I'm getting ready to put a garage in my back yard. I was thinking 30x40, a 10 foot and 2 8 foot doors (one front and one rear). I want to put a lift in it. Is there any suggestions that any of yall can give. Thanks in advance :D

tall ceilings, lots of lights, heat, AC, Cable, internet, and a refrigerator for the beer ;)

Dallas

I' currently finishing building my garage as we speek (32'x24' with 11-1/2' ceiling). Build it as big as they'll let you and as big as you can afford. I went with a single 16' door, but that' personal choice. I like being able to have a large opening to get stuff in and out of. Lots of electrical outlets and lights too.

If I ever get out of the PRK I want a 50' x 100' shop with 14' tall doors at both ends. Want to be able to fit a 48' car hauler/ house trailer inside hooked up to the tow rig. Make sure your doors are tall enough to clear a lifted truck. My Blazer won't fit in the garage now. Dang 7' standard height door.

I was going to make my doors 12 feet wide and one 10 and 2 8 foot tall.

Don't forget a drain in the floor so you can wash your rig inside!

check here http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59523&highlight=TOTW :flipoff2:

:flipoff2:
Just got the ok from my town on my plans.

Going 24x32 with 14-1/2' ceiling over most, but a loft in the rear half. I'll have 2 bays, one behind the other. The lift will go in the first bay as the second bay will only be used when 'friends' let their crapmachine stay for the week.

I went to 14-1/2' ceilings based on reco's from the lift dealer. Make sure you get good concrete - mine will be 6" of 4,500 psi. Going with a Mohawk System 1 lift for my cruiser.

Parts washer, epoxy floor paint is a must, plenty of drops for the air and elec. Hot water! LOTS of lights. Paint the walls white for better visibility. 2 drains at least with the floor slightly tapered.

.... and if the neighbors don't like it then :flipoff2:

Mike

I would pick a lift before I got too far with the design of the building. I would pick one strong enough to lift a full size truck, since you know you will want to work on your tow rig and/or your buddies’ trucks. Then make sure your roof will clear with the full size up on the rack.

A family friend has his lift bolted to the center beam of the roof, so the doors are on the short walls not the cable walls. Does that make any sense? His lift is like a big horseshoe with the opening at the bottom.

Can you make it so you can turn one bay into a paint booth? Or at least have drop cloths hung from the ceiling for a make shift booth. I would love to have one for the racecar.

And if the city will let you then a shop pooper would be borderline heaven. :D

The best thing in my garage is the pooper. You know as soon as you get working on something you gotta go. Also if you going to get a lift make sure the floor is thick enough.

If you can't afford/can't use a lift, a mechanics pit might not be a bad option. more of a PITA, but better then nothing.

Other then that, double ditto on the hot water, a urnial (might be easier to get past the code cops), plenty of power drops.

Could you integrate a overhead hoist into the building??? I've got one back at the farm , works really nice for stuff the lift can't touch.

I wouldn't paint the walls white, too much crud around. Add all the insulation you can afford. Swamp coolers are cheap and economical for your purpose.

More electrical outlets than you think you need, several 220v ones also...bathroom, drain catch and what they said above....

:flipoff2:
Forgot to mention.... the bottom 6' of each wall is concrete block. While someone above says to not to paint it, it helps so much with light.... also, if block, you can just hose the grit off the walls. If you fill the blocks with sand then it keeps down the noise to the neighbors (if you think that's not important ..... then boy talk to my neighbors :D ).

Carefull if you go the pit option .... they get filled with crap real quick!

I'd hold off on the shitter till the code monkeys are gone. Just make sure the guys doing the work know what you want to add!

And give your neighbors the big :flipoff2:

.... and what's with the urinal?

That's what the drain in the floor is for :D

:flipoff2:

I built a 28x40 last year w/ 11' ceilings, 2 10'x9' doors and one 8'x9' door.

Couple of things I'd do differently:
currently a 5/12" pitch roof. Should have gone w/ 7/12 with storage rafters. Just a tad more money and a crap load of storage that's completely out of the way.

Put in sky lights or sky-tubes. Despite having 18 4' flourescent lights in my shop area (back 10' is cold storage), it's still not brigh enough. Natural light makes a HUGE difference.

Paint the walls and ceiling semi gloss white - makes a huge difference.

If you own a tow vehicle, go with 10' wide doors - my Super Duty can only fit in the 9' wide doors if I fold the mirrors in... go figure, eh?

If you think x * y ft is big enough, add 5' to each dimension to get an "acceptable" size.

Paint the floors before moving ANYTHING into the shop (wish I had done that)

Put a 2' concrete apron on the front to help prevent water from entering teh shop under the doors (another thing I didn't do)

One outlet every 4' is NOT too many.

Put a celing fan in right away.

Install A/C - especially if you don't have windows or another method of cross-ventalating.

Also, remember:
A lift takes up more room than you think
Just because your shop is 5x bigger than what you have now doesn't mean you have 5x as much room... tools have a way of multiplying.
Spare parts take up more room than you thought possible.

