Eastern Members - Garage Help.....

So I've decided to build a garage before purchasing a new car (realistically a newer CTS-V). I want a nice place to store my future investment, so I want to build a nice garage. Given my plot of land I'll have to either attach the garage to my house or have it detached and set more towards the back of my lot. I was thinking of making it 2 cars wide by 2 cars deep, with a second floor above that can be made to live in as well. Other than that I have no clue where to start or end.:jest: Any suggestions, ideas, tips from locals that have done this? All suggestions are welcome!!:hail:

I built a nice Big (30x34) 2 car using a Prefab design from Middleton Building Supply out of NH. Let me know if you want any details of to see my building
Bill

Bill is yours a pole barn style or did you go with a full foundation?

I am most likely building one attached to my house this summer, my father in law is a builder and we have laid out most of the plans. It is going to be 34' wide by 40' deep with storage above 3/4 of it and a vaulted ceiling for the bay with the lift. I am waiting on the lumber yard to get back to me with a material sheet then I need to get a form guy to price out my foundation. Luckily I work for an equipment rental company and my father in law is a GC so labor and equipment are going to cost me pizza and beers! Hopefully I'll have some ball park figures in the next week or so!

make the ceilings as high as you can and the concrete thick enough to put in a 2 post lift ;)
at least a 200 amp sub panel for power...
floor drains are great to have to wash a car inside or clean up the shop. Epoxy the floors and paint the walls a glossy white to help with light. Put as many lights as possible, cant tell you how much it sucks to work in a poorly light garage. i have alot more ways to spend your money, just let me know how much :jest:

You can have a pole barn built for a decent price. I know I saw in a paper down here for 13k you got a complete turn key 32x48 pole barn. Can't rember the height maybe 14ft tall could be wrong

Not sure how pole barns work in Mass. as far as codes go. I'd love to put a nice 30x50 one in my back yard, but can't figure out what kind of codes it needs to meet as far as foundation goes and what not. The building inspector was useless....

make the ceilings as high as you can and the concrete thick enough to put in a 2 post lift ;)
at least a 200 amp sub panel for power...
floor drains are great to have to wash a car inside or clean up the shop. Epoxy the floors and paint the walls a glossy white to help with light. Put as many lights as possible, cant tell you how much it sucks to work in a poorly light garage. i have alot more ways to spend your money, just let me know how much :jest:

In MA it's illegal to have the floor drain. :( Perhaps we can get Mike to move his lift to my place. :jest: I may need you to come up and install a lg amount of hvac stuff. :P Remember we need it "livable".....aka garage and in law type style.

Radient heat.

Glad to see your taking my advice :)
Plus now I have a go-to if I ever get the boot lol.

Costs are gonna double if you are making it liveable upstairs for sure, make sure my crib is plush. :)

Glad to see your taking my advice :)
Plus now I have a go-to if I ever get the boot lol.

Costs are gonna double if you are making it liveable upstairs for sure, make sure my crib is plush. :)

Yeah realistically we only "need" a 2 bay, but knowing we'll have more than two cars plus all the little things like snow blower, riding mower, and misc we'll use a bay for that, so 4 bay would be ideal. Living area will be for me. ;) I'll probably make it our new game room.....ya know kegorator moved, tv moved, pool table, etc. Some of it will be for storage as well. Possibly another set up for full bath since we have enough septic space.

make the ceilings as high as you can and the concrete thick enough to put in a 2 post lift ;)
at least a 200 amp sub panel for power...
floor drains are great to have to wash a car inside or clean up the shop. Epoxy the floors and paint the walls a glossy white to help with light. Put as many lights as possible, cant tell you how much it sucks to work in a poorly light garage. i have alot more ways to spend your money, just let me know how much :jest:

I'd agree with most of this. :) I think 200 amp may be a bit overkill depending on what you're doing and how often you're doing it. I went with 100amp in mine which is plenty for my lift, compressor, and even for future welders, etc.

I prefer a flat white wall as it seems to show less defects, etc. But definitely epoxy the floors and go with a clear coat - which I was not aware of when I did mine!

The floor drain sounds like a great idea, but not sure if it's allowed in your area. Not sure on the cost vs. benefit on that one either. :usa:

Have fun! We're in the process of building a garage for my dad as well.

Yeah realistically we only "need" a 2 bay, but knowing we'll have more than two cars plus all the little things like snow blower, riding mower, and misc we'll use a bay for that, so 4 bay would be ideal. Living area will be for me. ;) I'll probably make it our new game room.....ya know kegorator moved, tv moved, pool table, etc. Some of it will be for storage as well. Possibly another set up for full bath since we have enough septic space.

