If you're going to do your own alignments, or anything sensitive like that, make sure the floor is dead level. That'll save you alot of time shimming under the tires later.

-Chris

 

You can not have enough cabinets and drawers. I have slatwall up in my garage, so hanging stuff is not an issue.

 

What did you use on the floor?

 

Awesome garage. I wish I could get into mine.

 

i would put sheets of drywall above the beams so this way you cankeep the volume of the space small to keep in heat and in the summer u can just move the panels and have a high ceiling for heat to escape throu the roof vents....... i would do a nice epoxy floor if possible....... build an insulated box with vents for a stand up compressor to keep noise down........ use enamel paint for the walls since it's alot more durable than latex and easier to clean........ some drop cords..... frig.......... snacks......... some quality h2o.......... and a time clock so u can punch in when it's time to werk....

cryzko
if you need someone to do blueprints and design for you, let me know..... i have an architecture background and am a licensed builder in michigan.....

 

Why not make it two cars deep? that will give you a 16' OH door entrance and if you can swing it why not put a door on the back so that you can drive out the back? You can pour a large slab out back and even put a steel carport over it. that is a nice place to hide a old car out of sight.

If you can think about a second floor storage area. If you build the structure tall and don't finish the second floor the tax man will never know. I build a 50x60metal building and it only cost $4 grand more for the second story height.

You should also think about building a second single car seperate garage beside this one for the lawn and bikes and such that the kids will collect. That will keep the old lady happy if she can park in it and still have room in front of it for the Lawn stuff. sure keeps the kids out of your area and no handlebar scraches down the side of your Vette.

Be sure to pour a deep footing for your posts on your lift so that it will not crack the floor.

8' lights will put out so much more light and the bulbs are actually cheaper than 4' ones.

Most of the suggestions that others have expoused are all good so I won't repeat them.

Just remember that if you can afford it? Build it as big as you can in the first place. The cost is minimal especially if you do the finish inside. I can tell you one thing for sure and that is, it will turn out to be much smaller than you thought after it is done. Ask anybody that build one and they will tell you that? You can always find something to put into it. It is hard to build more room afterward.

Good luck
Pantera

 

I also am in the middle of a garage build and couldn't agree more with a comment from Pantera - it will look a lot smaller once you see it built - I had mine built 28x40 and once I put three cars in there was no room for all the important stuff - work bench, engine crane,tv, lounge chairs, compressor etc! I ended up adding a 12x28 addition to the addition just for a work shop!!! Be sure to either put a pad in outside for your compressor or have a place to wall it in - they are quite loud in a garage.

 

How about a dish washer ( ah, parts cleaner) ?
Wives don't like using dish washer for grimey, greasy car parts...

Definitely a sink for cleanup.

Stereo to cover the swearing that seldom happens.

A party once you are done - oops, getting ahead.

Yes, epoxy the floor - most durable covering.

Good luck.

 

Ensure you have space identified for:

-an old oven (powdercoating)
-parts washer
-blast cabinet
-heavy duty table you can get to from all sides and a quad outlet in the floor for the table or hardwire the table from the floor
-old washer and dryer for car towels/shop rags


If you will have a large attic above you can use for storage, can you build in a staircase instead of a drop down ladder?

I pressure wash my garage and I wish I had finished the lower inside wall with concrete board instead of drywall and use the hardy board stuff they use for a roof facia as base board. And the idea above to use oil based paint is a good one, but I think you can use a latex enamel now that is water based and get the same reults much easier.

Even though I have room for lawn equipment, I wish I had another room to store yard equipment so the garage could stay a little cleaner.

Instead of a window unit, talk the your mechanical contractor and see how much to duct the garage and provide a larger fan unit that can run on one speed for the house AC and a higher speed with a manual door that allows the garage to be cooled when you want AC in there so it doesn't run all the time. I'm going to do that when I finish my upstairs and install a second system.

Wire the garage for cable or satellite, stereo etc.

Consider installing copper lines in the wall for compressor air drops, see Norval for great info on this one.

