Finally building an RV Garage at the house

[ddschuman]

Very excited to say after talking about it for a long time, we finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago on a workshop with attached RV garage. The slab was poured before Christmas and then the weather got crappy. Steel frame erection was started early this week and then weather got crappy again. Hoping framework is finished this next week. We picked out tin colors today :). I am so ready to bring our 5er to the house as it will make it much easier to get ready for a trip and I just really like the idea of it being at home instead of storage lot. It will be completely protected from the elements when not being used (Texas Sun is a biggie) and it will be plugged into 50amp service all the time.
Just felt like sharing my excitement 🙂

[ddschuman]

A little better view.

[ddschuman]

Also wanted to note, the drive into RV Garage will be brought up even with the road. There was a ditch that ran along side of road and a culvert is going to go there so drive will level.

[ddschuman]

I remembered to to a pic earlier but equipment was in the way and they are working. I will try to get a better one later.

[Dayle1]

rockhillmanor wrote:

Look close on the left side of building. The whole top of the wall across the whole side of the building is clear plastic.These are a new type of plastic that are crystal clear just like a window and will not turn yellow.

Yep, lexan, will remain clear, flexible but super tuff, hail and other objects will not break it.

[Dayle1]

ddschuman wrote:


Great idea but we are planning to fully insulate the building. You definitely have me thinking though. Never thought about natural light in the garage. We will have windows in the shop area but it is closed off to the garage. The garage will only have one roll up door and 3 walk thru doors.

My RV garage is fully insulated as well. The lexan panels are about 80 sq. ft. in total area which is about 3% of the total roof/wall area, so not much impact on overall insulation. Is the roll up door insulated? Most are not and that is a bigger impact. Since my door faces west, I went with an insulated sectional door.

[rockhillmanor]

BTW; Those of you building one of these ask around for a builder that builds horse stables.

I wanted natural light in the building and lots of it. The old plastic panels that they used to use let light in but they were not clear and they eventually turned a nasty yellow on the outside.

Look close on the left side of building. The whole top of the wall across the whole side of the building is clear plastic.These are a new type of plastic that are crystal clear just like a window and will not turn yellow.

It was one of the BEST features of the building. It let TONS of light in. Only had to turn the lights on at night.

[rockhillmanor]

.

[Dayle1]

rockhillmanor wrote:
My land was flat also. After the foundation went it there was a slight rise to the concrete floor like in any construction. I even had a second door installed out the back so I could just pull in and pull right out thru the back.

They filled in landscaped and the concrete pad to the building looked flat as did the ribbon to it.

My door had plenty of clearance measured to my MH sitting on flat concrete in the front driveway. But its a math problem slightly raise the front end x amount x height somehow increases exponentially made mine a real looser for me.

And by god it was only an inch+ that prevented the ac unit from clearing the top of the door.

Here's the warm expensive heated home I planned for my RV that she NEVER was able to park in during the cold winters of the North.

Simple solution for the problem, not cheap but the builder should eat the cost. Anyway, re-pour the ramp, have it flat in front of the door for a distance equal to the vehicle length, then the incline. Now the rv will no longer be on an incline at the door.

[lj2654]

We were thinking about a carport for our DP but have decided not to....gonna sell the place and travel in three years. We don't enjoy the work involved taking care of so much anymore. Ready to have the rv and no more. Wish we could do it now.

[JTrac]

rockhillmanor wrote:
My land was flat also. After the foundation went it there was a slight rise to the concrete floor like in any construction. I even had a second door installed out the back so I could just pull in and pull right out thru the back.

They filled in landscaped and the concrete pad to the building looked flat as did the ribbon to it.

My door had plenty of clearance measured to my MH sitting on flat concrete in the front driveway. But its a math problem slightly raise the front end x amount x height somehow increases exponentially made mine a real looser for me.

And by god it was only an inch+ that prevented the ac unit from clearing the top of the door.

Here's the warm expensive heated home I planned for my RV that she NEVER was able to park in during the cold winters of the North.

