Garage design

[aczlan]

If buying wood trusses I'd certainly draw up a building plan and decide how much vault and how many rafters have to be vaulted and let the rafter company build them that way.

I would be sure to get a quote for trusses as in many cases, they can build a truss cheaper/better than you can.

Aaron Z

 

[Creamer]

I drilled nine 36" x 36" deep holes with Rerod sticking up out of them where my steel uprights would sit. Then poured a 6" concrete deck on top of them to set the building on. In what turned out to be a $40,000 building complete, $8000 of it was concrete.

In the case of the OP sounds like he's gonna put doors on the eave side of the building?? If so he's gonna miss his poles with some rafters. If so, he'll hafta do a heavy beam between those poles where rafters are gonna set.

If buying wood trusses I'd certainly draw up a building plan and decide how much vault and how many rafters have to be vaulted and let the rafter company build them that way.

One last comment. First time shop/garage builders rarely understand the full cost of a useable building. When you check with material suppliers and they give you a quote for the materials you have barely scratched half the cost of a finished building. In my case the building package cost $21,000. I ended up with $40,000 in the completed building. A bare, non insulated, non lighted, non heated dirt floor building is simply a pop can and only useable to store stuff in and work in on perfect weather days. If you want to fully utilize it you have just got started.

Maybe in your rock you can get away without a footer. Up here in the clay soils with possible frost to 36" the motion of just pillars would take a steel building down quickly. Also I did not do the concrete work so even though I had about $8000 worth of concrete I had twice that in getting it poured, insulating the foundation, adding a vapor barrier, re-rod and mesh, etc.

Your last point is a very good one. A bare building still needs a lot to be usable.

 

[ovrszd]

Maybe in your rock you can get away without a footer. Up here in the clay soils with possible frost to 36" the motion of just pillars would take a steel building down quickly. Also I did not do the concrete work so even though I had about $8000 worth of concrete I had twice that in getting it poured, insulating the foundation, adding a vapor barrier, re-rod and mesh, etc.

Your last point is a very good one. A bare building still needs a lot to be usable.

I'm on clay. 7 years and not so much as a hairline crack. I'm not on fill.

 

[franklin2]

If the OP is concerned about cost and is OK with a pole building then a metal building is not for him. While the kits will be about the same amount of money the foundation needs to be much different and more costly for a metal building whereas the pole building just puts a pole in the ground and you are done with it. the floor can float.

The above statement is true, unless they make a metal building that would not need a lot of footings. I can rent one of those post hole diggers that cantilevers on a trailer, and dig the holes myself. I don't have access or know how to work a backhoe, so digging a 2ft deep trench for a footer is not the cheapest way for me to build the foundation.

 

[franklin2]

Why not just do 2x8 16" on center to a ridge board? Maybe even 2x6 is ok, you would have to look up span charts and factor in your snow and wind loads. 2x12 bolted between posts for the 2x8 to sit on. No engineering required, it is standard framing. Building your own trusses is not allowed in some building jurisdictions.

You know that a real lumber yard can give you a quote on materials to build a building?

That's the beauty of the build a barn kit. No need to buy the 2x12's and heft them up and attach them to the beams. And the ceiling is already vaulted or cathedral. The support brackets for the roof 2x6's are already welded in place. Fewer pieces to assemble means the building goes up quicker with less work. It has a lot going for it.

You are probably right about the homemade trusses in my area.

 

[franklin2]

Garage door tracks can follow the pitch of the roof so you don't have to close the doors when using the lift.

Like I said, I am cheap. You can go to lowes or most anywhere and get a 7 or 8ft door, they keep them in stock. Taller than that and you enter into the "commercial" door sizes. The price almost doubles. My doors I have now are 9ft x 9ft and I paid dearly for them and they are un-insulated. A 12ft tall door is going to be expensive. I have looked at door applications where the tracks for the door are angled upwards, the ones with the torsion bar counterweight system use a special cable drum that is not the same diameter all the way across. Looks special order and expensive to me.

