Man cave / Shop Plans and Ideas

[Flyboy718]

Probably mid to late February, I am going to begin building a shop/man cave in my backyard...I am looking for some ideas, maybe someone can post up some pictures of theirs and also what materials and how they were constructed.  What I am needing to get a handle on will be my floor, I want to do and elevated type floor.

[Mike Vines]

What do you mean in the back yard?  If it is a stand alone structure, build it like a deck, then after sheating the floor use some type of laminate floor material, or go with wood flooring.  That is if the entire "cave" is going to be enclosed with side walls and a roof.  There are endless possibilities, we just need more info from you as to size and shape your building.  Is it a permanent structure???

[Flyboy718]

Grapes...for all practical purposes it will be a shop for doing odds and ends projects and storing things.  And yes, in backyard, detached from house...do not want to pour a slab.  I was thinking maybe 12' deep X 10' wide with 8' ceiling.

[oxnam]

Are you talking a 10x10 shed or a 30X60 shop?  If you are building, I would go as large as possible.  It is easy to add additional feet before it is started.  It gets tougher later on.

[greg fields]

15 x 15 would be minimum, larger, as stated, would be better.  You'll run out of storage space in no time and have little room to do odds and end projects.  Don't take my post as negative.  You have the right idea just need to do it on a larger scale in my opinion.  9-10 foot ceilings would be better also.  Are you heating the place, a small wood burner would be cheap if you have a wood supply...  Good luck.

[broketooth]

look , if you just have a garage. to work in you can give your garage some what of a mobile treeatment . with roll around tools and wall mount cabinets you can have a reall workable shop. this is what i did. excuse the mess i use my shop every day. i built all thes cabinets myself with a table saw and a kregs pockethole jig. the face frames are nailed on with a trim nail gun. up until last yr ive never built cabitnets before. i have been a framing carpenter for 20 yrs so i had decided that the garage deserved more than jus a free standing work bench. this is what i had come up with. its still a work inj progress doors and hardware are yet to come. a little at a time. hope this helps. ruddy

[hova]

i used to work for a company called one day garages. we used to do a lot of different styles of build. some were way easier than others.

Monopour: This is a slab  poured over a sort of pyramid underlayer of compacted pea gravel. you said you dont want to pour , so dont bother looking into this , its a pita...

Outdoor Wood foundation: basically , you dig post holes about 8ft apart. cut a 10 or 12" cement form and fill it with cement. we used to call these dolls or something...

next put 4x4 treated lumber in the holes , center , and fill with gravel.attach 2x6 treated lumber to the standing supports.

after that you go up as high as you want your "foundation" , put a cap on the top of it all. this is where you put your framing.


The ultimate in easy and fast garages , is a pole barn. very similar to the outdoor wood foundation , but you put 4x4's in , and sink the bottom 18" with cement , then stick-frame in your studs and basically throw some t111 barn siding over it.


for extra rigitdity with O.W and polebarns , put osb or plywood in the corners .


theres more to it , but this is just a roughh overview of what we used.


if you want a REAL mancave , get out your shovel and get to workin on your bunker....


a pic of your proposed worksite would help.


-hov

[hova]

forgot to say , an outdoor wood foundation can be poured at a later date if you wish , and the foundation is the form , so all you have to do is grade and gravel , then pour.

for an elevated floor , makes me think you have water issues . building methods are completely different if you have water or something...

lemme know

[DXH]

i would say go bigger than you plan on using. Because you build for what you need..then you're out of room to work.

[akdd]

Flyboy check Your PM

[Dave McDaniel]

What DXH said!

[Recurve50 LBS]

I know that you are in the"Looking for Ideas" stage but plan on having some kind of heat scource so you can work on stuff during cold and damp weather. I have a Man Cave in my basement and have to have a kerosene heater in there when I work. The Man Cave used to be an old coal bin 90 years ago. There is also a de humidifier in there to keep moisture out during the summer months.I painted the walls and floor and put in new lighting and there is two benches and lots of shelves. The dementions are 20' X 8'.

