how long

[thump186]

Just wondering for those of you that have built your garage how long you've had it and how well you think it is holing up? For those that your garage came with the house what have you or would you like to do that the original owners didn't. For those that built theirs what is your favorite design feature you had built and what would you do or not do if you had it to do over again?
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[TheShrine]

I am very pleased with mine. I gave considerable thought to what I wanted in my space and got most of it. I built mine to evolve from what I want now to what I'll needed later but I missed putting lights in the floor, under my lift, until after slab was poured!!

 

[kmacht]

I am in the middel of replacing the original one that came with the house. I would not build it like they did. It was build on a slab that was the same level as the rest of the yard. The silplate was not pressure treated. It has lots of rot around the bottom edge. The garage was attached to the house but very poorly. They just screwed the boards right on top of the wood siding. The roof did not use trusses. It is just made out of 2x6 lumber running to a 2x8 across the top. There are no cross ties between the front and rear 2x6's. Theere are two 2x6's tying the front and rear walls together but that is it.

The one thing they did do that was nice was the sheating for the walls. It is made up of 1x12 tongue and groove boards. They are very strong and kept a watertight seal even when the siding deteriorated. When I pull the garage down I am going to try and save as many of those as I can to re-sell.

I am replacing the current garage which is 18x20 single story with a pre-fab 24x24 two story with a gembrel roof. I would suggest going as big as you can. 18' wide is just too small for a two car garage. I could get two cars in there but couldn't open the doors to get out. Also make sure you make the garage door opening as big as possible. My doors are 6'6" tall and I have to let the air out of the tires to get my 55 ford truck in there.

Keith

 

[Andamo]

My 24 X 35 two story was built in 1997. As far as the structure, it's still good except for the cement floor. The garage was built on a slope and although they filled the foundation and then used pea gravel and compacted it, the one corner section of the floor has dropped about 1.5''. Sure glad I didn't go for in floor heating. I looked into having a company drill holes and lift the section back up, but the price is around $1700. I think for that amount, I'd just cut out the section which is about 15' x 15' and put fresh concrete in. Other than the water from the car coming from snow melt off and wanting to run that way, I'm just going to live with it.

 

[mikeyr]

I am very pleased with mine, the 2 things I wish I had done was tent the original garage for termites as it had termites and I gave them fresh wood to eat when I added on the extension. And second was that I would have given some thought to outside of the garage, I have it fully insulated and drywalled, painted, etc. for 2 months now and I sure would love some electrical plugs on the outside of the garage for yard and car work.

Other than that, I did great with the design of my first garage. I love my skylights, I can open them on hot days to get the heat out and I like the natural light. I over-lit the thing, way too many lights and that is good since I put them on different switches so I can control how much lighting I have. Friends have made fun of how many plugs I put in and I like it, I especially like that I put them at a decent height above my work benches.

I treat my garage as a living thing, it evolves to suit my current needs and hobbies as they change over the decades so I bought in a 100amp sub to make sure I could do everything.

 

[Ezzie]

For those that your garage came with the house what have you or would you like to do that the original owners didn't.
:

The PO built a detached 2-car about 35 years ago and it is a total POS. Things I didn't like:

1. Poured a concrete slab on top of dirt with just a 4 mil layer of plastic down first. In the spring, the floor is sopping wet and has cracked and heaved in several pieces. The surface of the concrete has pitted and disintegrated in several places due to salt coming off parked vehicles in the winter.

2. Framed the side walls directly on top of slab with no moisture protection, sills have all rotted out.

3. Very little cross bracing so the building has developed a lean over the years and the garage doors won't properly close any more.

4. He used hardboard siding which has lost it's coating in some places and has peeled.

5. The cheap PO installed used electrical boxes and wire he must have sourced from a yard sale, all rusted out and improperly installed. To many code infractions to cite here (eg. rusted out conduit, etc.).

6. Slab type, single piece garage doors which have been repainted, no longer operate properly and one is badly rusted. My wife couldn't get one of them open one day (see above alignment comment) so she decided to use her SUV to assist with opening. It didn't work real well and is now bowl shaped.

7. Rafters originally framed with 2x4 to a 2x6 ridge for a 20' span, not trussed. As a result, the middle of the roof sagged so the PO build makeshift trusses out of scrap lumber (lots of splices and overlap nailing). Didn't help much.

8. Too small at 20' x 22'.

Things I liked:

Garage door opener (Stanley chain drive) still works (not one on other door)
Fairly good quality shingles, eavestroughs and soffits.

I took the backhoe to it a couple of weeks ago and it is all gone and site cleared. I just leaned on the thing a bit and it went right over!! Just poured the foundation to build a new 26' x 28' in it's place.

