (depending on tools likely under the loft)with a MASSIVE intercooler/condensor unit and the biggest compressor you can find, sound proof the shit out of it, in adition you could go with a bigger room and add toilet and sink here as well as your furnace if its not a hanging unit
LOFT
this isnt for a man cave but if you have say a 15ft ceiling youll have space between the rafters that will typicly give you an aditional 2ft at the ends and go up to about 6 ft in the center..you basicly take the rear most wall to the first rafter which is useualy 10-15 feet and then the full width of the shop ceiling space and put your shitter up there, sink, fridge, and couch, the other half of this becomes "carefull" storage, or semi clean work area, for carbs and small engines, below you is your machine shop up, IE all your tool boxes, a couple old fridges as chemical cabinets(neer fire proof,moisture resistant, and hold a pretty solid 55-65 degs year round), drill press and any other "big" tools....the idea here is to MAXIMIZE space in the rest of the shop and kill the clutter, bonus if the loft can overlook everything for pics, ideas and jsut a view of your acomplishments....sometimes reflection is the best motivation
exterior doors.....
first off build a damn porch for your "man door", cause most "shop" kits just have a flat wall with a door...so every time its piss pouring raining your standing in the rain fumbling with your keys, secondly it would be nice when its raining and you need some air to be able to go out there and sit and catch your breath
toy doors
this is all dependent on shop layout but that said i would have a minimum of 2 doors, 1 thats a BIG bitch ie 20x10/20x12 or such..think "rv" as you may never have one, the next home buyer might and its a huge resale for a shop to be able to say "you can pull in your boat, RV or big rig", secondly a "car" size door typicly at the other end of the shop, something 10x10....now these can be your typical pole barn "slide" doors, tho they are a bitch to get "air tight" in any form and critter penetration is a nightmare!!!!!!fact is no matter what kind of door you put in think about critter entry thru the cracks, and once they get in they will keep getting in and ruin your shit
HEATING/cooling/ventilation
haveing a gas fired boiler baseboard system in the house from the 50s....ive learned some things....a warm floor is a gift!
id kill for water piped floor for heating and cooling, and in all honesty from what ive seen with out house, gas fed boiler hot water fed baseboards its rather inexpensive to run, zero maintenance, the system is from the 50's and has only needed a new flew door, and a transformer, my ideal twist to this would be to get a big freezer or something, plumb it up like a kegerator, but run a secondary valved line to your floor thru it for summer cooling
some form of overhead heat is a MUST for when you need it warmed up NOW...ive done the wood stove and unless your getting your wood for free and have someone to man it..its just not worth the hastle when your neck deep and the fires going out, you cant stop and it goes out, id KILL for docs waste furnace, then theres the fact an open flame that big is never a good idea, it takes FOREVER to get it up to working temps, woodstove heat is ONLY good in a shop for maintaining heat unless youve got 3-4 hours to burn waiting on it, then there is the cost and logistics of firewood, storing the firewood, splitting it and then the bugs and rodentia that come with it, i think if you do the math add in the time to get it, split it, stack it, store it the shed for it(you do NOT want it stored in your shop tho its nice to grab a pallet of split with a forklift) and then weigh all of that against gas, waste or other youll find its just easier to say no wood here unless your on alot of land with alot of tree fall which means free wood..even then time is money but youve gotta deal with the tree fall anyway
ventalation..i cant stress this one enuf, at each end of the shop, get yourself the BIG gable end flap type ends, and the fastest air moving fans you can, i used those BIG(size of a 55gal drum in dia) yellow fans made for hooking to ducting for drying out flood damage and such...noisy as hell but 1 will EVAC smoke, fumes etc from a 30x60 in about 2 mins, and fully clear it in 5
foundation
the foundation itself..oy the things you learn
for this one..do NOT just go with a flat slab like most do for a polebarn/shop..a flat slab leaves you with MASSIVE moisture problems, in adition any roof runoff splatters the ground and then goes between the base of the walls and the slab, dont even THINK about gutters, since the snow yeild will rip them off the shop, but even if you had gutters the rainfall on the ground will wick past the walls too
in fact you can get yourself some bonus height here and kill some small leg critter issues in a single blow if you do a 1-2foot rise foundation onto the main slab..your 12ft building just became 13-14ft ceiling etc you get the idea...but you can build you door into it, your garage doors into it thus killing critter entry, now if your on even the slightest slope DO NOT build up the ground on the low side, instead CARVE in the high side, go concreete and then save in building materials, anything extra could mean out buildings, wood shed, spare panels for repairs etc, my general rule on a shop would be a BARE MINIMUM of a 1foot from ground level rise of concreete with the outter skin of the building skirting OVER it and down by 3inches this will allow for the best insulation, critterproofing, moisture breaking, i cant imagine a down side to it
as for the concreete itself go OVERKILL and you can actualy save money, the trick is in the fiber strand reinfoced stuff...it means NO rebar, but also means that your slab doesnt need to be as thick for your needs meaning less concreete ..however id ALWAYS go thinker than you need, and if you want a 2 post lift put in some footings where you ant it..even if you never put one it..on a side note to the chop stand..i dropped a VERY heavy I beam from 15ft up trying to get it into a storage spot.....this bastard was heavy enuf to have a ramcharger struggling for traction while hoisting, something went wrong and it let go, i left a quarter size "chip" in the floor....shit be TOUGH...
also you do NOT want expansion joints but instead "zip strips" this will leave "tiny" cracks that act as expansion but will leave you with as smoothh of floor possible
lastly i would NOT run anything into the foundation if you can help it aside from your heated slab....think of it as preventitive maintinance, if your "utilitys" dont run under the slab. if anything happens to them youll never have to break the slab
POWER
code will dictate some things BUT if you can.....
you want your main box as close to the man door as humanly possible....fire or other electical issue, your escaping its right there on the way out!, and you want a MAIN KILL on said box that kills the entire shop in one swoop
a small shelf for whatever you may , a key hanger and such too, but sectioned lighting for the shop, a multitude of switches, interior lighting exterior lighting all of it right next to the door, i use the fuse box however for my compressor switch
ill leave this here for now and add to it as i remember it, but this is the "main" stuff....i do NOT recomend any windows and definatly refrain from any "clear" type panels that dont last many years, and the roof should have ZERO holes in it..go thru the walls or end eves instead...your in snow country!
...I am looking to build a shop this coming year. Just brain storming and wonder about putting a hoist in the shop. Now people who have done this, or are privy to this info, how tall a ceiling do you need, and any other pertinent info?
