Garage dimensions, width vs depth
Hudson Valley Carpenter
| Posted in General Discussion on
I’m wondering if anybody has built a garage which is deeper than it is wide? I’m considering a two door garage, deep enough to put two cars in each bay. Might put a 12/12 roof on it with some dormers, make the upstairs into a small apartment.
So anyone tried living with a garage space like this? What dimensions? Any problems, working out the logistics of parking the cars? What about ventilating the exhaust fumes? Is that even a problem?
Replies
I once saw a garage like you describe, but what I found interesting is that it had a garage door at either end. Made for a great shop as well.
My own garage is 22 wide by 26 deep. 16 foot door. In winter we park two vehicles inside and it is a little tight. Across the back I have about 10 feet of kitchen cabinets and two sets of steel shelves for tools and junk. If I was doing it over I would have built it at least 4 feet wider and 10 deeper or more. By the time we put kids bikes etc in there it is cramped. I have a 12 12 roof with a den above but we use it as a den but soon we will be turning it over to our two girls (11 years old) so they can keep all their toys and stuff in there and we get the rest of the house back.
Exhausting the fumes hasn't been a concern but I have considerd running an exhaust fan off the timed light on the opener.
Have a good day
Cliffy
Edited 7/6/2007 9:41 pm ET by cliffy
My own garage is 22 wide by 26 deep. 16 foot door. In winter we park two vehicles inside and it is a little tight
Seems like no storage space is ever enough. <chuckle> I tend to think like you, build to suit.
My parent's former SoCal tract house has a detached 18X18 garage with a 16' door which opens onto an alley. The separation between the garage door and the neighbor's back wall, across the alley, is about 24'. It takes some skill to back into that space.
My mother, a fairly small framed woman, used to park her '52 Ford V8 sedan (no power steering) in there with great coordination and precision. There was never more than 2" difference in where the car ended up, in any direction.
Besides the two, full sized American cars, that garage was loaded with all our family camping gear, bicycles, lawn mower, hand tools, Christmas decorations, and etc. With the door closed there was hardly room for a black widow spider to spin her web. But everything fit, in it's own place.
I'm thinking more of a two bay garage which would serve both the main house and the apartment above the garage. Checking current car dimensions, both the Accord and Camry are just under 16' feet long. That makes me think about 36' outside as a good depth, but I'd like to hear other reasoning.
24' is just barely enough to raise the tailgate on your Suburban, and still have room to walk around the front easily.A medium to large guy named Alan, not an ambiguous female....
NOT that there is anything wrong with that.
mine is 20 x 32, makes a nice shop, lousy garage.
But hey, Whats more important?
"Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
Every once in while I have seen mention of such a garage.
But they aren't practically for "everyday" usage.
But rather the front spaces are used for a boat, a project car, a convertable that is only used rarely, etc.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
My brother has a garage configured that way. As mentioned by others, it's fine if you have a car or boat or something that doesn't have to come out of the garage often. It's a pain to have to pull one car out to be able to get to the other one if you have to do it on a regular basis.
I think you guys are probably right. Stacking cars in a garage requires that the two drivers have compatible and predictable schedules. Although that was the norm in other times, it's not that way today.
I'll probably make my garage 24x24, leaving enough room in front of the two vehicles for motorcycles, other toys and a work bench.
Not that it matters but I like garages that are around 24'x30' with 8' overhead doors.
That extra few feet makes it comfortable to walk in front of and behind vehicles. Even with caninets or benches on the wall.
The 8' doors gives plenty of room for almost any stock vehicle to pull into the garage.
You mentioned something about living space above, where are the stairs going to be?
Matt
I found a picture of a house I framed a while back. This is a bonus room above the garage. I think the garage was 22' wide. It had a gable roof and gable dormers off the front and back.
Sorry for the crappy pictures.
