Steel Garage- Opinions, Questions

[corsair231]

Guys, looking to get one of these steel garages. I know they may not be as good as stick built but prices are reasonable right now and quality seems to be better than they used to be. The only real advice I have gotten so far is to build it bigger than you think you'll need because you will never have enough room. While I understand the logic of that, real world finances and common sense dictate a garage the size of the superdome is not practical. What I'm looking at is a 24'w x 25'l structure with 9' sides. I am looking for parking for 2 cars (a Regal and a first gen Camaro) and a motorcycle with enough room for a small work area/tool storage and to work on one of the cars at a time. I'm sure there will be some additional things stored in there as well as time goes on ie: a kayak, a couple of bikes, etc. but they will move easy enough to not be a factor.
Anybody that has looked at these buildings knows there are some options that can really influence the price as well such as vertical or horizontal panels and number of doors, etc.

Now the questions:
Will this be enough room?
How thick does the concrete pad need to be for floor jack and jackstand work? Ground freeze is not a problem.
What's the difference with vertical and horizontal construction, benefits?
The two builders I'm looking at are Elephant Structures and Eagle Carports. Anyone have any experience with either?
If I need more room would length or width be more beneficial?
Anything else?

Thanks

 

[TT/Ameasap]

your gonna want more before you even start. Im rebuilding a 24x24 as we speak and it is small for 2 cars. You can work a little up front and that's about it. Couldnt imagine anymore stuff. My other garage is a 24x30 and that would be closer to what you need. Steel building roof and painy outlast anythinh else, so no real maintenance.

 

[BARRACUDA1968]

24X25 Will be tight. If it was already there yeah make it work but since you're starting from scratch go as big as fit's the budget. Can you put doors on the eve side of these buildings or just the ends? If so spend the extra and put doors on the long side of the building. Easier to jockey stuff around and not have to move cars. It requires more doors than one door on the end of the building but that's how my building it set up and I like it. What about a 24x36? Then you could do 2 doors on the eve side and have a dedicated work area off to one end.

 

[charlief1]

Rather than buying what the builder wants why not look at the buildings at the manufacturers location. We bought 2 20x20 car ports and turned them into 1 40x20 extension to the shop we already had. We did the work ourselves so the building cost less than 3K for the whole thing. You can buy them at different heights so you can build it as high as you want. We bought the metal from metal mart and if you look around you should be able to find someone that's able to do the installation for you. Then get hold of the concrete guys and have the floor poured by them. Find an electrician to do the wiring after that and you should be good to go. A 4" thick slab would be what I consider the minimum but a 6" will hold up better in the long run.

If you do it right you should be able to do everything for less than 7K and get more than enough room for what you're looking for.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Last shop was 30 x 40...Was ok, but not great.
12' ceilings if you are considering a lift. 4" floor not enuf for a lift.
Current is 30 x 30'. Had to add a 14 x 24 on the side, just to catch the misc "stuff".
The hse has a 2 car. The shop has a 20 x 30 leanto for the trailer, and misc "stuff".

Bottom line: What the others are saying....You are not going big enuf to begin with.

 

[gsgnnut]

My shop is 24x24 and its was waaaaay too small. My solution was to build a 24x24 carport off one side to handle the over flow and its still too small! So 3 cover it garages and a 16x12 shed later I can handle most of the toys and tools with the basement filled to the gills. Go as big as possible its cheaper in the long run.

 

[regan j]

What has already been said, buy as big as you can afford. It will fill up quickly.
When you pour your concrete floors, put a drain or multiples wherever you want so that if you wash a car you will have a place for the water to go.
You may want to consider putting in a couple of light transmitting panels in the roof or high on the walls if you dont have trees around.
A permanent fan with shutters located as high as possible to move air is also good

 

[DCVING 6]

Just inherited my late father-in-laws shop when we just moved into the new house. It started off as 36x45 which seemed HUGE at first. Well whole back wall turned into 10' high shelfs, 2 old Ford 8n tractors, 1 ton dump truck, lifted 83 cj7, etc it ran out of room quick.
He added on another 16x45 down the side of it as a heated workshop area. The original part is cold storage now.

 

[corsair231]

Thanks guys for everybody who weighed in. My house has a 1 car attached which of course is already full which means any maintenance or repairs I do are done in the driveway. In addition to the extra storage space I'm looking forward to not having to work outside. I was already planning a 12' lean to addition for my mower and "just need to get it out of the weather" stuff. Next size up is a 24' X 30'. After that they go to what they call triple wide structures at 26'. There is a price point jump at that level plus you have to pay to upgrade to the 9' foot wall running the price up even more. Even then the sizes only go up to 30' X 30" until you go to custom designs. And of course the biggest expense increase is not with the size of the building but the flooring. Now I don't have a farm or a lot of acreage to maintain so no tractors or two ton trucks and this will be pretty much a parking structure for my cars. Hopefully most of the work that will go on there will be general maintenance such as oil changes and brakes etc. with the occasional engine pull (after all it is a turbo Regal ).

So maybe a 24' X 30' (and a 12' X 30' lean to on the back side.) A Regal is almost 17' feet long. The Camaro is not quite as big. Would the doors be better on the short end with the extra space in front of the cars or would they be better on the long side with the work space between them or off to one side? One of the benefits to the doors on the long side is if I eventually do put in a lift then the highest part of the car will be in the highest part of the building.

Also, any benefit to having the wall panels vertical as opposed to horizontal other than looks?

 

[87GNSteve]

I was just looking at these today
https://www.versatube.com/building-kits/garages-buildings/