being that it is a wood workign shop, i would say go with whichever floor is cheaper since you will never see it anyway!

he needs to look at how much room he REALLY needs. it could be a small 12x12 or it could be 20x20. best bet is for him to setup for a big project and jsut see.

my shop has an open ceiling and i store my wood on it. even though i don't have a steep pitched roof, there is still a couple feet clearance and it is easy enough to put most wood up there. for long boards i stack them outside under a tarp.

ideally he would want dedicated space for each power tool. though the table saw can be easily rolled out of the way most of the time.

Thanks davidandkasie.

I was thinking it would have to be at least the size of 1/2 of a 2-car garage, possibly with AC and heat. What about outlet placement? Are the walls finished with sheetrock and/or insulated? I would suspect we would need city permit to build either with a concrete foundation or if the building is over a certain size.

Any other suggestions?

quote" What would be your dream (within reason - we're not talking fantasy here! -- workshop? "quote

30x30, concrete slab, with a second story having an equally large open room, trimmed to look like our home.
Fantasy Question- What could be better than a 6 car garage
Answer- one with a 6 car gameroom upstairs complete with kitchenette, bar, bathroom, and gas log fireplace.

IMO, you shouldn't go any less than 16x16, 20x20 would be much better. Either way go for a concrete slab. You'll never ever regret the money the slab cost. I wouldn't worry about sheetrock and AC, that can come anytime down the road.

See ya,
Kelly

We live in a horse community with acre + lots where pratically everyone has built some sort of workshop/garage/outbuilding on their property, none of which are exactly the same, as everyone's needs are different.

In our case we put up a 34' X 34' building with wood working space on one side (front) and an oversized single garage on the other side (front) and two (2) large storage rooms in the back, behind the workshop/garage areas.

We really don't need the extra garage right now but we figured it made sense to include a space for a car or boat for resale purposes. Meanwhile, we plan to stain the concrete floor and use the space as a game room since we've never had space for a pool table in our house.

The storage rooms will be used in place of the attic over our attached garage, which has stairs to climb and too small an opening to store very large boxes or furniture. It is my belief you can never have too much storage space, even if you're not a packrat. We usually have a stock of home improvement supplies for an upcoming project to store (currently bathroom sinks, cabinets, tile, and faucets) and all of our Christmas decorations - especially the outdoors stuff.

Even though we're not allowed to build separate 'living quarters' on our property, some of my neighbors use their 'workshops' as home offices, craft rooms, art studios..........the sky is the limit. Have fun!