New Single Car Garage Add-on Project

Right now we have a standard 2 car attached garage... But unfortunately we have 3 vehicles we need to house so I am planning to add on a third bay to the structure.

This is a (rough) floor plan of the existing structure. We have a corner lot on the alley way so I have a lot of space to make use of in the back yard...



As you can see the electrical and AC is on the far left external wall in the back yard.Unfortunately this is where the new addition has to go.

So I have been thinking of possible solutions...





Plan 1 is just a small stand alone garage built on an angle to the original garage feeding from the same driveway entrance from the alley on the side of the house. This plan limits the amount of work we have to do by keeping the AC and the Electrical meter main panel all in the same location, but it wastes space between the buildings that could be used for shop space in the new garage. Up side is I can make it taller than the existing roof line to allow the installation of the lift.







Plan 1A shows how I could use that space if I moved the electrical and AC to a new outside way by extending the rear wall of the new garage to fully match up with the rear wall of the existing structure enclosing that space. Down side being higher cost for a bigger concrete pad and additional wall length plus of the cost of moving the AC unit and the power meter...Same benefit of a higher roof line to enable a lift to be added.







Plan 2 shows a much simpler design leaving the AC unit and electrical meter and panel in existing location and feeding the new garage bay from the back of the alley instead of from the main drive way. Advantage is much lower cost by leaving those units where they are and not having to spend to build a new rear wall for the new garage and instead using the existing left wall of the 2 car garage as the new garage rear wall, plus it allows me to tie the two spaces together without the need of additional doors. Insulation costs would also be lower as would the slab costs...



Down side is again no shop space and since I will be using the existing wall I will have to the keep the roof line below existing so the garage will not be high enough for a lift. Not to happy about that.

So what do you guys think?

All the plans look good to me but to decide what fits the location I think you would have to show us a photo of the location. Also you have to go with what works best and what you can afford.

If it was mine I would go with the last plan and make it as big as the existing building. You can never have too much room.

MPOWERD said:

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I like these 2 designs the best, I personally would go with the one with shop space first as long as you can afford it and make it fit. The other design would be my second choice though. The stand alone one one I think would just look like an after thought to the property. Not to mention it really wastes the space in between the two buildings. I think it may cost more but be well worth it in the long run to use that space, Just my $.02

I favor the shop plan for obvious reasons. The little woman favors plan 1A as well. She thinks its best to get the power tools as far away from her car as possible! Plus it does compliment the existing design of the property. Plan 2 is more economical but ends up wasting the yard space between the fence and the drive way on the alley side and no shop.

Could you put the addition parallel to the existing garage and move the a/c and electric to outside the front wall? Without knowing the roof orientation I can't picture how it would work. Your climate may influence the roof design also.

As far as aesthetics go and to not take away from the property value if you would per chance move later on, the last diagram would be the best.

The pics are deceiving because you show the garage entrance going off to the right, but you're also calling it the side yard off to the right, so unless I'm missing something, I'm not quite understanding it.

Can you post up a pic of the house and garage? If you can, then it may be easier to give you an idea how to proceed plus have a lift. I think if you build it at an angle like you have shown, you'll run into some problems with the construction. Plus you don't want your yard or whatever going back in to a point.

The other problem that you may run into, is what the city will allow you to do. You'll have to check with them as far as setbacks. By being on a corner lot it may make a difference over a lot that is between two houses and not on a corner.

As far as a hoist goes, again you'll have to see what the city allows as far as height, but if you are allowed to go ahead with a build, you can gain interior height by either scissor trusses, or by going with rafters. It doesn't show in any of your sketches, but depending on the way the rafters would run, you could put a lift in the center to make use of the full height. By doing that, you won't have a flat ceiling.

I agree with Kevin54; option B gets my vote.

Is there any reason you can't go for something like this:
(I'd imagine that it would probably be the cheapest option and it would probably look the best as you can make it match the rest of the house / existing garage)

JEngledow said:

Is there any reason you can't go for something like this:
(I'd imagine that it would probably be the cheapest option and it would probably look the best as you can make it match the rest of the house / existing garage)

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We really don't want the extended garage to reduce the back yard size visually from the patio where we entertain. The yard is very spacious so we want to preserve as much of it as we can. An angled Garage in image 1 and 1A or a perpendicular garage like in image 2 would still give the most space near the patio.

