I'm planning to start building a shop near the end of this year. Main room size is ~20'*30' with two attached 1 car garage bays for overflow . Location is south Texas, where AC is the primary operating expense, but heating is required maybe 2-3 months a year.

The current plan has a 10' flat ceiling, but I have been contemplating going with a cathedral ceiling (spray foam and wallboard on rafters) and putting a loft up over the attached garage bays ~ 24'*30' loft, with maybe 1/2 the loft space lost due to roof pitch and knee wall (extra storage in the loft, who knows what goes up there,...).

Doing the cathedral ceiling and loft may kill me in AC costs, still chewing on that, but cold air does go down so I could let the loft get warmish, particularly if it is for wood/junk storage. I'm thinking mini-split for the AC/Heat, but my current builder has no experience with them. I have one in my current shop and love it, very quiet and cools my garage when its 125 degrees outside.

Should I choose a cathedral ceiling the ridge will be about 16-20' off the floor, which requires changing the lighting plan.


  • Would a single row of high bay lights on the white drywall cathedral ceiling, running down the center of the 30' long, 16-20' foot high ridge line, be adequate task lighting (i.e. able to cast 20' wide at waist high), or would I end up with too many shadows at machines along the side walls (which may be unfinished T&G pine,,,).


I don't think I'd be happy with the look of a bunch of T8's hanging down 8' from the ceiling in a grid.