Man Cave/Shop Ideas

Smart wiring for connectivity to sure.

On my outdoor kitchen my friends said I should have put in a kegerator so I could buy a 5gal tank of local brew from my hunts and use the antler, hoof or bone as a tap handle. I laughed at first, but I've come to love the idea. Local brew with local meat.
 
I was going to say floor drains, but looks too late.

I just built a garage/shop/gym/ home brewery/ butcher shop last year. A few things I am glad I did and a few I wish I would have done.

I put in a double laundry tub style sink. I got mine on Amazon. It is great for washing meat tubs, home brew items, grill grates, just about anything that is a pain to wash in a regular kitchen sink.

Used 1/2" plywood for walls. Thought of doing the 3/4" so you can pretty much hang anything anywhere. 1/2" isn't too bad, but if I have a heavy item or shelves I make sure to hit studs. I also sprayed plywood with a waterbourne polyurethane. Wood looks great and will look great for years.

I wish I would have done radiant floor heat run through outdoor wood stove, but our house and property is too far along to switch over.

LED Lighting!!! Little more to start but well worth it. I got 4' LED lights.

Acid stained concrete to give a nicer look, and hide any imperfections or stains to come later.

I put conduit from main break box to ceiling to run new circuits later if needed. I also put outlets above where work bench was going to be. Plenty of outlets and on multiple circuits. I put air compressor on its own circuit, planer on own circuit, etc.

Bought cheap cabinets from Lowes to build work bench overtop. Made work bench height for me so I don't have to lean over to work.

Build a 4' x 10' and placed in center of room for butchering, working on projects, etc.

Bathroom isn't big deal for me. I have a half bath 10 feet from building in house. But if not a bathroom close or house only has 1 bathroom, definitely worth putting one in.

I wish I would have put airlines in, now I will just have to mount on wall or ceiling.
 
If you haven't run electrical yet, when I wired my garage I ran 10/3 to all of my outlets. I pig-tailed out 12 for all of my outlets - but if I ever need to run a welder, etc - it'll be straight forward to swap the breaker and the outlet. You'll probably have a dedicated line run though.

Congrats - it's looking awesome!

My plans (in my head so far) include a walk-in cooler plus dedicated butchering area.
 
Thanks, I am doing the 3/4 OSB. The electrical rough in is already done, My brother is the electrician so I had him wire outlets in every 6 feet, I had him also run two dedicated 220 outlets already so if I want to plug in a welder or hell even a stove I can. I put three outlets across the front of the building and on each corner in the back. Dusk to dawn lights in the front. I am putting LED in everything, they are already ordered.

I am putting in the lift master wall mounted garage door openers and have the outlets already placed for that. The dedicated airlines are supposed to be going in this weekend.

Nemont
 
Nemont said:
I actually asked about running speaker wires and the guy who was the local expert advised me that the wireless speakers are so good that I wouldn't need to worry about in wall speakers. I am having the TV cable and such put in prior to the OSB going on.
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TV cable is almost a thing of the past now. Most all of the stuff is switched over to Fiber Optic / CAT5. I would definitely run both as that coax cable will be obsolete sooner more than later, one of my TV's doesn't even have the coax port.

As far as speakers go, run the wire. The wireless units add to the speakers and the transmitter plugs into your receiver. What you will pay for that covers really good insulated wire and you wont have to worry about interference. Good wire on Amazon runs about .30/foot. You will probably only need 250' or about $75 worth. I used Mediabridge 14AWG 2 wire in wall and it was really easy.

Plus a lot of guys have to have the latest and greatest receivers and try and dump the old stuff. There are a lot of really good used systems out there cheap that will work awesome in a man cave if you have it wired.
 
I guess when I say TV cable I meant the CAT5 wire not coax. I will have to rethink speaker wire, I could just do it now and not worry about it I guess.

Nemont
 
Nemont said:
I guess when I say TV cable I meant the CAT5 wire not coax. I will have to rethink speaker wire, I could just do it now and not worry about it I guess.

Nemont
Click to expand...

In the past if I didn't know where I wanted to set speakers/low voltage up I would just run small rope loosely then pull wire later. You will be happy with those Liftmasters. I installed those commercially for 8 years, they are nice machines.

BTW, that is a nice looking building so far. Jealous of your concrete, those guys did a nice job. I would love to have heated floors and ditch my gravel approach.
 
