Help Design a Garage

I have a 2400 square foot (40 x 60) shop/garage with a 16 foot ceiling, two bay doors and one man door. There is a air compressor mounted on the wall by the previous owner, all the plumbing for in floor heat and basic power into a single panel. I used tonque and groove 3/4 inch plywood on the lower 8 feet of the walls and then drywall on the top 8 feet and ceiling. I have two 4 post hoists and am currently storing about a dozen cars.

I have always desired a mezzanine on which to build my man cave. I recently found and purchased a 5 year old 100 ft x 21 ft industrial mezzanine for $15k. I sold off 2/3's of it and have all the pieces sitting in my garage for assembly next spring as the shop is without heat and with all the cars there is no room to assemble the mezzanine.

I will post some pictures and drawings with my ideas and was hoping to get some useful feedback from the 348/355 brethren. Stay tuned for drawings and pictures.

 

Mezzanine:
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Here is the planned shop layout. The two lifts are not the same size. I was thinking of using the one lift to make a ramp between the mezzanine to get heavy items up through the gate. The squares on the bottom right are the electrical panel and air compressor. I plan to run conduit around the shop for electrical.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The area marked extension is where I plan to add 4 feet to mezzanine to accommodate a hallway underneath to get to the stair case. This way the staircase doesn't block access to underneath the mezzanine.

 

I had the mezzanine posts cut down 13 inches to give more head space up top. I am thinking I will have about 7 1/2 feet headroom on both top and below the mezzanine.

 

Feel free to offer any suggestions.

 

The guy I sold part of the mezzanine to sent this picture of the top:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The area marked FUTURE STORAGE is where I would plan to build a wooden mezzanine and put a bunch of shelving on top. Underneath that area I was planning on maybe setting up rooms for painting, engine building, etc.

 

Inside as it currently sits:
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I originally bought 12 flourescent highbay lights for the shop. But now with so much taken by mezzanine I think I won't need them all. They would be way too bright for the area above the mezzanine and take up some head room. I'm thinking countersunk pot lights over the mezzanine area.

 

I was also considering running a 2x6 trim piece over the joint between the drywall and plywood. I would paint the drywall a light color and the plywood a little darker - maybe a grey. The thinking is keep the ceiling bright and go darker below to hide any dirt. The trim piece could be red or something like that.

 

I looked into floor coatings but the cost for a shop this size is prohibitive. Not sure what I am going to do there yet. Under the mezzanine I plan to park cars in bays - each bay themed for the car. I am also considering boxing the mezzanine posts in and covering with stone or something like that to dress it up a bit. Up top of the mezzanine will be a boys play room. Think big screen, excercise equipment, pool table, F355 Challenge video game, etc.

 

Shop was erected before I got here. I would have loved a drive through plan but that wasn't how it was designed. In winter the doors won't be opened much as the cars inside are not winter drivers.

 

I saw a paint booth for sale once but it was massive and would have taken up too much room. I was thinking of a small paint room for things like engine parts, a powder coating oven, etc. Like you I am hoping to get ideas and recommendations on things I may not have considered or products that work really well.

 

The second lift is already in the shop. Good point on moving it closer to the wall to free up space. Moving it would help with parking cars under the mezzanine too. The concern I had with moving too close to the wall is getting cars lined up straight through the door and onto the lift.

What if I rotated Lift 2 by 90 degrees clockwise and moved it in front of Lift 1 - in line with the door? Would open up all the space in front of the mezzanine.

Another option would be to forget about Future Storage and just put the two lifts side by side.

 

First thing to note is that the two lifts are not the same size. One is narrower and shorter than the other and has less capacity. I bought it first and then purchased the bigger one for a second lift. In the actual shop pictures the small lift is the one positioned on the right side with the RX7 on it and the big lift has the Lotus on it. Here are some possible lift positions:

1) Move the lifts to be directly in line with each other. To load the back one you have to raise the front one. One concern is because the lifts are not the same size will the legs on the front lift interfere with lining up to the ramps on the back lift.

2) Move Lift 2 further to the left giving more space in the center of the shop. Lift 2 would need to be raised to load Lift 1. All vehicles will need to be low enough to pass under Lift 2 in order to load Lift 1. How much room would be needed around the back side of Lift 2 (Storage area)?

3) Move Lift 2 closer to the wall thus opening up the center of the floor. I like the look of this but there are two windows on the wall and I was thinking of using the space next to and between them to put up some tire racks and a whiteboard. With the lift that close you lose any utility of that wall space.

Thoughts?
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I forgot to mention I also have 3 big ceiling fans to install when the lights are put in. Also my lifts are not bolted to the floor. They have casters that can be installed when you want to move them.

 

Or maybe I got the Mezzanine layout all wrong to begin with?
Image Unavailable, Please Login