outdoor shed mancave ideas?

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Is a barn style the best way to go?

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I'd not mind the idea of a wide open space to house workout equipment, entertaining area with lots of seating, cooking equipment, audio/video entertainment and game room options.

I'd not want to have lawn or other gas fueled equipment housed in the same area. That would have to have a place of its own for safety concerns.

I don't like the idea of fuel powered equipment, exhaust fumes, fuel storage, etc. in a living area.

an unfinished (interior) metal building is damn near impossible to keep clean especially one with that high an eave like in your picture. Understand that that’s what it will look like on day 1; on day 120 it will be full of dust and cobwebs.

If you don’t need that eave height then post and beam is the way to go in my opinion

I like the picture you posted.

I would add a wall in the middle with a door and put all of my tools and lawn equipment on the other side. With a separate garage door.

The issue would be AC with ceilings that tall

Hell yeah. Mind sharing your plans whenever you are done?

What state do you live in? A couple of suggestions that seem to be sometimes afterthought. If you're in a hot state, make sure the garage door or living space is not on the west side of the building. There's nothing better than natural light in a shop, but ceiling windows are just purely a bad idea. Put in some windows high in the walls.

When you say workshop, what kind of work are you wanting to do? Reason I ask is if you have a pool table and theatre and you're doing wood work for example, your pool table and movie chairs are going to be perpetually covered in sawdust. Might choose to segment off portions of the building for what you're wanting to do.

AI does some goofy stuff. The I beams aren't connected on one of the supports, and the I beam is above the door without proper support. I know it's an AI rendering but my brain goes straight to the structural side of things.

Lastly, yes, a metal building IMO is the best way to achieve what you're waning to do. You can go wood and probably get it done cheaper, but wood is a maintenance issue so much faster than a metal building.

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shed mancave

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about 2,000 sqft

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That's a whole other house... I'm over here just wanting a shop of about 400 sqft.

I was considering going up with my shop instead of adding the guest house. The cost to add the additional concrete and keep it all on one level was very marginally more expensive than the cost of adding a loft apartment with the additional steel for adequate support. And you reduce your headspace in the shop by 8' to go up. And as much fun as a loft in the shop sounds, I don't want to have to climb stairs when I want to use it.

As far as building taller, I think I calculated each foot that I went up at around $300 per foot. So the difference between a 12' wall and 16' wall was maybe $1,200 by that math. $300 was building material expense. But the wire costs go up as well for the runs that have to go up the length of the wall. Insulation as well. So it probably added closer to $2,000 to $2,500 overall.

My shop size feels ridiculous when compared to my house. The enclosed space in the shop and guest house is 3,100 sq ft and my house is like 2,700. I bought the house for the wife. I'm building the shop for me.

No way that place would be nice & clean with LAWN equipment in there. Plus fuel smell.

Gonna be impossible to cool if you go full metal building with no insulation and 20 foot ceiling.