Planning a shop on steep terrain - thoughts?

[dragoneggs]

A bit off topic, but this is why I have so much fill...

 

[bcp]

Call this guy.

balanced barn at DuckDuckGo

Bruce

 

[EddieWalker]

View attachment 592038

Just off of the picture, I'm wondering what it would take to extend your deck out 24 feet out over the steep slope? That could be a flat roof over a work shop. Then you just build a deck out from the concrete where your tractor is currently parked and add some walls. Tractor and heavy stuff stays on the concrete where it's at now, workshop tool go into the new deck type area that you enclose.

 

[MossRoad]

I'd tear down the existing garage and double or triple the footprint out towards where you truck is parked in the first picture. I'd also make it taller.

Or, keep the existing garage but take the roof off of it, add on in front of it, and make a 2nd story on both the old and new.

Or, keep the existing garage but take the roof off of it, add a tall shop in front of it, and make a 2nd story on just the old garage.

However, I recall discussions with you in the past on this subject and remember your aesthetic concerns about that area....

So it seems your best bet is to go to the right of the driveway in you second picture and build a two story shop in that woods. Make the first level accessible with a drive and door facing the level even with the level your truck is parked on(red), and make the lower level access facing the camera, 90 degrees off from the upper level (facing the camera), but put the door as far to the right in that picture as possible, to give you the longest ramp down to it, kinda down that grassy ramp to your left as you're standing in that picture(blue).

Pardon my drawing skills, I'm using finger CAD. :laughing:

 

[oosik]

Does you property go beyond the retaining wall back by the big pine tree? OR just add on to you existing garage.

 

[dragoneggs]

I'd tear down the existing garage and double or triple the footprint out towards where you truck is parked in the first picture. I'd also make it taller.

Or, keep the existing garage but take the roof off of it, add on in front of it, and make a 2nd story on both the old and new.

Or, keep the existing garage but take the roof off of it, add a tall shop in front of it, and make a 2nd story on just the old garage.

However, I recall discussions with you in the past on this subject and remember your aesthetic concerns about that area....

So it seems your best bet is to go to the right of the driveway in you second picture and build a two story shop in that woods. Make the first level accessible with a drive and door facing the level even with the level your truck is parked on(red), and make the lower level access facing the camera, 90 degrees off from the upper level (facing the camera), but put the door as far to the right in that picture as possible, to give you the longest ramp down to it, kinda down that grassy ramp to your left as you're standing in that picture(blue).

Pardon my drawing skills, I'm using finger CAD. :laughing:

View attachment 592075

The two story shop 'in the woods' with access EXACTLY as you suggest is what I was thinking. Still going to be some serious landscape design and work to get decent access to the bottom floor due to slope.

 

[dragoneggs]

Another thought, and it's out there. Look around for a place with everything that you want, and see if it makes more sense to buy it then what it will cost to build on that steep slope.

Eddie, if you saw our view, our privately shared (3 others) oyster filled beach (150ft) with dock, the investment we have put in this place and attachment I have to it, you would try to make it work... it is our paradise!

 

[dragoneggs]

Just off of the picture, I'm wondering what it would take to extend your deck out 24 feet out over the steep slope? That could be a flat roof over a work shop. Then you just build a deck out from the concrete where your tractor is currently parked and add some walls. Tractor and heavy stuff stays on the concrete where it's at now, workshop tool go into the new deck type area that you enclose.

My wife definitely wants to increase the deck area towards the slope/water, and expand the house as I proposed. The lower patio where I store my tractor is the entrance to my 'man cave'. The thought was to expand to the right as it would be easy to just add trusses and scab on to the side of the house and extend the deck in both that direction and towards the camera.

 

[dragoneggs]

Although adding to the side of the house will please my wife with more main floor space and larger deck... My concerns with a 'basement' shop are several...

1. Limitation on shop height!
2. Slope to get down to it
3. Limited sq. ft.
4. Noise... but to be honest, it wouldn't bother me since I would be the one making it.

Now I am leaning back to Option #2! ullinghair:

 

[s219]

Don't overlook some sort of "split level" arrangement -- they work well on slopes. We normally only think about them for houses, but it would work for a shop too, especially if you have a reason to break it into separate rooms or areas. On my barn, I ended up making an addition with a floor that is about 3' lower than the main barn -- the addition was on the downhill side of the barn. I access it from around the side.