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Am I going to regret a 25’ width?

CraigStu

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Blacksburg, Va
I'd also probably go up to 28 outside dimension because material wise it doesn't cost much more than 25. But otherwise, you have 40ft depth so 25 is fine for a 'putter around in' shop. Depending on how it is layed out on your property I'd build it so it can be a garage for the next owner. You can save a bit now by framing for a garage door but then filling in. This way you don't need to spend $3000 on a door but later it would be fairly easy to cut out the fillin to install one.
 
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PoorUB

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Cars are 6 feet wide or less on average. Back one in and head the other and they take up NO more than 14' not considering door swing. Add 6 feet for DS and you have 20 which is typical of tract home garages. People do fine with 20 feet and a 16' door.
With room to get in and out of them the space need for a car is more like ten feet wide.

I have a 24 foot wide garage with a 16 foot door. I can get two full sized vehicles, Ram pickup and 2006 Trailblazer, with one parked tight to the right hand wall, in the middle room in between to get out, and room enough on the other to swing the door open. Then just enough room for a row of equipment, snowblowers, generator, garbage cans against the wall. No way in hell you could get three wide unless the were Smart Cars.

20 foot wide garage and they will park the same as I do, and zero storage room on the sides. Like I said, about 10 feet per vehicle.

My dad's garage was 32 feet wide and just right for three vehicles, except he had a 18 foot door. I could finagle one vehicle in and zig zag it back and forth towards the one wall, then pull the other two vehicles in, with room to walk around all except the first was tight to the wall. There was also a bit of store room and the far side of the third vehicle, but not a huge amount, maybe 4 feet.
 

Zeke

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With room to get in and out of them the space need for a car is more like ten feet wide.

I have a 24 foot wide garage with a 16 foot door. I can get two full sized vehicles, Ram pickup and 2006 Trailblazer, with one parked tight to the right hand wall, in the middle room in between to get out, and room enough on the other to swing the door open. Then just enough room for a row of equipment, snowblowers, generator, garbage cans against the wall. No way in hell you could get three wide unless the were Smart Cars.

20 foot wide garage and they will park the same as I do, and zero storage room on the sides. Like I said, about 10 feet per vehicle.

My dad's garage was 32 feet wide and just right for three vehicles, except he had a 18 foot door. I could finagle one vehicle in and zig zag it back and forth towards the one wall, then pull the other two vehicles in, with room to walk around all except the first was tight to the wall. There was also a bit of store room and the far side of the third vehicle, but not a huge amount, maybe 4 feet.
You don't understand what I said. Cars have to be parked passenger door to passenger door with the mirrors almost touching. Then you can swing the doors if the 2 cars together are 3 feet from one wall or the other. 14' for both is enough, Not terribly generous, but enough.
 
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Fess McGee

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Thanks to all for the input. A little embarrassed that I forgot that it's always best to work in increments of 4. Definitely bumping up to 28' wide and may go up to 32' if it's feasible based on budget and site plan.
 

PoorUB

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You don't understand what I said. Cars have to be parked passenger door to passenger door with the mirrors almost touching. Then you can swing the doors if the 2 cars together are 3 feet from one wall or the other. 14' for both is enough, Not terribly generous, but enough.
Sure, but far from practical. If you have cars with sun roofs that open you can park closer yet! But what does that have to do with the real world?
 

tx_mike

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Richmond TX
mine is 20wx45dx16tall with 12ft lean to on each side. Its the best we could afford to do what we needed. small project work area, small car(1970 Triumph) storage, RV storage under the lean to. I would love an extra 5ft width for now its good enough. my uncle has a 25x60 and its a nice size for small projects and hang out area. I have 2 8ft benches on the left side wall with my tool chest at the middle post. I plan on a mez deck in the back 10-12ft later in life for an office/storage. vertical space is cheaper than more concrete.
 

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niget2002

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Josephine, TX
My shop is 26'x50', but I do have a cover down one side and a 20' carport on the front.

