medium 2 car detached recommendations needed

[eric w]

I'm brainstorming/dreaming my detached garage. I bought my first house last year but it doesn't have a garage I'm sick of going back to my parents' house to do work on my car/bike/whatever. I've seen quite a few garage builds on this site but most of them are large and fancy by my standards.

Here's the run down- My yard is slightly under 1/4 acre, it's 100' x 100' so there's room for a 2 car garage. I'm restricted to about 750 sq ft. The town allows 50% the main dwelling for a detached garage. My house is only 1000 sq ft per level (basement doesn't count) so this would be only 500 sq ft. But- I was able to get an exception, because my house is a 1 1/2 story they're willing to count the 1/2 story "attic" to be considered part of the living space, which allows the house to be credited as 1500 sq ft, which gives me 750 sq ft for the garage

Sooo, I'm wondering what's the best dimensions to use. I want a 2 car garage, so far I have my car and bike. I don't plan on having any huge trucks. But when working on something we all know how space disappears very quickly! I'm thinking a single large 18' wide door and a small "people" door on the side (required by code anyway). Of course there's all the minor details too like storage in the rafters, electrical and heat, plumbing etc.

Any input on dimensions, other stuff? I'm thinking 24W x 30D, or 22W x 34D. 24 wide is going to be as wide and 34' deep is going to be about as deep as I can go due to the property line etc (can't do 24x34 as it would exceed 750 sq ft). l can make it as high the existing house but the higher the ceiling the higher the cost of the build (10 ft, 12 ft ceiling?). I'm hoping to keep this around $30k, so it'll allow me to save up the next few years for this.

Anybody have pictures/plans of a 600-750 sq ft 2 car garage?

Here's the styles that I'm imagining (but with single doors, leaning towards the first one with the barn style roof to maximize ceiling height):

 

[SgtRauksauff]

Depends a little on the layout of your house, how you'll be going from your house to your garage, how your driveway will work, and if you prefer benches/workspace to the side or to the front.

The detached garage I just bought (it came with a house, too!) is a 24x36, which will work out well I think, because there's room for two 'parking' bays, and one 'working' bay, with some room to the side. for tools/workbench/toolbox/transmissions/engines/whatever. It's currently got some cabinets there, the previous owner was a carpenter/woodwoorker, but I think I might be altering them, so I can fit my compressor/toolboxes/workbenches/press/etc...

here's a google sketchup I did of how the garage basically sits right now, it might give you some ideas:

I think if I were making, from scratch, say a 25x30 (I think you should use every bit of size you are allowed), I'd do it very similar to what I've got. 25 feet deep, and 30 feet wide: Two feet from the wall to the overhead door (one foot doesn't give enough room to open a car door enough IMO, and two feet will give you deeper storage overhead along the wall), a 16' overhead door, one foot between doors, then a 9-foot overhead door, then the last two feet on the right side of the garage. the 9-footer would be the 'shop' area.

In my opinion, you could go with just the 22 Wide, and 34 deep, but that "work area" is now spread out across all the bays in front of everything, which might make it harder to segregate your projects/dirt/grease/dust/shavings from your clean vehicles. That's assuming you park your vehicles in the garage. I can fit mine in there, but I think once I get my tools moved in (I only closed last friday), I might find that I NEED to work on more than one project at a time...

Good luck, sounds like you're going to have a nice one, whatever it is!

** edit ** duh, I re-read your post and realized your 24Wx34D limitations.

If you're stuck to 24W, I'd say have the 16' OHD two feet off the wall, so you have a six-foot area on the other side, and make it 31 feet deep, so you're as close to the 750 as possible (744square feet for 24x31).

If you like your workspace at the front, though, 22x34 would be good!

I'm starting to ramble, so I'll stop typing now.

--sarge

 

[Beaumont67]

Your design looks real nice ... use all 750 sq. ft. .... like 25x30 ft.

