Ideas welcome I am designing a garage FINALLY!!

Thanks for having a look! I am an avid car guy and the 2 car attached garage is just not going to cut it! I have a second house where I am going to build a shop, doing this with cash as I go, not a huge budget but doing it as large and as high quality as I can. I was going to build the shop at an acreage I have however it is less secure than the little house and there are more start up costs to get water and power hooked up.

So things are getting started with the planning of the 32 foot wide by 26 foot deep shop! It will start out as a carport and then it will eventually become an insulated, heated, powered shop but it will be a multi-phase project. Step 1 is getting the structure up. It will be located right beside my little house, so I have power accessible for now.

I need to clear some brush, remove the top soil and hopefully before snowfall there will be a 32 foot wide by 26 foot deep concrete pad! I will not go further than that this year, we have a second baby due any day now.

This photo shows the location of the build some bush will be removed, and the other photos show the house and yard. I have road access along all 4 lots and alley access down the back as well which is nice.





Some random pics of the little house!

We are sizing things up to fix it up right now and then find a new renter. This way there will be someone around my shop to help keep it secure and to mow the lawn.





Here are some ROUGH sketches of what I am planning and I am hoping for some input from you guys so chime in! I am waiting for my architect friend to get back from holidays and he will help me finalize the design and then we can setup permits and break ground.

Some info about the design. This is basically a pole barn style carport with open ends to start with. The uprights will be 6x6 wood, and the roof truss will be 12 foot wide with a fairly steep pitch to ensure snow does not stay put. The outside bays are basically lean too structures off the main part. The reason for this strange design is that I only need a 12 foot ceiling height in the center bay where I plan to put a 4 post lift once it is all done.

Once the design is finalized I am borrowing a skid steer to remove the top soil, getting 1.5 inch crushed rock, compaction, and then hiring a guy to do the forming, then of course the pad will go down.

I'd go with a 6:12 pitch roof. Reason(s), you can walk it to shingle it assuming you are going to do that yourself. The 10:12 or 12:12 there is going to be considerably more difficult. Also the sidewalls you have there are (guessing) 6-7 feet tall which I think is going to wreak havoc on putting garage doors in the other bays.

I would forget all of the interior posts. 8 1/2' is NOT enough room between them... Barely enough room to work around them, let alone parking a car and opening car doors.
I would suggest going 30' deep and 36' wide to get room for doors on the long side and enough depth to have benches and equipment on the long wall.
Use at least a ten foot sidewall and go with residential trusses. Specify 30' width with 1' overhang.
Keep the overhead doors at least 4' off the sidewalls to provide door opening and working room around a vehicle.
Lots to think about here.
Mark
Go here:
http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner
Use the workshop planner to design your space. One other thing you can do is layout your design in the grass. Park your cars in the "shop" and work around them with your current layout.

I'll second the 30 ft depth if you plan to work on anything in there. My current truck is right at 23' long with the bumper and trailer hitch. Add at least a foot behind it to walk around the back when the overhead door is closed, and you are up to 24' which only gives 1' in front with your 6" walls on both ends and 26' depth. That is my reasoning for making it 30' anyway. Make sure the slab is thick enough that you can install a 2 post down the road if you ever want to, mine calls for 4.5" but I'd go thicker in the area where a lift would go. Also I don't know if you plan to use in floor heating, but now is the time to plan for it and install the lines. Next I'd also put down foam below the pad to help with insulating it as well as a vapor barrier to keep the slab dry. Any thought for in floor drain, or future water in the shop, even if you don't plan to have water it wouldn't be that much more to add a length of pipe going through the slab and cap it off outside to help future proof the design some. That is all I can think of for now, good luck and I'll follow along.
JB

When you rough in for the slab, it cost very little to put everything you need for a bathroom, utility sink drain etc. Even if you do not plan on it right now. Also, run a couple of 1 1/2 or larger electrical PVC conduits from below grade outside to a wall cavity inside.

I did this from previous advice on this board never thinking I would use them and now they are filled with cable/cat 5 and other wiring.

Pad Prep is really important for good concrete. If alls your gonna do is concrete I would wait. I would get the pad prepped and get your sand down, then leave it sit the winter to settle. Have it poured first thing next spring.

I would defiantly think about floor drains and a sink. The conduits up into the wall cavity keep the outside looking clean so you dont have conduits/LBs stuck to the outside. Always plan an extra for the future extra cost is real minimal.

32 foot 10/12/10 your gonna get 9/10/9 wide doors in the gable ends? You shouldnt have to worry about snow with 8/12....if you do steel on the roof even 6/12 is plenty. 32foot wide 8ft side walls . With a 4/12 vaulted truss on an 8/12pitch roof you should be able to get your lift in there with plenty of room, but you'll still only get a 7ft tall door on the outsides. And I would think you can remove the center poles. Those seem unneeded and a nuisance; but Im not a builder. By the time you finish your inside you can figure your gonna lose 8inches on each outside wall. So now your down to 8foot to those inside posts...

I would go at least a little larger. At a minimum, I would go 28' deep. And if you can, go at least 36' wide. The reason I say that is that is the size of my garage, and I have had a wide variety of vehicles in mine. The largest was my '89 Silverado that was an extended cab, 8' bed. When I had it in the garage, I had adequate room to work on it up front, but just enough room to walk around the back. I could have had a workbench in front of the vehicle though.

At 36' wide, that gives you (3) 12' bays. That gives you room for a car, plus room to open the doors. And with that you can go with either (3) 9' doors, or even (3) 10' doors in the front.

Looking forward to seeing your build.

If you plan on working on cars you might want to think about the width when Jacking up a car. Length of floor jack plus length of handle. Jacking up a car with only 2 feet between car and wall leaves you no room to get the hell out of the way if it goes bad.

Have you thought of a pole building like the one the PO built on my property -as seen on my 2 garages thread. They are usually quite reasonable in price - may not be much more than the floor you are thinking of pouring. Mine is built by a company called Goodon and I'm sure they have a dealer in Edmonton area. http://www.goodon.com/

Put the shell up this year, then pour the floor next year...

Just a thought.
Cheers!

I built mine 26w x 40d, and it isn't big enough. If I were to design another it would be 14' wide bays, and as deep as I had room on my lot for. You can't build it too big.

If you think you can only afford 26 x 32, make it 26 wide, and 32 deep, and place it on the lot so you can expand to more bays later. Oh and NO POSTS. Posts are ALWAYS in the wrong place. I even got rid of my center lift post so I could move it to the wall when I wasn't using it. Made a huge difference.