Cathedral Ceiling vs Attic for garage

[NES]

If one were to have an attached garage to the house which one would you go with? With a cathedral you can double stack or even put a two post lift in garage. With an attic you can use it for storage or a tall enough ceiling and have it be where you can have friends hang out in. Like putting a 3/4 bath, living room, Kitchen, and office above the garage. To have stairs lead to the upper level.

Let me know what all you think?

 

[kd3pc]

really depends on what you expect for that space. The show stopper for me, would be the heat/cool costs - if you are doing so, a lot of volume to condition.

Most AHJ will have requirements for "living space" above a working garage, and the heat cool stuff will be a factor, again.

Personal choice, I would say.

 

[Voi]

If one were to have an attached garage to the house which one would you go with? With a cathedral you can double stack or even put a two post lift in garage. With an attic you can use it for storage or a tall enough ceiling and have it be where you can have friends hang out in. Like putting a 3/4 bath, living room, Kitchen, and office above the garage. To have stairs lead to the upper level.

Let me know what all you think?

In a perfect world I'd transition from rafters/cathedral ceiling or scissor trusses to attic trusses or possibly have a loft/mezzanine area on one end which could be used for any of the things you mentioned.

Of course in a perfect world I'd be able to drive around in circles in my garage while towing a large trailer so my advice may not be useful.

There are some builds in the Gallery section showing builds with this type of transition.

 

[laser3kw]

I have half and half. I have scissor trusses over the area where I will have a post lift and attic trusses over the rest. best of both.

 

[matt_i]

My neighbor has the same as Laser3kW. The bay for the lift is scissor. The rest have storage, but its smaller up there. You might be able to increase roof pitch up to something like a 10/12 to get more room. The truss manufacturer and what "looks good" to your eye are the only limitations.

 

[Modern Jess]

I'd have cathedral ceilings. That said, getting the insulation and ventilation right on a cathedral ceiling is difficult, and location-dependent. Many, many cathedral ceilings rot from the inside (or are currently rotting, unbeknownst to their owners) because of trapped moisture. If you go that route, find someone who knows how to do it properly in your area.

 

[Denwood]

You can do a bit of both. My shop is small, so going from an 8ft ceiling to 11ft cathedral, I left loft storage at both ends. Scissor trusses used along with attic trusses would do the same if you space.

September 2014 at the beginning of the renovation:

October 2014:

A few weeks ago

 

[koditten]

I have both. Wouldn't have it any other way. I have 7' of head room in the attic section.

 

[Strouty]

I am stuck in the middle, I have no attic and I can't do a second floor. If I had a choice it would be part attic and part wide open.

 

[NES]

I'm going to make the garage floor to ceiling 10' tall. The garage itself be 30' deep. The width be 50' wide. The roof pitch will be 12:12.The beginning to the peak of the roof is 15' tall. I would like to put two 18' wide by 8' tall garage doors. Above each of the garage doors would be a huge dormer. Like I had mention the above the garage will be a office, kitchen, living room, and 3/4 bath. It would be awesome after working on my car I can go upstairs and lounge. Watch a fun car flick. Throw a party upstairs as well.

 

[Strouty]

Why such large doors?

 

[Ray-CA]

In our 28x30 we have 22-ft of scissor truss and 8-ft of attic storage truss. These were taken early in the framing process. I've got almost 12-ft to the peak.

Ray

 

[Strouty]

Very nice Ray.

 

[Ray-CA]

Very nice Ray.

Thanks. It's all sheet-rocked, painted etc. now...

Ray