You should lay out your shop or garage workspace with maximum efficiency in mind to allow your work to flow smoothly. In this article, we’ll discuss how to set up a garage or shop workspace in the way that will be most effective for you, according to the work you intend to perform.
Jump to a section: Importance of a Layout | Design Basics | Essential Components | Optimal Layouts by Shop Type | Small Shops | Large Shops | Safety Tips
The Importance of a Garage or Workshop Layout
If you are uncomfortable or if your shop is cramped and in disarray, you will not be able to do your best work. You will lose time moving around obstacles and looking for tools in the chaos.
Take the time to sketch out your workspace, as in the image below.
Image source: Bob Vila
Creating Space Efficiency
Consider hanging excess cable, torch hoses, and extension cords on racks on the wall where they won’t pose tripping hazards and where they are plainly visible and, therefore, easy to locate. You should place tools and equipment against the wall to leave unobstructed access to workbenches.
Ensuring Safety
Safety for you and anyone you invite into your workspace should be your top priority. As some of your visitors may be unaware of all the hazards involved in your trade, it is your responsibility to keep them safe.
Take care to keep any flammables away from your work area. You should store wood and other combustibles outside the shop and flammables like paints, gas cans, and other easily-ignited fuels in a fire cabinet or outside the shop.
Improving Functionality
A properly laid out workspace will have a certain flow to it. This means the fabrication process should follow a logical progression, from the way you bring raw material into the shop to how you store, cut, clean and prep, drill, bend, shape, fit, weld, and clean it. It makes no sense to cut a piece at one end of the workshop, carry it to the other end to clean and prep it, move it to yet another area for fitting and welding, and then to traverse the entire length of your shop to move out and ship prior to starting your next project. Consider all the time you lose in unnecessary movement, not to mention the increased risk of injury, which is proportionate to the number of times you have to move a piece.
Enhancing Aesthetics
A good workshop should also have a certain feel to it. It should feel like a place conducive to quality workmanship. When there are materials and equipment strewn about and trash everywhere, the chaos inhibits your ability to perform safe, quality work in an efficient manner. Plus, the work you produce will reflect this chaotic environment.
Garage and Workshop Design Basics
Let's look at some basic considerations you should take into account when setting up a workshop or garage workspace.
Evaluate Your Needs
Before sketching out a basic floor plan, ask yourself what kind of work you will be doing most often. This is perhaps the most fundamental question you must answer before you establish the layout of your workshop.
Inventory of Work Tools and Equipment
Once you know what kind of work you want to perform in your shop, you can start mapping out the equipment you’ll need and think about where to locate it. A saw or band saw, for example, needs ample room on both sides to allow you to cut the material and move it to the next stage of the process. The particular project you’ll be working on should be in the center of the shop to allow you to move freely with minimal obstructions.
Zoning by Function
It may be necessary to break up your workspace into zones, each with a designated area for the individual tasks involved in the fabrication process. For example, you may start with a materials storage area, then have a cutting station with the saws, then have a processing area where you clean and deburr, drill, or bend the cut material, joint prep (such as through grinding or beveling), and then send the material to the welding area. You should set up the area for welding in such a way that you can move freely around the piece without becoming trapped.
Space Management
Tool boards are a valuable way to store and locate tools. They also free up valuable floor space. You can hang hammers, clamps, wrenches, and layout tools on pegs, making them readily visible to reduce the frustration of losing time digging through drawers and boxes looking for a specific item.
Shelves might be a good way to store consumables, like welding rods and grinding wheels. Again, this makes more efficient use of floor space and keeps items in plain view.
Essential Components of a Garage and Workshop
Let’s review some of the fundamentals every garage or workshop should have.
Workbenches or Worktables
The right placement of the workbench or welding table is largely dependent on the type of work you’re performing. For example, if you are fabricating sections of handrail or smaller weldments, the welding table will likely be the centerpiece and everything else will revolve around it. If you are working on car frames, trailers, or larger fabrication pieces, the workpiece itself will be the centerpiece, whereas the welding table will be more supplemental and may be off to one side, perhaps against the shop wall.
