Addition Ideas Wanted

[GAR64]

Hello. Looking for ideas to enlarge my garage. Only option is to add on to the front. Presently 36’ w and 30’ deep. Would like to add about 12 ft to the front. Has attic trusses. I could simply remove the front and add more trusses but not sure about tying in the roof. It’s a nice building and I want it to look better when complete. Any ideas? Perhaps a lower roof on front? Any ideas appreciated.

 

[CraigStu]

I think w/ the garage doors as close to the side walls as they are you don't have much choice other than add on the same width and roofline as you have. Well, I guess you could go larger. One of the problems w/ adding a new roof section usually is matching the shingles. We don't know how often anyone sees the garage from the side but, you may be able to splice in new shingles w/o too much of a visual problem. I would also look into whether you can get rid of the wall sections between the doors. They would be a pain once they are 12ft inside the garage. BTW, I agree, you have a really nice looking garage.

 

[tom in nh]

I would go up with the addition, instead of outwards.
Reuse the attic trusses, etc.
No foundation work, garage door relocation, blah, blah, etc.

 

[Firstram]

Why only 12 feet?

 

[GAR64]

So, the garage is mostly for cars. The 30' isn't quite enough for tandem loading of cars. Yes, I absolutely should have anticipated needing more room and should have made it deeper to begin with! The added depth will allow another three cars. The 12' that I stated was just a thought. I really only need a couple feet but realize that the cost won't be much different for a little larger. As I said, my main concern is to make it look like it belongs. I believe that I can eliminate the whole front wall, since it does not support anything. I will do the interior finishing myself. The present garage is stick built 2x6 walls. Fully insulated. Drywall on the walls and a corrugated metal ceiling.

 

[GAR64]

Interior

 

[WildBill]

Interior

Give me the Firebird, bam, problem solved! And as a fellow GJ member I won't even charge you for fixing the issue.

 

[thammel]

Seems like a pretty easy addition to the front. Need footer, foundation and pad. Then could move the existing front truss to the new front. Easier if you don't need to have attic trusses in the additional space. Then you just buy trusses, put them on top of the new walls. Biggest hassles will be moving the garage doors and refinishing the interior. If it were my space, I'd want attic trusses in the entire space up top.

 

[AC-WC]

Whichever route you go I would add some height so you could put a lift in. If you're going through all that expense it's not going to be that much more to get the building prepped for it. It's not the expense of the lift, it's updating the building to accept it.

 

[chinboys]

Add the 12 feet to the backside and don't worry about the look.

 

[ddurrett896]

Hello. Looking for ideas to enlarge my garage. Only option is to add on to the front. Presently 36’ w and 30’ deep. Would like to add about 12 ft to the front. Has attic trusses. I could simply remove the front and add more trusses but not sure about tying in the roof. It’s a nice building and I want it to look better when complete. Any ideas? Perhaps a lower roof on front? Any ideas appreciated.

What about leaving that structure as is, then add an addition that ties into the roof? Check out the picture in post #1 on this thread....

L-shaped garage

Good Evening Everyone: I am in the planning stages of building a new garage and wanted to ask some questions. A little info first...I want to build an L-Shaped garage, 10' sidewalls, 36' long and 26' deep at the two car end. I want the one car end to be 30' deep. This end (the L part) will be...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[firebirdparts]

There are some things you could do to make that prettier, but structurally, you need to just come forward with the most boring construction possible, like thammel says. He's right. For looks, you can put a little porch roof on there like an old gas station. You can make a little part of it longer with a separate roofline.

 

[sjvicker]

Tough call because I'm sure you'd want to keep that 2nd floor window. What if you brought it forward 12' and added an "eyebrow" or Pent roof awning over the doors?

 

[HotRod68Camaro]

How about coming forward enough for a lift and skip adding attic trusses. If you raise the height of the roof as well you wouldn't have to worry about the shingles matching either.

 

[loganb]

As mentioned, pretty straight forward to build out to the front. Getting roof to tie in/match shouldn't be an issue for a competent builder or you intentionally offset the roof height so the new one is lower or higher. I agree with the comments about making any addition on the front with scissor trusses or some other roof structure so you can get more clear height and open up options for a lift there that you don't have right now. I wouldn't stop at 12' though...I'd make the addition deep enough to put a car/lift in on it's own if you can swing the budget for it which means you're now bumping out 20' or more so your costs just went up substantially but as did the useability and amount of space gained

If you ever wanted, this could be the time to have a dedicated paint area as well as you could keep one of the existing bays on the outside separate, leave the door, put in an interior wall and voila you've got a paint or welding area or any other type of dedicated workspace that you don't want debris to get in from or escape.

 

[acer66]

I would also build something wide and high enough in the front of it to make the current garage disappear while being big enough for all your needs and keep the current garage as over flow or car storage like mentioned before.

Defiantly like loganb’s dedicated metal work space idea which I wish I had.

 

[GAR64]

thanks for the input. I had thought about a higher ceiling in the new section and it does make sense to make it large enough for a lift. 20' would add substantial space!

 

[bugnut]

If you make it taller when pouring the floor plan for a four post so you can park another 3 under them. And a foot wider allows for more passage space. This also makes it look like one space from the front view.
Also think of putting all the noise in a closet in the new addition, ie air compressor closet.