Ramping up/Setting up Shop

BDBConstruction · 2008-11-27T01:51:48+00:00

Hello to the group,Been searching the archives reading everything we can find on shoplayout and setup but thought I would throw out a quick request forinput as well.We have had a rented space for our homebuilding business for sometime, storage, shop, short-medium millwork runs, pre-fab'ing built-ins, and so on. All the major tools. Well, even though we are headinginto winter, and the current economic climate is less than favorable,an opportunity has presented itself that is too hard to pass up. Weare moving on a piece of commercial property with a 35 x 80 buildingon it. Will finalize in the next week or two. Wide open inside, heat,gas, city and well water, rest rooms, and a perfect office/galleryspace on one end. There is a separate bay with overhead door on theother end that could double as a nice spray booth. 10' ceilings,concrete floor.I have been reeling with layout, dust collection, sheet goods storage,product lines, and the like. Just though I would throw out this broadrambling in an attempt to tap into the collective expertise of thegroup.While on the short term (2-5 years) we will be aiming to keep theplace afloat with ww'ing sales combined with a hopeful ramping down ofthe homebuilding, our long term goal may be to add a second floor tohalf of the building and move it into some sort of a craft center.Multiple crafts, clinics, workshops, and classes. This would be inaddition to our own work. Perhaps wood, ceramics (pottery), stainedglass, beading, metal working, etc.. All on a smallish scale of coursedue to the building size but all areas we have experience in and yetcould access crafts people to perform classes/workshops. There isnothing like this for a forty mile radius in our area so we arethinking it may be a good thing for us and the community.Starting with a clean slate, like anyone, I am hoping to make the mostof a not-so-big space with a scant eye on future public use. I am inhopes to move forward in a fashion that will prepare us for theopportunity...