Good to hear about the lift masters. I talked to probably 30 people who built garages/shops in the past 10 years around here. Asked everybody the same question I asked here. Most all had some "wished" they had done, some common theme were: build it Bigger, taller, with floor drains/pit, better quality of doors/openers/windows, air lines, more electrical outlets, more circuits, 220V power outlets, plan ahead for the water run off from the roof and wifi/internet connection. I tried to incorporate all of those and have spent more on some things than I would have had to but wanted to not regret doing it. Next is tearing the house apart to match it. Wife has all kinds of plans for that.

Nemont
 
Looks like you have the niceties covered, lots of cool things out there today in the building world. Since I know how balmy the winters typically go where you are, I'd recommend spray polyurethane insulation. In 2x6 framed walls, that means R-35. It works well with radiant that takes a little time to recover after a big temp change. Blow the lid to 50 and it will be nice and snug. Cost seems high, but in the long run will be recovered. Especially if you plan to heat that entire building through the winter months. mtmuley
 
mtmuley said:
Looks like you have the niceties covered, lots of cool things out there today in the building world. Since I know how balmy the winters typically go where you are, I'd recommend spray polyurethane insulation. In 2x6 framed walls, that means R-35. It works well with radiant that takes a little time to recover after a big temp change. Blow the lid to 50 and it will be nice and snug. Cost seems high, but in the long run will be recovered. Especially if you plan to heat that entire building through the winter months. mtmuley
Click to expand...

Wallet advice....true.
 
If your thinking spray foam, check on doing a hybrid with 1.5-2" of closed cell and the rest blown in cellulose. The foam acts as your vapor barrier and really seals the structure up. The cellulose becomes a lot more effective with out the cold air seeping from the now sealed cracks.

If your thinking foam over traditional fiberglass batt the rope trick doesn't work. Run conduit chases for future use or you can use 3/4" or 1" Pex if your code allows that for low voltage. But at this point your probably cheaper to hire a skinny kid to run wire in your attic after the fact. My fat old butt can't get back into the corners anymore so I always try to do it ahead of time. Lol
 
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Since your OSBin the walls I'd hard pipe your Electeical. As a sparky I like the looks of well bent pipe in garages. Then you can for the most part do what ever you want in the future. A Ceiling fan too, nice to move air when temps are high or low.
 
Nemont said:
I guess when I say TV cable I meant the CAT5 wire not coax. I will have to rethink speaker wire, I could just do it now and not worry about it I guess.

Nemont
Click to expand...

As far as sound, TV and internet, yep lots of good wireless products these days. Twere me, I'd pull cabling anywhere I knew I wanted electronics. Wireless can be added anytime to supplement or add options later. Don't know how far you want to go, but you could control that whole shop, lighting, heating, entertainment and anything else in it with your phone. mtmuley
 
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mtmuley said:
As far as sound, TV and internet, yep lots of good wireless products these days. Twere me, I'd pull cabling anywhere I knew I wanted electronics. Wireless can be added anytime to supplement or add options later. Don't know how far you want to go, but you could control that whole shop, lighting, heating, entertainment and anything else in it with your phone. mtmuley
Click to expand...

Yeah the heating, lights and such will be all be able to be controlled by my phone.

My biggest worry/challenge right now is shelving and storage system to keep everything organized and accessible. I am considering a lofted area that is 20x16 in one of the corners, That would still give me 30 feet of depth on one side and a full 50 feet deep by 24 wide on the other side.

I did want to have the spray foam insulation, that was recommended by my contractor as being the best option given the radiant heat.

we shall see I guess how it all turns out. So far the budget is in good shape so that is actually kind of a surprise.

Nemont
 
Go onto pinterest and type in man caves, shop and garage ideas, and you will get millions of ideas. I put a 440lb electric hoist in mine so I could hang my deer and skin them easier.
 
I like the metal shelving systems from Costco. I can configure them how I want, and in my case, didn't have to attach any thing to my drywall. mtmuley
 
Well, I think storage shelving/racks above the garage doors are absolutely key. We store a LOT of extra things above the doors, keeps it out of the way from everyday life.

With 14 foot walls, are you doing a lofted area? storage up top with an office type room and bathroom below? It may sound ridiculous, but Pinterest.com seriously has a ton of amazing ideas on there.
 
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