My Garage Plans

Garage Building Cost Calculator Updated

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:42:00 GMT

The garage building cost calculator has been updated again based on current market conditions and further information we got doing some additional research. For most situations you will actually find that the cost per square foot to build a garage has gone down, particularly if you are planning on having a contractor do some or all of the work for you. We still caution you that this is only a rough estimate because everyone's situation will be different. The only real way to get a cost is by getting an estimate from a contractor or by giving your material list to your local building supply store and having them give you a price. Don't forget when getting any estimate from any contractor it is a good idea to get a minimum of 3 bids. The lowest bid doesn't necessarily mean that is the one you should choose, make the decision based on who you feel most comfortable building your new garage for you.

More Downloadable pdf Garage Plans

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:24:00 GMT

Even more downloadable pdf garage plans have been added! Check out these 2 car garage plans:

Downloadable pdf Garage Plans

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:56:00 GMT

pdf Garage Plans

My Garage Plans now has pdf downloadable garage plans! You can now access your garage plans instantly with a downloadable pdf file. Select garage plans are now available as pdf files, the rest will be available as downloadable files in the near future. If you haven't seen the Bristol 2 car garage plans yet, then you're in for a treat. This is one of the most unique set of 2 car garage plans you're going to find anywhere.

Apartment Garage Plans

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:36:00 GMT

Apartment Garage Plans

What to look for in apartment garage plans.
Most apartment garage plans are going to have either one bedroom or two bedrooms. Occasionally you might come across 3 bedroom apartment garage plans, but they are the exception, not the rule. Since they are usually meant as a supplement to an existing home, 1 or 2 extra bedrooms is usually enough to fulfill most peoples needs. Some of the reasons given for having the extra living space are:

private place for older children

living space for elderly parents

growing families

guest rooms

kids returning to the nest

rental apartment

quiet getaway

man cave

Having an apartment with extra living space makes a lot of sense for many families, but they're not for everyone. Make sure your need is really long term and not just needed for a temporary solution. Building a garage with an apartment will add significantly to your overall cost since you will be including finish items that garage plans with no apartment wouldn't need. Apartment garage plans

Top 10 Hints for Building a New Garage

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:07:00 GMT

Garage Building Tips

Take measurements of existing garage building or location where you plan on building your garage
Check local regulations for restrictions on building, architecture, zoning
Take pictures of the area you want to put your garage and the surrounding buildings
Find others that have already gone through a garage building project and learn by their mistakes, check online forums
Interview local garage builders or general contractors to find one you are comfortable with
Ask for references from the garage builders or general contractors you talk with
Look up the garage builder or general contractor online to see if anyone commented on their work
Check out the garage builders and general contractors with your local Better Business Bureau
Read How To Pick A General Contractor for Your Garage Building Project
Read the article series on How to Buy Garage Plans

Free Garage Plans Offers

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:38:00 GMT

Free Garage Plans Offers Online

Free garage plans offers online are

Best Case - extremely hard to find

Worst Case - trickery and shenanigans to lure you into offers for products other than free garage plans

or worse!

We dug into some of the claims for sites offering free garage plans to find out what they are really all about. Read what we found about free garage plans offers so you won't end up wasting your time trying to find something that's not there.

Garage Cost Calculator Update

Tue, 11 May 2010 19:54:00 GMT

Garage Cost Calculator Update

There's nothing like a trip to the local building supply store to get an update on construction material prices for calculating your garage cost. So that's just what we did to see where the prices for garage construction material stand right now. With garage material list in hand, we grabbed prices for everything on the list with a few notable exceptions, but we were able to fill in the gaps with some prices we got off the internet.

In order to get to a reasonable garage building cost we made a few assumptions along the way including:

doing all the construction work yourself

very simple garage plans

buying the concrete but doing the finish work yourself

Everything we priced out to get the garage cost was done using the least expensive material we could find that fit the requirements. But the labor is all yours.

Armed with this information, we made some revisions to the garage cost calculator. What it did in fact was lower the baseline values so the estimated cost of building a garage actually dropped for the true garage do-it-yourselfer planning on doing 100% of the construction work. The upper end of the garage building cost calculator was adjusted to be close to the U.S. Government Census Bureau values for the cost of building a new home in the various regions of the country.

So give it (the garage cost calculator) a try and let us know how it matches up to your experience. Don't forget that it is just another tool to help you figure out your garage cost, but it is not a substitute for getting proposals from garage building contractors.

How To Find Garage Plans Online

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:41:00 GMT

Searching for Garage Plans Online

We just posted an informative video on our YouTube channel giving you some helpful tips on finding garage plans online.

Garage Cost - Garage Building Estimates

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:53:00 GMT

Before you make your final decision on garage plans, you probably want to have an idea of what the garage cost is to build that new garage. This is a common problem for anyone wanting to erect a new garage building. The question about what your garage cost will be is influenced by a number of factors, both labor and material driven.

There are a variety of things to consider when trying to determine your cost to build a garage:

your cost of living

how complex the garage plans are you want

are you paying a garage building contractor or doing it yourself

what size garage plans you have selected

is there an apartment or loft included in your garage plans

Additionally, garage building material prices can change quite a bit depending on seasonal influences and other variables (think the foreign created dry wall mess in Florida a few years ago). How complex are the garage plans you want? There's a significant difference in building a basic single story one car garage with no apartment or loft and building a 4 car garage with a 2 bedroom apartment. In the simple one car garage plans there aren't any fixtures or utility hookups required but for the 4 car apartment garage plans there can be some expensive fixtures plus finishing materials required; toilets, sinks, light fixtures, trim, carpeting, etc. A one size fits all garage building cost estimator is not an easy thing to put together and maintain an accurate value of garage cost for all situations.

