Thanks for all the help. I'll try to respond.
1.
10 ft ceiling is pretty low. Lifting tall machines and you will be hitting the ceiling. I would go for at least 12ft.
I would like to have more headroom so I could put a loft at the back. I am concerned about the AC cost, however. I believe I'm looking at 23K BTU's right now. Not sure what I should do. I don't want a $700 power bill every month.
My tallest machine is my mill, which is about 6'6" tall, but of course, the head rotates down. Not a problem. After that comes my wood band saw, but it's on a mobile base. I plan to put everything but my lathe on a mobile base. It's a really bad idea to have tools that can't be rolled. My tool chests, welding carts, grinders, and saws all roll, and I'm planning to weld up a rolling workbench and get rid of the one I made from two-by-sixes.
2.
This would be 1050 sq ft of covered ground. You should be good for no variance.
They count the house, the concrete parts of the driveway, and the pool, so I am already over 9000 square feet. I hate that pool. I wanted a house with no pool, but choices were limited. Looking at the figure they claim, you would think I lived in a palace, but it adds up fast. One house, one pool, about 2000 square feet of concrete driveway, and a shop building.
You really have to be a sucker to buy a pool. You will use it like crazy for three months. After that, it's just an energy hog that turns green unless you become a slave to it. The companies that make pool parts and accessories make total garbage that falls apart fast, so you will have lots of repairs. If you don't want to do maintenance and repairs yourself, budget $1500-$2000 per year for someone else to do it.
It will attract freeloading friends and relatives so you get to sponsor barbecues while the kids use the pool as a toilet.
Also, thanks to lawyers like myself, pools are terrible these days. You can't have a diving board if you want insurance. You can't have a slide. And my pool is tiny. It's 32 feet long and 6 feet deep, so what is it good for? My dad had houses with 40-foot pools 8 feet deep, with diving boards. To me, that's the minimum. Anything smaller is a joke and a waste of money. I've only been in the pool once for recreation in 5 years. What a great 15 minutes that was. Other than that, I have only gotten in when the well pump has been offline. The pool makes an okay makeshift bathtub. It can absorb a great deal of soap and shampoo without problems.
I also use it to fill buckets to flush my toilets until the well starts working again.
3.
Let me just copy/paste their email reply… this is for a 30x30 x12’ in Ocala, FL. Received reply yesterday
I would prefer that, too. There are problems with it, however. First, termites. You will have to risk losing the roof structures or pay for a yearly termite contract, and they are not cheap. Second, the shingle roof will dramatically increase the cost of roof repairs and replacements. A metal roof should last as long as the building.
My existing shop is about like the building you posted, and I have to have termite monitoring stations around it. You can't save money by buying your own bait stations because they cost so much. The cost for a new roof would be somewhere over 10K.
4.
i think 6" slab is overkill. i have 5" now with 10k and 25k lifts.
I think you're right. Good idea. Honestly, 4 inches would be fine, but the cost difference is fairly small, so why not 5?
5.
If you haven't been inside a building of the type you are looking at in a Florida summer, you may want to consider insulation.
I can't air condition it without insulation, and using it as a shop without AC is not something I will consider. They said foam would invalidate the warranty, so insulation will be difficult. I have concerns about condensation raining inside the building. That has happened to other people, and I don't want to join them.
6.
Don't you guys get occasional late summer gusts in Florida?
Where I used to live, we hit something like 168 before Andrew tore the measuring apparatus off the top of the National Hurricane Center's building. I am not on the coast now, and storms tend to wither quickly on the way here. Irma knocked a lot of trees down, but it didn't bother my house.
A tornado came through in May, and it topped out at 110, which is pretty lame for a tornado.
The building should be fine, but the stupid trash oaks around it are a concern. It does no good to have a strong building if the trees are weak and heavy.
I contacted my insurance company to find out what standards the building had to meet.
If I keep using my old shop, I have to insulate the roof, add an AC unit, and add a ceiling to reduce the BTU's. I would also have to insulate the folding garage door, which would be cheap and easy. Then I would have to buy a whole new insulated roll-up for the other side. That's $4K.
I have a giant floor fan with blades spanning almost 3 feet. It's okay if you sit right in front of it. Move a little bit to the side, and the sweat starts pouring out.
