What kind of projects are you planning for? "Workshop exhaust" suggests woodworking/sawdust, or perhaps painting, or a kiln? More specific needs would help a lot!

The house we bought 5 years ago has a storage room in the basement, where I put my woodworking tools. The most important thing for me was electrical outlets and lighting. I added lighting myself (the ceiling isn't finished), but I had an electrician add outlets for me.

My next priority is versatility. In the summer, I cut and sand wood outdoors, so I don't get sawdust all over everything - I do not have an exhaust system. In the winter, I take pains to contain cutting and sanding activities to minimize sawdust in the rest of the room.

I need space for storing lumber, a place to hang hand tools and store power tools, but I need enough space in the middle of the room to set up sawhorses. Larger things are kept in the garage and brought downstairs when needed.

I also have a "project table" in the living room - just a card table, but it's up all the time. I use it for jigsaw puzzles, assembling Lego sets, working on my laptop, and any other thing that comes up. I'm retired, so I find lots of little things to do.

If we knew what your hobbies were, we might be able to help you plan your space.

For floor plan inspiration, look to park model homes. Less than 500 sq. ft. with a bedroom, bath and full (but small) kitchen. 12' wide with various lengths -- basically small single wide mobile homes.

Lots uclear to me what you are building. Full or part time? Where is the workshop?

How will the structure be orented -- which direction is south, and where in the world is the property?

@P D Done! There's a bunch of HVAC ducting behind them, but it's a good spot to put in more shelves. I was debating ducting the kitchen extractor fan there, too, on a damper and add an appliance garage. Probably overkill though (and I'd appreciate the cabinet space more!)

@PPF. Thank you for the suggestion; I'll give those plans a look! Re. details, I've updated most post accordingly. To answer your questions here:

• I'll be there full time!
• Workshop's mostly downstairs (hopefully the images are loading properly; please let me know if not!), but I have the fibre arts and electronics testing upstairs, since they're sensitive to dust and whatnot.
• Orientation is south, and I'm in north america! (zone 4c)

@AnnKH Re. projects, I've updated my post! Apologies for the extreme detail; I have a full notebook on this by now, and this is the concise version.

Re. wood storage, ach! I always forget that. All of my -- very limited -- material is shoved in an apartment wardrobe at the moment, but it'll be nice to get some dedicated space for it.

Re. a project table, I'm hoping to do something similar too! The plan's to clone a Kookaburra cutting table (or something similar) in order to get some extra flex space upstairs. I take it that's roughly what you had in mind?

Wow, that's quite a list!

Your HVAC is going to be critical, especially for things like welding and soldering. Remember that you need make-up air when you have a massive exhaust. A system with a snorkel (like a big vacuum hose) will allow you to target the exhaust to each specific work area or tool. Again, you will need quite the electrical panel to run the exhaust/AC/dust collection plus one major tool/kiln/machine.

I'm not quite clear on your desire to minimize sound transmission. Good windows - especially non-operable ones - are pretty quiet. Who will be disturbed by the noise? I would want some natural light in the shop, even if it's glass blocks. Mine has none, and I wish it did.

I would want the car isolated from the rest of the shop, perhaps with a set of pocket doors to facilitate getting tools and materials in through the garage. I don't know if the truck in your lower level plan is to scale, but if it is, I'd add a couple of feet to the length, so you can walk around it, giving you the entire south wall for storage.

Speaking of - what else needs to be stored inside? Lawn mower, snow blower, bicycle, generator?

@AnnKH Hah, yeah, it's a little lengthy. It's roughly everything that I could want to do with the rest of my life, though, which I try to remember when looking at the price tag.

Re. HVAC, agreed! I have a book on industrial ventilation sitting on my desk as we type. There'll be 200A service to the building, which should hopefully be sufficient (I expect the kiln will be the most power hungry, but good call out re. the dust collection).

Re. sound transmission, mmhm, natural light has certainly been called out a few times by other folks. Practically, I'm legally obligated to avoid causing a nuisance to other folks in the area (it's not super dense, but I'm not on a few dozen acres either), and punching more holes in the envelope feels like a risk that I can't walk back from after investing into. There are some amazing workshops on youtube -- built by architects with extensive hobbies, typically -- that I would've loved to emulate, but this can't be it, unfortunately.

Re. the car, it's to scale, but I won't own anything that large. Maybe a kei truck at the most (half the length, half the width, of the f350). Some pocket doors seem like a good idea too -- I wouldn't want it being harmed by any residual dust/vapours that I don't capture at source (or pull out of the air with general ventilation).

Re. storage, nothing sufficient to worry about, I think (and the bicycle will live upstairs, in the conditioned space. It's a luxury, but I adore that thing, and I'd hate to see it rust out)? I have a small shed outside which is taking on a bunch of those tasks, although it might overflow a few of them into the building. The plan's to install a solar array on the roof, which should handle backup power, although I'll have a small propane generator around in case the grid goes down at the same time as the panels.

Thank you for letting me bounce these ideas past you, btw! It's hard to find people who're interested, and it's fantastic to hear fresh perspectives on the matter.

I would never want fabric and wood dust in the same space .

@Patricia Colwell Consulting agreed! The fibre arts workspace (carding, spinning, weaving, sewing, etc.) is upstairs, along with the electronics workbench, since they're both sensitive to dust/oil/sparks. The downstairs space would be for all the messier crafts, such as woodworking, metalworking, and ceramics.

All the dust rises form the bottom up so a huge need for a way to control that. Even the electronis work bench needs to be seperated from fiber art . IMO too much planned for a small space Maybe the wood and metal work could somehow be done in the gray box you show which I asume is on top of the driveway. My Dad had a wood working shop in our garage and always full of dust and sawdust floating around he wore a mask all the time.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting Mmhm, agreed! I'd note that, from the mechanical side, there's a separate HRV handling upstairs, and that the electronics work will be done under a hood when necessary (it'll be hooked up to its own dedicated exhaust, but I doubt I'd work on anything more troublesome than a dremel or light soldering; reflow would be downstairs).

Re. planning, yeah it's pretty dense! I'm only doing a few of these at a time, though, since I can't afford to handle them all simultaneously. Laying out the space is mostly an exercise to see how much is feasible, rather than what it'll definitely end up looking like. Note the absence of interior walls -- a lot of the space planning is planned to evolve over time.

Re. the garage, it's the grey box/the floor plan titled "Unprogrammed workshop floor"! It'll have its own dedicated per-tool extraction system, and per code it'll need something to promote ventilation, so it should stay pretty dust free. But we'll see!