Garage building contractors charge differently in nearly every region of the country. Even within the regions the costs can vary dramatically between rural and urban areas and even between garage builders. The research we did on the cost of building a garage did not turn up any reliable values in the U.S. Government statistics, but there is fairly recent data for the cost of building a new home in the different regions of the U.S. Comparing the home building cost data and assuming it is valid for garage cost data isn't perfect, but it at least gives some relative credibility to what we are looking at. The data we used is from the U.S. Census Bureau for home building cost through 2008. In 2008 the average cost per square foot to build a new home was:

South $79.64

Midwest $87.99

Northeast $117.91

West $111.72

The cost of building is lowest in the South so that will be the baseline for our discussion. Compared to the cost of building in the South:

the Midwest is 10% more expensive

the Northeast is 48% more expensive

the West is 40% more expensive

It's pretty easy to see that the region you live in will have a dramatic effect on your garage cost, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. As an example, the cost to build a $20,000 garage in the South would cost you $29,600 in the Northeast. The difference could be even more pronounced if you are building a garage in a rural area versus a city.

Looking at the other data we found on garage cost, the consensus seems to be that a garage should cost somewhere between $34 and $48 per square foot to build. One of the most widely sited values is $35 - $45 per square foot given originally on the Ask The Builder website, but that data is over 10 years old. A lot has changed in the last 10 years. According to the U.S. Government Census data - in the 45 years from 1965-2009 - home building price increases have outpaced the Consumer Price Index in 26 of those years. For the last 10 years here are the housing prices versus the inflation numbers:

Year	Housing Price Index Increase	Consumer Price Index	Difference
2000	4.40%	3.4%	29.4%
2001	5.00%	1.6%	212.5%
2002	2.50%	2.4%	4.2%
2003	5.10%	1.9%	168.4%
2004	8.40%	3.3%	154.5%
2005	7.40%	3.4%	117.6%
2006	6.00%	2.5%	140.0%
2007	0.90%	4.1%	-78.0%
2008	-3.50%	0.1%	-3600.0%
2009	-5.00%	2.7%	-285.2%

In the construction industry it is either feast or famine. In the building boom years of the middle 2000's housing prices easily beat the CPI, but when the housing market crashed in 2007-2008 the Housing Price Index fell dramatically. The cost per square foot to build a home isn't going to be in perfect alignment with the Housing Price Index, and the cost to build a detached garage is not going to be in perfect alignment with the Housing Price Index, but together it gives an overall sense of the relative 'Garage Price Index' (that's a term we just made up).

Here we assume the $34 - $48 per square foot garage cost is a garage without living quarters, apartments, lofts work shops, etc, just your basic garage plans. If your garage plans include any of those items then it is safe to say the garage cost per square foot is going to get close to the cost per square foot to build a house. The more your garage plans look like a house, the closer the garage building cost per square foot will be to that of a house. We also assume in these numbers that a building contractor is doing the garage construction for you. You can save quite a bit on your garage cost if are making this a do-it-yourself (diy) garage project.

Conclusion - If you consider the Southern region of the U.S. as having the the lowest garage building cost, the garage cost to have a contractor put up a garage for you should be between $34/square foot for basic garage plans and $80/square foot for garage plans with an apartment and all of the amenities. At the higher end of the scale is the Northeast, where it should cost you somewhere between $48/square foot and $118/square foot to build a garage. The only way to know for sure is to get real quotes from garage builders, but we hope this information gives you some idea. Always get a minimum of 3 quotes before starting your garage building project! In a future article we'll talk about the impact materials have on the garage cost.

You can use the My Garage Plans garage building cost estimator to give you a rough idea of your garage building cost. The numbers won't be 100% accurate, but if you have a grasp of the variables such as the cost of living in your area, it will at least give you some idea of the price range for your garage building cost.

Planning for Building a Garage

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:51:00 GMT

There are a lot of things to consider when you are building a garage.

Before you start to build a garage take this into account:

how many vehicles?

how large are the vehicles?

do you need utilities run to your garage?

Step Number 1 is to determine if there are any government imposed restrictions.
Step Number 2 in building a garage is determining the size of your garage.
Step Number 3 is to decide if you need living space in your garage.
Step Number 4 in building a garage involves picking an architectural style.

Once you have the basics figured out

any building restrictions

how many vehicle bays you need

extra room for living, working or playing

architectural style

it's time to decide whether you can afford to build the garage of your dreams. Read more about building a garage by clicking here.

New Garage Plans

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:50:00 GMT

New Garage Plans

My Garage Plans by TRC has just released new garage plans on the garage plans ecommerce site. Included in this release are:

Riviera - three car RV garage plans

Monterey - basic one car garage plans

Heltonshire - 3 car apartment garage plans

Halston Bay - 2 car apartment garage plans

Nevada - 2 car loft garage plans

RV garage plans are typically very deep, but the Riviera RV garage plans have a more compact foot print, measuring only 30' in depth to fit on smaller plots of ground. If you have been looking for 2 car garage plans with an apartment, be sure not to miss the Halston Bay 2 car apartment garage plans. The Halston Bay is an absolutely beautiful 2 story garage building with a second floor one bedroom apartment. Included with the Halston Bay garage plans are details on the optional active solar configuration, allowing you to take advantage of nature's power.

The Halston Bay 2 car loft garage plans offer a large storage loft on the second floor of these 2 story garage plans. It measures a very deep 24' to make room for all your parking and storage needs. The Nevada 2 story 2 car garage plans have a compact studio apartment located on the second floor. It may not be large in size, but it packs a full kitchen and a full bathroom into the studio apartment. The Monterey one car garage plans are the perfect replacement plans for existing one car garages that need replacing. Measuring only 14' wide by 22' deep, the Monterey will fit on many existing garage foundations.

