Garage size recomendations

[bosshoff]

My family has a log home located in the Upper Pennensula of Michigan. It is on a lake on a wooded lot. We need a garage to store boats, snowmobiles, etc. I would like to have the garage shaped like a shoe box, with dual doors located on the end of the building (short side of shoe box.) I also would like to be able to back a pretty good size boat into the garage, and still be able to pull a car into the space in front of the boat. I figure the boat trailer plus outdrive of the boat is approx 35'? We have a Chevy Suburban, so I think the length of the garage space inside the building should be 60' or more? I have about 25' of width to work with, without sacraficing a lot of larger trees. I am thnking I will use two 10 foot high garage doors. I would like to have a stairway located at the end of the building opposite the garage doors to go upstairs to the attic. In the attic, I'd like to have a lot of space to have storage, or even finish the space off with a bar or poolroom etc. does anyone have a building like this, similar in size, etc. I want the eves tooverhang, and I will be using half-logs as siding for the building. I am looking for any ideas or recomendations from the members here. Thanks.

 

[TRTOOLSUPPLY]

I always say go as big as you can,no one has too much storage space.On a side note Your screen name caught me eye"bosshoff",my dad passed on 9 yrs. ago ,he owned his own garage for years and his nickname was Boss Hoff.I hope you find the help and ideas, you need here.
TR TOOL SUPPLYRichard ;son of the boss(hoff)

 

[ed_v]

what he said. Go as big as you can,

Ed

 

[His200HerScout]

You'll never say "wow, this barn is too big"

Go as big as your budget will allow. You probably want what are called "attic trusses" and make sure the truss company or your builder knows that you plan to use them for living not just storage space, and mention your plans for a pool table. 60' sounds like a nice size, but think about how many toys you have or will have. 60' is my dream garage, but I don't have a big boat.

 

[gunguy]

As mentioned in similar threads, it never hurts to get some graph paper, lay out the dimensions then make up some scale drawings of your toys and gear you plan to store. It will at least tell you if your stuff will fit and allow you to easily juggle the dimensions. There are computer programs that will allow you to do the same thing and I'm sure someone here will mention them soon.

Another idea that might give you a better visualization is to mark out the dimensions on the ground with some stakes and string then put all your stuff inside. Remember though, you are dealing with the inside dimensions and not taking into account wall thickness that may add a couple of feet.

When evaluating the space remember you want to be able to move around, open car doors, etc.

Have a sister who lives in Rudyard. Man it gets cold up there.

Respectfully,

Jim

 

[Andamo]

Whatever your original thoughts were size wise, bump them up. I built a 24 x36 three bay two story about 10 years ago. I wish I would have gone deeper and maybe slightly wider. I can live with the width, but the depth pisses me off each time I'm out there. What makes me mad is I had the room to do it too !

 

[curdy]

I highly recommend drawing things up like gunguy said. I started out with making my own 'graph paper' on MS Excel (just made the cells square). I did this so I could easily move stuff around on the computer rather than having to erase and rewrite with pencil.

Then I started to fool around with Google Sketch Up. I can't tell you how useful of a tool this is! AND ITS FREE!!! Its really not that hard to learn how to use either. One of the best things I've used it for it setting up my layout in my garage. Here's a snap shot of one of my older layouts for my wood shop. A lot of the tools are bigger now, but the in feeds and out feeds are the same. Using this program I was able to optimize the layout with out having to muscle anything around.

In your case, you could put in what you know will need storage and move things around to figure the space you'll need and how much room will be left over for more stuff later on