The bad news... I am losing my workshop...

[Matthew Hills]

Watch Matt Cremona's shop build.

[Michael Schuch]

24 x 24 is a very nice sized shop! ...but bigger is always better. 24 x 24 will allow you to centrally locate a table saw and push through 8' material. Or maybe have a sliding table saw some day.

Are there an city or HOA limits on how big or tall your shop can be?

9 or 10 foot ceilings are a must for me! Not just for maneuvering wood but also storing sheet goods and lumber upright which makes best use of storage space. You can't store a 4 x 8 foot sheet upright with an 8 foot ceiling.

I have tons of natural light in my house and very little in my 40 x 40 shop. The shop is SO much easier to heat and cool! I have switched to LED light and am happy with it. Natural light is great but can add a lot to the heating / cooling bill.

I have a half dozen 3 phase machines. I get along quite well with my rotary phase converter and VFD's.

LOTS of 110v and 220v outlets on several circuits!

Uncovered concrete floors serve me well. Heated floors would be nice. I have electric heated floors throughout my house and we love them! For concrete I would guess that you would want to go with the water tubing. From a cost basis I would sacrifice heated floors in the shop first.

A tall roll up door is really nice to have! My roll up door is lined up with a wall that has my radial arm saw / miter saw on so it is easy to cut really long boards to length by opening the door and sticking the stock out the door.

My shop has a 4' wide pad in front of it. A 20' wide concrete pad would be REALLY nice to have some times.

If you can engineer in an overhead lifting device like a gantry for a reasonable price it is something I often wish I had.

In my neighborhood my shop has to match my house. If it didn't I would opt for the best insulated and least maintenance. My shop has 2 x 6 walls on a 18" tall concrete rim. It holds heat and cool in very well. The 18" tall rim wall gives me 9'6" to the ceiling but the joists and drywall are only 8' tall material. This probably saved the original builder a bit of money.

I highly reccomend mini-split heat pumps for heating / cooling. The hard part is keeping the saw dust out of the coils. Some day I will install a mini-split in my shop with a cartridge indoor unit (instead of the usual wall mount indoor unit) and integrate it with lots of filters for filtering the air as well as heating and cooling it.

Plan for dust collector ducting even if it isn't part of your initial build.

Good sized electrical service.

Running water in the shop is a GREAT luxury! It is so nice to be able to wash things, like your hands.

I have been able to survive the last 20 years without a toilet in my shop.

Having compressed air plumbed in the wall is nice but not necessary (for me).

An external closet sound isolated from the shop for a compressor and dust collector is nice for keeping noise levels down.

Having a second floor or partial height second floor is great for storage! Figure out how you will get stuff up there as part of your design.

I wish I had an Ethernet cable running out to my shop!

I do not have a dedicated finishing room. I often apply finish in front of my shop which for some reason works out ok without a lot of dust and dirt falling on the wet finish.

Just some thoughts...

[Jack Frederick]

Per Michael’s comment, I had a 10x15 porch off the side of my 30x34. There was enough grade. To the space that I rarely had to have help getting things off the tail of the PU. It was a very pleasant work space. As you are in the planning stages, shop orientation is important. I added solar on my shop and ran the whole property off it. It is worth the money. Attic trusses, mine was 8/12 gave me a light storage area accessed by a 300# folding ladder. I cut a hole in the ceiling with a winch at the peak to lift the light items up for storage. Very useful. I did AL24-4C metal siding. It is designed to rust and gave a very nice appearance to my eye. It is 22 ga material so real metal. No maintenance.

[Alan Lightstone]

I found that adding a few overhead hoists in specific locations has been a tremendous help. Specifically, I store my heavy, large crosscut sled on it, hanging high over my table saw outfeed table. Another one came in incredibly handy for lifting up machines to place on mobile bases. And yes, 10 foot ceilings are far better than 8 or 9 foot (mine are 17 feet, long story. Wish they were far lower.)

You can't have too much light. I have essentially no natural light in mine. And don't miss it.
And windows really do suck up space. But if you have gorgeous view, why not?

And you can't have too many outlets. Ethernet wiring is nice. Wifi can then come from that.

I took the Phase Perfect route to get 3-phase power. Very glad I did. Love those higher HP machines. But I see that you don't say you need that.

I added a finishing room to my workshop with an industrial, explosion rated fan and replaceable filters. Really glad I did. My finishing work was elevated exponentially having that.

Double doors for sure. Lots and lots of insulation for sound and weather.

Can't imagine working without running water.

Mini-split is great down here in Florida. Heating very rarely necessary. And amazingly efficient.

[Jim Becker]

Can't imagine working without running water.

That's really nice to have. But in my case, it would have added up to $10K to the cost of the shop building to have water or more if sewer connection was needed. Plus kicking the jurisdicion approvals up a whole bunch 'cause...plumbing inspections which are the most stringent of all.

[Anthony Tony Ennis]

Thanks for all the responses. This is going to be a process for sure.

I like the ideas of building on piers and the mini-split pump. 10' ceilings... what's not to like? Clerestory windows are a great idea too.

[Christopher Charles]

Anthony,

Glad to hear you'll get an improved shop out of the ordeal.

Glenn,

I've read way too many of these threads but have not yet seen this great tidbit: "Sawed slab contraction joints.
Makes rolling heavy items much easier than tooled joints."

Best,
Chris

[Anthony Tony Ennis]

Are there an city or HOA limits on how big or tall your shop can be?

I have a half dozen 3 phase machines. I get along quite well with my rotary phase converter and VFD's.

LOTS of 110v and 220v outlets on several circuits!