Like all of the other garage plans on the My Garage Plans by TRC site, these garage construction plans all include complete material lists at no extra cost.

And ground shipping within the U.S. is still only $1!

Garage Build Cost Estimator

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:49:00 GMT

Garage Build Cost Estimator

You might know that you want garage plans to build a new garage, but you might not have any way of knowing how to determine the cost to build a garage. That is a question that many people thinking about garage building have got. And the answer to the question about garage building cost doesn't have a one size fits all answer.

There are a bunch of variables you need to consider when building a garage including:

the cost of living in your area

how complex the garage plans you picked out are

how much of the garage building work you plan on doing yourself

Plus, the price of building materials can fluctuate pretty significantly depending upon seasonal variations and other influences. It's one thing to build a basic one car garage with no living area and it's totally another thing to build a 3 car garage with a one bedroom apartment. In one case you don't need any fixtures or utility hookups and in the other case you need some expensive fixtures plus finish material such as carpeting, toilets, trim, etc. The point is, it's not an easy thing to come up with an estimating tool that will give an accurate value of garage building cost to fit every circumstance.

Be that as it may, in an attempt to help you out, we developed a garage building cost estimator that will give you a ballpark idea for your garage building cost. The numbers won't be precise, but if you have a good handle on the variables such as the cost of living in your area, it will at least give you some notion of the price range of your cost to build a garage.

Click here to go to the garage build cost estimator.

Garage Plans Online

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:47:00 GMT

There is a Great Selection of Car Garage Plans To Be Found Online

Which Car Garage Plans Are You Looking For?

No matter what style of car garage plans you're looking for, you're going to find what you want online. There are one car garage plans, two car garage plans, three car garage plans, apartment garage plans, two story garage plans, garage plans with workshops, garage plans with hip roofs, garage plans with gambrel roofs that look like barns, and on and on. Just about any type of detached garage plans can be found if you look around a little. Before you start your serious search, make sure you read the series of articles on How To Buy Car Garage Plans.

How To Buy Car Garage Plans - Phase I: Laws and Regulations
How To Buy Car Garage Plans - Phase II: Your Specifications
How To Buy Car Garage Plans - Phase III: Finding Your Plan

Once you have gotten all the information you need from the How To Buy Car Garage Plans articles, go ahead and head online to start your searching. In order to make sure you find the garage plans you want to build the garage you need, make use of one of the search engines and search for exactly the garage plans you want. What we mean by that is put as many descriptive terms in your search phrase as you can think of. That will help you narrow your search much more quickly. For example, if you want a two car garage that has a two bedroom apartment and is only a single story, but also has extra storage space, then try a search phrase like 'two car one story apartment garage plans 2 bedrooms storage'. If that doesn't seem to give you good results then try backing off a little and include fewer criteria in the search phrase. When we tried the search phrase 'two car one story apartment garage plans 2 bedrooms storage' we got marginal results and had to really dig a little before we found some sites that had what we searched for. So play around with your search terms some, add and eliminate characteristics like 'one story' or '2 bedrooms' and maybe try substituting numbers for words and vice-versa, ie '2 car garage plans' and 'two car garage plans'. Generally it's a good idea to avoid very generic search terms such as 'garage plans' because you won't get the results you want and you'll have to go back to the search engine and start over again. In Google you can try adding double quotes around your search terms like "three car garage plans" and that will narrow down the results to just those sites that use that exact phrase somewhere on the site, but you'll have to get a bit lucky finding an exact phrase that the sites may have matching what you are looking for. If you use the double quotes you are also blocking out any synonyms, so use it carefully. For instance, "two car garage plans" will ignore pages where '2 car garage plans' is the primary topic. Another trick you can try in Google is to add a plus sign, +, in front of a search word and it will include only that specific word in the search results.

Example: We tried 'apartment garage plans' and '+apartment garage plans'. The #1 search result for the 1st phrase didn't even show up on the 1st page of the search results for the second phrase. All of the other 1st page results for the 1st phrase did show up on page 1 of the search results for the second search phrase.

2 Car Garage Plans

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:44:00 GMT

Two Car Garage Plans

If you really should build a new garage then you have probably been looking at two car garage plans. Two car garages are a well-liked size, probably explained best by the results of a study done by Experian in 2008 identifying the number of families with 2 cars. In the Experian research paper, they assert that the number of families possessing 1, 2 or 3 automobiles is pretty evenly split. 31% of the families identified in the Experian research paper are two car households. Scores of households are perfectly happy with a two vehicle garage as a reasonable compromise between the benefits it presents compared to the amount of area it takes up and the expense to construct it.

Answering these questions can assist you in picking out the correct two car garage plans for your situation. These questions will help your assessment and give you a good notion of what to look for in your two car garage plans. Inquiries to point you in the appropriate direction:

Do you have dimension limits (ie depth and/or width) for your garage?

Are your cars normal size or bigger?

Are you hoping to have a living area with the garage?

Could you use more area for storing things?

What is your financial plan for constructing a garage?

What distinctive requirements do you have, an RV, a boat, a trailer?

Lacking knowing where to get going you might just go on the net and start hunting around for 2 car garage plans. It makes a bunch more sense to first answer the garage buying questions listed above before you commence your hunt for garage plans. Why fritter away your time searching for something that won't meet your needs when there are so many first-rate choices out there for you to pick from? For further suggestions see the full article about 2 car garage plans.

