If you had about $30,000 for a shop

[Redneck in training]

We are just finishing pole barn 36 X 75 X 12, concrete floor extended 30 ft outside, bathroom, office and guest studio with kitchenette. It is fully insulated R20, metal lining inside of the shop, drywall in the office and the guest room. Heated by Fujitsu split units with direct electric heat as backup. The building itself was 67000 but with the extra concrete slab, heating, electric and plumbing installation, furniture, drywall etc the cost is more like 100 000.
We have floor radiant heating in the house and love it but I decided against it for the shop. The problem is high initial expense and long time constant. It takes two hours to change temperature single degree. Since we heat the the shop to 40, office and the guest room to 50 when unoccupied we needed heating with short time constant. The split units are phenomenal they heat efficiently down to 4F. I will add solar collector to the shop later.

 

[flusher]

My 24x42 ft shop ( 1008 sq ft, 12 ft walls, two 10x10 ft rollup doors, one window, one man door, 6" thick 4000 psi concrete with #4 rebar on 24" centers) cost about $23/sq ft in May 2005. No way $30K is going to get you an equivalent 2400 sq ft shop today considering the increased price of steel.

 

[Luremaker]

We are just finishing pole barn 36 X 75 X 12, concrete floor extended 30 ft outside, bathroom, office and guest studio with kitchenette. It is fully insulated R20, metal lining inside of the shop, drywall in the office and the guest room. Heated by Fujitsu split units with direct electric heat as backup. The building itself was 67000 but with the extra concrete slab, heating, electric and plumbing installation, furniture, drywall etc the cost is more like 100 000.
We have floor radiant heating in the house and love it but I decided against it for the shop. The problem is high initial expense and long time constant. It takes two hours to change temperature single degree. Since we heat the the shop to 40, office and the guest room to 50 when unoccupied we needed heating with short time constant. The split units are phenomenal they heat efficiently down to 4F. I will add solar collector to the shop later.

Your shop sounds great... any pictures?

 

[Western]

Good grief West, that sounds like S Louisiana...not West Tx. I had no idea the soil was that bad out there...wow that is a lot of extra concrete.

:laughing: I have seen cracks in the ground, like the is past year, that where 4" across and who knows how deep. Location here is the biggest factor, a few Miles N or me the country is one big rock (Jacksboro, TX)

My brother wasn't "keen" on the piers either, but the engineer recommended 15 of them, it was almost the same cost to do 30

 

[davygp38]

I have a half crushed stone garage floor, and I cannot wait to get it finished with concrete. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but you cannot keep the rest of the shop clean at all. Imagine rolling your welder cart, torches, or any other big roll around tool, and hitting a small rock every time ugggg. Best solution, is to build a large shed roof to work under away from your all weather shop.

 

[dusty3030]

Pictures to go with my reply earlier in thread.
First two are the 20 x 30 x 10 it's my workshop and lean to built around it stalls for the horses.

Rest is the 40 x 80 x 14 which is purely storage and equipment shed.

Tool

 

[crbr]

thanks for the pictures

 

[EddieWalker]

I had $30,000 when I built my shop. I poured a 48x48 pad and framed in 24x30 with 12 foot walls for my shop. Then I build a 1,000 sq ft 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house onto the side of the shop for that amount.

If I didn't build the house, I could have done the shop for quite a bit less money, or built the shop quite a bit bigger!!!!!

The basic building is cheap, it's how you finish it off that you spend all the money.

Eddie

 

[crbr]

thanks for the pictures

 

[Diamondpilot]

What ever you do go 14'. I went 12' and two neighbors went 10' and we are all kicking ourselves. I can not get one of my boats in a 12' door and the other guys cant get things like a Case BH or a Ford 700 dump truck.

Go concrete now on the entire floor. My shop is 52x44 and 12' tall. I left the back 12' of it rock and it sucks. So my slab is 52x32'. Seems I always need to roll something on the rock portions or need to place a jack.

For heat here is what i did. I built a shop inside my shop that is 16x20. Its heated and has a 1/2 bath in it. Has a doggie door for the critters to get in out of the weather. All my tools live in this area. If I need to work on something that will not fit in this are I have a 180,000 btu Salamander heater and some old ceiling fans mounted in the rafters to heat the other portion. I can get it to 70 deg on the coldest of days in 1/2 hours.

I skipped the metal on my pole bar and went with 1/2 osb and vinyl siding and 3 tab roofing shingles. It has 1' overhangs with sofit and fascia like the house plus seamless gutters. It matches the house more closely and to me and the little lady looks a ton better. Cost about the same but more work to build.

I also have internet, 100 amp service, cable, phone, ect. I would guess I have $50,000 invested in my shop or more. They get expensive quickly.



Chris