Garages - advice please!

[Ben72Bay]

Evening all!

We’re soon to be having work done on the house and my dream of having a dry double garage of my own might be becoming a reality!!
I’ve spec’d a pit to go in one side, as not enough height for a lift.
My main question is about the garage doors…
I know I want them as wide as possible -
- can you buy custom sizes?
- I think electric roll over?
- I think they’ll need to be higher than average so I can comfortably get the bus in with pop top and front rack.

Plenty of plug points, a work bench and tool cabinets.

Trickle charger plug points - sunk into the floor to minimise trailing cables?

I’d welcome any and all advice and experience of your builds and set ups please!

Thanks
Ben

 

[ozziedog]

Hi there, I’ve read that article and in there somewhere it does mention high water tables. It’s a little more important than that. A high water table during building works ( summer ) will usually mean a much higher water table during the wetter parts of the year and as we all know, that’s most of the time in the U.K. So my advise is, if you’ve got any seeping water in your footings in the summer, then build your garage and forget about a pit. If there’s no seeping water then you’re in with a very high certainty that it’ll be ok. With your roof, don’t go for a standard trussed roof as that will limit your internal height and how far you can jack your bus because of the integral ceiling joists on the trusses. Maybe have your roof designed with a standard truss front and back against the gables for stability and integrity then have the rest of the trusses made with raised ceiling joists like in a house built with a loft conversion from new. A little more expense but minimal in the overall cost..Get your sparks when carcassing to provide your own fuse box in the garage so you can have separate circuits, I.E. one for lights, one for all power points, one separate for the pit so you can separate it if there are ever any water issues and a nice big fat one for any welding done. I’d also look at a small ish solar panel and just use it to charge your batteries in the van and your cordless power tools, it’ll save you a few bob and make you pleased with yourself too, you can always charge with 240 if you’re in a real hurry. Im pretty sure your bus is a bit lowered so I’d make sure there’s a couple of inches of clearance at stock height or more for the bus entry. As far as doors, there’s a million and ten doors ideas and most can be custom made. If you’re having a roller shutter from new, you’ll need twelve to eighteen inches inside for the roll of the door when it’s rolled up which may play havoc with your new fancy roof design because it’s the massive tent of wooden roof structure that holds all the walls together and not the other way around which is why the gables and walls are all strapped with long galvanised straps to the roof wall plates. Don’t even entertain a hipped garage roof if you’ve any intention of doing any more than parking a car and a lawn mower in there, and definitely not if you’re looking for a roller shutter door. With up and over doors, cantilever doors, sectional doors, look out for frame heights that will differ from opened door heights that will differ from opening door heights as they’re operating and also doors opened but with additional bracing for double doors etc.
Id love a pit but my water table has other ideas. Yes that GRP unit will stay waterproof for a long time but the joint between that and the concrete will have water sqidging past it in the first wet season unfortunately.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,there’s a few bits to chew on

 

[Clem]

I know nothing about building, so I'll let Oz guide you but, when I had my garage altered they made the door aperture too big for a regular garage door by mistake .... so I had a roller door fitted and yes, they custom fit them whatever size you want.

 

[Ben72Bay]

@ozziedog and @Clem
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. Really appreciate it.
Certainly a lot to consider but a great problem to have

 

[gas1man]

@ozziedog and @Clem
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. Really appreciate it.
Certainly a lot to consider but a great problem to have

Send a message to StuF on here., he had a ramp installed in his double garage.

J & P

 

[michaelomichael]

When we were making our garage we had to keep the height as low as possible for planning, so didn't have room for an up-and-over door. We ended up just making our own fold-out doors. Worked out ok, we even have almost an inch and a half clearance at the top when we drive the van in!

 

[Benyon]

When we bought our last house I was excited when I saw it had a pit in the garage, even though at the time I didn't have a van. Then once I got the van I never used the pit, my van is stock height tho so I can get under the van on my back easily enough, yes a pit would have made it much easier but two thing stopped me using it. Firstly, and mainly, as Oz mentioned it was always full of water. Ours wasn't tanked, just built with breeze blocks, to be fair I only ever looked in it twice but I have never seen the bottom of the pit as there had been so much water in there. The second reason was it's position, it was dug centrally in the garage so I couldn't park the van in the garage and then use the pit to service the engine, to position the engine over the pit meant having the van half in/out of the garage. I'm not very good at finishing what I start, especially not in the same day so this wasn't practical!

We did however replace the garage doors from a standard up and over to sectional doors to gain maximum headroom through the doorway as we needed about 2.2m (again stock height Dormobile). Initially I thought we'd have to go barn door style but I didn't want the upkeep of wooden doors, I spoke to a garage door installer about roller doors but he recommended sectional doors as roller shutters take a bit of the height away as the rolled up door hangs. However I wasn't looking for height in the garage for lifting the van, my garage roof was a flat roof so I was already limited but the sectional door when open just suits along the bottom of the rafters so only steals around 6-8 inches.

I'm now in your position of considering how to build a garage at our new house but space is my limiting factor here.