Seperate or attached woodshop?

[Brian Elfert]

I'm moving so I can have space for a woodshop and also a garage for my converted bus. I'm strongly considering new instead of a preowned house.

What are the advtanages/disadvantages of an attached versus detached woodshop? It would certainly be nicer not to have to walk outside during cold or rainy weather to get to the shop. Noise might be an issue, but there are ways to mitigate that.

One advantage of a seperate shop is I would attach it to my bus garage so I could have easy access to the shop when working on my converted bus.

Brian Elfert

[Greg Funk]

If the shop is reasonably close it is nice to be able to utilize the mechanical systems from the house. My shop is 10-15ft away from the main house and I was able to run hot water for radiant heating from the house. Because it is close I don't get wet walking between the house and shop.

Greg

[glenn bradley]

I've had both and preferred the detached. Quieter, cleaner, just don't want it too far from the house as others have mentioned. That way the facilities are close.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I am vehemently against new homes cause I see the way they are built and how much the builder's make instead of putting good materials to work behind the walls.

That said, I love detached shops. I hope to always have one separate from the house.

[Travis Porter]

I have had my shop in the attached 2 car garage, a basement, and currently a detached (15 ft from the house) building.

If I had my druthers, I would have it in the basement as long as the basement was a walkout and had a minimum of 10 ft ceilings. Simplifies heating and cooling, electrical, and getting a laundry tub/sink in it.

Being detached has it's pluses (I did tap into the water and electrical), but depending on placement, you may not be able to utilize your existing waste piping which I was unable to do, so I had to put in what we call a grease trap for waste water so I have no toilet facilities which is ok as far as I am concerned.

[Gary Keedwell]

I am vehemently against new homes cause I see the way they are built and how much the builder's make instead of putting good materials to work behind the walls.

That said, I love detached shops. I hope to always have one separate from the house.

I'll second that one but it is no guarantee that an old house is built right , either. I've seen Norm and Tom shaking their collective heads too many times on TOH.
I like attatched shop because I live in New England and alot of times I like to go to my shop casually dressed with my slippers on and hang around.:cool:

Gary K.

[Richard Blaine]

My shop is attached. As far as noise is concerned, it's never bother me.;) (I know the noise issue is for the other inhabitants of the house.) But seriously, I have not heard complaints.

I do love the ability to walk out to the shop at any time without too much bundling.

[Rob Will]

I think it depends on how big your site, your machines, and your plans are. If you have a building for a bus, I would partition off a section for a wood shop.

I would put the shop between 50 and 75 feet from the house and keep it a separate building.

The wood shop floor needs to be flat while the bus garage needs a floor drain. I did mine in two separate pours.

If you get interested in a big separate multi-purpose building, PM me. I have lots of pics taken over the last year.

Rob

[Brian Elfert]

I am vehemently against new homes cause I see the way they are built and how much the builder's make instead of putting good materials to work behind the walls.


New homes have a lot of things going for them. My house costs 50% less to heat/cool than a comparable sized house 5 miles away built in the late 1970s. Minnesota has some strict energy codes since 2000.

Yes, a tract home builder builds a fairly poor home quite often, but I choose a builder who is very picky and does perhaps five homes a year. I was on site virtually every day and I saw the good work they did. I saw little things get done that aren't done on tract homes.

New homes can use floor trusses and microlam beams for clear spans with no columns or walls. An open basement with no protruding ducts or pipes is really nice.

I also like the seamless steel siding I have that looks much better than crappy vinyl.

My only problem was carpenters who couldn't measure and placed some stuff wrong. Some was fixed and some wasn't.

My house cost $190,000 to build (without the land) and the builders only made 10%. I know because I paid every subcontractor/vendor directly and the builder got $19,000 for coordinating everything plus he had to buy risk insurance.

Brian Elfert

[Keith Weber]

I have a basement shop. I absolutely love the fact that I can just go downstairs to an always-warm shop without going outside.

On the negative side, the dust always seems to find its way through the HVAC system to the rest of the house. I also hate not having a walkout. I also dislike the low ceilings.

My next shop will definitely be detached (or attached with totally-independent heating/air system.)

Keith

[Ron Blaise]

have been detached. I like it that way because of noise, dust, and mostly privacy. Man's gotta have a refuge, that's mine.:cool:

[Art Mulder]

If I had my druthers, I would have it in the basement as long as the basement was a walkout and had a minimum of 10 ft ceilings. Simplifies heating and cooling, electrical, and getting a laundry tub/sink in it.

Ditto.

However, I would be happy with 8' ceilings (as in, nothing at all lower than 8', no ducts, no pipes) and would consider 9' a dream. If the walkout was not an option, because of the lot configuration, I would try to put in a straight staircase, with 36" doors, that went straight up into the garage from the shop (or at least to the driveway) to make it easier to get tools and lumber into the basement without having to tromp through the house.

