Garage hight limited to 15 feet

[sparky67]

I have been drawing up a few concepts of what I wanted my garage to look like.

Basically a 32'x28' using scissor trusses over the lift area and attic storage trusses over the rest. The only thing I was thinking was going to 12' wide doors to make it easier to fit 3 cars in there side by side if I needed to.

Where the problem starts is the fact that the town just told me the total height can be no more then 15'. I was more worried about the setbacks and square footage limitation never really thought the height limit was going to be that short.

I dont mind bring the height down to 8' except where the lift is going. I think I need at least 11' there and I dont see how I can get that with standard scissor trusses. The only option in my mind is to go with standard framed cathedral ceiling but that would require a ridge beam. A really hefty one if it would have to span 32'. I really dont want a column in the center either, as then I definitely wouldn't fit 3 cars in there.

Does anyone have any creative ideas that would allow for a lift and still keep the roof under 15'?

 

[djjsr]

Lower the floor?

 

[SeattleKent]

Can you ask for a variance?

 

[Falcon67]

I'll bet a creative truss engineer could draw up a truss for the front of your storage area to transfer the load from the ridge beam down to the walls. Position your doors so that truss lands on columns between the doors to transfer the point load (too much Holmes, gettin' the lingo ) to the floor. The two issues will be roof load down the rafter pieces and the bottom chord holding the walls in. You'd have to make the lift area narrow enough to reduce loads - maybe 9~11' or so. A 28' wide building with a 6/12 pitch should put the ridge right at 15'. 5/12 should be around 13' 10". I don't see how you'd do it without a vault.

 

[e-tek]

Do you have your measuremnts right? My maximum height was only 14 feet and I have an 11'3" ceiling height with standard trusses. There's plenty of room to stand under a car on my BP XTW lift, but not a truck - so I sit!

 

[yucholian]

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.
My borough has the same limit in the ordinance.
However, the building inspector told me that means the mean height of the roof can't be more than 15'. So if the walls are 10' tall, the half way point of the roof can't be higher than 15', meaning total height to be 20. Or if your walls are 12' tall, the half way up your roof is 15', meaning the total height to be 18'. Worth calling the city and ask how they measure.

 

[trboxman]

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.
My borough has the same limit in the ordinance.
However, the building inspector told me that means the mean height of the roof can't be more than 15'. So if the walls are 10' tall, the half way point of the roof can't be higher than 15', meaning total height to be 20. Or if your walls are 12' tall, the half way up your roof is 15', meaning the total height to be 18'. Worth calling the city and ask how they measure.

What's your advice for the concrete work?

 

[70redbee]

Ask if that is from the slab or to the ground surrounding the garage.

 

[sparky67]

Lower the floor?

Thought about it but quickly decided it would be really annoying climbing in and out. Besides I'd have to put a pump in it.

Can you ask for a variance?

I can try. They didn't seem to optimistic. I only have one neighbor so might be possible. Looking around I noticed everyone else is using attached garages to get around this. Unfortunately the house placement on the lot makes this impossible for me.

I'll bet a creative truss engineer could draw up a truss for the front of your storage area to transfer the load from the ridge beam down to the walls. Position your doors so that truss lands on columns between the doors to transfer the point load (too much Holmes, gettin' the lingo ) to the floor. The two issues will be roof load down the rafter pieces and the bottom chord holding the walls in. You'd have to make the lift area narrow enough to reduce loads - maybe 9~11' or so. A 28' wide building with a 6/12 pitch should put the ridge right at 15'. 5/12 should be around 13' 10". I don't see how you'd do it without a vault.

Good idea. I'll have to check if they can make trusses heavy enough for this. Just did some back of the envelope calculations and maybe I could run an I-beam front to back between the garage doors and set the ridge beam on that.

Do you have your measuremnts right? My maximum height was only 14 feet and I have an 11'3" ceiling height with standard trusses. There's plenty of room to stand under a car on my BP XTW lift, but not a truck - so I sit!

What size garage do you have? By my numbers that would be like a 2/12 slope. Seems very shallow, I'd have to check if they can build the trusses for the loads with that pitch.

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.
My borough has the same limit in the ordinance.
However, the building inspector told me that means the mean height of the roof can't be more than 15'. So if the walls are 10' tall, the half way point of the roof can't be higher than 15', meaning total height to be 20. Or if your walls are 12' tall, the half way up your roof is 15', meaning the total height to be 18'. Worth calling the city and ask how they measure.

Didn't think to ask. I just assumed it was to the peak. I guess I should call them back.

