Minimum width for a usuable one car shop

[Lil'John]

Title sort of states it all.

But to elaborate. I'm looking at buying some land and building a "smaller" house with an attached garage. A dedicated shop may be planned in the future ;) Due to the slope of one lot I'm looking at, the one car wide garage may be a requirement or spend lots of extra cash on excavation and retaining walls:rolleyes: It'll probably be an extra long garage(30-35 feet) Depends upon how the rest of the house lays out ;)

I've got one rig that I work on and that will be the only rig seen in the garage :D It is a nice narrow 72" outside tire to outside tire.

With that thought in mind, what is a comfortable work around the car distance? Is four clear feet enough? Saw that mentioned once during my search here.

Most of the work would be general maintainence, welding, etc I don't see me doing another chassis swap in the future. I might get into tube bending or even some machinery(lathes, mills) in the future but by then, I'm hoping to have a dedicated shop ;)

[KWTMECH]

I'd say a bare minimum of 12' wide

[Todd W]

6' wide outside to tire
I would then add 5' on eac side so 16' wide.

Welder + Bottle is around 3ft and it nees to pivot, turn, and you need to be able to walk aroun dit.

Really a two car garage width is crammed for working on 1 vehicle when you put tools in there.... Even narrow and long may be a pain. I would try to do 3 car garage width myself or 2 car width + 2 car deep at a MINIMUM.



-Todd

[the glassman]

my garage is 18x20 and once you get tools,shelves and such it gets real cramped:(

[Lil'John]

My current "shop" is half a 2 car garage now ;) It is about 25 foot deep of which I'm only using about 20 ft.

My welder is on a fairly tight moble cart 14" wide x 3ft deep w/ swivel casters on all four corners :D So fairly narrow and very mobile.

I'm not sure how much help having the deeper than average garage would be. I can see putting tool cabinet cart and welding cart back there as well as a good size workbench/welding table.

Ideally, I'd run cabinets at about 7ft from the ground on each side for the first 20 ft.

My major concern is how much side to side room is acceptable. I know the absolute minimum would be about floor jack handle length (~3 ft) When I searched, I saw 4ft mentioned.

[jeepinrombo]

i am doing my build in 8x15 garage. it is near impossible to work in there

[Lil'John]

my garage is 18x20 and once you get tools,shelves and such it gets real cramped:(

That is sort of my concern... but for a general plan, I'd lay it out as follows:
- front 20 ft would only have outlets and shelves/cabinets at 7 ft from ground
- back 10-15ft(whatever final size is) would be the work bench, tool cabinets/cart, welder, etc.

In essence, for the first 20 ft, I'd have wall to wall space available for working around the rig.

[HalfFastFord]

A 20x20 is considered a two car garage. Minimum you might need is about 20 deep and 12 wide. That's taking into consideration the 20 deep for a vehicle and 8 foot wide ona vehicle plus 2 feet on either side. That would be the bare minimum I think to get away with.

[Wicked_S10]

I worked for along time out of a shop that was 12' wide and 24' deep. I did alot of Jeep stuff out of it, and built a S10. When things got to big for the shop, I would move them outside and finish out of doors. I wouldn't want to go back to that, and at the very least I like to have about 4' wider than the vehichle on either side to have room to move.

Later,
Jason

[Hackfabricaton]

Gotta agree somewhat with the group that says 12' width minimum. And even then you won't have a lot of space for tools on either side of the vehicle. That's why I believe that 16' is a better minimum for width. That'll give you around 4' either side of the vehicle.

A nice small shop size is 20x25. That'll give you some breathing room working on a single vehicle. Forget about having two in there when you're working on anything. You want a good

I'm presently building my CJ in a two car garage, which I still have to share with some lawn tools, etc. Between the workbench, tool boxes, air compressor, engine hoist, engine stand, sandblast cabinet, etc: I can't even store the body tub in there.

