What’s your perfect garage layout?

[Project_shadow]

I have a one car garage, but i have enough stuff to fill a small pile barn, which a lot of is at my parents in their barn, i want to start getting ideas together of floor plans of a 2 or possibly 3 car garage with an attached shop. I have a lifted 85 Silverado i would like to pull apart and clean up, i do various repairs for friends and family on their vehicles, light welding and cutting, and rarely any wood working. I’m 22, almost 23, i went from spending 10 years in a 60x40 barn of my parents to trying to work out of my 10Wx30L 1 car garage that just isn’t enough room for all my tools, let alone projects. I’ve been searching pretty hard for a lay out i want but nothing I’ve found quite makes me think it’s perfect for what i do. So how would you guys set up a shop for auto repairs, home restorations, metal fabrication, and occasional wood projects? I’m interested in the floor plan, where the doors should be, should it be a 2 car with an end bay for all the stuff? Or a deep garage with most things along the back? I want to know from you guys what you would change in your garages and why?
Here’s a few pictures ive found that could work on my property, i don’t have a huge amount of room unfortunately, so I’d like to keep the depth of the garage around 20 feet, but i can possibly get up to 24 feet, it would sit on the corner of my lot facing the road length wise, with the right side facing the other road, where my gravel drive way could come up to the side of it

 

[Bustedwheel]

I love the idea of a garage with a carport. My wifes car never sits long enough to cool down so the in and out would be great. Also for things like odd jobs on the boat it would be nice.

 

[Hugemoose]

I live in a suburb outside of Philly where it's near impossible to find any house with a decent garage to actually work out of. I ended up finding a house with a detached 20X20. The 20' depth I plan to extend to 30'. And I cannot easily go any wider than the 20' it currently is due to the orientation.

For you, I would absolutely go 24' deep, or deeper if possible. Otherwise you just have a nice parking garage. It's real hard (at least with a full size car, or in your case truck) to have any real room in front of the vehicle to work in a 20' deep garage. And you might as well make it as wide as you can within your budget.

Another piece of advice, is consider making taller ceilings so you can install some type of lift. My floor to joist right now is less than 8'.....it *****. Maybe just 10' ceilings with scissor trusses, or go right up to 12' ceiling height. My plan is to lift my roof up a few feet so I can install a 4 post. Even then my township has a limit of 17' from average grade to ceiling peak. Call your local township and find out things like that.

And a small separate "workshop" isn't a bad idea, especially if you plan on cutting wood. I set up my wood workshop up in the basement, and while less than ideal, it does keep sawdust out of the garage.

 

[zmotorsports]

I just built my "perfect" or "dream shop" and I applied many things from my last shop that I had learned.

Also keep in mind what is perfect for one person may or may not be someone else's idea of the perfect layout. Most of my work is on automotive, motorcycle, RV and machining/fabrication and I do not do any wood work so I arranged my shop to allow work flow with workbenches at the back and one full quarter of the shop setup for my machining and fabrication area with power cords dropped from the ceiling and much of my equipment laid out along the walls. I then have my metal storage in my RV/storage bay on the wall to keep it out of the main work shop.

My last shop was only 34x34 and I built it when I was in my early 20's and newly married with family. It worked well for the 25+ years I had it until my wife and I moved last year and I built my dream shop. One thing I did in the beginning with my last shop was had tall enough ceilings and thick enough floor for a 2-post lift even though it was 16+ years later than I was able to afford to install one, it was still planned for early on in the build. Other things I made certain to have in my first shop and even moreso in my new shop is plenty of electrical. I hate extension cords so I have tandem receptacles every 6' in this shop with plenty of 50-amp receptacles for welders around the shop as well.

If you have been working in a 40x60 then you should kind of have an idea of the way you are used to having your work flow. I would capitalize on that and although you are looking at a smaller size, still keep in mind how the work will flow through your shop.

 

[taumac]

My dream shop would be this if I didn’t have to share it.

 

[Project_shadow]

I just built my "perfect" or "dream shop" and I applied many things from my last shop that I had learned.



Also keep in mind what is perfect for one person may or may not be someone else's idea of the perfect layout. Most of my work is on automotive, motorcycle, RV and machining/fabrication and I do not do any wood work so I arranged my shop to allow work flow with workbenches at the back and one full quarter of the shop setup for my machining and fabrication area with power cords dropped from the ceiling and much of my equipment laid out along the walls. I then have my metal storage in my RV/storage bay on the wall to keep it out of the main work shop.



My last shop was only 34x34 and I built it when I was in my early 20's and newly married with family. It worked well for the 25+ years I had it until my wife and I moved last year and I built my dream shop. One thing I did in the beginning with my last shop was had tall enough ceilings and thick enough floor for a 2-post lift even though it was 16+ years later than I was able to afford to install one, it was still planned for early on in the build. Other things I made certain to have in my first shop and even moreso in my new shop is plenty of electrical. I hate extension cords so I have tandem receptacles every 6' in this shop with plenty of 50-amp receptacles for welders around the shop as well.



If you have been working in a 40x60 then you should kind of have an idea of the way you are used to having your work flow. I would capitalize on that and although you are looking at a smaller size, still keep in mind how the work will flow through your shop.

I’m hoping to pick ideas from you guys and put it on a floor plan to see it on paper to see if i’ll like it
The 40x60 was gravel, so that sucked on its own, but working area was maybe 20x20 with equipment in the barn, i have floor plans somewhere of some workbench set ups i like, I’d have to find them, i probably won’t put a lift here because i really don’t want to stay longer than 10 years, the mrs wants a kid before i can have my garage, even though the garage would be cheaper first lol

 

[Project_shadow]

My dream shop would be this if I didn’t have to share it.

