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RV Garage with loft apartment


jpcoll01

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Wondering if anyone has plans for a garage with apartment? Also looking for things to avoid or ensure I do. There is a similar thread but the OP was looking for a garage with no power. I want the place to look like a garage with sliding barn type door on the back covering the windows and deck access door from the living quarters. Will have regular insulated garage doors front and rear to allow access and to open up the space to the river. How big is big enough to ensure no matter what rig I buy in the future (have a 31' class c now) it will fit. Thanks in advance for any help.

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Its never big enough. :D 14'x12' minimum door size 18' tall for the 14' tall door. I would do a 50'x ??? depends on how many toys you have. I will be limited to a 36' max length if I want to be able to walk around the front of a rig. You loose at least 8" for the wall girts if your going metal. I built a 40x60 and was going to build a 2 story living quarters on one end.We decided we aren't getting any younger so we opted to expand the building and add a single level living quarters in the 40x40 add on.

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Its never big enough. :D 14'x12' minimum door size 18' tall for the 14' tall door. I would do a 50'x ??? depends on how many toys you have. I will be limited to a 36' max length if I want to be able to walk around the front of a rig. You loose at least 8" for the wall girts if your going metal. I built a 40x60 and was going to build a 2 story living quarters on one end.We decided we aren't getting any younger so we opted to expand the building and add a single level living quarters in the 40x40 add on.

Where do you have your building. I have a 40X75 but would like to have double that. In So Cal. But when I build the brandominium, 8000-10000SF min. Just NOT in So Cal. I am a fabricator with lots of tools from being a gearhead and contractor for over 30 years. My thougths are to do something 65'-70' deep X 140' at least. 1 bay dedicated to the RV with a loft apartment on a mezzanine to allow us to spread out when we "home". The rest of the space will be for a garage and then workshop area. Pallet racking for storage. I put my tools into kits for different tasks or type of work. Forklift it down and into the truck for use.

Marcel

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Where do you have your building. I have a 40X75 but would like to have double that. In So Cal. But when I build the brandominium, 8000-10000SF min. Just NOT in So Cal. I am a fabricator with lots of tools from being a gearhead and contractor for over 30 years. My thougths are to do something 65'-70' deep X 140' at least. 1 bay dedicated to the RV with a loft apartment on a mezzanine to allow us to spread out when we "home". The rest of the space will be for a garage and then workshop area. Pallet racking for storage. I put my tools into kits for different tasks or type of work. Forklift it down and into the truck for use.

 

Now that sounds like a place I'd like to have. ;)

 

I built a 35' x 50' building last year on my property to house my 5er and HDT. It has 17' sidewalls, a walk in door, and two 14' wide x 15' tall roll up doors. If I were also going to be living in the building, I would definitely want it to be bigger than this. The 5er and truck and a few other miscellaneous items pretty well fill this space up. Make the doors as big as possible, especially if you don't have a straight approach to them. You want to give yourself as much leeway as possible for entry and exit.

 

My 50' long building is big enough for even the largest of 5ers, or pushers, but if I had a better budget I would have gone bigger. It would have been nice to be able to leave the truck and 5er in line in the building.

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We home-base in an engineered steel building that is 50' X 50' and has an opening of 20' wide by 14' high. It has a 900 sq. ft., two bedroom apartment in the other half with full RV hookups inside of that opening. The other end has a standard 10' garage door.

 

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Get documentation of the height of the first living floor above mean high water. Otherwise, if financed the bank will want flood in$, which is pretty much worthless. Unless of course, you're stupid enough to live below sea level near the water, then you're covered.

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I have a FEMA letter of map amendment for the property which puts it in zone X so no flood insurance required. If the water ever gets to ground level of this location the national guard will be in town because all surrounding towns will be under significant water. I am planning on elevating the living quarters because I don't want to have to worry at all if I am in New Mexico or somewhere in the spring time.

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Kirk, your setup is very similar to what I am thinking of doing. I want it to look like a garage (and hopefully be assessed as a garage for tax purposes) but offer usable living quarters inside which we will use from time to time. 50x50 would work well on my lot I believe. Are there companies that do the engineered steel buildings nationwide or is that a regional thing? I'd just like to get some idea of cost.

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. Are there companies that do the engineered steel buildings nationwide or is that a regional thing? I'd just like to get some idea of cost.

If you do a Google search on engineered steel buildings you will get quite a number of companies. Some are local while others go all over the country. The advantage is that these buildings are designed for the specific lot which they will be constructed and they typically have heavier frame members with fewer of them, but that isn't a hard fact. Ours has a much better warranty than do other types of steel buildings but they also usually cost at least somewhat more. But they also have no interior support beams for even the largest of buildings.

What is the zoning where you are located? Are you part of a community. Is setting up something like yours something that generally can be done in the SW US or are their zoning problems?

