For living quarters why not just get an RV or travel trailer? That way you would have the full space inside for your shop, and when it gets too cold you can always head south
. I had a friend who lived in one inside his shop and it worked out fine for him, with 3 acres you could have a pretty nice RV pad for summer and move it inside during the winter.
Another option would be a manufactured home, you can get some good deals on repo units and if you did that you'd have better luck selling the property later. While you might fancy an apartment inside your shop the next prospective owner would probably have a hard time selling the idea to his missus....
My barn had an insulated 14' roll-up door on one end and a smaller one on the side plus man doors and windows. If you do end up buying this one I would just bite the bullet and have doors installed right after getting the floor poured. I bet when you price it out, any DIY option will only save a few hundred over just having new roll-up doors installed. Does the property already have a well and septic drainfield? If not count on that expense too. For the concrete, think about where you might want machines or workstations and put conduit in the floor for power.
I don't know the breakdown in cost between a heated floor and a tube heater but I had the floor heat in our bedroom stop working during a cold winter and none of the HVAC guys in our town has been able to get it going again. The boiler is awesome but if something goes wrong with the pipes in your slab you'll be out of luck.
I had an overhead infrared tube heater in my 40x60 insulated commercial pole barn in Michigan and it heated the place up quickly with no problems. It's nice to be able to turn everything off and walk away in the winter so build with minimal plumbing and easy access to blow everything out with your compressor. If you get busy at work and can't spend much time in the shop you don't want to have to keep the heat on.
I don't know if you're working with a real estate agent but you might be able to find something that already has a house on it for not too much more money. Pole barns are relatively cheap and fast to put up compared to houses and the cost of adding a well and septic system might make getting a place with a house already on it cheaper than modifying a barn for living quarters.
John
. I had a friend who lived in one inside his shop and it worked out fine for him, with 3 acres you could have a pretty nice RV pad for summer and move it inside during the winter.Another option would be a manufactured home, you can get some good deals on repo units and if you did that you'd have better luck selling the property later. While you might fancy an apartment inside your shop the next prospective owner would probably have a hard time selling the idea to his missus....
My barn had an insulated 14' roll-up door on one end and a smaller one on the side plus man doors and windows. If you do end up buying this one I would just bite the bullet and have doors installed right after getting the floor poured. I bet when you price it out, any DIY option will only save a few hundred over just having new roll-up doors installed. Does the property already have a well and septic drainfield? If not count on that expense too. For the concrete, think about where you might want machines or workstations and put conduit in the floor for power.
I don't know the breakdown in cost between a heated floor and a tube heater but I had the floor heat in our bedroom stop working during a cold winter and none of the HVAC guys in our town has been able to get it going again. The boiler is awesome but if something goes wrong with the pipes in your slab you'll be out of luck.
I had an overhead infrared tube heater in my 40x60 insulated commercial pole barn in Michigan and it heated the place up quickly with no problems. It's nice to be able to turn everything off and walk away in the winter so build with minimal plumbing and easy access to blow everything out with your compressor. If you get busy at work and can't spend much time in the shop you don't want to have to keep the heat on.
I don't know if you're working with a real estate agent but you might be able to find something that already has a house on it for not too much more money. Pole barns are relatively cheap and fast to put up compared to houses and the cost of adding a well and septic system might make getting a place with a house already on it cheaper than modifying a barn for living quarters.
John
