40x50 or 50x40?

[familytradition]

Starting to plan a new garage. The county says I can go up to a max of 2200 sqft, so I'm thinking a 40x50, since that seems to be a common(ish) sized pole barn. I'm not sure which side the doors should go on.

I'd like to do 4 cars across, and 2 deep. I plan to put in a service lift sometime before I actually need to park that many cars. Is that too ambitious for the space? Does anyone more familiar with common pole barn sizes have a better recommendation?

 

[ericm]

Having the doors on the gable end makes for a somewhat cheaper building. But when the trusses get too wide they get expensive because they have to ship them in two parts and assemble them on site. How wide that is varies but for the pole building company I went with it was 40.

10' per bay is kinda narrow unless the cars are small. 20' depth per space is also somewhat shallow especially if you want a workbench or cabinets on the back wall. If you stack cars two deep then you can park them close and leave more room on the back wall. Keep in mind that the dimension is the outer dimension. For my pole building the walls are 8.5" thick so 40' really ends up being about 38.5.

 

[carlaisle]

You can fit 8 cars in 2,000 square feet easily enough, but you're probably not going to enjoy working in there with them. I would say your planned 40x50 building is a pretty comfortable size for 4 bays, but the depth probably is not optimized. A longer, narrowed building may be better suited. i.e. 35' X 60'. Fellow I used to know had a 6 bay shop in his backyard. Building was probably about 35 x 100 per my occular tape measure. Had plenty of space to work around whatever he pulled in even with the doors closed and basically an infinite amount of storage along the one long wall. The best locations for the doors is a function of your preference and the layout of your land/the building on that land. If I had an upper limit on what I could build I would build right up to it. You can't use the 200 sq ft you don't have and a separate 200 sq ft structure probably doesn't have a great deal of utility.

 

[familytradition]

a separate 200 sq ft structure probably doesn't have a great deal of utility

That's a great point I hadn't thought of. . . mostly that I have two small sheds, and now I need to check if the limit is per structure, or in aggregate. . .

40x50 sounded like a "common" size? They don't seem to follow the usual increments of 4x8 other structures do.

 

[finn]

If you live where it snows regularly, lay out the building such that the doors are on the gable end.

By the time you add a bathroom, boiler / compressor room, and a couple of lifts, welder, shop tools, tool carts, etc, you’re not going to fit eight cars in there, in my experience.

 

[jack stand]

40x50 sounded like a "common" size? They don't seem to follow the usual increments of 4x8 other structures do.

Unless you plan on a lot of wall and roof sheathing, pick the size that you want!
Going with a bigger truss (depth) might be marginally more expensive than adding width.
Usually trying to minimize sheathing waste catches up with anyway as unless any gable end overhangs (soffits) are considered for the roof sheathing and BTW a building of this size any soffit under 24" will look silly. It's all about proportions.

 

[Glemon]

What size cars? I primarily work in little old sports cars, I would go with 50' wide and 40' deep to have room on the sides of the vehicles and still plenty of room on the ends.

If I you are working on bigger vehicles, or even smaller you might consider a non-uniform arrangement where the cars are parked tight and a few bays with more space for maintenance or restoration.

If you are wed to 8 cars and you want to a lot of work on them a four post lift for storage and a two post for work.

 

[kerrynzl]

100' across x 20 deep' with 2 x double doors [double doors allow for a trailer to be backed in]

6 bays with a workbench to one side,


I have a 1/3 sized 36 x 20 that I get 3 cars in comfortably.

 

[ericm]

If you are wed to 8 cars and you want to a lot of work on them a four post lift for storage and a two post for work.

Four post lifts probably cost less than the sq ft for a single car.

 

[carlaisle]

That's a great point I hadn't thought of. . . mostly that I have two small sheds, and now I need to check if the limit is per structure, or in aggregate. . .

I wouldn't ask that question. Just apply for the permit to build the 2,200 square foot building when you are ready.

40x50 sounded like a "common" size? They don't seem to follow the usual increments of 4x8 other structures do.

Don't worry about the common size. It's nowhere near as meaningful to a pole barn structure as finished living space.

At 20' deep you would only have 12" between the inside walls and bumpers with many vehicles. Some you won't be able to close the door with the bumper touching the front wall. Even if this is not a concern for you, it may be a concern for many potential buyers when you want/need to sell.

The storage lift may be a convenient solution if it is practical for your needs. Another (much more expensive) option that would depend on your land and wallet is a full basement. Your building can only have a 2,200 square foot footprint, but they didn't say anything about how deep that footprint could be. Precast hollow core concrete can easily span your building width so you could have storage on top and work space underneath or vice versa.

 

[MackMan]

I see this thread's a little more than a month old, not sure if OP ever resolved your question, but I built a 50x40 a couple years ago. I did doors on the 50' side and did 4 9x9 and one 6x6 The 6x6 is useful for my 2 motorcycles, but I could also fit the MG through it. 50' was not enough to do 5x 9' doors, so the alternative would have been 4 10' doors. My 9' doors have worked fine for everything I have, including my 1500 pickup... Probably would be tight with a dually, but I think 8' is the widest most vehicles can be legally, so it'd be doable if you're accurate.

2 deep will of course depend on how much extra stuff you have, but I had the same thought as you. I don't have that many cars now, but will likely get there someday. Fortunately several of my cars are pretty small, so I can be somewhat flexible.

If I do get to 8 cars in the garage, I'm realistic to the likelihood that I'll have to move some things in and out to actually work on stuff.

 

[4x4Pete]

If this is going to be a wood framed building, I'd put the doors on the gable end. I've witnessed too many garage door openings with saggy headers along the hip side. Yes it can be done without sagging but usually isn't. Time isn't good to wooden garage door openings on the hip side.