Looking for ideas for residential 3 car

[KissMyWhtSS]

Under contract for a new house. I've been in a residential 2 car (approx 22' x 24') for the past 8 years and have been pretty cramped for space.

New house offers a 20' x 24' garage with a double door with a 3rd bay that is 10x20' so basically 30'x20-24' Rought sketch is this....


The red car is roughly the correct size for my '70 Chevelle. The white car is roughly the correct size for my '97 Camaro. Behind the Camaro is a CRF300L dual-sport motorcycle. Not necessarily keeping it there, but just put it there as the wife will likely park in the 3rd bay, at least during the winter. Though I am considering just turning the garage into a 2 car garage with a dedicated workspace.

I want to maxamize my storage as much as possible. I have the following items that must go in the garage:

• Toolbox (currently a standard crafstman stacker, but I would like to go to 1-2 52" wide husky boxes with wood top with wall hung cabinets behind them (or possibly a TV?)
• 10' fishing kayak. Likely hung on a wall with j-hooks but it would be nice if I don't need to move a car to get it off. Granted I don't use it daily, weekly, etc. but the easier it is to get off the more likely I will use it.
• 20 gallon air compressor
• spare engine on engine stand
• 2 sets of wheels (17" wheels with tires approx 26" in diameter for Camaro and 20" wheels with tires approx 32" in diameter for truck) -- These might be able to go in basement but would be cool if I could hang them in the wall if I have space?
• It would be nice to wall hang a few lawn items (weedeater, leaf blower, fertilizer spreader, wheel barrow maybe)

I'd love to also add a Husky (or similar) floorstanding cabinet for cleaning supplies. Obviously floorspace is pretty limited, width will be especially tight if I go 3 cars wide. I can probably put a coule heavy duty shelves in our basement to store items that aren't heavily utilized.

Any recommendations for how I should lay it out, etc. are greatly appreciated.

I'm also looking at doing epoxy floors when I move in as I will have a month or two of overlap before I sell or rent out my current home. I called one place for a bid today and will call 1-2 more on Monday so any recommendations on questions to ask, etc. are appreciated. I can post up a couple pictures of the inside of the garage on Monday.

 

[mrbill55]

What are you costs to bring your total depth to 27'-30'? Same goes with an extra 5' width. That extra few feet really makes a difference in what you can get into the garage and it will be the least expensive to add this type of space now, then later on.
Storage wise, I recommend hanging cabinets along the back wall, high enough you can nose the cars in a little deeper.
Don't go overboard with the toolbox unless you need it, and when in place, those will be in the left or right side of the garage walls. Air compressor, I have mine in between the garage doors at the front of the garage. kayak, hang from the ceiling, simple and easy enough to do, I used to do this with a 17' aluminum canoe, 9 foot ceiling height. Engine and wheels behind the bicycle in your picture,
Pictures of current 27x27 deep (25 foot deep where Miata is parked) garage, the Shelby is the same size, maybe a little longer than your Chevelle and will give you a decent idea of what type of space it has around it.


Our current house has a separate work room just off to the left of the red Miata. Workroom space, simple, elegant, easy to deal with. Ultra clean for this picture as we showed the house last week, even though it is not going up for sale till January or February 2024. All cabinets and counter top came from your typical Lowes/Home Depo box store and are easy enough to install with one or two people (uppers were done by me, and some pre cut 2x4's to keep them in place, I do recommend two people for this though.


New (old)house/garage has it's own thread elsewhere on the forum. Garage is laid out, work room will be a scratch build once renovations have been finished.

Hope you find this helpful.


Bill S.

 

[Reborn]

I have the same garage footprint, except my corner door is on the right wall, and I have a door on the back wall of the left bay which leads into the house. I ended up doing a fridge and newage cabinets on the back recessed wall, effectively coming just shy of flush with the back wall of the left bay. Great idea conceptually, but my regret with it is I lost the depth of my garage. I park 2 small cars in there, so it's fine, but I have to get strategic with floor jack handles which is a minor (but livable) annoyance. And our SUVs will fit in the garage if needed, but there is just inches from nose to cabinets and tail to garage door. Overall, it works well for me, but be aware of eating that real estate up.