 

[franklin2]

How wide is your barn going to be? I really like these metal type of trusses because you can get a nicer roof pitch out of them along with wider width then you can with wood and have the open ceiling. I'm looking into building an event center using trusses like this that will have a 40 foot span. My plan is to set the posts every 8 feet and use 24ft long 2x6's on edge for the purlins. I feel that the extra cost for posts and purlins is minimal compared to the additional strength I will get with this layout.

Armour Metals Measuring & Installing - Metal Roofing and Pole Barns This is a website that has pricing for the trusses. It's farther away then I want to deal with, so I just use it for reference. I still might go all metal for my posts and trusses with Muellers, but have to spend some time talking to them before I decide.

I'm not a fan of slider garage doors because they let water and wind get past them. There are ways to seal them up, but from what I've heard, they don't work very well. Adding a porch roof over the door will help a lot with water, but wind is always going to be an issue. I like roll up doors. I still get a little wind through the edges of mine, but it's never been too bad.

As for spanning trusses, first you have to decide what type of roof do you want? Shingles mean you have to have your trusses 2 feet apart or closer. Higher end homes tend to go 16 or 18 inches on center. Especially if they have a heavier type of roof then shingles. The main reason for this is you attach the shingles to the decking, and either plywood or OSB can only handle a 2 foot span. Shingles also do best at 4:12 pitch or better. Depending on your weather conditions, anything less will result in failure. Metal can be as low as 2:12. If you go lower, you run into issues. Most metal buildings are going to have a roof pitch of 2:12 up to 4:12. You can get steeper, but there is a big jump in cost if you do so.

With a metal R panel type roof, you attach the metal to the purlins. These can be spread out as far a the wood is rated for. Usually a 2x4 on the flat is good for 4 foot spacing, 2x6 on edge is good for 8 foot and 2x8's are good for 12 foot. I've seen 16 foot spans with 2x12s, but mostly they are done with metal purlins. I'm never going to span more then 8 feet in anything I build, so I'm not familiar with all that's involved with the wider spans. I think your builder going ten feet for his spans is at the max limit of what will work, which I don't like to do. I like to be well under the limits because things tend to fail when maxed out.

If you want to spend more money and go with a hidden seam metal roof, then you have to deck the roof the same as a shingle roof.

Most cost effective is going to be R panel metal roof with an 8 foot span between trusses in my opinion. I prefer to have the trusses resting on the posts.

I like that other website above. Another source for the same type of building. I am going for 24ft wide on the "A" end of the building that the truss would have to span, and 40ft deep. I can put the lift near the large entry door, and the extra space in the rear would be the shop/work area.

 

[aeblank]

My garage is 5-stall and 32x40 with a steel (polebarn) roof. I used steel inside, too--very nice and bright. Anyway, I used traditional wood trusses on 2' centers. Then cathedral trusses on one section of it to fit my lift in. The exterior in that section has a 6/12 pitch and the interior has a 3/12 pitch (everywhere else has a flat ceiling. In my case, the lift bay is actually perpendicular to the building, so the vehicle is parallel to the trusses. Somewhat different, but that's the way I wanted/designed it. I can lift anything up to a full sized truck to full height (despite the 3/12 ceiling pitch). A van, well, I'd need to watch real close and maybe crouch a bit underneath. I don't like vans anyway....... =) I have 9-1/2' sidewalls and 8' tall doors.

 

[flusher]

My shop is a 24x42 ft steel building of pretty conventional design with two 10x10 ft rollup doors and 12 ft wall height.



With 6" concrete floor (4000 psi concrete), cost was $23K in June 2005 when it was built.

If I had to do it again, I'd go with a 40x40 ft steel arch building and a pull through design with 12 ft high x 15 ft wide entrances on each end and sliding barn doors. Cost would have been about the same.

Good luck

 

[truckdiagnostics]

The wall are 10' door is 9' rafters where the lift is, standard 28' truss on the rest. Stick framed on monolithic slab. Can put suburban on almost lift it all the way. Regular car no problem. 24" over hang all the way around. Did it this way, because you can see it from the house and didn't want monstrosity. Also have to heat it.