Shop/Garage Building - Questions

Canks

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2022
Messages
37
Location
Lake Havasu
Gents,

I know there was a decent thread on the forum that shall remain nameless, but wanted to bring my question here: Looking in to pruchasing a shop/metal building for me to move my work space and run a small side business out of. Just started talking to one vendor (bigbuildingsdirect.com). Specifically looking at their model called The Isabella -Click me.

Dimensionally adjusted to 20x65, that is about right for me and will allow me to seperate the work from personal pretty easy. So far they have quoted building+install at $30.5k, but the quote needs to be adjusted to a 12' height to allow for a car lift.
-includes 4 roll up doors @10x10 and two man doors


What questions should I be asking?
What items should I be looking out for?
What must have items does my shop need that I am not thinking of?


-FYI this does not include foundation, engineering, or permitting.

Also, anyone have a concrete guy in Havasu?
 
Watch some of these building manufacturers that have specials and closeouts. Sunward steel currently has a special on a building thats 33x60x14, one 12x10 door for 26K. If you're patient you might find one someone has already paid for the engineering on but didn't purchase the unit and you can get a little more bang for your buck.

From an electrical standpoint, equipment placement within the building might be nice to have planned out before the foundation. If it were me I'd run conduit under the slab to my shop lift locations so I'm not floating the conduit overhead to power them.
 
I personally had Bunger Steel do my building in Phoenix. I would check with them on pricing and engineering. They did my building and engineering for the slab that I submitted for permits and gave to concrete company's for quotes. Also when planning electrical I would make scale items you have in shop like tool boxes, lift w/working area around vehicle say 25' long, welders with work benches so you can have electrical exactly where you want so you don't need extension cords to run everything. I got quotes from western steel buildings and a few others. Burger was local and matched prices with Western for comparable building. Wall insulation will be 4" so the sheet metal on sides isn't bulged out between purlins and 6" on ceiling since you don't see it bulging at all. My current shop only has one 10' x 10' door and I really miss my 12' wide doors so I suggest getting 12' wide doors when doing building. Also as many doors as you can fit for every bay if the shop is perfect so you don't need to move lots of stuff to get things in or out if working on longer project and need to bring in shorter day projects. So I would suggest going with 12' wide doors if possible and only 1 man door is needed for that size. My shop is 30x80 and my biggest complaint is the single roll up door on the 80' side but I make it work. My shop in Phoenix was my dream setup 50'x80' with 16' eves. 3 12' x 14' doors on an 80' wall with the last 20' x 15' was my office, bathroom with stairs up to mezzanine above where I had more storage. Also I ran 14 4' led lights for shop and one single plug in led light above office if needed for light, which it wasn't. Going 16' eves made putting up 12' tall pallet racking for my forklift perfect and gave plenty of storage spaces above it and put bottom shelf at 7' up so I could have welding bottles and park forklift under it too. Post up any specific questions as I have done the whole building including erecting the building, wiring, painting, plumbing, everything besides concrete and roll up doors myself.
 
good info., i'll def need to layout my electrical. Tommy the wall height and door width were two things I was concerned with, glad you chimed in on this.

Thank you
 
My current shop is 12' eves and I wish it was taller so I could install my pallet racking but the size and layout of the shop I have the ends with metal shelves that are more convenient for holding parts, tools, etc since I don't have pallets with motors on them and pallets of wheels and tires stacked up anymore. If doing an office or area in the shop and wanting to take advantage of storage space above it a taller building is nice because of that. So if not storing a lot of large items and pallet racking is needed 12' is fine and you can still use the racking just not the top shelf on it. 10' wide doors are fine for driving in and out vehicles but make backing in a trailer a bit harder since they are wider than a truck. With my forklift having cushion tires and no concrete outside my shop needing to back a trailer into shop to load stuff in as been needed but now I'm going to do a concrete driveway to remedy that. If you can afford a driveway outside the shop doors it will be nice I never had that at shops at my homes since I didn't want to spend the extra money for that but now I'm saving up to add it on current shop because door size and shop layout make it almost a requirement.
 
Ive been working on my shop for about a year and a half now. I had Southwest Building Supply build it and deal with alot of the issues i didnt want to deal with. They dealt with county, did permits, did concrete, installed the building, everything but the garage doors and electrical. No it wasnt cheap but i also wanted the damn thing done in a timely manner and i very well knew i wasnt going to have it done within a year. The longest part was waiting on county and the G&D i needed so i didnt have an outragous dirt work bill. I did all the dirt work and my FIL is doing all the wiring. outsoured the doors to a friend of my brothers who got me way better doors than SW would have and they were cheaper. I had dirtwork quoted by a few people and everyone wanted between 15-25k for the shit. fuuuuuck that, that is fucking dumb for the work that needed to be done. i bought a kubota tractor with bucket, gannon, and backhoe for 23k and did the whole pad in 2 weeks. i pulled out about 200 yards of dirt and move another 200 yards into the build up area (one corner needed to be cut down while the other needed to be built up). to soak and compact, i rented the biggest skip loader i could get and borrowed my buddies 5k water truck so i could move/fold the dirt in a timely manner over the summer without having all the water evap before i was able to move it back and compact it. That only took a weekend and cost 300 bucks. didnt save much but i now i have an extremely handy tractor that i use the shit out of. well worth it and its paid for its self in the side jobs ive done.

Building specs are 50x50x16.5 (i wanted enough depth to fit a 40ft trailer inside with no issues), 2 4ft man doors, a 14x14 door for the RV and a 10x16ft door. Concrete is 5" fiber re-enforced monolithic pour with 24x24" footers. 4" wall insulation and 6" roof like Tommy did on his old shop. Garage doors are polyurethane insulated.

