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-Use sound insulating batts, spray closed cell foam and/or staggered walls studs and suspended drywall ceiling on acoustical/resilient channel isolators if it’s sharing walls with bedrooms or other parts of the house that don’t love your bypass at 6am.
All great advice from consolidated. Will add to this section... take this seriously if you run loud cars/equipment that share walls with bedrooms. Ideally try to swing dual 2 x 6" on their own baseplates, Roxul sound isolation batts garage side, standard R35 type batt inside. Garage interior siding lay double 5/8" drywall with GreenGlue acoustic dampener. All studwalls that attach to interior supports use isolation clips. You are looking for mass, double-leaf structure, and large air-gaps to mitigate sound. Think "room within a room" if you will. Builders that complain about doing this just don't understand nor have done it. It's minimal extra work when building new. Consult a home theater crew to contract out their framer/drywall guys as they should be accustomed to it. I went separate garage structure all together.
Ive been giving this a ton of thought as Im tossing around the idea of building a home just to improve my garage situation. We have a 4 car garage with a lift in one of the bays so 5 cars total- not terrible by any means but its not "spectacular". Here are things that I would want if we move ahead with the project:
1- Make the garage bigger than you need. Tandem is fine but give yourself extra room on the sides of the cars so its easy to get in and out. You dont want to be struggling to open doors etc. Plenty of room to work around.
2- Tile the floor- it just looks so clean to have tiled floors. Id go with white tile and white walls. Black also looks killer but its just impossible to keep clean.
3- Put a drain in the floor- if you want to wash your car you can do so (although if you are doing it in the basement, probably not much washing going on)
4- pendulum lights strategically placed above where the cars are so there is plenty of light on the cars to shine them up
5- electrical in the flooring so that you can place your car trickle chargers in the ground without issue. I hate cables running all over the place
6- decide early if you want/need cabinets and again- give yourself plenty of space to open cabinet doors etc. I hate a garage which is so tight that the cabinets are up against the the doors and there just isn't room to move around _this is how my current garage is
7- If possilbe- id put my office in the garage- I dont need much- just a desk and some couches so that you can relax and lounge around. So its sort of a man cave/garage.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I have the same problem. 4 car garage with 1 lift so 5 cars total. Car #6 will be here in about 30 days. Lucky for me, my lot is big enough to put a detached garage in the back. Framing should start sometime this week. The other benefit is less yard to take care of.
Not as big as I wanted, but as big as I could get approved with the city and HOA. 22x38. Will fit 6 cars with two lifts I figure. If it gets really bad, I always have a lot of room in my airplane hangar. Only problem with that is it is 20 minutes away, so I'm betting the cars wouldn't move much if they were there.
I have the same problem. 4 car garage with 1 lift so 5 cars total. Car #6 will be here in about 30 days. Lucky for me, my lot is big enough to put a detached garage in the back. Framing should start sometime this week. The other benefit is less yard to take care of.
Not as big as I wanted, but as big as I could get approved with the city and HOA. 22x38. Will fit 6 cars with two lifts I figure. If it gets really bad, I always have a lot of room in my airplane hangar. Only problem with that is it is 20 minutes away, so I'm betting the cars wouldn't move much if they were there.
that is awesome! I just do t have the space. I looked into doing an elevator and digging out a basement under the house but My builder said no. Not sure if he was just saying it or if it actually isn’t possible.
so Joe- is that possible? Dig out a basement under my garage, cut a hole in the slab and put an elevator in. Feasible or am I just risking the whole foundation of the house?
that is awesome! I just do t have the space. I looked into doing an elevator and digging out a basement under the house but My builder said no. Not sure if he was just saying it or if it actually isn’t possible.
so Joe- is that possible? Dig out a basement under my garage, cut a hole in the slab and put an elevator in. Feasible or am I just risking the whole foundation of the house?
It's possible, but the cost benefit isn't there. Cheaper to buy a warehouse down the street.