Note that I'm a hobbiest. For me, the convenience of being in the house and able to pop down for just an hour or less, and still be able to keep an ear out on the kids and things, is a bonus. As well as conditioned space!

But I expect that for a pro, the detached shop would win out all the time.

...art

[Bill Lewis]

Mine's in the basement, it has a level walk out door (6' wide) I've got my laundry sink and the electrical panels are right there. The 9 foot ceiling has worked out ok so far, I really haven't needed it much higher. Having it heated and cooled is great, this give me instant access to a comfortable environment, plus I can do other hobbies there as well. I also finished off the basement bathroom so I wouldn't have to go upstairs, or outside;) . It's big enough to be a dedicated shop, but not so big that everything has a dedicated space, but it works.

The one thing I'll never do again is have a shared wood/hobby shop and garage. I did that in my last house and it just didn't work for me (or the wife). It was always either or, but mostly neither one when you needed it to be.

I've got my permit in hand to build another 2.5 car garage (26' x 32' with a second floor) to give us more storage for the tractor, yard and garden equipment, lumber and sheet goods and my panel saw. If I have the space, I may have some basic shop space out there too and move out my metalworking stuff i.e. horizontal BS, welder, grinder, drill press etc... I'll run electric to it, but not water or septic/sewer. I may run a propane line as it's very close to the tank so I can have a heater like a hot dawg.

[Marcus Carr]

My first shop was an attached 2 car garage. My second is a separate building from the house.

I would not have an attached shop due to noise and dust. The drawback to detached is heating and weather that you have to walk through to get to it.

Marcus

[Rob Diz]

I'm a big fan of the Garagmahal. You don't have to get wet going to the shop in foul weather, but you have a separate HVAC system. I keep the temp around 50 when I'm not there, and only crank it up when I'm inside.

It's also locked and secure - the kids can't get in without me.

Two other key things for me are 1) ability to open the garage door and have each access (additional work area). Just yesterday I had some machinary delivered - just rolled it right in.

2) My other favorite thing to do to clean up is to open the garage door and literally blow my shop clean. It is a very satisfying experience.

[Jim Fox]

I have a basement shop right now, because that's my only option despite having a 3 car garage. I will not park my cars outside, atleast during the winter snow. Plus between the bikes, mower, tiller, etc. there is no room.

I like the basement shop because it is always warm in the winter or cool, because of house A/C, in the summer.

I dislike the basement shop because;

- Harder to get the materials in and out of the basement
- Until the walls are up, the rest of the basement gets dusty
- I always feel bad about running the Dust Collector, Saw, etc when the wife and kids are home.
- Overhead clearence.........would like atleast another foot of height.
- With the rest of the basement being living space, my shop although a decent size is kind narrow and odd shaped to boot.

My goal is to someday have a seperate shop detached from the house, almost like a seperate garage, or my other thought was to add on a large 4th bay to the garage.

[Michael Keating]

I currently have a detached shop/garage and I could not be happier. I know I am not bothering my wife in the house and it feels like a place just for me.

[Jim Becker]

My preference will always be for a separate building if that is practical. There is less concern with noise, dust and "fume" migration to the home and it tends to be more flexible. One of the reasons this property was so attractive to us when we bought it in late 1999 was because of the separate outbuilding (ostensibly a 3.5 car garage at the time with a second floor) and my growing serious woodworking habit.

I do agree with the large door concept, but don't like typical overhead "garage" type doors...they block overhead when open. Roll-ups for a large building or double out-swing conventional doors like I have serve the easy access need while not interfering with shop space, light, DC, etc. I also feel that windows are important...natural light is wonderful. That's harder to pull off in a typical attached structure due to the need to maintain a "garage" like presence with the home. With an outbuilding, you can position the windows more flexibly to garner the best light sources without compromising your ability to design wall space. IE, you can use high-mounted windows for light where appropriate. That's harder to do aesthetically in an attached building due to the relationship between the home and the shop/garage structure.

Other accommodations, such as HVAC, water/facilities, etc., are dependent on your climate, needs, desires and budget.

[Brad Noble]

Well, I barely have a woodshop and do not have a 'converted bus' but mine shop is detached. I love it. I don't have a basement and the funny thing is my wife still thinks that a garage is for cars and trucks! Yes, heating is a concern but I seldom work out there during the evenings of winter, just weekends. Now summer is another story. And I do have an air conditioner installed.

I vote for detached. Noise is not a problem, dust is not a problem (for the wife anyway) and I can leave it in a mess just the way I like it!

