Garage length

[chipjumper]

24x35 or 24x40 I can’t decide.

I just did the math and it would be an extra $1200 to add five feet of length including the cost of concrete. I’m building a steel structure. Any reason why not to go long?

 

[LXCam]

40ft a good length. That’s what my shop is and with my lift I can hold three rides with no issues. 35 would have bumpers touching.

 

[dmcintosh]

More space is always better.

 

[kaymccampbell]

If you can afford it, go longer. Wider would be good, too. I've always wished my shop was 2'wider.

 

[kbeefy]

Buy now, Cry now. Noone ever said they wished they had a smaller garage.

Noone with less than 2500' anyways.

 

[chipjumper]

Here was my original plan. I requoted this job with Midwest Carports and they were, oddly, 60% MORE than Tri-State Carports. Biggest difference is a BBB “F” versus “A+” rating....

 

[txvwnut]

No ones ever said, I wish my garage/shop was smaller.

 

[Sumboodie]

40ft, but I've got trucks that are too long for a 25ft deep garage.

With a regular long bed crew cab it'd give you ~15ft of space at the back of the garage that could hold tooling, workbenches, ATVs, canoes, etc, etc and still have space to walk around the truck to work on it.

 

[CraigStu]

5 feet for $1200? For me there is no question. Do it. Can you get 10 feet for $2400? I would also check on going to 26 or 28 or 30 wide.

 

[niget2002]

Unless the $1200 is going to break you financially, I'd go for the extra length.

 

[phred]

Building in modules of 2 and 4 more cost efficient. 1200 is cheap. If you can go 28 or 30 wide youll be much better off wit little more cost


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[b-boy]

Go for the extra length. If possible, I'd go as high as you can as well. I have 12ft ceilings and I wish I'd done 14 ft.

 

[N969DP]

What do you plan to use the garage for? Mainly parking cars, a personal workshop, run a repair business out of? Like most said you can never have to big, and for $1200 I’d go bigger. While planning mine I wanted the space to park 4 cars with room for a workbench and the usual garage tools on the side. 27x42 is the biggest I could go while still fitting in the house building pad.

 

[BrianPK]

yes, I built short because of cost and now if I want to park my truck and trailer inside and keep them attached for quick exit I am about 6" too short. Oh, how i wish I had another 5 feet. Once its done you cant make it bigger. Don't make the same mistake i did

 

[unslow1]

Also make sure you have door clearance for a lot of the newer large vehicles. I constantly see threads on here with people asking how to get their new vehicle in the garage. I just sold a place with a 24X40 garage. You will love the space.

 

[chipjumper]

Plan is two 9x8 doors with 10’ height; as shown in my homemade diagram (above) I was going to have a two-post lift installed at the Center rear of the garage. I suppose if I bump up the height to 11’ I could have the two-post lift installed on either side at the rear.

What I’m avoiding is having a “warehouse” installed in my village. I’m trying to keep a “conservative” from the street view. Due to a magnum-size Maple tree near the garage I don’t want to go wider (even though I’m setting it back 11 feet already). The village ordinances actually do not have many restrictions.

This planning gives me a headache!

 

[shortykorte]

Definitely the 40’ for what you quoted cost as. I oriented my 24x32 shop the same way and same reason you mentioned but once built and using, wished I’d turned 90° and put garage doors on the long wall.


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[moab11]

9' wide garage doors **** for anything bigger than a midsize vehicle. I have a 22' wide garage with a pair of 9' wide doors and my 1/2 ton with tow mirrors fits with about 2" to spare on either side. Full width trailers are also extremely close and a royal pita to back into the garage.

When I lifted the garage I really wish I redid the front for a single 16' or 18' wide door.

 

[Sumboodie]

Plan is two 9x8 doors with 10’ height; as shown in my homemade diagram (above) I was going to have a two-post lift installed at the Center rear of the garage. I suppose if I bump up the height to 11’ I could have the two-post lift installed on either side at the rear.

What I’m avoiding is having a “warehouse” installed in my village. I’m trying to keep a “conservative” from the street view. Due to a magnum-size Maple tree near the garage I don’t want to go wider (even though I’m setting it back 11 feet already). The village ordinances actually do not have many restrictions.

This planning gives me a headache!

10ft height and a lift?

You'll only be able to lift a truck 3-4ft. Normally need at least 12ft

 

[kbs2244]

according to the drawing he is going with a vaulted interior
it is a good idea

 

[Nutria]

I had a similar decision to make about five years ago. I went short. Oops. Now I'd gladly pay an additional $5k for the extra elbow room.

