For ones thinking of building a 24' deep garage

Kevin54 · Apr 27, 2013

For ****'s and giggles, I pulled my truck into the 24' deep side of my garage to see if it would fit. I know that since the weather is starting to warm up that some are going to dive into the new garage waters, and over the last month or so, there has been some discussion on garage depth. My other side of the garage is 28' deep, but this side is only 24' because I have a 4' deep closet.

I was working on my tractor today on the deep side, so I wanted to pull my truck in on the short side to see if it would fit. It does, but barely, with my desk up front. If I had a bench all the way across I would literally have 12" clearance in the front and 4" behind the truck. A tight fit for sure.

So for anyone deciding to build a garage, and only going 24' deep, you may want to reconsider and go AT LEAST 4' more t 28' minimum for depth. On my 28' side, I have my air compressor up front, plus two roller cabinets, and have all sorts of room to walk around the front of the truck, plus squeeze behind the truck. Once I have it over there, I'll post pics of what 4' of extra depth gets you.

So anyways, since I was trying it on for size and the truck was there, I thought I'd post pics up of what a full-size 4 door truck gets you as far as room in the garage. :beer:

UpstateNY · Apr 27, 2013

Thanks, just speccing out my build now, food for thought :thumbup:

.

justsam · Apr 27, 2013

Good point. Mine is 30' just for the reasons you cite.

That also looks like a 6.5' truck bed. Gets worse with an honest 8' bed!

Gary S · Apr 27, 2013

I made my garage 48' deep. Even my limo fits.

Kevin54 · Apr 27, 2013

justsam said:
Good point. Mine is 30' just for the reasons you cite.

That also looks like a 6.5' truck bed. Gets worse with an honest 8' bed!

Yep, it's the short bed. That is the first time I had it parked on that side so I was curious as to how much room there actually was. Not much at all for sure. But where it sets, it's surprising what just 4' give you as far as fitting a vehicle into the garage and the workspace. I can only imagine what another 2' on top of the 28' as justsam has. Just a couple of feet makes a hell of a difference with what you can do. :headscrat

Free Willie · Apr 27, 2013

UpstateNY said:
Thanks, just speccing out my build now, food for thought .

Being from upstate NY you might have a snow plow mounted on your pickup.
I went 32' deep for that reason. My regular cab 8' bed with plow fits with room to spare (about 4') from the work bench. These pics don't show the distance all that well but you get the idea.

Stuart in MN · Apr 27, 2013

It all depends on how big your vehicles are...I have a 24' deep garage and have no problems with my '61 Bonneville.

jethrodawg · Apr 27, 2013

My current garage is 24 deep. Next house will be 26 deep.

larry_g · Apr 27, 2013

For a PARKING garage 24' , maybe less, will work. For a WORKING garage then 24' gets a bit tight. So Kevin, I concur with your feces.

lg
no neat sig line

wideopen1967 · Apr 27, 2013

Mine is only 20' and it *****. I purchased my house with this shop on side. If you plan on actually working on vehicles in this space I would never go less than 36'.

Responder · Apr 27, 2013

For the depth, I went 30'. I love the room at the front and the back, no regrets whatsover!

Kevin, I see you have a traffic light. I acquired one as well and my question is did you wire it up to do anything different or just light up. I am planning to wire mine up so that when the door opens, the green light comes on. Once you break the beam driving in, the light will change to yellow and then red when you get to the desired location. More of a novelty and conversation item than anything else. I will have to sit down and figure out how to wire that up.

Sorry for the hijack

Zelatore · Apr 27, 2013

My brother is currently working on his new build specs. For sizing, I told him to just look up the over-all dimisions of an F350 long box dually and build around that. He doesn't have one and has no plans to get one, but he lives in rural NC so it's an easy bet if he sells a future owner may have something like that. And it never hurts to have the extra space if you only have a smaller truck.

By the same token, I told him I'd spec at least one section big enough for an RV. Again, he doesn't have one and doesn't want one, but it'll be good for resale in the future. Sort of like building a 3-bed, 3-bath house as a minimum these days even if you don't have a bunch of kids.

synchro7 · Apr 27, 2013

My original garage is 28' wide and 32' deep. It was OK untill the toy and tool collection got to big. So I went crazy and built a shop that's 40'X64' 2560 sq-ft. Guess what!! I ran out of room. Can't afford a bigger shop, so the toy collection got thinned.

jethrodawg · Apr 27, 2013

Responder said:
For the depth, I went 30'. I love the room at the front and the back, no regrets whatsover!

Kevin, I see you have a traffic light. I acquired one as well and my question is did you wire it up to do anything different or just light up. I am planning to wire mine up so that when the door opens, the green light comes on. Once you break the beam driving in, the light will change to yellow and then red when you get to the desired location. More of a novelty and conversation item than anything else. I will have to sit down and figure out how to wire that up.

