Decided to build a garage. Now the fun begins.

[South VA]

I’m jealous too. I want to build a shop-house. I want to just have everything in the same building. My girlfriend drives a truck, I have 3 GMT400s, so we’d need a big garage anyways. Then we can both wrench, detail our vehicles, and work on other projects during the cold months.

When interest rates normalize and we have some more savings we plan on buying some land and getting to work.

Having everything under one roof would be awesome. But we have too many vehicles, so putting them all in the garage is out of the question, for us.

I wish my GF was into wrenching, but alas, she is not.
You are a lucky guy indeed!

 

[South VA]

One thing I would add to this thread: an old family friend had a body shop in South Austin, and we talked with him about his shop building when we were building ours. He said to build it bigger than you think you need it, and it'll be big enough. From my experience though, the more space you have, the more stuff you find to put in it....

He’s right.

I started out thinking about a two-car garage, probably because that’s the only kind I’ve ever had. It took quite awhile to realize, or at least admit that everything that we really needed this building to do, just wasn’t going to fit into a two car garage.

Then we saw that new 30 x 35 garage at a neighbor’s. It seemed huge; way too big for us to consider.

But a very nice space. We went back several times during a year or so.

Evidently that was the inspiration I needed. When all was said and done, we wound up going 5’ longer (150 sf larger) than his building, to accommodate tools, a workbench, and so forth. A modest shop.

With some storage space, of course. But mostly vehicles and the things needed to properly attend to them.

I hope it’s big enough. I think it is.

 

[Orpedcrow]

New shops are exciting! I’ll be following along.

Couple of things I’d like to add, have at least one roll up door that’s as big as you can get it. The 10x10 doors can be a little tight for some projects. The actual opening isn’t always 10x10 either so check with your door supplier. I had to drop the ROPs and deflate the tires on my dads tractor to get it in his garage. Then still had to push up on the door with a 2x4.

Having an apron/parking on the front of the shop (even if it’s uncovered) is extremely nice. Think about car washes, maybe a blade change on the mower without having to pull a vehicle out, flat tire on a trailer (insert any other activity that requires stable ground)

Adding to the apron idea, having a lean-to shed roof in front of the shop doors makes a huge difference also. Keeps the sun and rain out of the open doors. It adds additional work space without a (typically) substantial price increase.

A small shed roof outside (easy diy project for later if you’re handy) to house an air compressor. They get really loud inside a closed up shop. Especially if your considering a blast cabinet in the future, it will run almost continuously while using the blast cabinet.

If your even considering doing anything with the concrete floor like epoxy, do it BEFORE you move in. You’ll never end up doing it afterwards when you have to move three cars, a 2 post, 3 tool boxes, a giant workbench, and all your girlfriends stuff out into the yard for 3 days while you prep and paint the floor

 

[thinger2]

The tree crew showed up today, and got right to it.
Here’s the site before. The two pines to the right are over 90’ tall. We didn’t realize they were that tall. But they have to come out. So does the crepe myrtle just to the right of the cedar tree; it’s roughly the left hand edge of the building to be.

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The tree crew has been to the farm on two other occasions. They are well-equipped, very competent, and charge reasonable rates.

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They had a 100’ crane, an equally large bucket truck, and a large truck towing a wood chipper. Plus a dump truck.

It was truly a pleasure to see them work.

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It appears that we’ll be able to get at least some money for the 14’ or so logs that cutting the two pines will generate. They laid them down in the adjacent goat pasture, and another company will come in with a portable sawmill to turn them into lumber.

Speaking of goats:

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My GF has a herd of 25 or so myotonic goats, aka “Fainting Goats.” They don’t actually faint; but when startled, their leg muscles lock up and they sometimes tip over. That trait leads to all sorts of farm comedy.

Hers is a registered herd. She raises them to sell for pets and as breeding stock. Rarely are they sold at market for goatburgers or the equivalent.

