Who Has THE Smallest Garage?!

[Dan in Pasadena]

...and what have you done to cope with its small size?


No cheating by saying you have no garage or have only a car port.

I mean an actual garage that was intended (perhaps a long time ago) to house a car once.

Let's see 'em gentlemen

 

[taumac]

This should be interesting....

 

[Zeke]

I have a 2 car garage that was built on the back of a 1 1/2 car garage. The original was converted to a rec room/office/whateveryouwanttocallit. The 'new' garage was built in 1934 and the big door is on the property line at the alley. It's 18 feet from alley to original. So, while not the smallest that you will hear about by any means, no full size sedans or light trucks fit. Good thing my wife drives a Boxster. That's the 4th Porsche she's parked in there. Good excuse to keep buying Porsches she tells me.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Isn't it interesting that the old garages were so small but many of the cars were so big?

My house was built either in 1926 or 1930 depending which piece of paper I believe. To me the house looks like an early 1950's house but the garage is only 18'x18' so that's pretty small, but I know there are smaller.

 

[k1rodeoboater]

A house I rented had a 10'x18' garage. It barely fit my truck I was working on.

 

[drivesitfar]

All: we have 2 single car garages on an old 50's rambler and my single garage is 9.5 x 18 and 3 feet of that is a wheelchair ramp so my daughter can get to the garage and the fridge. so in actual garage parking space if i ever wanted to park a car inside again its only 9.5 x 15. with it empty i used to get my 1986 Nissan Maxima inside the garage and get out into my wife's side of the garage so not a lot of extra room.

I've had a full on gym in there since about 2005 and now turning it into a shop.

looking for ideas all the time on how to maximize my space.

 

[Outbound]

Does the spare bedroom with my work bench, tool chest, and all my outdoor gear in it count?

 

[PelicanPines]

I'm not kidding when I say... in order to get to the next tool... advanced Tetris must happen. I keep everything on wheels and it all fits in like a puzzle. With just enough room for a path, provided I'm not sharing it with 1 of the 2 cats that live in my 2 car garage... that has never had a car parked in it.

 

[Denwood]

My shop is pretty small at 16x24, so everything is stored off the floor, a lot of upper storage was added, and everything is on wheels. Slatwall "panelling" helps to organize as well. We rented a large waste container to help with clean up. Using a roll up door also maximized storage over and beside the door where rails would normally interfere.

Before

After

 

[C2 Turbo]

Dennis,

Awesome, what a change. Mind me asking, anything I need to know before ordering those slatwalls?

What cabinets are those and do they ship?

Thanks

 

[gmuller]

I think this guy wins:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnKoGN2oaTk

 

[Outlander]

Can-am Garage - big shed / small garage. Trailer fits but hangs out, car/truck no way!

 

[Crazy_Pilot]

At a previous house I was renting with friends we shared a 10x24-ish garage. I had my car in there for a winter while I rebuilt the rear suspension and it was challenging, because we also stored 4 or 5 spare set of wheels (winter/summer tires), a couple bicycles, camping gear, lawn stuff, skiis/snowboards, and all the other junk 3 24-27 year old guys and their girlfriends accumulate. Add in the room you need for parts as they come off the car (bumper, subframe, exhaust...) and things get cozy pretty quick.

The best thing we did was add a full loft and a winch to haul stuff up there. Anything that wasn't frequent use got put into storage up top. The other thing I did for working on the car was put it on dollies, so that I was able to have good access to whichever side I was working on. I also store things under the car whenever I can (tool kits, parts, etc.

The most important thing is simply keeping the clutter from taking over. When you've put in 5 or 6 hours lying under a car replacing metal you aren't inclined to do a nice clean up job, but after a few days like that you start losing more time working around the mess than you would just cleaning it. I know this was hard for me. More parts to work on = less space available when you need more of it. This start getting put in odd places, lost, hidden...

 

[Nick Danger]

I have an 11'x24' garage. It's cluttered like the 'before' pictures people post on the forum.

It holds a 30"x72" workbench, a tall Lista cabinet, a vertical air compressor with a 75' hose, a small rolling toolbox, wire shelving, overhead storage, and a pile of scrap wood. The only vehicles that fit in there are two motorcycles. If I want to work on a car, I do it in the sloped driveway. If I want to make sawdust, I do it on the patio.

 

[fotoflojoe]

Isn't it interesting that the old garages were so small but many of the cars were so big?

My house was built either in 1926 or 1930 depending which piece of paper I believe. To me the house looks like an early 1950's house but the garage is only 18'x18' so that's pretty small, but I know there are smaller.

No pictures, but this was also the case with my parent's garage. They lived in a small Cape Cod style house built in the 30's-40's. The attached "one car" garage was 9ft by 12ft. Odd thing too; the garage was attached, but it had no direct access directly into the house. That seemed to be common in theirs and surrounding neighborhoods. When I left my dealer tech job and went back to college, I stored my box in that garage. Parents okay'ed its use by me for projects. That turned out to be a non-starter. I could roll a vehicle up to the door but couldn't fit anything inside for work. Didn't stop me from changing a timing belt, or two, but man, what a pain.

Every garage I've owned or had access to since, has felt luxurious by comparison!

 

[Geek]

For the last 5 years I had one of those external "apartment garages". You could have maybe gotten a car in it if the garage was empty and you climbed out the window.

It had a single outlet in the ceiling to run the garage door opener which I split off with a series of extension cords and power strips to run all my stuff

I can't count how many times I had to reset the breaker for the entire unit

I did most of my Sprinter build by pulling the Sprinter up at the mouth of the garage crossways... then having to move it every time someone wanted to get their car out - what a pain in the **** lol

Life's sooooo much better now!