Brad

[David G Baker]

I have two detached buildings that are approximately 200 feet from my house and sometimes it is a real pain due to the weather. The expense of running utilities to the two buildings and the extra appliances needed to heat and cool the buildings is a problem as well.
During the cold or wet weather I frequently park my car outside and use the attached two car garage to do some basic wood working but even that is a problem because when I need to stain and finish my projects in the Winter it is too cold in the garage.
I would love to have a 1200 square foot house with a 10,000 square foot attached two story shop. Never happen but I can dream.
The main thing is the convenience of having utilities close to the work area and living area.
David B

[Brian Elfert]

Somehow my earlier reply from this morning didin't post.

I like the walkout basement idea. One site I've looked at would work for a walkout. I was going to skip a basement to save money, but I need to build a shop also.

I'm still torn if I should attach the shop to my bus garage or not. I'm certainly not going to attach the bus garage to the house.

I may end up buying a used house yet, so this may be a moot point. A used house is generally cheaper up front, but a lot of them require updating, new roofs, and such.

Brian Elfert

[Brian Elfert]

I do agree with the large door concept, but don't like typical overhead "garage" type doors...they block overhead when open. Roll-ups for a large building or double out-swing conventional doors like I have serve the easy access need while not interfering with shop space, light, DC, etc. I also feel that windows are important...natural light is wonderful. That's harder to pull off in a typical attached structure due to the need to maintain a

I wouldn't put garage doors in a shop mainly because they leak lots of air and make a shop hard to heat/cool. I plan to use double metal doors for a shop entrance no matter what I do.

Windows are nice, but don't they take up a lot of valuable wall space? I planned to put a number of small windows high up in the shop I had designed at one point.

Brian Elfert

[Jim Becker]

Brian, I used two sets of the double insulated steel doors with windows for additional natural light as well as "out opening" hinges. (they have non-removable pins for security reasons which raises the cost slightly, but means that the open doors are not taking up any shop space on nice days) They run about $450-500 per set and are worth the investment, IMHO.

[Robert Mickley]

I have to go detached. If no other reason it gets me completely out of the house. Besides the wife and I are on 2 completely different schedules and if I woke her up in the morning it wouldn't be pretty.

My current shop is about 100 feet or so from the house. Seeing the amount of dust I make I would never want it attached.

[Brian Sweetman]

I built a 16 X 28 detached garage/workshop, in the summer. It will never see a vehicle, as it is filled with my woodworking equipment. I've insulated it to the point where I can heat it with a match, you can barely hear the equipment running when you are outside, and it is about 25 ft. from the house. Other than the fact that I would like it bigger (by-law restrictions), I am very pleased with it, and spend at least 3 hours a day during the week, and full days on most weekends, enjoying my hobby and space. Wouldn't have it any other way.

[John Bailey]

I built a 20x20 shop two years ago, detached, about 100 feet from the house. I love it out their and would not have it any other way. I'm not sure it's the most practical way for the hobbiest, but for me woodworking is both theraputic and spiritual. I can turn on the stereo as loud or soft as I want, play whatever music I want, leave a mess or clean-up, or just sit and meditate. As far as heat, I bought a small direct air wall unit. Yesterday the high was 20 F. At it's lowest setting it kept the shop a 42 F. On it's highest setting, the shop stayed a constant 62 F. Not good enough for some, but very comfortable for me.

Did I mention, I wouldn't have it any other way!!:)

John

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

If I build an out building shop I will use a cement pad and I'll install a heat pump for constant cheap heat.

[JayStPeter]

I have a basement shop and used to have a garage shop. I spec'ed my house with 9' basement ceilings, then soundproofed the half I use for my shop. I also have a 7' wide entryway/stairway going down. That's about the best I can do where I am, but it's still a hassle to get stuff up/down the steps and from the driveway in the front yard all the way around. Driving through the yard has left some ruts, so I've stopped doing it unless it's super dry or frozen. It is pretty nice as I can work down there when everyone is upstairs or asleep. I have contained dust pretty well as long as I keep the doors shut. But, I still manage to track it around a little. Fumes are a minor issue, but not horrible. There are a couple walls between my shop and the furnace. Other benefits are heating/ac is basically free. I have no vents in my shop for sound reasons (because I never got around to putting baffled ones in). But, the shop stays between 65-72 year round.
I do like to pad my way down to the shop in my slippers for quick things. It's nice when doing a glueup to be able to glue a part up, wait a half hour, glue a couple more parts together, etc. It allows me to make use of more of my very limited time. Having to trudge through the elements would make that less appealing.
Ideally, I'd like an oversize 3-car garage attached to my house with a 1000 sq. ft. shop attached to that. Not real likely in subdivisionhoaland that I choose to live in so my kids have friends to play with.