And I have to say that having never been around goats, I have been pleased to discover what truly interesting critters they are. I like them, a lot. They are also low maintenance, as there is enough pasture here to support them without supplemental feeding. I have been promoted to Goat Wrangler, the duties of which include giving shots when needed, helping to hold the more stubborn ones for worming, and helping to move them in and out of pens during breeding season.

March and April are kidding season, which makes the whole endeavour all that more worthwhile. I believe that there is nothing cuter than a baby goat.

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Thats awesome! Many years ago we were on a jobsite trying to remove a bunch of abadoned steel and huge concrete vaults that were just buried in blackberry bushes next to a retaining pond.
That material had been there for at least twenty years.
The landscrapping company bid 6 guys and one months to clear it.
A buddy of mine told me about "Rent a Goat"
They bring a temp fence and about thirty goats and a goatherd and let them loose.
Those goats chewed that right down to the dirt in 4 days.
It was amazing to watch. They would be asleep, and kinda roll their heads over and chew up a blackberry stalk as big around as my wrist, thorns and all. And go back to sleep.
This was on a casino property.
And one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed in my life was the survielance footage of

Since I moved to the farm ~10 years ago, I've wanted a garage. When I lived in Colorado, I had a two car garage; the only garage I've ever owned. It was awesome, albeit a bit tight for working on a car, especially when another was parked in there. But at 7400' elevation in the Central Rockies, a garage is a necessity.

After a lot of thought and planning, I took the plunge on Labor Day and ordered a metal three car garage building. Thanks to a Labor Day sale, it was 20% off of retail. Even at retail, it would be way less expensive than a wooden frame garage. Now I'm waiting for the concrete bid, which will likely be as expensive as the building.

Fortunately, since we live on a farm, it is exempt from the usual county building permit requirements. Nontheless, the building will be engineered, and certified to 140 mph wind load.

After looking at a neighbor's 30' x 35' metal building, I decided to go with 40' x 30'. Enough room for a 10' x 10' door and two 9' x 8' doors, and a bit of room at the end for a workbench, tool cabinets, compressor, parts washer, shelviing, and miscellaneous stuff.

The slab will be 4" thick, with a 12" thickened perimeter.

I also plan to have the concrete guy thicken a portion of the slab for a future two-post lift.

The plan is to use the 10' x 10' bay for my K2500 Suburban, as well as having room to drive our 1970 John Deere 2520 tractor inside; the other two are for my DD and my GF's 2011 Ford Ranger pickup. All three still have excellent paint (the Sub was completely repainted earlier this year), and having a garage will help preserve them by no longer having to park them outdoors.

Not sure what I'm going to do for heat and cooling, but the building will be insulated with what metal building companies call "double bubble." The next tier of insulation would have cost a bunch more, so I figured that some insulation is better than no insulation. Plus, uninsulated metal roofs form condensation, which in turn drips onto whatever is below. The double bubble takes care of that problem.

I'm meeting with the local electrical cooperative next week to get an estimate for running a new power line to the building. Because of the potential for later installing a two post lift, it will be wired for 220v.

Having a concrete floor and all weather protection will be a game changer. No more fighting with a floor jack on a gravel parking area, no more working in the direct summer sun, and no more being rained out. I'll be able to use my creeper, and my roll-around seat. I'll even be able to clean and wax vehicles on a sunny day. And my tools will all be in one place, instead of distributed among three locations on the farm. The gross inefficiency of my current setup for doing even minor maintenance and repairs will largely disappear.

I'm retired, and with every year that goes by I realize how short life really is. Having a garage, but with improvements based on my past experience in Colorado, has merely been a "someday" dream I've had since moving to the farm.

"Someday" has become today.

My guess is that it may take several months to complete, as the concrete contractor is at least two months out.
I'll post pictures and progress updates as things unfold.

