New Shop Help

[Mike York]

New to the site, one of your current members directed me here recently and I've been reading for a couple of weeks. I'm going to be building a shop/multi-purpose building to house my shop, a garage bay for boat parking and another bay for a weightlifting gym. Overall footprint will be around 30'x60' with the shop located in the center (30'x30') and the bays located on each end. I'm open for any suggestions, currently I'm debating between metal building and stick frame.
Thanks in advance.
Mike

[Larry Browning]

My best advise is READ, READ, READ! And after you do that, read some more. There is so much information in this forum and all over the internet about setting up a shop, you will never get through it. Here are a few cardinal rules:
You can never have too much:
Lighting
Electrical outlets
Space
Plan for:
Dust collection ducting
Compressed air plumbing
Future expansion
Overhead and flooring electrical, dust collection, and air.

Layout you shop BEFORE you break ground

[Michael W. Clark]

Hi Mike,
Welcome! +1 on what Larry said. Regarding your particular situation, putting the shop in the middle may require to go through one of the other areas for access. Consider putting the shop on the end or provide additional access. I wouldn't want to carry plywood through a weight room.:)

Mike

[Mike York]

Thanks for the input so far. Mike, when viewing the shop from one 60' side, it will have a garage door on each side for the bays I discussed earlier with the center 30' section being for the shop. The shop will then have its own double door in the center. Each section has it's own exterior entrance. That's the plan, although I will look at several arrangements.
The advantages I see with stick frame are:
1) I'm more familiar with that construction method.
2) I can build in phases which allows me to pay cash as I get to each phase (essentially smaller chunks of cash at a time) although this may be more expensive when totaled at the end of the project.
3) Siding and roofing choices may allow me to match those on my house.

Advantages I see so far with metal:
1) May be less expensive when totaled.
2) Quick construction
3) Possibly less long term maintenance.

Opinions please.

[Larry Browning]

In my neck of the woods we have a company that makes trusses for buildings. They also fabricate the entire building. What they do is construct your building from your plans at their factory which they can do very quickly and cheaply in a controlled environment. They then transport it to your site and put it together. Once delivered, they can put up the entire structure in a day or two. And for a simple shop with very few interior walls, they could probably get it done in a few hours. That would get you a fully framed stick framed shop just as quickly as a metal building. I suppose, you could have them just deliver it and put it up yourself. They have the advantage of volume pricing on materials and very low labor costs because it can be built so quickly. I think most truss companies do this theses days.
I did not do this for my shop only because I didn't know about it, but I know several people who had their house done this way. Not only did it save time and money, they were very pleased with the quality of construction.
Just one more option to consider.

[Brian Tymchak]

My best advise is READ, READ, READ! And after you do that, read some more. There is so much information in this forum and all over the internet about setting up a shop, you will never get through it. Here are a few cardinal rules:
You can never have too much:
Lighting
Electrical outlets
Space
Plan for:
Dust collection ducting
Compressed air plumbing
Future expansion
Overhead and flooring electrical, dust collection, and air.

Layout you shop BEFORE you break ground

Let me add lumber storage to the list.

[Kevin Guarnotta]

I'd recommend thinking of all the tools you may want in your shop, and add space for lumber storage. Lay this out roughly, and not just like a puzzle (ie how can you get it to fit) but like a space you will want to work in. In other words make sure the tools you will use most, have comfortable space around them. Make sure you have enough room to get lumber/sheet goods safely onto a table saw....etc.

I'm not sure if you were thinking of building walls between the different sections, but it sounds like you are...walls are good, they give you space to hang stuff. Think of that too.

[Michael W. Clark]

My preference would be for stick (wood stud) frame due mainly to familiarity as you said. It seems like adding things to the walls in a metal building would be more involved.

Larry makes a good point about the pre-fab construction. If cash flow is a concern, I would try to get "up and in" on the whole building. Basically, framed with the exterior treatment, roofed, and doors and windows, also rough in utilities. You can finish out the inside later. If you frame part of it, then whatever you do on the adjoining wall would be wasted and have to be dealt with later. You may also want to keep an eye on lumber prices, I think there have been some swings due to some home building coming back.

[Mike York]

Thanks for all the input, Larry great insight on the pre-fab construction, I will definitely look into it. I just completed my taxes for 2012 and it appears I will be delaying construction for a few months due to a re-appropriation of funds to Uncle Sam instead of Mike's shop. So much for stimulating the economy. When construction does start, i'll be posting pics and progress.

[Don Bullock]

In my neck of the woods we have a company that makes trusses for buildings. They also fabricate the entire building. What they do is construct your building from your plans at their factory which they can do very quickly and cheaply in a controlled environment. They then transport it to your site and put it together. Once delivered, they can put up the entire structure in a day or two. And for a simple shop with very few interior walls, they could probably get it done in a few hours. That would get you a fully framed stick framed shop just as quickly as a metal building. I suppose, you could have them just deliver it and put it up yourself. They have the advantage of volume pricing on materials and very low labor costs because it can be built so quickly. I think most truss companies do this theses days.
I did not do this for my shop only because I didn't know about it, but I know several people who had their house done this way. Not only did it save time and money, they were very pleased with the quality of construction.
Just one more option to consider.


I did a similar thing. My 24' x 60' shop/garage was built by Tuff Shed. The cost was about half the "stick build" quotes I got. It may not be the best for everyone but it worked great for me.

I'd like to throw you a curve on your plan. Why are you building the shop in the middle? I placed mine on the end of my building with the garage at the other end. The end I built my shop on had the best view, something that I really enjoy when I'm working out there and those windows provide a lot of light for the shop. Before you decide where your shop will go I'd suggest that you think about the possible view through the windows and the light that windows would provide.