[Dick in Seattle]

My old shop was a very large, deep three car garage and was a joy.  I was doing professional carving of wooden ventriloquist figures.  I had to give it up when we moved and then had a period of 7 years or so with no shop because I wasn't able to work.  When I got to where I could again, I was ready to try making bows, but had only a small one car garage.  As someone noted above, mobile tools were the answer.  I have a full complement of bow making and woodworking machinery:  two bandsaws, two drum sanders, lathe, several knife grinders, table saw, jig saw, planer, joiner, router table, 80" belt sander, dust collector, woodworker's bench, osc. spindle sander, double pneumatic drum/flap sander, full size oven and wood and forms storage.  Everything large is on mobile bases and the smaller (?) stuff is on shelve to be gotten out and set up as needed.   One tool is out in the middle (or in the driveway in summer) at a time.  Clean up is necessary after each operation, but it all works.    Here's a picture of the shop "at rest":

 

If you want to see a detailed presention of the machine storage and arrangement:

 http://dickwightman.com/archeryactivity/environment/shop/shoppix.html

Quite a few tricks for using the space are shown there.  This was taken two years back, so there's quite a bit more in the shop now!

Hope it gives you some ideas...

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

I'd check with your local building dept (anonymously) to see what your building ordinance/code sates.

Here, the code states a structure 120 sq. ft. or less is considered a "accessory" structure given it does not have wiring or plumbing, and does not require a building permit nor are there limits on the number of these structures given one does not exceed 40% lot coverage (a zoning law).

Code enforcement officers can ruin your day later. Just be aware prior to dumping mad amounts of money and effort unless you plan to go the legal route the whole way. My $.02

[Flyboy718]

Good news is that I work for the city and I can find out what the maximum structure size I need in a round about way.  I think I may go the 14 X 14 route...I went outside and looked at what that would look like and like it better.  I would post up some pics of the area but I don't know how to post pics on here.  Thanks for the posts so far guys!  I think I may go with 4X4 posts in the ground and then build my floor by attaching 2x6's and framing from there.

[Mike Vines]

Originally posted by Flyboy718:
Good news is that I work for the city and I can find out what the maximum structure size I need in a round about way.  I think I may go the 14 X 14 route...I went outside and looked at what that would look like and like it better.  I would post up some pics of the area but I don't know how to post pics on here.  Thanks for the posts so far guys!  I think I may go with 4X4 posts in the ground and then build my floor by attaching 2x6's and framing from there.

Add a hip roof with 2 foot overhangs.  Conventional frame the roof and leave it all exposed...Don't drywall it...after insulating, use toung and groove siding as your interior finish on the walls and cathedral ceiling.  If your going to do it, do it right, that way you have less to worry about down the road when it will cost more to do and there will be so much stuff in the way that you will never get around to doing it. Just my .02

[HcSmitty]

DONT cut no corners to save money.  Itll save money in the longrun.  N id avoid buildin it on a slab n case u decide to move u can have it moved with ya.

[YORNOC]

I wish I had property for an outbuilding.  But here's my two areas. First, the garage for archery/bow/arrow work. Gets a bit cold so often have to move to the cellar around January. Pretty messy too since the Xmas clutter pushes into it.
 
 

One half of the basement is my leather bench, workout area.

 


 
Cut an air hockey table up for the main bench and shelves.

[misfire]

This is a picture of our mancave we call the "Fort". It's a converted tool shed about 100 yds behind my buddy's house. It still has some tools in it but they are slowly being moved. Right now it has a woodstove, small dorm frig, a microwave, coffee pot some chairs and of course all our hunting gear. Not shown is a nice gamepole.
 
I know this doesn't help with your plans but I just had to share...  :D

[fish n chicks]

Flyboy, If you're going to clear span those 2x6's at 14', you're going to be over spanned. you'll need 2x10's at 16" o.c. and bridging at your 3rd points. This would be far less $ than if you went with double the amount of 2x6's, and also the mid-span member which would be a double 2x6, and obviously 3 more 4x4's.

If you're going with a square building, orientate your floor joists and roof rafters perpendicular to each other also. This will help with your lateral shear.

I would recommend insulating your floor, since it will be elevated with the elements below it. Simply build your foundation, nail some sheathing to the bottom of your floor joists, lay insulation from above before you put your floor sheathing on, and you've got a warmer man cave.

If you're interested, I can draw you some plans in cad and email them to you. All you'd have to do is tell me what you want. Ie doors, windows, grapes' idea for the cathedral, etc. Having a dimensioned set of plans can really help you estimate your budget, and clear up many possible problems during construction. Feel free to pm me if you're interested, this one will be on the house. So to speak lol