Ideal garage size

[daddycreswell]

I know opinions will vary, but what does everyone consider an ideal garage? We are thinking about building a house and I need enough space for 3 cars that are driving daily, one that is driving every now and then. Also room for tools etc... So let me here it.


Sent from my dumb apple products my work makes me use.

 

[fitz11]

As big as possible for your location! I've never heard some wish for a smaller garage.

 

[ddawg16]

It's never big enough

 

[Ross/Kzoo]

It also depends how much work you plan on doing in the garage. Do you have a separate workshop in the house? Maybe to make it look more "residential" make the 3 car garage double deep in 2 or 3 of the stalls.

 

[jim1987]

10 square miles.

 

[ibedayank]

bigger then you have or built

 

[steel billet]

Somewhere between 1800 and 8000 sg ft. That would be big enough.

 

[SALIV8]

What I did was draw my ideas to scale on graph paper. I know, I know, how lame but I don't know how to do the digital versions.

Then I drew the cars, quads, etc and placed them in the garage. You can cut out the cars, mowers, etc. and use them in different templates.

It's not the quickest method but I have my perfect setup now and am confident with starting the build. Customize as You want for your current and future needs.

Going bigger is great but cost, taxes, insurance all go up too.

 

[strtcar]

Like others have said its never big enough.....but if i had to put some specs, my personal preference, if you had 3 cars in a garage, i want (or wish i had) 6' of space around the sides, front, back. to me that would be beyond ideal.

 

[countryroad82]

Something along the lines of the size of Mall Of America might be sufficient. I built a 30X50 and when I moved my stuff in I thought I would never run out of room. Fast forward 13 years and I could stand at least another 10 feet on length.... 20 or 30 would buy me some time!

 

[bczygan]

That's like asking how big is the perfect size for a house. Or what is the perfect amount of money to make, or what is the perfect size lot.

You need to define EXACTLY what it will be used for, in detail.

Then you will know.

 

[Autorotica]

For a DD garage MINIMUM width should be 12' per vehicle. Length of vehicle plus MINIMUM 8'.

We have a 24' x 36' 2 car garage. Concrete is 24' x 24', there is a wooden landing behind it that is 12' deep x 24 wide. The basement stairs are there, the trash cans, Bulk purchasing shelving, bikes and all kinds of other stuff that garages collect. For tools and workshop area, that definitely is not enough!

Hope this helps!
Chris

 

[irregardless]

Length of vehicle plus MINIMUM 8'.

The PO of my house built the garage like this... omg, I will never be able to go back to anything smaller. Can't wait to pull an engine in there and NOT have to push the car outside to have room to work.


As far as how big though, like everyone said, as big as you can afford... then an extra 4-8'.

 

[Dan_inthewind]

I would go to town hall and see what the maximum allowance for a garage would be on your lot. Then I would build as big as my budget would allow within that maximum.

That maximum will always protect your resale, keep neighbours off your back and leave enough yard to enjoy all the other aspects of home life.

 

[Mike Miller]

I always envied a friends garage, from the front it looked like a standard attached two car garage but it was as deep as the full width of his house. He could back his truck and a 22 ft. boat in one stall and close the door.

 

[GarageWrench]

My last garage was 25dx35w I really liked the size though it only had an 8 foot ceiling. Now I have a 10 foot ceiling but about 200 sq ft less floor space. I can't complain with what I have but I believe the old footprint with 10 foot ceilings would be ideal for my situation.

 

[rpm1]

after you come up with a size that you think will be perfect add 10 feet to both sides

 

[rpm1]

oh a make sure you build it taller than you need it also

 

[teamextreme]

There is no ideal size. It's different for every person and their needs, but pretty much all the posts above are correct in terms of there being no such thing as too big.

 

[Kingcreek]

LOL!
It doesn't matter how big you make it. 4 walls and a roof create a Vacuume that ***** stuff into it until it is full.

 

[Voi]

We bought out house nine years ago in part because it had the largest three car attached garage in our then budget.

Interior is about 38' x 24.5' once I framed out the poured concrete walls and added electric and insulation. We have another poured concrete wall that divides the two car area from the shop area (third stall, which was an addition). It's framed out on one side for electric and it eats up a lot of real estate as well.

With hindsight it's not large enough so we really only park one car inside.

The wall that divides the house from garage is very close to the opening for the first overhead door so getting in and out with two cars is tight. When we had babies and car seats it was really tough.

Wife now wants a 1/2 ton pickup with crew cab for a second family vehicle and it almost certainly will have to be parked outside.

