Remote workshop

[Glenn Kotnik]

I need a new workshop. I'm currently in a 3-1/2 car garage which needs to hold a car or two in addition to my woodworking equipment. My equipment consists of 2 wooden workbenches with piles of clamps underneath, a 15 foot long row of cabinets with a wooden worksurface, a beautifully restored 1968 PM66 with granite extension table and unifence, a Laguna 18in. bandsaw, a stationary belt sander, a Delta 13in. surface planer on a stand, a router table on a stand, a Delta dust collector with a serpent pit of hose, an oak bench with a drill press, and the Big Grizz, a 12in. planer jointer. Also, about 200 bf hardwood lumber in the attic. Since we don't have enough space here on our 3/4 acre lot to build an adaquate workshop, I am contemplating building one on our 10 acre lot out in the boonies. That's 20 miles away and a 25 minute drive from the house. Has anyone else had a remote workshop? I couldn't just pop in, plane a few boards and go back to the house to chat with the wife, woodworking would be an all day affair or nothing. Does this sound practical or would I invest 40k in a workshop that I would rarely get to use.

[Erik Stol]

Glenn,

You do have .75 acre (=3000m2) where you cuurently live and you say you don't have space to built a seperate workshop. Well overhere in Holland you could build easily a workshop and 2 more house on top of it.

But to be serious. A workshop that is a 25 minute drive from the wife is too far (or not that depends) That will be lonely evenings/weekends for you as well as the wife. Try to be creative and construct it somewhere in your backyard.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I agree with Erik, I think you would be using the shop way too little to make the investment worthwhile. Of course if you built a weekend home and workshop on your 10 acres... You might end up with something that could work. (you could leave a smaller workshop at your weekday house.). Otherwise maybe you can get more creative and add on or add vertically to your current workshop. I'm sure with a few more details you can get tons of suggestions for that route.

[Thomas Bank]

I have a 1500 s.f. workshop as well as my house on a quarter acre in town...

For me, that would be too far away. I'd never get out there.

[Art Mulder]

It all depends on your personality, I suspect. I know that *I* would hate it.
I have a basement shop, and I frequently pop down there for 30-45 minutes at a time. You can't do that with a remote shop.

(And I know this is peripheral to the discussion, but I can already see that you are going to have a hard time convincing us that on a full 3/4 acre lot there isn't enough room for a 24x30 shop... I grew up on a 1 acre lot and I can visualize the tons of space there was on that piece.)

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm with the rest.... too far for a 15 or 30 minute quickie after dinner. Sides, I don't think $40K will do it by a long shot. .....driveway, site work, foundation, underground utilities, drainage..... before you erect the building...... HVAC, electric. Some of us here have spent $10-12K just on a proper foundation and poured floor.

Just curious, even in the boonies, will they let you build an accessory building without a main structure on the lot?
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[Glenn Kotnik]

Yes, the land is agricultural and not much restriction. It's a beautiful lot with huge trees. We bought the 10 acres 3 years ago with the idea of building a retirement home and workshop there. Then the bottom fell out of the housing market and we would have to sell our present home at a fire sale price in order to move. As far as building a workshop here on our 3/4 acre lot, the problems include zoning restrictions, property line setbacks, neighborhood covenants, as well as the prospect of giving up my vegetable garden and cutting down the walnut and oak trees I've nurtured for almost 20 years. But it looks like everyone agrees that a remote workshop presents a lot of problems. Any other ideas?

[Erik Stol]

I think a lot of the folks around here are interested in your walnut and oak. Me too, but the shipping costs are a bit high?

But seriously, isn't there a way that you built a small building on your current estate? Try to find out with the zoning department what you can do instead of can't do. (Most times they do like that, thinking around with you) I am in that situation right now due to a change in the zoningplan for the townarea where I live.

[Mitchell Andrus]

the problems include zoning restrictions, property line setbacks, neighborhood covenants,

The same considerations drove me away from even considering 3/4 of the homes for sale when I was on the great house safari last year.
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[Brian Kincaid]

...We bought the 10 acres 3 years ago with the idea of building a retirement home and workshop there. Then the bottom fell out of the housing market and we would have to sell our present home at a fire sale price in order to move...

Sounds like you just need to wait a little while and follow through with the original plan.

If I had a remote workshop my tools might as well be in storage.
-Brian

[Tom Rossman]

It would cost a few bucks, but you could excavate under the garage and build a workshop there. You would be without a garage for a few months but you wouldn't have to cut down any trees nor would you run afoul of any set back provisions. Hopefully your house isn't built on an out cropping of granite...

[Brett Hoffman]

My wife and I are in a similar situation. We have a three car garage and we were out working on a project and she said, “Boy, it would be nice if we had a bigger shop” (We’re currently taking up all three stalls in our three car garage and we have three cars).

We only have a 1500 square foot house but it sits on a half-acre lot, which has plenty of room to build a nice sized shed, but due to zoning restrictions we can’t build anything else on the lot.

We could build a small 1 car garage sized shed, but to me that’s too small and it won’t add value to the house.

I don’t know your financial situation, but my plan is to pay off my house as soon as possible, and start saving as much money as possible to buy a bigger house where I can either build a really nice shop in a walk-out type of basement with a good dust collection system or an out building.

If you have $40k cash and you were planning on using that on building a new shop at the new location *I* would save it and keep adding to it so that you can use it to build your dream home or use it to pay off some of your mortgage on your house (re-fi and get a low rate, I just re-fi’d and got 4.50%). If you don’t have the cash and you were planning on borrowing it, I wouldn’t borrow the money because it just makes harder to get the end goal (of selling your house and moving to your nice new lot).

Thanks,

Brett

[Rob Russell]

We don't know how your house is laid out, but if the current 3 1/2 car garage is basically a single story structure, you might be able to raise the roof and put your workshop over the garage.

[Steve Peterson]

It is nice to be able to just drop in for a few minutes to get something done.

Another thing that nobody mentioned is the risk of theft at the remote site. It would be really sad if you planned a day for woodworking, drove across town, then found that all your tools had disappeared.

Steve

[Don Jarvie]

Doesn't everyone know the garage is no place for a car

An idea may be to park the wifes car in the garage and take over the other 2 bays. That would give you 20x20. You could even wall off the 1 bay so you have a separate shop. Just have the wall easy to tear down when you move.

Forget the remote shop. My fear would be one day you show up and theres nothing in the shop left.