Advice on building a Garage

[JayBone]

First i live in Nj so everything is expensive & tons of laws on building & permits. So all you lucky people who live in states with less rules be lucky!! ha!

I'd like to hear from people who built pole barns or steel buildings. Also what was the deciding factor?

I'm looking to find the pros & cons between both of people who have them. I attached 3 pic's of styles but not set in stone.

Here is a website i'm looking at.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.behmdesign.net/images/products/thumb/t7222.2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.behmdesign.net/storage.aspx&usg=__NJNL4sgYohJ9uX__Gh3wdjkwG18=&h=167&w=175&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=QrN4fUEEno_kRM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3D24x30%2Bft%2Bgarage%2B2%2Bstory%26hl% 3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Dis ch:1



thank you

[3wheelsinPA]

The only real suggestion I would have is to go with a garage door height of at least 8'. Hard to get taller trucks or trucks with cargo into smaller doors. As for what type, the lay of the land can determine your best route.

[250rAL]

Go as big as you can fit into your space or can afford. You can't have too much garage space. I regret two things with mine: I didn't wire it for 220 and I didn't make the walls tall enough for a lift.

[harryredtrike]

Go bigger than you think you need.

[bigboy_toy85]

yea, go as big as you can.. we built a 40X60 shop a few years ago.. and it sounded like it would be big enough, but once we got it built we quickly realized its not as big as it sounds.. the way we did it though, is we had 2 garage doors, one was a 16' tall door for the camper, and the other one was an 8'.. most vehicles would fit in that door, as for lay out, dont go too fancy, the simpler your design, the more usuable space youlld have, i personally like the 1st picture you have on here as a look..

[atc350xer]

Mine is just a 12'x16' shed, but a garage pole building is built essentially the same way...

[andrew j hyman]

Go bigger than you think you need. yea no fun adding on years later Bigger is better. Also do not forget about HEAT I have a Clean Burn Waste oil furnace. Burns all old motor oil. Had it for over 13 years now Just works great !!!

[hublake]

I agree with everybody else, go as big as you can afford. In the end it will still probably not be big enough.

[JayBone]

Thanks for the input!

I'm going to go as large as the town & money will let me. I'll be calling the town today and see what size i am allowed and that determains the building. (Andrew j Hyman) heat is a big cost factor. I'd like to go with a waste oil burner but i don't think it's practical for me. Coal is a thought only cause i can store it outside and build a stock pile over time. Plus i can just put a bag or so in the stove daily if i were going to be in the garage or not. I have plenty of fire wood around but i don't burn it for heat in my house. I hate to cut fire wood cause i grew up doing that.

[oldskool83]

in my town it was baised off total roof sqft. i was alowed to cover like 50% or somthing of the total property sqft. i ended up holding off on building a garage this year but still looking into it. make sure if you can to build somthing with stairs and a nice loft uptop. this is how we figured out how to get around the rules since if building it my self or with friends we could go as high as we wanted and as big with no building inspection....if we listed a contractor was gonna do it everything has to be to code.

maybe that will help ya, sure did with us.

[andrew j hyman]

Thanks for the input!

I'm going to go as large as the town & money will let me. I'll be calling the town today and see what size i am allowed and that determains the building. (Andrew j Hyman) heat is a big cost factor. I'd like to go with a waste oil burner but i don't think it's practical for me. Coal is a thought only cause i can store it outside and build a stock pile over time. Plus i can just put a bag or so in the stove daily if i were going to be in the garage or not. I have plenty of fire wood around but i don't burn it for heat in my house. I hate to cut fire wood cause i grew up doing that. Coal is great too. I get old motor Oil for Free . I do change alot of oil in my shop. i burn about 1500 gals a year but my shop is 40x116 14 tall cieling plus i am in it from 6.30 to 5pm every day

[JayBone]

well i have to wait for the zoning officer to come in today at 2pm est. They have great hours geez.