There are few times where I wished the shop was wider, but I think it's mostly to do with what I do in the shop and how it's set up. I have a 4'x8' workbench on wheels in the middle of it and I find I'm pushing it side to side quite often. An extra 4' would keep me from doing this.

I also wish my shop was taller so I could more easily have a loft on one end.

I didn't get to plan my shop. It came with the house we purchased. Most of what was done was done well, but there's a few places I wish other choices were made.
 

CombatNinja

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Zeke, depends on the types of vehicles and the size of the driveway and such. I had a narrow, steep drive that my Porsche 911 could go at nose-in but had no chance of backing up into (it would've scraped terribly). So backing the 911 in was not an option unless I wanted to do a 20 point turn in the driveway. The other options was my wife backing her Miata in. It would clear if done just right but she lacked the skills to do this without me being involved. It just wasn't practical in our case to do the one nose in/one nose out thing.

Given, a bunch of room, it is easy and the 'better driver' just sort of defaults to being the one that backs in.
 
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PoorUB

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It's not practical to back one car in and head in the other? With 3 feet to open each driver's door? I guess I've been doing it all wrong for 40 years.
You can do it, I could do it, but my wife can't, and many other people couldn't without doing damage to the car of building. I bet I can do things you can't, just because I can, doesn't make it practical.
 

mikegt4

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sw ohio
My garage is 26x48 outside (doors at from and back of the 48) and it works fine for 2 cars wide + room for a workbench on one wall. Currently I did some major reorganization in order to get another vehicle inside for some extended work and had to jam 3 wide at the other end of the garage. Now I have a 1954 Ford F-100, a Triumph TR4 and my 1997 Dodge 1 ton van side by side. I can't get out of the van's driver's door and have to enter/exit out the back door.
 
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Boogerman

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aspen cove hill
This doesn't address your question directly, but is an open ended question. If you're going to retire here and it's going to be your space, have you given true consideration to what you want to do in the space, and how it is configured?

I recently retired, and spend a lot of time out in my shop. One of the things that I'm grateful I anticipated is that I made the shop habitable, not just a covered area that keeps the rain off and most of the wind out.

I separated the "shop" from the garage. The shop is fully insulated and climate controlled, and I keep it at 67 degrees 24/7/365. It is clean and comfortable and I like spending 8-10 hours a day there. I also have a lot of open, usable space in it. I have separate storage areas and "dirty" work areas for things like welding, grinding, wood sawing and sanding, etc.

The garage is also fully sealed and insulated, but isn't climate controlled as much. It's comfortable 8 months of the year.

Your initial description described to me your needs as:

1) Nice clean, sealed shop with year round climate control to hang out and be "your space".
2) Garage area for working on one vehicle and/or projects, heatable with a wood burner and somewhat inhabitable.
3) Storage shed for yard supplies and equipment and items to maintain 10 acres.

I don't know what the shop activities you like to do are. Those should dictate what area 1 and 2 are built like, and their size.

I'd recommend the sealed shop area be at least 25 x 15 feet. That's big enough for workbenches on one wall, storage shelves against outside walls, and space for a large work table in the center. It would also be big enough to have some toolboxes and chairs or a couch, and a wood stove, or preferably a mini-split or such to provide constant climate control. If you don't have this improved space, you'll lose 4 to 8 months of the year where it's just not pleasant to be in the shop unless you just have to do something. By the time you start a fire, get it warmed up, get your stuff out, half the day is used up; plus it's hard to make yourself go out and do it. Same if it gets too hot inside to work by 10:30 and doesn't cool off till long after dark.

The garage area, I'd make at least 24 feet deep (30 would be preferable), and 28 to 36 feet wide. 28 feet wide would give one work bay to weld, woodwork, etc in and one vehicle parking/working bay. 36 feet would allow additional work area, or parking 2 vehicles.

If you make a separate storage shed for the lawn mower, weed sprayer, shovels, rakes, post hole diggers, chemicals, etc, you'll be a lot happier. Keeping that stuff out of your main garage is an incredible blessing and pays off in being able to work freely in the space.

