Build me a Garage (Gofundme plz)

[[memphis]]

It’s time to shit or get off the pot. If anyone wants to donate I’d appreciate it 😂 (I am joking… you don’t need to pay for my cat)

I don’t have the width but I have some depth to play with.

I can build up to 18’ wide, 16’ would save some of my backyard. I would like to do something around 30-35’ to ideally double park in it (Willys M38 + wife’s suv)

From an ease of construction materials what size makes most sense. Ideally I’d like a 10ft wide door to give my wife lots of room… as far as ceiling height, likely no hoist but I’d like a loft for storage

More or less this would be similar to an RV style garage.

Based on square footage I can get away with a monolithic slab but have a 2-3ft elevation drop at the back of the garage. It will cost more but a frost footing would prevent me from grading my backyard and mess up water flow to the catch basin out back

A smaller roll up door out the back would be sweet to get equipment in an out if need be but I don’t know how that would work with the elevation change

 

[Pt_Ranger_v8]

don't park the wife's car in the shop. Park yours, if any daily vehicle.

Go as high as you can afford, given your size constraints.

12' or 14' wide door.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Are you gonna do any work in this shop or just park stuff?

35 isn't really long enough to do two vehicles if you assume one of the parking spots will have a lift because you need to center the lift in a 20+ft space in order to have room for a truck/van on it and that doesn't leave you enough room to park something else unless that something else is tiny

Is there any chance you can go up to ~21ft long on the short side. That gets you just barely enough room for two car doors with a man door inbetween. This lets you park shit in one lane and use the other lane for projects or park two lanes of cars if it really comes down to it. Realistically what this means is you have one car in storage (or a daily drive in the parking spot), one project on the lift and then one "flex" spot for the donor car you're pulling the engine from, tractor you're fixing, or whatever else you're doing that weekend and the 4th spot winds up being where your toolbox, shelves, engine on an engine stand, etc, etc, reside.

Can we get an overhead shot of the property and location?

Is it realistic to (at a later date) build an awning over the driveway for parking and use the shop for more work stuff?

Can you list everything on your property that has either an engine or tires so we can tell you if "Imma park my cars in the shop" is actually realistic for your lifestyle?

12' or 14' wide door.

Are you the guy that shoves a race cam in a stock rebuild that's going into a beater plow truck?

In a small shop where you have toolboxes, shelves and whatnot that want to take up your limited wall real estate. In a small shop you also don't have enough depth to have one door feeding multiple parking spots (without causing issues with trailers, non-running vehicles and everything else that's a pain to turn in tight quarters) so there's no need to go more than a foot or so wider on the door than your lift is because you'll just be making a straight shot there anyway. For a shop of this length a 14ft wide door gains him nothing and costs him more than nothing.

 

[Pt_Ranger_v8]

Are you gonna do any work in this shop or just park stuff?

35 isn't really long enough to do two vehicles if you assume one of the parking spots will have a lift because you need to center the lift in a 20+ft space in order to have room for a truck/van on it and that doesn't leave you enough room to park something else unless that something else is tiny

Is there any chance you can go up to ~21ft long on the short side. That gets you just barely enough room for two car doors with a man door inbetween. This lets you park shit in one lane and use the other lane for projects or park two lanes of cars if it really comes down to it. Realistically what this means is you have one car in storage (or a daily drive in the parking spot), one project on the lift and then one "flex" spot for the donor car you're pulling the engine from, tractor you're fixing, or whatever else you're doing that weekend and the 4th spot winds up being where your toolbox, shelves, engine on an engine stand, etc, etc, reside.

Can we get an overhead shot of the property and location?

Is it realistic to (at a later date) build an awning over the driveway for parking and use the shop for more work stuff?

Can you list everything on your property that has either an engine or tires so we can tell you if "Imma park my cars in the shop" is actually realistic for your lifestyle?


Are you the guy that shoves a race cam in a stock rebuild that's going into a beater plow truck?

In a small shop where you have toolboxes, shelves and whatnot that want to take up your limited wall real estate. In a small shop you also don't have enough depth to have one door feeding multiple parking spots (without causing issues with trailers, non-running vehicles and everything else that's a pain to turn in tight quarters) so there's no need to go more than a foot or so wider on the door than your lift is because you'll just be making a straight shot there anyway. For a shop of this length a 14ft wide door gains him nothing and costs him more than nothing.