No such thing as too big.

There are ways to make it so the floor drain is not readily visible to the inspector.....I was hoping to put one in mine as well!

In MA it's illegal to have the floor drain. :( Perhaps we can get Mike to move his lift to my place. :jest: I may need you to come up and install a lg amount of hvac stuff. :P Remember we need it "livable".....aka garage and in law type style.

who said anything about floor drain... thats a ..... under ground ....thing..... but not a floor drain mister inspector...
i can do the hvac thing, plus anything else. just ask JL-ws6 i plumbed up his air lines and did the easy work wiring up his garage. how fast you can spend determines how much gets done lol. seriously though, let me know, im sure we can work something out.

I'd agree with most of this. :) I think 200 amp may be a bit overkill depending on what you're doing and how often you're doing it. I went with 100amp in mine which is plenty for my lift, compressor, and even for future welders, etc.

I prefer a flat white wall as it seems to show less defects, etc. But definitely epoxy the floors and go with a clear coat - which I was not aware of when I did mine!

The floor drain sounds like a great idea, but not sure if it's allowed in your area. Not sure on the cost vs. benefit on that one either. :usa:

Have fun! We're in the process of building a garage for my dad as well.

only type of kill i know is overkill lol
im an mouse hunting with an elephant gun type of guy.
100 amp should be more than enough, i do all my own work so i never pay labor so the difference in materials makes it worth it for me to go bigger if possible.
clear on the epoxy is a must for longevity IMHO as well as some type of slip sand to give you something to grip so you dont go skating across the floor all the time.

The epoxy cost was the only reason I didn't do it.. it was going to be over a grand to do my 24x24 with the non slip sand mixed in with it... not cheap.

100 amp will be enough power, I can run a compressor and welder at the same time and still have lots of room left in the box for additional circuits. But, the upstairs, if you're making an apartment out of that will need it's own 100 amp panel as well... may want to have them fed seperately in case you want to kill the garage power from inside the house without killing the apt. power.

16 foot ceiling, seems like alot, but do it. I have 10.5 feet and was "supposed" to have open rafters, until I showed up and the thing was all framed, sheeted and roofed with trusses, in 1 day :bang: Needless to say that contractor didn't get his final payment.

If I had to do it over I would have put the garage farther from the house, made sure there was enough room to park the trailer next to it so I didn't have to deal with it taking up as much driveway space... and again, my open trusses. Probably do barn style trusses so they are plenty high at the sides as well... I did a 24x24 as that's all I had room for, but if I had the room I would have went 32x32 just to have the extra room. As it is, I want to put up a shed to put all the yard stuff in... I'd keep that stuff seperate as lawn mowers smell like well, grass all summer and that gets annoying if the garage is well sealed up.

I sealed the hell out of mine, it's really pretty air tight, and that's probably why the a/c unit does o.k. out there :nod:

Cool thread. I recently bought a shop press from this place in Hudson NH, they also had 2 & 4 post lifts:
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Store-Locations#NH

I'm impressed with the quality of their products, decent prices too. Too bad my garage isn't big enough for a lift.

Cool thread. I recently bought a shop press from this place in Hudson NH, they also had 2 & 4 post lifts:
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Store-Locations#NH

I'm impressed with the quality of their products, decent prices too. Too bad my garage isn't big enough for a lift.

I got my lift and some other small stuff from them. Very happy with it. :cool:

keep your eye open for a used oil furnace. If you can get your buddies to drop off their old oil, store it up and use that for heating in the winter.

My brother put a used oil heater in his shop and leaves it set @ 60* all winter. Its nice enough to work in and not be frozen to the bone.

www.garagejournal.com
Great site for ideas and code information if you ask guys in the same area.

Ever consider those pre-fab alum and/or steel structures? You know what you're getting, they aren't super expensive, they go up quick and you can focus more on customizing the interior of it rather then building it with all of your spare time and working around the elements.

I did the full foundation garage with extra high foundation walls, double sill and the tallest wall the prefab company made. that allows me to run the lift (Mohawk system 1), I had the floor epoxied and had a separate electrical service drop with a 200 amp panel.

I need to call my building dept and see what needs to be done if I want to put up a pole barn. I havent been able to figure it out in the mass building code. I have a nice spot to put one up towards the back of my property in addition to the one I want to do attached to the house!

Yeah, I gotta look into codes and laws for building this thing up.