Replies

1. 
   BrianF | Nov 23, 2005 06:14am | #1

   I vote for above ground. I worked for nearly a year in our basement before I added on behind our existing garage. It was the best move ever. Not having to lug everyting up and down as well as having windows and even a sliding glass door were worth it alone. In addition, I'm not sure what you have for head room, but I'm sure it's not enough.

   You'll be cursing yourself for going in the basement. If financially and space on your building site allow, go above!

   Brian

2. 
   tinkerer2 | Nov 23, 2005 07:35am | #2

        If you can afford the separate building, I think it would be so much more satisfactory.  I had sort of a shop in the basement for thirty some years.  I didn't use it much because of time limitations.  It was so hard to keep the dust from the rest of the house.  The ceilings were too low.  Not enough room to work around the tools.  Too noisy for the family.  Lighting was poor, which could have been corrected, of course, but all this time I was just waiting to get in my own separate woodshop.

        Now I have been building the dream building.  I am in the process of retiring so I should have time to work in it.  The problem is I have a bad conscience for spending so much money.  My suggestion would be to price the two alternatives. If the price is any where near the same go for the separate building. 

1. 
   jeffreysherow | Nov 25, 2005 05:12am | #3

   Thanks for your feedback, your confirming my feelings. The estimate for cutting the door in the basement is about 20k. The ceiling is 8' and I believe your are right about the height problem.Thanks
   Jeff

1. 
   BG | Nov 25, 2005 05:49am | #4

   Jeffsherow,
   Perhaps a third alernative would work for you. I've been looking at adding on a breezeway (as defined by our town) to the side of the house for parking the cars and converting the two car garage to a shop. The architect designed a pretty nice low priced attachment...

1. 
   jeffreysherow | Nov 25, 2005 11:11pm | #5

   Thanks, I love the idea of a breezway between the house and the garage, it would work well and lokk great!

2. 
   wobeba | Nov 29, 2005 06:04am | #6

   I made the decision to put my shop in the basement, rather than convert our 36 x 30 barn into a shop. Like you, I had to decided whether to pay for creating true walk-out access via double doors and the cost was no where near 20K. And since the wiring was nearby (service panel at other end of space) and it was already warm in winter and cool in summer, I decided against creating a "new space" when I had a perfectly useable one that was simply undeveloped. Here are some costs for my part of NJ.I had the backhoe operator (825 for machine and the operator for one day, plus a meatball sub) cut an 8 foot wide entranceway/path through 30 feet of sloped ground. The path slopes slightly away from the footer of the house for drainage. Then I paid 2K to have a crew of three come and install a laminated beam over the location for the new opening, and then cut the block walls, remove the rubble, frame it out and install the doors. Their muscle. Their masonry cutting tools. And their job to underpin foundation and deal with inspector. Almost as fast as I could write the checks, (a span of 3 days) I went from lugging stuff up and down stairs to backing the pickup to the new doors taking things in and out easy as pie.Another couple of grand for an electrician, and within a week I had my five 240 Volt machines, a bunch of 120 Volt machines and more up and running. There is more than ample room to move around, and be as creative as you want to be. The footprint of the entire basement is 30 x 50 under the main part of the house, and 20 x 24 under the kitchen attached to the end of the first floor. (Think large rectangle next to little square) That's about 1900 sq. ft. Subtract the center chimney and the oil burner/water heater/well tank and the two oils tanks and it's actually more like 1700 sq. ft. However I DO NOT have a separate finishing room that can handle the smelly stuff. Nor do I have an "Office" downstairs for computer work and client contacts. And if I wanted to bring a potential customer to the shop, I'm essentially asking them to come over to the house, rather than a "real" place of business. Will I ever move out to the barn, and turn the shop and walkout space into a huge rec room for the wife and family? YOU BET! And once I get there, I bet I'll be spending time reminscing about the "old days" in that basement shop!Good luck. Hope these numbers help!

3. 
   Ricks503 | Dec 01, 2005 06:38pm | #7

   Rather than a completly separate building, check out the space available and see if you could add on to the garage. That could possibly save some money and you could even possibly put a dorr between the two or even make it one big open space.

   Could make it easier to install electrical as well and if you heat the shop, you could extend that to allow the garage to be heated as well.

   1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go        4 - get a new board and go back to step 1