# First Time Builder - New 30 x 40 Workshop



## BuzzBate (Nov 2, 2012)

My wife and I have recently purchased 27 acres in Arkansas close to where we currently live. Since I enjoy woodworking and building things myself, I thought, "Why not build my own shop and get some good practice before attempting a house in the same area?" There is an abundance of building knowledge on here so I turn to my fellow lumberjocks to either talk me out of this endeavor, or at least keep me from wasting $15,000 by building something that falls in on me.

I am looking at a 30×40 workshop. Why? Because it sounded big enough and still fairly affordable. I've never had a dedicated workshop and am extremely tired of using a 22×20 garage for everything which I have to share with my wife's car when it is cold.

I will for sure pour a concrete slad foundation. Sounds simple enough, at first. Then you see that some people just frame a square and pour the foundation. Others, similiar to houses, dig a footing, pour some concrete, lay blocks, do some kind of magic something that I'm sure comes from Harry Potter because I can never seem to see a construction site doing this part, then pours the remainder of the foundation.

I plan on framing 10' walls. If I just frame a square and pour, I will likely build the walls, attach them to the foundation with a concrete gun, then go back and drill out holes for bolts to before secure to the foundation. If I do a footing first, I do not know how you attach a wall to concrete blocks.

Because I want my shop decently insulated, I would like to use the green sheathing that is common in my area and tape off the seams. I never understood the point of putting down plastic and then nailing a million holes in it. Walls will have roll insulation inside because I just can't swing foam in this area. There are only a few people that do it and are very proud of it. The exterior will likely be fairly thin sheet metal just to cover and provide water resistance.

To make the roof simple, I will just order trusses from a local supplier and have a couple friends help me set them and cover. Similar to the walls, I will deck it, and more than likely use metal roof for protection from elements. I have not decided on the ceiling insulation yet because I have not decided if I want to close off the rafters and use blown insulation or try to keep it all open. Open=more space but less likely to control the temperature.

Entry door on the 40' side and one roll-up door on the 30' side in case I need to work on my tractor or move large items in and out.

No plumbing at all, and electrical work will be done later. We are selling our house soon (already on the market and have shown 7 times the last 6 days) to start construction on a new house out on the property this fall, and I don't want to put my tools in a storage unit while I live in an apartment when they could be sitting in a new shop instead. Some of the tools I will need to finish the construction of the house, and I don't want to drive 30 minutes round-trip every time I need a tool from storage.

Any advice, pictures, techniques, horror-stories, jokes, little debbie cakes, etc will be greatly appreciated and considered.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

Howdy neighbor,
I also live in AR. Build my log home and between my wife and I, we completed a 18×30, two story shop in less than 2 years. Here are the links to how the house and the shop were built. We live in North Central:
http://www.earthartandfoods.com/loghome.html
http://earthartandfoods.com/shop1.html


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

This will be an interesting thread for me to follow as I hope to be doing the same as you within two years. I do know to attach a wall to the top of a footer made from cinderblock (or poured for that matter) L bolts are mortared in between the blocks, usually every 4' and protruding up enough to go through the bottom plate and fully engage a nut over a flat washer. If you don't want to deck the roof, you can run lathe on top of and perpendicular to the trusses and install the metal roof directly on top of that. The metal would have to be of heavy enough gauge to handle the weight of the installer, and whatever snow weight you might run into. Another option would be a pre-engineered package. Getting everything from a single source would likely save money & reduce the chance of problems during construction.


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## BuzzBate (Nov 2, 2012)

Jinx, you must just be up the road from me. Our land is just north of Conway. I'd love to come see your place sometime.

Yeti, I've been trying to gather some kit prices from builders. The big problem that I seem to run into is them being build cheap. We have a lot of people wanting to sell metal shops in this area. Although I'm not against a metal shop, I can't imagine it is going to be very insulated without spending large amounts of money on it.


