How Big???

[AbitNutz]

I have a 30' RV and 30' sailboat. Both are about 11' high. I also want to put in a car lift and park a car in there.

What size are we talking about, 45' wide, 40' deep and 12' high? I'm not sure how high the ceiling has to be to accommodate the typical car/truck on a lift.

I don't want a **** load of doors. They're expensive, they leak air and I don't need drive through access to all the space as the RV & Sailboat are in for storage. If I had a fair sized sliding door and put the RV on one side and the Sailboat on the other I think I could get away with a sorta large door in the middle. That would put the work area in the back in the center.

I'm going to Morton buildings Saturday to discuss this. I'm open to almost anything due to my abundance of ignorance. I know what I have to put in it but that's about all...some detail construction ideas.

I want a 6" rebar floor. That should support any any lift. I want Perma-Columns, I also think it would be an ok idea to only put windows on the ends above the ceiling height. I don't want any windows at ground level for security reasons and the fact the light would mostly be blocked by the RV on one side and the sailboat on the other anyway.

Also, the roof pitch. The higher the pitch the better it looks but the more it will cost. Since the side walls will be so high I'm not sure what roof pitch makes sense.

I guess I'm just talking out loud to get some feed back on what questions I should ask.

 

[Shadowdog500]

Make little scale cutouts of all the stuff you want to put in this building and try to find an arrangement that works best for you.

If your stuff is 11' high you want at least a 12' door which means you will need a 13' ceiling for the garage hardware and door opener which works out to a 14' soffit on a morton building.

I back my 32' motorhome into my 52' deep building through a 14' wide door. I like to put my motorhome right against the wall, so I swing the front around some while backing it in. 14' sounds like a wide door until you are backing a motorhome through it.
If you need to swing the boat past the motorhome, or vise versa, through the same door, it may be a little bit of a challenge.

An airplane hangar door that opens the whole wall may be the best for your application, since you can pull the big stuff in no problem. You could also add a small garage door on the side for the car and lift.

Chris

 

[PETE14]

Don't forget to check if any local building codes apply to you like square footage, roof height, ect. No sense putting the cart in front of the horse and designing the perfect building, only to later find out that it won't be approved.

Pete

 

[AbitNutz]

That's a good point about the building codes but I live in a pretty rural area. You know, a development that has a couple of acres per in yuppy heaven. I'll check anyway. The county has a way of extracting money from us suckers in the most unusual way. I had to pay for a drainage ditch at the rear of my property that was 8 feet deep and 12 feet across....it was for the 500 year flood. 500 year flood? 500 years ago there weren't even any Indians here to drown.
I ask over and over again where it said this had to be done....no documents ever showed up. All that ever showed was a big freakin' backhoe.

Believe it or not, I eventually won and they refunded my "assessment" but now I have a moat I must maintain. One of the requirements of the refund was that I was not to make the settlement public. Basically so they didn't have to refund anyone else and could continue to rob people in the future.

 

[larry_g]

Well if your going to ask then ask what standard building sizes are. Most pole buildings use 3' metal and 12' increments. So a 48' long building would probably cost the same as a 45' building.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[AbitNutz]

I don't want the garage to look good dimensionally as it will be in my back yard area. I want the garage to add to he value of the property, not detract from it.

Make little scale cutouts of all the stuff you want to put in this building and try to find an arrangement that works best for you.

If your stuff is 11' high you want at least a 12' door which means you will need a 13' ceiling for the garage hardware and door opener which works out to a 14' soffit on a morton building.

I back my 32' motorhome into my 52' deep building through a 14' wide door. I like to put my motorhome right against the wall, so I swing the front around some while backing it in. 14' sounds like a wide door until you are backing a motorhome through it.
If you need to swing the boat past the motorhome, or vise versa, through the same door, it may be a little bit of a challenge.

An airplane hangar door that opens the whole wall may be the best for your application, since you can pull the big stuff in no problem. You could also add a small garage door on the side for the car and lift.

Chris

 

[Shadowdog500]

I don't want the garage to look good dimensionally as it will be in my back yard area. I want the garage to add to he value of the property, not detract from it.

What do you think would detract from it? The height or the hangar door?

If you want an 11' high motorhome to fit in the thing, that sets your door height and ceiling height by default. If you want a pole barn you may try a scissor truss for a lower soffit, or you could get a trussed metal building. Just make sure the door is big enough. We had a guy in our winnebago club who had a building put up for his motorhome and his motorhome mirrors wouldn't fit through the door because he forgot them in the width measurement when he chose a door width. If you get a big class A motorhome, a 12' high door may not cut it either.

As for the hangar door idea, They can make hangar doors look like anything today.

watch these two videos

My Morton building has 16' soffits as a result of the 14'x14' door i wanted, and I haven't spoken to anyone (including my next-door neighbors) who thinks that it detracts from the value of my house. Actually I have a co worker who saw my building and had a close copy (color and all) put up on his property, and a neighbor plans to put a similar building on his property eventually.
Heres mine.

Chris

 

[Sureshot]

I would definitely go 14' tall door by atleast 14 wide. I have 12 wide doors as the shop was for a business initially and we wanted a certain work layout but next time I would put 14' doors. I did leave the doors exactly 4' apart and it is an end wall so I could go 28 wide if I really needed to repurpose the building. I used Goodon and the build in 6' increments. Your local code may have a post spacing policy.

 

[AbitNutz]

That's a really good looking garage and it looks in proportion. Is that just because the dimensions work or is it the porch that breaks things up and make it look less than a giant sqare billboard.?

What do you think would detract from it? The height or the hangar door?

If you want an 11' high motorhome to fit in the thing, that sets your door height and ceiling height by default. If you want a pole barn you may try a scissor truss for a lower soffit, or you could get a trussed metal building. Just make sure the door is big enough. We had a guy in our winnebago club who had a building put up for his motorhome and his motorhome mirrors wouldn't fit through the door because he forgot them in the width measurement when he chose a door width. If you get a big class A motorhome, a 12' high door may not cut it either.

As for the hangar door idea, They can make hangar doors look like anything today.

watch these two videos

My Morton building has 16' soffits as a result of the 14'x14' door i wanted, and I haven't spoken to anyone (including my next-door neighbors) who thinks that it detracts from the value of my house. Actually I have a co worker who saw my building and had a close copy (color and all) put up on his property, and a neighbor plans to put a similar building on his property eventually.
Heres mine.

Chris

 

[38Chevy454]

No matter what, once built it will be too small. So go bigger than you think you need, as long as it is able to be permitted and approved. You need at least 12 ft high doors and wider door opening is better for maneuvering since you want one door. Take into account a large RV or trailer do not turn very sharp for maneuvering into position. The boat you might be abel to disconnect and move by hand?

As to your question how big? Leave at least 4 ft front and back from your RV and trailer so you can get around them and if you ever want to do work inside leave some room on the sides as well. As I said first sentence, go as big as you can, it will fill up fast.

 

[Shadowdog500]

That's a really good looking garage and it looks in proportion. Is that just because the dimensions work or is it the porch that breaks things up and make it look less than a giant sqare billboard.?

Thanks!

The window on the front was put in just to help make the building look smaller. It is a big window, and the bottom of it is over 6' above ground level, but somehow adding it to the design makes everything seem smaller from the driveway and street. I guess it tricks the brain into thinking that the window is normal height, which shrinks everything else.

Chris