Let's Talk About Garages

by "Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
Published 01/02/2017 at 15:00

Tags: garage ; garagelopnik ; construction ; rants ; discussion
STARS: 3

Of course, what we really want are basically small warehouses with lifts, paint booths, etc. But what about residential garages? If you could just start from scratch, how big should a garage be, without drifting off into “ultimate dream garage” territory?

I didn’t mean to hijack mazda616's post , but shop-teacher got me thinking about garage dimensions and I felt the need to make a new post for my ranting.

Many houses come with either a 1- or 2- car garage. But it seems that a lot of those garages barely qualify, and we’re left squeezing out of our cars after parking them in the same place that we store our tools, garden implements, storage tubs, etc.

Everybody’s needs are different, so given enough room on the property, how would you design a standard 1-, 2-, or 3- car garage to accommodate changing cars and changing owners over the years?

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Let’s start with the car itself. Instead of building it around, say, a Miata, let’s build it around what might replace that Miata someday. Generally speaking, cars average 5-6 feet in width. Your bigger trucks with towing mirrors and/or large flatbeds are more like 8-9 feet wide, but those well exceed the residential average, and are more likely to be parked outside or in a barn anyway. So let’s say 6' for a minimum width.

Of course, having room for the car doesn’t cut it. You need to be able to open the doors, duh . Why not have all doors accessible? 3' on both sides should do it (unless you want to get into handicap requirements). Besides, don’t you want this aisle to be wide enough to carry a box or an armful of whatever?

Another reason for a nice 3' aisle is, how much precision are you going to require of yourself for everyday parking? On days when you’re feeling lazy or in a hurry, you still want to be able to manage, so that if you do park a few inches off-center, it won’t screw things up for you.

So we’ve got 6'+3'+3' for one car width. If this is to be a two-car garage, one of those walkways will serve double-duty, so the second car only needs to add another 6'+3'.

But that’s only if the walls are left bare. Which is great if you can dedicate a garage to car storage only, but for our imaginary multipurpose garage space, we have to anticipate putting stuff along those walls. Maybe shelving, maybe ladders and garden tools, maybe toys or crates or whatever...

Most shelving units are either 18" or 24" deep. 18" is a decent size, but 24" would be good for, say, storing a push-mower sideways (they generally max out at 22" cutting width).

So our proposed standard two-car garage’s width consists of 2'+3'+6'+3'+6'+3'+2'. That’s 25' wide! (or 16' for a one-car version) And we haven’t even gotten into length...

Length between vehicles varies even more than width. Some cars can be 15' or less, but today’s Suburban is nearly 19' long. For the sake of discussion I’m just going to throw 20' out there as a round number.

Now, how much room do you need to walk around it? You won’t have big doors opening into the aisle (actually, scratch that; I forgot about hatches), but you still want room to open the hood & trunk.

For the sake of discussion, I’m going to throw 3' out there, just like the aisle measurement.

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And before we reach the back wall, we have to leave some extra room there, say for a workbench and other stuff. But I don’t think 24" is quite enough. Workbenches tend to be closer to 30" deep. 36" makes for a nice big work space, but it’s a bit of a reach when you’re standing there.

In the interest of using round numbers, though, let’s call it 36" anyway (and put a 30" bench there later). That brings our total garage length/depth to 29' (3'+20'+3'+3'), be it a 1- or 2- car setup.

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What compromises does your garage force you to make? How do you make it work, and what changes would you have made if you had been there to oversee construction?

Replies (21)

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
01/02/2017 at 15:00, STARS: 0

My garage is less than 24' deep. So I park as close to the door as I can to leave enough room to walk around the back where my tools are.

This garage has separate overhead doors, with about 3 feet of space between them. So I hug the inner side of the bay when I park to maintain no more than 3' between bays. This helps to leave as much room as possible on the other side of the car. It works, but it’s a bit tighter when the truck is parked inside.

Adding another 5' to this garage during initial construction would have been so easy...

"TheD0k_2many toys 2little time" (thed0ck)
01/02/2017 at 15:01, STARS: 0

4 doors. 2 cars deep.

"djmt1" (djmt1)
01/02/2017 at 15:03, STARS: 0

I’m amazed you managed to find not one but two pieces of media of cars parked in residential garages inside the UK. It’s a very rare phenomenon.

"lone_liberal" (token-liberal)
01/02/2017 at 15:07, STARS: 0

The best one I’ve seen in a normal sized house had the normal 3-car door layout but was extra deep so it could hold 5 cars. It was glorious.

"LOREM IPSUM" (lorem---ipsum)
01/02/2017 at 15:10, STARS: 6

I’ve always wanted to buy a decommissioned fire hall.

Brick construction. Just the right amount of garage space. Plenty of living space in the upstairs loft. Cool brass pole.

Yes. Perfection.

