Garage Size/Orientation Advice

[Treasure]

I'm looking to build a detached workshop/garage and have a 1,000sf limit. I'm currently on the fence between a 24dx40w or 28dx35w. I plan on having a metal carport type garage built, hence the set dimensions. I plan on splitting the shop roughly in half with one half being mechanic work oriented with a lift, and the other being woodworking oriented.

I'm thinking the 24x40 would allow a better "split" between my two hobbies, but the 28' depth would be nice allowing the placement of tool chests / work benches on the back wall in front of the vehicle being worked on.

Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Glemon]

Design it around the lift, biggest single thing you will have, if you need room, figure out best configuration for that, assume woodworking shop will be a little more flexible.

 

[Jlbc212]

Among other considerations it depends on how the roof is framed and where and what size you want for door openings. I was also limited by zoning for a maximum of 1000 sqft for a detached garage. My lot sits on a hill so I had to set the garage foundation into the slope of the hill. My garage is 28 x 36 with two 12' wide x 10' high garage doors and a 36" entry door all on the 36 long wall. The only "bad" thing about it is the water running off the gable roof and down in front of the doors. It really hasn't been an issue though. No water enters in. I have a two post lift in the bay that also shares the 36" entry door. It's nice to have the 28 foot depth and the extra space beyond the 36" door opening.

 

[Treasure]

Among other considerations it depends on how the roof is framed and where and what size you want for door openings. I was also limited by zoning for a maximum of 1000 sqft for a detached garage. My lot sits on a hill so I had to set the garage foundation into the slope of the hill. My garage is 28 x 36 with two 12' wide x 10' high garage doors and a 36" entry door all on the 36 long wall. The only "bad" thing about it is the water running off the gable roof and down in front of the doors. It really hasn't been an issue though. No water enters in. I have a two post lift in the bay that also shares the 36" entry door. It's nice to have the 28 foot depth and the extra space beyond the 36" door opening.

I'll be driving into the 35' side with a garage door offset all the way to the left side.

 

[MattRMagnum]

x2 on the 'build around the lift.' I'm the sole (so far) vote for 24' by 40'. My 3 bay garage is 30x32ft, but because of where the lift had to be installed (garage is 30+ years old, lift is 2), I only have about 4ft in front of the car on the lift, despite the bays being 30ft deep. I'm in the process of removing all the built-in cabinets on the front wall, and am going to just leave rolling cabinets there.

Truthfully, I'm actually happy with this model: I've found that, since I've both metric and non-metric cars, I'm setting up three rolling tool chests in various colors, that're going to be focused on SAE, Imperial and "weird MB-specific ****."* Since what tools I need vary based on what's on the lift, having the ability to shuffle things around easily is WAY more important to me than built-in cabinets.

Also, I would strongly encourage a solid wall between the two, with a well-sealing door. You've never had fun rebuilding a clutch or carb until you've gotten 90% of the way done, and come back the next day to find that your father used the bandsaw after you left, and you now need to start over because everything has a fine coating of sawdust on it.


*I've two vintage ones, and some weird tools/kits for testing the various systems.

 

[jptbay]

My last garage was 24x40 with a single 16' wide door on the gable end. Was not ideal. 24' wide was too narrow to have 2 vehicles side by side and have anything placed on the side walls. Always wished it was 30x40 and had garage doors on the side walls.

Your plan of 28x 35 sounds much better to me with the door on the side wall. One nice 12' wide door starting about 4' from the end.

 

[Treasure]

My last garage was 24x40 with a single 16' wide door on the gable end. Was not ideal. 24' wide was too narrow to have 2 vehicles side by side and have anything placed on the side walls. Always wished it was 30x40 and had garage doors on the side walls.

Your plan of 28x 35 sounds much better to me with the door on the side wall. One nice 12' wide door starting about 4' from the end.

As of now, thanks to input from friends and you guys, I'm leaning towards 28x35, with a 12w x 10h garage door about 2' off of the left side of the 35' side wall. I think this would allow be to accomplish having a mechanic bay, and leaving the other side for table saw and other woodworking equipment.

 

[astroracer]

Put the OH door at least 4' off the INSIDE of the wall. Remember your inside dimensions are reduced by the thickness of the walls. If you put a lift in line with the door the left post will be right up against the wall. You will have no room to work or move around the left side of the vehicle.
If you put all of your wood working tools on casters you will have a very reconfigurable layout that can be rolled into the corner when not being used.
Mark

 

[Treasure]

Put the OH door at least 4' off the INSIDE of the wall. Remember your inside dimensions are reduced by the thickness of the walls. If you put a lift in line with the door the left post will be right up against the wall. You will have no room to work or move around the left side of the vehicle.
If you put all of your wood working tools on casters you will have a very reconfigurable layout that can be rolled into the corner when not being used.
Mark

Excellent advice. Do you think 2' from the inside wall to the outside of the lift column is sufficient?

