Garage dimensions for boats, etc.
Hudson Valley Carpenter
| Posted in General Discussion on
I’m working on a design for a duplex I intend to build in rural NY State. I’ve been mulling over what kind of garage would be attractive to upscale renters.
There are several bodies of water in the general area where boating is big. Anyone have suggestions about what kind of space would work well for a weekend boater?
I’m thinking about 20′ wide by 24′ deep with an 18’X8′ door. Car on one side and boat on the other, tow vehicle outside, in front of the boat. Inside space in front of car to be used for motorcyles, bikes, etc.
What about other big recreational stuff?
Replies
My garage is 24 wide x 26 long.
My 17 foot boat with trailer fits, but I would rather have a couple extra feet longer and a couple feet wider. You'll also need a work bench, refridgerator, TV, etc ... no room for a car.
Scott
What size is/are the door(s)? How long is the boat/trailer combined? How high and how wide?
I'm thinking that an 8' wide boat will take ~10' in width, from the door opening to the center of the garage. With an 18' door, that theoretically leaves room for a car or truck.
It seems that every new house has at least a 3 car garage. I would make the garaqge at least 28' deep if you want to rent to people that want to have their boats in their garage.
Most people with boats ar leaving them at the marina's and covering with shrink wrap for the winter.
A center console w/ a tee top, radar, etc could need a 12' tall openinghttp://www.tvwsolar.com
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And she began to shout,
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He can move you from the rear,
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The conclusion around here is that the upscale folks always need a bigger boat so a garage is never big enough.
The garage is for cars and the boathouse is for boats. Get too big a boat and have it stored at the boatyard or marina.
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The conclusion around here is that the upscale folks always need a bigger boat so a garage is never big enough.
The garage is for cars and the boathouse is for boats. Get too big a boat and have it stored at the boatyard or marina.
I appreciate how boat sizes can easily become too big for any attached garage.
Because of the numerous fresh water lakes and rivers available, in all directions, I anticipate that many enthusiasts would prefer to trailer their boat for the day or the weekend. Except for the Hudson river, there are no marinas so trailering is necessary.
I believe that most boat owners in the area trailer for each trip but it looks like I need to investigate boating in my area, to arrive at a better idea about the garage.
My brother in WNY and others who live in areas like you describe that I know of all park the trailed boat alongside the garage with the cover on. I just honestly never knew of a boat being kept in the garage, except to back it in to work on sometimes.
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You need to get out more. :-)
A 21 foot outboard powered boat on a trailer just fits into a 24' deep garage. I hid the boat bay kind of behind the car bays as it runs perpendicular to them. 14' wide really is a little to tight. I also installed a 10X14 door because the tee top and radar dome are up there too. I did only need a 12 footer but what's another 2 feet? If I was going to do it again I'd build the boat bay 16W X 26 or 28 D keeping the 10X14 door.
For the non boaters, a boat in the garage saves an awful lot of wear and tear from the sun and keeps the bird ####, dirt, and black streaks off of it. It also allows you to work on spring conditioning while others are still in shrink wrap or the weather is just lousy. I also don't need to worry about water getting into any of the pumps, plumbing, bilge, fishboxes, ect. and freezing. I'm waxing mine when the nasty black flys are outside. This year will be the first I need to renew my teak work in 6 years. For the every other weekend boater I can see the benefit if they don't have a self bailing cockpit. Most pleasure boaters are using I/O power with vinyl trims. These boats typically don't self bail and the trim takes a beating. It's very expensive to replace.
If I was out any farther, I'd be IN a boat!;)
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At least 28 deep, and 26 wide.
Mike
I figure an 18' wide door would handle most any both that you could haul down the road.
But I don't think 8' tall would cut it. More like 9' minimum, or maybe 10'.
Don't forget that the tongue of the trailer takes up a lot of length.
go to a local dealer and measure some- the tongue and the motor foot stick out more than u think
Unless the rules have changed in the couple of years an easily trailerable (without special permits, etc) boat and trailer is limited 8 ft wide.
For length there is boat lenght and storage length. You need room for the motor or outdrive, which hangs over the back of the trailer, and the trailer tongue.
20 ft wide is too narrow. Mine is 24 with an 18 ft door.
That gives me about 18" on each side of the door.
