Turning This: 
Into This: 
I would like to bring you all on my journey of how we had this shop built for a few reasons:
Number 1: enjoyment factor
Number 2: tips and tricks if you decide you want to have one built
Number 3: Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes
So let us begin:
First of all, location, location, location, you need to know where you want your shop, which way should it be pointing, what HOA’s do you have to deal with, and do you have to level or clear any land.
We thought we knew where we wanted it, but luckily flipped it right before we removed some trees perpendicular to our original thoughts.
Before I jump into that one thing I wished we would have figured out was the exact size and plan of our shop before we started everything else. We didn’t and it caused us a few hurdles along the way. Especially getting multiple quotes…
SO I recommend designing and knowing what you are going to build before you start this process (mostly ). Mueller provides a good website to help you there and a great staff to refine your design. While we didn’t go through them directly to get our building, we know our builder did.
Once you have your design, you are going to need a builder. We interviewed a handful of builders and went to see some of their finished works before we made a decision. The one piece of advice is find recommendations from others, it was what we did and we had just moved into this community. I think the main thing that helped us was we found someone we liked and could work with ... They weren’t the cheapest but we truly felt like we would get the best result and we did ... Also really good builders are busy and usually can’t start for a 3-6 months, if they are available now you need to really ask yourselves why? Tip: Look at welds to see some of the quality
Ok now you have a builder and a mostly complete design. Do you need windows? How much pitch do you need on the roof? Do you need gutters? What color should it be? To start off… color and windows are up to you, we wanted windows and think they look nice, we also wanted to get creative to get additional light in the shop. As for roof pitch talk to your builder, it will really depend on the climate (ie snow or no snow and how much). We ended up with a 1/12 pitch roof which means for every 12 inches of travel it goes up 1 inch. Gutters in most cases aren’t required, we asked for them and they provided them, more gutters than I thought were possible but more works.
Next will your HOA approve your design? Know your setbacks and measure them. What worked really well for us to get a few stakes and some string and map out how big this shop was going to be because a 72’ by 30’ structure is big…
Well I hope you enjoyed the first installment... Hoping to get more time to in the next few weeks for the next installment.
A teaser pic...
look forward to seeing the finished product!
There are so many uses for a backyard shop. I wish I had one.
Going from bare dirt to a beautiful and functional structure. Nice.
We were really excited to get this going and complete!!
Looks like a pretty big project! How long do they estimate it will take to complete it?
Great question, the process took us 4-5 months with from quotes to floors being completed. Actual work time, clearing trees took 1 week. then from the start of the cement process to the structure being completed was under 6 weeks. And i will explain why in the next couple of installments.
That is one heck of a DYI project!