New Shop, design stages....

[woody]

signing the paperwork on 4.5 acres of land in the next few days, step one is a shop/building for my stuff....step two is a house....may even be step 3 after a rock garden...lol

bigger is better, so planning right now for a 40' x 60+'. Can always downsize if I must, but may as well accept the worst price and go from there...14' walls too.

Got a quote from http://www.steelbuilding.com, final with insulation, single 12hx12w door, 4 windows, insulation, all steel, etc was about $20k. Similar setup (no insulation tho) from my local Menards was $13,500...difference is in the trusses...steelbuilding.com is (doh) steel, and Menards was wood. exterior, layout, roof, etc all the same.

what should my preference be??? Opinions from those who have done this??

 

[3_puppies]

would you be able to finish,sheetrock or sheeting, to the steel building? or would it be the roll insulation? only one door? wood may be easier to add another or two.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

If looks are not important go steel.

Steel pros
Will not burn
never needs paint
never needs roofed
no mildew
no termites
cheaper to insure

Cons
Harder to finish inside
Wiring needs to be in conduit
exterior dents hard to cover up

 

[woody]

if it hits 40x60 size, I'd likely make a small workshop 20x20 or so for actual projects, and heat/cool that separately....balance would be for other projects and storage. ALL would be insulated regardless, roll type throughtout, shop section would likely get metal interior siding to "clean" it up, and less maintenance than sheetrock.

C is thinking of a steel roof on the house too, so it would match...and we want some brick on the house, so I'd incorporate that into the exterior wall on the front, to help nicen it up...that plus some landscaping should keep it it looking nice (I've seen some nice steel sided ones around here...

interior is the concern now, steel girders or wood beams....leaning steel, despite the price hike...

 

[Junk]

I'd heavily lean towards the steel. You have checked zoning and with planning board to make sure steel buildings are good with them right?

Talk to Koffer, Cruiser4070 and Satanic Mechanic. They share a steel garage with heat, hot water, s***ter, cable tv and cable net etc.

Wood may be easier to modify, but having access to steel beams inside is never bad.

One other option to consider, not sure if it's cool with your town or even your plans, but have you looked into having a pole barn built? A guy Mitch from the 3fe list runs a company that builds them and a buddy in MD has one too. THose things are the s*** and they are apparently much cheaper to put up than typical building stuff.

Either way I'm very jealous.

 

[waskillywabbit]

Steel

I work in the industrial fabrication industry and out motto is "never build it out of wood if you can build it out of STEEL!"

Sheetrock is a pain in a shop and only gets fuglied up. Definitely have heating/cooling as it makes it much nicer to work on the rig, if you can afford it.

I too am JEALOUS!

 

[Romer]

with a 40 x 60 you could park all of Land Pimps rigs in their and have room to spare.

Just curous why so large. Are you going to use it as a business base? If so, you might want to define what future expanions you want to make to allow for easier integration latter. It would be a bitch to rip up 30 feet of concrete to run something later.

 

[Junk]

Romer,
Did you miss it? His rock garden is going to be inside

 

[Romer]

Romer,
Did you miss it? His rock garden is going to be inside

Aaaaahhhhh!!!! Thank's Mike

 

[hammerhead]

Romer,
Did you miss it? His rock garden is going to be inside

Wow, he really does hate mud. Tehehehe

 

[woody]

lol

the 4.5 acres is zoned general farmland, and is out of city limits. Given the $1 million home across the street, next to the $1.3 million home, and the farm with 3 outbuildings and the horses next door, I'm pretty open to what I can do...hehehe

40x60 needs to hold: Motorhome (current = 27', planning for 40')...boat (don't own one yet, buddy is shopping for a 35' Fountain right now)....trucks (that'd be 4 presently...or is it 5...hell, I can't remember)...workspace (d'oh)...and my buddy who just did the 465 plate adapter is thinking of opening his own shop, and was begging a corner. Had some beers with him last night....he's Mazak shopping right now....

Would probably make an internal work area with a movable wall for 24x24 square or so....keep that heatable and coolable, and leave the balance to mother nature....at least initially...

 

[Niner]

Woody,
I would go with a 14' high door or your next lemon might not fit in a 12' door.

 

[Trevor]

Have you considered overhead windows (or whatever they are called?) A guy at work has a similar set-up and said they provide a lot more light. The only downside is they leak. He says he needs to reseal them once a year.

 

[woody]

I considered them until you said they leak...lol

Will likely have the center "vent" be clear for some light inside...

and niner, it WILL have a 14' door, unfortunately, neither of my shopping choices listed it, but it can be done...

 

[Niner]

I've seen where they put the top few feet of the walls with the translucient panels to allow light in. Being on the walls doesn't give it the oppritunity to leak.

 

[denis]

lol

40x60 needs to hold: Motorhome (current = 27', planning for 40')...boat (don't own one yet, buddy is shopping for a 35' Fountain right now)....trucks (that'd be 4 presently...or is it 5...hell, I can't remember)...workspace (d'oh)...and my buddy who just did the 465 plate adapter is thinking of opening his own shop, and was begging a corner.

Holy crap, I think you want to build something 3 times as big for so much crap to store

No joke, your plan is going to be real tight... I have a 30x40 barn right now, and it' pretty damn full with a couple rigs, two trailers and an intermediate sized bunch of crap...

 

[woody]

actually, I've done sketches with sizes for everything...amazingly, it fits well......with some creativity, it would squeeze into a 30x40....LOTS of creativity....lol

 

[fsusteve]

Steel and go as big as you can. If you don't you will be wishing you did. I went 30x25 and wished I had doubled it.

 

[haystax]

Go with steel, you won't be happy with wood. Is the wood traditional framing or pole type construction? Our shop is 50x80, doors on each end so we can drive the trucks through. Two 16x16 rollup doors and 4 man doors. Have you thought about integrating a host trolly along a beam? Radiant heat? Are you going to pour an entire slab or just enough for your work space? A floor sump with drain is nice for washing off road salt in the winter time. Lengths of chain coming up through the floor make nice anchors for "remodeling" work. A large peice of pipe in the floor that is really stout makes a good mount for a big vice and anvil. The interior wall of our shop are the same exterior siding tin half way up, we have translucent panels in the upper wall section and then a white coated fiberboard from the interior siding up to the roof. Not sure what the stuff is called but it really dressed up the shop and covered the dirty 25yr insulation. Flourescent lighting? Bathroom? Office?

 

[woody]

if wood, similar to steel, beams on 9' centers. thot about the drivethru, but want to push the building to the back of the property, so not gonna. whole slab will be poured, may do a 10' overhang on one side for summer Lemon storage, that would be gravelled. If I do a seperated section for the workshop, that would get my 75kbtu HotDawg installed, otherwise radiant over the shop area. work at Neenah Foundry, planning on a good deal on some cast iron floor trench for cleanup. no s***ter, urinal and sink only. no office, probably just a wall unit in the front for the laptop and books/paperwork crap. most likely high output flourescents, happy with the 8'ers I use now and they light at -20 easy enuf. main would stay insulation only, workshop would get steel inner walls.

Idea for workarea is a stationary wall parallel with the front wall of the building, ~20-25' t-d off the sidewall....to the ceiling. Then instead of a seperate garage door, make a 14' high moveable wall...in place for winter to keep heat, store next to the stationary one in summer for easier access.

lots of ideas, biggest issue now was the internal structure, and steel seems to be the BIG winner. Once the structure is up, most of the rest will fall into place easy enuf.