The Chevy Stable-- My future garage

Hi everyone. New guy here. I'm starting to plan my new garage, which I hope I'm able to begin construction on within the next year. I bought a house on 2 acres in September of 2011 and have been working on the house and the property trying to get them in proper shape. Now it's time for the garage. The previous owner had a 24'x40' garage, but took it with him. What he left me with was a 24x40 pad with a carport over half. There's also another 8'x24' concrete pad behind the main pad, attached to the back wall that I plan to enclose and use as a compressor room.

I'm throwing around different design ideas and trying to decide on stickbuild vs metal building, building it myself vs paying someone else, etc. Below are some of my current design ideas. I'm always creating more, but for now, this is what I've got that I can show. Excuse the crude drawings... my software isn't the best and I'm not the most knowledgeable with it, but hey... it works for me.

I hope to have a small woodworking area in one end, as well as a lift. The house I moved out of had a 40x60, two story garage with lift, so I got a bit spoiled. This garage won't compare, but it'll do for now until I build the other garage on the back of my property in a few years.

Here is where the garage will sit:



You'll have to excuse those pics, as they're the only ones I have right now... The first pic is the day I first looked at the house/property, and that is where the previous owner stored all of his junk.

Concept 1: Side Entry




In the first pic, the man door is on the end towards the house, the garage doors face the road. There is another man door in the back of the garage that will lead to the not-yet-included compressor room. The second pic shows an interior shot as if standing inside the garage, beside the man door closest to the house.

Concept 2: End Entry



In the first pic, the garage door faces the house, with the man door facing the road.

None of the colors are what I intend to use, I just chose them to help with contrast so things show up a little better. And I apologize, but I screwed up the crop on the last two pictures and didn't feel like fixing them, but you get the idea.

Does anyone have any input or advice as to which they like better and why? I like the idea of the side entry so that I can easily get two vehicle in and out separately, and I don't have to pull all the cars out to work in the shop area if I have a woodworking project to mess with. Otherwise, I'm unaware of any pros or cons to either design. Any and all input is welcome.

I like the side entry but it may be pain to pull engines out the front due to depth.

cyamaha2007 said:

I like the side entry but it may be pain to pull engines out the front due to depth.

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I actually considered that, and you're right. However, I don't really anticipate doing much of that in this garage. By the time I'm ready to start yanking engines, I will be doing it in my much bigger shop that I'll be building in another area of the property. This one, at that time, will be relegated to parking duty, and possibly woodworking duty, only. Plus, the only thing I would possibly pull the engine on in the near future would be the Z28... and you don't "pull" the engine on an LS1 F-body. You jack it up and drop the K-member So that won't be a problem either.

Stop stalking me......Also why wouldn't you get a building large enough to use the entire pad?

I guess what I'm saying is enclose the whole concrete area so that you have full use of it, hopefully it is still in good shape and he didn't half *** the job. Is it thick enough for a lift?

I'd prefer the end entry myself, but hard to tell where on the property in relation to the house this pad is.

GRN96WS6 said:

Stop stalking me......Also why wouldn't you get a building large enough to use the entire pad?

I guess what I'm saying is enclose the whole concrete area so that you have full use of it, hopefully it is still in good shape and he didn't half *** the job. Is it thick enough for a lift?

I'd prefer the end entry myself, but hard to tell where on the property in relation to the house this pad is.

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Stalking you huh? Based on join date, it looks like you're stalking ME!

As far as enclosing the whole concrete area, I am. The garage area is walled in at 24x40. The ~8x24 area I mentioned that is behind it and attached to the back wall is not walled in, and is a rougher finish, as well as not level. It will work fine for keeping the compressor out of the garage, and providing some storage for other stuff I want to keep out of the bays.

At this point in time, I plan to get it walled in and under roof, but I'm not even certain that the back portion will share a roofline with the main part of the garage because I don't know that it's necessary.

At least you have a firm base to build on. Still trying to get a price on having mine laid!

bazzateer said:

At least you have a firm base to build on. Still trying to get a price on having mine laid!

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Absolutely! Concrete costs are what have always worried me about my future garage. Between cost of materials and labor, it gets very pricey. I'm capable of doing some of it on my own, but I don't like doing it, and I'm not the best at it. Luckily, this time around, I don't have to worry about it.

This garage won't be perfect, and it won't be my ideal work space. But, since the pad is laid, I can definitely make great use out of it for now and it'll serve its purpose well.

Nice plan. I like the last choice with only one man door. Wasted wall space with more than one. Place the windows above a bench a bench level so you can use some of the wall area.

akdiesel said:

Nice plan. I like the last choice with only one man door. Wasted wall space with more than one. Place the windows above a bench a bench level so you can use some of the wall area.

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The more I look at the plans, the less I know what I want.. Part of me says having the door on the end is the smarter move, but the other part says I'd rather have a door for each vehicle that will go in.

As for the 2 man doors in the first plan, the one on the gable end of the building goes into another room where the compressor will be, as well as some other things I plan to store there. I didn't include it in the plan, because I'm unsure as to whether or not it will have a common roofline with the main building or not. The concrete is already there, but I don't think I'll put it all under the same roof due to how the concrete is poured on the back portion, and the fact that it would have unnecessarily tall ceilings in that room. I may just make it lean-to style.

The windows in the first plan, I just threw in there for the heck of it. Not sure if I'll even install windows or not at this point.

Both plans are good, you just need to decide which one will work best for you.

perform a mock layout with the cars you plan to park in the garage, lay down some tape on the floor to represent tools, benches, etc....this may help give you a feel on how each of the set ups will flow/work for your needs
Will be looking forward to this tread, keep us updated.

Figured I'd go ahead and throw an update on here...better late than never, right?

Well, since I originally posted this thread, my whole life changed in nearly every way. Thus, my plans and schedule changed as well. I just began construction on the garage 15 months ago, and at this point, it's at about 95% complete. I've realized I actually don't even have any good pics of the outside, and the inside is still a bit of a mess. I'll try to get better pictures soon. The primary use for this space will be a combination of woodworking, gunsmith work, and beer drinking/dart throwing. I wish it was twice as big as it is, but it'll do for now.

The shop is 24x45, 2 entry doors, 12x8 garage door, no windows, gas heat, 100amp service with 49 outlets on 8 different circuits, plus 2 separate 220v outlets. I wanted to make sure I always had an outlet when I needed one and that I would never be in danger of overloading a circuit

The exterior pics are from around June...I just got back from vacation and my mower was out of service, so ignore my yard lol. The garage door was a used door I found for $200...a deal I couldn't pass up. It's 12x8 and I had a real issue trying to find a door locally in that size, and all the shipping rates I was quoted were outrageous...bringing the total cost of a door + shipping to over $3k in some cases I plan to paint the window frames to match come spring time and it'll look 10x better than it does now.