Tool Storage
You should store tools somewhere easily accessible and separate them by category or purpose. You should put wrenches and sockets in one drawer, squares and other layout and measuring tools in another, and so on. By compartmentalizing tools by general task or category, you will cut down on the time you spend searching for tools. An experienced veteran craftsman will make one trip to the tool box; the apprentice will make five or six.
Power and Lighting
Two must-haves in any workspace are:
- Adequate lighting. It is nearly impossible to do quality work if you are straining to read the tape measure, square, or cut lines on the material. You can avoid straining your eyes by having hanging lights overhead or using windows to provide good natural lighting.
- Adequate power. Welding often uses tremendous amounts of electrical energy. It might be advisable to consult an electrician and even your service provider to ensure your electrical service can supply the energy your welding machine and related equipment require.
Cleaning Supplies and Tools
Since every fabrication activity generates dirt, dust, and debris, you must keep a broom and dustpan or even a small scoop-styled shovel at your workshop. Cleaning and sweeping the floors and dusting the tables and equipment only takes a few minutes at the end of the day and will make a big difference in maintaining a quality-oriented environment.
Optimal Layouts for Different Workshop Types
So far, we have focused on welding and metal fabrication-type workspaces. For the benefit of those engaged in other trades, let's briefly discuss the ideal layout for shops centered on other tasks.
Woodworking Workshop Layout
A woodworking shop should have a space to keep lumber in good condition where it is protected from the elements, a table saw for cutting raw materials, a workbench (typically the centerpiece), a tool cabinet/storage area to store hand and power tools, and possibly a dedicated finishing area with good ventilation, for applying stains, varnishes, or paints.
In the image below, note that the shop, even though it is somewhat small, maximizes the use of floor space by storing tools on peg boards and in cabinets. This leaves plenty of room to use the band saw and other tools with minimal obstruction.
Image Source: Rhonda Vandiver-White via Houzz
Automotive Workshop Layout
In an automotive workshop, the vehicle you are working on is typically the centerpiece. You should leave ample space around the vehicle to be able to open the doors, hood, and trunk, as needed. You’ll need a work bench for disassembling or cleaning parts. A tool box and/or a peg board will be necessary to store your tools. Depending on the type of work you are performing, you may wish to dedicate an area for specialized tasks, such as for tires, brake repairs, body work, or engine rebuilds.
Notice how the workbench and tool boxes in the image below are staged neatly against the wall, leaving plenty of floor space to move around the car.
Image Source: Thomas - BB767 via Garagejournal.com
Metalworking Workshop Layout
A metal shop will typically have a steel workbench in the center. You should use a steel rack to keep metal off the floor, set either inside the shop or outdoors. Use a tool cabinet, tool boxes, or peg boards to keep hand and power tools organized and easy to find. A metalworking shop should have a dedicated area for cutting, drilling, bending, or breaking and another area where you can weld and clean the pieces you have cut and prepped.
You’ll see in the image below that the tools and equipment are placed against the wall and the welding table is positioned in the center with access on all sides.
Image Source: Chunkolini via Mig-welding.co.uk
Multi-Purpose Workshop Layout
A multi-purpose workshop that involves a combination of a few different trades presents some unique challenges. Versatility is often key in such workspaces. One of the best ways to have a versatile workspace is to make everything moveable. Set up workbenches, cabinets, tools, and equipment on carts or caster wheels to move equipment into the workspace as needed and back into storage position when you’ve completed a task .
Tips for Maximizing Small Workshops
If you have a small workshop or garage, there are a few ways you can maximize the limited space available.
- Invest in shelves, racks, pegs, brackets, and hooks to store as many tools and pieces of equipment on the wall and off the floor as possible.
- Consider storing materials and consumables outside in locking cabinets where they will be safe, dry, and off the shop floor.
- Use mezzanine structures and overhead racks to store materials and supplies.
Utilizing Vertical Space
Floor space is often limited and may fill up quickly when you start adding tool boxes, work benches, and welding machines. Often, the most practical solution is to go vertical, utilizing wall space or even building a mezzanine!
