Workshop - More questions than answers!

[Iestynd]

Hi all,


I'm not a full time wood worker, I'm at IT professional, and a part time property developer but i LOVE all things wood and enjoy making. I'm in a house we aren't going to sell any time soon (i hope).
Currently i have a single garage at the side of my house with a bedroom above it. No personnel door just a big up and over. The garage is approx. 4.8Mtrs long x 2.6Mtrs wide.

The garage has a MFT type work bench on castors, a mitre saw on a homemade base with vac under, and some other bits and pieces. I have LOTS of tools. I tinker with cars and build houses/extensions so lots of tools.
I have a shed at the side of the garage and i have a compressor in the shed and the hose runs into the garage.

My dust collection is on the MFT a Festool vac of some kind, and then a Titan wet and dry vac under the Mitre saw.

I have an amazing opportunity to extend my garage... a bit unusual in layout though.

As you can see this picture shows the existing garage:

I want to extend the garage to the side.. The red line shows the front building line. I want to keep it a curved wall as its interesting and is in keeping with what is there. I appreciate this will be a nightmare for benches etc inside but it is what is it.

It will have a pitched roof which will be south facing so i will probably put solar panels on it.
I will knock the wall down between the existing garage and the new space. That will enable me to drive a car into the garage and open all doors.

In the new space will be my "making space" mainly woodwork, maybe some welding in future....

I was thinking of digging underground to make an underground store... if I’m digging foundations, it doesn’t make much more effort to dig a basement.... (under the new bit only). However, one of my neighbours who is a property consultant (big building projects commercial scale) said basements nearly always flood and cause problems.... What’s everyone else’s experience with this? I am not planning on working in the basement, however, i think the extra storage space wouldn't hurt! My new garage space might have double doors onto my garden, but two issues with that - security and also wall space!

So, if i was to rein in the basement idea and maybe just dig a covered pit, i could put the compressor (currently in the shed going to get knocked down) and maybe some kind of dust extraction system... so not a full basement but a large pit type system? What else could i put underground.

What am i missing? I will have "some" roof storage space but i plan to put a Velux type window in the middle of the pitch to bring as much light as possible in....

Good people of UKWORKSHOP what would you do.. a bank sheet so to speak.

I did look at putting a car lift into the single garage part to hide a car under ground, but i don't have a car i need to "tuck" away and the cost was about £18k for one of these, with the top surface being a solid surface i could wheel benches onto and use as workable space:

I think that’s overkill for what i need..... I am however lucky to be able to get rid of top soil and hardcore for really cheap so digging out is ok... its the building back up i guess to make it water tight!


Erm.. comments.

 

[Droogs]

First thing to check is if you are on a flood plain, then design from there with particular attention to tanking and having some way of preventing ingress from above ground such as inflatable barriers etc as part of the inbuilt structure of the building. The curve can be a good place to have machines such as BS, Pillar drill etc stored on roll out trolleys etc that can be pulled forward for use and returned to the wall out the way when not needed.

 

[Blackswanwood]

The flooding and water ingress can all be overcome as the new space would be tanked and physical steps can be taken to protect it as described by Droogs.

It's not as simple though as just digging a bigger hole than would be needed for foundations. What you are describing is a fairly significant piece of civil engineering that could easily undermine the stability of the existing structure. There will be many variables and if I were considering this I would bring an architect and building engineer in very early on to understand just what I was getting into.

 

[Cabinetman]

You caught me out when you were describing your dust collection ha ha.
Personally I don’t think it’s worth digging out – don’t forget you will lose space in your workshop for the stairs that go down into it. I think I would go upwards into the pitched roof space, maybe add a couple of feet to the height of the addition.
You obviously don’t mind spending some money on this new addition so you could build in some fairly innovative storage solutions up there, possibly with a library ladder on wheels? (Edit) Possibly a motorised hoist/rack to lift all your stacked timber up into the roof space, and bring it down when needed.
With some prior thought a lot could be achieved when the roof timbers go in. Ian

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Going underground potentially adds vastly to the cost - depending on geology etc and on whether services need re-routing etc. You may get some extra space by going underground, but the cost may be such - especially if an odd shape - that it would not add equivalent value to your property.