[oldskool83]

lol...yeah i delt with bad hours and people not calling me back...it pays to know some that knows some if ya know anyone

[tri again]

hide some plumbing (drains) under your floor, cover with insulation, so you can break into it after your final inspection.
Very nice to have toilet, sink and shower, washer / dryer and even better than paying a few thousand extra in permits. That is IF you have the elevation to tie into your existing septic or sewer lines.
A simply dry well will work for hot water hand washing, at least.

Also nice to have regular floor drains for snow melting off your rigs.

I paid 7 grand for permits and then had less $$ to buy materials.

My plumber guy had also buried some pex tubing in his floor and had it hooked to a regular water heater set at like 65 degrees so the floor would stay warm.

Here , agricultural buildings are cheaper but they KNOW you'll want to park a boat etc inside and they are not up to code for fire safety since they assume you'll be hanging out in there with some sort of heat and running tools.

We all bootleg stuff but also ALWAYS build Overcode a) for safety and b) in case we do get caught, you can have an engineering report to cover the 'as built' nature of your structure.

Most gov't is so broke they're looking for any way to generate $$ and in our rural areas, they overlay aerial maps periodically to see if things have changed.

I changed my attic crawlspace to a gambrel (barn) roof so I got a 20x30 2nd story out of the deal complete with an upstairs bathroom.
Makes a nice guest quarters too.

Bottom line, if you want to refi or sell, they MAY look for permits when they do the appraisal.

Have fun!

[4cylinders]

hey, if it's just for atv's etc., look into tough sheds. in some areas, if it doesn't have a foundation, no permit, no taxes.

[JayBone]

The town called me back and said my side off set is 30ft each side and back off set is 25 ft. Well my property is 92 by 450. So this means i can pull off a 30ft by 40 with ease. This is the largest i would like to go due to the cost of keeping it warm & building cost overall. Also I'm not married so no second income to help. I now think a gambrel style barn is what i may go with. This is all up in the air, so i am sure i'll change my mind 50 times right now. The second story will actually end up being a bar/cigar room/poker room & gogo rama! ha ha. I have very little in the amount of toys at the moment cause i sold almost everything to get a bank roll. Toys i can always get.

As far as plumbing goes in NJ we can't have drains in the floor unless it was grandfathered in. Other plumbing i think all i'd want is a sink so i'd like to see what they have on the rain collection system. My septic is kinda far away for the additional cost. I can piss outside and if nature really calls my house is close enough to walk or hop on the old 200x if i can't walk. It's way to easy to go over budget on all of this kind of stuff. I like to keep things simple but practical.

[84cj]

30x40 is good. :)

We had an addition put on the house a few years ago, 26x44, 3 bays. Cielings are just shy of 11 ft. Two 220 outlets, should have put one more. Had to put in a larger boiler for the addition, so we ran another for a Modine cieling mounted heater. Friend of mine gave me a 15,000 BTU window A/C unit too, helps on the humid days. Do it right, do it once. Just remember, you can never have too big, although you will find yourself with more junk and no room for it in short order. :D

[300rman]

i wouldnt go as far as heating the whole thing, i would set it up so you have a nice sized work area that you can heat, without having to heat the whole thing. save on heating costs.

[teddcmiller]

As an experienced carpenter/guy with too many hobbies and waaayyyy to little space. i agree with all of the people that said go as big as you can. I bought my house and it has a 40x60 wood barn. When I moved in I had plenty of room, but now almost 3 years in I'm wondering what happend to all of my space lol. I dont know what your codes are, but speaking from experience here the hiding of drains sounds like a winner. In Indiana(atleast where I live) if you have a toliet,shower etc, they want to try and bill you for basically having a second residence. So be careful what you say your going to put in there. Good Luck!

[JayBone]

Yeah It's come up a few times about hiding drains from my friends here as well.. I'll look into it more.

My house garage is 24 by 20 isr something like that and with a car, toolboxes, workbench, mower, and a quad with my 2 200x's i was out of room quick.