 

[srmofo]

Check my build in my sig. Its very similar to yours and I think if you went with 10' walls and scissor trusses it would be work-able. Its not ideal but you dont have many options. IMHO variances are a waste of time and money unless you have some bizarre occurrence on your property and they actually consider it a hardship. FYI - wanting a car lift in your suburban home will not qualify as a personal hardship.

Its a 24x36. I was also limited to 15' height which screwed my "storage area" but I made due. You might have to go with a shallower roof pitch which may or may not be possible with jersey snow loads. Another option is to make the garage only 24 deep so the roof can stay at a 4/12 or 5/12 and still come in under the height.

Also after building mine I realized how little the inspector really looked at my blue prints before approving them. You may be lucky as well and if you just need and extra foot or so, could probably get buy without anyone noticing. Its tough to tell the difference between 15' and 16' when you are looking straight up at it from the ground and every other structure around it is smaller.

I could take some measurements or pics if you are interested in clearances in my garage. Just pm me

 

[yucholian]

What's your advice for the concrete work?

Say "No" to cracks!

 

[trboxman]

Say "No" to cracks!

Good call!

 

[Wes Tex]

I was faced with the same restrictions you have, but I ended up with a rather interesting solution. The lift I bought required about 13-14 feet to install with the safety bar. I put the lift near the center of the garage and notched the steel roof bracing (metal building) so the lift would clear. I them bolted the top of the lift into the roof bracing and made it part of the center support for the roof. The strongest part of my roof is near the middle of my 40 x 60 garage where the lift is located.

 

[Motofixxer]

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.

Yep definitely ask specifically what they measure. I ran into the same problem and asked and got a workable answer like above. I was told, there are two ways to measure it and here it's called "Mean Height" from slab up to halfway up truss. I have 25' deep, 10' walls with parallel chord trusses, roof being 5\12 and inside is 3.5\12 giving me about 13' 4" in the center. I can lift most trucks up full height. A full size van might not go so high, but I don't work on any. I have picks you can view by clicking below in my sig.

 

[rsa]

I think I need at least 11' there and I dont see how I can get that with standard scissor trusses.

Assuming the absolute maximum height is 15', why not try a Vaulted Parallel Chord Truss?

A neat thing about a VPCT is that it allow you to have full height insulation at the top plate. Vent the roof using Accuvent's Cathedral Ceiling Vent System (seal edges with spray foam, please) and insulate between the rafters.

One example:

• 15' overall height
• about 13-1/2' clearance at the peak
• 9' walls
• 16" deep trusses (no ridge beam)
• 4/12 roof pitch
• 10'x8 + 14'x8' doors (my favorite configuration for this size building)

And a very rough sketchup:

 

[danski0224]

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.
My borough has the same limit in the ordinance.
However, the building inspector told me that means the mean height of the roof can't be more than 15'. So if the walls are 10' tall, the half way point of the roof can't be higher than 15', meaning total height to be 20. Or if your walls are 12' tall, the half way up your roof is 15', meaning the total height to be 18'. Worth calling the city and ask how they measure.

That's how the height was measured where I live.

Then, someone nearby pushed the rules to the limit, resulting in a 2 story garage with pretty close to a 20' roof peak elevation. The ground floor walls are about 8' and the 2nd story overhangs 2 sides and has a gambrel roof.

The garage looks fine, but it is way out of character for the neighborhood.

Most detached garages around here have 8' walls, a 4/12 roof and a roof peak somewhere around 11'.

The town changed the rules just after the guy built it. I guess that someone complained.

Now, the height is clearly defined as 14' to the roof peak.

If I had built 2 years ago...

 

[Kevin54]

One thing, can you attach it to the house via a breezeway and get past height restrictions that way. Some have done it in the past

I layed out you size, and if you go with an 8' wall and 15' to the top you have a 27 degree pitch which would be roughly a 5/12 without figuring too hard. That gives you 7' from th etop of the wall to the peak outside

Now if you go with a 4/12 pitch, you can go with a 10 1/2' wall, that leaves you with 4'7" to the peak outside, but you gain some extra height from the peak inside to your outer wall. This is because the angle is not so steep

So what you have to do is figure in the trusses or the height of them and the wall will have to be lowered by that much. If you use a vaulted parallel Chord like RSA shows, you will loose about 1' of height on the inside. So going that route, and using a 4/12 pitch, you would have to stay with approximately a 9 1/2' wall height. And with thay, if you had a 16' long car on the lift, you would have about 11'4" high where the rafter would engage the hood and/or trunk

 

[nunan0219]

where I live in jersey, if i put a causeway attaching the garage to the house, its considered an attached garage now and i'm not longer restricted to height. but i'm limited to 400sqft without a variance. jersey *****. otherwise i'm restricted to 16' peak measuring off the surrounding area (thinking about building into the hill to get around that) and 1000 sqft. good luck with your build

 

[Orangestang]

Make sure to call the city and find out how they measure the 15' height limit.
My borough has the same limit in the ordinance.
However, the building inspector told me that means the mean height of the roof can't be more than 15'. So if the walls are 10' tall, the half way point of the roof can't be higher than 15', meaning total height to be 20. Or if your walls are 12' tall, the half way up your roof is 15', meaning the total height to be 18'. Worth calling the city and ask how they measure.