Most of rural TX has no zoning at all and this county is that way. We are part of a co-op community that is organized similarly to the Escapee co-op parks but allow construction of permanent homes. In our case we require some provision for an RV on each site but you do not have to own one. The original group when it was organized were all of them members of Escapees and several are former lot owners from one of those co-op parks. Like those parks, we are managed by an elected board of directors. There are a couple of properties that are currently for sale here.

 

I'm not sure how things work in other states but TX is pretty easy for things like zoning. We do have to meet the state & county rules about septic and water systems but that is about the only code a rural property has to deal with here.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Where do you have your building. I have a 40X75 but would like to have double that. In So Cal. But when I build the brandominium, 8000-10000SF min. Just NOT in So Cal. I am a fabricator with lots of tools from being a gearhead and contractor for over 30 years. My thougths are to do something 65'-70' deep X 140' at least. 1 bay dedicated to the RV with a loft apartment on a mezzanine to allow us to spread out when we "home". The rest of the space will be for a garage and then workshop area. Pallet racking for storage. I put my tools into kits for different tasks or type of work. Forklift it down and into the truck for use.

I'm in the high desert, in the unincorporated part of Apple Valley.

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6SoIjpQXE2xY0w1Z1cxQk5aTEN2ZTZCamlTOXVqaUVoV3hN

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6SoIjpQXE2xQzNmX1ZkNFlLNVdBNEp4cTZnYzUtdGkxbUZn

 

Here are a couple rough sketches, I didn't have any way to do 3d so they aren't perfect, but are to scale (i.e. shows how it fits on the lot). Any feedback based on this? Additional info:

Location: KY

Zoning: None

Water: municipal water on site

Sewer: no sewer available

Electric: On site

 

Also looking for info on best ways to build the living quarters so that they can be easily winterized (like an RV, plug in an air compressor or let gravity do the work).

 

Thanks in advance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like the steel best because it is free span inside. It costs more, but is way more useful. Just remember, if in doubt, go bigger. You will always find it too small!!

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I recently built a 35'x50' steel framed building. (Here is a thread I started about it.) My DW didn't want metal siding on the building because it sat too close to the house, so I had the company add extra framing to allow me to put hardy panel siding on it (the same as our house). We then painted the exterior to match the house. I would have liked to have gone bigger in size, but I was somewhat limited by my choice of location on our property. I also was not working with an unlimited budget, so that was a consideration. The 35"x50" clear span with 17' side walls gets pretty small when I have my 5er, HDT, side by side and Jeep all parked inside. There really isn't much space left over. With just the 5er inside, I have a whole empty bay next to it that could be plenty of room for an apartment or loft area. I went 50' long so I could conceivably park any conventional 5er made or any Class A in one of the bays. I bought the building from Steel Factory Mfg. They were easy to deal with and the building was designed and engineered to my specifications. The kit included everything I needed to construct the building (and I mean everything). The only thing the company didn't supply was the siding (because I chose not to use metal siding), the foundation and the electrical. The cost was reasonable (in my opinion based on my shopping around). The kit included stuff I wouldn't have even noticed wasn't there if they hadn't supplied it. This included calk for gutter seams, putty tape for every overlapped roof seem and many other small items I was fully expecting to have to purchase on my own as part of the construction costs. I built the building myself (with help from some friends here and there), so there was no real labor cost. The only things I hired out were the pouring of the concrete and the painting of the building. I had a 6" foundation poured with 2'x2'x3' pier blocks in the foundation where every support girt was bolted to the foundation for support (7 of these). The concrete work cost almost as much as the purchase of the building.

 

If I had it to do over again, I really wouldn't change anything. If I had a bigger budget, I definitely would have gone bigger (maybe 50'x50') to give me a little more moving around (and work) room when everything is parked inside and/or possibly longer (35' or 50'x70') to allow me to park the HDT and 5er in line (freeing up more space in the second bay). I'm happy to share cost info if you are interested, but I'd rather not do that in an open forum. If you are interested you can contact me through PM.

2000 Kenworth T2000 w/ Cummins N14 and autoshift
2017 DRV Mobile Suite 40KSSB4 with factory mods, dealer mods and personal mods - now in the RV graveyard
2022 DRV Full House MX450 with customized floor plan
2018 Polaris RZR Turbo S (fits in the garage)
2016 Smart Car (fits in the garage or gets flat towed behind the DRV when the RZR is in the garage)
My First Solar Install Thread
My Second Solar Install Thread & Photos and Documents Related to the build
My MX450's solar, battery and inverter system - my biggest system yet!

chadheiser.com      West Coast HDT Rally Website

event.png    

AZCACOIDIAKSMNMOMTNENVNMNDOKSDTNTXUTWYxlg.jpg

 

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