Bye, bye storage facility!
We are so excited, our camper ( and us) will have a new home. After years of looking and dreaming, we finally decided to go big or go home. We just bought (closed last night) on 3.5 acres of land only...
Forum Discussion
Why build two garages? How about one, with a 14' tall door for the RV that is 12' wide and a regular 16' wide for the cars. Being 40 - 42' deep, you could park cars in tandem, so 4 will fit.
You also have to be careful in Hurricane areas. Steel might not meet the local building codes, or hold up well to a hurricane. . My sister was thinking about a steel building, but I am not to sure that local zoning would have approved, yet they went with wood construction anyway. It looks more like the house, and price was nearly the same, and her husband can help with wood construction, not the metal stuff.
If I where living in hurricane areas, I would want working shutters on all the windows, so no need to board them up each time there is a hurricane, just shut the shutters, and go!
If you are in a low lying area, it might also be worthwhile to have an extra 12" of dirt under the garage, so that it is much less likely to flood. You will have a somewhat safe place to park your cars if it does flood locally for a short time.
I would recommend 42' long. My buddy has a 40' RV now, and a 42' long garage, with some cabinets in the front. When he had a 35' gas motorhome, he could use them for storage, but now can not open them with the RV in the garage. And it barely fits! He only had space for a 12' wide garage (outside wall to outside wall) and the city would not let him build it wider. So the mirrors nearly hit the inside of the walls. He can not put out his slide - even a little bit!
It is somewhat difficult to back out too, as he can not start to turn until it is nearly out of the garage, and it is about 10' set back from the street, that is about 50' wide. So hopefully you will have more space to line up with the garage entrance! And a big place to turn around before going back out to the street! It is always handy to drive in and also drive out. Backing into the street is not to much fun!
Personally I would get a price for both a metal building and wood one. Probably would also want them to price it with 2X6 walls and a certain percentage to be covered with plywood and screws every 6" to keep it steady in a storm. If at least 60% of the walls are covered with 3/4" plywood, then it will not "Rack" or allow the studs to tilt to one side if the top is pushed by the wind hard in one direction. It is a requirement in earthquake country.
Also current code requires many straps from the roof structure to the walls. Make sure that this is not skipped. There are pictures of roofs getting blown off a house, still intact, and tumbling down the street.
Yes you can find hurricane resistant roll up garage doors. I found some of the size mentioned while looking for standard doors for my project. Hurricane resistant are rated and tested (with a airplane engine blowing on them) at 90 MPH!
Good luck with your project.
Fred.
You also have to be careful in Hurricane areas. Steel might not meet the local building codes, or hold up well to a hurricane. . My sister was thinking about a steel building, but I am not to sure that local zoning would have approved, yet they went with wood construction anyway. It looks more like the house, and price was nearly the same, and her husband can help with wood construction, not the metal stuff.
If I where living in hurricane areas, I would want working shutters on all the windows, so no need to board them up each time there is a hurricane, just shut the shutters, and go!
If you are in a low lying area, it might also be worthwhile to have an extra 12" of dirt under the garage, so that it is much less likely to flood. You will have a somewhat safe place to park your cars if it does flood locally for a short time.
I would recommend 42' long. My buddy has a 40' RV now, and a 42' long garage, with some cabinets in the front. When he had a 35' gas motorhome, he could use them for storage, but now can not open them with the RV in the garage. And it barely fits! He only had space for a 12' wide garage (outside wall to outside wall) and the city would not let him build it wider. So the mirrors nearly hit the inside of the walls. He can not put out his slide - even a little bit!
It is somewhat difficult to back out too, as he can not start to turn until it is nearly out of the garage, and it is about 10' set back from the street, that is about 50' wide. So hopefully you will have more space to line up with the garage entrance! And a big place to turn around before going back out to the street! It is always handy to drive in and also drive out. Backing into the street is not to much fun!
Personally I would get a price for both a metal building and wood one. Probably would also want them to price it with 2X6 walls and a certain percentage to be covered with plywood and screws every 6" to keep it steady in a storm. If at least 60% of the walls are covered with 3/4" plywood, then it will not "Rack" or allow the studs to tilt to one side if the top is pushed by the wind hard in one direction. It is a requirement in earthquake country.
Also current code requires many straps from the roof structure to the walls. Make sure that this is not skipped. There are pictures of roofs getting blown off a house, still intact, and tumbling down the street.
Yes you can find hurricane resistant roll up garage doors. I found some of the size mentioned while looking for standard doors for my project. Hurricane resistant are rated and tested (with a airplane engine blowing on them) at 90 MPH!
Good luck with your project.
Fred.
