Anyone built a new garage recently?

[Moosefire66]

So, the missus and I have been able to scrape together a few sheckles, and it's time for a new garage. I haven't called the lumber company yet, as I'm still trying to iron out the wrinkles on size and layout before wasting their time.

If all goes well, I think I can fit a 26x42x12 on my very small postage stamp city lot. The plan as of now is above the single garage door (7x18 or 7.5x18) is to have storage loft above the door approximately 22x26x8. The remainder 20x26 is going to be open ceiling, for a hoist.

The hoist I'm thinking of is the backyard buddy classic, which is 14 feet long. That is enough to hold my 19 ram crew cab, my 53 chebby, and my hopefully future project truck. The 20 feet of distance between the wall and loft i-beams is also enough. Not by a huge margin, but its enough.

The whole garage is (hopefully) going to be 8/12 pitch cathedral ceilings for
1 - ceiling height for the hoist
2 - maximize ceiling height in the loft for storage or possibly a work area/gym/woodshop... I dont know yet exactly but I want all of them

After talking to both the city and power company, it seems as if I should be able to get the pole power directly to the garage, and back feed power to the house instead of the other way around, which saves a bunch on wire, plus makes it look so much better not having fat *** wires going thru my whole back yard. I'm looking into 320 amp service.... the house is already 150 amps and that's pretty tight on space. I'd hate to only get a 200 amp service drop and not have enough, especially since going bigger now is merely pennies compared to redoing it later.

Speaking of, the cost of a 320 amp meter socket box is insane. But I digress....

No plans for plumbing as it just doesn't work out tying into the sewer line, not without a lot of hassle anyways.

Might add water in the future, but only for a small sink that would drain into a 5 gallon bucket, that's about all I need.

Anyways, that's the jist for what I'm hoping will be my new garage. Off hand, do y'all have any comments or advice on this so far? Anything you'd change? Am I overlooking something? Which door would you go with (7 or 7.5?) I'm debating 7.5 again just in case for the future since trucks and suv are getting big... but if I go 7, I could drop the floor in the loft a little bit more and get even more headroom.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks all!

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[31RamIt]

My truck sits on the driveway because my 1963 "two car garage" is really a one car and one motorcycle garage. Your plan sounds awesome and I'm jealous.

 

[Geddyflea]

So, the missus and I have been able to scrape together a few sheckles, and it's time for a new garage. I haven't called the lumber company yet, as I'm still trying to iron out the wrinkles on size and layout before wasting their time.

If all goes well, I think I can fit a 26x42x12 on my very small postage stamp city lot. The plan as of now is above the single garage door (7x18 or 7.5x18) is to have storage loft above the door approximately 22x26x8. The remainder 20x26 is going to be open ceiling, for a hoist.

The hoist I'm thinking of is the backyard buddy classic, which is 14 feet long. That is enough to hold my 19 ram crew cab, my 53 chebby, and my hopefully future project truck. The 20 feet of distance between the wall and loft i-beams is also enough. Not by a huge margin, but its enough.

The whole garage is (hopefully) going to be 8/12 pitch cathedral ceilings for
1 - ceiling height for the hoist
2 - maximize ceiling height in the loft for storage or possibly a work area/gym/woodshop... I dont know yet exactly but I want all of them

After talking to both the city and power company, it seems as if I should be able to get the pole power directly to the garage, and back feed power to the house instead of the other way around, which saves a bunch on wire, plus makes it look so much better not having fat *** wires going thru my whole back yard. I'm looking into 320 amp service.... the house is already 150 amps and that's pretty tight on space. I'd hate to only get a 200 amp service drop and not have enough, especially since going bigger now is merely pennies compared to redoing it later.

Speaking of, the cost of a 320 amp meter socket box is insane. But I digress....

No plans for plumbing as it just doesn't work out tying into the sewer line, not without a lot of hassle anyways.

Might add water in the future, but only for a small sink that would drain into a 5 gallon bucket, that's about all I need.

