Woohoo! Finally talked Dad into splitting the cost of a new shop on the farm with me. Contractor supposed to be bringing contract to Dad to sign today.

30 x 40 x 14h. Fully insulated, 12 x 12 rollup doors on each end, concrete floor. (200A service to be installed by yours truly).

Dad and I set the site on grade last weekend, so we're already underway.

Pics to come.

Go 16' high and 14' doors. Any truck with a stack will not fit in. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Go 16' high and 14' doors. Any truck with a stack will not fit in. Trust me, you won't regret it.
Mine is 14' side wall with raised chord truss to 15'6 inside, still wish I would have went 16' side wall. My OH door is 18' wide x 13' high. I guess it will have to do, Wife said I have enough "toys"):h

Go 16' high and 14' doors. Any truck with a stack will not fit in. Trust me, you won't regret it.

I just pulled the trigger on my building yesterday afternoon. I was going to go with 16' side walls and rollup doors. Had it all planned out. After talking with my building consultant, and dreaming about this all nite long (literally) the nite before, I backed off to 14' high side walls, BUT I opted for a sliding door instead of a roll up. Then you don't need the extra 2'.

For me, this works great, because I'm getting a 20' wide X 14' slider (all in one piece), and I still have a 14' high opening at the door (or darn close after crete), and like 15'6" in the middle with raised chord trusses. I don't specifically know about semi heights, but the reason I have such a big door is for my fifth wheels. My current one is only 11'6", but the tallest that I've been able to find in literature is 13'4". I wonder if they try to stay under 13'6" because that's the lowest point on a lot of over passes (or at least it is around here). 14' still gets me over 13'6"

Going from 20' X 14' rollup, to 20' X 14' slider, and dropping to 14' sidewalls saved me $5K. That 20 X 14 rollup was expensive, and the higher you go on side walls, the more you pay. For me, it was a great compromise. I still ended up with all the square footage that I wanted inside. I didn't have to go down on building size, just the side wall...

CADman_ks

Hey CADman_ks, congrats! Sounds like you used the same reasoning as me in deciding on the sliding doors. I thought I would invent automatic door openers for them but I never did (yet) but they are easy to use and when fully opened, you've got a huge opening to back through without taking out the side of the building. Not that WE would ever do that.
And like you said, I now remember those doors saved me a LOT of money, and gave me more ceiling clearance and area for lights.
Enjoy!
Jim

Hey CADman_ks, congrats! Sounds like you used the same reasoning as me in deciding on the sliding doors. I thought I would invent automatic door openers for them but I never did (yet) but they are easy to use and when fully opened, you've got a huge opening to back through without taking out the side of the building. Not that WE would ever do that.
And like you said, I now remember those doors saved me a LOT of money, and gave me more ceiling clearance and area for lights.
Enjoy!
Jim

No need to invent... Just use sliding gate openers.... They are pricie but easy to install.... I used 2 of the the new imported ones and they use a gear and tooth track instead of the chain.. Worked great!

where did you find the ones you have? TSC?

Everything that I read about epoxy floors is that new floors must cure and that the temp must be above 50F or so. Given that, to date, the slab is not poured yet for my shop and I have to wait 28 days before I can epoxy it, am I scr3wed? (Waiting till spring to epoxy is not an option.)

Anybody had success using a kerosene heater to warm up a slab before epoxying? (The 30x40 shop will be insulated and I'm planning on getting a 55000 BTU heater which should be plenty big enough).

Any other ideas would be helpful.

HELP!

I would let the floor cure on its own. You should even keep a light layer of water on it to help it cure better.
If you try to dry it out to fast it will crack.
I also just got a brocure from a company called Premier Garage. They do floors and cabinets for the garage. They also have a web site. They claim it is different then the epoxy paint.

Put a drain in the floor. You can wash your truck in the garage and hose it down. If you are in snow country no big puddles left.