Building a Garage

[CornRickey]

I would recommend going with no less than a 16' wide opening were your going to place the boat. This will allow for another vehicle to enter the garage when the boat is stored. My garage is 30x32 with a 12x16 door. Height is fine, wish I could have gone with a 18' but the county wouldn't allow it.

[haugy]

jzeit I've got the same size shop you are planning. 30x40x14. I have a 12x12 door and a 10' high x 16' wide door.

My Saltare has plenty of room in the 12' x12' with the tower up. I can even have the first panel of door still down and still clear the tower. The 10' door I can put my CJ on it's trailer and pull it in and clear it. Which means almost anything can fit in there. This gives me a big door for the boat, and a really nice sized door for anything else in there. I can pull in my jeep and truck into the 16' wide door with ease.

This gives me alot of space between the boat and the vehicles which is where I park smaller items and my sitting area.

If you can go 16' high with 14' doors do it. That opens your shop up to RV's like someone else said. That's a big plus.

Some things to consider, are you building it stick or pole barn?
Insulated or non-insulated?
Framed out inside or not?

As for the garage door, do like someone stated. High clearance with LiftMaster jackshaft openers. They are great!

[jasun]

However big you are planning, add 6 feet to each side! Just when you think you have it planned big enough, you will need more room!!!

[jzelt]

We are planning to use the main bay that would be a straight shot as the all-time-use side. So summer would be the boat, winter would be the snowmobile trailer, and the side that would be slight angle approach would be the "storage" bay for the one not being used. The truck will always park where the snowmobile trailer would be for length room and the quad and other "tools" would be somewhere in between. We aren't planning on this being an everyday use, as we only use the truck on weekends and some weekday driving as we each have a car in a different garage/carport.
Unlike quite a few places we have been for visits, I don't think this is a very big 'camper' community/location. I do see a few around, but mostly at storage lots (HOA probably doesn't allow and fortunately we don't have to deal with one). But I could see maybe getting into something like that 30-40 years down the road...

All I asked for was if 12' was high enough and now I want a 14' high x 16' wide...You guys aren't helping very much

[jzelt]

haugy- It is a pole building, bubble wrap on roof (requested for lesser sound in rain), tyvek type wrap in case we would want to insulate in the future, (don't plan to at the moment), metal roof and exterior, non finished interior.

[haugy]

Good call on they Tyvek early. That will save a lot of time later down the road. Make sure you get vented tops in case you ever do enclose it, the roof will already be good to go. Since you aren't enclosing it, the heat loss won't matter.

You may not want 14' high, but I would seriously consider having a 16' wide door along with the 12' wide. Versus two 12's. Man is it handy when you don't want to move your truck to get a toy or something in or out.



Truck image for reference.

[haugy]

By the way, in case you haven't found it yet:

www.garagejournal.com/forum Great information, tons of good tips, but also ideas that you will hate me for later

[haugy]

The pics of the open doors was right after the paint had finished drying. The walls were primed all white. Then semi-gloss white on the top half. Semi-gloss gray, and gloss black in the middle. Prevents fingerprints or smudges from being wiped off. The bottom black strip is actually rubber stripping like you'd see at a business or school to seal up the floor and drywall. Really helped clean it up, and keep the little bugs at bay.

F-150 goes in there during winter, but not during boat season. Plus if I parked everything inside my garage and my shop it would look like we were never home. I don't like that. The tools were moved in after that shot of the open doors. It doesn't look look like that now. You can barely find gray paint now.

I don't mind posting that picture because there is nothing to show. Now you have to come have a beer to see what's all in it now.