Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

offroadwerks · Jan 5, 2015

I'm thinking about building a 40'x40' metal building or pole barn with a covered porch and lean to down one side. I think 15'x40' of this would be living quarters. Looking for a piece of property now. Anybody on here got any pointers? :fish:

TBItoy · Jan 5, 2015

Re:

Build as big as you can afford.

Are you looking to build a permanent residence, or just a crash pad? 600sqft living space is pretty small...

Oh, and put heat in the pad.

offroadwerks · Jan 5, 2015

Semi permanent. Bachelor pad with two curtain climbers every other week. My plans are to work like hell, wheel every chance I get and not have a mortgage the rest of my life.

DUNCAN74 · Jan 5, 2015

Like Nick said put heated floor in you will never regret it. Nothing is better than working on your rig on a warm floor.

01tj · Jan 5, 2015

I was looking at building a shop with a living quaters last year. Not sure about where you are looking at property, but when I was buying land one thing I ran into was some was classified as a neighborhood with a Home Owners Association. The HOA would not allow me to build to the specs I wanted. I had to meet a certain square footage for "livable space", and like you I wasn't going to be anywhere near the square footage minimum. Just something worth looking into.

TBItoy · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re: Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

01tj said:
I was looking at building a shop with a living quaters last year. Not sure about where you are looking at property, but when I was buying land one thing I ran into was some was classified as a neighborhood with a Home Owners Association. The HOA would not allow me to build to the specs I wanted. I had to meet a certain square footage for "livable space", and like you I wasn't going to be anywhere near the square footage minimum. Just something worth looking into.

Yeah screw that. Move out on some back road with the farms, barns, and trailer houses

ROKTOY829 · Jan 5, 2015

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Really looked into idea, which I was looking at a metal building and by the time I would be finish with the land I would be over 100,000$. I finally found a better place for less money, but I am growing older and I suggest you think about that. Right now that maybe all you need as living space and having the bedroom upstairs maybe nice, but one day it may not. Plus the kids get bigger they will need/want more room also. I'm sure guys with kids can correct me on that, I'm just assuming.

TBItoy · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re:

ROKTOY829 said:
Really looked into idea, which I was looking at a metal building and by the time I would be finish with the land I would be over 100,000$. I finally found a better place for less money, but I am growing older and I suggest you think about that. Right now that maybe all you need as living space and having the bedroom upstairs maybe nice, but one day it may not. Plus the kids get bigger they will need/want more room also. I'm sure guys with kids can correct me on that, I'm just assuming.

That's why I asked about the living space.

The good thing is if you need to add a bedroom or something, it's easy since you are just building inside.

I built mine as a 3 bed, 2 bath. One bath in the "house" one bath in the shop.

There are pics from a few people's setups including mine in the shop/garage pics thread

ROKTOY829 · Jan 5, 2015

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That is true you can add on very easy and cheaper. Which when I typed I found I found better place for less money I left out that was just land, I still have build something. One thing that turned me away from the shop/living area is selling it if I needed. May not sell as fast I would won't. Any house is that way.

TheViking · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re: Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

TBItoy said:
Yeah screw that. Move out on some back road with the farms, barns, and trailer houses

This and you can live in the shop while you build a dream home if you want.

TBItoy · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

TheViking said:
This and you can live in the shop while you build a dream home if you want.

That's my plan.

I have 10 acres and plan to build a "real house" for the wife and kid/kids.

Then the shop house can be restored to its former glory as the man house!

TheViking · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

TBItoy said:
That's my plan.

I have 10 acres and plan to build a "real house" for the wife and kid/kids.

Then the shop house can be restored to its former glory as the man house!

I think I will have to do double wide, foreclosure buy, then shop/barn, to store supplies while I build, then house thinking five bed and a four half bath.

Whatever is the plan I have to speed up I found some issues while doing a plumbing repair from hell also rural house means more tripsmup and down this mountain burnt three quarters of a tank.......