The wife would get the attached 1 car for her car, my daily’s will sit outside unless there’s bad weather then only the 2017 would be parked inside

 

[Project_shadow]

I live in a suburb outside of Philly where it's near impossible to find any house with a decent garage to actually work out of. I ended up finding a house with a detached 20X20. The 20' depth I plan to extend to 30'. And I cannot easily go any wider than the 20' it currently is due to the orientation.

For you, I would absolutely go 24' deep, or deeper if possible. Otherwise you just have a nice parking garage. It's real hard (at least with a full size car, or in your case truck) to have any real room in front of the vehicle to work in a 20' deep garage. And you might as well make it as wide as you can within your budget.

Another piece of advice, is consider making taller ceilings so you can install some type of lift. My floor to joist right now is less than 8'.....it *****. Maybe just 10' ceilings with scissor trusses, or go right up to 12' ceiling height. My plan is to lift my roof up a few feet so I can install a 4 post. Even then my township has a limit of 17' from average grade to ceiling peak. Call your local township and find out things like that.

And a small separate "workshop" isn't a bad idea, especially if you plan on cutting wood. I set up my wood workshop up in the basement, and while less than ideal, it does keep sawdust out of the garage.

24’ deep is probably my max due to the way my lot is setup and house location, and keeping it far enough away from the sidewalk so i don’t get into permit issues

 

[Unruh]

This would be it. Maybe a little more room on the wood working/shop side. Somebody buy these plans and make some copies.

 

[Project_shadow]

This would be it. Maybe a little more room on the wood working/shop side. Somebody buy these plans and make some copies.

Honestly i probably need a fab shop with a garage door, lol

 

[apollo11]

where is the stripper pole?

 

[Project_shadow]

where is the stripper pole?

My wife’s is in the bedroom, isn’t yours?

 

[jblnut]

A shop of any size can work well if you figure out how to use it as a shop and not a garage. You could build a 60x180 shop and fill it full of stuff and have a 20x20 space left to work on stuff or build something the size of what you're looking at doing and only use it to work on projects. I find it's nice to have space for one long term project as well as a space to pull something in to do an oil change or a quick fix.

I really like the carport idea as it's an inexpensive way to free up space in the shop. It wouldn't take much to enclose it in the future either.

I try to keep my tools/benches and such on the sides of the vehicles as that leaves more room to work under the hood and you can pull a longer vehicle in without stuff in front of it. Storage space up above in the attic would be nice. You could keep the stuff you rarely use but can't get by without up there. Is there a max building height where you are ?? I've been in a few two story garages that were quite nice. One even had a homemade elevator to move heavy things between stories.

There are two things about shops/garages that everyone says it and they're both true. It'll never be big enough so build as big as you can. Keep it clean and it'll feel twice as big.

If you're only looking to be at this place short term why not build something modest that'll be great for resale. Go find something with some acreage and build a 40x60 with a few lean-to's and all the goodies when you decide it's time.

My wife wanted a kid before I got a new shop as well ..... Well that turned into three kids and my new shop payment is going to daycare. It will all come with time though. We're only 30 so we've got lots of time to build things down the road

 

[bsvw8vt]

Another piece of advice is considering making taller ceilings so you can install some type of lift. My floor to joist right now is less than 8'.....it *****. Maybe just 10' ceilings with scissor trusses, or go right up to 12' ceiling height.

I would have to agree here, especially if you are allowed too, you won't regret the extra height.

 

[Terranova]

Mine would be something this size....View media item 78267

 

[apollo11]

My wife’s is in the bedroom, isn’t yours?

No, it's in the dungeon room in the garage

 

[Project_shadow]

A shop of any size can work well if you figure out how to use it as a shop and not a garage. You could build a 60x180 shop and fill it full of stuff and have a 20x20 space left to work on stuff or build something the size of what you're looking at doing and only use it to work on projects. I find it's nice to have space for one long term project as well as a space to pull something in to do an oil change or a quick fix.



I really like the carport idea as it's an inexpensive way to free up space in the shop. It wouldn't take much to enclose it in the future either.



I try to keep my tools/benches and such on the sides of the vehicles as that leaves more room to work under the hood and you can pull a longer vehicle in without stuff in front of it. Storage space up above in the attic would be nice. You could keep the stuff you rarely use but can't get by without up there. Is there a max building height where you are ?? I've been in a few two story garages that were quite nice. One even had a homemade elevator to move heavy things between stories.



There are two things about shops/garages that everyone says it and they're both true. It'll never be big enough so build as big as you can. Keep it clean and it'll feel twice as big.



If you're only looking to be at this place short term why not build something modest that'll be great for resale. Go find something with some acreage and build a 40x60 with a few lean-to's and all the goodies when you decide it's time.



My wife wanted a kid before I got a new shop as well ..... Well that turned into three kids and my new shop payment is going to daycare. It will all come with time though. We're only 30 so we've got lots of time to build things down the road

No shop is ever big enough lol
We’re gonna be here around 10 years, i can’t build too much bigger or I’d have to have trees cut down, so really it can only be modest, I’m not sure about height though, but i won’t be putting in a lift or anything anyways, i want to hopefully keep the shop under 10k between supplies and concrete, just something i can get all my stuff in but have enough room to move around until i get a nice 40x60 again

 

[MGTSTUMPY]

Something like this?