I had one shop built (24x40 Ft )with 12 foot high sides and one 10 ft. high by 16 foot wide swing up door. I'm a drag racer and hobby car builder so I wanted to be able to drive my one ton car hauler truck into the shop at night with the car on it after getting back from the races and close the door instead of having to unload and start the race car up after midnight to drive it into the shop. I didn't want to leave it out overnight in my yard, especially in the winter.
Looking back now I should have had the walls built to at least 13.0 ft. high so the big door could have been 12.6 inch high so any standard commercial height truck and trailer could drive into it for resale value later to any buyer
My current house had a pole barn on it when we bought it, the shop had been added on several times before we bought the house with the shop, it is 15 Ft. wide in the center part x 40 t. deep with a around a 14 Ft. high center ceiling, the center shop door is a roll up that is 10.0 ft. wide with 12.0 ft. tall, with 9Ftx7 inches wide I.D. I have a Direct lift 7000 Lb. rated drive on car lift in it also with no issues with my 1940 Ford Tudor sedan hitting the ceiling
The sides that where added on later are 7.0 Ftx40 ft. on one side and 9ft. wide x 34 ft. long on the other side which I now use as a engine assembly room
I would like to add onto it with the another addition being bigger than the current shop which would be adding on 35 ft. onto the end of my current shop towards the east property line and make it at least 40 ft. deep with 14, ft. high walls due to this area having a lot of commercial truckers and hot rodders like myself who like large shops also I would have to add another driveway to the addition to make it usable also and have two: two 13.0 high x 16.0- ft. wide doors also
On the insulation issues how cold and hot doe sit get where you live? I have seen -25f here in Bend, OR in the winter since we moved up here from the SO CA Mojave high desert where it would get up to be 105 F in the summer days in July and August and get down to 18 F at night in the winter. My shop in the desert had R12 or R14 in the walls and R34, I think, in the ceilings.
My current shop was all open walls on the inside except the 9x34ft part, it was enclosed with particle board. the other part had no insulation so when I enclosed it with drywall added R34 in the walls and ceilings
The first winter we lived here I didn't not heat the shop I ended up with a bunch of rusty car parts
I now used a Wal Mart Deloughi brand small 110 V electric oil heater( I don't see a Watt rating on it, sorry) now in the engine room all winter long which keeps it at or above 50F in the engine room and at least above freezing in the rest of the shop. I also have a airtight wood burning stove to use to warm the engine room up in the winter when I'm working in it
I have to be careful on using it as it will over heat that room up to 85 F when it is below freezing outside, I'll open one of the doors into the center part of the shop to help let some of that heat into the rest of the shop to control the heat.
IHTHs