I grew up with a one car garage with 8x6 garage door. I think I'm permanently scared from that with my love to work on things and desire to keep my stuff out of the weather. In the past 15 years I have built 3 garage / shops and have learned from each.
1st 28x40 insulated with no heat (yet), 4' frost walls and 2x6 construction. vinyl siding and shingle roof. 2x 9x7 doors and one 9x8. 28' bay depth is my personal minimum, gives you room for a truck with a work bench in front of it or for a nice size boat. the 7' high doors suck, they should have all been 8' tall. 9' wide doors are a minimum for me and can be hard to put a boat or trailer in regularly.
2nd 32x40 insulated with passive FHA heat off house, 4' frost walls and 2x6 construction. vinyl siding and shingle roof. 20x8 door and one 8x8. 32' bay depth gives room for stairs to go upstairs and still have a toolbox in front of a truck. On snowy days we double stack mid size cars in one bay. The 20' wide door is the bomb easy access for everything. After spending a day in the shop with me, a friend went and took out his double garage doors on his garage and put in a 20. the 8x8 door was put in for structural reasons but was easy to see how to work around it when built, I should have cut out the concrete and gone 9 wide.
3rd 60 x 70 insulated with radiant floor heat, 4' frost walls and 2x8 construction. Steel siding and shingle roof. It has a 20 x 14 door that you can drive thru out a 12 x 14 on the 70' length in the N-S direction. It is just so great to drive thru. I wish I had gone with a 2nd 20x14 so I could drive thru on both bays as I always have 2 trucks with trailers on in those base. However, that space is for car lift in the future. On the West face I have a pair of 20x14 doors with removeable center post so I can end up with a 41x14 opening. It is ridiculously cool and really didn't cost that much but unnecessary for most. I originally quoted it 60x60 with 12' high doors and lower ceiling height. I asked about going to 60x70 and raising the ceiling 3.5' for 14' doors. The builder said, "all the cost is in the 4 corners." It was less than 2% increase in cost for 14% increase in sq ft and a bunch more volume. I quoted this in steel, Morton and other building systems. Stick built was much less and I feel a better finished building. Any regular contractor can work on the building. I have plywood on the whole inside, I can hang things anywhere. The radiant is sweet but needs to be run all the time, mine is set at 50 any my wife feels it's ridiculously warm when she walks in. I 2nd putting in the pex if you are considering it. I went a year before finishing the heating system. A friend had put pex in his garage floor 20 years ago but has just been using a FHA furnace. He finished the radiant system after hanging in my barn. I'm a huge fan of spray foam but couldn't figure out how to make the ROI to work in the barn by a long shot. There are other ways to air seal the building for way less and traditional insulation works very well if properly installed.
1st 28x40 insulated with no heat (yet), 4' frost walls and 2x6 construction. vinyl siding and shingle roof. 2x 9x7 doors and one 9x8. 28' bay depth is my personal minimum, gives you room for a truck with a work bench in front of it or for a nice size boat. the 7' high doors suck, they should have all been 8' tall. 9' wide doors are a minimum for me and can be hard to put a boat or trailer in regularly.
2nd 32x40 insulated with passive FHA heat off house, 4' frost walls and 2x6 construction. vinyl siding and shingle roof. 20x8 door and one 8x8. 32' bay depth gives room for stairs to go upstairs and still have a toolbox in front of a truck. On snowy days we double stack mid size cars in one bay. The 20' wide door is the bomb easy access for everything. After spending a day in the shop with me, a friend went and took out his double garage doors on his garage and put in a 20. the 8x8 door was put in for structural reasons but was easy to see how to work around it when built, I should have cut out the concrete and gone 9 wide.
3rd 60 x 70 insulated with radiant floor heat, 4' frost walls and 2x8 construction. Steel siding and shingle roof. It has a 20 x 14 door that you can drive thru out a 12 x 14 on the 70' length in the N-S direction. It is just so great to drive thru. I wish I had gone with a 2nd 20x14 so I could drive thru on both bays as I always have 2 trucks with trailers on in those base. However, that space is for car lift in the future. On the West face I have a pair of 20x14 doors with removeable center post so I can end up with a 41x14 opening. It is ridiculously cool and really didn't cost that much but unnecessary for most. I originally quoted it 60x60 with 12' high doors and lower ceiling height. I asked about going to 60x70 and raising the ceiling 3.5' for 14' doors. The builder said, "all the cost is in the 4 corners." It was less than 2% increase in cost for 14% increase in sq ft and a bunch more volume. I quoted this in steel, Morton and other building systems. Stick built was much less and I feel a better finished building. Any regular contractor can work on the building. I have plywood on the whole inside, I can hang things anywhere. The radiant is sweet but needs to be run all the time, mine is set at 50 any my wife feels it's ridiculously warm when she walks in. I 2nd putting in the pex if you are considering it. I went a year before finishing the heating system. A friend had put pex in his garage floor 20 years ago but has just been using a FHA furnace. He finished the radiant system after hanging in my barn. I'm a huge fan of spray foam but couldn't figure out how to make the ROI to work in the barn by a long shot. There are other ways to air seal the building for way less and traditional insulation works very well if properly installed.