Along the right wall, I have a 24"x72" storage rack, small air compressor, small press, that kind of stuff. The left, smaller bay is my home gym. I've been happy with this, so I think your idea of turning that bay into a workspace would work fairly well - just depends on how many cars you want to be able to park inside. For me, my wife prefers parking in the driveway, so win win. (we don't have winters here). I did hang a tv, and I love it (though I mostly use it for music rather than visual tv). I hung it on the right side of the back wall of the smaller bay (given my setup, it's kind of the only place it could go).

I painted walls and ceilings before we moved in. Debated flooring but left it as is. Previous owners did concrete paint - faux epoxy look. I regret not doing epoxy (or similar) EVERY time my foot slips, which happens fairly often: 2 use cases that come up frequently are when I have wet shoes, or when I'm trying to move my cars a few inches and can't get enough foot grip! However, I love not giving a **** about spilled oil, dropping something, etc. Way too much hassle to think about doing it now, so decide before you move in!

Spare wheels: I wanted to hang them as well, but I have no wall space with my setup. I ended up getting a small (3'x4') resin shed to keep on the side of the house to keep garage clutter down. I have my wheels in there. A bit of a pain in the rare times I need to use the spares, but worth it to keep them out of the garage.

 

[tfalk]

How high is the ceiling? Room for a 4 post lift?

 

[kngelv]

I I just met with a builder yesterday about putting an additional garage in my backyard. The largest I can go is 20' x 24' because of lot coverage restrictions. I am going with 9' ceilings and an 8' door. If at all possible do the same and make sure there is room for jackshaft openers. This will help with overhead storage space.

James

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

What are you costs to bring your total depth to 27'-30'? Same goes with an extra 5' width. That extra few feet really makes a difference in what you can get into the garage and it will be the least expensive to add this type of space now, then later on.

I absolutely agree. If I was building a 3 car garage it’d prob be 36x30’ This house is 9 years old and in a HOA. I’m honestly not sure I can even build a shed, but I will likely be looking at adding a shed attached to the house behind the third car in the future if possible. Basically accessible from the backyard to get junk out of the garage and use the space in the garage for car storage. We also might be able to use under the deck for storage and install walls but the deck only has 3-4’ of height over the existing concrete slab.

 

[rayra]

more width and depth if at all possible.
Does the greater depth in the two-car section include laundry machines or HVAC? If not, that's your toolbox and workbench space.
I turned my single bay into my workshop area, lots of shelves and benches on wheels, I can configure it almost any way I need, either collapsed when not in use, or expanded with a large work table in the middle for furniture building.
The side wall of the double can readily accommodate full floor to ceiling shelves, with 16" depth so you can rip 3 shelf decks per 4'x8' sheet with no waste.

We're still getting settled in from moving from out of state. But can get a car in the middle bay. Don't know if I'll ever get the other half of the double bay cleared out, but if I do I'll start building a wooden motorboat, so that's moot.

 

[Skellyii]

I absolutely agree. If I was building a 3 car garage it’d prob be 36x30’ This house is 9 years old and in a HOA. I’m honestly not sure I can even build a shed, but I will likely be looking at adding a shed attached to the house behind the third car in the future if possible. Basically accessible from the backyard to get junk out of the garage and use the space in the garage for car storage. We also might be able to use under the deck for storage and install walls but the deck only has 3-4’ of height over the existing concrete slab.

HOAs are the work of the devil!!! I bought a house over the winter on a little under .5 acres, but "officially" you can't even build a garden shed. Some people have snuck them in, and a few others have disguised them as "kid's playhouses", so that might be a way to get over on the HOA, ask your neighbors.

As far as storing spare tires, try ceiling storage racks. I've been using these racks from Menards, but I have 12' ceilings.

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

HOAs are the work of the devil!!! I bought a house over the winter on a little under .5 acres, but "officially" you can't even build a garden shed. Some people have snuck them in, and a few others have disguised them as "kid's playhouses", so that might be a way to get over on the HOA, ask your neighbors.

