Getting ready to break ground on shop....need opinions.
 

:coolcowboy:Well I finally got the cranes here last week to move around a bunch of stuff and plan on finally breaking ground on my shop in march (unless something gets in the way). I have a few questions

1) I want to build my shop large enough that I could expand to a 38. My trailer now is 37 Feet long so I had figured on building the shop 42 ft deep. How large would a 38 top gun, sonic, etc with trailer typically be?

2) How wide are you guys making your doors? I originally quoted a 14ft wide by 10ft tall door. Should that be sufficient?

3) How tall is tall enough on ceilings? My builder said it has to be atleast 2 ft over my door height. I wonder if 12ft is plenty high???

4) What floor coatings are you using on your floors? I want to apply a paint down floor to preserve the shop and make it look nice.

5) I am considering building a walk platform beside the boat like showrooms have to load coolers in and out of and for tools etc when working on it. Has anyone ever built one of these or purchased something similar?

FYI. this is a temporary shop at my place of business. I plan on using it for around 5 years and when we build on our land I will contruct a personal man cave and turn this over for company use. I am attempting to keep the cost of the building (minus concrete) below 10grand.

My 38 w boxes and on the trailer better get close to 50ft.

Yes. I am building a bay right now at 60 feet. Trailer & boat with outdrives and tongue stick out is approx 48feet, so 60' min is ideal. I would think 10' is minimum for door height, however, you can get away with 9.

Yeah, the trailer for my 35' with a drive guard is 42' if I'm not mistaken.

And you want to have room to walk around it on both ends, so I would add another 5' if you have room.

As for height, I assume at some point you will be standing up in the boat while its in there, so be sure and plan for that. And if you ever need to pull a motor or two, you will need clearance for the hoist and motor.

In fact, even if that isn't something you plan to do, it wouldn't hurt to frame up a support sturdy enough that you could attach a hoist to pull a motor you wanted too. Easier to do so now than down the road.

Where is the shop going to be? If it's at your house there might be zoning laws on how big you can build. That being said if I was going to build I would want a min. 75 feet long 50 feet wide and 25 feet tall, 2 14x14 doors and lots of sky lights. That way no matter what boat you get you will be able to back in truck and trailer and shut the door.
I too would build a deck around the boat spot to make it easier to work on, I would have an I beam set in the ceiling so I can pull motors and set them on the ground. I would have air and water and elec. PSI washer with hookups every 20 feet or so.
You can never have too much garage space, it's in the MAN LAW hand book.

Radiant flooring
http://www.radiantcompany.com/

Sounds like somewhere around 50-55 will meet my need on length....

stain the floor, paint peels.

+1 or put down some adhesive tile...looks great, you can make any patten and color combo, put down as much area as you want and it's pretty darn durable. my doors are 12 wide and 10' high but i wish I would of went 12 or 14 tall.

Die the floor Ocean Blue, it will make the boat happy.