Anyways, that's the jist for what I'm hoping will be my new garage. Off hand, do y'all have any comments or advice on this so far? Anything you'd change? Am I overlooking something? Which door would you go with (7 or 7.5?) I'm debating 7.5 again just in case for the future since trucks and suv are getting big... but if I go 7, I could drop the floor in the loft a little bit more and get even more headroom.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks all!

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

The first thing I would check, if you haven't already, is the plat of your subdivision or block to make sure you don't have any electrical, sewer or drainage easements. Sink hole easements should also show up on the plat and generally have a 50' buffer that can only be built in with a letter from an engineer stating that the soil in the buffer is stable and will be able to carry the bearing pressure from the new structure. THEN, check your building setbacks to make certain the new garage will not go past them. After all of that you should be good to start the design of your new garage, get it built and set back and have a cold beer and enjoy your new man cave . It's according to where your located and the types of finishes you use but I would say it should cost somewhere between $80.00 - $110.00 per square foot.

 

[Geddyflea]

One last thing is to make sure you leave enough room between your house and the new garage to comfortably maneuver your vehicles. That's usually about 30'+ clear.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Join this forum and post your plans there:

The Garage Journal

Garage design & tool discussion for the working man,,,

www.garagejournal.com

You may curse me after showing you this though. This is the go to for garagemahals. Anyway, you should get tons of very useful feedback there. Not that you won’t here, but shops/garages is the focus. I’ve been on that forum for many years and it is a treasure trove of information when it comes to just about anything construction wise. In my personal experience, build as large as the city (or deed restrictions, home owner’s association, etc.) and your budget will allow. The extra room is always a plus.

 

[OCD Solutions]

I'm in the final stages of building a 28'x32' workshop with a 12'x28' covered area for the truck. Just waiting on paint to get finished before I can trim it out, build my shelves and move everything in. We have a 24'x22' attached garage as well so the shop is for work and projects only.

Up north, I always had acreages with shops of varying sizes over the years. Since moving to the South, I've been limited to varying sized garages and it's nice to finally have the room to be able to get some of the equipment needed to continue growing my side business that we will call "Plan B". Our last house had a 3 bay garage which only served to tease us that we needed more space.

The design stage is fun but challenging for sure. Balancing current needs, budget and future needs, in addition to what the city will actually allow and your neighbors won't challenge. You could have always gone bigger and added a cool custom feature that you either didn't think you could afford, or didn't know you needed at the time. For instance, I really want a trolley hoist in this shop where I really wanted a lift in my last that would never get used now.

We just bought this property last year and worked with the developer/builder to design and build the workshop. We are in a very small town with little to no oversight or outside intervention which is a big reason we purchased here. 2.55 acreas just inside city limits with city sewer and water, fiber internet with garbage pickup at the street. I originally wanted to go with a red iron building like Rock Crawler did but we are the front facing lot of a new subdivision and the builder wanted us to represent the rest of the subdision so we all agreed that it had to match the same styling of the house. Red iron could have been much bigger for the same cost and finished sooner but we love the way it turned out. Drive further down our road and there are plenty of properties with metal shops that all stick out like sore thumbs.

I used Floorplanner to lay out the interior and gauge how big I needed to go. Once I figured out the size, i just handed the base dimensions to my builder and set him loose.
I have a large vaulted attic with tons of storage but the last few houses had similar and they are typically in the 135F range so I opted for a dedicated storage area down the entire back side of the shop inside the conditioned space where i can walk right up and lay hands on anything I want.





Here's a pic of our last garage to give you an idea of what I was working with and what will be in the new shop.

 

[Rock Crawler]

If you want clearance above the door use a jack shaft opener. They work great and they are very quiet. I like them so much I’ve considered converting the house garage door openers in the future.

LiftMaster | Garage Door Openers, Remotes & Accessories

LiftMaster is the #1 brand of professionally-installed residential garage door systems and commercial door operators.

www.liftmaster.com

 

[Ramroo]

I have a large 4 car on my house. Not sure what part of the country you live in, but I had a gas line put in when it was built to have heat. I personally didn’t worry about plumbing for bathroom or sink when I could go into house. I put the money in making it as big (deep) as possible for boat, projects.
The heater is inexpensive, but very nice for the projects or maintenance when cold.

