New garage shop plan -- welcome comments

[Ken Cohen]

Hi -

My holiday vacation project is to finally build a usable (and heatable) shop space in my detached garage. We are lucky enough to have an old farm like structure that serves as the garage: fairly large, two stories (upper level is the garage), ply floor, 9 1/2 ceilings, separate 100 amp electrical service, no insulation.

My plan is to add a wall to divide the garage into a shop area and a car/storage area. See plan below. The garage side will accommodate our cars (largest in SUV) with enough room to open hatchback if the car is tight against the wall. I also have an electrical plan designed in concert with an electrician. Adding double door on left.

This forum has provided a wealth of great insight on shop design -- and I've tried to incorporate where possible. I generally build moderate sized furniture projects, e.g. desks. Plan to build built-ins wall unit for house over next year. I think I have a pretty good design, but I'd welcome thoughts on improvements/ potential issues.

1. Positioning of wall to define shop/garage space. (critical dimension seems table saw to wall clearance)
2. Shop layout
3. Heater location (planning 5K electric units on 2 sides)
4. Walls (plan to sheet rock for cost reasons)
5. Lighting -- 3 lines of fluorescent lengthwise

I will spare you the electrical plan, but I believe it follows general thoughts from the forum. 2x 220v runs for table saw and right rear (jointer). 2x 20A outlets ringing shop wall. 1x 20A for DC (with several outlets around shop). 1x 20A in floor for planer.

Thanks in advance for the feedback. Plan to buy studs later today. Glad to provide additional info.

KenGarage Dec.jpg

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Looks good to me Ken! I'd personally figure out a way to frame in a quiet room for the dust collector while you are framing, (I'm assuming is a stationary cyclone?).

[Ken Cohen]

Nope. It's a Jet portable. Needs to move around. Stationary is $$$ down the road.

[Kent Chasson]

Looks like fun.

I think it's a good idea not to plumb in your DC right away. I'd also recommend leaving everything else as flexible as possible. Maybe I'm a poor planner but I have found that I have to work in a space for quite awhile before I can really maximize the efficiency of the layout. It all depends on how you work.

As for electrical, I put 20A outlets every 4' and it looked like a lot. 10 years later, I have 7 power strips screwed to various places around the 600 sq ft shop.

Also, I love my high output fluorescents with "triton 50" bulbs. Tons of light with good color rendering. Electronic ballasts don't hummmmmm but I need to figure out how to shield them because they interfere with the remote for my air cleaner!

[Keith Westfall]

Is there a reason for the space on each side of the vehicles? It would seem that perhaps if you could move them to one side, you could incorporate more shop space.

[Ken Cohen]

Funny shape is result of garage door locations. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Art Mulder]

Ken,

Where are the doors into the shop?
Is the shop a stand-alone building or does it connect to the house?

The 43' dimension is great, you'll love the space. The 12' section in the middle might feel a bit confining, but I live with an 11' wide shop so you can do it.

One thought I had was perhaps building some wide double doors into that 11' wall on the left side of the garage. This would give you easy access into the shop, and in warmer weather you could open those doors if you needed to "expand" into the garage area for temporary extra space. That depends of course on where your main doors are. Despite the odd shape I think you'll like it.

Oh yeah, where is your lumber storage going?

You mentioned that this is a 2storey structure. What is underneath? Down the road you can look forward to plumbing your DC under the floor, and perhaps running the electrical there also.

[Ken Cohen]

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess it doesn't show on the plan, but I am going to put 2x36x84" doors on that left side for access and space. To your point, I actually thought about putting a big sliding door in the middle of the wall to allow it to open up in the summer, but decided it was complicated, expensive and unnecessary. Lumber storage is on the back wall both above the miter saw (boards) and the back right corner (panels). Great idea on the DC -- eventually.

[Todd Crawford]

Just thinking outloud - unless you have a use for the area between your 11'-6" wall and the front wall of the garage, I would make that a separate finishing room and possibly move my entrance door to the wall in front of the car on the left.

[Ken Cohen]

I wish I could use the space you describe. Need it for access and storage.