Guys,
I just closed on an 8 ac property with home in NW Williamson county. I desire to build a shop on this property and I am looking for all and any advice.

Things that I am considering for the space.
- two seperate roll doors on the front
- I think I would like one of the roll doors to be be drive through to a roll door on the back.
- May put a lift for auto work
- Seperate space to do wood work projects.
- So open air sides for parking flat bed trailers, equipment, etc
- Considering a room for an office / apartment with bathroom
- big enough to park an suv attached to a small rv / tear drop trailer
- Thinking of insulation and mini splits for Temp control space.

Not sure on needed size, hight of roll doors, etc.

Where can I go to look at blue prints and lay outs to get ideas? What pit falls to avoid or things you wish you would have done different.

Thanks in advance

Matt

Not sure if the pricing is right, but you may look at these guy's website:

http://www.wdmb.com/index.aspx

If you scroll to the bottom, you can work through designing and picking options and get a ballpark at how much everything costs.

What I like about it is that it gives you an idea of the standard sizes of things.

If you're running sewer/septic and water it's a no brainer. Also more outlets than you think including some overhead for lighting and or tools in places where you might not want cords running all over the ground. If you're running a front to back roll door you might also budget in either lift or ovehead storage in those areas as well.

+1 for piping in dust collection (even if you don't currently have a dust collector) with 4" or 6" pipe. Either in the slab or overhead
+1 for a half bath if it's in your budget
+1 for adding twice as many outlets as you think you'll need. And a couple of 220v outlets if it's in your budget

Other ideas budget depending:
Piping in air with a couple of spots to connect an air hose
If you're feeling extra froggy, you can build in a small lean-to outside somewhere to put the air compressor and dust collector (they're loud and if piped in never have to be touched)
I wish I had some sort of material handling capability. Using the tractor to unload some heavy items just doesnt work well, and using ramps to move stuff like a 30 gal gas caddy is a beast. Not necessarily a huge overhead trolley crane, but maybe at least an accessible jib crane

Done a lot of these designs with Mueller & Morton, the latter is wood framed.
They may share some starter plans which might help. Some ideas are posted on their websites.
They might also offer a draftman or architect but .... think about getting someone you trust that does this sort of hobby all the time to be conceptual design leader to kick the drawings off?

Major mistakes from mine all involve the foundation:

This was on sandy loam soil.

1.) Do not allow them to haul in select fill, pack it with equipment, and start pouring. Either you let that sit in the rain for 1-2 years and then start building, or you build a thicker slab on undisturbed ground and add the fill afterwards.

2.) I had 3500# concrete, 4" flats, and 24x24' grade beams perimeter, 2 across short ways where the I-beams were, one down the middle long ways. Rebar both directions. The grade beams were probably adequate, but the 4" flats and #3500 concrete were not.

All 20 amp 110 outlets and plenty of them. At least one 220 V outlet per wall with one being a 50 amp. Overkill on lighting. Wood stove for additional heat and ambience.

Front and back roll doors can create a wind tunnel. Maybe consider doors at 90 degrees to each other if you won't be driving thru a bunch.

Start watching videos on YouTube!

Start planning your air compressor setup. There are a lot of YT videos on that -- whether to go with OEM lines or PEX. Don't go cheap but you don't have to lay out a fortune. The advice above about wiring will fit right in.

This is an old video and the guy made some mistakes with the flooring, but I like what he did compressor wise:

I built my shop about 5 years ago. A couple of things

Put a full bath in as mentioned earlier. I put a half bath in and house my well pump vfd and pressure tank in that bathroom along with the filtration system. A small wall space heater keeps everything above freezing even in -29 we registered during snovid

Spray foam insulation. I went with spray foam and while I haven't installed HVAC yet, I'm hoping to this summer if I can find the time.

I had a 4' walk poured around the entire perimeter (outside of the approach to my overhead doors where I have a 20' concrete approach)

Lighting. I've added lights but have since added a lot more and still have more I want to add more for some of our restoration work for detailed painting.

While in construction, run a few pieces of conduit under the perimeter. Think standby generator, Ethernet (mine runs hard wired from the house to a separate router in my shop. I LOVE having dedicated internet in my shop.
I only wish I'd have run a couple more conduits so I know I'll never have a penetration in the walls.

Run some something out there so you can get on the house network. Even if that's just copper ethernet cable for now, include a bigger conduit than you can use now and a pull line so you can change or add later. Wireless is going to be a pain and you'll eventually want something that needs Internet out there.

In addition to a bathroom, a big utility sink out in the work area is very nice to have.

Definitely agree with some kind of lean-to or mechanical room for air compressor, dust collector, water heater, etc. It's great to get the noise and equipment out of the workspace.

If you build an office, build the ceiling strong enough for storing stuff on top.

For woodworking - these are great for material storage: link. Think about your storage layout in addition to your equipment layout.

If I had the space, I'd either have a room or an area where I could roll out some curtains for staining/painting to keep the dust out. Would want a vent fan for that area, too.

One thing I forgot. I've lined my shop interior walls with tongue and groove osb. It's fantastic for a clean look and doesn't allow for my spray foam to be damaged.

Thank you everyone for all the great information.

Second the conduit along the edges in case you want to run something inside/outside.

I plumbed a full bath in a back corner in case I decide to put in a bathroom. Less than $100 in PVC and will save me a ton of time and money if I ever put the bathroom in.

I've got a large patio and have a small roll up door in addition to a man door. My big door is 12' tall which gives me a lot of flexibility as to what I can get in.

I just built my shop/barn this past winter. 50x100. Full size bathroom for sure. My office will go in it but I decided to be creative and used up a 10'x10' area and stacked cinder blocks to 8' and fully filled and steel reinforced the walls then formed the ceiling and poured it 6.5" with a bunch of steel in that for my safe room. It was preplanned and did put some extra concrete beams under it. Supply and return will be installed in it.

My friend has a whole wall with a hydalift system which is really nice.