 

[astroracer]

Excellent advice. Do you think 2' from the inside wall to the outside of the lift column is sufficient?

No, not really, 4' would be better but, if you don't want to encroach on the other side of the shop too much, you will have to work with it.
6' off the inside wall with the OH would be better. That would give you about 4' to the hoist if you want to do that.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

You also don't need to go overboard with concrete specs. BendPak recommends 4" of 3000psi for any of their 2 posts between 9 and 12K.

 

[Stuart in MN]

How long are your vehicles? That will affect how deep the garage needs to be, 24 or 28 feet.
My garage is 24x40 and it works for me. It also allows me to park more cars in there side by side (four cars easily, five in a pinch).

 

[Treasure]

How long are your vehicles? That will affect how deep the garage needs to be, 24 or 28 feet.
My garage is 24x40 and it works for me. It also allows me to park more cars in there side by side (four cars easily, five in a pinch).

I have a Trans Am, and a Tacoma, so not very long. I don't plan on parking the vehicles in the shop. I'll just be working on them in one bay from time to time.

 

[vavet]

A double cab Tacoma with 5 foot bed is about 19 feet long. Usually building dimensions are the outside dimensions, so you're going to lose 18-24 inches off those. 24 feet - 19 feet - 2 feet = 3 feet split between the front and back of the truck. That's not much room when it's on the ground for toolboxes and other equipment.

Our last house had a 24x32 detached garage with two 8 foot wide doors on the 24 foot wall. I thought that was a nice arrangement. It gave plenty of room between vehicles. Two 9 foot doors would be a little better, especially if you might ever have a wider vehicle or want to back in a trailer. Our current house as a 24x30 attached garage with a 16 foot door. I really wish I'd have either spec-ed an 18 foot wide door or two 9 foot doors. Two small to medium sized vehicles take up the width - my Mazda5 and my wife's former Sonata (now Kia Seltos) are comfortable getting in and out, but ther'es not a lot of extra room.
My current shop is a 24x32 detached with a single 18 foot door on the 24' side. It's great, but I kinda wish I've have put the door on the 32' side.
Have you thought about having a two story? Maybe 26x26? That would allow a great separation between your two hobbies. It's usually cheaper to go up than out because concrete is expensive. You'll just have to make sure the 2nd floor is strong enough for your equipment, but that's easy to spec in the beginning with an architect.

 

[Treasure]

A double cab Tacoma with 5 foot bed is about 19 feet long. Usually building dimensions are the outside dimensions, so you're going to lose 18-24 inches off those. 24 feet - 19 feet - 2 feet = 3 feet split between the front and back of the truck. That's not much room when it's on the ground for toolboxes and other equipment.

Our last house had a 24x32 detached garage with two 8 foot wide doors on the 24 foot wall. I thought that was a nice arrangement. It gave plenty of room between vehicles. Two 9 foot doors would be a little better, especially if you might ever have a wider vehicle or want to back in a trailer. Our current house as a 24x30 attached garage with a 16 foot door. I really wish I'd have either spec-ed an 18 foot wide door or two 9 foot doors. Two small to medium sized vehicles take up the width - my Mazda5 and my wife's former Sonata (now Kia Seltos) are comfortable getting in and out, but ther'es not a lot of extra room.
My current shop is a 24x32 detached with a single 18 foot door on the 24' side. It's great, but I kinda wish I've have put the door on the 32' side.
Have you thought about having a two story? Maybe 26x26? That would allow a great separation between your two hobbies. It's usually cheaper to go up than out because concrete is expensive. You'll just have to make sure the 2nd floor is strong enough for your equipment, but that's easy to spec in the beginning with an architect.

Thanks for the input. 2 story would be nice but lugging 4x8 sheets of 3/4" plywood upstairs would get old. Also, I'd have to go really high to accommodate the lift. 13' walls + 1' joists + 8' 2nd floor and I'm well over 20' tall.

I may however do a loft on the woodworking side of the shop to accommodate some lesser used woodworking tools and storage. it would be 15'ish x 28. If I go with 14' walls, that would give me an 8' lower deck height, and about 8' in the center of the loft area.

 

[TurnipTruck]

In my experience, a 24x40 is a large single car building.

 

[u2slow]

I would want the 28' depth vs the 24'. Its too easy to end up wanting to put a longer vehicle in there. And you still probably want to have a toolbox or workbench on the back wall.

I went with 21'x38' on mine due to sqft restrictions (single door, double deep). Even my little 19.5' runabout is over 24' long with the leg and trailer tongue.

