Front View (Click for larger view)

Here is a quick update of where I am on the workshop design.  If you remember from my first article, the footings and frost wall already exist so I cannot modify anything with them, but every thing else is fair game.

I am not quite as far along as I had hoped to be at this point with the design, but here is what I have so far.  As you can see from the pictures, I have the wall studs up on 3 of the sides.  I have to research the rough opening sizes I’ll need for the doors before doing the fourth wall.

I also have one of roof trusses drawn.  Actually, I haven’t decided if they will be premade trusses or if I will just build them on site.  You can now see what I mean by a center aisle horse barn.  The difference here is that my workshop will not be raised on the interior, the raised section will house the second floor.

Iso View (Click for larger view)

The next step will be to finish the front walls and the rest of the roof trusses.  Then I will start adding the sheeting on the outsides of the walls and drywall on the inside of the walls.

The one thing I don’t like about wood walls is that it can really cut down on the light in the shop.  I really like having a lot of light in my shop and having white walls really helps the light reflect around the shop.  The wood could be painted white, but I hate painting wood.  so what I plan on doing is putting up drywall on all of the walls and ceiling and painting them bright white.  At first this sounds very antiseptic, but I think much of the walls will be covered by cabinets, workbenches, tools and such.

If I need to hang several heavy tools, jigs, or whatever on the wall, I would probably attach a sheet of plywood horizontally to the wall studs, and then hang things from the plywood.  In my current garage shop, I have some white peg board which works out quite well for the lighter tools.  It is just not strong enough for anything too heavy.  Anything of any real weight will either be in a cabinet or on a shelf anyways.

Flooring is another subject that generates a lot of conversation.  Pretty much the one thing that everyone agrees on is that concrete floors are very hard on your feet and back.  I am seriously considering installing Dricore flooring over the top of the concrete pad.  The 2005 Tools and Shops issue of Fine Woodworking (#174) had a really good article comparing these DriCore tiles and other PVC floor coverings.  I like the Dricore in the sense that it seems to give more cushion for your feet and back, and also a better insulating value.  My only concern is if they can handle the weight of a table saw without crushing the plastic underside.  That will be a future research project.

At this point I envision the west wall of the shop to be lined with a long counter top/workbench with cabinets underneath.  On the walls above the cabinets will be either more cabinets or wall mounted tool storage.  The east wall will be for lumber storage.  There will probably be a stairway going upstairs along the back wall along with larger portable tool storage.  I will work out some of these details as my design progresses.

The first thing I want to consider is the overall style of the building.  I live out in the country surrounded by farms and fields.  I have always liked the look of old center aisle horse barns and that is what I would like my shop to resemble.  Plus, the design gives me the opportunity to have a small second floor where I can have either an office or extra storage.  The horse barn look is both aesthetically pleasing to its surroundings and very practical for use as a workshop.

Ceiling height would be my next consideration.  I would like a minimum of 10ft high ceilings.  This makes it easy to stand 4×8 sheets of plywood on end and if needed roll it on its corner and still have a foot to spare.  The diagonal measurement of a 4×8 sheet is just shy of 9ft.

I will probably stick with 10ft high ceilings for a couple of reasons, both related to cost.  I figure that it will cost roughly 20% more in materials for the walls by going to a 12 ft ceiling.  Also, when it comes to heating and cooling, it will be less expensive with the 10ft ceilings.  One other thing, I think the building would just look too tall with a 12 ft ceiling.

The building will certainly have to be insulated.  I live in Michigan where the winters are cold and the summers are hot.  I will probably install a propane furnace, the kind that hangs from the ceiling, to heat the shop during the winter.  I have yet to research all of the different kinds of furnaces but as soon as I do I will post an article dedicated to it.

Another luxury would be to have 6 inch wide walls rather than the typical 4 inch.  The purpose of this would be to have thicker insulation in the walls which will reduce the heating and cooling costs.  However, I am pretty sure the cost of 2×6 wall studs may be a bit higher than I am willing to pay.

Windows are another thing to consider, and there will certainly be some trade offs with them.  I want as much natural light as possible coming into the shop, but I don’t want to sacrifice too much wall space either.  I imagine I will have 2 windows on the side walls and 1 window on each end wall both downstairs and upstairs giving me a total of eight windows.

Both the large overhead door and the entry door will be insulated.  The overhead door is for easy loading and unload of lumber and projects.  I do not ever intend on driving into the shop.  Because I don’t ever intend on driving into the shop, I plan on making the poured cement floor as flat as humanly possible.  At this point, I can see no reason to put a drain in the floor, so there is no need to slope the floor.

The shop will have to have both 110 and 220 outlets.  I currently only have 1 machine that runs on 220, but I plan on having a couple more someday.

At this point, this pretty much makes up my requirements list for the overall construction of the workshop.  I will discuss some of my requirements for the interior of the shop in my next article.

This worked out well until we decided to move.  In 2004 we built a new house out in the country.  The new house had an attached garage which was large enough for a small workshop and both cars.  I decided, though, that I would like a dedicated building for a workshop that was the same size as the garage.

So when the concrete was being poured for the basement of the house and garage, I also had the footings and frost wall poured for the workshop.  At that point we finished the house and garage, but due to financial reasons the workshop was left as is… just a short cement wall sticking out of the sand.  My kids have had a great time playing in what I call “the most expensive sandbox around”.

I am now planning on building the rest of the shop next summer.  So I though I would start the design process, and have everything planned out before construction begins.

Workshop Floor

The outside dimensions of the frost wall are 24ft by 32ft, giving me just under 768square feet of floor space.  As the design progresses I will update the the blog with new images of the design.  so far, all I have drawn are the footings, frost wall, and the cement floor (in the image the green represents a little grass around the outside).

As you can see there is a break in the wall for a large garage door and an entry door.  The next step will be to start throwing some lumber at it and constructing some walls.