Moving and building a shop

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
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Wanted to let everyone know we will be moving to our new home in March. Thy accepted our offer and we are moving forward. The only problem is it does not have any shop buildings. This creates a rather complicated predicament for me so we are building a shop ASAP. I have never built a shop befor and so it's a little overwhelming for me at this time. We have the cash and thought to just get a pole building kit. But right now it's just me and I'm guessing it's going to take a bit more man power then that. I don't even know how long it takes to put up a pole building. I also have not settled on a size yet but at least 24x24 or maybe a tad longer. I'm looking for advice on this project as I want to be down for as little time as possible.

If any of you have any experance with this I would be greatly thankful for advice on this. Our county does not require permits for building as long as it's not living space. Thanks guys
 
I live way out in the country as well. When I own my own property I plan on buying 3 53' convex boxes and setting them side by side and welding them together and cutting out the center walls, welding strips on the top seal the joints on the roof. I don't have to worry about snow load here so I could get away without any columns or beams providing I left enough material of the center walls to act as a beam welding them up as well.. When cash was available tair all the wood planks and pour concrete. But that's just me.
 
not much help i had a builder line up the concrete and stick build it roof and side it (myself and a friend wired and finished the rest alone with heat (make sure to spen the properr amount for insulation and run more power/ wire then you think you will ever need )
 
My shop is 24x30. It works great, but don't think I would want it any smaller. I built mine 90% alone, but I am/was a carpenter. Mine is on a slab with 2 courses of blocks and stud wall on that. I insulated and sheetrocked everything and ran conduit for electric. Tried to make it as fire proof as I could. It's tin on the outside. Seems like I had $10k into it. Pretty hard to beat a polebarn contractor though. They would have the shell up in a week or less.
 
I'd only do it myself if I had the time. I put a tin roof on my house last summer and wouldn't really care to do it again though I probably will since my larger outbuilding needs it.

But around here you can hire the Amish to build things like that pretty inexpensive.
 
Build it bigger than what you think you will need. I don't think a shop can be too large, but it can sure be too small.
 
If you go with a tin roof, go with a snap lock system of some sort as there are no exposed screws. Properly installed it should last tell the tin rusts through as there are no exposed fasteners like a delta rib style tin roof. I would also recommend using OSB sheathing on the roof if you go with tin as we have found it to work better then vapor barrier to keep the roof from sweating. With pole building's think about your eve height as the taller the eve height the more room you have up high for a loft or 2nd story. Pole buildings are commonly built in 12' on center section's so you can always build what you need now and easily add on additional twelve foot sections in the future, just make sure to site your building in an area that can accommodate future additions. For example you could build a 36' x 24' pole building now and then add two more 12' section later for a 36' x 48'. Roll up doors or a garage style door seal better for keeping out the cold vs. a sliding door. Congratulations on the new home and I look forward to seeing photo's of the new shop.
 
Thank you guys for all the help. I'm thinking about dividing up the inside. I have so much going on in the shop now that it would be nice to have a heat treating room becaus that has really taken off. Also a metal processing room and maybe a clean room for finish work. But that's pie in the sky dreams.
 
JTknives said:
Wanted to let everyone know we will be moving to our new home in March. Thy accepted our offer and we are moving forward. The only problem is it does not have any shop buildings. This creates a rather complicated predicament for me so we are building a shop ASAP. I have never built a shop befor and so it's a little overwhelming for me at this time. We have the cash and thought to just get a pole building kit. But right now it's just me and I'm guessing it's going to take a bit more man power then that. I don't even know how long it takes to put up a pole building. I also have not settled on a size yet but at least 24x24 or maybe a tad longer. I'm looking for advice on this project as I want to be down for as little time as possible.

If any of you have any experance with this I would be greatly thankful for advice on this. Our county does not require permits for building as long as it's not living space. Thanks guys
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My friend made a beautiful fisherman's cottage on the lake from two / External Length: 19′ 10″ Width: 8′ 0″ Height: 8′ 6″ / jointed shipping containers .
 
My dad and I built a 24x36 ourselves. After the trusses were set it went really fast.
The only things we contracted out were the trusses and the concrete. We did all the framing, septic and plumbing and all the wiring ourselves. We also finished the siding and roof and put in all the windows and hung the doors. Its one of them things thats usually faster to do yourself than waiting on contractors to schedule you in, contractors wear me out with their do a little and not see em for a month BS.

At least that's the way they work here in Kentucky..
 
was given a great tip about splitting up the shop "dont do walls and doors casue at some point you will want to move things around or tire of using the door all the time" was told to use butchers curtain and am glad i did does a great job of keeping dust mostly contained in the dirty side and the semi dirty is not bad with little to no dust floating to the upstairs clean level
 
knife to a gunfight said:
Mind if I ask around what that cost for the basic structure?
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Not at all, it was around 6500 delivered. Came wrapped tight, a fork lift would have been handy as my cousin, neighbor and myself unloaded it piece by piece. They are used at the Cape by NASA, so I figured it would be ok. It is. But with 13 years of inflation, who knows, might be better avenues.
 
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I was thinking about doing something like that but wife thinks it's ugly and would not match the house. Plus she also wants to extent the roof out for a car port.
 
JTknives said:
I was thinking about doing something like that but wife thinks it's ugly and would not match the house. Plus she also wants to extent the roof out for a car port.
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Lol, they ain't purdy! What I did was plant Areka palms around it to envelope the building completely to remove it from the neighborhood. Otherwise, I too, would have taken a different route.
 
wkfl said:
Not at all, it was around 6500 delivered. Came wrapped tight, a fork lift would have been handy as my cousin, neighbor and myself unloaded it piece by piece. They are used at the Cape by NASA, so I figured it would be ok. It is. But with 13 years of inflation, who knows, might be better avenues.
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Hmm... that's really not terrible if it's around the same price today. Not for that much square footage. Wonder what the neighbor's would think? :D
 
had 20K in my buildingg before i ran wire and drywall but that got me a 2x6 stick built 16x24 with 2 floors and a concrete slab 18-24 iinch thick if it had runnning water it woudl be a house
 
Being a electrical contractor for a long time and having built my own super insulated house and seeing building construction nowadays I'll offer one opinion. Wouldn't matter to me if I pole built, stick built or metal framed I WOULD HAVE IT SPRAY FOAMED for insulation. It's absolutely expensive but it would pay for it's self in a few years whether you live in cold environment or a hot environment. I'm a believer in the last couple bldg. projects I've been on.
 
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