Make sure that you retain 10 percent of your money as retainage that they do not get untill they have finished all of the "punch list" issues.
Do not sign a contract unless it includes "progress pay" provisions.
Make absolutly sure that the dirt guy and the concrete have an actual engineered plan about short term and long term drainiage.
Especially if you are that close to somebody elses septic field.
Buy a whole whack of project duration short term insurance.
Include insuring yourself and your house and the people who are working on your property.
Call your insurance agent and tell him your plans before you let any contractor onto your property.
The guy building your shop is hopefully insured but that insurance covers him.
Not you.
And he is probably bonded for about 30 grand.
Depends on the state but 30 is fairly normal.
And who is responsible for permitting and inspections and who is responsible for failure of inspections?
When material gets delivered to your property, who is in debt for that product and who owes the money to that supplier?
Is it you because that material was delivered to your property but he ordered it?
Does he have a contract that allows him to purchase materials and establish a lien on your property even if he fails all of to perform on all of his other contractual duties?
And, just a little seperat rant for folks who are thinking about hiring through lowes or home depot or whatever.
An entity that delivers product to your jobsite can not file a lien on your property.

If you hire a knucklehead from Lowes or Home Depot or any other of those places and you hire them to deliver and install anything then they can file a lien on your property.
What usually happens, becuase the entry bar in residential is set so low.
The insurance the chumy little bond
And the whole metal building business is a franchise operation set up like a big hot dog cart operation.
Read that contract. over and over again.
Do not sign anything untill you have talked it over with your insurance agent.
Contractors are in the business of mowing you over and not giving a **** about what you want done.
If they leave with all of your money nobody in the government or the banking world will give a **** and they wont even try to help you.
Houses, garages, NFL stadiums, Airports, Missile launch pads, condos, sewage treatment plants, ******* Walmarts...
I manage projects for people
Im the guy who gets hired when everbody needs to listen to a story and take a nap.
Becuase Im tired and I want to take a nap.
And how in the **** did that happen?
What are my companies future plans to lesson the radiated heat from pavement and concrete?
******* nothing stupe.
Im the steel guy at your dumbass conference.
Its made out of metal. That nasty nose ring is not made from concrete.
Which, just as a little personall aside.
Dont get bugger pierced.
Its not a new thing its been around since the 1980s and ******* shocking as hell watching somebody try to peel the crusted up boogers out of nose doesnt make a second date likely.
I have a kind of old man approach about it all.
I will buy new clothes the day before and make myself as clean and presentable as I can be.
I will ask my friends to come over and give there opinion and they will help and give me a bit of a touch up and some encouragement and off I go.
I will have the whole deal planned out two weeks before I set it in motion.
But if I show up and you have a christmiss wreath of crusty unpicked dried out buggers looking like saltwater piling mussels at low tide?
Im out.
Im not going to spend my life with some woman who went out of her way to make it harder to breath.
And how ******* mental do you have to be to pay someone to make it harder to pick your nose?
Why in the flying ******* world would you make it harder to not be able to blast a good clearing snot out of your head in the shower?
I dont care if you are tatted head to toe.
But I cant deal with that crusted up dried out bugger nose piercing.
And you need to wash your feet too.
That would help.

 

[South VA]

New shops are exciting! I’ll be following along.


Couple of things I’d like to add, have at least one roll up door that’s as big as you can get it. The 10x10 doors can be a little tight for some projects. The actual opening isn’t always 10x10 either so check with your door supplier. I had to drop the ROPs and deflate the tires on my dads tractor to get it in his garage. Then still had to push up on the door with a 2x4.

Thanks! I hear you. For context, this is a working farm, but the cropland is rented out, so the farmers use and maintain their own equipment. They have the big stuff.

Our smallish 1970 JD row crop tractor, which unfortunately doesn’t have a cab, is the tallest piece of equipment we have. At first I thought that we don’t actually need that 10 x 10 door - until I measured the tractor with me sitting on it.

Taking the door into account, and using the high-mount door rails suggested by @Trio, a 10 x 10 is large enough to safely drive the tractor into the garage. So I think we’re good on that front.

But now you have me thinking that I may want to swap one of the 9 x 8s for another 10 x 10. The reason is that the lift is currently planned for the 10 x 10 bay, but I may want to pull the tractor in, but not where the lift is.

