Tips Traps & Advice to Designing Your ULTIMATE GARAGE

SIZE:
When garages are empty, they appear to be huge. The vast open space is often almost as large as your home.  Looks can be deceiving. No one has every told us they wish they had built their garage smaller!

The average 2 car garage at 6 x 6 M is too small to park 2 cars and open doors safely. In reality the avg 2 car garage is only really big enough to work on one car. You need oversize garages to work on cars and the cheap kitset companies are not very accommodating if you want to deviate from their standard offerings. Steve’s Garage tried every company selling garages and contracted IDEAL Buildings Manawatu to build ours. Only IDEAL were willing to make a true custom garage that was oversize and met our needs.

My guess is that you will come up with a size of 7.2 metre wide to give the room for 2 cars and still be able to work on

1. A bench down the side needs even more space so for this reason we recomend a bench at the front. You need a couple of metres for this. So the length of about 8- 9 M long is a minimum for 2 average cars. Of course a lot of real american cars need a bit more room.

HEIGHT:
2.4 M  stud height is pretty useless unless you only store sports cars. We suggest a minimum of 2.7 M high. This garage will provide you with room to easily house all of the things you have plus give you the opportunity to construct a useful mezzanine in one or more corners of the garage say above the bench.

For the ultimate garage we recomend use the height. Do not waste it with trusses. Steves Garage asked John Sylvester from Sylvester & Clark Engineers to design the truss replacement with a laminated timber beam.

Steel framed garages do not have truses but the cladding runs vertical & is rustic looking - possibly OK if you are in the country & want a barn look, but not IDEAL for a suburban setting.  Plus of course top garages are insulated & lined so steel framed garages require full framing - an additional cost.  So of all wood framed garage companies, only IDEAL buildings would allow the replacement of the truses with the laminated beam. This design allows a 4 poster lift to be used to store another car on top and of course to work underneath your cars. If you are building a new garage do what we did & install lights in the floor under the hoist.

A common problem in most garages is not enough side clearance when you open a car door. Car doors seem to attract bicycles, rubbish bins, shelving, and any other items you have placed along a side wall. Make sure that a garage door opening begins no closer than 1200 mm from a corner. Most garage door openings start 600mm from a side wall. This is only enough room if you are disciplined enough to not keep anything along the wall. Steves Garage has a row of cupboards along one passager side wall only. For a enthusiast garage to store good vehicles you need another shed for the lawn mower bikes & gardening tools. So shout yourself & get this stuff out of your car garage.

Garage doors can also be a problem. If you want a large double door, make sure it is as wide as you can afford. This door will give you the extra space you need in the event you have oversized vehicles such as most American cars.

Most garage manufactures will not allow storage on the trusses. Our garage has an attic which allow you to install all sorts of goodies up in the space that typically goes to waste. But there are a few tricks to do this so if you think this is for you contact us for details -One way is by using special attic truses  They are made so that you can't fully stand up in the space, but can easily move about as there are no irritating truss cross members to get in your way.

LAYOUT:
Draw out what you need to scale – We use a special programme but also have designs in Microsoft Excel as you can right click on a box and it tells you the size. 100:1 scale is therefore very easy to draw. Measure your vehicles with the doors wide open. If you want a hand to do this design in Excel contact us we will be happy to help.
info@stevesgarage.co.nz

Arrange the items in the manner you feel most comfortable. Do you need a fabrication area to keep welding & grinding away from the cars?  A study or office?  bar, tools, storage, & parts storage?  Allow space of 800 mm around stuff for walking. Undoubtedly when you 1st draw out everything you want, you will see that things are still cramped. Calculate the necessary width and depth of the garage that will give you adequate walking room around and between all of your possessions. With these calculations in hand, you now have the new floor plan footprint of your garage.

POWER:
Be sure to plan for your electric needs. Install two or three separate 20 amp circuits so that you have plenty of power for welders & large tools such as lathes. Install the whole garage on an RCI so you can run leads outside and for general safety inside. Do not forget to install both indoor and outdoor outlets adjacent to the garage door(s). In a carport is ideal. This will eliminate the need for extension cords for many projects. Place outlets a metre off the ground for easy access. Be sure you have several outlets at your proposed workbench site. Most building codes now require that all readily accessible outlets and circuits must have Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter or RCI protection.

Consider running an air line for your compressed air along the walls in metal before you line the walls.

Skylights are wonderful in a garage. They allow you to work inside on many days without the need for artificial lighting. The nova roof / Clearlight type is fine.

Consider a through-the-wall fan to provide ventilation on hot days or while you work with finishes or chemicals that require vast amounts of fresh air. Mount this fan in such a way that it will pull air across the garage from a slightly cracked door or a fresh air intake port.

FLOOR:
First, a painted floor looks much nicer -- makes you feel more like you are in a professional shop. Two, it is easier to clean up spills as well as dust & dirt. Thirdly, if you choose a lighter colour it makes your shop brighter and increases the overall desirability of working in it. In addition, it protects the floor from oil soaking in and from stains. Tiles look good but are very expansive and need pulling up to clean under - too much ongoioing work in our opinion.  Garage matting is nice but some don't like the plastic smell and it can move around. There are all types of floor "paint". They don’t work and will eventually "pull up" when tyres have been sitting on the paint repeatedly. Others will simply start peeling after some time even without a car parking on it. Epoxy paints are supposed to be better but will still have hot tyre pick up and will discolour when exposed to sunlight. The very best is the polyurea system such as Roll on Rock TM .  See our Floor Coating page for the ultimate in Garage flooring.

Not only will a coated floor make the restoration project go smoother, but after the project is done a coated floor makes daily life more enjoyable, since you can still clean up better and easier. And the garage will always look better, which will help make you feel better going in and out of it each day, as well as when you work in the garage/shop for years to come.

Insulate and line the interior surfaces of the garage when you build it, not later. If you wait until a later date, it may never get done and you will have to move everything out of the garage to accomplish the task.

DESIGN ASSISTANCE:
Steves Garage has no truses in the car area. It has a single beam so a 4 post lift can be installed and lights in the floor below the lift which was placed while the concrete was poured. We have done all the hard work sorting the problems & suppliers out and are happy to help you design something a bit special. You have worked hard for your toys & you deserve a nice garage to work in & display your collection. If you want to build a really unique building like Steves Garage, then we will help you design what you need.
info@stevesgarage.co.nz

Recomended Reading:  Ultimate Garages by Phil Berg

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