.
30x40 was the main shop space and concrete pad. There would also be a 10' wide lean-to on each side with a storage room built into the back part of one, these would be gravel floored except for the storage room.
In addition I intend to erect another carport for parking other vehicles under. I'll also end up with a few storage building for storage and specialized workspaces.
No need for a storage lift or inside vehicle storage. A covered gravel pad is more than enough for here. Really a concrete pad with a carport over over it would be enough for 75% of the year here, but I want to be able to work all hours without disturbing the neighbors and, more important, I want AC for summer months.
A few thoughts….
I apologize for the long text…
And, a basic thought for evaluating anything. If I go to the bar and order an inexpensive glass of wine it’s $10. The good wine is $12, and the best wine is $14. No matter which one I pick, you will be spending the $10. The real decision is what do you get for an additional $2 or $4?
I measured and planned and sketched for a couple of years. My garage/shop/shed of miracles is 45’ deep and 20’ wide. Two Lincoln town cars in front of an F250 long cab, long bed, and a sports car and motorcycles in front of the corner bathroom. I added a carport (after final inspection), that was 10’ wide the full 45’deep.
It’s in the back left corner of my 100x200 half acre property behind the house. I have five power tools built out along the walls.
What I didn’t figure? I added shelves all around that are about 16 inches deep. The tools 24-30” deep. That takes almost 3 feet out of the width. If I had to do over again, I would’ve added at least 2 feet to the width. In the planning, I didn’t want to take any more of the yard than I had to. After having it for 30 years, I wish I made it 5 feet wider, and it wouldn’t affect what we do in the yard at all.
I poured a very substantial concrete pad for the main building. 6” with a 18 inch deep integral footing all around (frost line in Georgia). For those who may not know, the concrete yard typically mixes 2500 psi concrete for driveways and such, and the quality is very shaky. Order 4000 psi concrete, it’s only pennies more, and most important: tell them you are going to “slump test“ it on site and take a crush sample. That’s what’s done in a commercial pour, and it alerts the concrete plant that they have to mix it right and deliver on time without just slopping it up with water. You don’t have to do the tests.
I had half-inch rebar along the footings, and triple across the threshold. I sloped the concrete outward about 6 inches where the side door was going to be so water won’t come in. I used half inch threaded rod, bent into 4“ x 14“ L shape for my anchor bolts, and I put them about every 4 feet. You’ll never guess, but I dipped them in Rustoleum before I pushed them into the concrete.
Code here required a slight bow upward. After my inspection, I added two storm drains in the middle so if I come in with wet vehicles or spill something, it drains to the middle and doesn’t go to the walls and rot them.
Code here if you went up to 10 feet, you had to change the outside walls to two by sixes. I made the walls 9 foot 10. I think I just said it, but if I had to do it over again, I would have built a 12‘ x 20‘, 6 foot upward extension in the back left corner so I could put in a lift.
I didn’t buy W trusses, I made them. If I remember right, they are 23 feet wide with a 5 foot peak. After I had the concrete poured, I used chalk lines and very carefully snapped out all the pieces on the floor. I cut all of the pieces in advance. Then I could lay them in the proper slot. I made truss plates out of half-inch CD X plywood. I put construction glue down on the joints, and then used four deck screws in each piece underneath it, I flipped it over, and did the same thing. The glue actually holds it together, not the screws, but I left them in. At the time, it was less than half the price of buying the trusses. My set might be off by two or 3 inches, it’s absolutely nothing you can see. When I stacked them after making them, I simply sorted them by height, and by length. So the roof may taper, and slope, but it’s all in a row, no peaks and valleys.
I framed each wall laying on the concrete, and then I would flip it over so it was laying in the yard. I did the double top plate to within about 6 feet of each corner.
I bought the tarpaper, the shingles, sheathing for the corners, foam boards for the long runs, and the vinyl siding.
Then I had a big party. I was in a church group at the time, and I got the retail workers, the accountants, the office workers, you name it. I made sure I had three other guys who half knew what they were doing. I did an evaluation of who was good at what before I ever announced the party date. I had a barn raising.
Some of the girls cooked the food and made the picnic, I used the strong guys to help me set the walls and set the trusses, them sheath the corners and then put the plywood up on the roof. It was more production, then it was professional.
