new farm shop ideas

[slowzuki]

If you do fab work, don't slope your shop floor. You will curse it forever.

 

[flusher]

If you do fab work, don't slope your shop floor. You will curse it forever.

Right on--forget about using your shop as a tractor wash. Make the floor dead level.

Also, design your shop so it has "drive through" capability-- two rollup doors (10 x 10 ft minimum) on opposite walls. Wish I would have done this when I had my shop built 6 years ago. If you have large tractors to service, I'd consider including a service pit.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Rather than slope the floor to a center drain hole, I prefer a slight slope towards the doors so you can hose it out and have it drain outside. I suppose if you lived in the frozen north and wanted to wash out in the winter it might be an advantage to have a drain, but then again, unless you have heated floor or heated shop, you arent going to get very far with a hose in -40F weather anyway.
I had a course of 8x16 CMU blocks laid around the perimeter of my shop walls so that I could wash out without wash water getting on my walls. Hindsight, I would have added 2 courses which I am going to do on my addition since in the 2 years since I built the 30x52 it is shrunk in size to the point of needing additional space.
Mine is wood structure with only 9 foot 2x4 stud walls + CMU block height and 2x8 floor plate (9' 9 1/2" which is high enough for my work. I also added a 8x12 restroom area with commode and sink for wash up. Best dollars I ever spent was on that. I dont have to go outside and pee on a tire like a dog and have a way to wash up the grease before I go into the house. Plans were to add shelving in that area for tractor parts, etc but havent gotten to that yet. I put 2 foot deep x 7' high shelving on 20 feet of the back wall so the rest of the shop is open span. I also have a fridge to keep cool beverages in and microwave if I want to heat up some food. For the time I spend in my shop, these conveniences are necessities.

 

[dwilliams35]

Best thing I did was the aforementioned two doors: the drive-through capability is nice, but the main thing is just keeping it comfortable in the summer: Prevailing winds here are north and south, so I've always got some air movement through it, even on relatively still days..

Secondly, I haven't gotten around to doing it, but a friend of mine put some 1/2" round stock all the way around the shop welded to the beams: Each piece welded together where it's a solid loop. With that, he just clamps the ground clamp off the welder to the piece that is right there at the welder, then has a 10' section of ground lead with clamps on both ends: just clamp it wherever you're at, and you don't have to drag a 50' ground lead around. He also has some rebar in the slab similarly "stubbed up" and grounded so that he could ground his welding table in the middle of the shop.

Don't skimp on PVC in the slab for conduit, air, water, whatever... It's a lot easier to run that stuff pre-pour than any time later.

 

[gghb]

seen guys pour I beams into shop floors to protect floor from track equipment and provide anchors where needed when needed weld on grind off as needed

greg

 

[RPW]

Mine is a 40 x 50 x 16 with the shop area of 30x50. 10ft on one side is for a future overhang for the horse area. I also have 12x12 doors on oposite sides for drive through.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Right on--forget about using your shop as a tractor wash. Make the floor dead level.

Also, design your shop so it has "drive through" capability-- two rollup doors (10 x 10 ft minimum) on opposite walls. Wish I would have done this when I had my shop built 6 years ago. If you have large tractors to service, I'd consider including a service pit.

I agree with everything posted above. Make the floor dead level, put 2 or 3 floor drains in and just pitch the floor around them say 4' diameter (but only in front of your overhead doors), put a door on opposing walls to have a drive thru effect, get a good mop and good mop bucket on wheels to keep your floor clean and forget hosing it out. My 30x50 building I can sweep, mop and watch dry in an hour easily. Granted that hour generally also includes picking stuff up off the floor and storing it away.


Also (and I did this), put a bathroom in your shop. Mine is about 9'x9', has a commode, water heater, slop sink, shelves to store paint (since the room is heated all winter), has a rack for my boots, a clothesrack for my hunting clothes...... all heated (and will cook you out if set on high) with a 500w electric strip heater. With the water heater and sink in there I stubbed to outside a cold and hot water faucet, the hot water makes it so much nicer when degreasing a tractor engine, washing out your mower deck, turn on both hot and cold and have alot more flow through one hose for blasting dirt and mud off. I have yet to buy a pressure washer, in fact the hot water through my garden hose works better than my dads pressure washer with cold water for degreasing equipment.