Rockwells607 · Jan 5, 2015

I was gonna build a steel building and have half as house and half as shop with huge lean too down the side then my wife talked me into buying my family's old house ... I'm fourth generation owner and I hate it, now I'm back to thinkin about building the shop house again and was thinkin of 18' ceilings in a 40x70 or so, half shop and half house and the house would have two bedrooms and master bath over the kitchen and half bath down stairs , then leave cathedral ceiling over the living room, shop would be 40x30 and tall enough for lift then have plenty of storage in the lean too outside ... My wife has the idea that she's gonna live in a barn but I can't seem to drive it into her head that the inside can be finished anyway she wants , and the outside of the house end can be fancied up with rock or rough cut Lumber or whatever ... I've seen a few that are gorgeous inside and you'd never know its a steel building , Lee and Tiffany Lakowskis home is this way... I have a lot all set for it , this house is paid off in 5 years and I think im gonna start on that , put the building up first and just work on the inside slowly till it's ready to move in then sell the old family house

lowbudgetjunk · Jan 5, 2015

Heated floors x3 and as much insulation as you can afford. Insulate the garage doors too. Drop cords for electrical and air hoses is the flashemifyougotem

too.

kushKrawlin · Jan 5, 2015

Three car garage, and a recliner. Done deal. Ha. I would say if you ask my girl but yes I live in the garage. Just have to have the house close for taking showers and stuff like that. :****:and you fellas with the metal buildings and heated floors are my heroes. :****: badass!! I cant imagine ..maybe one day.

Bumpers · Jan 5, 2015

Re: Re: Ideas on Shop With Living Quarters

Bigger the better. Less mowing more room for fun activites. You can always change the inside to whatever you want since you have no load supporting walls. Put a drain in the floor of shop so you can wash rig when its cold and clean shop floor. 2shop doors so if you have something broke down you can pull it into the shop and drive out other side

hokie_yj · Jan 5, 2015

This is mine. I copied/pasted this from the Garage/Shop thread. It's so full of crap now you can't hardly do anything. I need to have a few good days of shop organization. I also still need to finish up a little more of the wiring, plumb in the compressor, and add some cord and hose reels.

I just bought a new house/shop a few months ago. I had been making plans in my head to build something like this for the last few years. I was looking at land to buy when I stumbled across this place. I knew immediately that I had to have it. There's no way I could have bought the land and built just the shell of the building for what I paid for this place.

It's a 30'x100' pole barn sitting on 2.2 acres on a dead end country road. It has 30'x45' of finished living space with 2 bedrooms, an office/bedroom, living room, one full bath, and eat-in kitchen. The shop is 30'x55', with one 10'x10' barn style sliding door, and two walk-through doors. The shop is pretty bare bones right now, what little wiring it had in it was a mess. I'm in the process of re-wiring, and adding more 110v and 220v receptacles and lights. I also plan to have another 10' door cut in at some point.

The outside:

Living space:

The shop: (ignore the mess, I'm still in mid-move)

CheapJ7 · Jan 5, 2015

Research building codes! Had a friend that got his built but then they wouldn't insure it until he had some badass mega unnecessary expensive 24 hour fire barrier between the shop space and living quarters.

muddinmetal · Jan 5, 2015

CheapJ7 said:
Research building codes! Had a friend that got his built but then they wouldn't insure it until he had some badass mega unnecessary expensive 24 hour fire barrier between the shop space and living quarters.

I too know of someone this has happened too

TBItoy · Jan 5, 2015

CheapJ7 said:
Research building codes! Had a friend that got his built but then they wouldn't insure it until he had some badass mega unnecessary expensive 24 hour fire barrier between the shop space and living quarters.

Is he using it for a business?

mine is insured just like any other house.

There are actually quite a few pole barn/ metal building houses in Jackson County where I live. But most of the county is about as backwoods as it gets