Two threads worth looking at:

Concrete Floor (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43219&highlight=concrete+shop)

Dream Garage (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52313&highlight=dream+garage)

Shop plan is 30' x 50'. Two story. Front 30' has two doors, 7 x 12 & 10' x 10'. Two 7' garage doors are opposite from each other on the 50's sides, about 3/4 way back. This allows for a large venturi effect to suck air out of the shop with an evening breeze.

Slab price: $12,000 (!!!). 6" floor, footers, #5 rebar. Area is very rocky, no frost line (Texas), so hopefully the cost will come in lower. Estimate 65 cubic yards of concrete.

Fun part will the raising the walls... gib pole, land cruiser, and a winch will all play a part! 6" walls on the first story.

Tom :usa:

Originally posted by The Mick
If you can't afford/can't use a lift, a mechanics pit might not be a bad option. more of a PITA, but better then nothing.


Quick note, depending on jurisdiction these things are not allowed anymore (as new construction). Seems too many morons were letting them fill with vapours and then ended up suffacating in them (wtf?).

Anyway, check if you can go this route with your township before planning it.

Was doing a search for something else, came across that page that has a LOT of good info on it.... Good reading!

http://www.joesfalcon.com/workshop/workshop.html

On the Pit idea..

A friend just got a nifty new contraption that's not as good, but nice.

He bought an "alignment rack" when a local shop went out of business.

He hasn't aligned anything on it yet, but he does have his street rod up on it.

Basically, it's two big long "ramps" longer than the car.

It's bolted to the floor of the shop, and I *think* it'll lie flat (more or less).

But you can raise the "front" end up and lock it into place a foot or so off the ground.

Then you drive onto the two "ramps" and park your rig on it, then the rear half is jacked up and then locked into place.

Essentially a 1'-2' high "table" to park your rig on, with an open center.

Not the thing you want for changing tires, or changing axles out, but you can pretty easily wheel yourself underneath your rig (more easily on a lifted 4x4 than on his 'rod) for greasing, welding/repairs, motor/trans swaps, etc.

:flipoff2:

Think HUGE, build HUGE, then fill it with crap! :D

:flipoff2:

Pat,
Try this link for some good ideas on the shop.
http://yarchive.net/car/garage.html
Maybe you can find a good deal on some workbenchs.
Mike
:usa:

check this out:

http://www.ultimategarage.com

:flipoff2:

Pat......can I be your friend? :D
My bud with the Killer shop lives way up in Dawsonville. His shop is SWEET! It's built barn Style timber frame to match his log home. Base foot print is 40 wide 30 deep. Two 9 ftt by 10 foot wide doors. Walk through 36 inch door on front and back. Over the two Bay doors is a 10 foot over hang so you can leave the doors open in bad weather and nothing comes in the shop. THis is suported by a heavy beam that we have used to lift cabs off trucks.
Out back is stairs too second floor. Has is Air compessor mounted up there to keep the noise down in the main shop with a drain pan routed out to drain the tank. Plenty of storage up stairs. He has a trap door and a rope hoist so he can pull heavy stuff up from the shop below for storage.
The main shop is sweet. The right hand wall is all work bench. Over head cabnets. The rear wall has shelves on half of it and the other half has a deep work bench with Grinder and parts washer. On the left wall is a stainless steel cabinet he got from a Hospital. It has a small wash sink in it. Over head cabinets. the bottom has two small fridges that were used for storing medicins...now the store Cokes and Buds :) The rest of the wall is storage bins with Every sort of fastenr you could ever need including an extensive collection of Grade 8 nuts and bolts.
The left bay has a 2 post lift. Over head is a winch trolly that runs the width of the building. You can pull an engine in the left bay with the over head chain winch and run it over to the work bench on the right side. Right side is set up for pulling in and tinkering. Painted floors, plenty of light, AIr connections in several places. You seldom need more than 10 feet of hose to reach what your working on.
My bud does Alarm sytems and pre wires houses for entertainment and Data. The shop is wired to the hilt. He has a 27 inch TV hanging over the Benches on the right side. About 8 Speakers for the Stereo system. The TV is tied into the Security system Cameras. The Cameras have motion sensors. If anybody approches the building or the House the TV will flip over to that camera and beep to let you know it's been tripped. Satalite TV also. Out side there is a second 2 post lift he scored used for $500.
He's my Friend already but it's a long way from Marietta
I have out grown my house now that we have two little ones. Another house the size we need forsale in my Neighborhood I wish I could afford. It comes with about 4 acres of land in a flood plain with a 1 acre pond on it. HUGE level yard out back. You could put about 4 soccer feildsin (or hauls some bolders in for a nice rock garden!) THe house is up out of the flood area and has plenty of room to put a sizable shop out back. Already has a level Driveway (Rare in this part of GA..Pat can attest to that). Just don't have my house ready to sell and need to unload it for the Equity to get the Down payment.

Here is a link (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Ejrice/Shop/Shop.html) to the buildings that constitute my Cruiser shop and garage. My shop probably places more emphasis on machine tools than most would choose. but for me the two buildings work very well.