shop build!

[BigDaveZJ]

We bought the house almost exactly 3 years with plans to do the detached garage eventually. Most neighborhoods in our area have HOA's, small lots, cookie cutter houses, etc. There are a few neighborhoods though built before the mid-70's that don't have any of that, and we were able to find a great house in one of those neighborhoods. The lot is = .23 acres and we have access to a 40' wide alley behind our lot.


One of the main requirements for the shop was that the F250 fit in it, and that I could close the garage door and still be able to work on the truck. It's got just shy of 185k miles on it, and I'm sick of working on it in my driveway. That led us to the 28' depth of our shop, as I will have room to move around the truck, close the door, and still have room for something on the wall in front of it. The 24' width was about the max we could without impeding on a 12' RV "pad" that runs the entire southern boundary of our property from the alley to the street. It is currently all rock and there is an old shed in the way, but the shed will be going away within a week, and we will be concreting from the door of the shop all the way to the street.


Here is a sat view from Google that I printed out and scanned back in after drawing out some different things to help visualize what we would end up with:



The grey lines are the RV pad, and part of that will be concrete. The exact layout of the new driveway has not been determined yet. You can't really see the shed in the overhead view, but it's right off the SW corner of the attaced garage. The brown square is where the shop will go. There is an existing slab that was put down about 25 years ago for a basketball court, and we will be working on making that an awesome patio hopefully next summer.


Here is a shot looking back over the side gate towards the soon to be removed shed, as well as a horrible Juniper and Blue Spruce? that will both be removed to make way for the shop.





The shop's foundation will butt right up against the existing slab. It will come out from the rear property line about 3-4' past the existing slab, and the over to the RV pad JUST shy of where the red landscaping dividers are and through that flower bed. We tried to grow flowers there, but our 2 85lb labs didn't want that to happen.




Another angle of the backyard, looking over at the RV pad and our M416.





And looking at what will soon be the front of our new shop.





Details on the shop itself so far, 9' walls, raised ceiling (not set on this yet due to the additional drywall work needed). 18x8 insulated garage door. Separate sub-panel for electrical and replace the main box in the attached garage. Stem wall foundation, required for anything over 600 sq ft in our area. 2x6 construction to allow for more insulation in the walls. Sure there's more but I know I'm forgetting stuff.


Haven't completely nailed down how the interior will be set up, but I want several work bench spaces, a welding table, lots of storage, and lots of lights. We'll be running ethernet and maybe coax for SAT-TV out there, and will have a TV/PC monitor in the shop and plenty of audio. Audio will also be split on an A/B channel to go outside to the patio. It won't happen right away, but eventually our keezer will move out to the shop so we can have tasty homebrew on tap in the shop and close to the patio.


Basic construction is expected to be done within the next 6 weeks or so. The contractor is taking care of everything but the inside. He's running power out there and hooking up a light and a few outlets, but the rest is up to me. There is going to be a decent amount of grading required for the foundation, so I'm glad someone else is doing it!


I'll post updates as they come along.

[ATL ZJ]

Very exciting Dave. I'll be interested to see this progress.

One comment - "hooking up A light and a FEW outlets" is drastically insufficient. I highly recommend LOTS of hard wired overhead lights (T12 bulbs or better) and two gang outlets on ALL walls spaced no less than six feet apart. 240v at minimum on the two opposing walls but ideally one outlet on all three walls. You can thank me later.

[BigDaveZJ]

That's what the contractor will be doing, I will be adding a LOT more. They're doing just enough to pass inspection.

[OverkillZJ]

Want me to swing by and throw a tool through the siding on this one too?

[Pearce]

Awesome, another going up! I was going to start one this year but decided to postpone till next. Just to busy and I'll build it as a home owner/GC to save costs. Yours is very similar to my plans. I went with a 30x20 interior space. Mostly due to random codes that keep me within a specific space in my back yard as well as height. Did this google sketch-up to scale to get an idea of physical space. I wanted the Dodge to fit inside easy and also maybe a boat in the future. All you're shop equipment and toys should fit nice. Hope this helps to give an idea of space. (i only drew the garage, found the toys in the library and re-scaled them) There's more in my photobucket

[BigDaveZJ]

This one will be fully finished inside, so it will be harder to get a pry bar through the drywall, 6" of insulation, AND the siding! Although I do need to figure out a stress ball of sorts for the garage . . .

[fluxcap]

Wish my townhome complex would allow me to increased my garage size too.