A tall roll up door is really nice to have! My roll up door is lined up with a wall that has my radial arm saw / miter saw on so it is easy to cut really long boards to length by opening the door and sticking the stock out the door.

An external closet sound isolated from the shop for a compressor and dust collector is nice for keeping noise levels down.

Just some thoughts...

Mercifully, the new digs aren't in an HOA. I can build what I want.
I have one 3-phase machine, a little metal lathe. It's on a VFD which I quite like.
Plenty of outlets is on the agenda, with a few 220s. The VFD and the table saw like 220v
My radial saw is located to make use the the current shop's internal man-door in a similar fashion. Lumber comes off the rack and onto the radial saw, and protruding into the barn!
I'll have to think on double-doors or a roll-up.
I'd use the compressor more if it weren't deafening... maybe an internal closet would be just the thing.

thanks for the ideas!

[glenn bradley]

I'd use the compressor more if it weren't deafening... maybe an internal closet would be just the thing.

thanks for the ideas!

I was never a habitual air compressor user. I bought a really quiet one. I still barely use it. Just more info for your decision engine.

[Michael Schuch]

Mercifully, the new digs aren't in an HOA. I can build what I want.
I have one 3-phase machine, a little metal lathe. It's on a VFD which I quite like.
Plenty of outlets is on the agenda, with a few 220s. The VFD and the table saw like 220v
My radial saw is located to make use the the current shop's internal man-door in a similar fashion. Lumber comes off the rack and onto the radial saw, and protruding into the barn!


thanks for the ideas!

I am happy it helped!

When planning 220v outlets consider what machines you "might" have in the future instead of what you have currently. It is much easier to add 220v outlets when the walls are open. When I bought my house with shop on it 20+ years ago my machine collection was just in it's infancy. If you are comfortable with VFD's and 3ph machines there are a lot of old industrial machines that can be had at incredible prices! (A 16" industrial radial arm saw is a beautiful machine to own and use!)

My brother in law is in the process of building the 20 x 24 shop of his dreams. He told me he would only need two 220v outlets.... LOL!!!!!

[Bill Dufour]

Put in a 50 amp outlet outside for a welder or a electric car. Be careful about the wiring and use full 50 amp wire not 40 amp.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

Settle on one brand of circuit breakers. Check ebay and craigs list for used loaded panels. Code may require GFCO or arc fault. You will probably have to repalce them afte rinsepction so your tools work. My all cast iron, no electronic saw and air compressor trip out GCFI breakers in under one minute of run time.
I like square D QO breakers still being made 70 years latter. Lots of spares out there.
I added a surge protector at each sub panel in the shop. Motors will cause surges and fry electronics in the house and shop. Square D, and I am sure others, make a surge protector that plugs into a panel just like a two pole breaker. Cost about $35 on the bay for brand new. $120 at the box stores. Jut lave room to mount latter when you have the money. Two pole location as near to the infeed as possible is best.
Another choice is whatever brand you have already in the house. Nice to be able to shift them around for trouble shooting.
BilL D

[Jim Becker]

When planning 220v outlets consider what machines you "might" have in the future instead of what you have currently. It is much easier to add 220v outlets when the walls are open.

I generally agree with this. My methodology evolved around this over time, however. I have machines divided into two categories: machines that must have a dedicated circuit due to their nature or because they would be used at the same time as another machine. An example of the first might be a CNC machine...mine requires 240v 30a four wire. Examples of the second include a dust collection system and a "whole shop" compressor. Dedicated machines get dedicated circuits appropriate for their needs, but I generally pre-wire with conductors appropriate for 30 amp anyway unless they need more. That provides future flexibility should something get upgraded. For non-dedicated machine needs--machines that will never be run at the same time as other non-dedicated machines, such as a table saw and a jointer/thicknesser, I run a single 30 amp circuit that utilizes large, accessible j-boxes so there is no "daisy chaining" at the receptacles. That's difficult with #10 wire in any situation. It also means adding a receptacle location in the future is very easy since the supply is accessible, regardless of whether or not the run to the new location has to be fished in a wall or run in conduit.

Honestly, there is a lot of merit using PVC surface mount conduit for machine circuits because it's really easy to change over time, especially if you don't permanently glue it. Most of the add-ons in my previous shop were surface mounted. All of the electrical for my temporary gara-shop was surfaced mounted in PVC conduit. All of the "center of the room" drops in my new shop use PVC conduit, but 240v receptacles that service dedicated machines are "in the wall" because they easily could be put in that way during initial wiring. Please note that some folks do live in areas where PVC conduit might not be compatible with local code.

[Tom Bender]

If you can put the big door on the lee (east) side of the building. That will reduce HVAC operating cost and blown in leaves, rain, snow etc.

If you want windows consider many small windows and plan to cover some with stuff. And windows in the big and small doors will help.

Friend has a garage with only one way in, thru the motorized door. Then the door quit, locking her out. Don't make that error.

[Rollie Meyers]

WRT your electrical…
If you do slab-on-grade concrete floor you will most likely need to make all your outlets gfci, including your 240v ones.

If you do piers and 2x joists you can get more insulation, a softer surface to stand on (my previous was concrete, what a difference!), PLUS the NEC gfci does not apply if your floor is above grade level.

I insulated and put in a white suspended ceiling and 12 thin, dimmable, programmable, wafer lights in a smallish 12x16 shop (local code required <200 sq.ft.), no windows. Windows use up wall space. The 12 wafer lights produce more light than I need now, but I will be able to just up the lumen level with the dimmer switch as my eyesight degrades with age. I can program it wrt intensity and color.

If anyone is in a State that has adopted the 2020 or 2023 NEC, GFCI protection is required for all receptacles 120V or 240V, in a shop. Concrete has nothing to do with it.