When I put my boat in put it in at a slight angle and then work it by hand to get over toward the far wall.
And even with that I can't get room for full opening of doors on both sides. I had a Voyager van at the time. Since then the garage is too full to barely get my just my Ranger in.
And during the summer the boat lived on a lift in the water. So it was just once a year in and out.
Way to tight for something that would be used for regular in and out.
I don't know how much room that you have, but I would suggest a 12 ft door for the boat and you have enough room on one side bikes, motorcycles, wave runner, law mowers and the like.
And maybe a 10 ft for a car side. And you probably want 18" on each outside and 18 to 30 between the 2 doors.
Because you still have sports equipement and shovels and all of the other junk that ends up in a garage.
Now my garage is only 20 (maybe 21 ft deep), but I have an alcove on one side that is 24 ft deep. When I put the boat in the garage the rear of the boat was about in 12" from the alcove corner and the outdrive hung into the alcove space.
It is an 18 ft boat and the trailer has a detachable tongue. The bow of the boat clears the door about 18".
I think that a 24 deep garage would hold an 18 ft boat with standard trailer. But you might want 26 or 28 to handle 20-24 ft boats.
One thing is to see what size boats are common in your area and that are stored at home and not at a marina or boat yard.
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Bill,
Thanks for all the useful information and for sharing your experience. I agree that I need to do more local research on boat sizes and the types of recreation they're currently used for.
It used to be that a 14' aluminum fishing boat was pretty standard for us locals but the economy of the area has changed over the last twenty years, more money moving in.
I haven't been fishing or boating for many years so I do need to get better acquainted with current trends in local recreation.
Thanks to all for the helpful information and thoughts. Of course it would be ideal to build a separate shed or barn for larger recreational vehicles, with a big door or doors. But the site has limitations and so does the budget.
Also, I don't want to build an attached garage that will only appeal to people with big toys, so the size and scale has to fit.
I'm thinking a garage with an overhead door on both ends so the upscale renters who can't back up a trailer can simply drive in one end, unhitch the boat, and drive out the other side without jack-knifing the trailer through the side of the garage. You can advertise it as a "trailer friendly garage". Pretty soon, everyone will want one!
I used to carry my motorcycle to races, on a short utility trailer. It was really hard to back up straight so I was always looking for parking spaces where I could pull out ahead.
Your idea sounds like it would be perfect for most weekend trailer pullers, like me. Not very practical for an attached garage, going through the kitchen, but otherwise a fine idea.
I was going to say the same thing - a drive through garage, if the site provides, would be a nice option. People are in to ease.
Whatever you come up with - make it larger - trailer purchasing works the same way.
Whatever you come up with - make it larger - trailer purchasing works the same way.
Using space efficiently is one of my main aims in designing any structure.
While I appreciate how building it larger would make it safer and simpler, I know it's not difficult to learn how to put a vehicle into a specific tight space. With a bit of practice and some simple visual clues, parking a big car in a small garage can soon be done with ease.
My mother, who was smaller than average sized, used to back her '52 Ford into a standard sized garage in a narrow alley, putting it within one inch of the ideal spot every time.
That car had a heavy cast iron flat head V8 engine, a stick transmission and no power steering so it took some effort and skill to bend it in there, tight to the side wall. But she learned how to do it the first time, every time, with some practice.
Edited 4/6/2009 11:23 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
I love the folding tongues I'm seeing on the newer trailers. So much of that length dimension is in the 5 or 6 feet of trailer tongue. I think they have retro fit kits for older trailers.
I have thought of a bump out in the back wall of a garage, seeing that the outboard motor is often what creates the problem at the back of the garage. A narrow, say 6 foot wide bump-out might create the needed space and be aesthetically pleasing.
Greg
Back in the 50s it was common to see "bump outs" on older garages in order to accommodate the "longer, lower, wider" cars of that era. Often this was just a 4-foot-high shed style bump-out.And I've also seen simple holes in the wall for trailer tongues.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
I love the folding tongues I'm seeing on the newer trailers.
That's something new which has come up in this thread and I'm very glad to hear about it.
A narrow, say 6 foot wide bump-out might create the needed space and be aesthetically pleasing.
Sure. Having the big outboard sticking through the back wall of the kitchen will impress everyone.