 

[twostory]

I finished my 2 two story, 26x44 detached garage in 2007. That was just a shell, we have finished off the second story word shop and my wife enjoys her wood shop. The downstair was big enough to hold our cars, but not have any room to work on them. So last fall we added a one story 22x30 addition to the garage. It is mostly done now, and I "finally" have enough room to work on thing and have nice work areas for different task. I also have enough room around the four post lift to easily work on cars now.

The only thing I did wrong, was not build it big enough to begin with. But that was not my fault, there were some county rules to deal with, and until the county "re-thought" the rules, I could not have done my addition anyway.

Things I did right:

1) I did all the foundation & back fill work on both builds. My stem walls and slabs have not move any noticeable amount and the slabs are crack free and very level after a few years. I would never trust a contract to do this work to my level. (good help is hard to find)

2) Leaving the walls bare for a while and working the space showed that I need to add a few more outlet & light. Easily done with out drywall.

3) The hardiplank and SW Duration paint looks prefect 3 years after painting. I do not expect to ever have to do much exterior maintance.

4) The 12.5 ft ceiling really is minimum height for a usable 4 post lift. I like to park my truck under the "lifted car"

5) I put windows in my new addition, eight feet above the gound. It is nice to have them, I only put a very small window on the orginal garage. The second story wood shop has 10 big windows.

6) I have a keypad door handle on the "man door" It is very nice to always have a locked door, that you do not need a key to open.

Things to finish soon: Gutters, climbing wall and get my convertible's leaks fixed.

 

[tcianci]

I built my 22 x 25, 31 years ago when I built the house. I do not know where my brain was when I decided on the size It's too small although it is nicely proportionate to the house (26 x 36) The upper gambrel loft has never been finished, it's just storage and someday it will be an automotive-themed bonus room. The garage itself has a 10 year old epoxy floor, insulated, plastered walls, mini blinds on the windows, a 16 x 7 OH door, a mandoor on the back, It has kitchen cabinets, sink w/ H-C water, FHW heat, cable, INTERNET, desk, fridge, Coke machine, and a steel I beam with a trolley and a hoist on it.

Structurally, it has held up fine although it was built before the advantage of PT sills. It is 2x4 stick framed, 1/2 inch plywood sheathed, black felt and cedar clapboards. Inside it has 3 1/2" faced fiberglass, blueboard and veneer plaster, 7 double 4 ft T-8 fixtures and light grey paint on the walls, teal trim.

In addition to being too small, the ceiling is only 8 feet. But in general, what it lacks in size it makes up for in features and comfort.

Make yours as big as you can, set aside space for creature comforts and you will be happy.

 

[KCarGuy]

My original Detached Garage was in the wrong spot, and too small.
So I built a new Bigger Garage in a Different Spot.

All 2X4's on 12" centers
24" deep footings and 12" center on single pour
second floor held up by posts in 5' of concrete
5/8" flooring upstairs, 2X10 joist
steel beam down center to eliminate any center post
all plywood exterior, wrapped and vinyl siding
insulated walls, floor, and ceiling
even insulation in 2X4 corners between blocking before installation.
drywalled
All walls built on ground , squared and plywood on, then lifted before installing
Double pane windows.
steel doors
insulated Garage doors
floor, walls, everthing has held up very well for the last 10 years

the old garage was 16" on center, plywood only on the corners and some "cardboard" type filler 4X8 sheets the rest of the way around and only a 2x4 roof.

Really glad we did our own build...Materials alone was around $15K
but well worth it.

 

[rodnok1]

I agree with not closing the walls for awhile, once you get everything in you will want to change wiring, move a window, put an ac wall unit in, etc. The biggest ***** I have about all my previous garages(including pole barn I have now) is the lack of outlets/sub panel full/not enough lights inside and out. Running a close second is outside plugs, it ***** to run extension cords inside all the time. I also would have put overhangs on walk doors right away. Don't get all wound up about "what if" that might not ever happen. I figure out what I have and where I'm going to use it, I'd just change my mind about location of new items later anyways.

 

[thump186]

Thanx everyone for the replies. It's brought up alot of things in my mind that I want to look for and not to do.

 

[speed bump]

We have been slowly building and finishing my parents attached garages for the last 5-8 years now.

Things done right:
2x6 walls
12" ceilings
lots of outlets and lights
The foundation is 3' deep and insulated
the slab is 8" and other than the crack because we elected not to saw it to relieve where we knew it would probably crack its been perfect.
storage area
deep enough to park a pickup in and still have room front and back

Dumb things
Didn't spec trusses so we could run an I-beam down the center of them
Didn't make it big enough