 

[ovrszd]

There's a lot of good tips here,,,, but where's you guy's pictures??? Ain't ya proud of your shops???

My shop is a Vargus Purdun all metal 42x50x12.

I like a drive thru design but I killed my drive-thru when I added a hoist.

I like a square design rather than a long narrow design.

Don't get cheap when you pour concrete, in my area 6" minimum. I poured 6" on top of 1" gravel so I've got closer to 7" strength. No cracks. Also pour a stepped drop in the doorways. Let your doors shut down into that step. No water blows in under the doors.

I like a flat floor as mentioned above for fab work. A floor drain for me just becomes a catch all for that loose washer, nut, spring, clip, etc., that gets away from me.

When wiring the shop go completely crazy, plug-ins everywhere you can hang one. Welder plugs on each wall at a minimum.

Bathroom is a necessity. Not just for the luxury of the toilet but more for the luxury of running water. Beats the crap outta washing your hands outside under the hydrant in the middle of a snow storm. I also have a refrigerator next to the bathroom with an ice maker plumbed off my water supply.

I put my air compressor in the bathroom so it's not so noisy. Plumb air drops until you get sick of installing them. I also added a 50' air hose reel in the center of the shop ceiling. Another sweet trick, I wired my compressor to my shop lights. When I walk out at night and turn off my lights, I also turn off power to my air compressor. Cost $50 for a magnetic starter to accomplish that.

Go big on the doors. A 10' wide door gets extremely narrow extremely fast. Buy good insulated doors. I have CHI doors. Have at least one automatic opener. My doors are 12' wide x 10' high. I have three.

Buy good, big, insulated glass windows and put one about every 10-12 ft of wall space on all four sides. If during the day you have to turn on the lights to work,,,,, you didn't buy enough windows. Also a must have is a window panel in each roll up door. I even have half of my walk-in glass.

Buy good lighting. I used 8, four tube, four foot long, T-8 fixtures. $1K in lighting fixtures. Looks like a space ship parked in my backyard at night when the lights are on. If I ever need a trouble light I can't find it cause I rarely need it.

If you're gonna build a shop don't let money tie your hands too much. And don't even try to tell me how you can build a big shop for a few thousand dollars, ain't gonna happen. Okay,,,,, wait,,,,, yes,,,, you can build a 40x50ish sized shop for $10K. But it'll just be a metal pop can building that's worthless in anything beyond perfect weather conditions. If you want a year around shop, expect to spend as much money finishing the shop as you spend on the initial pile of building materials.

I'll admit it since no one else will, we have $41K in our shop minus the hoist. My Sons and I built it but hired the concrete poured. The building laying in a pile in the yard was $20K. So we spent an additional $21K for concrete, wiring, plumbing, 100K btu furnace, bathroom materials, etc.

Do overs. Would add additional winter insulation kit and completely cover inside walls/ceiling with metal. Would have added another $3K.

We lost our shop in a fire 2 1/2 years ago and this is what we built back. When my Sons and I were standing on the spot of the old shop after we'd cleared it off they said "Dad you should build the shop of your dreams to replace the old one". So I did

So here's some pics of what my wife affectionately named the "Man Cave". I am so truly blessed. When we were standing in the yard watching our old shop burn down my wife hugged me and said "Honey, why couldn't it have been the house". I am so blessed.

 

[slowzuki]

I'll second putting masonry up the outside walls for 8-16". I didn't because of how my beams tilted up, I regret it now. CMU's are cheap and it saves your siding outside from the ground splash grime.

 

[jimgerken]

Lots of good ideas already. One thing to do before settling on a size. Look for and ask about advertised specials on standard sizes. The larger pole builders really like to spec certain sizes that they have already done a hundred times AND the sizes are very material efficient for them so they know they can build them fast and clean with very little waste. For instance, 40X64x12 seems to be one of those sizes. Northland has advertised this size for what I thought was a real nice price this past summer. Now, if it doesnt fit your property, then it can't help you, but as stated earlier, build it big enough for some expansion. I would say do a very careful estimate of what you need today, then double it and don't think twice. Pour concrete and do interior finish only on the part you need now, and thank me later when the rest of it is there to serve you.