"$kaycog" (skaycog)
01/02/2017 at 15:24, STARS: 0

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I haven’t seen this for a very long time. It’s quite unique.......to say the least.

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
01/02/2017 at 15:27, STARS: 2

Ok so I’m lucky. One of the key selling points of the house that I bought is that it has an honest to goodness three car garage. On top of that the third car part is a drive through, so I could drive into my garage and out into my backyard if I so chose. The trade off to this is that my house is in BFE.

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
01/02/2017 at 15:31, STARS: 1

That looks massively impractical. Neat, though!

“Please keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the porch at all times until the ride comes to a complete stop.”

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
01/02/2017 at 15:34, STARS: 0

That’s really cool! Drive-throughs are not very common, but I imagine they must really come in handy. I could see myself parking a riding lawn mower (or full-size tractor) in that third bay for backyard deployment.

"$kaycog" (skaycog)
01/02/2017 at 15:50, STARS: 1

Imagine sitting on the porch when it goes up. Massively impractical, indeed.

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
01/02/2017 at 15:51, STARS: 2

Ironically my backyard is all rocks, so no need for a mower. My eventual goal is get concrete and pave out from that drive through so I can wash my cars in the back yard. Not in the front like a pleb.

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
01/02/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 1

I have a 1-car garage built in the 80s, so it’s oversized in terms of elbow room to store crap and work on the side but the depth is awful. Modern vehicles would be tight and an old Land Cruiser wouldn’t fit.

Yeah I know some of you have less space to work with, but frankly I don’t care. I never want a garage this small again lol.

"McMike" (mcmike)
01/02/2017 at 16:36, STARS: 1

I have a 1.5 car garage, which is perfect for on car, a fridge, workspace, and a motorcycle.

Because there is no way to fit another car in there, I’m not tempted. If it was a two car garage, I might try to store the Mini in it, and there wouldn’t be room for anything else.

I actually tried to move the Jag up and squeeze the mini behind it right after bringing the Mini home, but I was 3-4" short. If I would have taken off the bumpers, they would have fit.

Mrs McMike once asked me, “How much garage would we need to have before I could park my car in it?”

“Four” I said, “Two to replicate the setup we have now, one for the mini, and you would get #4 unless I needed to work on the Van.”

"Frenchlicker" (frenchlicker)
01/02/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 1

If I buy a place it could have no less than a two and a half car garage. Preferably with enough room in each bay to fit a modern CUV or SUV and the half being to the left or right but also having enough depth to have proper storage area in front of the vehicles without having to shimmy like I’m in tomb raider.

"Birddog" (maintmgt)
01/02/2017 at 16:42, STARS: 1

My buddy back in the Chicago burbs has a garage I would copy if I were to build a garage. It’s 39'x25' with 4 doors, 3 front and one pull thru on the back. 10'ceilings in the north and south bays and 12' in the center bay for the lift. It’s 25 sqft shy of the maximum allowable by the village for his lot.

If all goes as planned I will be breaking ground on a pole barn in early 2018. After years of making due with small garages or no garage at all I’m going with the more is more philosophy. (30x48 with a 12' porch, 8x7 and 16x9 overhead doors and a small clubhouse inside)

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
01/02/2017 at 17:05, STARS: 0

Sounds like a great plan! Do you have to take any special measures against flooding or was that just a freak thing last year?

"Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
01/02/2017 at 17:15, STARS: 0

My garage is decent, just not enough space for three cars even though it’s a three-car garage (the third spot has a sort of shop area hat is built in, which uses a space, although the stairway into the kitchen also takes up quite a bit of it). It’s about the right depth with good space between cars. It could always be bigger and an ideal garage would be big enough for at least three cars, along with some work space, lift, and a drive-through portion. Separate oversized garage doors for each spot would also be ideal.

Ultimately, space is critical and it needs to be used for cars, not storage.

"Birddog" (maintmgt)
01/02/2017 at 18:19, STARS: 1

This will probably be somewhere in Wisconsin actually. I’m having trouble making a deal on this house (guy won’t budge on price) and I wouldn’t be able to build anything new/permanent here either. Flooding is an annual issue too so I’m searching for acreage north of the border.

"MM54" (mm54mk2)
01/02/2017 at 20:13, STARS: 1

My garage is 24x24, it’s just on the cusp of being big enough for parking one car and working on the other. I aspire to build a detached building (32x40 I think) to use as a shop and then just use the attached 24x24 as parking.

My old apartment had 11x19, which meant the crown vic had less then a foot to split between the front and back. Not cool.

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
01/02/2017 at 22:54, STARS: 0

I have dreamt about that as well.

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
01/02/2017 at 22:58, STARS: 1

My 2-car garage is 27' wide x 22' deep. It works, but an extra couple feet depth would be so much better. I’d really love to add a third bay onto it as well, but because of lot setback restrictions it would have to be 15' wide x 20' deep.