While we’re on the subject, any thoughts on a minimum width between doors? I’m thinking 2’ from the left hand building corner, and 18” between the doors, resulting in the maximum amount of wall space between the right hand door and the building corner where the workbench will be.

Having an apron/parking on the front of the shop (even if it’s uncovered) is extremely nice. Think about car washes, maybe a blade change on the mower without having to pull a vehicle out, flat tire on a trailer (insert any other activity that requires stable ground)

That’s a good idea. He’s going to pour an apron, but we haven’t decided how wide it should be. I’ll see when I get his bid, and adjust accordingly.

Adding to the apron idea, having a lean-to shed roof in front of the shop doors makes a huge difference also. Keeps the sun and rain out of the open doors. It adds additional work space without a (typically) substantial price increase.

This is something I haven’t quite figured out yet. The eaves run across the front of the building, so rain will drip down in front of the garage doors. Not ideal. even a small shed roof would help this. I’ll ask the sales gal what it would take to fashion some sort of shed to the front.

A small shed roof outside (easy diy project for later if you’re handy) to house an air compressor. They get really loud inside a closed up shop. Especially if your considering a blast cabinet in the future, it will run almost continuously while using the blast cabinet.

That is something that I hadn’t thought of, and could definitely build myself. Thanks for the suggestion! A blast cabinet is already on the wish list.

If your even considering doing anything with the concrete floor like epoxy, do it BEFORE you move in. You’ll never end up doing it afterwards when you have to move three cars, a 2 post, 3 tool boxes, a giant workbench, and all your girlfriends stuff out into the yard for 3 days while you prep and paint the floor

Epoxy is another thing that I hadn’t really considered. Clearly, more research is needed. But it totally makes sense to do it before moving in!

Speaking of stuff, my GF has already said (more than once) that she wants her Christmas stuff stored in the garage.

Which is fine, I suppose, especially since she’s helping to pay for this project. Now I just have to figure out where to put it. Probably on shelves, high up on a wall, so as not to take up valuable floor real estate. Hopefully it won’t take up too much room.

Of course I will strongly resist further incursions.

But we all know how that could go…

 

[Erik the Awful]

When I was a dealer technician, our manager was a cheapskate and bought a bunch of used lifts. I had one asymetric and one symetric lift. I'd absolutely go with an asymetric lift. It allows you more room to open the doors while the vehicle is on the lift.

As far as certifications and the priciness of name brand lifts, used lifts are easy to find and usually have far less of a premium. If you're not running a full-time shop, a used lift will last you forever. I'd buy a used Rotary before I'd buy any uncertified lift.

He said to build it bigger than you think you need it, and it'll be big enough.

No, it won't. My shop's a 30x40, and it's crammed full.

Having an apron/parking on the front of the shop (even if it’s uncovered) is extremely nice.

Absolutely! Both my shop and my wife's shop are 30x40s, and they're both on 40x40 pads. Hers has an overhang, mine doesn't. On her shop we just had the builder continue the roof down to cover the pad. I kinda wish I'd done that on my shop, but I wanted the full height of the doors usable.

10x10 doors are very narrow once your shop gets cram packed. I put 2' between my doors, but I wish I'd moved the entry door to the south wall and put a third 10x10 door on the west wall.

If your even considering doing anything with the concrete floor like epoxy, do it BEFORE you move in.

Definitely paint or coat the floor. If you use epoxy it will be slipperier that eel-snot and will require a lot of grit to make it usable. I used cheap garage floor paint instead. It always looks terrible, but I could touch it up cheap if I cared to.

 

[Trio]

I'd echo a few of the ideas:

Apron - you won't regret a 25-30' deep apron. I usually run the whole length of the wall, not just in front of the overhead door.

2 feet minimum between the edge of overhead door and the wall, but you won't regret making it 3 feet. With 3' you can still store stuff along the wall and be able to open the car door. And at least 2' width between the garage doors.

