We've just purchased a new home, and one that presents a great opportunity to design a workshop with a relatively clean slate in a great space.

The home we are purchasing is near the beach, so is built up to withstand hurricanes. In fact, it's built to withstand Cat 5 hurricanes, and is easily the strongest home construction I have ever seen. This is what presents me my opportunity for a great workshop.

I will have a ground floor space of approximately 45' L x 17-21' W. The really interesting part is the 17' high ceilings.

I would like to put in a storage area over the workshop, to cut down on the massive amount of air volume I will have to cool in Florida (I'll be installing a number of split AC registers), as well as for lumbar storage, jig storage, etc...

My first question is how high should I leave the workshop ceiling under the storage area? Is 10.5 feet sufficient? (I'm thinking that will give me 6' of headroom in the storage area after the floor/ceiling is built.)

Also, I'm looking to install an H-hoist on two added steel I-beams, as I'll have masonry walls/ceiling/pillars that it can be attached to. How much extra clearance would I have to allow for that?

Anyway, thanks in advance. I'm sure I'll be posting lots of questions (and a number of pictures) over the next year, so hopefully this will be interesting for more than just me.