Matt
Where you going to put the stairs to get up to the apt? I'd go 26' deep at least.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
i design & build quite a few garages..here's some of my planning:
if you go 28' wide you can have a stairwell against one sidewall and (2) 9'wide doors
the standard door is 9' wide x 7' h.............my favorite door is 7'6" high for SUV's... .....8' high for truck racks
with wind shear design... it's best if you have a minimum 4' corner.. then a 9' door, a minimum of 2' center wall.. 9' door and a 4' corner... all of which will fit into 30' width
if you use a continuous LVL header from corner to corner, you can reduce the corner walls to 2' and wind up with a 24' width
for depth.. i usually figure the vehicle at about 17'.. plus 2' of bumper clearance / walking room behind the car.. which puts the nose at about 20' to the front
any depth in front of that can be used fopr what ever you have in mind
a good compromise dimension is 24' w x 26' deep
walk-in people doors work best on the front or back... side doors sometimes get interferance with the overhead doors
if you want a people door in front, figure 5'.... 9'....2'....9'.....2' = 27' , so make it 28' and spread the 12"
foundation openings i always use 9'-8" RO, which allows for a double PT jack plus trim on each side of the door to support the header
low mount hardware allows for a lower ceiling, but for my 7'-6" doors i'm usually looking for 8'-7" ceiling at the front for conventional hardware
if you pour your slab flush with the top of your stem wall,you can get 8'-7" with a PT 2x6 sill, a double shoe, 8' stud, and a double top plate
if you slope the slab 3" from front to the doors you will have 8'-10" to the ceiling line at the doors
if the garage is attached to the house you usually have to drop the slab 4" by code
BTW.... i've used 8' wide doors .... don't try this if you have teenage drivers in the house... mirrors cost a lot of money
i detest 16' wide doors... but if you have a 20' garage , i guess you're stuck
my minimum 2-car garage is 24' x 24'Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
A few questions:
How would the side, people doors interfere w/ overhead doors?
How high do you typically extend the foundation (stem/frost) wall above the inside floor slab?
regarding floor slope - its seems you find 1/8" per foot seems about right?
Thanks,
Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to post your well thought out methods and those important dimensions.
I particularly appreciate the warning about the door tracks possibly interfering with an entry door. That would be easy to forget. "Now what do I do? Cut the door and the jamb down to 6'4?" (wouldn't be the first time) ;-)
There is another option to the long garage, but it would probably be even less handy than tandem parking. That is to use one of the storage lifts that are advertised in Hemmings Motor News or various hot rod magazines. They are not all that expensive but it would definitely be for that MG-TF or similar that you only took out on sunny Sunday afternoons. You would probably want a little more ceiling clearance than in most garages I have seen, however.Example: http://eagleequip.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=LI-SS
Edited 7/8/2007 12:29 am ET by CaseyR
Some friends had a garage built that is a 'modern carriage house.' Don't know dims but It's long and skinny, room for 2 cars end to end, room to pass around, and has a door @ each end. 1st one home pulls ahead, 2nd in behind so there's no issue with a car in the way.
before i moved into my present house--- i had the garage of my dreams built 10-12 years ago.
24w x 28 deep. 7/12 pitch. 8 ft. overhead door so i could pull my pick up with ladder racks and ladders inside. I THINK the door was 16 or 18 feet wide.
at the time a f150 and a mini van parked inside plenty fine.----kids toys, bikes, lawn care stuff fit off to one side easily,--wife had a potting bench in front of her van and i had a mamoth work bench in front of my truck and my misc. roofing equipment hung on the other side wall.
We had a LOT of storage space overhead-- but not a full apartment sized space with just a 7/12 pitch.
given another chance-- I would build the same foot print amd to the same floor plan
but a second floor WOULD have made a good office space--or apartment.
If i was single I could happily live in such a space
Stephen
Mine is 27' deep x 40' wide. I planned it so I can pull my crewcab longbed f350 in with the v-plow on in the winter. I've got 2 16'X10' doors on it so I can pull bikes, 4 wheeler, lawnmower, and etc. out without scratching cars. Go big. You will fill whatever you build and wish for more. It doesn't cost much more to add a little length.
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Forgot to add a pic.....
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
If you recall my thread on Alleys, my main purpose for clearing and grading our alley for access is to build a shop/garage with dormers and useable space above as you describe. I'll watch your replies with interest and hope to get some ideas--would love to see some photos.
As for my alley--turned into red tape nightmare. Had to submit plans, city atty is reviewing legality of some portion of it... Good lord...
Not relevant to you, but my last house had a double wide/double deep garage. I captured the back portion of it for a master BR and utility room as the garage was 2/3 as large as the existing house.
Cheers!
