hahah
the thing is........ You can always use the space thats there..... but you cant always make more space thats not there
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So what's the minimum height I'll need for a lift and be able to stand up under a car? I'm 6'4" with my shoes on. I've seen anything from 11.5' to 16'. Back of the envelope looks like 12' should get it. If I'm 6'-4", my truck is about 82", then you take off 16" for half the tire height, that's just shy of 12'. I can't imagine anything taller than my truck going on there, and I certainly don't see the point in designing it for that 1% of the time I'd work on something like that. I don't know that I'd want to be under my truck on a two-post residential lift, anyway. I don't usually work on our daily drivers, either.
The building will need to "fit" with the style of the house, and I'm not sure how tall I can go on the walls and make that happen. That, and I'm going to have to pay to brick all that wall, too!
Anything Bigger than mine. I have a Single Car Garage that I raised the roof to put a 4 Post Lift in. With two cars, my 7' Snap-On Box & parts, there is no room to turn!
Hahaha! I understand!
I'm toying with the idea of using this year's hotrod fund for building a shop. I've been working out of our two car garage, and I'm tired of tripping over yard toys and looking for tools that have been used as yard toys :)
Car 20ft+6ft+6ft ft either end of car add 3ft for bench now you are at 35ft add +12 for storage and man cave behind that wall so 48-feet wide, on length use 18ft per car add 1 extra car more than you plan for OAL . Height go for 14ft clear min if you can get away with it 16ft you can have a mezzanine. Wire it for 400 amps 3 phase. use about 250sq ft per ton for ac. Pour 6" to 8 " thick 4000 psi concrete use a 1 ft grid of #4 rebar now you got a good start.
Just a general comment - have you ever seen a home car shop that had enough space for parts & half-assembled stuff?
It's a real factor to consider. Car parts. Whole assembly portions of cars like drivetrains or dashboards or seats. New stuff in boxes. Raw materials of all kinds. Lots of heavy stuff that has to be sitting on the floor. Etc.
Also, consider segregating this area from the main work area in terms of heating & cooling. Climate control is never cheap. Even if the parts area is closed off, it still won't get the full brunt of the outdoor temps & humidity as long as it's basically part of the same building.
I have a climate controlled parts storage... my 2 spare bedrooms, and my game room! Even have 2 transmissions, an engine, heads, and and my Speedway Engineering floater inside. :)
Bought not built, lol. I bought a property where the main garage is 125 X 25 and the upstairs garage is 60X25. BTW don't mind the mess we are cleaning it up slowly.
Where I'm at to date - 60' x 40' pole barn w/60' x 16' enclosed shed on one side for truck/gooseneck trailer storage. There is a 800 sg ft apartment at the rear of the building leaving 40' x 40' for a shop area. Still a work in progress, a four post lift will be going in the bay where the rat truck is presently parked. A welding table will go in front of the air compressor and between the bays. Another 8' work bench will be added along one wall which will host a drill press, vise and grinder. Ceiling is 13' and both doors are 12' x 12'. 12 recessed LED lights coupled with the white metal ceiling netted me the best lit shop I have ever owned. I also added a carport shed and a tractor shed on opposing corners of the building. I chose to finish the floor with a stain-guard sealer and several coats of wax for easy upkeep. Using a split-mini head unit for heat/air duties when needed.
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Mine is 30x50 and it's not big enough. That's not including the three car (3 doors) garage attached to it either. I have two drive-on Bendpaks too. 50ft long is good, but 30ft wide isn't enough. I have about 8 cars, 4 stored, 79 TA in the middle getting built and the rest are DD go in and out of the 3 doors.
I have a 40x50 shop, a 24x40 garage for car storage and a 25x40 building for parts and I still don’t have enough room. Rule of thumb is to estimate what you need and add at least 50%.
My perfect setup would be to have a clean shop and a dirty shop. My paint booth eats up a big chunk of my shop. I built an overhang on the shop and moved my four post lift under it. Two post is what I use 99% of the time.
Don
Here I have a 130x125 garage and everything fits perfectly even though I have millions of gadgets and tools and stuff. I think 130x130 is just the perfect size for a garage, if you have a second floor you can even build a man cave upstairs.. I have another home in Hungary where we usually spend the summer vacations with my family and recently I'm thinking about buying property in Hungary near my house to build a garage. My family loves it there however it's awfully boring for me in summer..
Garage should hold 3-car minimum...
There is no such thing as "too big of a garage". :)
I come back to this thread a couple times a year, and come away feeling I don't have the funds or the space to build a garage large enough to be worth the trouble. This time, I'm seriously considering building a 32x40. I think a garage that's too small is still better than no garage at all.
I've priced a steel building, and it looks like conventional framing is much cheaper in this area. However, it looks like ceiling height could be an issue. From what I can tell, code limits the exterior wall height to 10' when using 2x4 or 2x6 wood framing. Am I missing something, or does everyone just go with a steel building if they want 12', 14', or 16' walls to accommodate a lift?
I'm with you AU Doc, +1 "I don't have the funds or the space to build a garage large enough to be worth the trouble." I'm looking at a 24X36 but all these super shops make me rethink my plans. Also I am jealous of your setup HandOverFist, that is a great looking setup you have there.
I just moved onto my new property which includes a 40x40 shop with 20ft ceilings. Height is great, but I am in disbelief at how little space I have after putting 1 project vehicle in there with 2 Cam Ams and all my tools. I'm about to build a mezzanine just to get more space for shelving. Another 20ft of width on the structure would have gone a long way now that I see it.
I am an A&P aircraft mechanic partnered in the family business... our maintenance shop is 50X50.. office is 15x15 and side room is 15x40... should have made the shop 60x60...
We also have a storage hanger with 6 airplanes in it that is 70x90.. the front 70x70 portion has a 52 foot diameter “carocell” floor built in with 4 airplanes on the floor... flip a switch and they rotate around till you get the one you want to the front of the hanger... real slick setup... the other airplanes are stuck in the back section and are customer projects.. our other storage hanger is 40x30 and it is full of junk from my old house, my 1969 Cougar project and some other car parts..
Brian
like a Railroad Turntable? that would be cool, any pictures?
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