Dream Garage

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Cool old two bay gas station would be neat

Real world... 60x40 metal shed with heat a/c and a bathroom. An office (maybe on a mezzanine) would be nice too.

Room for a lift plus two open bays and room for a regular shop with welder, torch, tablesaw, drill price, maybe a band saw, media blasting cabinate etc.

And room to store my camper.

Still too small. I’m looking at a 30-40’ deep and 80-100’ wide with a basement level and a second floor storage level on my property. Since it’s sloped ground, the basement level will be full on with garage doors for storing my boat and tractor and all the toys like that. Main floor will be a working level with at least a 2-post and a 4-post plus some other bays.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Still too small. I’m looking at a 30-40’ deep and 80-100’ wide with a basement level and a second floor storage level on my property. Since it’s sloped ground, the basement level will be full on with garage doors for storing my boat and tractor and all the toys like that. Main floor will be a working level with at least a 2-post and a 4-post plus some other bays.

General tractor storage would be in the porch-like eaves which could be enclosed later if I wanted.

Four post lift with jacks would be fine with me. That in one bay, other bay open for lighter repairs/Ranger storage and a third bay for whatever and winter snowpusher tractor storage.

 

[Shran]

If I started over and wasn't limited by my lot size I would probably do something like this, at minimum. This is a 40x70 split up into 3 zones:

Zone one on the left is the work bay (40x32) with a two post lift and I'd consider it to be kind of the "dirty" place, there would be a floor drain under the lift and I would have a pressure washer set up in there. Tools and stuff that can't get wet would be on the north wall, the east and west walls would be a workbench and maybe larger tools. This area would be heated and would have high ceilings (14-16'.) Drive through 14' doors on the middle and west walls.

Zone two on the upper right would be for woodworking tools, parts/chemicals/etc and a couple racks of shelving for things like blow mold cases and stuff like that. There would be an 8' wide garage door leading into here. This room probably would be heated too but the ceilings would be lower, 8' probably.

Zone three is the vehicle storage bay, 16' door on the east wall. That area is roughly 38x27. Unheated, probably 10' ceilings.

Zones 2 & 3 would have an attic above them - if I did 10' walls on the storage bay, I could have a 4-5' high spot to store stuff up there. The attic above Zone 2 would have 7-8' walls, semi finished, just as sort of an office/clean space for a reloading bench and some things that need to stay somewhat clean and temp controlled.

Outside there would probably be a lean-to on one of the long walls, not necessarily even totally enclosed... 3 sides maybe... for things like lawn mowers, wife's car, etc.

 

[Rick W]

Most of what I would do has already been touched on here. When I was part owner of the engineering company and we had the 250 rangers and S10s I talk about, we had our own mechanics in three different locations in the southeast. The big one north of Atlanta is where I would start.


On one side, it had two tractor-trailer bays that you could drive through. One had a pit under the whole length. The next three slots were something like 15 feet tall, and there was a lift in the front and a lift in the back, and the area in between was tools and parts storage on shelves, and some open space to sit and meet, and welders and such on wheels.

Then there were four slots that were maybe 10 feet tall. You could easily put three Ranger‘s nose to nose with plenty of room to work around them in each of those. In the corner was an office and a break room for the mechanics.

I divide it into a dirty work area, and into a show off the toys clean area. The clean area would have glass doors so you could see what’s in there from the outside. I’ll build a man cave up above into the rear in between the dirty area and the clean area, so you could see everything from the one location. It would be set up as a fully functioning apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom, etc. I’d have a slop shower bathroom downstairs to keep the dirt down there. Big screen TVs and a dynamite stereo system through the whole place.

I’d probably do a steel building, but not one of the simple shed designs. I’d have to do something with a little architectural flare.

On the side with the large bays, I’d want it on Flint land. On the side that just has the collection, I would want it on a hill falling backward, so that there was a second layer underneath the main level.

Hey, what can I say, I never had a problem about thinking big my problem was always with the green it would take to get it done.