For some people the best thing to do is hire a General Contractor (GC) to run their project. This is going to be your go-to person for any of the questions you may have beforehand, for the duration of, and subsequent to construction. Having a trustworthy GC can go a ways to solving any troubles that might occur in your project. For more guidelines, look at the full article How To Find and Select a General Contractor for Your Garage Building Project.

Have you thought of where you are going to erect your new garage? Some things to ponder on as you are determining where to construct your garage:

How faraway from the highway or your home do you want to build your garage? Substantial storms can make for hard walking between the garage and the residence.

Is the garage centrally situated where it will be convenient for walking to and from it?

And don't forget about the type of architecture your 2 car garage plans use - matching the architecture of other structures on your land is usually a pretty reasonable plan.

Utilities will need to be run to the new garage, so don't forget them when making your choice!

The plan format you obtain is up to you, but most two car garage plans come as:

Paper prints

Computer Aided Drawing files

Reproducible prints

Files for download that you can print

Frequently, ecommerce internet websites offer all of these drawing types. For most people the paper prints are the best solution. If you need to know more on all of these drawing formats you can scan the comprehensive paper on 2 car garage plans.

Selecting Garage Plans Architectural Styles

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Garage Plans Architectural Styles

When building a detached 1, 2, 3 or 4 car garage, which architectural style should you use? There are several factors to consider when selecting your two car garage plans.

Are there building code restrictions?

Are there homeowners association restrictions?

What architectural style(s) are the other buildings on the property?

How close are you building the garage to other structures?

A good place to start is by using the How To Buy A Garage Plan articles on our Garage Building How To page. There are 3 helpful articles to make your garage building project a little easier.

How To Buy Garage Plans - Phase I: Laws and Regulations
How To Buy Garage Plans - Phase II: Your Specifications
How To Buy Garage Plans - Phase III: Finding Your Plan

These free garage plans articles include handy garage building checklists to help you keep your garage building project organized.

Garage Plans Drawing Format to Use

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:36:00 GMT

Garage Plans Drawing Format

If you are thinking about replacing your garage with a new one, or maybe you want to build a new garage where you didn't have one before, at some point you will have to determine which drawing format you are going to be using. Garage plans usually come in 4 different formats:

Paper prints

CAD files

Reproducible prints

Downloadable files you can print yourself

Which garage plan drawing format is right for you? Let's explore.

Using a General Contrator
If you are using a General Contractor (GC) to build your garage for you, then the drawing format will be pretty much up to whatever the GC wants. A GC should be able to work from any of the available formats though. Most GC's will have the capability to work with CAD files and they may also have a large printer or plotter that is capable of printing CAD or Downloadable files. Since building a garage is probably only a one time event for you, paper prints from the publisher are usually cheaper and will work just fine for your project as long as the GC is OK with them. Learn more about garage plans drawing formats here.

Building it Yourself
If you plan on building the garage yourself then paper prints are the way to go. There are exceptions of course, depending on your situation. The primary advantage to Downloadable Garage Plan files (usually pdf format) is the permanent record they create. CAD Garage Plan files are the only real choice if you are planning on making extensive changes to the garage plans. Both CAD and Downloadable files are also available immediately in most cases, you don't have to wait on mail delivery.

Still not sure which format drawing package to get? Learn more about garage plans here.

Sign of the Times?

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:33:00 GMT

Garage Plans People Want

A quick search through Google revealed a somewhat surprising result for the typical sized garage associated with homes for sale in the U.S. Both of the terms we used in the search phrase were entered as exact searches (enclosed in quotes), meaning we only wanted results that included the words 'home for sale' and 'x car garage' in that order. The results of our extremely unscientific poll showed:

667,000 searches for "home for sale" "1 car garage"

420,000 searches for "home for sale" "2 car garage"

122,000 searches for "home for sale" "3 car garage"

3,750,000 searches for "home for sale" "4 car garage"

587,000 searches for "home for sale" "5 car garage"

403,000 searches for "home for sale" "6 car garage"

149,000 searches for "home for sale" "7 car garage"

These results fly in the face of what we would have expected. Before doing the survey we thought that "3 car garage" would probably dominate. But hold on, "3 car garage" was actually the weakest entry with even fewer searches than "homes for sale" "7 car garage". And who would have thought "4 car garage" would blow away the competition with more than 5 times as many searches as the next closest competitor, another shocker "1 car garage".

Generally we see more online search interest in 2 car and 3 car garage plans than any others, so we assume those are the most popular among the U.S. population. It just goes to show you one more time, don't guess when it comes to the U.S. consumer.

Famous Garages

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:59:00 GMT

Famous Garages

It’s no surprise that the rich and famous are accustomed to having a multitude of vehicles that cost more than most houses, but some of these super-rich superstars have taken their obsession with luxury automobiles to the extreme. And, naturally, they must have an equally extravagant garage to house (or tinker with) their extensive (and expensive) collections. Here’s a quick overview of two of the most outrageously over-the-top garages on the planet:

Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage
Clocking in at a staggering 17,000 square feet (that’s ten 1,700 square foot houses), Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage (as he has so lovingly named it) is probably one of the largest private garages on the planet. It has to be that big in order to keep all of Jay’s autos in tip-top shape – at last count he owned over 50 vintage and exotic cars, and about as many bikes. One quarter of the massive garage is home to a machine shop capable of fabricating parts for Jay’s vintage rides, allowing nearly all of the work to be done in house by Jay and his team of mechanics. And what garage isn’t complete without a gourmet kitchen? That’s right – when Jay isn’t busy getting his hands dirty under the hood of a car he’s busy getting his hands dirty in his state-of-the-art kitchen, right in the comfort of his own garage.