Are you sure that road sightlines would not be adversely affected? This looks like an estate location, are there any restrictive covenants that might be a problem?

 

[Jameshow]

Does the land Infront of the curved wall actually belong to you?

Might not?

Going down isn't going a add a as much value as it will cost.

Also enlarging the garage will require a large T shaped steel.

Better off having a smaller separate workshop cars and dust don't mix.

Cheers James

 

[heimlaga]

Basements work all right if the house is on a hill or at a minimum stands on well drained soil high above the highest water level anyone has ever heard of in the last 300 years. In other cases basements are highly unsuitable.
If your site is well drained enough to build a basement it would still be tricky because you risk undermining both the street and the house. A small root cellar would be economically feasible as you do not need to dig all the way up against the existing building and the road.

In your case I think a second storey with storage space above the extension would be a better idea.

Welding and woodwork do not combine well in the same space. Wood dust tends to collect everywhere and those dust deposits are highly flammable. I do all my welding and cutting and forging of metal outdoors for that reason.

Hiding a car in a damp hole under a garage sounds both exorbitantly expensive and as a quick way of making the car rust out. If you still choose to do it I think you should stick with cars in the price bracket below 300 pounds because you would loose too much money having better cars destroyed by rust.

I see no reason why a curved wall wouldn't work. Every square inch of space that can be added makes a workshop more useful and if round is the way to maximize space just build it round.

 

[Jameshow]

You have a curve wall at head height. Simple job of a fan shaped roof and a rear wall made of uPVC patio doors. Insulate and job done!

Cheers James

 

[Cooper]

I'm a believer in digging down, as my daughter's homes in Germany have doubled the space they have by having a basement. But here the convention seems to build on a slab and so the skills for the tanking necessary aren't so common. We live in a Victorian house on top of a hill with a cellar, even so I have to put everything I store into plastic crates or on raised duck boards and any steel quickly rusts.
I've seen those lifts in developments off Wapping High Street, which is right by the Thames and they put their Porshes and other super cars etc on them so they must have solved the damp problem, otherwise the condensation in the cars would be dreadful. Good luck.

 

[Iestynd]

Going underground potentially adds vastly to the cost - depending on geology etc and on whether services need re-routing etc. You may get some extra space by going underground, but the cost may be such - especially if an odd shape - that it would not add equivalent value to your property.

Are you sure that road sightlines would not be adversely affected? This looks like an estate location, are there any restrictive covenants that might be a problem?

Not sure as yet... need to approach the council. I am being steered away from a basement idea. The clever storage in the roof space is a good option!

 

[Iestynd]

Does the land Infront of the curved wall actually belong to you?

Might not?

Going down isn't going a add a as much value as it will cost.

Also enlarging the garage will require a large T shaped steel.

Better off having a smaller separate workshop cars and dust don't mix.

Cheers James

I'd like it all to be one space as from time to time i like to drive the car into the garage to work on it/dry it off/polish it etc. Currently thats not possible as the garage is so narrow.
Happy to add the steels - Have done a sizeable extention recently that involved a lot of steel fabrication.

The land in front and to the side does belong to me, i really don't want to push out to the boundry line though (where the grass meets the path) as that will detract from the look and feel of the culdesac.

Thank You

 

[Iestynd]

You have a curve wall at head height. Simple job of a fan shaped roof and a rear wall made of uPVC patio doors. Insulate and job done!

Cheers James

My father in law likes that approach as well.... i'm just not sure its enough for what i want.... I need to get the wife to buy into the idea first

Also, i used someone on Fiver who overnight last night made this render for me!

I was VERY impressed with the turn around time.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Not sure as yet... need to approach the council. I am being steered away from a basement idea. The clever storage in the roof space is a good option!

It's your deeds that would show any restrictive covenants.

 

[mikej460]

It might help to convince your wife if you balance the visual by adding a window above the garage door?