Suggestions for a New Garage

GearHead_1

GearHead_1

Long Time Member
I'm in the process of building a new house and along with it the garage I've always wanted. It will be a 3 car and one of the bays will be equipped with a dual post lift. I'm looking for suggestions from those who may have done this. What brand have you settled on? Anything you would do differently. For that matter I would be open to any idea that would help me build the garage of my dreams. If you've got one please don't hesitate to throw it out.

This garage will be a 2 car with a seperate 1 car, connected by a breeze way. The 1 car bay will have an elevated ceiling (15 ft.) to accommodate a lift. The plans for this are still being engineered. What do you consider to be the optimum size for both the 2 car and the 1 car. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
GearHead_1 said:
What do you consider to be the optimum size for both the 2 car and the 1 car. Thanks for the suggestions.
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Big, real Big.
Seriously, once you get all your lawn tools, bicycles, tool bench, whatever in there it won't be near as big as it seems when you are planning it. I have a 2 car that is 25' x 32' and wish it was 30' x 40'. I can get 3 cars in mine by pulling one in at an angle at the front.
The lift would be nice, but for me, a floor drain would be more beneficial. Sure would be nice to be able to wash cars no matter what the weather is.

Charles
 
I was just going to tell you to go with a truss system that allows a high ceiling. I recommend lots and lots of lights and outlets and 220V incase you ever want a nice welder or big air compressor. Or even a lift that is 220V. If you don't have A/C in the garage I suggest a few ceiling fans or so. Oh, and lots of insulation is always good. I would personally go with 2X6 construction and double insulate the walls and make sure your doors are insulated good as well. For the floor, make sure that they add saw cuts in it while the floor is green or the floor will crack in goofy spots. Oh, and while on floors a floor drain would be nice. :D As for size I would say as big as you can make it.
 
Thanks for the insight to this point. The garage is an attached 3 car. The walls are 2X6, brick outside, insulated and finished sheet rock. It will have heating and cooling, sinks, hoses, air to all 3 bays and drains. 220 will also be present. The lift is for mechanical not specifically for detailing. I know the answer is to make it big, you can't have too much space. I am only limited by the side of the lot and the $$$'s I'm willing to spend. It will have a 2 car side load and 1 car straight on. The side load requires enough driveway to make a right hand turn. I'm looking for some specific numbers for square footage that seem to be adequate or that haven't been enough. I've been reading a little about floor coatings but some of them would break the bank, probably end up using a sanded epoxy coating. The doors will be 9 ft. arched by 10 ft wide. The door lifts will be the axial spring type. I like the open ceiling especially in the lift bay. The house plans are all but done and are waiting on me for some final dimensions.

Lawn, snow and garden equiptment will be in an external shed. I'm not going to let this garage end up being a catch all.
 
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It sounds like you are on the right track ... big is good!
I know the concrete guys will scream but, place your drains and slope the concrete so the water drains under the middle of the car. That will eliminate water laying in between cars. This might not be much of a problem where you live but here in NW Pennsylvania, when the snow and slush drips off the cars in the winter, it would be nice to have it run underneath the car instead of next to it where you walk to get in and out.
Just my .02
 
GearHead_1
I'm not exactly sure where you are in the building process or what codes are out there. About a year ago when I was taking bid's on a garage(think there was a house attached to it), I looked into spancrete or precast concrete. I don't know if you are digging a basement or are slab on grade. I basically looked at digging the basement to full depth under the garage. Then I was going to span the garage with precast plank. Had a stair well at the back of garage to go down under the slab. It would have given me a 1200 sq ft work shop under the garage floor slab. Ceiling height in work shop would have been 9'. I figured the cost at about 9-12 thousand dollars. Cost of precast plank was about 8,000 and the additional wall height from frost walls to full depth basement was about 1200 dollars. By the way the garage was a 3.5 car garage.
 
If it's a ground up building, and it's not too late -- an oil trap would make a nice addition to any garage.
 
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