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Looking to make my 2 car detached a 4 car, need suggestions

CAPTAIN_TR1

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
5
Location
Jersey Shore, NJ
OK, here's my situation. I live in NJ and have a 25'x25' 2 car (one double door) detached garage in the back corner of my property. I have a concrete driveway that goes straight from the street all the way back to the garage. The concrete isn't as wide as the whole garage, but a bit wider than the door (18 foot I think). It currently has a truss style ceiling which ***** for storage and I cannot put a lift in there. There is 220 electric with a dedicated subpanel out there but no heat or water (no real thoughts on doing that either).
I use the garage to store my race truck and a hot rod, and have several work benches, tool boxes, shelf systems, cabinets, and equipment around the perimeter of all the walls. There isn't much space to really lay anything out and work on larger things (Halloween floats for the kids, house projects, ect). I'd also like to start building another hot rod, so making this a 4 car garage has been on my mind for years now. Furthermore, I do not have a basement in the house and my attic is relatively small for the ranch style house. I'd like to incorporate a loft over top of this garage addition for storage as well.
Basically, I'd like to come forward one car length (20 feet) to make the garage 25'x45' with a loft on top of the front 2 bays. Ideally, I'd like the floor plan to be wide open, but I'm betting I'll need some sort of pole type support somewhere in the middle?

I'm looking for suggestions on how I should attempt to design this? In a perfect world I'd like to put a lift in there as well, but not sure if that's feasible with wanting the loft as well. What height requirements are need for a lift (roughly)?
Thinking about steps to the loft, should they be inside or outside? I'm thinking inside so I won't have to go outside to get upstairs when hunting a spare part.
Will I be able to reuse the current driveway as the garage floor, or will it need to be removed and a new slab poured? I think there is ample room on both sides to set footings/foundation, and possibly just fill in with concrete to fill the void.

As for the current portion of the garage with truss style beam roof. Is it possible to have the contractor somehow remove a portion of the truss and reinforce the area to accommodate a lift in the current original garage?

Do you have any suggestions on what to certainly include or exclude from this building project?

I'd love to hear some feedback!
 
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CAPTAIN_TR1

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
5
Location
Jersey Shore, NJ
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rburke65

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Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
12,349
Location
Canfield, Ohio
Do you have any restrictions on building? You won't need a post in a 25' span with a truss. A 12' sidewall would be a good start and give serious thought to an attic truss. If you want to store stuff do not rely on a regular truss to shore stuff, plus maybe insulation, plus a ceiling, etc. My wife had a '71 Torinio.....was a nice looking car. Good luck.
 
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WhiffySpark

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Oct 22, 2009
Messages
6,252
I've always wanted to do a double deep garage with two lifts in the back two stalls
 
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CAPTAIN_TR1

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
5
Location
Jersey Shore, NJ
Still sorting out ideas. Had the contractor look at it Monday, should hear a quote in a week or so. I told him I want to go 12 foot high walls to allow a lift. It will be two stories with an interior staircase that's 3 feet wide. Upper level will be 6 foot tall along sides and peak at 12 feet in the center. I told him bare walls so I can insulste and sheetrock at my leisure.
My only issue will be electric. It currently has a sub panel with 220 outlets located on the small wall to the right of the garage door. Power is run from the house underground, so that may cause an issue for the mason, and also could be tricky moving it to the side wall in order to cut down the from wall.
Toying with the idea of just leaving the panel where it is and trimming the wall to the edge of the panel (about 2 feet wide) and positioning the stairs to go right over it. I'm not thrilled about that idea because if I have 4 cars in there, that 2 foot wall will be annoying, but I might give in if it avoids bringing an electrician in.
Thoughts on that?
As for upstairs, I'm debating whether to install a couple windows or not, what do you think?

Should I put a thermostatically controlled attic fan on the roof too?

No, I have no real restrictions on the building with the town, so I'm pretty free there.
Yes, I'm a member of Torinocobra.com. Car is my father's original owner '70 torino cobra SCJ with factory dragpack. The other is an N code 429 automatic that's been since sold.
 

K13

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
2,225
Location
St. Albert, AB Canada
Is it on a slab right now? When I thought about doing a similar thing here I would have exceeded the size limit for a on slab construction and would have had to tear down and start from scratch with piles below the frost line.
 

rburke65

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
12,349
Location
Canfield, Ohio
Parents had a 2 car garage when I got out of the Navy I bought a car. Dad said if I would help he would make the garage deeper....which we did. We laid up the foundation, poured the floor, and had the two side walls made. We braced the back wall, cut it free....moved it rearward.....erected the two side walls and braced. A little scary but we got it done. Then built the roof. 2 wide by 2 deep!
 
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