I have a small shop (aka my garage ) and a 10' door is too fucking small. my 18' door is too fucking big, but a 14 or 16 would be perfect. "as big as you can" is the answer to all of his questions.

 

[arse_sidewards]

I have a small shop (aka my garage ) and a 10' door is too fucking small. my 18' door is too fucking big, but a 14 or 16 would be perfect. "as big as you can" is the answer to all of his questions.

We're talking width here, right?

Unless you're trying to cut a turn as you enter I don't see how you wind up regularly needing a door that's more than 2ft wider than the vehicles you work on (which maxes out at 8'6" for most of us).

 

[AK_F250]

Are you the guy that shoves a race cam in a stock rebuild that's going into a beater plow truck?

In a small shop where you have toolboxes, shelves and whatnot that want to take up your limited wall real estate. In a small shop you also don't have enough depth to have one door feeding multiple parking spots (without causing issues with trailers, non-running vehicles and everything else that's a pain to turn in tight quarters) so there's no need to go more than a foot or so wider on the door than your lift is because you'll just be making a straight shot there anyway. For a shop of this length a 14ft wide door gains him nothing and costs him more than nothing.

I agree if you're limited to that width do a 10-12' door and offset it so that you can use that corner as a work space. I've got 2 10' wide doors on the garage and they're fine for homeowner sized shit, it's the height that makes a difference. Bonus if you can do the hinged man door in the OH door to maximize space, I don't know why those haven't really caught on for shops where wall space is a premium.

 

[FordFascist]

10 foot wide doors are too small. You will be replacing mirrors often.

 

[arse_sidewards]

10 foot wide doors are too small. You will be replacing mirrors often.

The fuck are you talking about? Do you drive into your garage at 20mph? Literally nothing that isn't max width is going to have mirrors anywhere near 10ft and based on what OP said I don't think he'll be wrenching on many box trucks and motorhomes.

 

[AK_F250]

10 foot wide doors are too small. You will be replacing mirrors often.

Interstate is 12' wide and they get smaller from there. If you can run down the road without ripping off your mirror on Karen's crossover hatch while she talks on her cell and swerves when she looks right to find her venti starbucks 10' is plenty.

 

[FordFascist]

The fuck are you talking about? Do you drive into your garage at 20mph? Literally nothing that isn't max width is going to have mirrors anywhere near 10ft and based on what OP said I don't think he'll be wrenching on many box trucks and motorhomes.

. I would like to do something around 30-35’ to ideally double park in it (Willys M38 + wife’s suv)

Wife's SUV + narrow door. True story Masshole.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Wife's SUV + narrow door. True story Masshole.

Teach your wife how to drive properly.

Nothing short of a dually truck should be having any problem with a 10ft door.

 

[[memphis]]

It's not to scale but at least you guys can see what I'm working with. References:

• Fat red line is a fence that is now present, it won't be moved or altered
• Skinny red line, will need to be removed/modified to fit garage
• Blue line, catch basin line that runs from the backyard to the street
• Green proposed garage

I do not want to build on the catch basin line. I own the line, the city does not have an easement on my property. If it broke due to the weight of the slab my backyard WILL FLOOD and cause water flooding into my home (this is why the basin was installed here +6 years ago). They do not know it exists anymore because they scrapped the project files (I went in and asked for documentation four years ago). I do have the original drawings. The pipe AT BEST is 18" below the start of the driveway where I want to start the garage. If I build off of the pipe, it's 6ft from the neighboring fence to the pipe... at 8ish feet off the neighboring fence I can save one fence panel to reuse and can still park between the the garage and the neighboring fence (I know tight squeeze but it would work for long term storage).

I have a 4ft set back requirement from the neighboring property. At the minimum set back I can only build 13ft at the peak. If I shift over 4ft I can increase height 4ft.

 

[PAToyota]

Seems like you're dealing with a similar situation to mine.

A lot of the other houses on my street with garages put them right behind the house like you are planning. Downside is that you have hidden space behind the garage that isn't as useful. Also, the transition can be an issue between the house and garage. You mention the doors and your wife's parking skills. A neighbor backed into the corner of his house trying to come out of the garage and not paying attention.

I put mine along the back so that the lawn is open between the house and workshop. Also provides a barrier to the lot behind me for more privacy.

