Garage idea

[jpcjguy]

Hey all,

So I am planning a detached garage - 36x32 roughly. I am thinking scissor truss on the single bay for a 10K lift - needs to be able to lift my 7.3 excursion. And a room above would be nice on the other side using attic truss. Something like this:

What do you all think? A side entrace door would be put in also. The room dimensions would be roughly 16x20x8 ( probably closer to 14 taking in consideration rafters, insulation, drywall, etc - again - high level at this point)

Thanks
Joe

 

[3/4tonYJ]

I was thinking about similar design, but decided to go with a barn roof.
2nd floor was wider.

also 8 foot garage doors are normal home owner size, I've always liked a garage door a tall as I can get/afford. when it's really nice and sunny out it's wonderful to work with doors open, and you never know when you wanna back in a trailer with a truck on it...etc.....

my 2 cents

 

[jpcjguy]

Not a bad idea. But not sure if that look works with our house and neighborhood. Got any pics of what you did?

 

[jamesbeaty]

What is the pitch of the roof. Seems pretty steep. I am designing a similar building with 3 bays. 32 x 40. Have you spec'd out your trusses yet. You should be able to call up a local truss company and work with them to get an idea for specs.

 

[JakeKohl]

I was thinking about similar design, but decided to go with a barn roof.
2nd floor was wider.

also 8 foot garage doors are normal home owner size, I've always liked a garage door a tall as I can get/afford. when it's really nice and sunny out it's wonderful to work with doors open, and you never know when you wanna back in a trailer with a truck on it...etc.....

my 2 cents

^THIS^ I thought my buddy was weird for putting in 9 foot doors. I put in 8 footers. I lack about 6" of clearing my sailboat mast (loaded mostly horizontal on the trailer) and 6" clearing my kayak loaded on the roof of my truck. Doh.

 

[jpcjguy]

45 degrees. So 12/12 pitch. Very steep - but maximizes upstairs headroom.

 

[jpcjguy]

^THIS^ I thought my buddy was weird for putting in 9 foot doors. I put in 8 footers. I lack about 6" of clearing my sailboat mast (loaded mostly horizontal on the trailer) and 6" clearing my kayak loaded on the roof of my truck. Doh.

Agreed - 9 or 10 ft doors would be best.

 

[Matt M PA]

I set up my garage to have one bay that goes all the way up. the other two have a second story above...but still 9' ceilings. I have a BendPak HD9 in that one tall bay.

Due to conventional shape of my roof...I need to back my Excursion in to get it high enough on the lift to work on it. A gambrel roof may help this.

In my 32x26 I have three single doors. If memory serves, the doors are 8x9.

 

[jpcjguy]

Hey Matt

So yours is 26' deep? That is why I am looking at going 30 or 32 deep. Got any pics?

Thanks

 

[Aquaticbob]

Do you have a floor plan? I always like to make a floor plan of what I want and then surround the building structure around what I wanted to accomplish with the space. Having a 2nd story could be nice for storage/hanging out or whatever you want to do there. I personally would use the 2nd story for parts storage on one half with a little winch operated elevator, and a small area on the other half with a couch, TV and such for taking a break.

I got the luxury of having commercial shops having 12 foot and 10 foot doors so that's quite nice compared to the 8 footers in my house. I agree with going as big as you can on the garage door, you won't regret it.

 

[3/4tonYJ]

24 x 28 downstairs (12' ceiling), 16 x 28 upstairs (8' ceiling) overall height is 25'

View media item 38158

 

[tomroblee]

It looks like a good starting point.

One of the first things you need to consider is how you are going to get to your attic room. Permanent stairways take up a lot of room, and the best location for the second floor room always seems to be the worst location for the first floor garage. The 12' wall height is going to limit you to something rather steep.

If you are going to put in a side "man door", consider where it needs to be located so that you don't bump into something when you open the door.

If you are in snow country, you will probably want a fairly wide overhang in front (over the garage doors). With a 12/12 pitch roof, you have to remember that the overhang will extend down as far as it extends out. This will affect the appearance of the building as well as limit the door height.

Depending on how you intend to use your attic room, you should spend a bit of time on looking at how the trusses are engineered. If you don't mind a bit of slope on the ceiling, you could have even a wider room. You may want to spend a few extra dollars for a beefier than normal truss to avoid having a bouncy floor.

 

[jpcjguy]

It looks like a good starting point.

One of the first things you need to consider is how you are going to get to your attic room. Permanent stairways take up a lot of room, and the best location for the second floor room always seems to be the worst location for the first floor garage. The 12' wall height is going to limit you to something rather steep.

