When I started my plan of designing a garage I had a general idea of what I wanted. After a considerable amount of research my mind changed several times. New ideas constantly came to me which really helped me hone in on what I wanted. I’ve said this before but garagejournal.com is a great resource for all kinds of garage stuff.
Design Inspiration
I found an endless amount of pole building style garages in my extensive web searching. This one pictured below became a starting point for designing a garage I was going to build.
This one was one of my favorites and you can see as you read on how the look of this garage really followed what I ended up doing. There’s a big sense of satisfaction when you find a design that really just feels right. You know it when it happens.
Roof Style and Pitch
I spent a considerable amount of time looking at the shape of garages. I knew I wanted it to have a standard A style roof with a higher peak, also known as roof pitch. The reasons I chose this style roof are mostly about a look I liked best. Roof pitch is a measurement of the slope of a roof usually represented as a fraction. This fraction translates into the rise (or drop) in the roof over a set distance. Many pole buildings use a standard pitch of 4/12 which translates to 4 foot rise over 12 feet. Often a 4/12 roof is a minimum for a garage but it can vary.
As it turned out I needed to go with a 6/12 roof to accommodate an acceptable pitch for the porch/shed roof section. I could have went with a solid roof over the garage and shed/porch area but I wanted a transition. In addition a solid roof over this area would have called for custom roof trusses resulting in increased cost.
Colors
Early on in my process of designing a garage I wanted to use colors that weren’t classic to pole buildings. It has become a common practice to use bold or non-conventional colors, this was for me. I wanted the garage to be subtle with some darker colors to make it kind of blend in to the background. I decided on grey walls with a black roof. In addition to the black roof the corners, accents and doors would all be black.
Size
I knew early on generally the size of the garage I was going to do. After some test measuring and consideration to the size of the property I settled in on the garage being 24×30 but that wasn’t all. A 24×30 is essentially a large size two car garage with extra room to provide a comfortable working area. Since most of the vehicles I work on are Jeeps they fit well in that space since a Jeep is usually a smaller sized vehicle.
24×30 might seem small by some standards but two small Jeeps fit with plenty of room to work. In addition to the Jeeps my utility trailer has a place to live out of the weather.
Side Porch
Adding a porch to the side of your garage gives you a place to hang out as well as it just looks nice. If you include a door to enter the garage the porch allows you to escape the elements while getting in the door. I knew from the beginning I would include a porch for all the reasons above. The size I worked out is 16×8 which isn’t big but just perfect for my needs.
Originally I was going to paint or cap the exposed poles but I really like the natural wood appearance. I am looking forward to some nice weather to be able to spend some time relaxing here.
Shed
I added a section to the side of the garage I am calling a shed. This 8×14 area is fully enclosed and is intended for non-garage items which is mostly yard items such as mowers, trimmers and various yard tools. In addition to tools this area serves as storage to items that are not garage related such as lawn chairs and tents. Keeping this stuff out of the garage is one of my favorite ideas about this project. No smell of a riding mower to live with in this garage.
The high ceiling which is approximately eight feet on the low side and approximately ten feet on the high side is excellent for shelves and storage.
The shed has a small garage door on the outside allowing easy access to items as well as a regular steel door to the garage area. The shared wall of the shed to the garage is insulated since the shed is not heated.
I placed the air compressor in the shed to keep the noise down in the garage. Another choice that turned out better than expected.
Parking Apron
A final item that is still part of the overall garage design is a parking apron. A parking apron is essentially a driveway right outside of the garage doors. This is a 24×20 slab of concrete with a slight pitch for water runoff. Having an apron gives a nice space to park a vehicle when it’s not inside. Really the apron is so useful for so many purposes I wouldn’t want to be without it.
Working with a Builder
Everything you have read above wasn’t only ideas from my own head. I found a local builder that I really liked, Zawada Enterprises. Zawada posted many of their builds on social media and had a good reputation from some others I have known that have used them. After some initial contact and a visit from them we started working on forming my ideas into a reality.
Conclusion
The process of designing a garage from initial contact wasn’t exactly quick and you can’t expect it to be. Zawada listened to my ideas and really worked with me to get to what I wanted. They were very tolerant with my endless questions about details and in the end I could not have been more satisfied. If you live in eastern PA look them up.