[Dreadlord]

Right now i work on my car in a 18 by 24 normal garage and needless to say im out of space. So can someone give me advice on how much it will cost for a decent shop with out selling all you own for one. and around how much space will you need because i live in a suburb and i have not backyard or extra land space so any ideas on what i could do would be appriciated.

Thanks in advance

[johnnymopar]

my shop is 18 x 24 also, but the door comes off the side near the end, not on the short end. i ran out of room a long time ago. i've got my car body, my frame, 2 engine/tranny combos, all my tools, a fold-up engine crane, tons of parts... etc. etc.

how is your shelving? put in shelving whereever you can. hang parts on the walls. i've got doors and hoods hung up. also, how high is your ceiling? you can put a lot of stuff out of the way by hanging it from the ceiling, ie. long stock (metal, lumber, etc.), driveshafts, ladders...

i would recommend that you go thru all your stuff that just sits around and see what you really need and really don't need and either sell that stuff or throw it out. i know i save all kinds of things because i think that i might use it sometime but 99% of the stuff just sits around and collects dust and clutters up everything else.

also, can you put anything in the house? i've got parts all over my house because i ran out of room in the shop. box up stuff that you know you're not going to need for a long time and put it in a room somewhere. make sure to mark and label all your parts if you're going to store them for awhile.

that's all i can think of at the moment.

good luck,

JB

[montea]

a shed is nice to store parts in

[Kevin45]

Ditto on the shed. Also build some cabinets, cupboards, and shop around for old school lockers. Look in the local advertiser etc, for deals. The cabinets in my photo album only cost me a couple hundred for all. The doors I paid $5 apiece for already finished. Cupboards are made from 1" x 12" boards with 1" x 3" fronts. Really cheap to do and makes some good looking storage.

Kevin

[Thom Laybourne]

Size doesn't matter if you have no space to put it. If you can go UP, that works. But Johnnymopar has the right idea. SHELVES / SHELVES / SHELVES. I have a three car standard garage. I closed the attic area and installed three drop down latter's. I also put in lights. You would not believe the amount of .... that fits up there. Wal-Mart makes lots of cheap storage bins. Stackable.

hr41pearl

[Huskinhano]

johnnymopar hit the nail on the head! I also have a small 2 car garage in my basement, I live in a ranch style house. I also have a shead with shelves and I also store stuff in the attic or any other nook and cranny I can find! I have a windshield behind my furnace. why? because it fits!

[Dbodily]

Good advice by everyone. One thing to be careful of however is the weight if you choose to store things in the attic. If your roof framing system uses trusses the bottom chord is not designed to carry much load unless it has been specified to do so. Normally Trusses are designed to carry the sheetrock in anticipation of being finished off. There is a factor of safety of 2 1/2 times the stated design load that is mandated by the Uniform Building Code that comes into effect but be careful not to overload.

[woodmanscott@hotmail]

Originally Posted by johnnymopar

my shop is 18 x 24 also, but the door comes off the side near the end, not on the short end. i ran out of room a long time ago. i've got my car body, my frame, 2 engine/tranny combos, all my tools, a fold-up engine crane, tons of parts... etc. etc.

how is your shelving? put in shelving whereever you can. hang parts on the walls. i've got doors and hoods hung up. also, how high is your ceiling? you can put a lot of stuff out of the way by hanging it from the ceiling, ie. long stock (metal, lumber, etc.), driveshafts, ladders...

i would recommend that you go thru all your stuff that just sits around and see what you really need and really don't need and either sell that stuff or throw it out. i know i save all kinds of things because i think that i might use it sometime but 99% of the stuff just sits around and collects dust and clutters up everything else.

also, can you put anything in the house? i've got parts all over my house because i ran out of room in the shop. box up stuff that you know you're not going to need for a long time and put it in a room somewhere. make sure to mark and label all your parts if you're going to store them for awhile.

that's all i can think of at the moment.

good luck,

JB

can you add on in the fron or back a 4 foot addition would make tons of room farly cheap.. that is what i did to mine . plus i added a lean to on the side closed it in and moved my work bench in there and gained 3 more feet just a thought

[Rob Keller]

If you could post some pics We could maybe get a better Idea of options



R

[woodmanscott@hotmail]

Originally Posted by Rob Keller

If you could post some pics We could maybe get a better Idea of options



R

if you are talking to me i dont live there anymore so i cant take pics of my additions to my garage ...

[dartshadow1]

I worked for a shop that was a small 2 bay garage and I mean small only one hoist and lucky to get a 2nd car in beside it, My boss had a Trailer, I mean truck and trailer, he had a long one and he stored all his parts in the trailer with shelving in it, just another idea It may be cheaper to do it that way. Let me know what you think. It worked out for us pretty good.

[dave1939]

hi,i have a 20 by 24 garage with a loft,access door is outside.old but it works.i built a shed for storage of extra stuff.i took the centre post out of the garage and me and my neighbour put in a 6" steel i beam 30ft long.plenty of support and i can pull a motor outside too.i will be putting a floor in the loft in the spring so more storage too.my ideal shop would be about 40 by 60.

[farna]

I just had a 30x50 pole building put up -- $8K (www.nationalbarn.com). That was the $6995 special they were advertising for my area (June 2005) with roof insulation added. I can install side insulation if I want later, roof is easiest while the building is being put up. I deleted the 10' end door (no credit with the special though), and had them leave one 50' side completely open. They just left the metal for me on the site. They set the posts in Redi-Mix, and requested 2 bags per post for the open side to prevent any possible wind lift. All others got one. I had to provide the Redi-Mix. Posts are on 10' centers, trusses on 5'. This is at the home I'll be retiring to from the military in a year.

I'm going down in a couple weeks to pour the concrete floor inside. I'll go back this fall (after a 4 month "vacation" to Afghanistan) and put the front on. I'm planning on using two 9x9 light industrial roll-up doors on the front. 12' of one end will be sectioned off the entire 30' width and used for office/storage space. I'm going to create a small attic above the office roof. The building is 10' tall at the roof eaves, the office area will have an 8' ceiling. There's around 4' between the lower cord and peak of the trusses, so that will give me a little over 5'. I will likely cut the truss center out on the one near the office edge and brace it against the roof instead. That will just mean I have to leave that wall up, I'll brace enough that the roof won't be weakened. It's not like we get a lot of snow in central South Carolina -- maybe 3-4 inches once every 4-5 years, and it just stays a few days!

[BBCMudbogger]

I built my 30x40x10 pole building with 4" concrete slab and 3 9x8 roll up doors in the sidewall and one walkdoor for about $10k

[schnitz]

Farna, your link didn't work. Sounds like you got a decent place in the works none the less. Gotta love that "new shop smell".


In a while, Chet.