Jerry Seinfeld's Garage
Funny-man Jerry Seinfeld sank more money into his New York garage than some people make in a lifetime – $1.5 million to be exact. An avid Porsche collector, Mr. Seinfeld purchased a building near his home in New York City for a cool $1 million, while renovations cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000. That’s a small price to pay for the ability to house 20 of his most prized automobiles so close to home.

It doesn’t take millions of dollars to make a garage famous, however. There are a couple of very modest garages that played a key role in revolutionizing the modern world.

The Packard Garage
In 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in Packard’s Palo Alto, CA garage. They kicked around several ideas for products to manufacture, and finally settled on an audio oscillator based on Hewlett’s college design. Packard’s wife, Lucile, worked in the kitchen to bake paint onto the sheet metal casings. They were not immediately successful, and actually almost gave up on their dream when an order came in from Walt Disney for 8 audio oscillators. Thus was born one of the most successful and influential businesses of the 20th century.

The Jobs Garage
Another famous garage in the Silicon Valley story is that of the Jobs family. It was here, in Cupertino, CA that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started up Apple Computer. This venture came after a failed attempt by Wozniak and his friend, Bill Fernandez, to introduce the Cream Soda computer which shorted out during a presentation to a reporter. This garage is personally responsible for helping shape the world as we know it today. Thanks Apple. Without you, we may actually still have to get out a phone book to look up the number for Pizza Hut.

Garage Depth for Pickup Truck

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:57:00 GMT

Garage Size For Pickup Trucks

Here's more information on how large you need your garage to be in order to handle your parking and storage needs. In Garage Size we discussed typical vehicle sizes and how they relate to garage planning and building.

This is a real world example of a pickup truck parked in a typically sized 2 car garage. The truck is an early 2000's Dodge Ram Pickup with a quad cab and standard size 6.25' bed (correction, this used to say 8' bed, but that just didn't look right. The bed is really just over 6 feet. The overall length of the truck did not change and is still correct.) It measures almost 19 feet (5.74m) bumper to bumper in length and is just over 6 feet (1.88m) wide. We weren't too concerned about the width in this analysis since most issues with garage size seem to relate to the length of vehicles. Want more information on the specs for your truck? We found what looks to be a pretty good site that has a whole bunch of pickup truck specifications at www.pickuptrucks.com.

The garage in this analysis is a two car plan with interior measurements of 23' (7.01m) deep and 18' 10" (5.74m) wide. In this particular garage the interior walls are finished but that had no practical bearing on the results of our test.

As the pictures show, the truck was parked so there was just enough clearance in the back to allow the overhead door to close with a few inches to spare. To the rear of the garage where the front of the truck is (go figure that one out) there is a 32" (0.81m) wide exterior entry door. There is plenty of room to open the door and manuever around the garage area by the door when it is open. With the rear exterior entry door closed there is quite a bit of room between the truck and the wall. Depending on how you configure your storage, you should have enough room for bikes, lawn mowers, garden tools, toys, etc., with a garage of about this size.

We'll try to do some additional garage size comparisons for you in future stories.

Eco-Friendly Concrete

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:55:00 GMT

Another Green Garage Building Idea

Not surprisingly the number one most consumed substance on Earth is water. You might be a little surprised to learn the second most widely used substance is concrete. That’s right, according to the Pacific Southwest Concrete Alliance the concrete is the second most used material on the planet.

You might think concrete is a responsible choice for the eco-conscious consumer. After all, it is made up of little more than cement, sand, gravel, and water. That sounds like a harmless enough combination, right? Not quite. Cement is extremely energy intensive to produce. It requires incredible amounts of energy, and it also releases a large amount of CO2 (a harmful greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.

Fortunately, there are several “green” alternatives to traditional cement and concrete. Read our article on eco-friendly concrete to learn more.

We hope you can use some of this information with your new garage plans to make your garage building project a little more eco-friendly.

Typical 2 Car Garage Material List

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:55:00 GMT

Two Car Garage Plans Material List

If you are thinking about building a garage yourself or having one built for you, one of the biggest questions on your mind is probably what types and quantities of materials you are going to need. You will have to design the garage yourself, or you can choose from quite a few garage plans online. Either way, you'll need a materials list. Should you decide to do the design yourself, you will need to do some homework to determine the types of building materials available to you today. A trip to your local Home Depot, Lowes, or other material supply store will go a long way to answering most of your questions. There are also a lot of good resources available online to answer your building material questions.

Naturally, we think the best approach is to let a professional designer do the garage plan design for you. There is such a great variety of garage designs available online that we think the biggest challenge you'll face is narrowing down the selections to the garage you actually want. The professional building designer knows just the right materials to use to make sure your garage is built right, including:

weather resistance

correct load bearing requirements

most efficient use of material

At My Garage Plans by TRC, every garage plan includes the material list at no extra cost. Many other garage plans sites will charge you extra for a material list.

A typical material list includes such things as:

2x4's

2x6's

treated lumber

concrete

shingles

nails

windows

overhead door

exterior entry doors

and if your garage plan includes a loft or studio apartment you will also have things like cabinets, sinks, toilets, furnaces and water heaters. To see what a typical material list for a two car garage plan looks like we have included one here - two car garage material list.