Thats basically how I did mine, the top of my ridge board is about 21' high. with a 14.86 mean height.

 

[stingry]

Does anyone have any creative ideas that would allow for a lift and still keep the roof under 15'?

There are several ways to do this:

First of all, consider coffer trusses, they may or may not get you enough height. Check with a truss company.

View media item 7636
Or you could use conventional rafters with collar ties in the section that you want a raised ceiling.

Lastly, you could use a ridge beam from the last truss in the trussed area to the outside wall. The opening into the storage would need to be eliminated-a different entrance would be req'd) This would require a special truss (or double truss) to carry the load from the ridge beam. Then you could use rafters for the rest of the roof framing, making a cathederal type ceiling.

In all of these cases, particular care must be used in the area over the garage door as the door header will need to carry part of the roof load.

Personally, if enough space could not be obtained using the coffer trusses, I would use a combination of the last two.


Cheers
Steve

 

[rieferman]

We just built what you are seeking. We skipped a truss entirely where the lift is, and beefed up the trusses on either side and spanned between with joist hangers and 2x8's. All of this was engineered and architecturally stamped. We got amazing ceiling height while keeping a 11 eave height. Just something to discuss with your builder

 

[Cryptic1911]

One thing, can you attach it to the house via a breezeway and get past height restrictions that way. Some have done it in the past

Exactly what I was going to post

 

[ddawg16]

I too was limited to 15'......

How about a ridge beam? No trusses. That is how I was able to make mine 2-story....pics are in the link in my signature.

 

[regguy1]

I considered building modifications to get more ceiling height, in the end I put in a MaxJax lift. You can see it in the video link;

Finished Garage with 2 post MaxJax lift:

 

[jlckmj]

I also think you should check back with the municipality.
I am building a 24x36 with a maximum 15 ft. But here they check the 15 foot half way from bottom of the eve to the peak, so I am using scissors trusses with a 8/12 outside and a 4/12 inside.

That gives me 10ft. just under the eve, and 18 ft. at the peak on the gable end, giving the average measurement of 14ft. The eve sits slightly lower than the top plates of the wall so I do not have to take them into consideration.

I then get just shy of 14ft. in the middle of the garage, and12ft. half way from the wall to the center of the garage. That works out perfect for me because I will be driving into the 24ft. side on the gable end. I can then center a lift in the garage with work space along the walls.

Jim

 

[racer1]

Ok, I'll throw my 2 cents in. What about building with sip panels. Structural insulated panels.....I've built this way. Panels are awsome. With 10' sidewalls, 4/12 pitch, main beam from end to end. And using the sip roof panels, (12" thick)..Should give you about 14' inside. The panels are all engineered to your specs, and show up ready to install. 6" wall is r25, roof is R40. If the slab is ready, you and 2 buddies, could put up the outside walls in 1 day. the next put up main beam, and roof panels. ready for shingles and siding. Inside is already osb, so you could just paint it if you wanted. Fantastic system, and incredibly efficient. ..I'm pretty handy with sips, so I could answer most of your questions...

Jim

 

[sparky67]

Assuming the absolute maximum height is 15', why not try a Vaulted Parallel Chord Truss?

One example:

• 15' overall height
• about 13-1/2' clearance at the peak
• 9' walls
• 16" deep trusses (no ridge beam)
• 4/12 roof pitch
• 10'x8 + 14'x8' doors (my favorite configuration for this size building)

I layed out you size, and if you go with an 8' wall and 15' to the top you have a 27 degree pitch which would be roughly a 5/12 without figuring too hard. That gives you 7' from th etop of the wall to the peak outside

Now if you go with a 4/12 pitch, you can go with a 10 1/2' wall, that leaves you with 4'7" to the peak outside, but you gain some extra height from the peak inside to your outer wall. This is because the angle is not so steep

So what you have to do is figure in the trusses or the height of them and the wall will have to be lowered by that much. If you use a vaulted parallel Chord like RSA shows, you will loose about 1' of height on the inside. So going that route, and using a 4/12 pitch, you would have to stay with approximately a 9 1/2' wall height. And with thay, if you had a 16' long car on the lift, you would have about 11'4" high where the rafter would engage the hood and/or trunk

I like the Vaulted Parallel Chord Truss idea but could they really be built with only 12" to 16"? My initial guess was double that. I guess I need to check with my lumber yard. Snow load here is 35psf.

