ChevelleFan
Member
Hi All,
I've been lurking on this board for a couple years reading all the great ideas people have incorporated into their garages, reading all the regrets of people who built and later realized what they should've done and tried to take advantage of the collective knowledge up here. I'm a car guy and wanted a nice place to store and wrench on my '70 Chevelle and my dad's '63 Corvette, which basically stays at my place. Dad also has '95 Mustang that he cruises around in during the summer, and I need to store that too over the winter.
In August 2013, I finally broke ground for my new 32 x 40 pole building. Original design was to be 32 x 48, but my township only allows for 1280 sq ft of accessory building, and my variance request was denied. I also have a height restrictions (can't average more than 15 ft, I think), so to make sure I had enough inside height for the lift, I chose to use scissors truss. The downside is I have no overhead storage, but that's fine for me, as my house has a large basement.
I had an architect draw up the plans. It was originally going to have a footer foundation and stick walls with a lean-to. After getting some estimates, I decided to remove the lean-to and go to a pole construction. I did have the walls studded out with 2x6 so that I could do full insulation.
One of the other big design decisions was 1-door or 2-door. I ultimately decided on two doors for a couple reasons. First, I wasn't sure if I could the size door I wanted in a single door. It would've needed to be 20 feet wide and that just didn't seem to be commonly available. I was also worried about having a potentially crooked approach in between the lift posts. Also, having 2 doors allowed me to put a post in between to give the building a little extra racking strength. I ended up with 2 9x9 doors.
The other key thing I did was to put another door on the back of the building. It probably didn't need to be 9x9 like the front doors, but thats what got drawn. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get a vehicle stranded in the back if I had a project on my lift for a while. Another plus of this is the ventilation, as the doors are on the east/west sides of the building. It gets a nice breeze through it during the summer with the doors open.
Enough blah blah for now.. I know everyone loves some pictures.
-Dave
I've been lurking on this board for a couple years reading all the great ideas people have incorporated into their garages, reading all the regrets of people who built and later realized what they should've done and tried to take advantage of the collective knowledge up here. I'm a car guy and wanted a nice place to store and wrench on my '70 Chevelle and my dad's '63 Corvette, which basically stays at my place. Dad also has '95 Mustang that he cruises around in during the summer, and I need to store that too over the winter.
In August 2013, I finally broke ground for my new 32 x 40 pole building. Original design was to be 32 x 48, but my township only allows for 1280 sq ft of accessory building, and my variance request was denied. I also have a height restrictions (can't average more than 15 ft, I think), so to make sure I had enough inside height for the lift, I chose to use scissors truss. The downside is I have no overhead storage, but that's fine for me, as my house has a large basement.
I had an architect draw up the plans. It was originally going to have a footer foundation and stick walls with a lean-to. After getting some estimates, I decided to remove the lean-to and go to a pole construction. I did have the walls studded out with 2x6 so that I could do full insulation.
One of the other big design decisions was 1-door or 2-door. I ultimately decided on two doors for a couple reasons. First, I wasn't sure if I could the size door I wanted in a single door. It would've needed to be 20 feet wide and that just didn't seem to be commonly available. I was also worried about having a potentially crooked approach in between the lift posts. Also, having 2 doors allowed me to put a post in between to give the building a little extra racking strength. I ended up with 2 9x9 doors.
The other key thing I did was to put another door on the back of the building. It probably didn't need to be 9x9 like the front doors, but thats what got drawn. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get a vehicle stranded in the back if I had a project on my lift for a while. Another plus of this is the ventilation, as the doors are on the east/west sides of the building. It gets a nice breeze through it during the summer with the doors open.
Enough blah blah for now.. I know everyone loves some pictures.
-Dave
Trip plans were made before construction started, and I got a later than anticipated start. Life happens.