[BigDaveZJ]

Got the shed mostly torn down over the weekend to make room for the new driveway. The roof was a bit heavier than I thought it would be, but we cut it in 2 sections and it was manageable. We would have just destroyed it or hauled it out in one piece but a buddy of mine wanted it and has no way to get it in his yard assembled so we had to take it apart either way.

[Ted_Z]

I'm curious as to the cost increase on 2x6 walls over 2x4 walls. Are you going to heat the thing 24-7? I'd just crank the heat on (assuming you have heat right?) when you want to work in there. Otherwise you're just heating unused space.

Another recommendation is to make sure you have access to the space above the ceiling for additional storage.

[BigDaveZJ]

I want to say the difference was very small, couple hundred bucks tops. My main thought behind heavy insulation in the shop is that it will get no love from the heating or cooling in the house. I was thinking something along the lines of this for heat: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...duct_5840_5840 and then window a/c units in the summer.

I'm not sure I'll need additional storage above the ceiling the way this is all going, but I will definitely have attic access if that changes, or if I need to get up there any other reason. Or should I say if I need a person substantially smaller than myself to get up there.

[Ken L]

Dave, rather than putting an air conditioner in a window, which will cut down cross-flow of air when it's nice out, have a dedicated hole cut in the wall for it. You can always take the unit out in the winter and put a "plug" of sorts in it's place, although my parents have a big window unit permanently mounted like that and they just cover the outside in the winter with a 1/4" plywood box.

Also, are you going to have windows on all 3 walls, or a service door on one that can be opened for cross breeze?

[Ted_Z]

I want to say the difference was very small, couple hundred bucks tops. My main thought behind heavy insulation in the shop is that it will get no love from the heating or cooling in the house. I was thinking something along the lines of this for heat: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...duct_5840_5840 and then window a/c units in the summer.

I would NOT recommend that style of heater. For all these not vented heaters all the water vapor (byproduct of combustion/heat) ends up inside your shop. For this specific heater, 40,000 BTU/hr it will consume about 2 pounds of propane an hour, which is just under 1/2 gal of water produced if my math is correct.

I'd look for something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hot-Dawg-...i_src=17588969

[BigDaveZJ]

The one you linked is NG, not LP, adding a bit of complexity to the project having to run a gas line out to the shop. I've used LP heaters for years in the garage without issue, and I wouldn't think a half gallon of water in 7-8k cubic feet would be all that bad?

[Ted_Z]

They make the Hot Dawg heaters for propane too, same heater different gas jet.

If you're not heating 100% of the time you could also look at an electric forced air heater. Then you wont have to fill bottles. What size is the electrical service to house?

[BigDaveZJ]

Should have enough for electrical. I think the sub panel in the garage will be 150 amps. Definitely will not be heating this thing full time, only when I'm using it. My plan had been to get one of the bigger tanks like you see out in the sticks (maybe a 100lb tank? maybe more?) and put it behind the shop and use that to power the shop heater, and the grill and smoker on the adjacent patio.

[BigDaveZJ]

When we were tearing down the shed, we found a few items that we might reuse in the new shop. There was an old desk in there that apparently belonged to the Postal Service at some point, needs some paint, but it's a decent size and in good shape. Also, the original front door to the house was in the shed. It's 1970's Denver Broncos orange on one side, and mint green on the other. AWESOME. It's 36"x79" and 2" thick, and completely solid. I'm going to trim back the edges a bit to get some wear and tear off, and sand off the paint, probably stain it. There's no detail work on the door at all, flat on both sides, so I'm going to clean it up and use it as a workbench top.

[BigDaveZJ]

Progress.

[BigDaveZJ]

Got some more done tonight in preparation for the foundation to be dug out. We pulled a lot of rocks out from under the large juniper bush, can't imagine these were cheap and pretty much totally hidden. We're going to move them to an area closer to the house where we moved some of the red rock that will be dug up for the driveway, might make a sweet little r/c crawler course.








And they were freaking heavy. Some were about as much as I could handle on my own.

[Ted_Z]

Remind me to never let my kids on your swing set.

[BigDaveZJ]

The swing set will be going away shortly, the dogs don't really use it much.

[OverkillZJ]

Haha, swing set of death!

[BigDaveZJ]

[Ted_Z]

Nice

[Wildcard]

Hi, NICE project! New guy here but I happened upon your project and thought I'd mention you might want to consider a ductless mini split for your garage over a "window shaker" they can do both heating and cooling and are easy to install. You should look into them.

Just my 02,

Rich

[BigDaveZJ]