Garage Building Tips?

[vikingmeatwad]

I will get a few bids but do you have any input as I talk to and choose which garage to build? I have gotten reviews from the companies or worked with them already.

Thinking of a 3 car oversized

-storage overhead with stairs outside

-small garage door on back

I have tried to search and the search tool does not work well on this site or I am doing something wrong.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide to help me get the best garage I can for good value.

[Steve Foss]

I'm not sure how you'll orient the garage relative to the house, but it's very nice if the person parking in the stall closest to the house (in our case my wife) can pull in, get out of the car with the small door only a few feet from her driver's door, and exit right there. The small door also is on the wall closest to the house.

Because of the lay of our lot, we didn't really have much choice on how to positions ours when we built it a few years ago, but it does conform with what I described above.

It'll be a lot more convenient for you if you also have stairs to the second story inside the garage. I know it would take up some floor space, so it's a matter of weighing which is more important.

Do you plan any windows?

[soldoncass]

My suggestion, to you, would be to decide what it is going to be used for? A garage built to hold cars, mowers, etc. and not be used for a workshop, will look a LOT different than one built to be a "man cave", with storage room above. Decide those types of things first....If you want a workshop, plan for everything upfront(heat,insulation, subpanel, lots of outlets,lights, stereo location and speakers). Even if you do it in stages, to end up as a mancave, finished room, plan ahead. If you want a place to store/ work on cars, but not an extravegant mancave....plan for that. If you can narrow your "dream" down for us, we will be able to give you better suggestions.

[vikingmeatwad]

Great points.

This will be a detatched garage as we have a smaller tuckunder now.

It will mainly be used to store the boat year round and also work on cars, sleds, etc. So I will be planning extra space towards the side for a workbench and storage of tools.

Definitely yes on the windows so I can get some light in there.

[BoxMN]

Just some rambling ideas... btw I think you need to make the page wider (drag window size to the right) to actually see the search functions - not sure why they have it formatted like that...

Put the windows on the house side, for security reasons. I would recommend NOT putting a "garage" door on the back side. I wanted to but didn't on advice of my concrete guy who sees a lot of garages (also my cousin). Reason is you lose storage space/work space, security reasons (just another door not visible from house) and the extra cost which is not needed. It is a better "idea" in theory than in practice. I agree now that I did not do it, and glad I didn't go the "drive through" route. I.e. I can park my tractor or bike behind the boat.

Go 2x6 walls for insulation puposes.

Slope the floor towards doors if you can't put in drain.

Plan where you want the furnace from the start, centrally located.

8' high doors at min.

Have 9' ceiling in home garage, 10' in garage at cabin - like the 10' a LOT better.

Get windows in top panel of door. Lets a lot of light in without being security issue - I put these in cabin garage, but not in home garage, wish I had them in home garage.

Get good quality 2" steel insulated doors, steel on both sides. Worth the slightly extra cash.

Put in a push button style combination deadbolt lock on service door. That is my next improvement for my garage - I am always forgetting my key, and then have to go to big garage door pad to get in

Get the quiet openers - big improvement in openers these days. Whisper quiet.

Have fun and take lots of pics, you will enjoy going back through and seeing the progress

[Tom7227]

Threads like this have been posted before and by the time you added up all the dodads the garage would have cost close to $100K. The budget is what has to be factored in early in the process so you can be realistic about what you end up with. For instance a lot of recommendations involve insulation. Do you really need to keep it at 70 degrees all winter? The cost of that sort of thing has to have a poor payback unless you intend to live out there. For instance, in floor heat is nice but if all you need to do is warm it up a couple times a week you're probably better off with forced air that will respond fairly quickly. Same with the second floor storage - if you build it strongly enough to put a lot of stuff up there you're going to be spending a lot. How much of that stuff do you really need? If you're heavy into car restoration or doing woodworking or something then it may make sense to go all out. Otherwise IMO you're spending a lot of dough on something that isn't going to add that much to the value of the estate and you really won't get that much out of it.