If you are going to put in a side "man door", consider where it needs to be located so that you don't bump into something when you open the door.

If you are in snow country, you will probably want a fairly wide overhang in front (over the garage doors). With a 12/12 pitch roof, you have to remember that the overhang will extend down as far as it extends out. This will affect the appearance of the building as well as limit the door height.

Depending on how you intend to use your attic room, you should spend a bit of time on looking at how the trusses are engineered. If you don't mind a bit of slope on the ceiling, you could have even a wider room. You may want to spend a few extra dollars for a beefier than normal truss to avoid having a bouncy floor.

Thanks for the feedback. I am in Richmond, VA - so snow load is minimal. Good point on the door and staircase. I probably will have the side door at the front of the left side, right near the corner of the 16' door and then the staircase would be on the left wall. The room could be a weight room ( nothing crazy like 5K of weights - probably about 600lbs worth) and/or a man cave. I am thinking about a 6x6 bathroom (small shower) in the corner also.
Granted - I have no idea what this will run $$$ wise - so once I get some figures, plans can change quickly!!!

 

[MScott]

Where are you located? (Would be a good idea to put your location in your profile.) If you are in snow country I would recommend placing the garage doors on the gable end. Otherwise you will end up with snow/ice blocking your access.

 

[jpcjguy]

Where are you located? (Would be a good idea to put your location in your profile.) If you are in snow country I would recommend placing the garage doors on the gable end. Otherwise you will end up with snow/ice blocking your access.

Sorry! Updated profile - in Richmond, VA

 

[tomroblee]

Having both the man door and the stairway on the left side sounds like a great idea---until you consider that the 16' garage door is awful close to that left wall. Your drawing shows 2', but I'm guessing that the thickness of the left wall is included in that 2'

I think that you would want a 36" wide man door, and you don't want to bump the side of a car or truck when you swing the door open.

I don't know how wide of a staircase you are planning, but I'm guessing that it would also protrude at least 36" from the wall. (Trusses would typically be spaced 24" inches on center. You have to be very skinny to put a staircase between trusses that are 24" apart. The normal solution would be "leave out" a truss to gain an opening just under 48" wide.)

You will also have to consider where the track for the 16' wide door will be located. It could be awkward if the track needs to be located in the middle of your stairway.

I'm not a big fan of having an outside staircase, but it would solve a few issues. It would also allow you to better "insulate" your man cave from garage fumes.

When you talk about having a bathroom in the corner of the garage, I'm assuming that you mean the back corner against the left wall. This would be under the area where you "leave out" an (attic) truss to make room for your stairway. I think that it would be very inexpensive to add a second floor micro half bath on the second floor above it----or at least recess a wet bar/sink into the area.

 

[tomroblee]

As long as we are just dreaming of how to spend your money, do you really need 12' ceilings under your attic room?

I have one garage with 10' ceilings and a second garage with about 11 1/2' ceilings. For my use, anything taller than what is needed to accommodate the garage door height is wasted space. It's a pain to need a 10' step ladder to change a ceiling light bulb.

If you could live with lower ceilings under your attic room, you should at least think about stick construction with a lower ceiling height. That could give you an absolutely huge room upstairs. Take a look at what Doug B did in his garage with 12' side walls:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227964&highlight=attic+truss

 

[jpcjguy]

Having both the man door and the stairway on the left side sounds like a great idea---until you consider that the 16' garage door is awful close to that left wall. Your drawing shows 2', but I'm guessing that the thickness of the left wall is included in that 2'

I think that you would want a 36" wide man door, and you don't want to bump the side of a car or truck when you swing the door open.

I don't know how wide of a staircase you are planning, but I'm guessing that it would also protrude at least 36" from the wall. (Trusses would typically be spaced 24" inches on center. You have to be very skinny to put a staircase between trusses that are 24" apart. The normal solution would be "leave out" a truss to gain an opening just under 48" wide.)

You will also have to consider where the track for the 16' wide door will be located. It could be awkward if the track needs to be located in the middle of your stairway.

I'm not a big fan of having an outside staircase, but it would solve a few issues. It would also allow you to better "insulate" your man cave from garage fumes.

When you talk about having a bathroom in the corner of the garage, I'm assuming that you mean the back corner against the left wall. This would be under the area where you "leave out" an (attic) truss to make room for your stairway. I think that it would be very inexpensive to add a second floor micro half bath on the second floor above it----or at least recess a wet bar/sink into the area.