Upshot is that I now consider 40' x 30' to be an absolute minimum for a three car garage and honestly that's probably a bit small.

 

[themiller]

My current is 660sq/ft. Next WILL be double that. Not because of stuff, but because I hate feeling cramped.

 

[daddycreswell]

I currently have a 24*32 garage, and the only thing I can park in there is my 73 Bronco. I used the 16*9 door we had on the house garage when I turned it into a room. But if the wife goes through with her plan to build another house I want to make sure I can park at least 2 DD in there and my Bronco, my MIL car can stay outside for all I care. my idea is to make it long enough to park the Bronco behind one of the DD and still have room for my stuff which is not a ton, work bench, tool box etc and enough room for mower with a roll door for it.

 

[ky-mike]

We built 2 years ago. I wish that I had thought this out better. I did get the builder to go to 12' ceilings, but didn't think about length or depth.

I think that we have a standard sized 3 car garage. It measures approximately 30' wide by 22' deep. This gives me about 10' of width per vehicle. Considering that each of my vehicles is about 6' wide with doors closed, that leaves 12' for space for opening doors, having storage cabinets, etc. I need about 3' between cars in order to fully open car doors without hitting another vehicle. That means that I need about 9' for each vehicle, leaving about 3' extra width for the entire garage for storage on the side walls. Going to 36' (12' per car as another poster suggested) from 30' would have been the smart thing to do. Right now, things are too tight as I have storage on both side walls.

As for depth, I have one vehicle (sedan) that is 15' long and another (truck) that is a little over 17' long. My 22' depth leaves a little less than 5' for storage and walking room. Another 2' of depth would have been great.

In summary, 36' wide by 24' deep would have allowed me adequate room for normal garage storage plus vehicles.

Since my garage is not adequate for my needs, I will be building a 30' X40' outbuilding this year to handle my storage needs. Still finalizing placement and exterior design, but hope to get moving on this within 6-8 weeks.

 

[Punchwood]

Big x LARGE.

 

[sberry]

after you come up with a size that you think will be perfect add 10 feet to both sides

I think this is good solid real advice, practical. My Bud build a 30X40 and a 40 50 would have been perfect.

 

[kazlx]

I think more than anything, I would prefer to have a shop and garage separate. My two car right now is 17x18, which *****, especially with a fab table, 4x8 cnc plasma, mill, lathe and other ****.

I think I would be content with a 3 car garage sized area, but the bigger the better. Ideally, I would love to have the space to build a shop area on my property, but in SoCal, probably not going to happen. I will be lucky if I can find a .25 acre lot.

 

[McKay]

I walked through a buddys shop that was 3800. Thought that was perfect so I designed mine at just over 7000 on the main level. Then put in a 1100 foot basement, 1400 foot mezzanine, and then about 3700 feet of attic truss storage.

 

[Glider_6969]

Depending on what type of house plan you have, if you do incorporate a 3 car garage and you have the room, have the farthest garage bay stick past the house and add another garage door to the back for a drive though, but that will all depend on you property size. This comes in handy if you are only able to build one large attached garage and want to use the whole property for the house.

 

[kaffine]

70'x100' with a 20ft roof. That is as large as my city will let me build. The dimensions can be changed some as long as it remains under 7000sqft. Although there may be a way around it. I think if I attach it to the house the size limit goes away.

 

[daddycreswell]

70'x100' with a 20ft roof. That is as large as my city will let me build. The dimensions can be changed some as long as it remains under 7000sqft. Although there may be a way around it. I think if I attach it to the house the size limit goes away.

Man wish I could build something like that, and have the wife agree to live in it. I doubt that will happen them. Does 40x40 sound like it would work?


Sent from my dumb apple products my work makes me use.

 

[RandyL]

I live out in the dirt without a lot of codes or adult supervision...

I wanted a garage built on the end of my house, mostly to park in..so we could get the kids out of the car and in the house easily and comfortably. No such thing had ever existed in either of our families before!

I drove my truck up by the house and opened the doors, drove the wifes car up beside it and opened the doors, then parked a lawn mower beside her car. Took a stick and drew a line on the ground...that was far enough out. That was over 20 years ago and it is the best thing we ever did... it is a 32 x 35 garage. 2 front overhead doors, one overhead door going out the rear of the outer bay. We park the truck close to the house and 2 cars in the outer bay...mowers, motorcycles and **** along the outer wall as planned.

