RV & Car Garage Build

[Reaper9]

Greetings from SW Florida. Planning to build a 36 x 55 RV and Car barn. Building will be concrete block construction.

 

[nadogail]

Welcome to the Forum, CMU, Concrete Masonry Units should stand up to any Hurricane that may blow your way.

 

[Reaper9]

I was going to keep it fairly simple. I would appreciate any suggestions for items I should include in my build

 

[Mike Moriarty]

I am on the other side of the country in the PacNW, and am looking at a similiar size build, but will be pole barn style framing with metal roof and siding. Got 2 quotes so far, about 20% higher than what i was expecting

 

[Reaper9]

Tell me about it. In SW Florida the building has to be built to hurricane codes. Looks like more than twice the cost I expected.

 

[Reaper9]

Looking at steel buildings. Is there a way to make the outside of a steel building look like stucco wall?

 

[dcg9381]

I was going to keep it fairly simple. I would appreciate any suggestions for items I should include in my build

14' high door(s)...
So you're looking at a 16' eve building.

55' is probably a little short of what I'd need to keep a truck connected to the 5th wheel.

Can you "pull through" - doors on both ends are very helpful.

3" PVC in the slab for "future RV sewer drain".

 

[Mikes61]

Thicker cement in the area that you might put a lift. It’s easy to do now, a nightmare to do later.

 

[Reaper9]

My concrete guy suggested extra footings under the slab where the lift will be located.

 

[dcg9381]

My concrete guy suggested extra footings under the slab where the lift will be located.

So now is when you decide which lift you're getting... Seriously. That way you can put the right concrete in the right place. And hopefully avoid hitting steel.

 

[Reaper9]

I am currently looking at a 4 post lift.

 

[drmarkr]

You're asking a question that's been answered a multitude of times on this forum....you definitely need to use the search tool and do some research. I will tell you that when I prepared to build my first shop in 2007, I spent literally hours on here, perusing the Garage Gallery sub-forum, in order to collect a long list of features that I wanted in my build. I'd estimate I easily spent 30-40 hrs, or more, just looking through as many of the builds as I could, over several weeks time.

Your comment about "keeping it simple" makes most of us that have built shops chuckle.....this is The Garage Journal, and we live by the antithesis of that concept, lol! The reality is that you only get (essentially) one chance to incorporate some of the things you'll likely want to make part of your design/build, so doing your homework now is very important. Very. Otherwise, you'll either do without, or spend a bucket load of $$ at some point in the future to have some of those missed items.

 

[Reaper9]

I have be rethinking the dimensions for my garage build. I am now thinking maybe building it 40ft wide and 40ft deep. With the 40ft width I should be able to park 4 vehicles side by side in the back part of the garage and then use the front for a work area.