Contractor came over yesterday. Going to order the material Monday. Going to be 30’x40’ w/12’ ceiling. Going to have a 10’x10’ room in the back for a compressor room (keep the noise out of the main area).
I’m going with 12’ ceiling so I can put a 10k lbs. lift in. My days of bending and crawling under cars, trucks, ATVs, zero turns and such are over. Can’t wait! 
NYH1.
Edited changed inches " to feet ’ and I meant to put 10k lbs. lift not 10 ton. :rolleyes:
I don’t know your situation, but having put up a couple of outbuildings that I spend a lot of time in: Even if it isn’t in your immediate plan, have the contractor put drops for sewer and water through the foundation.
Absolutely. And a floor drain.
ETA:
I have a buddy that has a spray-foam insulation business. That is an amazingly effective technique that is ideally suited to pole buildings.
Not sure of any compressor that’ll fit in a 10 inch square room. 
Congrats on the the new building
It will make you sick to your stomach how much you spent getting it put up and how quickly it goes up. You will almost feel cheated, but there is not a chance I would try to put one up with my 12pack friends!
If pouring a slab, make sure you pour thick enough and reinforce where your lift will bolt to.
Also, for my driveway 3,965sq ft, it was only another $600 for wire mesh, $220 to go from 3000psi to 4000psi, and just a few dollars to put the fibermesh in it.
Make sure you get the lift supports right, otherwise you will be busting squares out and digging and pouring deep.
My buddy owns an excavating business, he recommended I put a sewer pipe in as well. It’s not going to be heated unless we’re in it. It gets down below zero sometimes in the winter here. I’d have to have so type of sewer pump because it would be lower then my septic system which is about 75/80 feet away.
It’s going to be 30’ deep. I can’t go any deeper then that. Then 40’ wide with three overhead doors. The two outer doors are going to be 9’x9’ and the center door is going to be 10’x10’. The companies that make the lifts I’m looking at recommend at least 6" of concrete to mount the lift in. I’ll have them pour it thicker then that though.
I thought about going 48’ wide. That would get close to the house though. Being that we’ll be welding and cutting while working on different projects, I think leaving a bit more space between the house and pole barn is a good idea. If something happens in the pole barn/garage, we’ll still have a place to sleep. 
NYH1.
I know you want them separated, but where I live just a simple covered walkway that connects the 2 structures roofs allows for the shop and contents to be covered under your home owners policy. Just something to toy with.
Not sure how that would work with a pole barn though.
I’ll have to think about that, thanks.
NYH1.
How often will you be in this building? I ask because you talked about heat, and around my way, lots of folks going with hot water floor heat. It is expensive, but everyone I know who has it says that it is the best money they spent on the building. It is slow to heat up- some say days- but all my buds who did it LOVE it.
I know the feeling. I waited 15 years to build my shop. I’m still working on it, but it’s almost done. I’m glad I waited, I was able to do it the way I wanted to without cutting corners. I put in a full bathroom with shower so I didn’t bring the mess into the house, infloor heat, 16’ ceilings (I have tall equipment to work on), and bright ass LED lights. I weighed the expense of a compressor room, but decided to put the money into a compressor and bought a rotary screw compressor that is only 65db while running.
I actually teared up a bit the first time I ran the garage door up. Congrats man, I think a shop is to us men that a nice house is to a lot of women.
I did it in my shop. In our old shop we would pull a semi tractor into the shop and it was two days for the floor to dry if melting the truck off… Ceiling mounted forced air. In my new shop, the same truck took 8 hrs to thaw completely out and the floor was dry. Well worth the expense if you can swing it, but it should be on all the time in the winter.
As it sounds like you’ll be working on vehicles, I second the in floor heat. Remember you can always install the Pex tubing before the concrete pour and ad the boilers as finances permit. That way the infrastructure is in place when you decide to add heat. Also if local regulations allow it I recommend a quality waste oil furnace might as put all those vehicle oil changes to use along with all your friends vehicles who you will working on. or just people who do their own but need to get rid of it.
I’m going to use a woodstove with a blower as my main source of heat. I have access to all the wood I need (use wood in the house too). I might add a propane force air heater to heat it up to temperature quicker. Not going to get to fancy though.
Thanks, NYH1.
Was going to suggest the floor heat earlier, but after building my house I kind of got tired of the six thousand suggestions on how folks would spend my money for me.
Very important when doing the floor heat, zones. My uncle has a very nice shop for his buildings he builds. He spent extra money on valve manifolds so he could isolate zones if a pipe failed or he wanted more/less heat in an area.
He said his guys working on the floor had the number of days they called in sick dramatically reduced. This was 30 some years ago when he built. Back then I think it was plastic coated soft tube copper they put in the slab. I remember the heating system looking like a 2 speed pump mounted on top of a huge water heater. He was in ND.
But my portable diesel fueled forced air heater had no issues keeping a 4 bay shop warm with 1 bay opening and closing every 15 minutes. But this was only 20deg F outdoor temps.
If you ever plan to pull in an RV you might want to go with 14’ ceiling and 12’ tall door.
Outdoor wood boiler You opened up a can of worms NYH1… now everyone is going to tell you how to do it.
If you are not going to be in the building regularly, floor heat may be more than you want to spend. The buildings that I know have it are either occupied regularly or were built by someone who was not on a tight budget.
I’m jealous. I have been wanting to add a lift in my garage since I moved in. Stupidly I thought a 3 car garage would be big enough instead of a full basement. Now I want to build a house with a 2 car attached and a detached 3 door garage (middle door being a taller double door). I did run a compressed air system, so nice keeping the compressor as far away as possible. Good luck and post pics! You’re probably on pirate4x4 but lots of good ideas on shops there too (like you need help on ideas).
Why are you all wasting room inside your shops for a compressor room? I would pour a small pad outside, frame it and skin it to let that beast live out there. Fully plumb the shop of course. Put a door from shop into compressor shack if you need access from the shop side.
I’m not an RV kind of guy so 12’ ceils are fine. Thanks.
That might happen someday if I ever go with that type of system in the house. I could heat both with it. Not going to happen anytime soon though.
Yeah, this is going to be more of a hobby shop. Work on my Camaro (FINALLY!), my zero turn, snow plows, ATV’s, do gun work that kind of stuff.
Oh yeah, I’m not telling the wife I’m having it built. Think she’ll notice it?:rolleyes:
NYH1.