Having the rear facing garage door is fantastic..we open either a front or the rear depending on wind when we are in the yard, BBQ, friends over, or what ever...it is the best thing about the garage... both my kids have garages at their houses now days..its been that long, and I still enjoy it.

 

[holdover]

did a 40 X 60, wish it was 50 X 80! Too many projects, too little room

 

[Aberdale]

Ideal garage size? If there was an ideal garage size, then all garages would be the same size, wouldn't they? Size will be dependent on what you want to store, and what you want to do.

My attached 3-car garage is 36 x 36. It really wasn't big enough to park 3 cars, two motorcycles, a lawn tractor, and still work in comfortably, so I built a separate shop that is 40x60. That allowed us to use the attached garage for parking vehicles only. The shop began filling up with projects, so I built a 40x120 barn for project storage to free up shop space. That has worked pretty well, but I needed a space to park finished projects so I built a 20x60 6-bay garage.

Oh, on top of that, I have a 40x60 2-story barn and a 24x36 garden shed, which are both catch-alls for odd-ball stuff that is too valuable to get rid of.

Is this ideal? I guess not, because I'm drawing up plans to build another 80x120 building.

Asking for advice for an "ideal garage size" is like asking, "What's the perfect size shoe?"

'dale

 

[sparksftball69]

id say HUGE x SLIGHTLY LARGER

 

[Dodo]

Ask Jay Leno.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I built a garage bigger than any that my friends ever had, that I had envied in the past, and it's still not big enough. For me, the perfect size would likely be in the 40x60 range, though that's impossible for me to even have as I'm not able to build a garage with more square footage than my house. Strange rules, but they're there. I actually went even smaller than I wanted due to a lot of factors, not the least of which is money. Mine ended up being 24x48.

My attached 3-car garage is 36 x 36. It really wasn't big enough to park 3 cars, two motorcycles, a lawn tractor, and still work in comfortably, so I built a separate shop that is 40x60. That allowed us to use the attached garage for parking vehicles only. The shop began filling up with projects, so I built a 40x120 barn for project storage to free up shop space. That has worked pretty well, but I needed a space to park finished projects so I built a 20x60 6-bay garage.

Oh, on top of that, I have a 40x60 2-story barn and a 24x36 garden shed, which are both catch-alls for odd-ball stuff that is too valuable to get rid of.

Is this ideal? I guess not, because I'm drawing up plans to build another 80x120 building.

You just became my hero.

 

[R68GTO]

I am in the process of building a new house with a 2 car attached garage. The garage is really just normal size for 2 cars. Prior to building the house, I built a 42 wide x 36 deep garage - 3 bays wide. I have 1 14 foot bay walled off from the rest of the space with a full bathroom. I am currently living in this space but will eventually keep my GTO in there. The center bay has a 14 foot ceiling for my 4 post Bendpak lift. The only thing (right now) that I am regretting is not putting in 10 ft wide doors (they are 9 ft).
The standard reply is "never can be too big", but this one seems to be just right for me and my hobbyist style work that I do.

 

[honda_fox3]

The house I grew up in had a 2 car attached garage, we built a 40x60 steel building with lots of space around it for parking vehicles. Wasn't enough.

The house my parents live in now has a 2 car attached, 60x100 steel building and a 10x40 storage container that was built into a barn like structure with lean-to on each side so that added 40x10 each side plus storage above the container. All build very nicely and weather tight. Still not enough.

That being said, currently the 60x100 building has 3-4 RVs, 3-5 boats, 6 ATV's, multiple lawn mowers, all holiday decorations, any of my brother and I's random projects ranging from shooting benches, cars or pieces for his horse barn, typically a vehicle or 2 and a compact tractor with all it's accessories. Plus all the odds and ends stuff that collects. There is a LOT of stuff in there.

As said it all depends on your needs. My old man needs all that space and more because he allows other people to store stuff there and he has a lot of stuff himself.

Another thing to consider is door size. I really wish I would have gone with wider doors on my recently built home. I have an 830 sq ft 3 car garage attached but getting 2 cars through the one large door is tightish and makes my wife nervous, another foot in width would have been a really great idea. Not too big of a deal as I am planning a 40x60, maybe bigger shop in the future.

As has been said before, you never hear anyone complain about too much space. Just like with gun safes, bigger than you need allows for future expansion/collection.

Ideally, something big enough to have a 6ft perimeter around anything you may need to work on, dedicated welding and wood work areas, paint booth, full restroom, lounge/bar area, kitchen, wash bay, and a go cart track. Should about do it.

Oh and a fireman's pole. Always tell your wife it's a fireman's pole unless she is willing to participate.