18x24 workspace. Am I going to be miserable?

[Richie Rich]

So, my initial plans and bids came back for a 48x38 and lets just say it is way out of the realm of what my wallet can handle. Gotta love southern California construction prices.

To save money, I have cut 1/4 of the square footage from the project. That 1/4 changes framing, roofing etc costs dramatically due to being able to leave the existing garage space intact and adding on, rather then taking it down to one wall and rebuilding.

Problem is, that 1/4 was half of what I had staked out as a work area, leaving me with a 24'deep by 18' wide space. There will still be a 24x48 tandem garage for regular garagey things like parking daily drivers and storing ****.

I have been debating trying to make the space deeper but that comes with re-drafting and engineering costs as well as it starts getting really tight between the front wall and my turn in area (you have to make a left turn to go from my driveway to the garage).

At the end of the day am I going to be able to pull off things like taking cars apart and putting them back together in a space this size or am I not gonna be happy with the space?

 

[SchillerM]

That is essentially a 2 car garage as a workshop. I suppose it depends on what you plan to do in there. If you have a toolbox and workbench that leaves a lot of room to open up a car and work on it. If you fill it with a Bridgeport and big lathe, space might be tight..
A 4 car parking garage and 2 car toy garage.. I'd be happy!!
Matt

 

[Richie Rich]

That is essentially a 2 car garage as a workshop. I suppose it depends on what you plan to do in there. If you have a toolbox and workbench that leaves a lot of room to open up a car and work on it. If you fill it with a Bridgeport and big lathe, space might be tight..
A 4 car parking garage and 2 car toy garage.. I'd be happy!!
Matt

One car or truck, toolboxes, workbench, welder, drill press, press, compressor and some storage cabinets. Maybe a 4 post lift

My only real worry is space in front of or behind a parked car to be able to do things like pull an engine or similar while still having room in front to use the wall space for cabinets.

I can only go another 2 feet deeper at a max. I have my engineer on hold until I resolve this. Kinda thinking I am making a big deal over nothing.

 

[larry_g]

At the end of the day am I going to be able to pull off things like taking cars apart and putting them back together in a space this size or am I not gonna be happy with the space?

Kinda depends on whether that car is a Porsche or a '62 Cadillac. Is the 18x24 enclosed on all sides or is it open to the rest of the garage?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Richie Rich]

Kinda depends on whether that car is a Porsche or a '62 Cadillac. Is the 18x24 enclosed on all sides or is it open to the rest of the garage?

lg
no neat sig line

Toyota pickups and a 60's GM A body.
No plans on getting into Caddys or fullsize trucks anytime soon.

Open on one side to the rest of the garage.

 

[larry_g]

With a A body being near 200 inches long then 24' is going to be tight. You'll have to do as the rest of us poor folk had to do and that is work with the garage door open and the car 1/2 in the drive or have the car sideways in the building for extensive work. I once read an explanation from a guy that proposed that one needs 4 bays to restore a car, one for the chassis, one for the body, one for the interior, and one for the tools/work bench area. Made perfect sense to me after doing a frame off in a one and a half car garage. We adapt to what we have.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Moose97]

I have a 16X20 shop. It's tight but it beats what I was doing for 10 years! At 18X24 if you don't over-crowd the space you should have enough room to work comfortably. If I truly had 16' width it would be nice. If I had the full 20' depth I'd want more. You should easily have a 15' wide space by 21' or 22' depth after storing stuff in there. Maybe more. It won't be ideal but you should be good.

 

[fowldarr]

In short: It's going to be too small

Longer explanation: You already doubt it's size. When you begin doing work, everytime that you run out of space you are going to think about whether or not you should have made it bigger to begin with. I think this is more of a psychological exercise then a physical one. Just my .02 cents.

 

[ndm]

I have a 20X 19 garage with a 76 A body.It is 20' from front to back and 19' wide...

I am very unhappy with the dimensions. It is soooooo tight with 2 cars parked in there

I suggest you go with at least 24 wide and 26' deep.

Unfortunately my A body has to stay outside for now until I can do an addition on to the garage.

 

[isb cornbinder]

My neighbour just built a 4700 sf house and the city allowed him to build a maximum of 20"X20" or 400 SF tiny garage. His wife claimed half of the garage for her wine making. The space that is left for him is not big enough for his Lexus, if he wants to open the driver's door inside the shop. He is asking $4.700,000 for it all. Lots of luck with that. I have just about 900sf and I need more.

 

[Richie Rich]

In short: It's going to be too small

Longer explanation: You already doubt it's size. When you begin doing work, everytime that you run out of space you are going to think about whether or not you should have made it bigger to begin with. I think this is more of a psychological exercise then a physical one. Just my .02 cents.

