| I am building a new home and am almost done with a detached nine car garage (three car garage attached to house): Some elements built into the new garage:
1. Floor space for 6 cars and 10 M/Cs
2. 14" ceilings
3. Three Bend Pack car lifts
Two drive on for space saving
One asymmetrical side arm lift for truck storage and wheel work.
4.10x14 shop with split A/C heat pump-9 foot ceiling in shop
double doors into shop for M/Cs
5. Polished and sealed 5000psi concrete floors-easy to clean and very hard to stain-creeper rolls easy.
6. Double the amount of ceiling mounted 8' florescent light fixtures-I am getting old and my eyes need it. Three LED cans installed on ceiling so I can get to/from shop without turning on florescent fixtures (short on/off of florescents kills them very quick)
7. A 14" sola tube for natural lighting
8. A steel I-beam running fore-aft with a power trolley/hoist sized for 1.5 tons.
9. 5 ft. dead storage above garage shop 150psft shop ceiling to handle storage
10. 5 20A 115v circuits for outlets with outlets wired 12345; 12345; rather than 11111, 22222, 33333 (lets you run a lot of power out of adjoining outlets without popping a breaker). Hospital grade duplex outlets-I hate cheap outlets. 1/4 of outlets are L5-20 twist lock (I hate to have plugs pull out)
11. GFCIs on circuit breakers NOT on outlets-pop a GFI and you KNOW where to look (the breaker box).
12. two 240v 1 ph outlets on each wall (plus 220v on ceiling for lifts.
14. 240v compressor with hard piped outlets to shop and all four walls.
15. minimum small windows for security (HOA required some windows)(should have used frosted glass for security)
16. 4 9ft tall garage doors-three on front-one on side-for MC drive through-wall mounted door lifts so floor lifts can operate
17. insulated, drywalled, and painted (white) so I can see stuff.
18. a kick-out escape hatch on the back of the garage in case of fire.
19. 3000cfm upblast exhaust fan for garage venting (because I had an extra one from the house kitchen).
20. SOTA security and surveillance system.
21. Ceiling (other than above car lifts) lined with hanging hooks every 2' to hang stuff from the ceiling
22. Last minute addition of a lolly column in the middle of the garage (building inspector disagreed with our structural engineer and 24" deep gluelam beam spanning the garage)-did add 8 outlets to the column 6 ft high-quite convenient. SOME THINGS THAT I THOUGHT ABOUT BUT COULD NOT INSTALL. A. water (other than freeze free hose bib). Impossible to install because of freeze threat-building on granite rock. Impossible to do sewage as required by code. B. Loading dock height door-site simply did not have the elevation necessary on the site-hoist on I beam will have to do. C. 3ph power- unbelievably expensive-can install roto-converter if necessary. D. Sprinkler system-see water problem E. underground used oil/solvent tank-granite made impossible-also; modern codes make underground storage of high VOCs impossibly expensive and subject to constant inspections. F. Separate sealed room for bead/sand blasting and painting (with filtered air cross flow ventilation). Might do it as an add on. Some thoughts on garage: i. Design and use the vertical-floor space is precious and expensive-use space above shop for storage/compressor-build for high lbs/sq ft (cheap at design stage
ii. built in lighting can never be bright enough-long tube florescents provide shadow free light.
iii. spend money on the floor-high psi concrete; flex additive in mix (minimize cracking); polished and sealed for low maintenance. M/C side and center stands are hard on concrete floors. Garage in Southwest US so dirt dust is a major issue keeping floor clean.
iv. Asymmetrical car lifts aren't as handy as drive on lifts but allow for wheel work.
v. spay foam is great insulation but is g-d awful expensive. I am using fiberglass batts and insulated garage doors. Garage in Southwest so high mass of the garage leaves an average temp that is quite tolerable summer and winter.
vi. in the next several years LED lighting is going to revolutionize residential lighting and lower electrical costs. My install is just on the wrong side of this trend and the current electrical codes do not expect LED task or ambient lighting.
vii. designed in safety and security are inexpensive.
viii. designed in I beam and hoist is inexpensive as it can do double duty as roof support and hoist trolley run (adding extra steel to factor in a ton or so of hoist load is cheap and install labor is the same-you need to hire a crane anyway). Have a structural engineer certify your hoist lift limits.
ix. windows are better known as burglar entry points. Sola tubes provide great natural light without the security problems. Good luck
|