 

[Denwood]

Dennis,

Awesome, what a change. Mind me asking, anything I need to know before ordering those slatwalls?

What cabinets are those and do they ship?

Thanks

C, the upper storage and sliding doors I built (as the angled roof makes them pretty impossible to purchase), the lower cabinets (white) are 33x30 Home Depot versions with their plain white doors. Slatwall is MDF, and available at HD. I bought the slatwall from Windsor Plywood, locally. It was finished with two coats of water based polyurethane.

 

[FullRaceMerc]

Not anymore, but at my first house I had a contender. It was a single car attached that was so narrow that I parked the convertible inside with the top down so I could climb out the back. I built a fold down workbench to get by.

It was a mid 50s 875 sq ft 3 bedroom tract house. Everything about that house was compact. Slab floors, low pitched T&G roof/ceiling with no attic. No costs were left uncut in the construction of that house.

 

[Zebedeewesty]

Mines small at 8x18ft internal size.


Just possible to fit my westy in though.


Space at the back to fit a 2ft deep workbench and thats about it.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Zebe, So far it looks like you're in the lead for THE smallest garage. Bonus points for actually being able to put a vehicle in it!

 

[barnee]

Must be something about small garages and VW Westy's

I do my work in a 14 by 24 shed and have all my other stuff hanging on walls and the ceiling, but 8 by 18 certainly has me beat. I do have a garden tractor and two kayaks in mine which should count for something!

 

[mudnutt]

https://scontent-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11041675_1134722479876963_7539674654608239381_n.jpg?oh=b52494ad6a17cae7d3cd70cab7a12eb1&oe=55D5DDA3

 

[MXmaniac]

Great idea for a thread.

Here's my little apartment garage. It's just right for a bicycle and a motorcycle. We expect to be moving in about a year, so I'm trying to have a well-equipped work space that won't be too tough to pack up and move.

 

[Raven GT]

This guy would take the prize, has 30 mm either side to spare.

 

[Zebedeewesty]

Zebe, So far it looks like you're in the lead for THE smallest garage. Bonus points for actually being able to put a vehicle in it!

I've actually managed to work in it too when i repaired the rear arch and back corners though it was quite a squeeze.

This guy would take the prize, has 30 mm either side to spare.

Thats more an alleyway with a door on it.

 

[Cris B]

The space in our current rental is a 16'7" x 8'6" single. Still a work in progress...

 

[Lippyp]

My last one was about the same size as mr Westys, complete with 1965 dated Hygena kitchen units salvaged from the house when we did the kitchen.

 

[Denwood]

Ditto, went from the mess,

to van shop Nirvanna..then promptly sold the van...

 

[drivesitfar]

Raven: even though that might not be a GJ member and i have no idea what he was saying in the video you might be correct about the smallest garage. he makes it work.

Woody (Denwood): i won't get tired anytime soon at looking at the before and after pictures of your amazing transformation you just finished. nice work and BTW i'm still ORGANIZING mine.

ALL: good stuff and nice pictures


Happy Mother's Day to all of you

 

[bczygan]

9' something by 19' something.

Standard 1 car attached circa 1941 Detroit.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

I think if I had one of these narrow aspects I d want to paint a mural in one wall of a HUGE parking lot or a meadow or some thug to make fu. Of its small size and at the same time kinda/sorta give the impression of more space.

On a side note, years and years ago I saw the worlds smallest work "shop" in a closet magazine. It was in the entry closet of an apartment. Bench top with tool box below, peg board on two sides, owner removed the dry wall on one side and had all sorts of stuff in stud space shelves on a side wall. Small vice and small drill press. Pretty impressive for a maybe 18" deep but 36 or 42" wide closet!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

This guy would take the prize, has 30 mm either side to spare.

Yeah, he'd win anywhere except on GJ. You can't work on ANYthing in that space. Well, I guess you could wax ONLY the driver's door of the car while standing in your house!

I'm pretty impressed with the apartment garages here and the guys that actually use them. I understand not truly dressing them up if you're not staying long term but if I knew I was staying a year or two I think I'd keep an eye on the mis-mixed paint pile at Home Cheapo or Lowes for stuff I could use to dress it cheaply.

 

[rodsnratfinks]

If this isn't the place, then we should make a thread with ideas for small garages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Raven GT]

Yeah, he'd win anywhere except on GJ. You can't work on ANYthing in that space. Well, I guess you could wax ONLY the driver's door of the car while standing in your house!

You never know, maybe he uses it to work on his bicycle.
I repaired and restored mopeds in a second floor appartment, i know a guy who has acomplete workshop in a 7th story appartment in a spare bedroom where he restores old mopeds and motorscooters. even had a small compressor and a small blasting cabinet on the balcony
The 3rd bedroom was a complete museum with old mopeds, scooters and stuff.

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: so those of us that have a small garage might i suggest we maybe paint something like this on the floor? here's a web site for a few other choices.

http://www.worldtoptop.com/top-50-amazing-3d-street-art-paintings/

Happy Mother's Day everybody

 

[far]

Do shops count?

Here's the 12x12 on the property I bought last september.

I haven't done anything with it yet, it's mostly a dumping ground for tools that I have to move outside to use because it's so damn small in there!

 

[swissguy]

About 10.6 by 20. Hard to get out of the car with the roof up.
(finally got a bigger garage so my wife uses the small one)

 

[gtr cook]

My current single:



More pictures in my garage link.

 

[Ainsley]

Probably not the smallest at 11'x25' but perhaps the smallest amount of spare room.

 

[Fast914]

My original until last year was 12x22...it has since been raised to be replaced with my new garage 18x30...what a difference... heat, lights, and enough plugs etc that I never go looking or running cords anymore. I have to say, small and cold as it was, I built most of my 914 in it.... lots of good memory's... cold but good...LOL!