Pat
A topic near and dear to my heart. Yeah, I'd be concerned about the exhaust fumes. Up high, a small commercial grade fan rated for running continuously and a small vent somewhere across from it, lower on the wall creates some nice air currents for continuous ventilation. Use CO monitors up in the living space. CO poisoning, even at low levels, really screws people up.
I've always liked that two-deep idea. Seen it in plans only, called a tandem garage; inner bay is for the sports car driven on Sunday, four-wheelers, golf carts, etc. But if you have room to turn that garage 90 or even 45 degrees and run driveways out both ends, then your in business!
My new house is gonna have, if the budget doesn't take it away from me, 30W x 26D. Two doors, 10 wide x 8 high. 4', 10'door, 2', 10' door, 4'. We're getting old and I've watched too many geezers make a mess of a vehicle with a narrow door.
Thatd be nice. Almost bought a house once with a 30x60 garage. Guy had race cars in there in the winter.
Ours is only 23 deep, so the minivan can go in, but the truck doesnt. I think 12'w per vehicle is minimum if you never store anything else. I'd rather have a 3rd bay without a door just for the mowers, bikes, etc.
I do notice on new homes that a lot of builders squeeze the sf out of the house and then while trying to stay within setbacks end up with a garage only a Camry could love. That does seem short sighted. Like everyone says. So many other things end up in there, and theres so many cars that are bigger than that, a couple extra feet would just be a selling point in comparison.
I can dream, but my dream garage really is a Morton building more than it is a garage, and it'd rarely get parked in.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
My attached garage is 2 wide and 2 deep, but then I took the space of one of the bays and used it for the mod/dog room. Rough dims are 22w x 40d
There are 2 9w x 8h doors on one end and another offset on the other end. The idea for the single bay is a place to store the pontoon boat in the winter and for easy lake access with kayaks and such in the summer.
I went with single doors because they are not in the gable end. I was concerned that a large double door would need too large of a header (or steel)
There are "room in attic" trusses above the garage. The roof pitch is 6.5/12 and with 6' kneewalls going up to an 8' ceiling, that gives me a room about 13x21.
The detached garage is 25d x 40w with 3 8x8 doors. There is an apartment above there, too. One of the bays is not as deep as the others to make room for the stairs.
You can dig around in the blog archives (link below) to find the pics if interested.
Back to your question, the doors on both ends take care of parking issues. I have also seen garages with a double door at one end and a single door along one eave wall. Then the gravel, concrete, asphalt, then only had to go on two sides, rather than 3.
I wish I had taller ceilings in the detached, but I had to hold to a 20' height restriction on that one.
Adventures in Home Building
An online journal covering the preparation and construction of our new home.
Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to offer your ideas and experience on this subject.
The attached garage for my next house has evolved from a standard two holer to include an under-slab cistern, and a 12/12 south facing roof to allow for future photovoltaic panels.
Once I decided to include the 12/12 roof, all my old design ideas for a simple one bedroom upstairs apartment came strolling back into focus. To make this all visually viable with the main house, I have to restrict the width and partially hide the full intent of the second story.
That can be accomplished by making the upstairs apartment into a "Fake Cod", as they're sometimes called. A 12/12 roof facing the driveway entrance with a couple of small gabled dormers w/windows, and a modified pitch roof hidden around back over a full eight foot back wall. With a 4' overhang on the 12/12 front end, the apartment has a useful area of almost the same size as the garage. So even a 24X24 footprint offers enough space for a small one bedroom unit.
Placing the stairs is a problem when there are many other considerations involved, room layouts and a great view, in particular. I can put them outside on one end or inside on the other. I'm inclined to put them inside for many reasons but that means a shared foyer/hallway. Not a big problem, I'd guess.
I really do like the idea of making the garage deep enough to allow for working on stuff with both cars inside. A couple of you have suggested 26' as a minimum depth. That seems about right, suits the upstairs requirements well too.
Still thinkin' ....
Peter
My last one was 28x30; gables & 2-9' gar doors and a wakk in door in the 28' wall. Being 28' allows the stairs to be across the opposite 28' wall with nice landings & head clearance at the top.
With 10/12 pitch & 5' high knee walls you get 16' wide floor space & with dormers in each side of the long wall and each gable it will be nice and light.
You will have to use 5/8 DW on the garage cieling and walls for fire code.
Jim
Edited 7/8/2007 12:37 pm ET by jimcco