Building dream shop, need clever ideas

[Johanna Johanson]

One thought about a toilet - there are toilet options such as composting, incinerating, and chemical. Those do not need a connection to a sewer/septic system. We use a little chemical toilet that we originally bought for camping.

[Rick Fisher]

The shop has a sink for sharpening etc.. but its literally 20 feet from the house so I opted not to put a bathroom in .. The upstairs is 968sf .. and I didn't want to give up the space.

The downstairs is below the sewer line, its about 800 sf .. basically a bunker / basement.

[Keith Outten]

Just a thought about the 6 by 6 wooden supports in your basement. I had two of them in my shop and over 20 years they degraded (multiple splits) to the point that I had to replace one of them and I will be replacing the second one shortly. I replaced the first one with a 6" diameter schedule 40 steel pipe and welded 1/4" thick steel pate to the top and bottom of the pipe to spread out the load. I have a second floor apartment that I use as a shop office, the load on the wooden posts was way more weight than I had expected. I tried to use my light weight auto floor jack to take the weight off of the first post and it did not have the lifting capacity. Fortunately I own a very large heavy duty floor jack that was up to the task but it was difficult to say the least.

After my experience I doubt I would want wooden posts to support a floor that is designed to hold the weight of an auto mobile.

[John K Jordan]

I tried to use my light weight auto floor jack to take the weight off of the first post and it did not have the lifting capacity. Fortunately I own a very large heavy duty floor jack that was up to the task but it was difficult to say the least.

For future reference, a cheap 20-30 ton bottle jack will work. I use a steel plate against any structural wood, put a piece of 2x12 on the concrete, and lift with a steel pipe. I used this method on my 80-year-old 2-story barn to jack up a support post that had sunk 6" into the ground. I replaced it with a concrete footer and a heavy-wall piece of 4" steel square tubing with plates welded on both ends.

JKJ

[Rick Fisher]

I will keep an eye of the posts. There are 8 of them in total. The whole floor was designed by an engineer. The posts are treated and the basement is dry, but i will still keep an eye. I really love the wooden floor. Its so much nicer to walk on than concrete. I started installing blast gates under the floor and can just tell I will love having as much as possible hidden underneath.

Also love the storage. I have all sorts of cable, ducting, and " stuff " already.. Don't want to throw it out .. don't want it in the shop. As mentioned I have a new table saw coming in about 2 months and will need to run more ducting to accommodate.. Its nice to have the space to warehouse it until needed.

[John K Jordan]

...love having as much as possible hidden underneath.

I like that too. I put my 6" DC duct work (at great effort!) in the roof trusses above the ceiling. This cleared up a great deal of wall space for shelving and hanging things as well as needed headroom with 9' ceilings. Not so good for rearranging equipment in the future but I'm hoping my months of pre-planning will be sufficient.

Another real advantage of hidden ducting is something inevitable although we might not want to think about with our new shops (I'm getting older by the minute) - the next person who uses the shop may do stained glass or pottery or weaving and might not need the dust collector!

With the duct work hidden the space can be reconfigured without ripping out the ducting in the main shop. The ease of reconfiguring might actually be a selling point when the time comes. Part of my own justification for building a new shop was not that the resale value for the property might be higher, but the building might tip a buyer towards my property over another.

I also love your storage space. My shop is 24x62 which I hoped would be enough but even my wood storage is still spread out between several other buildings and the barn.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

I started installing blast gates under the floor and can just tell I will love having as much as possible hidden underneath.

So you have to go downstairs to operate a blast gate? Is that practical?

[Trevor Howard]

The 6" Blast gate is downstairs, so its pneumatically activated through a switch which is upstairs.

^^^^ You must have overlooked this Jim

[Jim Becker]

^^^^ You must have overlooked this Jim

Yes, I absolutely didn't see that comment. Sorry to Rick!

[Robin Frierson]

"Part of my own justification for building a new shop was not that the resale value for the property might be higher, but the building might tip a buyer towards my property over another."

Its hard to believe, but I found the opposite to be true. I built a big shop in the rear of a 1.5acre homesite, built it on an old basketball court. And we found most people didnt need a big building like that...2200 sq ft. Realtor reported people loved the house but didnt know what to think about that big building in the back. Took two years to sell the house. A chiropractor finally bought the house...he collected cars and was going to use the building for storing and working on cars.

[John K Jordan]

Its hard to believe, but I found the opposite to be true. I built a big shop in the rear of a 1.5acre homesite, built it on an old basketball court. And we found most people didnt need a big building like that...2200 sq ft. Realtor reported people loved the house but didnt know what to think about that big building in the back. Took two years to sell the house. A chiropractor finally bought the house...he collected cars and was going to use the building for storing and working on cars.

Yes, I can believe that. Circumstance and location can make a huge difference. I'm sure my Lovely Bride would have vetoed buying a place with a big outbuilding on a small lot. I'm glad you finally found the perfect buyer!!

I'm not worried much about that with the circumstances here since there always seem to be people looking for developed farm land, especially for horse farms. We have 27 acres with pastures, barns, outbuildings, good fencing, poultry houses, etc., and keep horses, llamas, alpacas, mini donkeys, peacocks, guineas, chickens, honeybees. You can believe this: with an active farm you can NEVER have too many buildings!

An important point: I built the shop down the hill through the woods and near the barn, barn yard, peacock house, dry lots, and smaller pastures - this keeps all the "farm" stuff out of sight. From the house we see are the horses in the big field and the deer and the hawks and the sky. Visitors to the house don't even know we have the rest unless we walk down to see the animals. A realtor friend said the barn yard and shop out of view away from the house would be a selling point.

JKJ

[Robin Frierson]

Yes your situation is completely different John. Anybody wanting to buy a big spread like yours would welcome an additional building. Sounds like a wonderful place where you live.

Before I built my shop I considered buying a building about 3 miles from my house. It would've been perfect for a shop. It was a metal building even had a little small dock. I just didn't want to be 3 miles from my shop. But had I done that I think I could've actually made money on that building Instead of losing money on the shop at my house.. And sold the house a lot quicker. It's just we all want to be close to our shops..

[Deb Malloy]

Sounds like a dream location. Post some pics of the "farm" if possible. Of course we want to see shop photos when its finished.

[John K Jordan]

...It's just we all want to be close to our shops..

Absolutely! The ideal shop would be attached to the house by an enclosed walkway! I almost built my shop within 50 ft of the house - I even excavated for a basement and had a complete set of plans engineered and drawn up by an architect friend. Part of it would have been underground from the view of the house and I would have kept the "look" consistent with the house. However, building by the barn was the best thing ever for me since when I'm at the shop I'm right there for feeding and checking on the animals instead of walking down the hill. But it's less than 300 ft walk through the woods and I use a little 4wd utility truck when it's pouring rain or freezing cold! Life is good.

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

Sounds like a dream location. Post some pics of the "farm" if possible. Of course we want to see shop photos when its finished.

Oh no, you said the magic word: "pics." My apologies if this looks like an attempt to hijack this great thread but I love pics and since you asked:

Some views from the house (and the house);

farm_rainbow_P5113621e.jpg farm_deer_IMG_0144.jpg farm_horses_IMG_0118.jpg farm_sunset_IMG_4909.jpg farm_house_P6162388e.jpg

My wife searched for over 5 years for this spot. The guy trying to sell it refused to clean it up first and no one made an offer in a year so we got it for a song. I tell people the Good Lord was saving it for us!

JKJ