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## Slyy (Nov 13, 2013)

Buzz - I'm working out of the garage myself at the moment. Not a lot of personal experience I can add to your thread here except this: I have a friend who has a 30×40 and tells me ALL THE TIME how he wished he would have just put in the 10 extra feet to make it 40×40. Now granted his is a shop, plus a garage for one full time car and 2 others when the weather gets bad, so your requirements may be different. But he wishes badly he had that extra 10 feet of space and for him (at the time at least) the difference in cost of 30x vs 40x was a few hundred difference in slab pour costs. Just some food for thought there.


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## BuzzBate (Nov 2, 2012)

I've thought about a 40×40, and agree that the extra concrete would be minimum. However, the trusses get more expensive going an additional 10 feet without support in the middle.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I'd agree with you to keep the middle free, gives you many more options as you get everything set up. The newest metal building at the lumber yard where we had our millwork shop was 50' x 100' with 20' to the bottom of the trusses, all clear except for the 30' x 50' mezzanine at the south end. I do remember some parts of it looking cheaply constructed, it wasn't insulated either. To get good insulation on something like that, I think you'd have to spray it, and as you mentioned, that starts high and goes up from there.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

I'd hire a concreater and work as his offsider, then hire a carpenter and be his offsider.


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## bullhead1 (Mar 29, 2012)

Up north here we call the metal buildings pole sheds. The walls are framed with 6×6's buried 4 feet into the ground on 4 foot centers. You can by kits at home centers but I got mine from the local lumber yard and contracted to have the shell put up. Two guys had it up in 6 days with the concrete floor poured and divider wall put up. I have a 32×56 building, walled off 20 by 32 and insulated it and put up osb on the walls and tounge and grove 3/4 ply on the ceiling. The nice thing is you don't have to pour footings and the floor is formed by 2X8's attached to the bottom of the posts before the concrete pour. On the insulated side I found insulation that was just under 4 foot wide to fit between the posts. They looked like bales of hay and you role out and cut to length. I had the ceiling blown in. To put the walls up I put purlons horizontal on the walls attached to the posts and attached the osb to it with large staples. My steps sons helped me and we had it insulated and osb done in a weekend. My wiring in the finished side is conduit on the walls for easy access and I have modified my wiring several times which is the benefit of using conduit outside of the walls. Just to give you some other ideas. Good luck in your new shop build.


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## GJP60 (Jan 12, 2010)

I think 30×40 is a good size. Mine is about 24×30 and the 1st floor isn't quite big enough for my shop Think it all through. There are lots of on-line ideas and lots of books. There are several things I wish I had done. 
1. Wire for 220 volt. I didn't think I would need it, but now I have several 220 tools, and had to retrofit. 
2. I hate standing on concrete even with rubber mats. I wish I had put in a wood floor so I could have put dust collection under the floor. 
3. I would have built a little sound proof room for my dust collector and compressor.

Things I'm glad I have in the shop. 
1. Lots of windows. 
2. A garage door 
3. A toilet and slop sink. 
4. High ceilings.

Good luck with your project.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

BuzzBate, you and any other LJ's are welcome here. You must be in Green brier or close to it. About 60 miles from me. 10309 Lafferty road 
Mt. Pleasant 72561


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## Fish22 (Nov 16, 2009)

I would put plumbing in the shop. Especially for a slop sink and even a toilet. I would do a slab and make sure it is done right.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

agreeing with Fish… I wish I had plumbing in mine. 
it can always serve as a home if nothing else especially with all earthquakes they have experienced in your neck of the woods due to fracking for NG. My friend sold his beautiful house and moved to NW just because of that.


