I am expecting to get a contract today on a property that will allow me to build my dream shop. I will be leaning heavily on the advice of folks here as to the design elements. Here are the basics.
  • The house is in a nice custom home neighborhood a mile from where I live now and 2 miles from my office. It sits on a 3/4 acre lot and currently has a tennis court on the lot that will be removed to build the shop.
  • The relevant zoning setbacks to the side is only 15 feet and 30 feet to the back of the lot. I can build up to 30 feet high and lot coverage limit would allow up to 11,000 sq feet of shop
  • We will build the shop to match the house, same materials and style. I will have a long patio facing the back yard with windows and maybe some french doors.
  • I'm thinking of building about 1,800 sq ft, but open to larger.
  • I want a room to spray finishes in with a bank of filters on one wall and an explosion proof fan to exhaust.
  • it will have a small bath
  • It will be 2 by 6 construction, very will insulated and have a heat pump sized to keep it any temp I want.


I am thinking of 30 by 60 but the aspect ratio can be whatever I want given the space I have. Key will be how to layout the machines and how much and where to have open space. I want to accommodate the following:
  • large sliding table saw
  • single head 37" wide belt sander
  • 24" Euro planer with outfeed table
  • large jointer
  • separate shaper
  • oscillating edge sander
  • 24" disc sander
  • Oscillating spindle sander
  • maybe 2 band saws
  • Large Dewalt radial arm saw with lots of bench on either side. I have 20 feet now and want maybe 30 feet in the new shop. Storage cabinets under and the saw infeed and outfeed tables on either side. I have the saw now and will add a tiger stop to it.
  • Drill press
  • compressor and dust collector in a sound deadened room
  • vacuum membrane table, ideally I could fold up against the wall when not using
  • probably more


One thought is tools mostly around the perimeter and work/assembly area in the middle. other ideas? Any CAD models for the larger tools like I listed above that I could drop into a 3D CAD tool to model?

Another forum member and friend Rick Fisher recently built a shop with a basement and he ran all the dust ducting and electrical in the basement under the floor. Very slick but in AZ most construction is slab and I suspect doing what Rick did would add like 30-50% to the cost of construction.

Another thought is to have the slab poured 12" below grade and to have a raise panel access floor system like they use in data centers. Apparently you can get used floor systems super cheap, like $4 a Sq ft and they can support as much as 10,000 lbs per sq foot. Something like this.

https://www.accessfloorsystems.com/i...rlock-kit.html

Maybe instead of the concrete filled steel panels I would just buy the structure and put in thick plywood panels, maybe 2" thick as they would be 24" by 24". This would allow me to run the ducts and electric under the floor but still access for changes.

Any initial thoughts?

thanks...joe