Ideas for a 24x48x12 spring time build

[Moosefire66]

Just joined here a bit ago, love the ideas you guys come up with.

I'm planning on a stick built garage that's 24 deep by 48 wide with 12 foot walls. I plan on 3 single Bay doors (48ft side) and one on the back to have a drive through Bay. I'm planning on 12 foot walls as I want a 4 post hoist sometime in the near future, so I can work on cars.

I'm hoping for water and gas hookup to the garage as well.

Just looking for your input on what you wish you had done, or had, when building your garage. I'm far from being a builder, electrician, or anything of the sorts, so hopefully I can get ideas now to get my ducks in a row so to speak.

I live in Michigan - metro Detroit area if it helps. I plan on using the garage for light wrenching and possibly woodworking in the future.

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[Dr Stan]

Its good you're going with 12ft walls. I only went with 8ft on a 24X48 so I'll be raising the roof 4 more feet this spring.

The only outside contractor I used was for the mono slab & footing. The remainder I did myself. Due to local zoning I also purchased engineered trusses which probably cost about the same as site built.

The primary reason I am raising the roof is for my new to me 12ft lift. Since you are planning on one you'll need to have 12 inches deep of concrete where the columns will sit. Do your best to locate the location of the columns and pour accordingly.

I was able to find a 12ft 7000# Nussbaum 2 post lift in like new condition on Craigs List for only $900.00. List new is around $4300.00. So see if you can locate one before the pour so you'll have the lift foundation specs before you start.

If you have any friends who can help line them up as soon as possible.

Since you're that far north I'd also consider 6" thick walls for the extra insulation. Usually one can use 24" on center with 2 X 6's but check code first.

Buy professional grade drill drivers, pneumatic framing nailer & a coil nailer. Check out CPOoutlets for reman professional tools. About the same $ as a consumers grade that will hold up much better.

Take pictures as we'll all want to be see the build.

 

[Moosefire66]

I did some some research online and didn't see anything that required thicker cement under the lift, according to the bendpak website anyways... but definitely worth looking into.

And I didn't put it but I am planning on 2x6 studs all the way around, and engineered trusses, I'm looking into attic trusses for extra storage, just in case I need it haha

It will also be sitting on a 6inch wall block, to help with the moisture

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[Ray916MN]

Welcome to the forum.

I've got a 24x48x14 workshop with garage doors on the long wall.

Assuming you're buying a 4 post because you want to store vehicles, I'd suggest 14' walls. Even with this wall height, depending on what lift you buy, it may still not be possible to raise the lift to full height with some vehicles.

With garage doors on the long wall in the snow belt, you need to be careful with your building orientation. The apron outside of any north facing doors will tend to develop ice from melt or snow coming off the roof. Speaking from experience you can end up with a heck of an ice berm in front of the doors if you don't have a way of preventing this.

Making a plan to use vertical space when you have ceiling height is well worth doing. The key is to think of how you are going to get stuff up and down from heights.

 

[Moosefire66]

Unfortunately my max height at my mid-roof measurement can only be 15 feet, so I can only get away with 12 foot walls.

Luckily enough, only the one "pull thru" Bay door is facing north, the other doors are all south facing.

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[Affinity Fab]

Go as big as you can budget wise, you'll never be upset that you have too much space!! Yeah most lift manufacturers require 4" min concrete for up to 10K 2 post lifts and something like 16k for a 4 post, so 12" sounds beyond excessive. Where in SE Michigan are you?

 

[Moosefire66]

Sterling heights.

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[theoldwizard1]

Even if you have no plans for in-floor heating, install vapor barrier and 2" of rigid foam under the concrete.

 

[Affinity Fab]

Nice, you must have a good sized lot for the area to put up that big of a garage.

 

[Moosefire66]

I was looking into vapor barrier, but it seems that it could trap moisture as well from a spill, or cleaning the floor... does that not happen?

