Help me plan my garage

SWMBO is dying to have a property we can keep the horses on (which means not paying to board them at someone else's barn). So far, the front runner property sits on just short of 9 acres - looks great and is in our price range.

Here's the bad - no garage.

Since I've been a good boy, I'm told we'll build one with a workshop for my antics. Now here's where I need your help.

I'm looking at three bays - one for SWMBO - one for car w/lift and a third as PURE WORKSHOP SPACE. Farm tools and implements will live in the barn, so this is all auto space.

What dimensions should I be looking at? Top of head I was thinking around 36x28.

80x100 shop I designed. LOL Split in half for a 4,000 sq ft home and 4,000 sq ft shop. Get it done son!!!

Go two deep, or add another bay.

Mine is 26x36, which is good, but I could always use more space.

Make your doors at least 9 feet wide and 8 feet high.

Put a shop sink out there.

This is the only time that I would ever recommend using an engineered roof. It eliminates the need for lolly columns and frees up a ton of extra space.

Install high lift tracks for the garage doors, so they open as close to the ceiling as possible.

Use wall mounted jackshaft openers.

Conquest351 wrote: 80x100 shop I designed. LOL Split in half for a 4,000 sq ft home and 4,000 sq ft shop. Get it done son!!!

Those are some HUGE cars.

Swank Force One wrote:

Conquest351 wrote: 80x100 shop I designed. LOL Split in half for a 4,000 sq ft home and 4,000 sq ft shop. Get it done son!!!

Those are some HUGE cars.

Yeah, I oversized them for comparison. I planned this out for my friend who was looking at land and building a metal building house. Most of it is to scale, like those should be King sized beds. With a metal building, you can do whatever you want to it.

How much would it cost to build to that bad boy? I want.

In reply to Conquest351:

I should ask my neighbor for a blueprint to his......his is T shaped, with the house portion being in the middle off to the side, both are pole+stick reinforcement. Pretty cool setup at that....But I'd need a 16x40 bifold door on one(to be able to service the combine with the head on it)

Honestly you want to build 2 garages. A 2-3 bay attached to the house for parking (probably do 10' walls to enable a 4 post lift for stacked vehicle storage in 1 bay). then build a 2nd one for your madness.
I propose something 40' wide x 24-30' deep. Run the Ridge the long way, put 1 16' door and 1 10' door on the 40' side. Use 12-14' walls and build a loft across the back 10'. Put a 2 post in the 10' bay and have an extra 8' on one end for a workshop space. The 24-30 is the sweet spot of Truss pricing.

Swank Force One wrote: How much would it cost to build to that bad boy? I want.

http://mortonbuildings.com/

I think it'd run about 90-110k for just the pole building, not including anything inside of it

The last barn we built was a 90x60 and that was around 65k over a decade ago.

No dice on doubling down (want, but can't have). We're already building a new 6 stall barn. Funds run tight.

Quick rule of thumb is that it's usually cheaper to build in increments of 12. 48x24 may very well be cheaper than 36x28. 36x24 would likely be a good amount cheaper than x28 if you can live with 4 feet less depth.

DaveEstey wrote: No dice on doubling down (want, but can't have). We're already building a new 6 stall barn. Funds run tight.

She SWMBO gets a 6 stall horse shop and you get 2/3 of a 3 bay garage? I say at least push for a squarebuilding so you car get two cars in the front then one lift and one workshop space in the back half.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

+1

A 24' deep building doesn't allow for much room on the ends of the car when working on them. My current garage is 22' deep and it's just too tight for larger vehicles. I can barely park my pickup in there at all much less work on it, so I have to move it half-out of the garage to do any work at all on either end of the truck. 24' would be a tiny bit better but I would say 28' is an absolute minimum for me from now on. My previous garage I built as 24' wide x 30' deep and much preferred that. Yes it's only 2 bays wide that way but they're way more usable bays.

I was zoning restricted to 720 square feet. WIthout that restriction I would say your 36 x 28 is pretty dang good. Just remember bigger is better with a garage and a single bay is only going to fit one car and a little bit of supplies. If it's three bay and your wife has one bay, one bay is full of workshop stuff, then plan on only ever having one of your cars under roof. That can get restricting if you have a long term project and a short-term repair on a different vehicle crops up. It might work to make the workshop bay modular where you can roll the equipment to the back of the shop and pull a vehicle in for short term repairs.

I am going through a similar thing and have had the chance to tour a few garages. The smallest one that even seems workable for me is 40x40. Gives three bays with plenty of room for working, plus room at the front for benches, fab area, places to build engines, service transmissions, etc without eating a bay up. Allows you to go two deep in some bays as well if not working actively. I would only do smaller than that if money or restrictions come into play.

My Civic lives outdoors so my space w/ lift will be for the RX7 only. My thoughts are that I can always lift the RX7 and pull another car under it for short term repairs as well.

40x40 is too big. Maybe I can pull out a 36x36 square

You say funds are a limit what are you estimating for $/sq ft and total finished cost? How much diy vs contracted? Need to know what your looking at to know what's possible. Suggesting a 1500 sqft shop is useless if all you have is $15k total to finish.

Try these and build your own...

http://metalbuildingdepot.com/index.aspx

Their design software, free... http://metalbuildingdepot.com/iqs/

Talking with a contractor today who specializes in horse barns (SWMBO trains one of his wife's horses) and garages, which is why I'm asking for input.

I can do concrete work, but I'm not a carpenter. I also work a lot of hours, so my availability for building is kinda limited these days. I rarely have a full weekend day without something scheduled it seems.

We're budgeting $100k for barn and garage. Spending less is of course preferable for obvious reasons. We'll get more money back on investment from the barn than the garage as well.

In reply to DaveEstey:

Interconnect the two.....it'll be cheaper in the long run

yamaha wrote: In reply to DaveEstey: Interconnect the two.....it'll be cheaper in the long run

I was gonna suggest that. You would save a lot of money in the construction if you combine the two into one long barn/garage. A bit like what Conquest posted, but with living quarters for horses instead of humans. You'll also save a bit of money with heating.

In reply to fanfoy:

Plus with the added bonus of calling it a "Horse Barn" on property taxes.....lol

If you "combine the two" do a Barn type build to save on trusses since the horse end will inevitably have walls.

I'm imagining this with the the 2 stalls taken out and extende by another 30' so ~80x40. Do the center aisle rasised so your really building a 16' truss in the middle with 12' conventional rafters on the sides. Do 3 doors across the end for the shop and in the raised portion you can do a 16x80 room down the middle of the whole structure.

That or do something like this http://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/pole-barn-post-frame-materials/post-frame-projects/40w-x-40l-x-12h-with-32w-x32l-x8h-special/p-1495795-c-9901.htm

I would try really hard to make the shop/barn cost ~85K and plan to DIY a 24x22 2 car attached to the house. A simple stick built with basic slab no insulation unfinished minimal electrical should only set you back ~$10k in materials.

Swank Force One wrote: Quick rule of thumb is that it's usually cheaper to build in increments of 12. 48x24 may very well be cheaper than 36x28. 36x24 would likely be a good amount cheaper than x28 if you can live with 4 feet less depth.

I've seen that rule of thumb printed in many books over the years.

37 years of professional construction experience, and I have seen no connection with reality at all.

Waste is a factor of how efficient your carpenters are, not what size your building is.

I can build a structure with about 75% less waste than many other local builders have, regardless of the dimensions.