quick question, what is the square foot per car garage example - a 900 square foot garage is considered a ? car garage. is there a certain square footage per car?
1 car garage = 12'x22' minimum = 264 sq. ft. so a 900 would be a two banger (barely). I just built a 20'X22' two banger and it was barely adequate for two small cars after shelving and storage. If you're planning on building a dettatched, I'd go as big as you can posibly afford and lot will accept. A parking lot space is 8-9'X 14'. A general mall parking space has to be 8'X 16' minimum by code for spaces not adjoinin ADA spaces, 9' for adjoining spaces with a 5' lee-way. Wallmart uses 9' wide spaces because of the space needed for walmartian error :lol:. So, you can visualize the space a car can take up. add 50% for a truck/van, so 12'X 21' per truck to allow space for wrangling cargo. As with a tool trailer, 5'X8' is nice, but it'll always fill up too fast. hell, if I had a 8'X40' trailer, it'd fill up too fast. It's a shit ton cheaper to overbuild now, than to add on later. I generally advise people to build as big as zoning will allow and their pocketbook will allow.
Well i'm building a 26x21 pole building right now, as big as the town will allow, i'm going to add onto it later without permit. I want to build an attached garage (well I wanted to build a detached garage but they won't let me). Where I want to build my attached garage requires an addition to a house so its going to take a few years. Also where I want the attached garage is to close to a flood plain so i'm going to have to get a variance and prove hardship which I think I can do. I just am kind of looking through old hearings and seeing what they are allowing people to build. I only want to have to do it once since it costs 600$ to do.
The appraisers that I know would call a 900 sq. ft. garage a 3 car garage, 400+ as a 2 car garage and anything below as 1.
4. Zoning goes soley off of FEMA records. In my case those records were made in the 50's. Check with your zoning people and look up the elevations on your property. I had to proove that FEMA was wrong on the maps. It cost me 725 for the surveyor and mapping, then 300 just to hand the certificate to the county so they'd update the FEMA records. yeah, FEMA.....of katrina fame. Turned out I was 24" above the floodfringe and not in the floodway at all. By doing so, it also provided a base elevation to both my place and my mom's place which was recorded as having the floodway right up to her back door. So, we got two records corrected for the $1025. But still, the US government should not be so freaking fucked up.
That sux, probably would not hurt to go with 3'X4' concrete in those post holes then. The survivability in case of flood would be a lot better. We set them in 1 cu.yd. piles, just to be safe.
Well the pole barn is going to be in the back yard, which is about 18' higher than the flood plain. So that is not going to be a problem, except the size limitation (550 sq feet those fuckers!) I've got 2 of the 3 required permits for that one. The third, the local inspector already gave it his blessing, I just have to wait for the paper work to be sent over from the county. Fucking government. The flood plain is just in a small corner of the property. and the elevations change so aggressively in it's not really a problem except that corner. Although I want to put a 24x20' addition to the house and an 30x45' attached garage (attached now because the town pricks only allow up to 550 sq feet for an accessory building). which will go off into that corner. I really don't think it I will have any problem with flooding as its a garage and how its going to be laid out, the floor of the garage will be 5' below the first floor of my house. But none the less, the town code is it has to be 75' away from a flood plain (50' if it's more than 3' above') and the way i have it laid out not it will end up being 35' away. So now, even though it meets road setback and property line offset, I can't put it there. I now have to go for a variance, which costs 600$ and I have to prove not having a garage provides a hardship. Which I don't think will be a problem, its just a big expensive hassle. and the "Flood Plain" really isn't even a flood plain, its just a low area that collects water after the spring melt/heavy rain. And the reason it does that is there is piss poor drainage in the neighborhood. No drainage ditches at the end of the street, no culverts under the driveways/roads. If the lake ever rose that high, we would have a lot more problems than just my garage floor getting wet!
The flood statutes are nothing compared to the 'wetlands' provisions. You need to be carefull who you tell that water collects there......no, seriously. The federal wetlands protection act can even force people out of their homes. It's a fucked set of laws.
Just a thought.... Can your detached garage be considered attached if you have a breezeway connecting them ?