As far as storing spare tires, try ceiling storage racks. I've been using these racks from Menards, but I have 12' ceilings.

Noticed the Chiefs gear. I'm in Lenexa. Ceiling storage racks might work for the Camaro wheels but my Duramax wheels will probably be too heavy to chest press up there lol.

Definitely thought about doing some ceiling storage (my current garage had no space to really store anything on ceiling... older house with very little headroom over the door tracks.) The biggest issue I am concerned with is I want plenty of good lighting and depending if/where I do any overhead storage I don't want to take away from that.

 

[Skellyii]

Lenexa, eh? I Lived there for 16 years, just moved back to O.P. to get a bigger garage on a bigger lot.

If the lighting under the racks is a problem, you can attach LED fixtures to the bottom of the racks.

 

[P0234]

HOAs are the work of the devil!!! I bought a house over the winter on a little under .5 acres, but "officially" you can't even build a garden shed. Some people have snuck them in, and a few others have disguised them as "kid's playhouses", so that might be a way to get over on the HOA, ask your neighbors.

As far as storing spare tires, try ceiling storage racks. I've been using these racks from Menards, but I have 12' ceilings.

Your HOA sounds exactly like my old one. No sheds but people built kid playhouses that look a lot like sheds to me. It's one of the big reasons I moved out.

To the OP, obviously go as big as the builder will let you. But one thing to keep top priority is height. Push them to lower the floor to get more room. 12' is good but even 11' is good enough for stacking cars if you want that in the future.

 

[CraigStu]

If there is any way to make that left bay full depth I'd do it. That space would take care of nearly everything you mention besides the cars. A previous house had 2ft deep shelfs 2ft down down the ceiling all the way around. That was a TON of extra storage. A bit inconvenient but worked great. They basically built a 2ft wide ladder of 2x4s and put 3/8" plywood on top. The one 2x4 got screwed into the wall studs and the other side hung from the ceiling joist w/ chain and turnbuckleeach 4ft or so. I would forget about any cabinets on the floor. Put them all on the walls about kitchen cabinet + 6" height. That way a car can be snug against the wall if needed. You can go for 'garage' cabinets or get the relatively inexpensive in stock kitchen cabinets at all the box stores. You don't store car batteries or 8 gal cans of paint in them but they do fine for 95% of stuff. For lighting get the surface mount units that look like old 4ft flourescents but are LED. They are cheap, work well, and don't draw much current. That works nice if you decide you need a couple more since you can just daisy chain them into the existing lights w/o fear of overloading. Put them on at least 2 separate switches. 120V outlets about 4ft off the floor so above workbenches and below cabinets. And have them every 4ft instead of the more common every 6 ft. Figure in advance where you want the compressor and any other current or potential 240V outlets.

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

Lenexa, eh? I Lived there for 16 years, just moved back to O.P. to get a bigger garage on a bigger lot.

If the lighting under the racks is a problem, you can attach LED fixtures to the bottom of the racks.

Currently about 2 blocks into Lenexa from OP. Moving further West out by K7. Going from a early 1960’s 3br/2ba 1400sqft to a 9 year old 4br/3.5ba 2500sqft with 1000sqft of unfinished basement. It’ll be quite the jump.

Had inspection today. No red flags. Noticed garage has a 220v outlet but unfortunately there’s only 1 120V outlet in the entire garage. So that’s something I’ll definitely tackle first. Trying to get garage epoxy quotes before we move and schedule that ASAP as I will have two houses for a few weeks. Planning to list old house about a week after we move if things go according to plan.

 

[66Caprice]

park all of your cars in the yard and draw out the dimentions of the new garage. It will give you an understanding of how small that place is...

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

park all of your cars in the yard and draw out the dimentions of the new garage. It will give you an understanding of how small that place is...

Definitely would go bigger if I could. All this stuff is in a 484sqft garage (approx 22x24) today so 650sqft should be much better. I don’t really plan to store a third vehicle so the 34% more space should help a lot.

