Designing New Workshop

[Tom Spring]

After about 8 years in Alaska, my wife and I have decided to move somewhere where winter doesn't last 9 months and where we get more than 4 hours of daylight in the winter... so we're moving to Colorado Springs, where we are having a new house built. Here in Alaska, I have a 24' x 32' stand alone workshop, which I built myself.
For the new house in Colorado, we decided to have a drive under garage built (basically a two story garage - the top for cars, the bottom for my new workshop). The workshop will have a single garage door around the backside of the house, and will have interior access from the main house (that way I don't have to trudge through cold and snow to get to the shop like I do now... and I don't have to listen to the kids complaining about having to shovel a path for me through the snow :)

Anyway... the house will start being built in the summer of 2013, and I'm now trying to get the shop designed... machine layout, power, lights, etc... The attached pic is the initial machine layout I've come up with... the room in the back right is a finishing room... the garage door is in the bottom left area... not sure where the internal access man-door will be yet, but it will be somewhere on the left hand side...

Placement of the dust system should allow me to run two main lines... one to the right for the miter saw and router, and one straight up for the TS, lathe and a floor sweep...

I'm still working on the electric and the lighting... and I'm thinking about framing out all the walls with 2x2 furring strips and maybe plywood...

Any thoughts / comments, etc? The house won't be done until June 2014, but I want to get the shop planned ASAP (hell, my wife hasn't even done any planning yet for interior finishes and such...)245230

[Richard Wagner]

Cool idea and I do mean cool. The shop, even without AC, will likely be the coolest place in the house.

However, unless you sound insulate, the house may be an echo chamber for the shop.

[Jim Neeley]

Hey Tom,

I moved into a new place (for me) in Southport with a 4-car. I've picked up most of the materials and am just finalizing the design. If you'd like to drop in one day here, take a look at what I'm planning and share your ideas, feel free to PM me. It's always fun to talk shop.. especially when it's for real!! :-D

Jim in Anchorage

[Jim Andrew]

So your shop will have concrete walls and ceiling and floor. If they are pouring the walls, I'd have some window blockouts put in. I'd also have an offset put in the back side so you could run a woodstove flue out. Or pellet stove etc. Colorado still has cold winters, and the concrete will be very cold.

[Tom Spring]

Yep, I figured the space will be fairly cool... I'm having a gas direct vent / forced air heater installed. That's how I heat my current workshop here in Alaska and it works like a champ. Seeing as how half of the space will be below ground level, I don't think I will need AC in it, but I will talk to the builder about that.

As far as sound attenuation... since the space is under the garage (and the reinforced concrete needed to park cars above it), I assume I won't get a lot of sound transmission upward... and if I do, it's only the garage above anyway. The walls that adjoin the living space will probably get some type of rigid insulation to cut down the noise transmission "sideways" to the lower level of the house...

Windows will be a bit more difficult... the lower level is a walk out, so the only option I have for windows is the front wall (which is actually the rear of the house), near the garage door... not sure at this point how the final grading will look, but I hope to get at least 1 window in. And I plan on doing a LOT of 4 ft fluorescent, T8 lights...

[Art Mulder]

Yep, I figured the space will be fairly cool... I'm having a gas direct vent / forced air heater installed.
...
Windows will be a bit more difficult... the lower level is a walk out, so the only option I have for windows is the front wall (which is actually the rear of the house), near the garage door... not sure at this point how the final grading will look, but I hope to get at least 1 window in. And I plan on doing a LOT of 4 ft fluorescent, T8 lights...

I have no idea what code is in CO, but I'd inquire about putting 2" foam insulation OUTSIDE the concrete, so the concrete becomes part of the thermal mass of the house. (Or maybe do the whole foundation with ICFs?)

W.R.T. windows... if the left side of your drawing (where the garage door goes) is exposed, then I would also think you could get one or two side windows there also, where the ground slopes.

have fun, post photos!

[Robert Payne]

I'd suggest that you locate your lumber rack closer to the garage door end of the shop to facilitate getting materials in to it without have to traverse the entire shop. I might also put in French doors instead of a garage door so you can have thermopane glass to bring in light and retain heat. You might also want to consider a closet for the air compressor and dust collector to reduce the noise. But, it looks like a nice amount of space for a great workshop.

[Joe Angrisani]

....Seeing as how half of the space will be below ground level, I don't think I will need AC in it, but I will talk to the builder about that....

My two cents, from ~50 miles north of your new Colo Springs location, is "No, you won't need AC."

[Bob Deroeck]

Hi Tom,

We don't know what the topography of your site is. Is there any possibility that there will be flooding of the below ground workshop due to excessive rain or snow runoff? It seems like 100 year storms are becoming more like 10 year storms in many parts of the country. Trying to move out heavy machines as the water is raising would be no fun.

Bob DeRoeck