Dream Garage

[SoCalCoupe]

Originally Posted by Newc

My third try is 80ft long 40ft wide with 17ft ceiling [steel white panels] light top and sides. Full mezine [40x25] with 8ft clearance. Restroom-office too. And now it's FULL. Leave future 'add-on' space. Newc

These are good ideas. I had a metal pole barn less than half this size that came with the property when I bought it. Nice to have but after struggling to retrofit this storage barn as shop, it would have been way better to have been built as a shop to begin with.


1. get double or triple garage doors rather than a single large door. Parking a car is much easier if you can pull right in rather than pull in and then have to parallel park in your own garage.

2. if you're in coastal Georgia, you'll want it be fully insulated whether you air condition it or not. You probably will want a/c just to keep the humidity down. Even if you can handle it, you might find yourself growing lots of rust on anything made of steel like cars, trucks and tools.


3. Make sure the garage doors are fully insulated when you buy them. Insulation is time-consuming to install and adds quite a bit of weight. You'll be much better off with pre-engineered doors, frames and springs

4. Have the interior finished when you get it built. It can be a real time drain to try to do it yourself unless you're really skilled at cranking through this kind of work really quickly. (Ask me how I know.)

5. Figure out your storage system (hooks, pegboard, brackets, cabinets, etc.) before you finalize the plans. It has a big influence on how the interior is finished.


6. Work out gutter covers before you install gutters. Mine came with standard gutters but the sheet metal roofing covered them half up. That made cleaning the gutters super time-consuming with only a tiny space to fish hands/tools into to get the c**p out.


7. Use steel door frames and doors. Pre-hung wooden doors and frames will rot out pretty quickly.


8. Talk with your homeowners insurance carrier to make sure you have adequate coverage. Nearly all policies limit coverage of outbuildings to a specific percentage of your total coverage unless you make other arrangements. If it's a real 'Garage Mahal' you may need to add coverage.

[TomT/Williamsburg]

I built my dream garage 14 years ago - they are never big enough …. Lol!

[Pete/Ct.]

whatever size you decide on, double it!!!

[Ziggster]

I need a bigger space, and briefly looked into last year. With construction costs almost double, I gave up. Around here you’re looking at about CAN$100 -$150 sq ft and I wanted about 1,200 sq ft.