The driveway is gravel - which helped with the impervious coverage, but I'm looking at doing a cable concrete system to help it blend in to the lawn a bit better.

The "blocks" are tied together with cable, like this:

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Nothing short of a dually truck should be having any problem with a 10ft door.

How about forklifting a skandic through the door?

 

[[memphis]]

In the overhead shot you can see where my shed gravel pad and corner footings are. The backside of the shed sees a River of water on a good rain, there is a French drain that runs across there to the catch
Basin. Similar run off to a good snow thaw so ideally I’d like to stay ahead of the shed to not flood my building.

I wish I could confidently build on top of the stupid thing… it would make the backyard more usable and I wouldn’t have to S turn around the house to get into the garage

 

[crispins]

Seems like you're dealing with a similar situation to mine.



A lot of the other houses on my street with garages put them right behind the house like you are planning. Downside is that you have hidden space behind the garage that isn't as useful. Also, the transition can be an issue between the house and garage. You mention the doors and your wife's parking skills. A neighbor backed into the corner of his house trying to come out of the garage and not paying attention.

I put mine along the back so that the lawn is open between the house and workshop. Also provides a barrier to the lot behind me for more privacy.



The driveway is gravel - which helped with the impervious coverage, but I'm looking at doing a cable concrete system to help it blend in to the lawn a bit better.

The "blocks" are tied together with cable, like this:

The driveway that goes behind my house and to my shop is gravel that I let the grass grow over.

I mow it during the summer and you cannot tell it is there at all.

100% looks just like the rest of my lawn but I can drive my truck and trailer across it with no issues.

 

[u2slow]

I did a 12' wide door on my 20' wide shop. In hindsight 10' would have been fine, and would have had an extra couple feet of wall on the short side.

 

[Ebs]

Following, I've got about the same dimensions I could work with.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

I did a 12' wide door on my 20' wide shop. In hindsight 10' would have been fine, and would have had an extra couple feet of wall on the short side.

12 foot is bare minimum.........32 foot trailer (26 foot deck) with sideways skandics.

 

[arse_sidewards]

If the pipe is only 18" underground you should get out the shovel, uncover it, replace the dirt with reinforced concrete and then do whatever the F you want on top.

Alternatively, shift the building a few feet further away, build a lean too off the garage and have covered parking there.

 

[tsm1mt]

If the pipe is only 18" underground you should get out the shovel, uncover it, replace the dirt with reinforced concrete and then do whatever the F you want on top.

Alternatively, shift the building a few feet further away, build a lean too off the garage and have covered parking there.

This.

Dig it up. Enclose in concrete.

If you're worried about it, wrap a bigger pipe around it and then enclose THAT in concrete so you can replace the (inner) pipe if you need to.

But find it and make it part of the pour - then don't worry about the weight of the building on it. Make it part of the building. :)


That said, you probably want 50' of depth to make a two car deep garage with work space.

Then also consider going taller - 14' or 16' walls and you put in a lift for a) a lift, and b) double stack an extra car if needed. :)

 

[[memphis]]

Has anyone here played with ICF foundations?

 

[Drummer79]

It's not to scale but at least you guys can see what I'm working with. References:

• Fat red line is a fence that is now present, it won't be moved or altered
• Skinny red line, will need to be removed/modified to fit garage
• Blue line, catch basin line that runs from the backyard to the street
• Green proposed garage

I do not want to build on the catch basin line. I own the line, the city does not have an easement on my property. If it broke due to the weight of the slab my backyard WILL FLOOD and cause water flooding into my home (this is why the basin was installed here +6 years ago). They do not know it exists anymore because they scrapped the project files (I went in and asked for documentation four years ago). I do have the original drawings. The pipe AT BEST is 18" below the start of the driveway where I want to start the garage. If I build off of the pipe, it's 6ft from the neighboring fence to the pipe... at 8ish feet off the neighboring fence I can save one fence panel to reuse and can still park between the the garage and the neighboring fence (I know tight squeeze but it would work for long term storage).

