RV Garage Help

Am I missing anything?

Depending on local codes and the height of the building, you could put loft space inside and have a living area. I participated in such a plan for two brothers building their lake home. They did a good job on designing the living area in the large garage they built. I think the thought was that one brother would end up using the garage as living quarters and the other would migrate to the soon-to-be-built lake home.

Ivylog wrote:

Instead of something left over, what about making it part of your home? I built on sloping ground to a lake and did not want the MH bay to stand out from the rest of the house. By making it 4' lower than the rest of the house and using 12' high walls you would not guess there is a 42' DP inside.

That's a beautiful home and property! Having done a little more research it looks like you can easily convert the barn into a home as long as you pour it right the first time?

I'm game for such an approach so long as local codes do no prohibit anything. There appears to be more to this than originally expected as far as securing loans for land vs land + home and all that.

I do like the idea of keeping everything attached. That way, I can still wake my wife up when I crank the Harley!

As I posted above, my first reaction was a pole barn with clear garage doors on several sides that open in the summer. Something like these which are less expensive than the stacker type doors.


Instead of something left over, what about making it part of your home? I built on sloping ground to a lake and did not want the MH bay to stand out from the rest of the house. By making it 4' lower than the rest of the house and using 12' high walls you would not guess there is a 42' DP inside.


When we can no longer MH the plan is to put a 4' high floor in the forward portion where everything is already 4' higher than needed now... even the electric outlets. Water and sewer are there so adding a bath will not be a problem.


When remolding I'm not sure if I'd put an electric opener on this door or replace with a smaller normal roll up garage door. This door swings easily enough I'd probably use it to start plus it matches the house.

I appreciate all the help and ideas.

Researching some of the points brought up here it looks like a pole barn is an excellent choice. The property will be someplace in the Rockies and that's why I'm trying to get it at least semi-enclosed.

My 5er is 39 ft long, 12'11 tall, and 8 wide. Looks like there's some options for that if I go 30X50X14. The rest can be used as a shop/storage/whatever.

I sent out a few emails about putting a Horton Stack Door on at least one of the sides with the idea of opening that up for the awning and having access to the the outside.

Since I'll be running power to the land, drilling a well, and putting in a septic system for the house (whenever that's built), I can absorb those costs in the beginning along with the barn.

Looks like the roof will be sturdy enough to support solar panels and rain collection system.

Vented ridges can help with condensation/fumes.

Eave and ridge lights can be installed to allow natural light in.

All of that should be able to reduce the "living in a can" feeling while protecting the RV from the winter elements for 1-3 yrs.

Once I move on to the house, the pole barn can be used to store a skid steer, shop, cars, walkers, or converted into whatever. Great asset to have on a property so it's not money lost.

Am I missing anything?

I've seen and been a part of the construction plan the OP intends. It sounds like he may be building the RV garage and maybe the house at his own schedule. It certainly can be done and for some folks, is the only way to accomplish it with the budget available.

As far as living in the 5'er and it parked inside, that is totally doable. It will just take some planning for utilities and local weather conditions will be the task manager for that. There is an indoor RV park in ND that caters to the oilfield crowd. They only rent to pull-behinds and they have the sewer, water, and propane worked out.

Depending on where this RV garage will be erected and local weather conditions, in ground heating is a good solution. Once the boiler, the pipes and water, and the concrete is all heated, it can be the best for a garage/shop. If the building is well insulated, there wouldn't be a need for excessive heating or dealing with condensation in the RV. A couple of electric heaters in the RV and run the in-floor to a moderate temperature, a guy could have the rest of the building for a shop or store materials for house building.

I'm not quite sure I'm exactly following what you're proposing in terms of enclosed and non-enclosed space. However, it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to live in an RV in a fully enclosed building in the wintertime if you have a gas furnace or water heater running. In a house, of course, there's a chimney or other vents for the combustion gasses from such appliances, but you'd be essentially venting your RV to the indoors. This would at the very least lead to a lot of moisture in the air (and condensation in your building), and quite possibly to carbon monoxide accumulation if the combustion isn't perfect.

I wonder how much time and money you'd be saving by building a large barn of some sort but still installing water and sewer and (solar) electric vs. building the house. I guess maybe it depends on how fancy and large a house you're contemplating. Maybe you could build a small camp/house that can later be easily extended or finished off. It seems to me it may be an option to consider if you haven't done so yet.

Growing up, my family lived in a Banner motorhome for several months—I don't remember exactly how long as I was about four years old at the time—while constructing our log home. We moved in to the house by Christmas, barely, and the house was far from finished at the time. Fun, if somewhat vague, memories...probably more fun in memory than in practice, truth be told.

Put garage doors on all three sides of a pole barn. Depending on how much you want to see out when closed, they can have all clear panels.

I found these guys when I was thinking about a similar plan. They let you do the "design" online and get an idea what it takes. Not much extra for side doors.

Hansen Pole Barns

Pick a style and then do "Customize".

I can't vouch for the company, but the website is great for planning.

Normally the pole foundations need to be a little deeper than the 4" or so concrete of the barn floor.

When I built pole barns for Lester buildings the posts had a 3' concrete anchor attached to each post at least 5' underground. The frame of this type of building has to endure wind load and frost movement. The configuration of these steel sided buildings is only limited to your pocket book. I built many with large sliding side doors for equipment access and some of the horse barns can get real fancy. I don't see the need for insulation if you are going to have one side open. Roofs are ventilated and with that much wall open area, insulation of any of it won't do much.

I'd suggest to shop around at some of the bigger builders like Lester, Morton, and Butler to see what they have for plans. I guess you can buy kits from the big-box stores and some independents but I've found that these packages rarely have everything you need to even erect the structure. If you have never built a post and beam building, I'd hire it out, there are just too many "tricks-of-the-trade" to get a good result from a novice.

Doubt you can get one side totally open but sure can get close with
strategically placed doors along the side that you can open to provide open space. Maybe even have doors that open on both sides and match up with rv windows.