When planning to build a garage so much will go in to this phase of your garage build and in reality it’s probably one of the most important steps in getting your new garage ready for your first project. Building codes vary everywhere from being almost non-existent to extremely restrictive. Before starting any sort of building contact the local authority where you are planning to build so that you know what’s possible.
I made a quick call to my local authority and inquired about what is needed for building a garage on my property and I was pleased that it didn’t require a driveway and only needed to be 10 feet from the property lines. In addition to the property requirements I would need a variety of inspections and a building plan. Seems easy enough.
With the knowledge of the property limits I set out to see what’s possible on my small piece of property, knowing already that building a massive garage wasn’t going to happen. I had to be reasonable especially when it came to the footprint of the garage. I did some testing with my Jeep CJ and some stakes to pretend park in the garage. It didn’t take long to start forming ideas and get a feel of what is possible. Getting a feel for the space really helps with the planning of building a garage .
Planning Garage Dimensions
After some playing around I figured out that a garage 24′ by 30′ was probably going to be the best fit. That size is larger than a standard two car garage and the added depth allows for increased working space. The property is on a gradual hill, knowing that I determined that having the doors face the side would allow the garage to be deeper without having to drive downhill to go in. Also, this would allow for a nice parking apron.
Additions to the Garage: Shed and Porch
Since I decided to put the garage sideways I could fit an addition to the garage that would be a shed to hold yard tools, mowers and non-garage items. This addition would allow a nice porch area on the side of the garage to finish off the look. I had an old shed that was showing its age so it would be removed.
Settling in on the Garage Plan
So now that some of the details are working out I could start putting some of the plan on paper. The whole footprint of the building would be 32′ by 30′. The garage part would be 24′ by 30′, the shed would be 8′ by 14′ and the porch would be 8′ by 16′. In addition to the building a 24′ by 20′ parking apron would be in front of the garage doors. This allows for a nice parking area for vehicles and even a party.
I printed an aerial view of the property and used some pieces of sticky note to mock up the layout. I liked it. All was coming together.
Now that I had a plan for layout it was time to do some more tedious tasks like finding a builder. This phase of planning my garage took several weeks. There are many garage forums out there but my favorite is garagejournal.com, it’s easy to get lost on there and it’s a great place to find garage ideas.
If you haven’t read my dream of building a garage start at the beginning. The Garage Dream