 

[510ebl]

I would add the few extra feet, 10 if you can. Especially if you won’t go wider than 24 ft as you won’t have much room along the sides for tool boxes, benches, or other storage deeper than a shovel hanging on the wall.

Why two doors with a lift in the center? It seems to me you will have a difficult time getting on/off the lift and may not be able to pull a car in both bays at the same time. Unless you only ever plan on having one car in, parked in the lift, at any one time.

Have you staked out the dimensions in the yard and pulled a vehicle “in and out” and “on and off the lift”? Put cartons or additional strings where you plan to have tool boxes too.

 

[James-W]

A lot of people say that nobody wishes they had a smaller garage, and I guess that is pretty much true. But I know a guy who has a large home and he wishes it were smaller. He had the house built several years ago when he and his wife were both working and they had their two children living with them. Now he is retired, his wife passed away a couple years ago, and he only has his daughter staying with him. His income is way down since he retired and the property taxes have gone up and they are killing him financially. He certainly wishes he had a smaller home. He could sell his house for a lot of money, but the housing market around here is such that for him to buy another house would cost a small fortune because smaller homes seem to be selling like hotcakes.

Anyway, my recommendation is to build what you need, especially with the cost of building materials being what they are today. If you need 40ft then build it 40ft. If you only need 35ft then build it 35ft. Keep in mind, the bigger it is the more property taxes and the more it will cost to heat and cool the building. I would not count on getting your investment back in the event you sell the property, although it is possible that you will. Also, a lot of people are thinking the housing market is going to collapse in the not too distant future so anything you build now will most likely lose a lot of value in the near future.

I wish you the best of luck with whatever you finally decide to build.

 

[mikegt4]

I made my garage 48' long, pre-built 16' long wall sections then just tilted them up and bolted them together. If I had gone to 50' I could have parked 3 of my cars bumper to bumper down each side. No matter what size you build sooner or later it's going to be too small by just a little bit.

 

[npp]

Definitely go 40, a garage can never be too big.

 

[chipjumper]

according to the drawing he is going with a vaulted interior
it is a good idea

With a 4/12 roof it’s 14’ high at the Center peak. Doing the geometry the 11’6” tall lift towers would fit fine. I’m considering a baseplate lift too so I could put them on the side instead of the Center. These metal buildings have an arching truss.


I’m starting to reconsider the 9’ wide doors in lieu of 10’ ones. The mirrors on my F-350, even in the folded position, leave very little play when passing thru.

 

[chipjumper]

18x10 vs 18x9 vs 18x8 doors: the 9’ high one just looks right. The 10’ version looks like an airplane hangar...





16x9 from menards is around $1500

 

[CraigStu]

Yep, good thinking. I'd do a single wide door in a heartbeat. We have a 32W garage w/ a 16ft door. I wish I had gone to 18ft but the 16 works fine. We both pull our cars in at a slight angle which makes opening my car door a little easier because I park on the right side. It also make backing the utility trailer in a non-issue which was a tremendous pain in our previous house w/ two 8ft doors.

 

[NickH]

I wish I had gone wider with my garage. All thing being equal, it seems (to me anyway) that width is more useful than depth... Speaking only on garages of course!

 

[David Beyer]

My HOA limits the size of the garage. My wife likes it but I would have built my much larger garage just to collect more junk. lol

 

[Crazyhorse]

Mine is 24x36 (23x35 inside). I wish they had built it 24x42, as it would make 2 cars end to end much easier. It's do-able now, but gets cozy. when my Mustang project comes home, 1 of the toys will have to tuck tight into the corner on Go-Jacks when it's not being worked on.
Go with the bigger size. I know of no one who ever wished for a smaller shop.

I have the 16x9 on the front of mine, centered. I then have a 10x7 centered on the back wall behind the lift.

 

[theoldwizard1]

24x35 or 24x40 I can’t decide.

I just did the math and it would be an extra $1200 to add five feet of length including the cost of concrete. I’m building a steel structure. Any reason why not to go long?

Money or zoning.

 

[chipjumper]

Ahhhhh I edited my posts as I meant to type “18x9” etc wide garage door. Not 16 foot. No way in hell I’ll ever own a 16’ garage door again. Unless it’s a 16x16

 

[77thor]

More space is always better.

^^^^ This.