Garage design

[mscher]

We are considering building a pole barn, with a garage/office in the front and animal stalls in the back.

The front will have a two car overhead door and 1 walk-thru.

We are trying to determine what would be a good size for the garage area. Need room to park 2 vehicles and have work bench-toolboxes in front, maybe some shelves on one side, with enough room to open car doors.

We will be doing the average maintenance/repair. Does not need to be huge, but we do need to be able to move around esaily, with bumping into everything.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Garage design

Ayuh,......

I learned 1 Rule about sizing a garage or barn many, many years ago,.....
That rule,.... Rule #1 is,.....

Build it Twice as Big as you can possibly afford,......

Then,.. About the time it's 1/2 Paid for,... You'll realize it's also 1/2 as Big as you Really Need.......

Btw,....
Most cars,+ trucks are just under 8' wide,...
Making your lanes 12' wide will give you room to open the doors, without smashing things.....

 

[Mike722]

Re: Garage design

My pole barn garage is 30ft wide and 45 deep. The front 18ft is work shop and the back 27 is garage. This gives me plenty of room to open doors and walk around a full size ext cab truck. I have 10ft ceilings and the two garage doors are over sized 10ft wide and 9 ft tall so the truck can have a taller load in it and still get in out of the rain. Also, I don't have to worry about hitting the mirrors going in.

But as others will say, it is too small now.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Garage design

A "standard" 2 car garage is 24X24. I built my garage that size with a single 16' door with intentions of only one car going in. This gives me PLENTY of room for benches/tool boxes/shelving/beer fridge/etc on the sides. It is a little shallow with a bench on the front with my ext cab long bed truck. I can fit it in and close the door but not a lot or room in the front or rear. If I had it to do over and could afford/engineer it I would have made it 27' deep.

 

[DJ]

Re: Garage design

What Bond-o said.

 

[ocb_dave_ocb]

Re: Garage design

i agree build it as big as you can, my garage is only 23x20 it is WAY WAY too small... I wish it was at least 28x24

 

[Coors]

Re: Garage design

It can't be big enough.

 

[newbie4life]

Re: Garage design

I'm not sure there's a 'standard size' garage... I guess, it depends what YOU would think is standard.

Mine is 32 x 34, with a 10'6" sidewall, and I'm looking at building another garage. 3 cars, boat, 4wheeler, travel trailer, all sorts of other crap.....

For what you sound like your needing, I would lean towards Mike722's dimensions, or bigger. My dad is going to be putting up a pole shed shortly, and we're kinda leaning towards the 36 x 60. Animals, hay storage, a couple of tractors. After drawing it up on the building program we use, it seems a little small -- hard to believe, but it seems that way.

They're never big enough....

 

[Jerico]

Re: Garage design

Mine is 30x30 with 11' walls. I'm looking at adding another 10' to it making it a 30x40 when I can afford it. With 2 cars, 1 boat, tools and junk it is pretty packed. I would strongly recommend 30x40 at a minimum. Also keep in mind, go for at least 1 9' tall garage door. I have two 7' doors. Boat barely clears and the van won't even come close...

 

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: Garage design

I hope this isn't piling on but, mine is 26' x 32'.
Looked big when I built it but it looks like a shoe box now.

 

[dsstephens]

Re: Garage design

WIDTH: Keep a minimum of 4' on either side of the car, ie 2 cars =4'+carwidth+4'+4'+towvehiclewidth+4') note that vehicle width is edge of mirror to edge of mirror, not bumper width.

LENGTH: Take your trailer length and add 5 ft.

DOOR HEIGHT: Tall as you can without it looking silly (bimini up maybe?)

Amenities: Add a hot water heater with a hose spigot. And a fridge for cold beer.

Those are your minimum dimensions, IMHO, and obviously bigger would be better.

My 2 rupee's worth - which ain't much, trust me

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: Garage design

here is a suggestion.
Go to one of those mass-produced garage-builders. They have all sorts of floor plans to study for ideas and dimensions.
Then consider using the pre-painted steel with the styro sandwiched in between. You have a nice exterior coloured steel which replaces your roofing material, and a really well finished interior steel.....the place is very well insulated from both heat and cold. It also has a very long span reducing your roof structure.We have used it. Standard steel roof (from top of walls was $7k, using this stuff was $10k, so yes, more expensive, but it is many times better....absolutely no comparison. We used the 100mm (4" thick)
Last, consider going for high walls. That is what I do, and I then put a loft in with a stair case. Can't quite stand-up in the loft, but brilliant storage.
Always build bigger than what you think you will need. Enough is never enough.
Cheers
Phillip