Building a shop, Whats the good the bad and the ugly? Options

[Wilhelm]

Made a deal with my wife that when the kitchen was done I could put up a shop and get my cars and tools out of the dirtfloored polebarn that I have to share with the (her) horses.

I have a few criteria:

Steel
Concrete floor through out
Adequate size, likely 40' x 50' with enough height for a 2 pole lift.
Seperate heated tool room to stop the endless condensation and relentless tool self destruction brought on by the moisture drifting out the Oregon winter moors.
Everything insulated as from experiance the pole barn is hotter than ambient in the summer and seems colder than ambient in winter.
Hot water, shower, toilet, fridge.
Doors, windows and garages that seal.

As I cruz the net, there is a bewildering array of manufactuerers and resellers all claiming their building is the next better moustrap and the other guys suck. (kinda sounds like the presidential debates lately). What I ask is the collected advise of fellow 914world members who've traveled this task to tell me who has good products, fair prices, who stands behind their product. Ease of erection (buildings, not 914members). Is one type of building better? ie pole, metal beam, truss, or certainly what is complete mickey mouse crap. Disasters you may have encountered, sellers you recommend.

Thanks, Wilhelm

[jd74914]

Pits are a very bad idea. They are also illegal in many parts of the country. What happens if your car catches on fire with you under there?


We built a 24x36 garage thats post and beam. It was a kit, and my Dad and I though that the assembly was really easy. We actually did all of the framing in about 1 weekend (my whole family are very skilled carpenters so the above may not be true for most people). The hardest part of the framing was lifting the 6-700lb beams up 10ft. Three people was not enough for that task (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif)

We did all of the escavation, built the foundation forms, poured it, and finished the entire barn so the price was very reasonable. The place we got the kit from has a demo page at countrycarpenters.com.

All in all it took about 3months tho build which included all of the above and clearing an acre lot too.

Its a 24x36 structure which we thought would be plenty large, but its not. Three Porsches and a bunch of other projects fill the garage portion pretty easily. The foundation was made an extra high 11ft so there is room for a lift. We'll get one eventually. Now we are planning a 14ft addition (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Just like Paul said above, we want to put a lean to on the front for some car port space (many of our neighbors think we're crazy because all of our daily driver cars are outside).

If you know where you want to put a lift you can also just pour an extra thick pad at that point to save money (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Here's a few old pictures of ours in the middle of construction:

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