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## TheGermanJoiner (Dec 1, 2013)

I build for a living buzz. Sounds like you're looking to use the zip system as sheathing it works great and is water tight to begin with so you can basically put the cheapest siding you can find on the outside to save money. T-111 or something like that. You sound like you'll be pretty well insulated. If you go with 2×6 framing you can run r19 in the walls instead of r13. It makes a difference. I would put a ceiling in if you plan on using trusses. The design of a truss doesn't give you any "real" attic space. Then either roll in r30 or more, or use blown in cellulose. If you any foundation questions or anything with the framing give me a shout. PM me and I'd be happy to help. Good luck buddy


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

I built my shop similar to what you propose. Mine is 24×48 with 2 rolling doors. The only thing I failed to do was to get someone to machine finish the slab. After I thought about it, it was too late to do anything about it. The shop has a heating and A/C unit from a house. I have 200 amp service, so I never will need for more power. My roof is metal; walls and ceiling insulated and 10' height. I probably spent close to 15K, but that was with 2001 dollars. I would check with building codes before pouring the slab; you don't want that to be bad.I used 3/8" T1-11 siding. 5/8" would have been better. I used commercial trusses; #10 and 12 wiring throughout.


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## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

Back in Tennessee I got a 30 X 40 kit from Blitz Buildings http://blitzbuilders.com/specials.php It was delivered and set up in less than 2 weeks.
I had the concrete poured by a concrete guy and he finished the inside so well it was almost as smooth as glass. I added the insulation and electrical myself and was VERY happy with it. When we moved to GA last June I called them to order another one for here and they dont have anyone who will erect it close to here. So I'm looking to possibly do it myself. Here's a quick view of mine http://lumberjocks.com/joein10asee/blog/33362


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

That's bigger than two houses I have owned.


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

I am probably of no help to you. I lack building experience myself other than the fact that we are currently wrapping up our shop build. We built a 40*80 metal building with a poured concrete slab / footers / beams and we installed the building in a pole barn style. I used large and very heavy I beam to span the 40' as a truss. We did this as a weld up. I wonder if even our 40*80 is large enough. But I will say that I am very happy with my decision to go taller on the building. I built an office, 2 bathrooms and break room that took up 11' * 40' and made it 8' ceilings. Above the office / break area, the height is tall enough for an adult to comfortably walk around. So we ended up scoring a bonus loft room that is 11' * 80' where I intend on closing that portion in and utilizing the space somehow.

While we don't have any building experience for the most part, we work in the trades and we have done everything ourselves from forming up the foundation/footers, installing trusses, erecting walls, electrical, plumbing, right through to final finish out. We have done it all. And we are near the end so we are excited.

If you look at my thread history you will find a couple threads with my shop build pics.


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## bowedcurly (Aug 31, 2013)

do you live close to the land you purchased, just sayin I would watch building something and not living close so I could keep an eye on my goods, have fun with your plot of land, hope it has some big ol trees on it


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

That is exactly the size of the house we built for my daughter and SIL. We built a pole building with no dirtwork at all. After we got the metal up, we poured the concrete floor letting the walls serve as the form for the concrete. It seemed too simple to work but it has done fine for 8 years and still counting.


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## mikeevens45 (Jan 31, 2014)

radiant heat the concrete floor..u can use a hot water tank to heat it…you wont regret it…no condensation or dampness


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## BuzzBate (Nov 2, 2012)

I'm loving all the experience and different ideas. I'm going to look into the pole barn ideas a little more since I've heard the term, but I have never been real sure exactly how one would work with a concrete floor. I havent completely given up on kits yet either if the price and quality is right.

The land is only a few miles north of where i live. (Between Conway and Greenbrier) there entire thing minus a couple acres is hardwoods. The majority arent mature but i just spent 4 hours cutting trees with my new stihl 291 today. You can barely see that i made a dent clearing out the small growth. Gotta give these big trees room to grow!

I'm still on the fence about plumbing since i dont even have a septic installed yet and it'll be a good ways from where our house septic will be.

The zip system is what I was referring to with sheathing. Just seems like a good product to me. I'll go all out on 220v. I've already got 2-220v in my garage with a separate breaker box for them so no way i could go back to only 110v.

Thank for all the info. Keep it coming!


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