A regular extension would reduce that yard space as well as complicate the driveway entrance right at the blind curve in the alley. This could be a real hazard as cars can come around that corner to fast all the time.

Kevin54 said:

As far as aesthetics go and to not take away from the property value if you would per chance move later on, the last diagram would be the best.

The pics are deceiving because you show the garage entrance going off to the right, but you're also calling it the side yard off to the right, so unless I'm missing something, I'm not quite understanding it.

Can you post up a pic of the house and garage? If you can, then it may be easier to give you an idea how to proceed plus have a lift. I think if you build it at an angle like you have shown, you'll run into some problems with the construction. Plus you don't want your yard or whatever going back in to a point.

The other problem that you may run into, is what the city will allow you to do. You'll have to check with them as far as setbacks. By being on a corner lot it may make a difference over a lot that is between two houses and not on a corner.

As far as a hoist goes, again you'll have to see what the city allows as far as height, but if you are allowed to go ahead with a build, you can gain interior height by either scissor trusses, or by going with rafters. It doesn't show in any of your sketches, but depending on the way the rafters would run, you could put a lift in the center to make use of the full height. By doing that, you won't have a flat ceiling.

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Here is a very rough outline floor plan of our house in relation to the street, alley and park (across the alley). This should help you understand the layout and the roof angles as well as the yard area for expansion...

The roofs are very high on the house (could easily house a second floor with very high ceilings if I chose to do such a home improvement), however the roof is lower on the existing garage but I should be able to make the garage higher as long as lower than the main height of the roof on the house.

Just checked Google Earth and copied the satellite Imagery to give a better understanding of the current house and garage layout. I have to say my line drawings sure do leave alot to be desired when compared to the what the house truly looks like! lol...

You might want to check with the appropriate authorities on set back requirements, they could have a huge impact on the allowable designs.

That said the 3rd design with acess to the alley eould appear the best option, based on the goole photo.

Go with plan 2.

Plans 1 and 1A are both going to have a similar impact on your back yard anyway, by that I mean the area between the addition and the alley will be basically unusable. Plan 2 allows you to hopefully be able to remove the corner fencing, making that turn safer for your neighbors.

Plan 2 will require you to basically reframe the backwall anyway, there will be very minimal added cost to frame a higher wall. It also has the simpliest roofing detail, which will reduce costs. It also appears to allow you to go a bit wider, a lift in a typical 1 car garage is about useless, the extra width around a car on a lift will make it much more useable.

To me the shop space in 1A would basically only be used for tool storage, I once had a 6x20ish space on the back of a garage, and that is what it was used for, I rebuilt a few engines in there but only because I had a few other projects in the garage that couldn't be moved, most of the time if that happened I rebuilt the engines in the house (they were go kart engines from my racing days). If you can actually go wider on plan 2 than the garage space on plan 1, then you can back the car out of the new garage into the driveway some and have plenty of shop space, plus a nice wall you can line with tool boxes and work benches. Alternatively you could add a bump out in the corner lot (if your allowed to that is that would give you close to the same or more useable work area as plan 1A.



The grass pavers I refrenced are can be found here: http://www.berkeysupply.com/product-640.html There are other similar types on the market, and they can be installed so they are below the first bit of top soil (so that you don't see the grid pattern with close cut grass). It is an expensive option, but for a small area it is highly affordable. The only real downside is for municipalities that require you to park on paved surfaces, however it prevents the roots of the grass from being crushed (which it what kills grass when you drive on it), and that is the main reasoning for requiring parking on paved surfaces. It also reduces run off compared to paved surfaces and even some lawns. So with some education of your HOA/city it should be allowed.

MPOWERD said:

I favor the shop plan for obvious reasons. The little woman favors plan 1A as well. She thinks its best to get the power tools as far away from her car as possible! Plus it does compliment the existing design of the property. Plan 2 is more economical but ends up wasting the yard space between the fence and the drive way on the alley side and no shop.

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OK, I still go with my suggestion and ask could you divide the two of in some way with a wall or opening panel or door ?

MPOWERD said:

Just checked Google Earth and copied the satellite Imagery to give a better understanding of the current house and garage layout. I have to say my line drawings sure do leave alot to be desired when compared to the what the house truly looks like! lol...

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The GOOGLE earth picture also give a better understanding as to why your choices are limited as that laneway with the curve does not make things easy for you.