I agree wholeheartedly with you. But, I could build a 100x100 and still think it is too small.

Mother nature, a vacuum and all that.

Doubting the size of something.... Hmm, sounds Freudian.

 

[Richie Rich]

With a A body being near 200 inches long then 24' is going to be tight. You'll have to do as the rest of us poor folk had to do and that is work with the garage door open and the car 1/2 in the drive or have the car sideways in the building for extensive work. I once read an explanation from a guy that proposed that one needs 4 bays to restore a car, one for the chassis, one for the body, one for the interior, and one for the tools/work bench area. Made perfect sense to me after doing a frame off in a one and a half car garage. We adapt to what we have.

lg
no neat sig line

If I wasn't like the rest of us poor folk, I could have built the 1st design and not had to worry about this.

I suspect that, umm, overflow from taking cars apart will creep into the rest of the garage. That is fine, just trying to keep one area as the designated workspace.
The last place I lived in I did a frameoff on a Toyota truck and yeah, they take up 3-4 spaces when blown apart. I did that in a 24x24 garage and still managed to stuff my daily in there at the end of the day. Cab/bed had to live outside for a while and I had the shelves and rafters stuffed with interior and trim parts.

I have been garageless for over 3 years now. Well, I have two garages but the attached was converted to a family room by the previous homeowner and the detached is 8x18. I could barely fit a car in there if I had nothing else in it and climbed out the window to get in/out.

 

[Richie Rich]

My neighbour just built a 4700 sf house and the city allowed him to build a maximum of 20"X20" or 400 SF tiny garage. His wife claimed half of the garage for her wine making. The space that is left for him is not big enough for his Lexus, if he wants to open the driver's door inside the shop. He is asking $4.700,000 for it all. Lots of luck with that. I have just about 900sf and I need more.

I just finished a house that had a 20x20 with decorative arched doors and stonework. It is so small that the client has nothing else in there and can barely stuff a Mercedes and a Honda Insight in it. He has to fold the mirrors in on the Benz to get it in the door.
The kicker is there is a 2 level car elevator to a lower 10x20 stall. Even with that it seems tiny.

Can be yours for the low, low price of $11,000,000. $21,000,000 if you want the house next door too.

 

[dougf]

So, not very helpful, but... if it's all you can afford and you love the house and area, be super happy with what you have. It's all perspective man. Millions of people would love to havsee that. With that being said, o would plan for overhead storage and make the most of it.

 

[PoorOwner]

The 20 x20 2 car garages in California is just awful. It's cramped and there is almost always a water heater there


Try to make it 20 x 24 deep at the minimum

 

[02camaro86]

that is just a touch bigger than my garage at 16x24. those 2 extra feet you would have would be imensly helpful to me as far as getting around the lift and around cars.

I do all sorts of work in there, engines transmissions, cars, and trucks i can even fit a long bed crew cab Silverado in there. overall being only 16ft wide is not a huge issue but it would be more comfy and would allow for room for drill press, hydraulic press, trans jacks, and other larger tools. most of the work is done door opened.

below is my build thread with some completed pics to help you get an idea of what youd be working with once completed

I would go for it if that's all you can afford

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=273232

 

[ard]

Any way to build the shell first- then DIY the rest as you save $$?

Or increase how much you are DIYing?

Right now prices in CA are nuts.

 

[RVDan]

My garage is only twenty feet wide with a bunch of posts in the middle. Yeah it *****. It's not bad with a small car I can park off center to be able to open the door but a full size truck is a tight squeeze since the garage door openings are a bit less than nine feet.

 

[brownbagg]

the problem are the daily drivers and light storage, if you keep them out, its doable, if you have to keep that stuff in, then there no reason to even build a shop.

 

[PhantomEB]

18' wide as a dedicated workspace for one vehicle I say is suitable. I have a 24x24 and If you search my build you will see that I am aiming to keep floor space to the max with shitloads of overhead cupboards. Hell I am selling my box and a half for a more suitable 32-36" wide tool chest/cabinet. Soon a press will be in the back corner on casters.

Need more info on toyotas/a body body configurations. I suspect I will say if you can go 26' deep that's what I would go.

 

[Richie Rich]

that is just a touch bigger than my garage at 16x24. those 2 extra feet you would have would be imensly helpful to me as far as getting around the lift and around cars.