Best Time to Build Your Garage

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:53:00 GMT

Garage Building Time

When is the best time of the year to build your new garage? That depends on several factors, of course. The most restrictive part of your garage building effort is probably going to be the concrete that you use for your footings, foundation and parking slab. Concrete has particular curing conditions that will give you optimal results. According to the Portland Cement Association (PCA, www.cement.org, who would know better than an organization with cement in their url?) the best conditions for curing concrete are to keep its temperature between 50 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 10 and 24 degrees Celsius). When the temperature gets too hot the water in the concrete evaporates too quickly causing a poorer quality concrete. If the temperature drops below 50 degrees F during the curing period the hydration process slows down and your concrete stops gaining strength. A proper job of curing your concrete will improve its durability, strength and resistance to temperature extremes. You are also trying to keep the freshly poured concrete from drying out too rapidly. This can be helped by keeping a steady source of water on the concrete as it cures or covering it with plastic to reduce evaporation. The curing period generally takes about 5 to 7 days from the time you pour your concrete.

The PCA also tells us to expect some cracking to occur in the concrete because it does shrink a little as it dries. Expect about 1/16th of an inch shrinkage for every 10 feet of concrete poured. Your concrete contractor will know this and how to compensate for it so your slab doesn't end up looking like a desert lake bed during a drought. When you hear the concrete guys talking about a five sack (or bag) mix, they are talking about how many bags of portland cement are used to make a cubic yard of concrete. The PCA suggests that a good rule of thumb for quality concrete is to make sure your contractor (or you if you're doing it yourself) uses a six bag mix, or six bags of Portland cement per cubic yard of concrete. Other sources recommend a 5 or 5 1/2 sack mix, so it's probably a good idea to consult with your local concrete supplier. A sack of Portland cement (not the pre-mix concrete you might buy at your local Home Depot or Lowes) usually weighs about 94 lbs.

You've no doubt seen finished concrete surfaces that have flaked, or spalled. This can be caused by

freezing and thawing of the concrete

excess water in the mix

finishing before excess surface water is gone

There is a type of Portland cement called air-entrained that contains microscopic air pockets which can reduce the effects of flaking due to the freezing cycle. Other additives can also be added to the concrete mixture to have the same effect. Ask your concrete supplier.

So there you have it, temperature is going to be the driving force behind your garage building schedule. Concrete pouring and curing are the most restrictive elements of the project. For most areas that means you are going to have your best luck with your garage building project during the spring and fall seasons. We'll discuss some other driving forces in your project in future posts.

The Cost of Green Construction

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:52:00 GMT

Building a Green Garage

The question of whether or not "green" construction methods are more costly than traditional construction methods is a hot topic these days. It is a complex subject that can be difficult to quantify since many of the benefits have no dollar value.

If you were to ask just about anybody, they would probably assume that the construction of a green building costs more than a traditional building. They would be right, but they would probably be surprised to find out how little extra it costs to go green. A recent study conducted by consulting firm Davis Langdon and the Urban Green Council showed that the increased cost of certified "green" construction in New York during 2008 was minimal: $440 per square foot compared to $436 per square foot for non-certified buildings. This equates to only a 1% cost increase for green construction! Of course, these cost calculations are for a commercial high-rise in New York, and are most likely far more expensive than the construction costs of your new garage. However, it does help disprove the myth that green construction is unattainably expensive. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) estimates the increased cost between 2% - 5% - still a very minimal amount. In many cases, the initial startup costs are higher, but the overall lifecycle cost to maintain and operate the building is lower due to energy optimizing measures used during construction.

While green construction may have additional monetary costs, it also affords us other savings that are not so easily calculated. For example, if green buildings operate more efficiently, they will burn fewer fossil fuels and ultimately promote cleaner air. And if fewer hazardous chemicals are used in the products we put in our homes, garages and offices (and believe me, they are everywhere - from the paint on our walls, to the finish on our hardwood floors, to the linens on our beds), it will enhance our health and decrease a wide variety of harmful (and potentially painful) side effects. How do we put a price on our safety and wellness? How do we put a price on the safety and wellness of our planet?

Garage Storage Tips

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:51:00 GMT

Garage Storage Tips

Building your new garage is a great way to increase storage space and help get yourself organized. It will be helpful to have a plan for the items you need to store before construction is completed. That way, when it comes time to start storing things, you will not be overwhelmed. Here are some tips to help you organize your new garage:

Make a List - First, you might find it helpful to make a list of all the items you want to store: shovels, lawn mower, snow skis, bikes, work bench, tools...whatever you need a home for!

Save floor space – Hang anything and everything that you can! Shovels, rakes, ladders, weed-eaters, etc. Save the floor space for items that really need it, like lawn mowers, snow blowers and trash cans. It’s a good idea to hang extra hooks for items you may buy in the future or that you have forgotten about. Peg boards work great for hanging lighter weight items such as shovels, weedeaters, hand tools, etc. Hooks for peg boards come in all shapes and sizes to fit just about any storage need. Safety First! Always make sure everything you hang is secure so it doesn’t fall when bumped. Keep hazardous items out of the reach of little children.

Utilize your ceiling joists – Hang special heavy duty hooks from them for bike or ladder storage. If your ceiling joists are exposed, you can also use this space for extra storage by spanning a piece of thick plywood overtop of them (be sure to secure it to the rafters!). An even safer bet is to invest in a steel frame and wire decking system that bolts to the rafters – this will be much more safe and secure. This is a great place to keep things you rarely use or seasonal items, like patio furniture or snow shovels or sleds. Be EXTREMELY careful when storing items and make sure they are secure (tying them down is a good idea), and use care when taking them down!! DO NOT OVERLOAD!!

Build storage shelves wherever you have room – Storage space is essential for good organization! You can make your own shelves from scrap wood or use one of the great new garage storage shelf systems available today. Do some online searching and you can find some very nice storage solutions. One example we know of is the The Garage Design Center.

Store like items together – Whether it be sandpaper or seeds, it is a good idea to get stackable plastic containers with lids and store these items on shelves. Be sure to clearly label them for easy access.