I have a 4ft set back requirement from the neighboring property. At the minimum set back I can only build 13ft at the peak. If I shift over 4ft I can increase height 4ft.

do you know what type of pipe it is? RCP? (reinforced concrete pipe) HDPE? black plastic corrugated pipe, and if it is, is it DOT approved? (corrugations don't show on the inside, it's slick pipe inside) all of those can make a difference, but according to this PDF, if you put a slab over it, you can possibly get away with as little as 9 inches of cover, but 18 should be plenty https://www.fdot.gov/docs/default-source/roadway/ds/06/idx/205.pdf
EDIT: the slab above is actually more protection for the pipe than leaving it covered in dirt and just parking shit on it, because the slab is spreading the load over a wide area. I replace storm drains for the city government for a living, so i know a bit about minimum cover for pipes, and the places they've been run, and not unusual to have them running under a building or house, etc.. With that said, depending on the type of pipe that's there, I might go ahead and replace or renew it before putting a building over it, because everything has an eventual life span. Details on the pipe, diameter, type, how old, etc would go a long way for my advice, but i wouldn't hesitate to put the building on the pipe if the circumstances are right. i'll subscribe here, or message me with details if you want more info.

 

[[memphis]]

So... in typical fashion for me I failed to shit or get off the pot and went temporary long term storage. My 20ft Shipping container arrives today!
It is replacing a Shelter Logic tent garage that was 12x20 (really about 9x20 usable space since the bottom flared out).

I am losing some footprint with larger upside potential (imo)

• Ability to wall mount and get items off the floor!
• LOCKABLE SECURE DRY storage. I was already combating CRAZY humidity which was 1000% worse than a container could ever be especially with proper ventilation (to be installed).
• Proper lighting (already ordered daisy chain LED T5 lights of Bezozon

Wiring... I am trying to figure out what would be best in my circumstance with what I have available... I can run multiple extension cords from my exterior subpanel which has the following plugs:

• 120v 20 amp Arc Fault (this plug is really only good for lighting, items like a reciprocating saw and even a Dremel trip the breaker because it senses an arc)
• 120v 30 amp RV plug (I currently power my compressor off this with a real 18 amp 1800 RPM motor). I'd like more CFM but it's not in the cards right now
• 240v 50 amp 14-50R RV/Electric Car plug (I run an adapter cord to concert to 5-60R for the welder and bandsaw)

I was daydreaming this morning about installing a small panel inside the container... I was thinking I would utilize the 14-50R plug and install a 50 amp RV twist lock on the container side hardwired to a 50 amp panel. If I installed the twist lock this would allow me to bring in 240 and 120 inside the container on one line to a small panel. This also means I only have to cut one hole in the side vs. two or three. I was going to do a NOCO 15 amp recessed plug and a 30 amp recessed plug and run extension cords as needed. And when 240v was required I would just prop the door open and snake the cord inside.

 

[u2slow]

I hate twist locks. Usually mounted for bad cable strain, and one prong often burns up. And pricey. I've replaced enough of them at marinas to know.

It's sounds ghetto, but I prefer the 14-50R to feed satellite panels. Old range whip into a smallish weather proof box, and cord or Teck from there direct to the container panel.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I put a 50a24v twist lock plug on my trailer. The same as the included picture above.

For low loads, they sell a 50a twist lock to normal 15a 120v plug that I just plug into the wall in my garage. Works well for keeping the batteries topped up when I'm not using it.

My inverter can detect/accept 240v or 120v.

 

[[memphis]]

I hate twist locks. Usually mounted for bad cable strain, and one prong often burns up. And pricey. I've replaced enough of them at marinas to know.

It's sounds ghetto, but I prefer the 14-50R to feed satellite panels. Old range whip into a smallish weather proof box, and cord or Teck from there direct to the container panel.

I could still do this on the inside? It would help if the cord was on a roll up reel or something... It's no more ghetto than my 14-50P to 6-50R adapter which than feeds an extension cord I made 20 years ago out of 10 AWG (my welder only pulls 22 amps)

 

[u2slow]

Don't see why not. Drill a hole in the container to fit a cable connector, or an LB with a connector (for the 90bend).

 

[[memphis]]

99% of it is inside the container! But I need to go up! It’s hard visioning what to do because I’m used to everything being on the ground. I am revisiting my compressor on the wall idea. I think I’d be better off with the compressor under the drill press (it’s a goofy size, too big to be a table top and too small a post for a full floor model). Maybe putting the shop press on the same “half bench” would free up some real estate and I don’t mind stepping up to drill on something

 

[Icono]

Pic of the compressor?