New Shop Planning

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
This is partly to un-hijack the where's Rennie Thread, and partly just to share some thoughts on my next shop.

My father is getting into woodworking, my Uncle is giving us his Shopsmith system, and Dad gets it first. I'll inherit it once he gets done with it. His stated goal is to build 'just a few things' and then it is mine. :rolleyes:
Truly, I expect that will be the case however. He's never had a huge interest in woodworking, but he could surprise me. I HOpe he does!

He's initially going to use it in the former furnace room in his basement. He wants to build a new garage/shop however and has charged me with coming up with the design... (his thought is I'll be using it longer than he will).

OK, to that end, here's my wishlist

Garage space for 2 vehicles plus extra room for large yard stuff (mid sized john deere plus implements of destruction). Call that 30x40 (yard stuff currently stored in a small shed, could stay there if space gets tight).

Add to that the workshop. This is going to be "The Workshop" so here goes... 40 x 40. I'll work up a sketchup plan in a bit, but I was thinking garage at street level, with a mezzanine/office design space right behind it, and then stairs down to the main shop. This would allow the street face to stay 'manageable' but allow me to have some elbow room. I would have a ground floor entrance as well for the big stuff to enter/leave the shop. The DC/compressor etc could be up in a dedicated room next to the office.

There are some trees to deal with as far as solar heating etc... but there are ways around that. I've got to get to work right now, but I thought this would give you all something to jump off from. And no, I'm not building this one, it would be done by a framing crew before I move down there.
 
Thanks Ned! I was just going to do this when I saw your thread.

Your design and the one I have bouncing around in my head are VERY similar. This will be fun!

I'm meeting with my real estate guy Tuesday morning to look at my house (what improvements to make to get ready for sale) and he's also going to give me some ideas on finding the right property. It can be expansive to start from scratch on vacant land (first choice) but the up side is you get exactly what you want. His suggestion is that I look for a house with large property or something that already has a suitable large outbuilding.

More on this meeting on Tuesday.
 
Rennie,
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on that front.

I'm in a bit of a quandry. My Dad of course wants to build the shop behind his house up on the hill. My preferred location of course would be down near the larger house in town where I'm hoping/planning to move next year. I suppose I could drive a mile to go work in a nicely equipped shop however.

I'm going to 'design' for his lot (his money, so he gets to build where he wants it). That will mean a two floor space ultimately, stepped down the hill. I'm thinking earth berm and lots of west facing windows, plus as much solar, both passive and active (tracking mirrors and a heat exchanger with a thermal mass/ radiant floor setup) That I can fit on there. I don't want it off the grid, but low energy costs will of course help!
 
Rennie in todays market i think your further ahead to get the house already there and the building maybe,, you will get more bang for your dollar that way.. yu wont be payun top price for everything and you can move in right away.. you are able to make any building to suit your needs in one way or another if its got the room to start with.. but finding a house alone is easier than the building and house both..that way you can design the build for the shop to your liking.. just my thoughts..
 
Ned,

- how about a balcony on the "main" floor, off the back of the office, to enjoy that mid morning coffee break with LOYL?

- is there a road/slope down the hill so that you can deliver big iron to the shop level?

have fun!
 
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Rennie in todays market i think your further ahead to get the house already there and the building maybe,, you will get more bang for your dollar that way.. yu wont be payun top price for everything and you can move in right away.. you are able to make any building to suit your needs in one way or another if its got the room to start with.. but finding a house alone is easier than the building and house both..that way you can design the build for the shop to your liking.. just my thoughts..
My real estate guy agrees with you so we'll probably look for a house with some land and the appropriate zoning.
 
Ned

I know your into solar water heating but as far as heating the new shop goes (and I think the water) you want the maximum amount of southern exposure.

You need to work out (I can help if you need it) the solar angle on the south side and then place your windows. Use brise soliel to control the sunlight in the summer and then you'll get the benefit of solar gain in the winter.

Although they're not as green as they may make out SIP's are a pretty good idea. Tehy will go up much faster than stick framing and you can get a R25 for a 6" wall panel which is better than a 6" stick frame. The roof will be even better and you could proabably reduce a lot of the structural needs using a sip's roof.

Just a few ideas thrown into the mix.
 
my opinion on solar supplemental heat...
i`ve known many folks who have actually implemented different types of convective solar heat exchangers and all have used liquid for the carrier, lately folks are trying to use radiant slabs as thermal mass and in the past it was more conventional heat exchangers.
one common theme among all of the folks using solar energy for heat in any type of a closed loop system is that while it might make them feel good about getting "free" energy from the sun the harsh reality is going solar is not cost effective.
first a solar system can realistically only be a back-up system so some type of conventional heat must be installed.
second, those who live with "only" thermal mass heating/cooling all complain about slow recovery times.......the kids leave a door open and sometimes it takes a couple hours to recover the indoor temp.
those who try to use passive solar collectors with some type of heat exchanger generally find recovery slow too due to the low temperature of the liquid in the exchanger.

as for SIPS and air-tight construction.....it`s been my experience that walls must breath or they will rot......in any type of construction a person must deal both with indoor humidity and water infiltration from rain/ground water and outdoor humidity to the exterior portion of a wall........then if you`re able to properly address all of the moisture issues in the wall itself everybody has this notion that large holes need to be poked in the envelope...(windows-n-doors)......and small holes...(plumbing-n-electric).....soooo, if a person could actually build a cost effective airtight envelope say to maybe R-19 overall then he would have to seek out quality window and door units capable of performing as well as the rest of the envelope:eek:

my recomendation for safe supplemental heat in either a shop or home is some type of self contained closed loop forced air heat exchanger..
on a budget use some type of fossil fired boiler....wood/coal/corn/gas etc.
more money....deep well ground sourced heat pump with supplemental coils or burners.

as far as sound construction goes i like conventional wood framing executed using sound drainage practices and conventional batt type insulation in the walls with blown in ceilings.
 
My goal for solar is to augment a conventional heating system. Bridgewater is far enough south that I'm beginning to be more concerned with cooling than heating. So any solar I use will have a nod toward seasonal changes.

Construction will likely be conventional but with as many reasonable solar items incorporated as we can manage.

tod, augmenting is fine with me, it will be a Shop after all. I'm looking to reduce the heat bill in winter, not to eliminate it altogether. Even my current shop project is not about replacing my kero heater, it is to try and add to it.

gotta run to my youngest's football game. I'll be adding more to this tonight.
 
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