Garage design

[countrybumpkin]

40 x 80

The first 30 foot is the shop area (30 x 40) the remaining 40 x 50 is cold storage parking. I will mainly use it to work on my cars and fab what ever I think I just gotta have from tractors to race cars.

 

[jim_wilson]

Seriously - I don't know why people insist on using trusses for everything. They're a serious waste of usable space within the building envelope.

When I look at the pictures of the barns built with trusses my head starts going thru a calculation of how many square feet of potentially usable space was wasted by using a truss system.

This barn is 28ft x 42ft. The front half (with the garage doors) - has 9ft ceilings - and then a whole 2nd floor room over those two bays with 8ft ceilings. Above that room is ATTIC SPACE - with about a 4 1/2 feet of headroom.

On the back half - there is a garage bay widthwise - with a 15ft ceiling. There is also walk around attic space across the back half - with a 6 1/2 ft ceiling. The rear garage bay is under where you see the skylight - in the very rear there is a mezzanine type structure that is 7ft wide for storage.

Pretty much every square foot of the internal building envelope is usable space. Building roof protected space is expensive. You might as well get as much of it as you can for your money.

The structure is 2x6 walls - with 2x12 roof rafters - they're tied together with 2x12's going cross ways - acting as the attic floor. It's basically a truss design - but it allows for the space to be used - unlike these truss designs using smaller sized lumber.

 

[Jim Timber]

I agree about the trusses. At least do a gambrel or something that gives you some added storage.

I really like the timber frame, myself. It might cost more for the raw materials, but it uses less wood in the end and you don't need to have a crane to put them up.

 

[ovrszd]

Jim,

That's a beautiful building for sure!!!! If I had that, I'd never go in the house!!!!

In regards to the use of trusses. Understand that 95% of the posters on here are building a shop without the potential of living quarters or storage quarters above. So for them, it's economical to use trusses and flatten out the roof. I'm sure there's a design criteria to determine which method is most economical, and I'm sure that's way above my ability to sort out.

So, assuming all I want/need is a shop. And assuming I want a 28x42 such as yours. What's the economical feasible way to design it and build it??

How many dollars per square foot, using the 28x42 floorplan, did your building cost??

As a comparison, I have a 42x50 single story building that cost me $19.50 per square foot, completely finished and well insulated, heated, lighted with concrete floor.

Not picking on you. Just understand that there is a huge variety of needs and uses involved in shop buildings.

 

[Jim Timber]

Richard, I don't think you can compare prices from MA to MO and come out with meaningful conclusions. Concrete costs have a lot to do with how far from the plant you are, so what might be $75/yd in one area could be $120 in another. Building materials are also location dependent as shipping them regionally adds cost as does the area of the country for taxes and cost of living.

Lastly, the labor portion is another big variable here. What one guy hires out or does themselves is going to be different from project to project.

 

[ovrszd]

Richard, I don't think you can compare prices from MA to MO and come out with meaningful conclusions. Concrete costs have a lot to do with how far from the plant you are, so what might be $75/yd in one area could be $120 in another. Building materials are also location dependent as shipping them regionally adds cost as does the area of the country for taxes and cost of living.

Lastly, the labor portion is another big variable here. What one guy hires out or does themselves is going to be different from project to project.

Oh yeah, I totally agree and understand those variables. But most readers could take that into consideration when looking at the numbers.

As for concrete, it was 20% of the cost of my building. Even $50 per yard difference in cost would be pretty small when compared to the entire building cost.

Building material variations might be significant if you live in a rural area. But then, you'll get a lot of that cost back because your hired labor costs will be cheaper. In regards to Jim Wilson's building, most readers of this thread do not have the technical ability to build it themselves. So that design would add considerable cost in material and labor. It's an awesome building. But I would never call it a garage or shop or barn. It's much more than that.

I think in the end, unless you live in an extreme area, the costs will be similar p/sq ft for a similar building.

Very interesting to see/hear other's thoughts and designs.

 

[jim_wilson]

Jim,

That's a beautiful building for sure!!!! If I had that, I'd never go in the house!!!!

In regards to the use of trusses. Understand that 95% of the posters on here are building a shop without the potential of living quarters or storage quarters above. So for them, it's economical to use trusses and flatten out the roof. I'm sure there's a design criteria to determine which method is most economical, and I'm sure that's way above my ability to sort out.

So, assuming all I want/need is a shop. And assuming I want a 28x42 such as yours. What's the economical feasible way to design it and build it??

How many dollars per square foot, using the 28x42 floorplan, did your building cost??

As a comparison, I have a 42x50 single story building that cost me $19.50 per square foot, completely finished and well insulated, heated, lighted with concrete floor.

Not picking on you. Just understand that there is a huge variety of needs and uses involved in shop buildings.

I'd really have to sit down and figure out what the building cost me to build - because to be honest, I didn't really track the costs all that carefully.

One of the design parameters was also to basically keep the wife happy. That's a good part of the reason why it looks the way it does. The architectural design keeps both my wife happy - and also the neighbor's wives. If I had just thrown up a metal building I'm pretty sure people would be bitching about it endlessly. So instead of getting " that building is ugly" responses from people - I get " I love that barn" type responses from people.

But a similar sized structure could be put up that looks a lot less "fancy" than mine - without the use of prefabbed trusses - using stick framing - and you'd get the benefit of all the usable space inside the building.

 

[ovrszd]

I'd really have to sit down and figure out what the building cost me to build - because to be honest, I didn't really track the costs all that carefully.

One of the design parameters was also to basically keep the wife happy. That's a good part of the reason why it looks the way it does. The architectural design keeps both my wife happy - and also the neighbor's wives. If I had just thrown up a metal building I'm pretty sure people would be bitching about it endlessly. So instead of getting " that building is ugly" responses from people - I get " I love that barn" type responses from people.

But a similar sized structure could be put up that looks a lot less "fancy" than mine - without the use of prefabbed trusses - using stick framing - and you'd get the benefit of all the usable space inside the building.

Not even gonna make a guess??

I'll go with $95K.

No response required. No offense intended.

 

[murphy1244]

Jim, That is one gorgeous building. Can't wait till I see the finished insides.

 

[jim_wilson]

Not even gonna make a guess??

I'll go with $95K.

No response required. No offense intended.

Basically I only have cost of materials into it. The only labor I paid for was getting the foundation put in and having the concrete floor poured. Other than that I pretty much did all of the work myself.

I don't think I'm at $95k - but it could be $60-$75k.

I'll try to take a few pictures of the inside to demonstrate what I mean by "usable space" - and why I don't like trusses.