New garage advice

[efinley]

Hey guys,
We're very close to building a new 50' x 50' garage and I'm hoping to get advice from you guys. It is primarily intended as a garage to park vehicles as I already have another 2600 sq ft shop where I have the tools, welders, etc. What I'm looking to park in here is:
35' fifth wheel camper
2500 dodge ram
Kubota RTV1140
a 20' sailboat

Here is what I'm thinking (the big semi looking this is the 5th wheel, visio didn't have a better image, the other boxes are my boats)

Here is a picture of general area layout. Most all of the junk is already cleared out and the 40' container has been moved over to make room.

The road coming up from the bottom is the road to the house, the road heading up is going to the other shop. Also the back of the new garage will be on a couple feet of compacted fill so I can't really add a drive through door out the back side (which I've seen suggested in other threads and sounds like a great idea).

I'm currently planning 2 doors into the shop (drawn in blue), a 12'w x 14'h door on the right for the RV and a 18'w x 14'h door on the left for everything else. I'm a little concerned that the 18' door will be pretty tight if I ever decide to park 2 full size truck in there. Also is 12' wide enough to get a 35' trailer through or should I go to 14'. Since the doors are so big they will be sectional doors instead of roll-up doors and I'll insulate them.

There will also be a man door, I'm thinking of a 4' wide door so that we can carry large items through it (like saddles, bikes etc) without having to open one of the garage doors.

The power to the other shop goes right over this one so I'll have 100 amp 220v service and I'm planning a 50/30A plug for the RV, a 50A 220v plug for a welder between the 2 garage doors, and then a couple 20A plugs with 50' cord reels.

And just because I can... Here is a pic of the general area showing the other shop etc (ignore all the piles of junk )

So what am I missing?

-Eric
Greater Sacramento, CA area

 

[jkwilson]

Strictly a personal preference issue, but I'd put a roll up door or two on the left end and park the two smaller vehicles at 90 degrees to what they are. Big doors are a pain for frequently driven vehicles.

As a matter of fact, I might even reconfigure it so everthing but the 5er was pulled in from that left side, each with a door directly in front of it. Aggravating to have to play musical vehicles when you want to get something out and then repeat it when you get done.

As to a drive through, I like the idea, and you could probably build up the ground behind the building with gravel that had fines in it. The back side of my barn was 26" above grade when finished, and the gravel I used to build up the approach hasn't settled an inch in 15 years.

Regardless, I would want more larger doors for flexibility. It's nice for ventilation too if you have doors on opposite walls.

 

[bczygan]

Got enough stuff?

Nice big piece of land. How much acreage?

Whatever you design, make it tall enough, so that lean to roofs can be added on both sides, for future covered storage. Cheap way to accommodate additional items.

 

[efinley]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

jkwilson - I thought about loading from the left but that back left corner will be sitting on about 4-5' of fill so building it up enough to get vehicles in and out would be a bit of a hassle. Also I'm not sure my wife would like looking at 3 roll up doors out the dining room window. I'm curious why big doors are a hassle. Is it because they're heavy or do they not work reliably? I was thinking of putting an electric opener on it but haven't gone too far down that road yet.

bczygan - This is a part of a larger family ranch dating back to the 1880's. We're currently the only ones living here but I get to deal with all the stuff that has accumulated over the years, so yeah, I've got TOO much stuff and most of it isn't mine! But we own the 150 acres that the house and shops are on. Space isn't really an issue, but we want to keep this building close to the house so that it can act as a garage. Unfortunately we're on the top of a hill so things start to roll off pretty quickly so my placement options are sort of limited.

I've never seen it done, but is it possible to put lean to roofs off of the gable end of the building? Right now I have the ridge running east/west and those walls would be the most logical for a lean to.

 

[bczygan]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

jkwilson - I thought about loading from the left but that back left corner will be sitting on about 4-5' of fill so building it up enough to get vehicles in and out would be a bit of a hassle. Also I'm not sure my wife would like looking at 3 roll up doors out the dining room window. I'm curious why big doors are a hassle. Is it because they're heavy or do they not work reliably? I was thinking of putting an electric opener on it but haven't gone too far down that road yet.

bczygan - This is a part of a larger family ranch dating back to the 1880's. We're currently the only ones living here but I get to deal with all the stuff that has accumulated over the years, so yeah, I've got TOO much stuff and most of it isn't mine! But we own the 150 acres that the house and shops are on. Space isn't really an issue, but we want to keep this building close to the house so that it can act as a garage. Unfortunately we're on the top of a hill so things start to roll off pretty quickly so my placement options are sort of limited.

I've never seen it done, but is it possible to put lean to roofs off of the gable end of the building? Right now I have the ridge running east/west and those walls would be the most logical for a lean to.

Oh YEAH!

Or just extend the gable ends:

 

[efinley]

I could definitely see adding a lean to on the west side. The eave height is 16' and most lean to's tend to have pretty shallow roof pitches, I think I'd be OK to add one later.

How about eave extensions and overhangs? Do people find they are worthwhile on a steel building?