One thing, can you attach it to the house via a breezeway and get past height restrictions that way. Some have done it in the past

Not easily because of the property layout. Septic is in a really bad spot. White square is the septic field.

There are several ways to do this:

First of all, consider coffer trusses, they may or may not get you enough height. Check with a truss company.

I want the garage door to follow the roof, coffer trusses would prevent that.

We just built what you are seeking. We skipped a truss entirely where the lift is, and beefed up the trusses on either side and spanned between with joist hangers and 2x8's. All of this was engineered and architecturally stamped. We got amazing ceiling height while keeping a 11 eave height. Just something to discuss with your builder

Have any pictures of this sounds like a good idea.

Lots of good ideas here. I appreciate everyone's ideas. Definitely going to further pursue the parallel truss and conventional framing between trusses ideas.

 

[Matt M PA]

I'd suggest to check with the regulations. In my area, the max height was a "median" height...not the absolute height.

Median height is the mid way point between the tip of the peak to the gutters.

 

[rsa]

I want the garage door to follow the roof, coffer trusses would prevent that.

Too bad. If your height restriction is really the average of the peak and the bottom of the eave heights, I had another idea...

 

[theoldwizard1]

Assuming the absolute maximum height is 15', why not try a Vaulted Parallel Chord Truss?

A neat thing about a VPCT is that it allow you to have full height insulation at the top plate. Vent the roof using Accuvent's Cathedral Ceiling Vent System (seal edges with spray foam, please) and insulate between the rafters.

I keep staring at this truss system and have a couple of questions as compared to a glue lam ridge beam and wood I-joist rafters. I assume the big benefit is the trusses can be pre-built and "flown in" via a crane.

Any other benefits ?

Do you have any ideas about the installed cost differences ?

 

[mad57]

I live in nj as well yes it ***** for code, dont waste your money on a variance if you do and you lose there goes your cash over 2gs easy and if they say no its done at NO, i have 9ft 5in wall height and scissor trusses in my 30x80, no mine is a pole barn so i cut one truss down and modified it so i had 1 bay with 8 ft wide opening, it works great for all my cars heigher than i can reach, my big 4x4 van i can just bend at the knees alittle bit and im 6ft tall. now i added 2 other lifts another 4 post and a 2 post floor plate design with out moding any joists i have 11.6 ft to center of scissor joist and suprised that with most cars i play with it just heigh enough to get under. good luck with your deal, go chat with your local zoning officer and double check on how they measure 15ft i think youll be able to squeeze what you need out of there interputation of 15ft. My z.o is a jerk weed, hopefully yours is better. after all your taxes pay his salary

 

[theoldwizard1]

We just built what you are seeking. We skipped a truss entirely where the lift is, and beefed up the trusses on either side and spanned between with joist hangers and 2x8's.

• What was the "standard" truss spacing ?
• What were the length of those 2x8s ?
• I assume those 2x8 were connecting the top chords, correct ?

 

[rsa]

I keep staring at this truss system and have a couple of questions as compared to a glue lam ridge beam and wood I-joist rafters. I assume the big benefit is the trusses can be pre-built and "flown in" via a crane.

Any other benefits ?

Do you have any ideas about the installed cost differences ?

The one thing that bothers me about about wood I-joist rafters is the restrictions on cutting vents in the shear blocking. That means wood I-joist rafters can only have about 30% of the vent area of other designs that can accommodate a two-inch deep, full width vent channel. One of the advantages of I-joist rafters is that the flanges make it super-easy to construct site-built vent channels.

I think both are elegant solutions on a reverse gable. Not being a building professional, I'm not sure which one is "better", however one might define "better". I suspect the trusses are less susceptible to job-site errors. In general I'm not a fan of another option I see used a lot in this application, scissor trusses. Even if they have a raised heel, they're not nearly as well suited to dense-pack or loose insulation. IMO.

