Help Me Design/ Build a Shop

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I just started building my house, and all but decided to wait on the shop. My wife and parents are on me about going ahead and building it while the house is going up.... They have a point, I really want a shop and need indoor storage for several things. We are planning on this being our retirement spot. I'm 40 and My wife is 44 so it needs to last for many decades.

My dream was a 50x60x12 red iron framed building. With inflation driving the price of the house so high, not to mention the shop price, that is not in the cards. Now hoping for at least 40x50x12. I know I can get 40' wood trusses, potentially 45'.

Proposed shop use:

1) Honey house/ bathroom with shower/ kitchenette for canning etc. This will likely be a framed out room 15x15 - 20x20 no set size but large enough for chores with A/C and ideally set up like an efficiency apartment. Initially I will rough in the plumbing for the shop construction and build out the rest over time.
2) General shop related tasks. light/ medium wood work, wrenching on random stuff, tractors, mowers, etc.
3) storage/ I bought a big shelf system from Bed Bath and Beyond when they went under. 12' tall and probably 40' long. lightish duty. no pallets but great for totes.
4) Motorcycle, mower and additional vehicle parking.

Proposed style.

A) Red iron frame - too expensive
B) Post Frame - Wood in the ground, Rot, Termites etc. Longevity? Much worry.
C) Stick built - Looks like potentially the best option for me.

I plan on getting the pad ready myslef, hiring concrete finishers, hiring framers and hiring out the metal skin installation. Planning on pulling power to a sub-panel from the house and wiring myself. I don't know anything about foundation requirements. Would prefer to add any required footing type things and pour all at once as opposed to digging footers, laying blocks, filling, then pouring the slab. There is probably around a 2' fall on the pad location so I would need to build up with the fill I set aside from my pond. It's clay and Shale, it was almost all shale but when I dug it back out for the driveway lots of the shale has broken down into clay.

I might could do a lot of the framing myself but I don't know the requirements for door headers and anchoring to the floor etc. Basically I'm not scared of hard work and can follow a plan but I don't have the knowledge for what's required.

Planning on 2 man doors and 2-3 overhead doors. At least one of those being about 18' wide.

Please help me with this. I know there have probably been several threads about this exact thing so links would likely also be helpful.

 

[Doorman63]

Poke into my barn thread.


https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/doorman’s-next-big-adventure.462919/

We are building a 24x40 barndo setup.
Trusses go up this week and metal will be started also. Spray insulation is scheduled for July 6-7

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Poke into my barn thread.


https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/doorman’s-next-big-adventure.462919/

We are building a 24x40 barndo setup.
Trusses go up this week and metal will be started also. Spray insulation is scheduled for July 6-7

Just checked it out. Looking good. The wet-set post mounts look like a good solution.

Edit, just looked them up. Expensive.

 

[ericm979]

Generally stick built costs more than pole barn. It's more material and more labor in the building and usually the foundation too.

I'd talk to local builders to find out what's normal for your area. Maybe with your soil and rainfall treated wood is ok. If not they'll know what else works.

 

[DaBear3428]

I found that having a company install a 30X60 12 ft eave carport style building with 3 10X10 roll up doors and a man door on a concrete slab was the best option for me, I had a concrete contractor install a 4 - 5" thick slab (5" under the planned 2 post lift) for 12k and the building installed (shell with exterior doors) was 20k. down here pole barn with the posts in the ground is a no go for me.

 

[EarPlug]

Pulling the power from the house is probably not a good idea. You are probably going to have 200 amp service at the house. How much can you spare to send to the barn? How much power do you need in the barn? If you are going to have things like a welder and/or large compressor you will need more power. Better option would be separate meter from the pole.

 

[DaBear3428]

Pulling the power from the house is probably not a good idea. You are probably going to have 200 amp service at the house. How much can you spare to send to the barn? How much power do you need in the barn? If you are going to have things like a welder and/or large compressor you will need more power. Better option would be separate meter from the pole.

depends on a lot of things, a separate meter cost $$$ and the reoccurring bills add up also, I pulled a separate service to mine but that was more due to the obstacles in the way, it would have been cheaper for me to upgrade my service to 400amp and sub feed a 200 to the shop.

 

[Rustyiron]

The "wet set" brackets are a lot cheaper than footers/stem wall that you'd be building for conventional framing.

Conventional framing is easier to finish and properly insulate the interior.

Your young and I appreciate your sense of budgeting. I'd think about building in affordable phases and using both techniques. Like build the storage/shop use portion first with "pole" construction using the perma colum brackets or the pre attached concrete base.
Then "down the road" when you're settled in and it's in the budget, build the other (use) part that sounds like it might be a more house like interior on either a slab or foundation with a shorter eave height.
These could be attached or independent of each other depending on your needs and wants (or design preferences).

 

[Doorman63]

Just checked it out. Looking good. The wet-set post mounts look like a good solution.

Edit, just looked them up. Expensive.

The builder made or had his own style fabricated.

They are two piece and he screws a chunk of post between them

 

[ericm979]

A one man shop doesn't need a huge amount of power. You won't be running the welder and the milling machine at the same time. You can total up the draw of the things that can run on their own and add the largest intermittent draw. For example the compressor + HVAC + lights, and then add the welder or milling machine.

Depending on the house's draw, and how extensive the shop will be, you may well be able to get it all into 200a. On the other hand, the cost of adding a second service may be reasonable in your area. We have the power company from hell, so it's expensive here.

Also some planning depts (and not just in CA) get spooked by a shop that has enough stuff in it for people to live there, i.e. bathroom and shower and kitchen. They think you're trying to build an ADU on the cheap.