Good point on the spacing for the side door in relation to the big door. Might have to bump that out some more. Not sure I follow on the 2nd floor bath as opposed to the first floor? Thinking one of those corner shower stalls and sink and toilet -think it would work in a 6x6 area.

 

[jpcjguy]

As long as we are just dreaming of how to spend your money, do you really need 12' ceilings under your attic room?

I have one garage with 10' ceilings and a second garage with about 11 1/2' ceilings. For my use, anything taller than what is needed to accommodate the garage door height is wasted space. It's a pain to need a 10' step ladder to change a ceiling light bulb.

If you could live with lower ceilings under your attic room, you should at least think about stick construction with a lower ceiling height. That could give you an absolutely huge room upstairs. Take a look at what Doug B did in his garage with 12' side walls:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227964&highlight=attic+truss

That would be great - having a lower ceiling on the double door side would give more head room above.

 

[jpcjguy]

So I reached out to a local contractor on the phone and gave him a rough idea on what I am looking for. He immediately said that trusses would not be good - not enough support and real bouncy. He stated stick built with a post is the only way to do it. I am by no means a structural engineer so I try to listen to people with more experience than me. However, how do I know I am getting good advice from a contractor? Nobody can know everything - that must hold especially true in construction. Not saying that his way is wrong or bad, but maybe there is a more better/cost effective way he is not aware of.
He is also preliminary talking about close to $100K....

 

[nolimits76]

Wow, that seems too expensive. I'd get a few more quotes and opinions.

 

[Ray-CA]

We finished a 28x30 last summer with a similar roof truss system. You can see them here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205443&showall=1

We have 12-ft to the peak in the 28x22-ft section with attic storage over the 28x8-ft section. I would have liked to go higher but the City restricted me to a 15-ft overall height.

Ray

PS: All the trusses were $1600.

 

[tomroblee]

I wasn't suggesting moving your bath to the second floor. I was suggesting that you could put a stool and/or sink on the second floor in addition to the first floor bathroom.

If you put your stairway along the left wall, the first attic truss will be spaced about 4' from the left wall (to allow room for a stairway). Remaining trusses will be spaced 2' on center. This will create the possibility for a 4' x 8' room (alcove?) with the sloping roof being the ceiling. Rather than just drywalling over this alcove, it could be used as a closet or a stool or a sink could be installed in it since it would be directly above the first floor bathroom where plumbing will already be installed.

I'm not a contractor or an engineer, but I wouldn't quite agree with your contractor's comments about attic trusses being "real bouncy". If the truss is engineered to absolute minimum standards for light storage use, it will be bouncy. If it is engineered for near zero deflection with 100# psf load, it will not be bouncy.

I remember seeing several earlier threads that had pictures of "attic trusses" where the bottom cord was what I would describe as a web floor truss.

 

[Matt M PA]

Sorry..l got busy today and forgot to post a pic.

Perhaps this will help. (especially since I can't post pics from my iPad)

My garage is at the bottom where the building process pictures are shown.

http://www.mysheds.com/build-on-site-garages.asp

 

[tomroblee]

Take a look at the trusses used by hockey88fan in post # 18

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126000&highlight=heavy+truss

 

[jpcjguy]

Sorry..l got busy today and forgot to post a pic.

Perhaps this will help. (especially since I can't post pics from my iPad)

My garage is at the bottom where the building process pictures are shown.

http://www.mysheds.com/build-on-site-garages.asp

Nice garage! That is what I am looking for basically - what is your roof pitch?
Can you send me some pics of the interior? Mainly of the lift side vs. the rest and how that looks?

Thanks!

 

[Matt M PA]

Maybe not a great pic...of my wife's car on the lift for an oil change. You can see how the one bay goes all the way up. If you want to see something else...say the word.

From my paperwork, the trusses are listed as "8 attic trusses"...

 

[jpcjguy]

Thanks Matt - that helps - do you have an angle from the other side - meaning the lift side showing the "floor" of the attic space?

 

[finn]

I built my cabin with two types of trusses. Attic trusses in the back with opening for stairs, and scissor trusses in the front (lake side) open for a cathedral ceiling. Outside pitch is 12/12, and the second floor isn't springy at all, although there are non structural walls that probably help stabilize the floor. An attic truss shouln't need additional support though.

 

[Matt M PA]

You mean like this?

 

[jpcjguy]

You mean like this?

Yep. Thanks - looks great!

 

[Matt M PA]

Thanks...I couldn't be more happy with the way it all turned out!