Try to make attached garage bigger, as integrated garages are always tight
make sure you have some hot water plumbing in couple of places , salt in our area can be nasty to wash off with cold water
tile is a great idea
I would love to see the finished product as I have been thinking about increasing garage space , but unfortunately I have to move to another house because of lot size
In the process with working with an architect in building our home. Obviously, main concern for me is the garage situation. Looking for a place to put a total about 5-6 cars. Main garage for us a 25x25 detached two-car garage (breezeway into home) w/ 12 foot ceiling to put lifts. Interegrated into the house, is a 4-car tandem garage into the basement. This is my initial concept.
Anyone that went through the process, can you share some do's/don'ts/tips/advice/$hit to avoid with us?
Thanks!
Originally Posted by RLNTL3S
Have not yet gone through this. However, when I do build I would somehow integrate the garage with a hangout / office area. One way is to put up a big piece of glass as a wall, in order to be able to enjoy looking at the cars while they are parked. I know this is not for everyone... Personally, I would love this.
I would assume you have already gone through "My Garage" thread for inspiration. If not, you should.
I went through this process a few years ago and was "falsely" accused of designing the house around the garage so it was important to me as well. You've got some great ideas already and I'll cast a second vote for spending some time at garagejournal.com. Those guys are serious. I think you need to really look at what you want out of your garage. Are you a DIY mechanic or not? Do you see your cars as art and like looking at them? Do you want to be able to hang out in there? If so for how long? Is your climate conducive to hanging out in there without adding climate control? Think about which cars will go in the attached garage and which will go in the detached. I think it's easier to design what you want/need with these kinds of answers in mind.
For me, a garage is purely for car storage because the only DIY I can do is self-serve gas. More important to me was to be able to easily see my cars when I feel like staring at them. I ended up designing a basic 4 car tandem garage but with enough ceiling height to put 6 cars in by adding 2 lifts. To be able to stare at the fun cars, I designed the man cave on the second floor and over the first two parking bays with the entire wall made of glass overlooking the fun side of the garage. The plan is to install 2 lifts in order to get the 5th and 6th cars inside and also raise them so they're more easily seen from the man cave.
1) I echo the need for enough power outlets
2) Work bench space
3) Over insulate everywhere you can
4) Choose a secure Garage Opener. As shown below in bbs993tt photo, the upper right red/black box is his garage door opener. Use only these Liftmaster 3800, 3900, 8500, 8900 series garage door openers for extra security as they are the only ones to have a Track Deadbolt. Most common break in is through the garage by using the emergency release handle (google "60 second break in" videos). Liftmaster counters that and defeats it with a solenoid activated deadbolt bar in the track that stops them. Total system is around $300, cheap, safe and takes up almost no space
Originally Posted by bbs993tt
I went through this process a few years ago and was "falsely" accused of designing the house around the garage so it was important to me as well. You've got some great ideas already and I'll cast a second vote for spending some time at garagejournal.com. Those guys are serious. I think you need to really look at what you want out of your garage. Are you a DIY mechanic or not? Do you see your cars as art and like looking at them? Do you want to be able to hang out in there? If so for how long? Is your climate conducive to hanging out in there without adding climate control? Think about which cars will go in the attached garage and which will go in the detached. I think it's easier to design what you want/need with these kinds of answers in mind.For me, a garage is purely for car storage because the only DIY I can do is self-serve gas. More important to me was to be able to easily see my cars when I feel like staring at them. I ended up designing a basic 4 car tandem garage but with enough ceiling height to put 6 cars in by adding 2 lifts. To be able to stare at the fun cars, I designed the man cave on the second floor and over the first two parking bays with the entire wall made of glass overlooking the fun side of the garage. The plan is to install 2 lifts in order to get the 5th and 6th cars inside and also raise them so they're more easily seen from the man cave.
