anyone build a big garage? what would ya do different, must haves ?

stripper pole already accounted for in the second post...the Beeb knows what it is necessary in these builds

 

Instead of all those big doors in front I'd like a man door and just one door tall enough for your biggest toy right in the middle and another at the other end to be able to pull through. parking areas or work bays to one side.

 

And the generator...

 

I was fortunate enough to be able to do this a few years ago. I already had a large wood-frame garage, and the new place was essentially an addition/remodel to the original garage (although a major one). This had some limitations v/s starting from scratch, but worked out great anyhow. I'm very happy with the result.

I have two sections, "the garage" which consists mostly of the place to park the cars, store lawn equipment, and household stuff. It is not climate controlled, although heavily insulated. I sprung for insulated, Florida-rated (required) garage doors, and they were worth it. The other section is the "shop". It is well-insulated and under air. From prior experience, I insisted on a roll-up door, in spite of it being the biggest insulation fail. I was always frustrated with losing the area immediately inside the door because the open door covered all the lighting.

I had to look long and hard to find a "Florida Rated" one that had some insulating qualities, but finally did. I also designed the space so the roll up door is in the shade all day, so there is less radiant heat build up. Although it still leaks around the edges, I upgraded to the best trim they had ("cold warehouse trim" or some such).

Light is key. Due to the low price and energy usage of LED, I went for full "movie set" levels of lighting. Used a drop-ceiling with drop in LED "tiles". Lots and lots of them. Highly recommended. I will take small projects out of the house into the shop just for the lighting.

Some things I have enjoyed. A sink in the shop, a fridge in the shop, a bathroom in the shop (a little much, but gives us some benefits if the house is disabled in some fashion). Air compressor is in the "garage" and plumbed into the shop. A big improvement. A couch in the shop is nice too. Of course A/C is a life changer in Florida. We have a full gym setup, a home theater setup, etc. None of which would work that well without the A/C, not to mention working on bikes.

My shop is less well designed for working on cars, but that was an expected compromise. The insulation in the "garage" side is still much better than it was for "car" work. An odd-ball thing that came out of the design was an internal "carport" that I put a powered screen door over the end. It is designed to be able to wash a car or bike with the screen closed and under cover. It just sort of organically developed as the design matured, but I would consider intentionally including it in any future thing like that.

Here is an old post ( https://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/i-want-a-garage-damn-it.354839/page-5#post-5383631 ) about it that has some rough drawings for reference.

 

Or just spend that same amount of money that you would on a compressor shed and upgrade to a quiet rotary vane compressor instead.

 

I did a shop build here
https://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/new-shop.372711/
I've been using it for a few years now and have since added a CNC lathe. Overall I'm real happy with it and it's got alot of suggestions added in this thread. One that I'd consider that someone mentioned to me at one point but was after the fact was to position man doors away from the building corners some to give you some corner storage space for shelving, I didn't do that and put the doors in the corners.

Edit: Definitely do LED lighting
I got (6) bulb T5 fluorescent fixtures from my old job as they were throwing them out. With all the lights on I was pulling 30 amps, I changed the bulbs to LED and it dropped to 11 amps.

 

And probably more lumens of light. I know the fixtures I put up at the old house were a fraction of the power consumption and a metric shit ton more light than the incandescent fixtures I pulled out.

 

Let me know if you need a concrete guy @MELK-MAN We’re putting up a metal building at the farm in Wildwood and finding a concrete guy was a pain. Guy we used did great.
We also used a company from Ocala for the building

 

Most of shops in my neighborhood are steel, big lots so people put them way in back. I was in one of them when it was raining, we could not talk to each other from noice rain made hitting steel roof. It was isolated as well, can't imagine what it would be without

 

Just wait for a hail storm and you'll think you were at a pistol range.
My cat looses his mind during hail storms.

 

What is hail storm?

 

Built a 50x60 just a Covid was starting.
Go bigger than 30x60.
I keep the RV inside. Have a 10ft mezzanine across the whole back with some storage shelves and a bit of a hangout space. Get a 2 post hoist instead of a drive on. A lot less space used and can still store a car out of the way. I put in 2 roll up doors because of width. 1 14x14 and 1 10x10 in front of the hoist.

 

Where's that thread about the neighbor who was building the insane monstrosity of an outbuilding? I think it was in Canada. The neighbor was an elderly Korean guy if I remember right. He was definitely NOT a wood construction professional!


Edit : found it

https://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/thread-about-guy-building-a-shed.333103/

 

Link to the link doesn't work

btw I just got a new dishwasher and I pulled the old one out. Do you want the old one?

 

Nah, mine is 60 years old, but she wouldn't appreciate mme trading in for a younger model.

 

That’s something I didn’t think of. Out here some places do not put in A/C which is the exact opposite of Florida.

 

Suit yourself. You said you were selling your house in Dallas and moving to Lubbock to live in a trailer.