------------------------
Mine is 24x30 (720 sq.ft.) - 1.5 story / 9'high ceiling in main & -6' head room at roof peak:
- 24 to 25' deep is ideal for full size pickup or boat & trailer / doing vehicle body work, etc.
- garage doors are 8'high x 10'wide each / like the size
- all oversize garage doors are favored to one side, and it works very well
(other side for equipment, work bench, redi-rack, gas furnace, etc.)
- man door starts 4ft. past the front left corner
(first 4ft. has a vertical sheet of plywood to mount the 100amp Hydro panel)

14 inch high WOOD-EYE STRUCTURAL BEAMS on top of the framed 2x6" wall studs / to accept "open area" stick framing on roof (no need for trusses) - T&G plywood upper floor = 700 sq.ft. parts loft.

I build it with one experienced carpenter, in 1991 - booked holidays and worked along side him... to save a wade of cash.
- I also keep the back of the garage 7ft. off the rear property line (4' minimum is code) / have a slight drop off and makes it easier to cut the grass, with a little extra room



------------------------------------------------
Beaumont { :>)) www.petperfectexpress.com
1965 Malibu S/S, 1966 Beaumont Custom original paint, 1967 Beaumont Custom, 1967 Beaumont Custom original paint, 1967 Beaumont 396-350HP Sport Deluxe M21-411's - SOLD 1970 Judge

 

[kmacht]

I bought almost that exact garage that you have in the first picture. It was from horizon structures. You can check out my thread of the delivery and setup here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70896

Mine was 24x24. I could have gone bigger but the town limited me to 600 square feet if I wanted to put it on a slab. Any bigger than 600 and I would have been required to do footers down 48" all around the perimeter. I highly recommend the barn style roof. I have a full shop above my garage with more headroom than I could ever use. If you want to put in a lift in the garage you can just have one bay made up with a 2nd story and leave one bay open to the roof.

Keith

 

[thrifty bill]

Might be able to get around the size limit if you attach it to the house. Here, I am limited to a 600 sq ft detached garage,. Attached? I can basically fill out the lot, maintaining setbacks of course.

 

[eric w]

Depends a little on the layout of your house, how you'll be going from your house to your garage, how your driveway will work, and if you prefer benches/workspace to the side or to the front.

SNIP


Good luck, sounds like you're going to have a nice one, whatever it is!

** edit ** duh, I re-read your post and realized your 24Wx34D limitations.

If you're stuck to 24W, I'd say have the 16' OHD two feet off the wall, so you have a six-foot area on the other side, and make it 31 feet deep, so you're as close to the 750 as possible (744square feet for 24x31).

If you like your workspace at the front, though, 22x34 would be good!

I'm starting to ramble, so I'll stop typing now.

--sarge

This is great stuff, thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to make it longer than wide so it sits perpendicular to the house. my house is not that big to begin with and is set with the long dimension of the house parallel to the road. it's going to look silly with a wide garage on my relatively small yard, not to mention it may not even fit

Here's an aerial shot, the garage would be to the upper right corner of the house. I do have some flexibility of the dimensions

Your design looks real nice ... use all 750 sq. ft. .... like 25x30 ft.

------------------------
Mine is 24x30 (720 sq.ft.) - 1.5 story / 9'high ceiling in main & -6' head room at roof peak:
- 24 to 25' deep is ideal for full size pickup or boat & trailer / doing vehicle body work, etc.
- garage doors are 8'high x 10'wide each / like the size
- all oversize garage doors are favored to one side, and it works very well
(other side for equipment, work bench, redi-rack, gas furnace, etc.)
- man door starts 4ft. past the front left corner
(first 4ft. has a vertical sheet of plywood to mount the 100amp Hydro panel)

14 inch high WOOD-EYE STRUCTURAL BEAMS on top of the framed 2x6" wall studs / to accept "open area" stick framing on roof (no need for trusses) - T&G plywood upper floor = 700 sq.ft. parts loft.

I build it with one experienced carpenter, in 1991 - booked holidays and worked along side him... to save a wade of cash.
- I also keep the back of the garage 7ft. off the rear property line (4' minimum is code) / have a slight drop off and makes it easier to cut the grass, with a little extra room



------------------------------------------------
Beaumont { :>)) www.petperfectexpress.com
1965 Malibu S/S, 1966 Beaumont Custom original paint, 1967 Beaumont Custom, 1967 Beaumont Custom original paint, 1967 Beaumont 396-350HP Sport Deluxe M21-411's - SOLD 1970 Judge

Good stuff. I'm debating stick built or prefab, more in below post.