Wonder what Jeff Foxworthy would say about that?
Edited 4/6/2009 11:53 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Didn't he do something once about installing a headache rack on his PU inside the garage?And then getting in, using the door open button on his dash to open the door, and driving away with the garage door as part of the new headache rack?or did I just imagine that?
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I've heard a lot of stories about things people put on new car top racks, outside, then drive off to the lake or park, returning home later in the day. They're reminded about the bicycle or kayak when the sound of bending aluminum garage door reaches their ears.
We have a strict rule -- whenever something goes on the roof the "clicker" goes into the glove compartment.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Excellent idea but in my case, I'd probably use up all my mental energy, remembering where the thing was, not why I'd put it in there. CRUNCH!! I'd need to shut off the power to the door opener as part of my safety ritual. Then again, if I didn't remember to do that, I'd still be up the creek.
Reminds me of a funny story, a little slight of hand with a canoe. I was on a trip in the Quetico Park, western Ontario. There were about nine of us in three canoes. After a long day of paddling, we came to a portage necesitated by a series of rapids.
There happened to be a paved road running parallel to the rapids so it was used as the portage trail. I was familiar with this portage from a previous trip so I knew where to get off the road already. That trip had given me an idea too. It was my turn to carry one of the canoes which made my idea even more fun than I'd imagined.
I waited until everyone else had picked up their loads, then I followed them up the short trail to the road. I waited for a pick up truck to come along. Even though traffic was very light, pickups were common and I figured that stopping for hitch hikers would be a common practice in that remote area.
Sure enough, within a couple minutes a man came along in a pickup and I stuck out my thumb. When he stopped I asked him if I could put my canoe in the back. He agreed readily, so we were soon on our way, driving past all the other guys who were sweating under heavy loads of canvas tents, cookware, food and personal baggage. None of them looked up so I passed them undetected.
Around a bend in the road was the end of the rapids where they fell into another lake. So me and the canoe arrived about fifteen-twenty minutes before the first of the "burros" showed up.
Of course they assumed that I had run the rapids, solo. I just laughed and let them think I had, until later when I explained the deception. Half of them couldn't believe that I'd hitched a ride so easily and continued to think I'd run the rapids.
Edited 4/6/2009 4:02 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Oh, Jeff would like this . . .
View Image
I suppose that would work OK in the kitchen too, as a pantry or broom closet. It would just look odd, seeing the big Merc there, every time you open the doors to get a can of tomatoes.
OK, you said, "working on a design . . ." I thought that meant you were looking for ideas.
Sure, I'm looking for ideas but not all of them fit the constraints of the design. Your idea has plenty of merit, just not for an attached garage with the back wall abutting the kitchen. Thanks for the photo. I know it takes time to find and load them.
Here's what I considering as my next airplane, a trailerable kit built which would fit in one side of a garage. That's what got me thinking about providing room for other people's recreational toys.
http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-12int.htm
This kitchen vs. garage talk made me think about my insurance customer that called me to report windstorm damage to his house, roof, and pickup from a tornado. Knowing he had just insured a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle just a few weeks earlier, I asked about his bike.
Ray says, "Oh, it's okay, it was in the Family Room"
Greg
I'd think 24 wide and maybe a little deeper. Look around maybe there is an average size toys in the area you're planning on building in.
Considering a garage for a boat wouldnt be much help if everyone has 36' cabin cruisers.
How about a third bay with a side entrance? That may be nice.
Family.....They're always there when they need you.
Got to put a limit on the size, for a bunch of reasons. At this point the biggest trailerable boat that I can see being used in the general area is about 18' with a max 7' wide trailer. That will fit OK in a 20' wide (8'X18' door) by 24' deep garage. Boat, outboard and trailer.
As others have pointed out, larger boats than that are better suited to a marina. The Hudson river is the place for them.
Edited 4/6/2009 4:32 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter
I did a little research on personal watercraft today. I'm amazed at the speeds they'll do, up to 65mph, stock.
They're seem to be simple to launch and recover, easy to trailer and store. They all fit easily into a normal garage space. The bigger ones will carry three people.
Anyone ever driven/ridden one of them? What's it like, compared to larger power boats?
I still think i'd go with a 24' wide garage.
Family.....They're always there when they need you.