I also epoxy all my floors - as said, before moving in. Paint just doesn't hold up. Epoxy is pricey, but worth it in my opinion.

 

[South VA]

When I was a dealer technician, our manager was a cheapskate and bought a bunch of used lifts. I had one asymetric and one symetric lift. I'd absolutely go with an asymetric lift. It allows you more room to open the doors while the vehicle is on the lift.

Maybe a dumb question, but does an asymmetric lift have any difficulty with something like a Suburban or a full size pickup?

As far as certifications and the priciness of name brand lifts, used lifts are easy to find and usually have far less of a premium. If you're not running a full-time shop, a used lift will last you forever. I'd buy a used Rotary before I'd buy any uncertified lift.

A used lift sounds like a great idea, especially for my needs.

No, it won't. My shop's a 30x40, and it's crammed full.

I really hope that doesn’t happen here. It’ll probably be an ongoing battle.

Absolutely! Both my shop and my wife's shop are 30x40s, and they're both on 40x40 pads. Hers has an overhang, mine doesn't. On her shop we just had the builder continue the roof down to cover the pad. I kinda wish I'd done that on my shop, but I wanted the full height of the doors usable.

I’m having the concrete guy pricing an option for a 10’ apron in front of the bay doors. Don’t know that we’ll be able to justify doing it now, but it’s worth looking at.

I priced a 10’ shed roof extension along one 30’ side, where the 6 x 6 and entry doors are, and it was just over $4000. We can’t justify that now, but at least it is something that could be added in the future; but it will cost more then, as that price reflects a 20% discount.

And, I suppose, the same thing could be done across the front, at a later point. It’s just not in the budget right now.

10x10 doors are very narrow once your shop gets cram packed. I put 2' between my doors, but I wish I'd moved the entry door to the south wall and put a third 10x10 door on the west wall.

Two feet between doors sounds about right.

Definitely paint or coat the floor. If you use epoxy it will be slipperier that eel-snot and will require a lot of grit to make it usable. I used cheap garage floor paint instead. It always looks terrible, but I could touch it up cheap if I cared to.

Kilz makes a garage floor paint that is supposed to be pretty good, according to one review I read.

 

[South VA]

The Farm Structure Application goes to the County today. It’s basically a form that ensures that the County is aware of the building so that it can be assessed for tax purposes. No building permit is required.

I was afraid that we were going to have a problem with the setback requirements, but it turned out that the setback is 15’ rather than 35’, so moving the building 5’ will fix that.

The electrical coop engineer showed up yesterday, even though the appointment was for this Friday. She happened to be in the neighborhood, so she just dropped by. She said that after looking at the records and usage for the past however many years, the house service has enough capacity to run a 200 amp service in the garage, without having to install a new service. Even the existing transformer will work.

Not having to have a new service could save a couple of thousand dollars in the electrical budget. Now it’s up to me and the electrician to get it from the house to the garage.

I expect I’ll be doing some digging.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

She said that after looking at the records and usage for the past however many years, the house service has enough capacity to run a 200 amp service in the garage, without having to install a new service. Even the existing transformer will work.

AND, you don't really need a 200A service either. Depending on distance and supply breaker size, you can save on conduit and wire sizes. This the same reason she said you don't need a new service. We call it "Power Factoring". You can take a percentage of your full load rating and a factor of 40 to 60% (or less) to come up with your load. Think of it this way, how many people are going to be inside your shop using high load equipment at the same time? My welder is rated 50A and my air compressor is ~35A running (using an Amp Clamp). I almost neve run my welder at full setting unless I wanna "Spray Arc" something. All my other equipment is 120V/20A tops. I run my table saw with my dust control vac so, they are on separate circuits. Each side of my shop has 3 different 120V circuits (6 total) so, no 2 outlets (10 ft apart) are next to the same curuit. Lights are on their own and electric doors are on their own circuit too. I have a 200A panel in my shop but am feeding it with a 90A breaker so, I ran an 1-1/4" pipe with #4 copper wires. If you match the wire to the supply breaker size, you're legal.