I respectfully disagree with the bigger is better prevalent attitude; I downsized my shop to about half and once I got the excess stuff disposed of, have been quite happy with it. However, at 36x48 that is bigger than you are planning. The one thing I really regret is I don't have a shed for lawn and garden stuff. That's something I didn't anticipate correctly how irritating it would be in the garage space. I'll probably eventually build a garden shed to take those things out of the workspace.
 

tjansson

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Northern Vermont
I have a 24x24. One half is for working on a car or projects and the other half has tool boxes, storage, tools, dirt bike, etc.. I would take an increase depth over 5 feet in width. If I didn't have a huge table saw, dirt bike, and got real efficient with space, I could probably eek out another spot for a car. It would really be nice to have the bay for maintenance and a bay for the project car. If I had another 10 ft in depth, it would be easy to get those 2 spots.
 

b-boy

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Buffalo NY
If you build close to your 250 year old tree you may kill it anyway. You may alter its ground water and starve it or flood it. With big trees it can take 5 to 7 years for this to happen. Good luck.
This is true - be careful. If you hit the root system when they're digging it might impact the tree. I killed one of my maple trees when they dug a trench for water about 15 ft from the tree. It took about 2 years before it died.
 

CombatNinja

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I agree. Anything done in the root zone of a 250 year-old tree is likely to have a very negative impact on its health.
 

jeep63

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Maryland, USA
Go as wide and as deep as you can. At 25' you will have to keep the side walls clean so you have room to open doors and/or work. My garage is about the size you are thinking and I keep everything on the back wall with the exception of some cabinets. I park/work on my Jeeps and they are not big, so the space works. I cannot park my truck in the garage and close the door. Where I live, I am stuck with the size I have due to being on the water and the communist approach to allowing people to build on their property.

If you are careful with placement of you workbench and cabinets you will make it work, but you will never feel like it is roomy.
 

Zeke

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You can do it, I could do it, but my wife can't, and many other people couldn't without doing damage to the car of building. I bet I can do things you can't, just because I can, doesn't make it practical.
My wife heads in. I give her a bumper stop and tennis ball and she can land on the spot every time. But I get your point. Every day I see drivers that can't parallel park so I guess just backing up in general is not part of their driving skillset.

The reality here in the city though is that out of 3 dozen houses on my block, 4 owners actually can park a car, or even 2 ( but that's rare) in their garage. In my alley the majority of garage doors have never been opened in the 25 years I have lived here. Those that have driveways from the street never use the garage.

So I defer to you, it's too much trouble to be efficient. Build bigger and bigger so you don't need any talent or organizational skills. Unfortunately, I've never lucked out to have more than the basic 20 x 20 in all the houses I've lived in except one that had a 3 car garage. That one had my race karts in the 3rd spot.
 

Renegade1LI

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long island ny
One thing I found to be a big help is cast dollies. I have 3 sets and it's great to be able to move big stuff easy, especially for for long term storage. Anything not permanent gets wheels, big help to organize smaller spaces.
 

BigNuge

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Live Free or Die
I’m at 35’ wide, and I’d easily go another 12’ if I could.

I’m in the process of selling and moving or a new place, and that place has a shop already. Slightly smaller (30’ x 50’) but it’s wide open trussed construction, not a support post to be found! I absolutely cannot wait to be in my new shop!! The house is nice too….lol
 

PoorUB

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Fargo, ND
My wife heads in. I give her a bumper stop and tennis ball and she can land on the spot every time. But I get your point. Every day I see drivers that can't parallel park so I guess just backing up in general is not part of their driving skillset.
And when she wants to driver her car, you need to move yours.

Can you wide move your vehicle out, get hers out, and they put them both back into the garage without your help?

My wife would have the whole works in a pile of debris. She is a decent driver going forward, back backing up is not in her skill set. She will not parallel park either. No spacial skill. We often park mu Ram in the garage and leave her Trailblazer in the driveway. It requires me to back up between the deck on the house and her vehicle, maybe 8 or 9 feet in between. I can do it without issue. If she happens to be in the Ram when I do it she cringes, and has said, "I can not believe you can do that!"
 
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