Store frequently used hand tools in an easily accessible location – This will save you a lot of time when you go to find them! Store them on shelves, in cabinets or hang them on a peg board. Storing them at eye level is advisable. There are a variety of types and sizes of peg board hooks, check at your local home supply store for availability.

Buy locking cabinets – A lot of the items that you store in your garage are probably expensive or hazardous, so locking cabinets may be a good solution to provide some extra safety and security.

Store balls in netted bags, in a clean trashcan, or on a shelf – Soccer balls, volleyballs, footballs, bowling balls – they can all be very difficult to store due to their shape and size. A clean trashcan is a good place to keep them, or a netted bag suspended from the ceiling or hanging from a hook on the wall. Another idea is to build a trough for them on the wall (this is simply a shelf with a piece of wood on both ends, and one in front to keep them from rolling off). Store smaller balls (tennis balls, baseballs, golf balls) in a small basket or bucket.

Keep water soluble items off the floor – No matter how hard you try to keep it dry, your garage floor is bound to get wet at some point. Even high humidity can cause condensation on the floor of your garage. Anything that could get damaged from water should be stored off of the floor.

Coming up with good storage solutions will help make the most of your new garage.

If you have any other helpful tips, we would love to hear them! Simply make a comment to this blog and we will try to share your tips with others in a future post. We appreciate your feedback!

History of Garages

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:50:00 GMT

Garage History

A lot of people probably don’t put much thought into the history behind their garage. They have always been a part of our culture, storing our vehicles and various other equipment, so it might come as a bit of a surprise to learn that these additions to the home are a relatively recent development.

The original intent of the garage was simple: to house a new-fangled contraption known as the automobile. Up until the turn of the 20th century, garages were non-existent because they were not yet needed. Instead, people had “carriage houses” where they stored their horse and buggy (the main transportation of the day). As cars started making their way into the American lifestyle, they were initially stored in the carriage house right alongside the horses. This quickly became a problem, seeing as how people’s brand new fancy automobiles smelled like horse manure…and so the garage was born.

The very first garages were similar to the parking garages of today. They were one level structures where people could rent a spot on a monthly basis. This worked well until around 1910 when the number of cars started growing faster than the number of available parking spaces. People began to seek out a more convenient place to store their vehicles, so they turned back to the idea of the carriage house – minus the smelly horses – and thus the garage as we know it today began to take shape. The word “garage” actually comes from the French word garer – which means “to shelter or protect.” And that is exactly what they were meant to do. The first garages were nothing more than simple sheds, with a barn-style double door that opened outward. These doors required a large clear area in front of them in order to fully open, and it was quickly determined that a door that could be housed within the garage itself would be much more efficient. By 1921, the overhead garage door was invented, and just 5 years later automated overhead doors were available for people who had trouble lifting them.

The modern garage tends to be a catch-all place which has many functions – from providing extra storage for seasonal items (sleds, snow shovels, etc.), to functioning as a workshop, to even being an extended living space – but even today, it’s main function is still to shelter and protect some of our most valuable possessions.

Garaging Your Boat

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:49:00 GMT

Garage Size for Boats

Boat Storage Space

No one likes to leave their boat out in the open over the winter, and if you don't have a covered dock your options are limited. One alternative is to store your boat in a garage, and building a garage for just that purpose might be the answer.

Generally, boat trailers are about 2 feet longer than the actual length of a boat. So if you have a 22' boat, the trailer is going to be about 24' in length. We are not going to try to list all of the different brands of boat trailers here, there are far too many and each one will have their own dimensions, so make sure to visit your manufacturer's website for more information. You need to be careful with this measurement, because different boat manufacturers can have different ways of measuring the boat. Be sure to find out if they include the pulpit and the swim platform in the overall measurement if you have either of these items. Unless the pulpit is longer than the front of the trailer and extends past the front end of the trailer, you probably don't need to worry about it for purposes of finding a garage plan to meet your needs. The swim platform on the other hand, could present a problem. If the swim platform is not detachable, make sure to include its length in your overall measurement.

Keep an eye on the width and height of the boat as it sits on the trailer as well. You may need to find a garage plan with a double wide overhead door (16') to accommodate the width of your boat. Some garage plans use an oversized overhead door that measures 8' in height rather than the normal 7', so that might help you out also. If your boat is fairly large you might want to consider a RV garage. RV garages are much deeper than a standard sized garage and they also usually have a nice large overhead door at 12' by 12'.

Here are a few of our garage plans that are more accommodating for storing a boat:

Four Car Garage Plans

Traveller II Garage Plans

Le Mans Garage Plans

Three Car Garage Plans

Traveller Garage Plans

Wayfarer Garage Plans

Cozy Cottage Garage Plans

Encino Garage Plans

Oakfield Garage Plans

Two Car Garage Plans

Wexley Garage Plans

Naperton Garage Plans

Forest Cottage Garage Plans

Flagstaff Garage Plans

Newcastle Garage Plans

Devonshire Garage Plans

Kirkwood Garage Plans

Paxton Garage Plans

Mycastle Garage Plans

Happy Boating (and Garaging)!

Garage Size

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:37:00 GMT

Garage Size - How Much Room Do You Need?

How much room do you need for your new garage? If you are planning on building a new garage or replacing an old one that is ready to fall down, it just makes sense to sit down and take stock of your needs before starting your garage building project. It never seems to fail that we don't have as much room as we thought when it comes to storing all our valuables.

Cars

Trucks

Bicycles

Motorcycles

Lawn Mowers

Snow Blowers

Boats

Trailers

Snow Mobiles

Waverunners

What did I forget? Probably dozens of things. The point is, when picking out your garage plans don't forget to include these things plus anything else you can think of in your list of items to store in your garage. Here are a few measurements you can use as a rule of thumb to help you size your garage.