We were limited in the height of ours by the fact we were scabbing on to the roof of my stick built/bricked shop that was already there so it would look like one building. To meet code we needed at least a 12/4 pitched roof so the best I could squeeze out was a 13 foot tall door. Our 12'6" high motorhome was no problem. When we changed to the Excel 3 years ago I checked and rechecked the height which was listed as 12'8". We ordered it with a bedroom air and when we got it home for the first time that a/c would not let it go inside. The dynamics of the concrete tilt was probably part of the reason, plus the height I had the hitch set, etc. Bottom line was I could not make it work. I did manage to revise the trim above the door and gained about an inch but that still was not enough.

I called Excel and they came up with the solution of putting a lower profile a/c in the bedroom. The one that came with it was a low profile Coleman at 11 1/4" but Coleman had just come out with a lower one at 8 1/4". All I had to pay was the difference between the cost of the 2 units as the taller one was just an a/c and the shorter one was a heat pump. I don't have a lot of room to spare but it fits.

Not sure if it would help you to see if there is a lower profile a/c.

[dave17352]

musicman54 wrote:
post some pictures. you tease us with a new garage and dont post pic that hurts

x2

[jalichty]

Looks like a wonderful building, sorry about the height problem. Any chance you could raise the ramp a bit outside so that you have no tilt up when entering the garage? Or, could you let enough air out of the tires to get inside and then fill them back up until you want to take it out? What a terrible dilemma?

[ddschuman]

rockhillmanor wrote:
My land was flat also. After the foundation went it there was a slight rise to the concrete floor like in any construction. I even had a second door installed out the back so I could just pull in and pull right out thru the back.

They filled in landscaped and the concrete pad to the building looked flat as did the ribbon to it.

My door had plenty of clearance measured to my MH sitting on flat concrete in the front driveway. But its a math problem slightly raise the front end x amount x height somehow increases exponentially made mine a real looser for me.

And by god it was only an inch+ that prevented the ac unit from clearing the top of the door.

Here's the warm expensive heated home I planned for my RV that she NEVER was able to park in during the cold winters of the North.

Wow! That would really suck!!! Nice building though. Is there anyway you can reconstruct to change the door size to be taller?

[rockhillmanor]

My land was flat also. After the foundation went it there was a slight rise to the concrete floor like in any construction. I even had a second door installed out the back so I could just pull in and pull right out thru the back.

They filled in landscaped and the concrete pad to the building looked flat as did the ribbon to it.

My door had plenty of clearance measured to my MH sitting on flat concrete in the front driveway. But its a math problem slightly raise the front end x amount x height somehow increases exponentially made mine a real looser for me.

And by god it was only an inch+ that prevented the ac unit from clearing the top of the door.

Here's the warm expensive heated home I planned for my RV that she NEVER was able to park in during the cold winters of the North.

[ddschuman]

Dayle1 wrote:

We lived in our RV for 3-1/2 months inside the RV garage while getting the house finished. It might have been a lot longer except we had so much assistance with the reconstruction. One thing I did for more light was to add some Lexan side panels on the south and east sides. I didn't want skylights, too much heat during the summer. But since the sidewalls are 15 ft tall, I used 8 ft steel panels at the bottom and the Lexan panels at the top, this gave us light (but no direct view from inside or outside) and security. Most of the time I don't need to turn on the lights in the RV garage or inside the RV while packing or unpacking.

Great idea but we are planning to fully insulate the building. You definitely have me thinking though. Never thought about natural light in the garage. We will have windows in the shop area but it is closed off to the garage. The garage will only have one roll up door and 3 walk thru doors. One walk thru door will enter garage from porch area of shop, one will crossover to shop area and one will open in the back for cross ventilation when needed. The porch area on this building is not really a porch but actually a drive up area to keep from getting wet when raining. It's not very deep (only 15') but is is not intended to be used as a carport but rather a brief spot for loading/unloading groceries and a way to keep rain out of shop when doors are up.