[soldoncass]

Just some scattered ideas:

Make it difficult to break into (impossible to SEE into)....doors and windows on house side, deadbolts, windows high for light. Most codes have max wall heights allowed for detached garages....find out about your area. I would probably scrap the attic storage room, if your can make the sidewalls over 10 feet high.....you can put up shelves 3 feet down from the ceiling for light, box storage (same thing you would put in the attic room), and hang bikes from ceiling hooks over boat maybe. Anything to keep clutter off floor space. Sometimes I wish my work space was seperated from the boat space, to keep dust down on the boat. Could even heat the workshop part, not the boat part, to cut down on heat.. Make SURE you build it deep enough for your boat, and trailer....extra is better than too short. Plan for electric needs up front, insulate and rock ceiling immediately if you can....walls could wait. I like to work on level floors, so I wouldn't slope it unless you are putting cars etc. in there, with snow on them regularly.

[cavalierowner]

A lot of good ideas have been given. Just one comment about the sloping floor that was mentioned. I did that on a garage a few years ago. Most of the time it was OK, but 2 to 3 times per winter I had a problem with melted snow running down to the door and then freezing the door to the floor overnight. I kept a crowbar next to the door to pry it loose when that happened.

[soldoncass]

A couple more...I like the big doors on the gable end of the garage, so you don't get the dripping/ ice build-up in front of the doors.

If I understand you correctly, your cars will be parked in the other tuck-under garage? If so, the new one could be designed more as a work space, with one side specifically for the boat. Unless you plan on heating the work area 24/7, I'd plan on a floating slab, one course of block , and 10 foot walls above that(if code allows). That gives you a 10 foot 8 inches ceiling heighth. Suspend some storage shelves around the perimeter, and you can still walk underneath them without bonking your head.

Planning is fun.....seeing it happen is better. Good idea to figure out the budget up front though, cause it is very easy to overdo it.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Even if you don't plan on using this garage as a "Work shop" per say.....Some day in the future you may use it as such. Saying that, I've never been in a garage that had to many electric recepticals. It will mean wiring in a few extra circuts but in the end it's well worth it. Plan ahead so you never have to use an extension cord while inside. Put an outlet on every other stud and then some.

When I re-wired my garage people thought I was nutso with all the outlets I put in, and all the lighting I put in. I don't always use them all, but when I need to it's sure nice to have them.

[vikingmeatwad]

Excellent help with ideas everyone!

At this time I am getting a first bid so I can make some choices with some $ in mind.

- We will be rotating the garage towards the house (gable end facing house) instead of my idea to add a 2nd driveway to it from the road. This will make it harder to back the boat into the garage but will look much better for the house and then I can see the doors from the house.

- Thinking 32 X 28 size right now with one double door and one single. I think the single side is where I will have a big work bench, etc.

- Will store the 2 vehicles in tuck under garage and use the new garage for boat, workshop, snowmobiles and storage. What I want is a pole barn but I can't build it in my neighborhood!

- At sometime I will add a heater but would only use it when working on things but not too often at all.

Thanks again, as I get this bid and figure out more of what we want (can afford) I'm sure I will be coming back with more questions before I get the other bids.

[soldoncass]

Excellent...sounds like a plan.

[vikingmeatwad]

Just some rambling ideas... btw I think you need to make the page wider (drag window size to the right) to actually see the search functions - not sure why they have it formatted like that...

I found the search tool fine but I could not return any results after trying 5 times. If you guys can post some examples of a similar question I would very much appreciate it! I prefer input from upper midwest people rather then these other sites!

[soldoncass]

I would just go back to past topics in this thread, and read the ones that appeal to you. Just keep going back a page at a time, looking at topics. I just did that. and found one you might like on page 49 or 50, as well as some others more recently on insulating garages etc. There are almost 100 pages in this thread to go back to, good info.

I will tell you that I would definitely put a 220 volt subpanel in the garage....If you ever want a welder, or work on a dryer maybe, the power will be there.