I confess I've got vaulted parallel chord trusses on the brain lately. You know, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

 

[sparky67]

I live in nj as well yes it ***** for code, dont waste your money on a variance if you do and you lose there goes your cash over 2gs easy and if they say no its done at NO, i have 9ft 5in wall height and scissor trusses in my 30x80, no mine is a pole barn so i cut one truss down and modified it so i had 1 bay with 8 ft wide opening, it works great for all my cars heigher than i can reach, my big 4x4 van i can just bend at the knees alittle bit and im 6ft tall. now i added 2 other lifts another 4 post and a 2 post floor plate design with out moding any joists i have 11.6 ft to center of scissor joist and suprised that with most cars i play with it just heigh enough to get under. good luck with your deal, go chat with your local zoning officer and double check on how they measure 15ft i think youll be able to squeeze what you need out of there interputation of 15ft. My z.o is a jerk weed, hopefully yours is better. after all your taxes pay his salary

Well I checked and its 15' from mean grade to absolute highest point. That's a bigger problem then I originally thought. My lot is almost perfectly level. Over all it have 2' of elevation change. There is a small stream on maybe 50' north of the property. During the hurricane this fall a good chunk of my yard was under water. I wanted the garage floor to be 16" higher then the current grade, which would be the same elevation as my existing attached garage. Figured this would guarantee things stay pretty dry, but it would take away 16" from usable interior space.

It didn't sound like the a variance would cost that much. Sounded like I just need to fill out an application and then go to a meeting or two. Just takes a lot of time. The good thing is I only have neighbors on one side of me. Ive only talked to them once in 3 years but they dont seem to be the type that would care too much. They also have a huge house compared to my little cape so dont think they would mind. The only other concern was I want to get another variance to put a front porch on the house. Not sure how many variances you can ask for before they really start to say no.

In the mean time though I'll keep playing with sketches and getting feedback from the lumber yard to see whats possible.

 

[Falcon67]

Well I checked and its 15' from mean grade to absolute highest point. That's a bigger problem then I originally thought. My lot is almost perfectly level. Over all it have 2' of elevation change. There is a small stream on maybe 50' north of the property. During the hurricane this fall a good chunk of my yard was under water. I wanted the garage floor to be 16" higher then the current grade, which would be the same elevation as my existing attached garage. Figured this would guarantee things stay pretty dry, but it would take away 16" from usable interior space.

I think that gives you some ground to request a variance. A vaiver to prevent flood damage to the building is pretty resonable. Most houses around here (yours may vary) are on a 6/12 pitch. I went 5/12 to conserve lumber and you'd want to stay close to 5/12 or better to prevent shingle wind damage and to promote runoff. If you go less to meet the min height, you risk roof damage from wind and driven rain. I'd figure what pitch you need to help it blend in with the house and the neighborhood, then see if you can ask for relief on the height - no more that required to keep it dry - in an honest effort to protect your investment. Special circumstances usually stand a much better chance before the P&Z, especially if you are working to stay out of nature's way.

 

[mad57]

Use this site http://www.ecode360.com/TU0477 look up your town, also check and see if you can build bigger than your house foot print,thats our local law. if you have 3 acres and a 10x20 main house foot print you cant go bigger than that foot print for a secondary building.

 

[danski0224]

One thing, can you attach it to the house via a breezeway and get past height restrictions that way. Some have done it in the past

Depends on local codes.

In my area, a breezeway makes the garage "attached" and there are separate rules for things like lot line setback and square footage for attached vs detached garages.

 

[PECVD2]

I had a 16' limit. Neighbor 285 feet to west contested my permit and everything else including a 4' privacy fence. I was requesting variance to 17' so that garage would match home. Neighbor claimed it would affect his view etc...total BS.
After serveral mods and an extra 5 grand later I just brought in a 100 yards of base course and had it packed. This raised the area I was going build the garage over a foot (sorry I just had to prove a point) Then I built a big box with 16' walls. Interior height is 5/8" short of 12'.
I too went with engineered trusses so that I would have easy access as opposed to TJI with no real perpendicular access. I can crawl through the trusses if I needed to.
My neighbor calls it the big ugly and every time I hear that I laugh.

 

[bczygan]

I had a 16' limit. Neighbor 285 feet to west contested my permit and everything else including a 4' privacy fence. I was requesting variance to 17' so that garage would match home. Neighbor claimed it would affect his view etc...total BS.
After serveral mods and an extra 5 grand later I just brought in a 100 yards of base course and had it packed. This raised the area I was going build the garage over a foot (sorry I just had to prove a point) Then I built a big box with 16' walls. Interior height is 5/8" short of 12'.
I too went with engineered trusses so that I would have easy access as opposed to TJI with no real perpendicular access. I can crawl through the trusses if I needed to.
My neighbor calls it the big ugly and every time I hear that I laugh.

Sorry to bring this thread back, but I absolutely love this story and solution to height problems!!!

 

[NES]

I would go 30' deep. A 4/12 roof pitch. Have the ceiling be 10' tall. The roof will be 5' tall. With the depth you can walk around the car and put the garage goodies at the back wall.