I took the one guy who was meticulous, put him with a good-looking helper, gal, and he put the vinyl siding all the way around that shop in one day. I worked on the roof with another guy who half knew what he was doing, and used the rest of the guys to keep feeding us tarpaper and shingles. I got about 2/3 of the roof done. (Hammers, no nail gun!).
We took a break for lunch, but probably got 80% of the building completely built. Then I put a string of work lights inside of it, cranked up the stereo, and we partied till about midnight.
It sounds crazy and crooked, but if you ask those people who never do this kind of work, what their favorite party and the favorite thing they’ve done? they’ll say the barn raising every single time. Labor cost was a quarter keg of beer and a dozen bottles of wine and $150 grocery bill.
I finished up the rest over about a month or so. After I got the final inspection, I poured five 2’ x 2’ concrete pads down the fence line, and I stood 4” posts with a double run of 2 x 6 the length of the shop. I just angled up 10 foot two by fours to match the roofline, and put plywood on it and shingled it to match the roof. My mistake there is i used pressure treated posts, but the two by sixes and the 45° braces were just regular pine. I should have used pressure treated for the two by sixes and the 45° braces were just regular pine. I should have made it all pressure-treated. I fixed that a couple years ago.
Before all that, I ran a circuit from my main panel for a 50 amp panel in the shop. If I did it over, I would’ve put in 100 amp. I also ran natural gas. I used PVC to run a hot water line and a cold water line. I only use the hot about once a year, so I don’t care that it takes five minutes for the heat to build up out there.
After the inspection for the half bathroom, I rearrange the plumbing in the ground so I could put a shower next to it if I ever wanted to. I used a commode and a laundry tub.
I called every overhead door company in Atlanta looking for a used 18 foot wide door. I ended up with a $2500 top-of-the-line steel insulated door for $800. Someone rich ordered it and then didn’t want it. That was $300 more than my budget, but I gave in.
Finally, I made the rounds to three or four HVAC supply companies hunting for a used furnace in their scrap pile. Unfortunately, not all the HVAC installers are honest, so it only took me about a week to find a unit that was in perfect condition, except a bad bearing on the blower wheel ($2.50 at the time). They had taken the relays and such, but they were cheap to replace. I hung it from threaded rods in front of the bathroom, and I had it running in a couple hours. At the time, my house had a 100,000 BTU furnace, and this freebie was 115,000 BTU. Except for the bathroom, the shop is not insulated. For the few times it’s cold enough that I want the heat, I can turn it on 30 minutes before I go out there and hold it at 65° or 70°, and then shut it off, all for pennies. I put a simple on off switch in a series with the thermostat, so I don’t even have to mess with the thermostat. Every other year I have to relight the pilot light.
For the front trim, I just ran two by fours hanging off the plywood roof. And I use deck boards for the facia down the length of each side.
I have a septic field that runs through my backyard, so you can’t just pour concrete over it. I talked to the two brick companies near Atlanta, and I got seconds for $.20 on the dollar. We’re talking about two tractor trailers of bricks, 54 pallets, something like 5000. I got a little bit of gravel, picked up four folks from the local Home Depot, and they graded the driveway from the front back to the front of the carport, and set all the bricks in a herringbone pattern. That pattern conceals a lot of installation defects. I had them run a double row on the outside. For about a month and a half, I used my chopsaw to cut the angled pieces to match the herringbone to the outside loop. There is a turnaround in the back, a turn around in the front, and brick underneath the carport. All of the brick has a belly in the middle, with a 4 inch perforated drain line, including the carport. The only issue I’ve had, no big deal, is they were seconds because some of them were not completely fired. So about a half dozen will absorb water and freeze and break each year. It takes about five minutes to pop one out and put a replacement day.
It looks great, and if you do have to work outside the garage, it’s easier to use jack stands and such.
BTW, after the barn raising and most of the driveway was done, I got hit by the Dunwoody tornado. A 30 inch in diameter pine tree fell straight down the carport and crushed my 84 Silverado 3500 with 47,000 miles on it, and another tree fell and crushed part of the roof, and the carport Wall racked over a little bit popping all the siding off. I won’t go through the detail, because all of that got taken care of by the insurance. & My church crew did far better quality work, than the repair contractor, but it got done.
Hope it all helps, I think I got it done for a quarter of the price everybody quoted me, and I had a blast doing it.
Again, sorry for the long posting
Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and 