 

[Cryptic1911]

extra depth for sure. nothing ***** worse than having to **** in your gut to scoot around the front or back of a vehicle. I know one guy with a truck that is like 4" from his bench and 4" from his door parked at a diagonal, and my brothers has a small shelf and about 1ft of walking room in front and probably 1ft in the back of his mustang

 

[Treasure]

extra depth for sure. nothing ***** worse than having to **** in your gut to scoot around the front or back of a vehicle. I know one guy with a truck that is like 4" from his bench and 4" from his door parked at a diagonal, and my brothers has a small shelf and about 1ft of walking room in front and probably 1ft in the back of his mustang

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I'm set on 28x35 now, with 14' walls and a possible loft in the future.

 

[jabelding]

I went 28x36 with 12'walls on a 8in stem wall plenty of height and space with a attic truss. My full build is in my sig. Went salt box on the roof and all doors on the 36' side 10x10, 9x8 and 36" person door.

 

[38Chevy454]

At my old house I was limited on depth and built 26 deep x 48 wide. The 26 would have been nice to have additional 2 feet. 24 is too short to do much work, even without any workbench or toolboxes taking up some space at the end. I think you will find 28 deep to be a lot better for what you want. Also agree you need some space from the side wall to get around the lift.

 

[Treasure]

I went 28x36 with 12'walls on a 8in stem wall plenty of height and space with a attic truss. My full build is in my sig. Went salt box on the roof and all doors on the 36' side 10x10, 9x8 and 36" person door.

Awesome build! That's nearly exactly the size and layout I'm looking for. I'm definitely going to steal some of those ideas. How far is the lift post away from the inside wall? How far is the edge of the left garage door from the wall?

 

[justanengineer]

Old crappy pic of the front of my last 24’ garage. I was starting to tear the lathe down to rebuild/repaint in this pic and hadn’t stored away the parts yet so it’s a mess, but you can see with the S10 and 68 Mustang comfortably parked there’s 4-5’ walkway up to the machines. If I had an extra long wheelbase truck I’d put an aisle along the front wall and benches/machines along the sides, no way I’d trade 5’ on the sides for 4’ up front. With the machines in-place I worked on many standard 140” ‘ish wheelbase pickemups comfortably.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Treasure]

At my old house I was limited on depth and built 26 deep x 48 wide. The 26 would have been nice to have additional 2 feet. 24 is too short to do much work, even without any workbench or toolboxes taking up some space at the end. I think you will find 28 deep to be a lot better for what you want. Also agree you need some space from the side wall to get around the lift.

What kind of space from the wall do you recommend for the lift?

 

[jabelding]

Awesome build! That's nearly exactly the size and layout I'm looking for. I'm definitely going to steal some of those ideas. How far is the lift post away from the inside wall? How far is the edge of the left garage door from the wall?

Here is my foundation layout with the lift posts laid out as well. About 29 in from the lift post to the wall. It is just about right not a waste of space but room to get around. I had designed a little different lift originally that is why the foundation thickening pads don't quite line up. My foundation guy way over sized them anyways so it didn't matter.

 

[Kevkx125]

I agree build with enough room for a loft no mater what size you choose.

 

[Treasure]

I agree build with enough room for a loft no mater what size you choose.

Thanks man. I'm going to do 14' walls which should yield enough height to have a walk around loft on one side. The truss' will come down a couple feet so by my calculation I should have around 7' of clearance in the loft.

14' side walls + 3.5' to the peak - ~1.5' to bottom of truss = 16' . bottom level 8' ceiling + 1' loft floor joist = 7' loft headroom.

Am I missing something?

 

[Treasure]

Thanks man. I'm going to do 14' walls which should yield enough height to have a walk around loft on one side. The truss' will come down a couple feet so by my calculation I should have around 7' of clearance in the loft.

14' side walls + 3.5' to the peak - ~1.5' to bottom of truss = 16' . bottom level 8' ceiling + 1' loft floor joist = 7' loft headroom.

Am I missing something?

With the 28' wide - 14' sidewall metal carport style building, the truss clearance is 15.3'. This will be tight with headroom up top if I want to keep an 8' lower level clearance.

I'm not considering the red-iron style metal building which allows for better clearance as it does not use a truss. The downside to red-iron is the I will lose some interior space due to the side of the columns and girds, and a beefier, more expensive foundation is required. I'm still researching.

 

[Treasure]

Among other considerations it depends on how the roof is framed and where and what size you want for door openings. I was also limited by zoning for a maximum of 1000 sqft for a detached garage. My lot sits on a hill so I had to set the garage foundation into the slope of the hill. My garage is 28 x 36 with two 12' wide x 10' high garage doors and a 36" entry door all on the 36 long wall. The only "bad" thing about it is the water running off the gable roof and down in front of the doors. It really hasn't been an issue though. No water enters in. I have a two post lift in the bay that also shares the 36" entry door. It's nice to have the 28 foot depth and the extra space beyond the 36" door opening.

Did the zoning dept. give you a varian for a 28x36 at 1008 sqft, since it's over 1000sqft?

 

[Treasure]

Thanks for the votes everyone. As research continued and plans changed, I've settled on a 28x35 red iron style building.