Consider where trash cans will sit

Consider where shoes, toys etc. will be stored so they are out of the way.

Many cheap ceiling fans

Use flourecsent lights to minimize any heat generation.

You may want your sink in the table that sits in the middle of the floor. I know I wish my sink wasn't againt a wall.

Place windows so you can have cross ventilation even with the doors closed. Screen door on the back door.

Floor drain if code will allow one.

Make sure driveway drains to the street and not into the grass.

Where will you store long wood, pipe, pvc etc.? Where will you store large sheets, plywood, drywall, plastic etc. I prefer to get and keep everything off the floor if possible to reduce clutter, dirt, critters etc.

Locate electric service panel or at least the house's sub panels in the garage.

Just a few thoughts . . .

 

28 ft is nice for one car but not wide enough for two. shoot for at least 32' to 35' wide if you can. That way you can open the doors and work around the sides of the cars with out having to juggle them out of the way.

Your coment about the compressor is right on. Put the dam thing outside in a room of its own. they are noisy.

I also recomend having the floor high polished by the cement finisher. Mine will hold oil for hours till I have time to clean it up. Of course you may want to epoxy it and that is fine too. Only problem with it is that it is SLICK when it gets wet.

Be very sure that you get a contract with the concrete man that says he will jack hammer it up if it has low spots that collect water and or is not level and very smooth. My buddy was working out of town and he didn't hang around on the day they started to pour the concrete and he wound up with a big dip that was very noticable and the finisher would not stand behind his work. Then be there watching that they do the work right. Do your homework and look at jobs that he has done in the past before you settle on a finisher. This is a biggie. You will regret not doing this one, every time you walk on it if you don't.

My buddy spent weeks and a lot of $$$ getting the floor level and then had to have it epoxied to finish it up and it still is not as nice as mine with the natural polished finish.

I hope that you don't have a sloped driveway. It is really nice when it is at least the length of a big car level outside of your garage door.

One other thing is to have a 3' or 4' over hang over the garage OH door if you can. that will help keep rainwater from washing under your OH door seal and into your garage floor during a hard rain storm. The last house I lived in the Garage was in the back and I built a 30'w x 20' deep carport out of metal building metal parts and used the sheets of steel that make up the sides as the top of it. sure made a nice place to work in the hot summer in the shade it provided. Kept the water out of the garage too.

It only cost me about $400 to build it myself. the outer sides are made of C chanel and the cross bars (3) are Z's. I bolted two C's back to back to make a header and supported it on 4 corners by 3" pipe in concrete. Bolted the C chanel up against the house using 6" wood lag screws (2) into each stud on the house. Dam sure was strong. finished the open C chanel on the header with a sheet of alum that matched the trim on the house. If I did it again I would be sure that I got sheets for the roof that were finished on both sides and then use some kind of insulation on the underside. It developed surface rust and condensed rusty water every time it rained after about 5 years. Don't live there anymore now.

 

17'x25' is no 3-car garage. My 2-car garage is 20 wide by 21 deep. It's just enough for 2 cars and nothing else.

 

I must have written it wrong - gararge is 28x40 and my work shop is an extra 12x 28 - great suggetions here though! Thanks for all of the replies!

 

Talk about a garage

 

Just realized I was answering a comment not directed at me :o I had started a similar post - great pic of the garage, may need to start another post to see if we can get some more pics!

 

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but I haven't seen it posted yet. You'll want to make sure that you purchase insulated garage doors instead of "normal" garage doors. This will really help keep the heat in during cold winter days/nights.

 

I've reciently aquired an acre of country land, (on payments), gonna pour 2X20'by20' pads and spend a day leveling them build one 2,000 square foot garage section and later another, at bout 16 feet tall. The county limit is 2,000 sq.ft. with out a permit.

 

In the same situation as you. Contractor will be arriving to our residence next week with plans and a price. Adding second story
to main house... and a 32x36' garage. The missus told the contractor
to throw in a sink and a toilet in the garage