Sorry for the hijack

You can buy a "Park Zone" sytem for <20 bucks that does just what you mentioned.

Ray916MN · Apr 28, 2013

So we all agree bigger is better, but given a square footage limitation, the best depth/width dimensions depend on what you're going to use the garage for.

I was limited to 1200 sq. ft. and looked at 30x40 and 24x48 and eventually picked 24x48. The more rectangular layout enabled me to put in two 18' wide garage doors and have an 8' wide center area between the bays, which was perfect for motorcycle parking. It also made it easier to get stuff in and out without having to move anything else. I use my motorcycles much more frequently than I work on my truck...

Mikea57 · Apr 28, 2013

I`ve got a 24x26 and I sure wish it was bigger. I`m considering adding about a 5x8 lean to off the back to house the air compressor, some of the ladders, and some of the pool tools. That, and another lean-to off one of the sides to cover the tractor and my jon boat and I think I`d be set. (For a year or two...)

kmk7110 · Apr 28, 2013

Dodges are a slight bit smaller on size wise if i remember correctly. I remember doing an installation and the customers truck (dodge) literally just fit. He hit the front of the garage with the bumper and the back would have to be absolutely square to fit. He said dodge was the only manufacturer that made a full size that would fit. No disrespect to dodge owners, just an observation for thought as well.

NHBandit · Apr 28, 2013

In my 30x40 garage (30 deep) if I had to I could easily fit 2 cars across the back wall and still pull 2 more cars in through the overhead doors. I also have a 16x10 office on one end. 30' deep is a good size no matter what the width. More is better of course but 30 is nice.

NUTTSGT · Apr 28, 2013

The house garage is 24x32, luckily it's for parking only as I have an F150.

JCQuick · Apr 28, 2013

the shop I'm planning is 28w x 32 deep and it may go deeper My vws are 14' each end to end and i want to get 4 inside and still have room to work

little d · Apr 28, 2013

Kevin, thank you.
This is why I always suggest to anyone wanting to build a new shop to stake it out and actually pull your car/trucks into it and walk around....24' sounds like a lot until its filled up...

Dick in Wisconsin · Apr 28, 2013

Kevin is 100% right. Like so many things, you can never go big enough.

My township limits me to 1000sf (was 600sf until I worked with the town board to increase it). I want to have a 16' wide double car door and two 8' with single car doors with room for 2' shelving on either end and some separation between theoretically four vehicles.

I'm planning on 25' deep and 40' wide. I'd prefer to go 1200sf (28' deep and the rest in length), but I'm stuck. I plan on going with 9' in height and then use 2' or 3' deep shelving or pallet racking over the workbench or machine tools across the back.

Thanks to Kevin to bring this up!

Twiggss · Apr 28, 2013

Stuart in MN said:
It all depends on how big your vehicles are....

this.

some of us aren't parking over compensation land yachts

leonr@cox.net · Apr 28, 2013

I have inadequate room on my residential lot to build a 2 car garage on the west end. There is just barely enough-15 1/2 '-to attach a one car. Has anyone heard of putting it in front of the house? It would be setback the required 20' from street. I am considering a 30' W X 35' deep brick,gable roofed 2 car with the overhead doors perpendicular to the street. You would turn into the driveway and hang a left into the garage. It fits nicely. I am just concerned for the aesthetics and street appeal. It would be an exact match for the brick veneer and forest green trim of the house. One friend said that there are some doing it recently.

<> Leonr

Kevin54 · Apr 28, 2013

Twiggss said:
this.

some of us aren't parking over compensation land yachts

I really don't think I drive an over compensating "Land Yacht". I was just posting a pic to show the room in a 24' garage as far as depth. And as far as over compensating, the back fenders are rotting out, it's an '02, and I needed a truck. It was bought used for $9000 with 91,000 miles on it. To me, that's not compensating for anything. The other reason for having it was so that I could take our Golden Retriever with us when we were out and about. Oh, and I get 12 mpg.

marty_p · Apr 28, 2013

Kevin:

I really appreciate all the advice, and you know that most others here do as well.

Preparation in everything is always key, but there will always be those that will buy a vehicle before getting an insurance quote.

Thanks again! :thumbup:

atfulldraw · Apr 28, 2013

Twiggss said:
this.

some of us aren't parking over compensation land yachts

your pitiful dinghy won't tow my tractor.....or my 5th wheel

:3gears:

justanengineer · Apr 28, 2013

I think its a simple matter of knowing your limitations and designing appropriately. If you didnt have the desk and cabinets on the wall you wouldnt have a problem. I see a large workbench wasting space in the background, so why have a desk as well? Waste not, want not as Momma used to say.