I do all sorts of work in there, engines transmissions, cars, and trucks i can even fit a long bed crew cab Silverado in there. overall being only 16ft wide is not a huge issue but it would be more comfy and would allow for room for drill press, hydraulic press, trans jacks, and other larger tools. most of the work is done door opened.

below is my build thread with some completed pics to help you get an idea of what youd be working with once completed

I would go for it if that's all you can afford

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=273232

Cool looking garage, nice cars too.

That doesn't look too bad. A little tight width wise but it looks like work can get done in there.

 

[Richie Rich]

Any way to build the shell first- then DIY the rest as you save $$?

Or increase how much you are DIYing?

Right now prices in CA are nuts.

That is probably the route I will take.
Paying for a dried in shell, I will do the electrical, speakers and TVs myself then insulate and do a metal ceiling. Still unsure on if I will do drywall or a combo of metal, slatwall and pegboard.

Will probably pay someone to do the flooring.

And yes, pricing is NUTS. Paying finished house prices for a dried in shell of a garage.
Only going to get worse as all the green building mandates get more stringent and when the state mandates prevailing wage for residential construction (probably next year).

 

[Richie Rich]

the problem are the daily drivers and light storage, if you keep them out, its doable, if you have to keep that stuff in, then there no reason to even build a shop.

Daily and not being worked on projects will go in the other part of the garage.
Christmas lights and other random **** go in the basement/crawl space.
Garden stuff goes in the garden shed.

Work space is cars only. No lawnmowers, bikes, garden tools etc.

 

[Richie Rich]

18' wide as a dedicated workspace for one vehicle I say is suitable. I have a 24x24 and If you search my build you will see that I am aiming to keep floor space to the max with shitloads of overhead cupboards. Hell I am selling my box and a half for a more suitable 32-36" wide tool chest/cabinet. Soon a press will be in the back corner on casters.

Need more info on toyotas/a body body configurations. I suspect I will say if you can go 26' deep that's what I would go.

Cars/Trucks:

67 Buick Special
87 Toyota 4x4 extracab
87 Toyota 2wd
86 Toyota 4x4

Daily drivers
2010 Tacoma X-Runner
93 Lexus LS400 (probably going to be replaced with a 4th gen 4runner).

All will not live in the garage full time. The 86 is a non running shell/future project and I may sell the 87 Extracab as I am tired of dealing with California's smog BS.

 

[sberry]

With those building dimensions how did you come to the shop sizing?

 

[Kev442]

My only contribution is that the bumpers and front clip are usually off the car for the majority of the work. My 66 is 16' feet long sitting like that, so 24' deep seems liveable. I parted out and worked on many A bodies in a one stall garage with an attached storage shed in my youth, that was 2' of space on each side!

 

[Richie Rich]

With those building dimensions how did you come to the shop sizing?

Placement dictated the size.

It is an exstension and deepening of an existing two car garage.
Basically take a 24'x24' 2 car and stick a 38'x24' 3 car in front of it.

Dimensions are dictated by driveway in front, existing garage space in the rear, steep drop off on one side and mandatory setback on the other.

Basically, it is what will fit and not cost me almost $200k.

If I can remember my photobucket login or find image hosting that doesn't ****, I can post the sketchup of it.

 

[Richie Rich]

Ok, lets see if these show up.

 

[crewchief888]

my garage is 19D X 22W, ive managed to sqeeze 3 vehicles in during the winter, the wifes saturn vue, my s-10 blazer mud toy, and my harley. theres just enough room to get to the drivers door of the saturn,
no way to get the passenger door open on the saturn, or open the s-10 drivers door. i have 16" from the right side of the s-10 to my toolboxes.

then last year things got a a little more crowded with the addition of a drill press, belt sander and shear. the s-10 got relocated to parking in back of the garage, so theres a little more room, but not much.

i built the s-10 (6 months from start to finish, for the "get it running stage") in the garage, engine/trans swap, cage, rock sliders, bumpers, seats, exhaust, wiring, fuel cell, lots of body mods, SAS & axle swaps.

i make it work, usually takes a LOT preplanning if i'm about to do work thats going to take more than a couple days. these days i do most of the work in the driveway in front of the garage.
i have a narrow single lane driveway, i try not to block access to the garage if i can help it.

i was doing some outdoor woodworking when this pic was taken, so my table saw and misc **** was on "her" side of the garage

 

[ozyborn]

18x24? yep miserable. You will want more room. Then if you went 180x240 you would be miserable as well because then you need a ton more tools to fill the space and that takes a lot of $$

 

[rburke65]

Well if I had to vote, I'd say YES ....I think you will be.

 

[racerex]

I was limited by zoning as to how large I could go. I'm doing a full body-off resto in an 18x24. Everything except my workbench is on casters, so I can reconfigure the space with ease. You just have to be smart as to how you use the space.