Consider setting welding machines on wall-mounted brackets and shelves. Fabricate hooks to hang the cable, torch, or MIG guns. This alone will free up a great deal of precious floor space.
Incorporating Mobile Workstations
Keeping welding machines on roll-around carts is another way to maintain a neat workspace. There are many options on the market, including from welding distributors . Alternatively, you may wish to fabricate a customized cart yourself to hold your welding machine, wire feeder, and shielding gas bottle and to hold the necessary cables.
Choosing Compact Storage Solutions
Consider fabricating shelves or buying shelf racks or even cabinets to keep tools and supplies in an orderly system. Do not keep any unnecessary clutter, whether tools, equipment, or material. A good rule of thumb to use is: if you haven’t used it in the last six months to a year, you probably don’t need it. If you want to hang on to the item, consider storing it somewhere out of your work area.
Tips for Maximizing Large Workshops
Larger workshops have an inherent advantage because more floor space provides greater flexibility. However, you should take care to make sure the material flows through the space from one end to the other in a logical progression. When a large shop is not well organized, it is easy to move around too much, losing time and energy.
Setting Up Work Zones
You should organize work zones in a logical progression to maximize efficiency. For example, raw material might first go to a cut station, then to a zone set up for drilling holes, bending, trimming, and joint prep, then to the assembly stage. From there, it may be advisable to have another zone for cleaning and any finish-type work required, like sandblasting and painting.
Effective Use of Open Space
Open space allows you to safely move from one workstation to another. It may also eliminate the necessity of using racks and shelves to store material vertically, although you should still organize material in a way that eliminates trip hazards.
Installation of Large Equipment
Consider how you’ll set large equipment in your workspace. Place heavy equipment in a way that means it will not be necessary to move it. Stage things like generators, air-compressors, welding machines, saws, mills, and lathes in an area that allows you full access to the equipment but does not interfere with other shop functions.
Safety Tips for Your Garage and Workshop
Some safety considerations to bear in mind when setting up your workspace are to be aware of potential trip hazards in walkways. Anything that protrudes into a high-trafficked area is an accident waiting to happen. Eliminate it, if possible, or at least clearly mark it.
Safe Storage of Hazardous Materials
Store any hazardous materials like paints, chemicals, thinners, and solvents in a fireproof cabinet away from welding and cutting operations.
Fire Safety Measures
Every shop should have at least one properly-rated fire extinguisher stored in an easy-to-access place.
Safe Use of Equipment
Some safety tips to consider:
- Never keep combustibles near welding and cutting areas. These may include paper, wood, and other forms of debris that can easily ignite.
- Store any aerosol cans, whether they contain paint, cleaners, WD-40, or something else, either in a fire cabinet or outside the shop, away from welding and cutting operations.
- Always store bottles of shielding gas in an upright position with their safety caps on, securely chained or otherwise secured to the wall, welding machine, or torch cart. NEVER move a cylinder without the safety cap.
- Make sure all safety equipment on tools is in proper working order. Never use a tool with safety features disabled or damaged.
- Make sure all extension cords and welding cable is in good condition to eliminate any chance of electrical shock. Repair or discard any cracked cords with internal wiring.
- Check torch hose regularly to ensure there are no leaks, and consider using flashback arrestors at the regulator end.
The Importance of Good Ventilation
Good ventilation is a must. Consider installing a vent fan in one end of the shop or even at both to keep dust and welding fumes from remaining stagnant in the workshop or garage.
Fume extraction devices are another option, as they keep the workspace cleaner and prevent you from inhaling an excess of fumes and dust particles.
Conclusion: The Ideal Garage and Workshop Layout
No matter what work you plan to do, you should organize your workspace to allow the work to flow smoothly from one end to the other with minimal obstruction. A well-organized workspace is a safe workspace. Whatever your trade, good lighting and proper ventilation are essential. Always make sure you have a fire extinguisher and first aid kit readily accessible. Remember to keep your workspace free of clutter. When they’re not in use, put tools and equipment away.
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