One thing that I firmly believe in is having small (5-6 ft) benches, mainly bc it forces me to keep them clean, but also bc Id rather have the space for shelves, cabinets, or machines. Personally, I'd tear the desk and cabinets on that wall out, and downsize that bench to create storage as appropriate to compensate for "lost" room ahead of the truck.

Slednut · Apr 28, 2013

That's why I have an old 2003 Tundra pickup. My garage is 25x25, I'm adding another 24 feet to it this summer.

ed_v · Apr 28, 2013

My shop is 24' deep and I have no proplems. I mostly work on old hot rods.

Ed

PhantomEB · Apr 29, 2013

hell I only got 22 deep but I make everything on the one side on casters to move around if I need to get my ram2500 ex cab short box on 35s in there to work. Truck is too big to park in there daily.

WQ59B · Apr 29, 2013

My shop is 24x48, 4-single car doors plus a people door, all along the long side. No issues with 17~18.5-ft cars. My 2500HD CC is just over 20-ft, but I've never put it in my shop.
20-ft deep should be outlawed.

Gerald O · Apr 29, 2013

justanengineer said:
I think its a simple matter of knowing your limitations and designing appropriately. If you didnt have the desk and cabinets on the wall you wouldnt have a problem. I see a large workbench wasting space in the background, so why have a desk as well? Waste not, want not as Momma used to say.

One thing that I firmly believe in is having small (5-6 ft) benches, mainly bc it forces me to keep them clean, but also bc Id rather have the space for shelves, cabinets, or machines. Personally, I'd tear the desk and cabinets on that wall out, and downsize that bench to create storage as appropriate to compensate for "lost" room ahead of the truck.

Yep. Moving an ill-placed desk is a lot cheaper than building the garage 4 feet deeper. Not that everyone doesn't want a bigger garage.

Mine's going to be 24'. My Chevy Suburban K2500 is about 18' long. It'll fit fine. Unfortunately my 27' express cruiser and its trailer wont. Damn!

Kevin54 · Apr 29, 2013

justanengineer said:
I think its a simple matter of knowing your limitations and designing appropriately. If you didnt have the desk and cabinets on the wall you wouldnt have a problem. I see a large workbench wasting space in the background, so why have a desk as well? Waste not, want not as Momma used to say.

One thing that I firmly believe in is having small (5-6 ft) benches, mainly bc it forces me to keep them clean, but also bc Id rather have the space for shelves, cabinets, or machines. Personally, I'd tear the desk and cabinets on that wall out, and downsize that bench to create storage as appropriate to compensate for "lost" room ahead of the truck.

Slow down there cowboy. For one, the bench is not wasting space. For another, I have a desk to have my computer on to do what I need to do. If you look at the desk it is full. The desk is 32" deep. So if I take the 32" and add the 12" to it, which 12" is the room between the truck and desk, that gives me roughly 44" in front. If I pulled the truck in far enough and give myself room to walk around the back of the truck, then I'm only going to have a couple of feet clearance in front of the truck.

And even if I had small benches, what the hell would make the difference as far as front and back clearance? The bench you looked at is used, does have tools and such all the way down, so why would that bench even enter into the equation? And just because you have short benches and it forces you to keep them clean, what does that have anything to do with things? 24' is 24'. It's not going to change anything if the side bench is 2' and clean or 20' and has tools on it. I have working surfaces.

If you go back to the first post, I showed what a 24' garage looks like with a fullsize truck in it. Nothing more, nothing less. the truck gets used, it's not a Land Yacht to whoever the Prius owner is, and I really don't give a rats *** one way or another whether my truck has room on that side or not. It's the first time the truck has ever been pulled in on that side of the garage, and it will be the last time it sets on that side. I just happened to have my Cub Cadet Compact on the other side working on it, and my truck was sitting outside in front of the other door.

So you can put up your 5' clean benches that your forced into cleaning. That's your doings. All I'm doing is showing some what a 24' deep garage looks like with a fullsize. Oh, and BTW....that side is only 14' wide too. So if a person has some roller boxes, there really isn't a lot of room no matter where you put a 5' bench.

jethrodawg · Apr 30, 2013

Twiggss said:
this.

some of us aren't parking over compensation land yachts

Wow, so anyone who drives a truck is compensating?

I don't think you'll see a mini Cooper towing a boat or car hauler

And heaven forbid it ever happens but in the event of a head-on collision I'll gladly have my family in my F150 Supercrew instead of a Prius.

There's tons of reasons to drive a full-size vehicle so casting aspersions on people who do seems rather juvenile IMO.

For ones thinking of building a 24' deep garage

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