If i were to do it over again, id just bump my garage door up to a 14x16. have not needed it but its better to have and not need to need and not have. There is no way i could make 10x10 doors work. id for sure hit the damn sides of the garage door with a truck or something. just too tight. 14ft is way better but 12ft would be a good comprimise. I needed the 16ft high ceiling to have the 14ft high door and so i could do the pallet racking like tommy stated as well. 12ft tall rack looks small inside lol. i didnt pre=plan any electrical inside and honestly dont think i would. instead i put alot of 220v outlets inside the shop so really anywhere i placed equipment, a plug was near by. Im glad i did because my original plan and layout i figured out with chaulk and tape measurer did not work out. If you are going to do an underground line to the lift, pre-plan where the lift goes based on your saw cut lines or move the saw cut lines, its a big no no to have the lift too close to the edge of them as its a weaker area. I chose to just drop a line down, you have to run a bunch of lines up there anyhow for lighting. In all, i think i have 10 220v outlets (8 are 30amp, rest are 50 amp), a fuck ton of 110v 4 plug outlets and then lighting. I have a 400 amp service on the house with a dedicated 200 to the house on one main breaker and another main 200amp breaker than then drops into my underground and is ran to the shop. Shop then has a 200amp panel on it. My panel is filling up quick but i still have plenty of room to add more circuits and the eventual 3 mini splits for a/c in there. Im not even worried that a 200amp breaker will be enough. even with 2 guys, i see no way we can pull enough power to blow it with a/c going, welder going, plasma going and an rv plugged in and it pulling max power. thats going to be max - 150 amps.
 
This is after i got the floors done but before electrical started.

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i need to get some current pics as i have most of my stuff moved out of my garage and down to the shop at this point. waiting on my FIL to finish the flood lights so i can put the rest of my racking up and finish moving the rest of it. then ill finally be done with it! for now lol
 
@84projectFORD If you don't mind me asking.... how much do you think it cost you for the building all said and done? Not including the Kubota or items that helped get the building done.
 
Where is Southwest Building Supply? I am trying to build a 50'x60' shop on my property and it's been nothing but a hassle and much rather pay someone to handle all the bullshit. Help!!! LOL

Every steel shop company says they don't deal with permits, etc, etc. and I know nothing about house/building shit. I have already paid for my permit which the city has yet to give to me because they keep coming up wuth different requests etc. Such a pain in the ass!

With what I figured it will cost me $220K. I am fine with...but I can't even get the damn permit to start!!!!!!
 
@84projectFORD If you don't mind me asking.... how much do you think it cost you for the building all said and done? Not including the Kubota or items that helped get the building done.

Wont say because its not really relevant due to so many variables and areas i got deals on. Steel cost has changed as well since i did mine.

Where is Southwest Building Supply? I am trying to build a 50'x60' shop on my property and it's been nothing but a hassle and much rather pay someone to handle all the bullshit. Help!!! LOL

Every steel shop company says they don't deal with permits, etc, etc. and I know nothing about house/building shit. I have already paid for my permit which the city has yet to give to me because they keep coming up wuth different requests etc. Such a pain in the ass!

With what I figured it will cost me $220K. I am fine with...but I can't even get the damn permit to start!!!!!!

Southwest Building Solutions. They are out of Phx but go all over the state. I can get you in touch with a dude from there if you want. Matts a real down to earth dude and aint pushy.

@84projectFORD post current floor pics. k thx

Fuck you, bitch. If anyone thinks epoxy floors are a great idea for a fab/mechanic shop, think again. polish the concrete and call it good or just suck up the fact you are going to detroy your floors. Every god damn bolt, tool, part, fucking thing that has an edge and is dropped chips this shit. i set mine up so its easy to repair but god damn it, i expected it to last far longer than it has. explains why heavy use shops dont have it.
 
I just did epoxy floor on my garage. Tylor from kartek did it for me. His side hustle is Royalty Coatings. I havent had a single chip or anything peel. Ive welded, grinded, rolled floor jacks on it etc and havent had any issues. I dont disagree for a full kill fab shop that im sure polished concrete is preferred and is more bulletproof but for my 2 car garage at my house its a good option. There was no saving my original flooring, it was filled with cracks and chips, Tylor filled all the cracks and ground the floor multiple times. You would never know there was a single crack in it now.

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i think that heavy flake and top coat helps a fuckton. Problem is, you cant see a damn thing when you drop a bolt or something on the ground. the single color smooth i did stopped that but has its other issues. i should clarify, its not epoxy chipping, its concrete coming with it.

EDIT: im an absoutle asshole to floors so i guess i shouldnt be surprised.
 
i think that heavy flake and top coat helps a fuckton. Problem is, you cant see a damn thing when you drop a bolt or something on the ground. the single color smooth i did stopped that but has its other issues. i should clarify, its not epoxy chipping, its concrete coming with it.

EDIT: im an absoutle asshole to floors so i guess i shouldnt be surprised.
This is a true statement. Its very hard to find bolts/nuts on the ground especially small things disappear rather quickly!!
 
I just did epoxy floor on my garage. Tylor from kartek did it for me. His side hustle is Royalty Coatings. I havent had a single chip or anything peel. Ive welded, grinded, rolled floor jacks on it etc and havent had any issues. I dont disagree for a full kill fab shop that im sure polished concrete is preferred and is more bulletproof but for my 2 car garage at my house its a good option. There was no saving my original flooring, it was filled with cracks and chips, Tylor filled all the cracks and ground the floor multiple times. You would never know there was a single crack in it now.

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that makes me hard
 
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