I fully understand with more space there will become a stronger desire to fill it (more toolboxes, etc.) but I am going to push hard to get rid of a few things during the move and not buy any more stuff in the near future unless it helps organize the space more efficiently (cabinets, lights, shelves, etc.)

 

[CSRPenFab]

My garage is similar, but the entire 3 bay is extra depth. I can park 3 cars and still have 12' of space in front of the vehicles. Garage is right at 1,000 sq. ft.

 

[Cairo94507]

I would try to make the garage deeper at least. Otherwise you are really cramped if you do a work bench/cabinets. It is not a lot more to make it bigger if they have not poured the foundation yet.

 

[Dr_Pippin]

Noticed the Chiefs gear. I'm in Lenexa. Ceiling storage racks might work for the Camaro wheels but my Duramax wheels will probably be too heavy to chest press up there lol.

Definitely thought about doing some ceiling storage (my current garage had no space to really store anything on ceiling... older house with very little headroom over the door tracks.) The biggest issue I am concerned with is I want plenty of good lighting and depending if/where I do any overhead storage I don't want to take away from that.

Hey fellow Lenexan!

I've been living with a 30'x20' 3-car garage the past three years, and I had room for shelves in front of my cars, but no real workspace without pulling out the cars. The extra deep two bays you're going to have will give you nice space for cabinets, workbenches, etc. But of course, bigger is better...

Remember that you can always mount lights on the underside of any ceiling-mounted storage you do.

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

We got moved in last week. The day after closing we had epoxy floors done.


Got the cars moved over.
No pictures since moving the kayak, toolbox, air compressor. Things are definitely pretty tight right now. Been pretty busy working on the old house and a little unpacking inside the new. Probably be Spring before I get a chance to really organize the garage. I’m hoping to add several outlets before I paint the walls and obviously add some better lighting as well.

 

[Dr_Pippin]

I must have missed that you were looking at a different house. I thought you were going to have two bays that were extra deep.

Looks good, though!

 

[P0234]

Floors came out great, now the walls need some loving before all the stuff covers them up!

 

[Skellyii]

Wow! Your bare garage looks very similar to what mine looked like when we moved in last winter.

Nice job on the floors!

I love the 70 Chevelle SS, a buddy of mine used to have a Red 70 SS LS6 which was really nice. I'm wanting to do a restomod project, and Chevelles are one of the cars I'm thinking about.

I would have preferred to stay in Lenexa with you and @Dr_Pippin , but every house I looked at back then in Lenexa with a decent garage seemed to be subject to a nasty bidding war.

 

[Skellyii]

I absolutely agree. If I was building a 3 car garage it’d prob be 36x30’ This house is 9 years old and in a HOA. I’m honestly not sure I can even build a shed, but I will likely be looking at adding a shed attached to the house behind the third car in the future if possible. Basically accessible from the backyard to get junk out of the garage and use the space in the garage for car storage. We also might be able to use under the deck for storage and install walls but the deck only has 3-4’ of height over the existing concrete slab.

Reading this made me remember a house that I looked at. I *LOVED* the garage and workshop setup, They added an addition behind the garage for the workshop. Unfortunately, the house was on a busy street (been there done that, NOT again), and the house just wasn't right. Too bad, as they were willing to bargain on price.

 

[CraigStu]

I think I'd be looking at surface mounting outlets. I have used this and it is super easy since it uses mounting tape to attach to the wall or ceiling.

Legrand Wiremold Cordmate II Cord Cover 12 ft. Kit, Cord Hider for Home or Office, Holds 3 Cables, White C210 - The Home Depot

The mess and clutter of cords is no more with the Wiremold CordMate II Cord Cover Kit. It is perfect for hiding small bundles of home entertainment cabling, speaker wires, TV/video cabling and home office

www.homedepot.com

I am not sure it would work for 240V but it's great for 120V.

 

[smackey05]

Currently about 2 blocks into Lenexa from OP. Moving further West out by K7. Going from a early 1960’s 3br/2ba 1400sqft to a 9 year old 4br/3.5ba 2500sqft with 1000sqft of unfinished basement. It’ll be quite the jump.