5) Modern Heat/Cooling. Mini-split Heat Pumps are a great option for cooling/heating your garage when trying to extend the home HVAC to the garage is a violation of codes or fire barriers. They have unusually high efficiency ratings, are quiet and don't take up much room. In Scottsdale, AZ my South facing garage soared to temps above 118F in the summer. After I installed a 30k BTU minisplit heat pump it is pleasant all year round. Never added more than $40 to the Bill and is a quiet unit
It took me a year to plan my garage addition. Then a year fighting with my township. Because of the size I had submitted they were saying it classifies as a 2nd home, because of full bathroom, theatre etc. My home has a oversized 3 car garage with 15’ foot ceilings and they couldn’t fathom why I needed more space.
My lawyer found a loophole and I went even bigger, 58’x 60’, with almost 30’ ceilings to allow a second level loft in the main space. Also, have another den, full bathroom on first floor. 2nd floor has a theatre and game room.
My teenagers prefer hanging out in my garage vs our main home theatre etc.
I have went through so many issues/ideas/plans I could write a book.
Infloor power, full HVAC, lighting, security, plumbing, and tight doors are the most important after useful size.
One thing to remember when looking at architects plans is to look where the dimensions for the garage are measured. A lot of architects do the measurements off the outside of the garage. So in your case the 25x25 might actually be 24x24 by the time you get finished with framing, drywall, and anything extra for the inside dimensions of the garage. The one foot on paper doesn't sound like a big deal but when you get in the garage and park a vehicle that 1 foot can be huge.
Also if you are going to have to fill the area underneath the garage with compacted fill dirt, most local government building code requires you to put rebar reinforced piers down to solid ground and tie the piers into your garage slab with rebar. What I have seen some builders do is to use this space underneath the garage for storage or another room/garage for the house on basement level. To make an unfinished storage room underneath isn't that much more expensive than adding in the dirt and you are going to have to put the concrete piers in anyway so why waste the money filling the space with dirt.
As most mentioned a drain is really a worthwhile addition. What I have seen in some of the newer cars is the new fender liners (isolates road noise) are made with a felt like material that hold more water than the previous liners. This creates a huge puddle in the garage especially in icy/snow conditions. If you don't add a drain at least slope the garage floor slightly towards the garage doors so the water runs out instead of standing in the garage.
Space between each garage door can be a big deal especially if you have kids. My house was built with 2-ft between the garage doors. When my wife and I get home at the same time our doors will still hit each other at full extension. But if we arrive at separate times there is no way the kids can open a car door and hit my car.
Garage door size is important. We have 8' T x 10' W doors. The height of the doors is enough for most SUVs including a Chevy HD 2500 truck with a 3" lift. The width of the doors is the big area to make sure you get. An 8' door is way to narrow for most cars and SUVs now. A 9' door is adequate but it feels tight pulling into the garage. 10' doors and there ins't much of a squeeze felt when pulling in even with a bigger Suburban/Tahoe size vehicle.
As most of mentioned lighting in the garage is very important especially at the ground level. One thing I did in both of my garages was I put at a minimum one 4-lamp 48" T8 LED fixture in between each of the cars and walls. This gives adequate lighting in the areas you will be walking without creating a shadow effect from the car being parked in the garage. I also added the same fixture in the front of the parking spot for the cars. This way if I do raise the hood to look at something or work on the car with the hood raised there is not a shadow created by the hood. I had to specify this with my contractor because most plans or lighting people want to place the fixtures over the top of the cars.
Outlets in the garage are usually overlooked. In both of my garages I had outlets placed every 4' to ensure that I would never have to pull out the long extension cord for any accessory I needed to plug in. The first house I bought only had one outlet in an oversized 2-car garage and I swore I would never do this again.
In the current garages when the electrician wired it I had him put the lighting and the outlets on separate breakers in the electrical box. My reason for this is that if I ever need to throw the breaker for the lighting I can at least plug in a work light or two to be able to do what I need to in the garage. I had to specify this with him though as it wasn't normal practice.
Liftmaster counters that and defeats it with a solenoid activated deadbolt bar in the track that stops them. Total system is around $300, cheap, safe and takes up almost no space
And it sounds cool when it locks!
Forgot to mention to make sure that your garage floor concrete is strong enough for a lift and add a couple of 220 outlets for them.
01-21-2019, 10:56 PM
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