Need help with shop design -design for expansion

[EddieWalker]

Here is my plan when I get around to building. I will span 40 feet and have 16 foot walls. No 2 story, I want a garage door at least 14 feet tall so I can get my backhoe in there. It will have a gable metal roof with a 4:12 pitch. I'm not sure how long it will be at first. Whatever I can afford at the time to get it started. Then I will extend lean to's off of each side 16 feet. That will have a 2:12 pitch roof with ten foot side walls That will give me enough height for an 8 foot tall door.

The lean to's can come later.

The length can be extended as far as I want over time.

Walls will come later. I can do one wall at a time just to keep the weather out, but going from having my stuff completely out in the rain, to just having a roof over it at first will be huge.

Flooring will come later. I know it never happens once you built it and start storing stuff in there, but my thinking is that if I really get sick of dirt and want concrete, I'll move what's in there out long enough to pour concrete in that section. I will just pour one area at a time as I can afford it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Here is my plan when I get around to building. I will span 40 feet and have 16 foot walls. No 2 story, I want a garage door at least 14 feet tall so I can get my backhoe in there. It will have a gable metal roof with a 4:12 pitch. I'm not sure how long it will be at first. Whatever I can afford at the time to get it started. Then I will extend lean to's off of each side 16 feet. That will have a 2:12 pitch roof with ten foot side walls That will give me enough height for an 8 foot tall door.

The lean to's can come later.

The length can be extended as far as I want over time.

Walls will come later. I can do one wall at a time just to keep the weather out, but going from having my stuff completely out in the rain, to just having a roof over it at first will be huge.

Flooring will come later. I know it never happens once you built it and start storing stuff in there, but my thinking is that if I really get sick of dirt and want concrete, I'll move what's in there out long enough to pour concrete in that section. I will just pour one area at a time as I can afford it.

If the walls are high enough to accommodate a concrete truck, no problem leaving a dirt floor. If not then you have to pay for an expensive concrete pumper truck, it would be way less expense in the long run to pour the concrete foundation prior to building even if that means cutting back on the size of the shed.

I designed my shop as a 30x30 fully enclosed with 14x30' lean to wings on two sides. A few years later, I ran out of room and needed to add so I put another 14'x30' wing on the back. I think this would work for you also, just increase the initial size to 40x40 and put 20x40 leanto wings on later. I didn't think to make mine that tall(mine is 10'6" inside) but it would all minimal expense to increase the wall height to 16 or even 20 feet if you want

 

[civilian]

If the walls are high enough

.......on the initial building, then you could have had your wings at the same roof pitch instead of stepping down as shown in your picture.

The thing I like about a tall ceiling in my wood shop is at the chop saw I can trim one edge of a 8ft+ board, flip it up to trim the other end. (Flipping it vertically vs horizontally) Jon