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[Moosefire66]

I have roughly 3/4 acre. City says over 1/2 acre lots can have up to a 2,000 Sq ft of outbuildings, unfortunately my lot is kind of messed up and I can't go that big

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[rburke65]

The vapor barrier is under the concrete.....how is that going to trap moisture? The VB will prevent moisture from coming up to your slab. Good luck. Keep reading and asking questions.

 

[rburke65]

And I do not believe that a 12" concrete floor is required for a lift reguardless if it's a 2 post or 4 post. Just search for lift mfg. and start reading.

 

[Moosefire66]

Trap it as in if I wash my car in the garage let's say, all the water that soaks into the concrete can't go anywhere because of the plastic. I fully get it keeping out moisture from the ground, it's the other way around it was asking about

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[astroracer]

Seal the concrete and it won't soak up moisture. Any moisture that does get on it will evaporate out anyway it will not soak down far enough to be a worry. The moisture barrier keeps it from migrating ^up^ through the concrete. That is what you really want.

For any kind of a lift you only need 4" of 3K to 3.5K psi concrete. I know of no lift manufacturer that requires more then that.

If you can go wider, 26' would be the minimum width for parking a vehicle AND working around it with the doors closed. 24' is going to be very tight. Measure your vehicles and make the call. Remember that 24' dimension is to the OUTSIDE of the building subtract the wall thickness and door intrusion and you then have the actual space for working. Add some benches and tools and it gets pretty tight.

I would go one 10' door and one 16' door. Try to keep the doors at least 4' from the inside of the walls. if you have a hoist in one bay keep that one 6' off the wall.
Mark

 

[Moosefire66]

I've debated 26 or 28' deep but it's getting pretty close to my house at that point. I was also thinking 4 - 9x8 industrial roll up doors so when the lift is installed, it won't get in the way, also all of the doors will match.

Any particular reason you prefer the 16' door over singles?

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[Affinity Fab]

I have roughly 3/4 acre. City says over 1/2 acre lots can have up to a 2,000 Sq ft of outbuildings, unfortunately my lot is kind of messed up and I can't go that big

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Wow that's huge compared to most neighboring cities! I just moved from Rochester Hills where they would only allow 720 sq ft on my acre lot!

 

[astroracer]

I've debated 26 or 28' deep but it's getting pretty close to my house at that point. I was also thinking 4 - 9x8 industrial roll up doors so when the lift is installed, it won't get in the way, also all of the doors will match.

Any particular reason you prefer the 16' door over singles?

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Four 9' doors? in a 48' wall? No, do not do that. Let's do some math.
48' overall length = about 47' inside space.
9 x 4 = 36'.
47' - 36' = 11'. Now divide 11' by 5, which is the number of spaces between your doors and the inside walls of your shop.
That leaves you 2.2' between your doors. That leaves you 2.2' between the outer doors and the wall. 2' is not enough room to work, have benches, store stuff or even comfortably open the car doors with vehicles parked in the shop.
One 10' door + 1 16' door ='s 26'
47' - 26' = 21'
21' divided by 5 ='s 4' between the two doors and the gable walls.
4' is the minimum I would recommend for working, storage and parking room between doors.
Besides that, 9' is pretty narrow for a regular use parking door. 10' is more comfortable to use.
The 16' door allows you room to park one or two vehicles AND get things in and out of the shop without having to move vehicles out of the way.