 

[OCD Solutions]

If you want clearance above the door use a jack shaft opener. They work great and they are very quiet. I like them so much I’ve considered converting the house garage door openers in the future.

LiftMaster | Garage Door Openers, Remotes & Accessories

LiftMaster is the #1 brand of professionally-installed residential garage door systems and commercial door operators.

www.liftmaster.com

Agree 100%! It was around $100 more to get the jack shaft style opener.
I have a doubled up 20" laminated beam down the center of my bay that I intend to mount a small beam trolley to. I'm told it should handle 500 lbs across the entire span without issue or further support.

Even after 14+ years in the south, I still can't handle the heat or the humidity so I'm fully insulated with a 2T Heat pump. Unfortunately, there is no NG in our area.

We contemplated a bathroom and are actually regretting not putting one in. We are constantly doing yard work and are always dragging sand, clay, leaves, etc into the house. However, I've had a shop bathroom before and the wife is correct that it's cleaned on a man's schedule where if it's in the house just 50 ft away, it gets cleaned much more frequently. Hopefully that issue goes away once we get the yard established and the grass to take off.

 

[Rock Crawler]

You can try Sketchup Free for design software to help you with layout. If that’s not for you, you can get some large graph paper and do multiple layouts to see what works best. Just make each square a specific size and go from there. You can make cutouts of cars, benches, shelving etc and just move them around. I used this, and it helped me figure out my basic layout.

 

[Moosefire66]

Thanks all for the replies!

Yeah my current garage is only 7 foot tall, maybe 21x21 or very similar. Just not enough room for all of our stuff at all

I did ask the city how close to the boundary lines I can build to. They said 2 feet to the property line which is exactly where I need to go to get both my 26 foot wide and 42 foot depth. I'm nervous that they won't allow the full 42 since it's close to the power lines, but then I saw this (pic below) the other day and thought that maybe they will allow it...

The setback from the house is staying the same from what it is now, maybe 25 feet, which is why I want a 18 foot wide door, makes it a little easier when pulling in on a slight angle

I actually am on the garage forum, but I have to actually to their website now instead of using tapatalk to look at the app so I rarely ho there anymore. Lots of great stuff on there though!

Ocd solutions, too bad you couldn't go red it on building. That would've been sweet. Still looks good though!

I did plan on the jack shaft opener. At the time when I researched them (couple years ago probably) they were the only ones with a battery back up which I would like, but I also like having the added height from not having a traditional opener

I was actually just looking at heaters last night... I plan on (maybe next year) adding a gas line and heater. The gas line will also be supplying a whole home stand by generator, which will be at the rear of the garage where the new service is coming in.

If I could swing the sewer line easily I'd absolutely do it. But it's so far from the house that by the time it's angled it won't be able to tie into the existing line, it'll be too low

I cant do sketchup. I'm computer illiterate to the utmost degree. I have drawn out on grid paper though, which is real fun trying new things and adding different sized options to see how it will look.

Thanks again for all that responded so far!


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[Mystic Rhythms]

Outlets.
Lots and lots of outlets.
Put in what you think you will and then add more, they are cheap to install and so handy.
Don't forget about the outside either, I can't tell you how limiting my current setup is due to lack of easy access to outlets.

 

[Moosefire66]

Outlets.
Lots and lots of outlets.
Put in what you think you will and then add more, they are cheap to install and so handy.
Don't forget about the outside either, I can't tell you how limiting my current setup is due to lack of easy access to outlets.

Ah, yes. Inside outlets are fairly easy to install. I do however want to add some outlets on the outside. I have a pellet smoker so that would make it easier to plug in, plus I'd like to add some eave outlets for Christmas lights and such. Also my bug catcher!

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[OCD Solutions]

Smart minds think alike. I installed a soffit plug for Christmas lights and a bug zapper on both the house and shop.

I used a smart outlet so one side is powered on all the time and the other switches via Alexa smart home routines.