I bought almost that exact garage that you have in the first picture. It was from horizon structures. You can check out my thread of the delivery and setup here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70896

Mine was 24x24. I could have gone bigger but the town limited me to 600 square feet if I wanted to put it on a slab. Any bigger than 600 and I would have been required to do footers down 48" all around the perimeter. I highly recommend the barn style roof. I have a full shop above my garage with more headroom than I could ever use. If you want to put in a lift in the garage you can just have one bay made up with a 2nd story and leave one bay open to the roof.

Keith

Ahhh, great feedback on Horizon Structures I really enjoyed your thread. That's definitely a consideration. Sounds like it's affordable, I did some research with them and for my dimensions they couldn't do prefab, nor do the single door (they'd have to build it onsite). However, depending on the price difference I may compromise and do what you've done on yours. That's great and is (relatively) affordable!

Here's where I plan to put mine, you can see from the pictures a 24' wide garage pushes it just to the edge of the house. I have to be 3 ft from the property line. I can then cover up the neighbors fence and have less yard to mow Too bad I just planted the leyland cypresses you see and 4 of them would have to go to accomodate a 30' deep garage

I'm putting it in this location because I have 32 ft from the side of house to the property line, the house's gas, water and electric are all on this side, the front and rear doors are closer to this side and there is an existing driveway.

Shot facing the street. I'd have to extend the driveway and make it wider.

I know you did electrical but did you have any plumbing/gas run?

Might be able to get around the size limit if you attach it to the house. Here, I am limited to a 600 sq ft detached garage,. Attached? I can basically fill out the lot, maintaining setbacks of course.

Might be but 750 sq foot would be more than enough for my needs and budget. Not to mention the way the house is setup if it's attached I'd lose windows. With detached I can stick it in the corner and it won't block any corners. I'll look into it more though, nothing is off the table yet

 

[eric w]

Doing some more thinking- what do you all think of having a garage wider or longer?

WIDER

Pros:
-Can put smaller door for motorcycle, lawn mower etc.
-May serve as additional buffer between the damn townhouses behind me and my yard.
-Can put work area off to the side of vehicles.

Cons:
-Takes up more back yard space.
-If I put more roll up doors, it will cost more money.
- Since the driveway will be even longer with more area it will be more to shovel in the winter time, more to maintain/seal in the summer.
-I'm going to have to dig up more newly planted leyland cypress trees.
- Will cost more for excavation/grading (from the previous pics you can see how my yard slightly slopes up).
-Will cost more money for paving additional area (wider entrance and longer driveway), and will need longer runs to run electric/gas/plumbing.
- I think it's going to look oddly proportioned with a very wide garage behind a small house with a small yard.
-Also (personal opinion and no offense to anyone with this setup) I think a barn style roof sideways looks silly like this:

vs
DEEPER

Pros:
-Will not take as much space in back yard.
- Cheaper because less additional area needs to be paved, closer to water/gas/electric feed of the house, less excavation.
-Being perpendicular to the house, the garage won't dwarf the house as badly.
- if it's 30 some feet long unless i'm working on a limo it should have enough depth for even the longest vehicle.

Cons:
- will not buffer the town houses, may even make it worse due to having a structure there reflecting any of my sound from the back yard/in the garage.
-If I have 2 cars parked in a 24' wide garage, i probably won't be able to have the both doors wide open, but this is easily mitigated by parking the other car in the driveway/street when I'm not working on it.

After making my list I'm leaning towards the deeper. Any other input on wider vs longer?

 

[ddawg16]

My garage is detached. 20'x25'....2-story....see the build link in my signature...

I think the closer you have it to the house, the better....for many of the reasons you noted. Can you later build an awning over the drivway in front of the garage? It would cut down the snow and make it a good place to park being right next to the house.

I would be inclinded to go deeper....with maybe double man doors on the side opening out into the yard.