When it comes time to build my 'death house' (the one you walk in and are carried out of), I'm gonna have about 1800 sq ft of living space and a four car garage. Then I'm gonna build a shop that's 40x50(or 60 - I like to have a dedicated paint booth or area). Just gotta pick the right numbers!!!!!!!!

[PTSchram]

24* 60 gets cluttered real quick!

[Lil'John]

I worked for along time out of a shop that was 12' wide and 24' deep. I did alot of Jeep stuff out of it, and built a S10. When things got to big for the shop, I would move them outside and finish out of doors. I wouldn't want to go back to that, and at the very least I like to have about 4' wider than the vehichle on either side to have room to move.

Later,
Jason

Did you have anything along the side walls? Were you able to use a floorjack or hi-lift?

What was hindered most by the 12' wide shop?

When I posted this, I was leaning toward 14' wide based up my own experience of 4' off the side with cabinets in that space also.

Length will not be an issue in my case ;) As mentioned, I'm looking at probably 30 ft or longer.

This is going to be the temp garage/shop. At least until I can afford the dedicated shop with 4 machine rooms, 8 car stalls, 3 phase 460V, etc:flipoff2:

[Wicked_S10]

I didn't keep much of anything along the walls in the first 12' or so of shop depth, I had some shelves that were high enough and shallow enough to be out of the way, but that was about it. I could run a floor jack if I eased it in at an angle, and I never tried a high lift. I had to leave skinny street tires on whatever vehichle I worked on, because otherwise there was barely room to walk between the tires and the wall, even NT jeeps. There was not enough room for my welder to roll between the rigs and the wall, but it wasn't much of an issue as I have 15' leads on my MM251 and could reach about anywhere with the welder parked at one corner of the rig. I know have a 24'x36' shop, which is the biggest they would let me build in the city limits, and I still think it is too small, but I have large work areas set up for welding and machine work, so about the only real useable space is about a 16x16 area in front of the big slider door, and that is plenty of room for me to work on a SWB rig, but it gets crouded when I have to bring my p/u in for an oil change or something.

Later,
Jason

[Lil'John]

Thanks for the info Wicked S10.

Anyone else comment on having worked in a narrow shop/garage?

[co]

I work out of a space about 14 x 40. There is no way I would build like this. When pulling off tires there is always something in the way, I can't move a big roll around tool box around the rig without banging a mirror. I always have to move something to get something else out (mower, motorcycle etc). If someone else is helping we are tripping over eachother to move around. If you are worried about the cost of execavation, rent a small trackhoe for a weekend and do it yourself. They are easy to use with just a little practice and not to expensive.

[Lil'John]

If it was just simply an exavation issue, I'd be out there with a spoon to do it:grinpimp: From the pricing I've looked at, $100-$150 an hour for some large equipment wouldn't be too bad.

The whole lot is sloped so any excavation will more than likely require a retaining wall. And the wider the garage, the taller the retaining wall that will be needed. And if I recall right, after 4 feet, the wall would have to be engineered.

BTW, are you working on a fullsize truck in your garage? Your garage dimentionally sounds like what I'm looking at doing.

[jmhinescj]

I'm with thes other guys that say that a 2 car garage (mines 22x20) really isn't enough to work on 1 rig. By the time all your stationary tools and benches are in there along the walls it might as well be 16x18. Iv'e got a 8x16 shed in the back yard that all the yard tools, scrap steel, tranny, motor, tools that don't get used much, ect. go in, if I didn't have it I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to work out of there at all.

At least consider building a nice level pad out in front of it where you either roll a vehicle out on to or maybe move your fab projects out onto.

[co]

I just went and measured, the space is 13' wide, not 14' as posted above. I mostly work on jeeps or mustangs. The shop is actually the unfinished half of my basement. If budget and the lay of the lot allows, I would deffinatly go with a basement shop. It stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, and does not take up any more space on your lot. If all you can manage is the narrow garage, it would still be better than working outside.

[Lil'John]

Thanks for all the good input so far.

As mentioned once or twice, the first 20 or so feet of the garage will be empty the entire width(ie no shelves, etc on the wall).