re: Advice on 5 acres - detach garage, and equipment needs

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We also get property tax cuts in LA for "ag" use

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That only starts here with 10 acres, and I wanted to get more land, but the wife wouldn't discuss it. I tried to convince her to buy a little further out, the land would be cheaper, and we could buy 20-30 acres, create a home and yard from 3-5 acres and let the rest go. I was thinking I would cut a path through the trees, maybe put a shooting range near the back or something and "play in the woods" when I wanted to, but she didn't want to even think about being far enough out to afford that. And that was okay with me.

We are in a great location, out in the country, but less than 5 minutes from access to 2 major interstates, so it's really a nice piece of land.

I'm about to start on a 40X50 shop with a 24'X40' covered parking area, and a 320 sq ft shop.

I thought about doing a loft for the office, but the cost to build up is very marginally cheaper (possibly break even) than building additional sq footage ground level. And if you're older and don't want to climb stairs, then the loft could be a deterrent. Additionally, I have 14' side walls planned. The sidewall requirement for going higher gets a bit absurd for my property. You want a 10' ceiling height on the garage floor level at a bare minimum, and you need a 6' ceiling height at a minimum on the loft level assuming you're building with the pitch of the roof going up to 10 or 12' ceiling height. So your side wall minimum height is 17' and ideally 19' at a minimum which is just a really tall building. So that is why I decided to go with a ground level office and a little extra concrete.

I'm planning to pouring the concrete thick enough for a 4 post lift if I decide to put one in, and some sort of gantry or hoist system when I build stuff a little heavier than I can handle myself which I frequently do.

Sounds like you got all the rest somewhat well thought out.

One of the details I'm struggling with is air conditioning. I hate window units but it's hard to argue with the cost of the units. Mini splits are great, but it seems like they present maintenance and repair obstacles that are not exactly appealing. A conventional unit is the ideal solution if budget isn't a problem. But then I have the issue that I want the bathroom and office cooled most of the time, and I only want the shop heated/cooled at different times than the bathroom/office. So a dual zone unit is what I'd need which is more $$$. And in my case, I have enough sq ft that I'd need a 5 ton unit.

The other things I'm adding is a sink in the garage, and planning on adding floor drains in a couple of areas. I also want a closet or something enclosed for the compressor, vacuum system and water heater.

Think I'm going to go with smooth troweled concrete on the shop and broom finished on the driveway and parking area. Plenty of outlets, it'll have its own septic system, it's own electrical service and I am plumbing propane from our tank to the shop as well.

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I wouldn't bury lines for internet. You can use a wireless bridge. It can handle streaming games etc

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You don't think I should have a hard wire out there?


Speaking of that, my front gate will have to be electronic, and I'm going to have to find out how that works. Does it use solar to power it, and can you program a garage door opener to open it? Call box for visitors? Does it open and close automatically as you get close when leaving? Anyone have any experience with a gate system?

I would hard-wire it. I ran over 100 feet from house to an office in a garage, partially under yard in conduit. Before that I had a bridge set up and it was not great. 100' is nothing, they have longer distances than that to get feeds through a neighborhood. Some of that is fiber and not ethernet of course, but cat6 will do the job in your yard.

I am going to have a sink of some kind in the shop area.
I will discuss further with builder on AC type on e we decide on finished size. I have mini split for my bonus room now and really doesn't seem to work well for the space.
I am planning to keep everything on one floor because of age. I might do a loft with stairs for storage, we'll see. I would like to do a taller ceiling. I hadn't considered a lift, but that would be nice. I will have to think about that.

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hope you’re planning on having help with the yard.

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My wife loves to mow, she does it now. We have a Gravely zero turn 26hp yamaha with 60" deck. Will see if that is big enough or not. I would expect it would take 3 hours to mow.

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Have read the entire thread, this is my dilemma and something to consider.

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Yeah, that is the whole reason for the door on the left side under the awning, so I can store equipment in there and get anything in and out without moving any vehicles I might have in the garage itself. Not sure if that will ever be an issue, but wanted to think about it.

I'm planning for it to be 12' wide in that area, so on the garage side itself, I will put shelving up and store stuff under and on it, and on the wall side near the finished space, I will build shelving, and as suggested, plan out hanging tools and stuff on the wall behind the workbench space.

Here is my rough shop blueprint I put into AutoCad. I'll add on to it eventually, but I have the office down closest to the bottom of the picture. Behind that I'll have the option to add a leanto (spelling is wrong I'm sure) and off to the opposite side of the shop, I'm leaving room to add another leanto for parking boat trailers or tractors or whatever it is I buy in the future.

I painted the shop dimensions on the ground where it is going to go and I've already realized the office isn't quite big enough for everything I want to do so I've added another 75 sq ft or so.

Bathroom will be a full bathroom. The wife has always wanted a clawfoot tub and we don't have any bathtubs in the house. I am fully aware that a clawfoot tub can create some issues, but she wants one, and that's my little gift to her for letting me build the shop.

On this drawing, the big garage door is offset from the side wall by 1', and I decided to bump it over a couple more feet to 3 or 4 feet off the wall so that I can have work benches and tools or whatever against that wall without having to remove room from the garage door width. There is also a garage door going in the back of the shop (left side of the picture) to help a draft and to eliminate the vehicle shuffle some are talking about. Another thing I'm doing is facing the shop North/South to eliminate the west sun in the evenings while I'm in the shop.

That looks nice. I really wasn't considering an office, but as someone else pointed out, if I do decide to work on small toys and need similar to sand blasting equipment, I might want to have that in an enclosed place rather than just out in the general shop. Gonna have to think about that a bit.

I also have to wait to get the house priced before I can finalize the detach because I have a number I'm trying to hit, and I might have to modify it if the house is going to cost more than I'm thinking. Not sure yet.

IF it turns out the house cost is less than I'm planning, I will plan to enlarge the detach.

And I too am a big fan of using travel size toothpaste containers to hold papers flat.

Hot water tap on the outside to wash equipment.

Pour footings extra deep and large in areas laid out to put a two post vehicle lift in their ahead if time if you decide you want them later. You can find a lot used for a couple grand.

It's really nice when your older and retired to not get off the ground working on things.