Planning a new garage...this is gonna be fun

[ben parrish]

I have been dreaming of a garage for a number of years and have finally decided to jump in with both feet. I want to keep it close to the house but despite having almost ten acres to work with, between the driveway configuration property line, septic tank and drain fields, a creek and a pond the placement is challenging. It will be slightly offset from the house but have a covered, short breezeway that will connect it to the porch of the house. I'll will also extend the porch and wrap it slightly around the side of the house.

We will build a three car with a bonus room/guest quarters above.
I want to keep the stairs inside and will have one bay with a cathedral ceiling to allow for a full height car lift for working and storing cars...basically giving me a 4 car garage.
After months of searching pictures of what we want we have decided on the below garage for inspiration. Our house is log siding so we will use the same siding as the house; rock work will be similar as will the shed dormer. I will do most of the work myself but will hire the concrete work out (poured my LAST concrete a few years back on a sidewalk project for my mother-in-law) and hire another carpenter and helper to speed it up.
We are basically working off of this picture and will figure the interior configuration after the slab goes in. I will use engineered trusses; they specified three glue lam beams for the front wall to span the 40' and carry the top floor...those damn things are EXPENSIVE!!

I'll try to keep it updated with each stage and will probably ask for a lot of suggestions along the way. It will be fun to see how close I can get to the original inspiration picture and still stay within budget.

[masraum]

Very nice! I can't wait to see the progress.

[masraum]

Are you done yet? No progress pictures?!?

[wilnj]

You may already have thought this through but your lift layout should be done before the slab for footings or at least a haunch under the posts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[id10t]

plan on two wire runs, separated by a good bit. data/phone/cabletv in one run, power in the other.

[Kraftwerk]

All this is great , I am slightly envious. I think there is a "garage forum ' somewhere.. probably tons of good advice there as well.

[A930Rocket]

That garage doesn’t look tall enough to have a decent size room above. I take it you know this.

[tevake]

That is a gorgeous building with the log and stone details!
Will be fun watching your dream garage come together.

It must be a compact design to fit in the high ceiling bay and a livable loft space above the rest.
Interested in seeing how the layout developes.

Keep us posted as you go along.

Cheers Richard.

[rfuerst911sc]

I see you are a fellow Georgian good luck with your build , I am nearly done with mine .

[onewhippedpuppy]

Nice! Really like the log cabin style.

I totally remodeled my two car and added a 3rd car onto my house with a four post lift. My lessons learned:

Lots of outlets, and with multiple circuits to avoid overloading them. Run 220V for a welder or good air compressor.

Lots of lights! My 3rd car has 5x 8' double florescent reflector fixtures and one quad bulb 4' fixture, and it's a pretty small garage. I also have a side window and upper lights in the garage door for natural light. I think there are new LED options that have more output than my florescent bulbs. You can't have too many lights.

Epoxy floor, done by a pro, is worth every penny. Just the ability to wipe up oil spills without them soaking in is worth the money. I almost cheaped out and my wife talked me into it, I'm really glad that she did.

On the lift side, make sure you spec out the garage door tracks that go to the ceiling, and leave room on one side for an opener that mounts to the garage door torsion bar. Don't forget the plug in for the opener. I didn't have room for such an opener due to limited width for my addition, having a conventional style opener costs me several feet because you have to allow for the arm that connects the opener and the door.

[ben parrish]

All great suggestions...keep them flowing. The pic is basic inspiration and the final garage will deviate a little from it. For instance, the shed roof will be slightly higher to accommodate taller windows. Ill use cedar shakes in the gables and on the shed extension.
The garage will be 28x40 and about 26' tall; 10/12 pitch roof. 9' ceilings in two bays and cathedral to peak in the bay on the left side. The room above will be approx. 14x 24 with 8' ceilings with a knee wall that will be about 54" high to allow a little wider floor plan upstairs. The shed roof will be on either side of the building giving a lot of light and a little extra width at the ceiling.
As far as garage doors, on the side with the lift, I may use true carriage doors to allow them to swing out so I can avoid the hassle of the overhead door tracks and associated hardware...still thinking about that one.
Lots of receptacles are in the plan for sure; I'll wire and plumb it after we are done with construction; again, I'll do this myself just as I have for every remodel/building project I've ever done. I already have the sub panel and 60' of service cable waiting on me from a previous project.

Woke up the old Ford and started rough grading and moved a couple of large Ligustrum next to the house in preparation for the porch extension. I have to move the large Hydrangea but want to wait till it turns colder to lessen the stress on it.

,

[vash]

WOW!!

my current garage is a tree and it isnt very big

[berettafan]

boy that sounds awful nice!

you're gonna **** yourself when you get pricing on those doors.

[tdw28210]

I am considering something similar. Lost some garage space last month when my single neighbor sold her house with a double garage.

If I build it and the budget allows it, I am thinking of doing 2 different lifts. An in-ground midrise a la Jack Olsen and a stacker lift to hold a pair of 911's.

[onewhippedpuppy]

A four post is great for storage but it sucks for wrenching. Digging in a quick lift style system would be a nice option.

[ben parrish]

I found a local guy that has some rotary two post lifts that I am going to look at. If I go that route, I will make a set of "ramps" that will allow storage with the weight resting on the wheels...I saw a version of this on another website that a guy made for a 911.

[BK911]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

We are basically working off of this picture and will figure the interior configuration after the slab goes in. I will use engineered trusses; they specified three glue lam beams for the front wall to span the 40' and carry the top floor...those damn things are EXPENSIVE!!

Why a 40' span? I see (3) ~12' spans.

[vash]

oh no...math.

[ben parrish]

Yup...math keeps me up at night.
Pad will be 40'..... 3- 9' doors, 4' on either end and 2' in middle of bays. Walls framed with 2x6's.

[Zeke]

I don't mean to be picky, but a shed roof is like the one on the left side. The roof within the roof is a straight dormer. Some do call it a shed dormer. Good idea to raise the height of the windows. Rule of thumb is that the dormer is 1/2 the pitch of the main roof and it starts below the ridge by a few feet.

However, you can start the dormer at the ridge if you like. Not that big a difference and makes the framing go a little easier.