[vanwyk4257]

Well, I received the blessing from my wife last weekend to go ahead and build a garage out back (it might have helped that I have two F-bodies in the garage at the moment and she's parking outside (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) ) so I am trying to work out the details on design, size, layout et al.

I am thinking of doing a 24x30 with 12'foot walls to allow me enough height to install a 2 or 4-post lift down the road.

My thought is to put a 16x8 overhead door off to one side of the 30ft. wall which will face the house and then have a 3ft. steel service/entry door as well.

I want to have room to park two cars inside and still have a decent workshop space for working on engines, etc.

I do plan to insulate the entire building and will be running natural gas and electricity (110V only most likely) to it. Heat will be from a 90%+ efficiency furnace, i.e., forced air (my dad's in the business so I can get one cheap).
I also plan to finish the interior walls and ceiling with OSB as opposed to drywall just because it will be easier to live with, i.e., I can bang into it with tools, parts etc. without doing any real damage, and if I do manage to punch a hole in a sheet it will be easier to replace. Finally, I am anticipating putting a loft area in the trusses for storage with a pull-down ladder.

I am looking or any input with regard to the size (I know you can never build too large) based on the aforementioned parameters, will it be large enough?

Also, I would welcome any advice or input with regard to layout etc.

Thanks in advance for the input guys!

[00 SS]

I will be building a new shop one of these days as well. The county allows buildings to cover up to 10% of the property, so that give me a posible 6000 square feet for house and shop. The house foot print with garage is about 3500 square feet and I was hoping to build a 2000 square foot shop (40x50). I was planning on having a 12'x18' door and 8'x18' door plus a 3' man door. A minimum of 100a 220 electrical service, gas and water for a hose bib (or two). I'm hoping that will be a enough room, but who knows, I'm sure I'll find ways to fill it up and want more. I'm hoping 50" is enough to pull a truck and trailor in without unhooking. I might even have enough room to make the 12' tall door area a pass through with another 12' tall door on the back. If I end up with enough room to turn it around without driving over the leach field, I'll probably do it.

A storage loft over the 8' tall door area would also be a bonus.

I thought about in floor radiant heat, but what a mess if something ever broke.

The idea of running extra empty conduits is a really good one.