Had inspection today. No red flags. Noticed garage has a 220v outlet but unfortunately there’s only 1 120V outlet in the entire garage. So that’s something I’ll definitely tackle first. Trying to get garage epoxy quotes before we move and schedule that ASAP as I will have two houses for a few weeks. Planning to list old house about a week after we move if things go according to plan.

Looks good!

 

[kngelv]

I hate drywall in a garage which is why I used sanded pine plywood everywhere but the ceiling. Unfortunately cutting in outlets would be a pain unless you are willing to strip the drywall. You can't use that particular Wiremold for anything but cords. No outlet wires. I would just get surface mount boxes and EMT if you don't want to rip down the drywall. Get jackshaft openers first thing, that gives you a ton more storage space in the overhead.

James

 

[shade]

Get a mat for the bike kickstand. They will gouge the flooring at some point.

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

I hate drywall in a garage which is why I used sanded pine plywood everywhere but the ceiling. Unfortunately cutting in outlets would be a pain unless you are willing to strip the drywall. You can't use that particular Wiremold for anything but cords. No outlet wires. I would just get surface mount boxes and EMT if you don't want to rip down the drywall. Get jackshaft openers first thing, that gives you a ton more storage space in the overhead.

James

We’ll see. I don't mind a bit of drywall work to do it right if need be, but hoping fishing romex across the garage isn’t a huge PITA.

Would I need to convert the single door from expansion to torsion for jackshaft openers?

Get a mat for the bike kickstand. They will gouge the flooring at some point.

Good point. Don’t plan on keeping the bike there long term but definitely will have to ge careful of the floor with it. I may look at a bike jack/stand.

 

[KissMyWhtSS]

I must have missed that you were looking at a different house. I thought you were going to have two bays that were extra deep.

Looks good, though!

The county assessors website showed the wall on the 2 car side as 24’ but I missed the 2’ cutout for the doorway so the 2 car is really more like 22’ deep. So it’s basically 20’ wide by 22’ deep with a 10’x20’ third bay. It’s definitely barely adequate but pretty typical of a cookie cutter 3 car garage in my area.



Ideally I would’ve wanted to move further out and get an acre where I could build a proper shop but I wasn't going to ask my wife to make a commute I wouldn't want to make myself and I feel like it would’ve been hard to find a house we both loved within budget, close enough she’d be okay with the commute, etc.

Now the battle will be making my wife understand this 3 car garage is actually only a 2 car garage. Other than that, make the best use of the space and secure some space in the unfinished basement for storage as well.

 

[Dr_Pippin]

Even just being 22' deep rather than 20' deep will be nice. Like I said, I had a 30' wide x 20' deep and it was closer than I liked for carrying stuff back and forth between the front bumpers of the vehicles and the shelving I had (especially with things sticking out from the shelving or getting piled along the front of the shelving rather than under it). That extra couple feet will allow a useable workbench at the front of the garage with a car parked in there.

I'm currently watching the concrete cure on my garage addition, so hopefully soon I won't have to be careful of brushing against a dirty vehicle!

 

[05snopro440]

No garage space is ever large enough, but hopefully you can make good use of the space you have.

When we were looking for an acreage about 3 years ago, I assumed I wouldn't get the big garage or shop I wanted. What we ended up with was perfect and I have an almost unbelievable commute to work even though we're on 3.5 acres. My garage is 38' wide x 32' deep with 12' ceilings and three 10' x 10' doors. I never would have built one this size, but it's incredible. We've been here 2.5 years and I'm still trying to get organized. It's a challenge to get organized no matter how much space you have, but use all the space you can (walls, ceiling). Best of luck.

 

[Skellyii]

Get jackshaft openers first thing, that gives you a ton more storage space in the overhead.

James

Really?

I had standard openers in my last garage, and had overhead storage racks in both bays. The only downside was that they had to be placed on each side of the belt drive, which actually wasn't that big of a deal.

I'm looking at my ceiling in my current garage, I have two jackshaft openers and one standard, and I don't see the difference in room?