First advice, Build it twice as big (or more) as you think you will need. I
use an area equivalent to about 3 cars when I restore a car or build a race
car for myself or a customer. You must also keep in mind that you will need
room ALWAYS open for those unexpected repairs or jobs that pop up without
warning(wife's car breaks, etc..)so count 2 car spaces for that. If height
is not a concern you might want to add additional wall height so you can
have a short overhead loft, either on the sides on in middle depending on
framing type. If you enclose a space just for insulated work room, you
could easily have a nice storage area on top of that. As far as the other
items are concerned, if finances allow, don't scrimp on anything you might
use in the future, like 3-phase power instead of single. as far as heating,
there are questions you must consider that will dictate the best solution.
If you will be spending long periods of time in the shop when it is cold
outside, definitely look into putting the heating tubes in the floor. There
is nothing like working on a heated floor. You can get it installed for you
or easily do it yourself. I also am VERY happy with my waste-oil furnace.
Very cheap to operate. Not very hard to find plenty of people or small
repair shops that just love to let you have their waste oil to burn. I have
been using mine for many years and contrary to what other people have said,
there is virtually no leftover ash to dispose of. After the first minute or
so of operation there is no trace of smoke in the exhaust pipe, no odor.
Just cheap efficient heat. Mine is 300,00 BTU and uses around 1 gallon per
hour or less. You can never have enough shelving either. I have found it is
more efficient to have shelves that are only 12-16 inches deep. Any deeper
than that and you start to lose things behind other things and the like. As
far as lighting, Use a lot, but break them up into groups on separate
switches per group over each section of shop which you will be spending
time in. No use in having them all wired together at one switch and waste
elecricity. Try to get the better quality fixtures with better ballasts. If
you pull a car trailer or such, you might consider doors on each end. Makes
it easier to do a lot of things when you can pull in and then straight out.
You need to decide what height door you need, If you have an enclosed car
trailer, the standard garage door won't cut it. One consideration of
building it as big as you can get away with, is that allows you to station
all your equipment(press, sandblaster, partswasher, lathe, drill press,
etc...) on the outside edges and have a corresponding workbench(small or
large) next to each piece of equipment. You can never have enough bench
space to lay your work on. I have added on twice to my shop that I thought
was big enough when I first built it.At 09:00 PM 10/16/01 -0400, you wrote:
>
>sometime in the next year or so, i hope to build a shop out back. we
>bought a house on 6 1/2 acres in part so that the room would be
>available to finally do this. i figure that now, well before i start
>on the shop, is a good time to look for advice.
>
>i'm figuring on 1200 sq. ft. to 1500 sq. ft. i have a collection of
>cars, some good cars and some project cars (well, mostly project
>cars), including an SCCA ITB race car and a very rough 1968 Alfa
>coupe. the focus will be on storage, auto repair, and restoration
>projects.
>
>this is upstate NY, just outside of albany; winter is a consideration.
>i'm considering segmenting the space, with an uninsulated area that
>would be dead storage during the winter, and a smaller insulated work
>area for year round operations.
>
>i know that a lot of you have nice shops; i'm in the position of being
>able to build a new one from scratch, and am looking to build "the
>right shop"; any good advice is solicited. power, lighting, flooring,
>heating, storage, etc., are all considerations.
>
>i will summarize any material received off list back to the list.
>
>cheers,
> richard
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