Typical vehicle sizes (approximate measurements in ft/m):

	Length	Width
Compact car	14.8' / 4.5m	5.7' / 1.7m
Mid-size car	15.8' / 4.8m	5.9' / 1.8m
Full size car	17.2' / 5.2m	6.3' / 1.9m
Compact SUV	14.4' / 4.4m	5.9' / 1.8m
Mid-Size SUV	15.6' / 4.8m	6.2' / 1.9m
Full size SUV	17.3' / 5.3m	6.3' / 1.9m
Compact pickup truck	15.8' / 4.8m	5.8' / 1.8m
Compact pickup truck crew cab	17.0' / 5.2m	5.8' / 1.8m
Mid-size pickup truck	17.8' / 5.4m	6.0' / 1.8m
Mid-size pickup truck crew cab	20.3' / 6.2m	6.5' / 2.0m
Full size pickup truck	19.2' / 5.9m	6.6' / 2.0m
Full size pickup truck crew cab	20.5' / 6.2m	6.6' / 2.0m

Make sure to leave yourself about 3' of space on either side of your car to allow the doors to fully open, a little more for two door cars. Allow yourself about 2 feet on the lengthwise measurement of your car to give yourself some wiggle room when parking. An adult sized bicycle is going to take up about 5-5½ feet if you need to park it lengthwise in the garage.

Look at the How To Buy Garage Plans series of articles to help you with other important decisions.

Next time we'll take a look at the sizes of some other things you might want to park in your garage, such as boats.

Tips on Using the Garage Plans Search Tool

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:33:00 GMT

How to use the Garage Plans by TRC Garage Plans Search Tool

With the garage plans search tool you can search by any combination of the following garage attributes:

Number of Cars
Maximum Width
Maximum Depth
Living Space
Number of Levels
Storage Space
Workshop
RV Storage
Carport
Name of Garage

You can select just one or any combination of the search criteria based on your garage needs. If you have a specific number of stalls you want to have in your garage, pull down the Number of Cars drop-down box and click on 1, 2, 3 or 4. That will restrict your search to one car garage plans, two car garage plans, three car garage plans or four car garage plans respectively. If you don't care how many stalls the garage has just leave the drop-down box alone and don't make a selection.

In some cases you will have a limit on the width or depth of the garage you plan on building. It might be due to the size of the lot you are building on or it might be due to government regulations. Whatever the reason, just pull down the Maximum Width or Maximum Depth pulldown box and select the limited number of feet you have available to build in. The Maximum Width and Maximum Depth pulldown boxes are in increments of 2'. You can select either one of the boxes or both of them. If you don't have any size limitations you can just leave the boxes unselected. For example, say you only have a 30' wide space in which to build your garage. In that case you would select the Maximum Width pull-down box, scroll down to 30' and click that entry in the box. Select any other criteria you want to set then click on the Search button. In another example, if your site limited you to a depth of 39.5', you would select the next lower increment in the Maximum Depth pull-down box, in this case 38'. Select any other criteria you want then click the Search button.

There are three options you can choose from with the Living Space selection drop-down box, None, Apartment and Loft. If you don't care whether the garage plans you search for have living quarters or not, then just leave the drop-down box unselected. In some cases you might choose to leave an apartment area unfinished, or you might choose to finish a loft into an apartment. If that is the case then you should probably leave the box unselected and the search will return you all possible options including both apartments and lofts. Once you have made your selection in the Living Space drop-down box and selected any other applicable options, simply click the Search button and you will get back the garage plans that meet your needs.

You can also search based on the name of the garage. If you have been here before and seen a garage plan you liked, you might remember the name of the garage. Simply type the name of the garage in the Garage Name box and click the Search button. Your results will show up in the search results area under the search criteria box.

Introduction to My Garage Plans

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:28:00 GMT

Hi there! You might be wondering why there is another site online offering garage plans for sale? During an economic meltdown? While we are undergoing one of the biggest re-sets in the housing market ever?

Well we happen to think there is going to be a nice rebound in the housing market over time and things will eventually get back to normal. But still, why another ecommerce site selling garage plans? Not because there aren't some really great plans out there already. Certainly not because the world needs another ecommerce site. No, the reason we are doing this is because we think most of the other sites offering garage plans make you do to much work to find what you are looking for. Why should you have to look through dozens of plans trying to find what you want when it can be narrowed down by setting a few simple criteria. You probably already have a pretty good idea of what you want, the number of stalls in your garage, whether or not you want some extra living space or whether you just need a simple carport. So why spend time having to filter through so many other plans that just don't do it for you? It just doesn't make any sense.

What you will find here is an intuitive site with an easy to use Garage Plans Search Tool that will help you find what you want without the hassle. If we don't have the garage plan you are looking for you will know it in a matter of seconds. An ecommerce site shouldn't be set up to make you suffer through an ordeal just to find out they don't have any garage plans that suit your fancy. Our intention is to add more plans over the coming months so you have a better selection of plans to choose from, but we will never stray from our mission to make your search as simple as possible.

You will also find other useful information to help you with your garage building project, whether or not you choose to buy your garage plan from us. Undertaking a project of this magnitude is going to be time consuming and frustrating at times, so hopefully you will find some things here to make your life easier. Feel free to use whatever you need from our article pages and How To papers. To get started, take a look at the 3 How To Buy Garage Plans articles. There is some great information to help you navigate your way through the morass of building permits and other arcane requirements you will encounter while building your garage.

Welcome to our place, wander around as long as you want and come back often to visit with us again!

Garage-Building-Discussion

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:41:00 GMT

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