I would suggest, if you can, put the 16' door in the long wall, 6' off the far gable end. Use that for your hoist door. Put the hoist 6' off the wall also.
Put a 10' door in the close gable end 6' off the back wall. Make that 6' dimension from the INSIDE of the wall, not the outside. This layout will give you plenty of room to work and store stuff around the cars and not be cramped for space.
Mark

 

[Moosefire66]

The 4th door is on the back for the pull thru bay. It will only be 3 single Bay doors on the front side, according to the plans in my head

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[astroracer]

Here is an excellent barn planner site. Lots of styles and options.
http://www.fbibuildings.com/planning-tools/pole-barn-design-tool
Check it out. It will give you an excellent idea of what you are planning.
Mark

 

[Ray916MN]

The 4th door is on the back for the pull thru bay. It will only be 3 single Bay doors on the front side, according to the plans in my head

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Are you thinking of putting the lift in the pull through bay? 4 post lifts are not generally designed for drive on and drive off forward use. Mine has wheel stops at the front and the safety release also sits at the front so to set it up for drive on and drive off forward use would take some doing.

With a relatively shallow depth, the way to make a bay work for service work is to flank it with open space, so space in front and back of a vehicle can be kept clear for access. In my case, I put my lift in the interior side (away from the wall) of the auto area of my shop. To gain workspace, I can always pull out the car that is parked next to the lift if needed. This arrangement provides enough room for me to work on my F250 CC SB without feeling too cramped as long as I'm careful to park the truck to maximize front or back clearance when working on it off the lift.

Using 18' wide double doors makes it easier to pull in and out of a shallow garage. With a shallow garage the benefits of having a pull though bay to me only make sense if you are parking a trailer in the bay. I used two 18' doors on the long side of my shop, spacing the door a foot away from the outside walls. The idea here was to concentrate open space in the center of the shop to provide maximum flexibility with the notion that cars parked along the exterior walls only needed drive side door access, since my workshop doesn't contain daily drivers. Here's what it looks like from the outside.

Lastly, if you're thinking about combining woodwork and mechanical work in a single workshop, you want to make sure you have a way to separate the space so dust from woodworking doesn't coat everything in the shop. With this type of use and for other reasons (how I might reduce cooling and heating costs, maximize storage, etc) I put up pallet racking between the two side of my workshop. The bottom row is set at 7' high so I can work under it without stooping and it would be easy for me to use it to hang tarps or to make a light sliding door system to make it possible to separate the two sides of the workshop for dirt or temperature isolation.

 

[Moosefire66]

Great ideas. I plan on the lift to be in the 3rd Bay, closest to the workshop. The drive thru bay and the second Bay is for daily driver parking. I only have 1 vehicle at the moment however I do have 2 roommates renting rooms from me, so it will be theirs until I get a project vehicle or they move out.

I like the idea of an 18 foot wide double door, I tried searching for that but surprisingly didn't come up with much, I figured I was stuck with a 16 footer!

Nice setup by the way!

And thanks for the link astroracer! I'll check that out

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[Moosefire66]

Does anyone have any experience with vaulted parallel chord trusses or scissor trusses?

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[Pronovabigblock]

Im new here but i just built a 28x48x16 its no just a pole barn in no meens lol it is more like a steel clearspan but is all wood ... I havent figured out howto upload pics yet but if you want i can pass on there web adress let me know

 

[Pronovabigblock]

Well i guess i kinda sent one pic lol

 

[Moosefire66]

Yeah, if you're local I'll take their number!

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[38Chevy454]

I recommend going deeper than 24 ft. I have 26x48x12, and really would like an extra 2-4 ft; but I was limited by the property line setbacks and how to situate garage vs the house. So 26 ft is the limit I could do. It works, but is tighter than I like. 12 ft is the min height, it does work if you have vehicles that are not too tall. No trucks for example or at least can't lift them for standing underneath.

With 15 ft max height, forget attic trusses. The small space you have will be worthless. Get std trusses and insulate it well. 2x6 walls are good. I also have 2x6, R-19 in walls and R-38 in ceiling. I went with two 16x10 doors, because i wanted to maximize parking spaces.

 

[Moosefire66]

I might be able to squeeze out 28 ft, but like you my space is limited on how large I can go. I'd rather have scissor or vaulted trusses, just for some extra headroom over the lift, but not sure if that will work either... but yeah I think I'm going to nix the attic trusses idea in general.

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