RV Garage modification?

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james000222

james000222

Active member
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
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36
Location
Louisiana
Does anyone have an idea as to how hard it might be to modify an existing RV garage - metal siding - that has a door about 1 foot too short? These pics are not the greatest, but we are thinking of buying this house but the shop is 9.5' doors, and I have a  standard height 10'9" 28' TT. I'd like to make it at least 11' high...other than that we love the house and the shop.
 

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I increased mine from 10' to 12'. It was relatively easy just had to rework the wooden truss. I can take a picture and post it if you'd like. The bottom chord of the truss was the door header. We use to do this to steel trusses all the time in the car plants to make room for new conveyor lines. I did mine by my self so it is not too hard. 
 
It appears that the garage door header is already at the top plate line. If the existing trusses are flat bottom trusses, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. If they are indeed scissor trusses, you may be able to get the header high enough to accommodate what you need. Keep in mind, altering trusses without an engineer's design is a huge no-no. It's the equivalent of towing a 40' 5th wheel with an F-150 in the building world.
 
I have a friend who bought a new boat and it was too high on the trailer to back it into the garage. He jacked up the garage and layed 3 courses of concrete blocks under it then added one more panel on the door. That was a stick built garage about 15' X 36'. Anything is possible if you've got the knowhow and the money.
 
Here is what I did. No there wasn't a certified engineer running calcs. First an endwall truss only holds half the dead load as an intermediate truss. This was done 6 years ago and has held up to some heavy snows and heavy thunderstorms. I wanted to raise the door header 2' so I ran a new bottom chord past where the 4x6 posts that are behind the jambs and attached to every plumb post and diagonal. I put a 2x4 seat on the 4x6 jamb post to give the existing bottom chord a seat to set on when I cut out the chord later. The exiting bottom chord is a 2x6 and the new chord is a 2x8. Lag screwed and nailed at diagonals and plumb posts. Then I cut out the metal siding on the outside and removed it and added a 2x4 sidewall girt to attach the existing metal to. Cut out the existing 2' of bottom chord on one side at a time and added 2' of 4x6 post and added metal splice plates. Then removed all of old bottom chord. Next I replaced the door header and added the 2' extension of door jambs. My barn is 30 years old and I built it. I was a structural ironworker and project manager for 38 years so I had basic knowledge of trusses and building construction, but am not a structural engineer. If you plan on having a pole barn outfit do the work all you should have to do is explain what you want and show them a picture. I did the entire job in one day start to finish.
 
For some reason I am having trouble posting pictures, I'm sure they are too big. I'll try resizing tomorrow, to late tonight.
 
Back in the mid 70's, we bought a house with a detached garage, built on an untreated lumber base at ground level - which was quickly becoming mulch.  Using a pair of screw jacks and 4X4's, I lifted one side, cut 9 ?" of the bottom of the wall.  I laid a course of 8" blocks, a treated 2 X 6 sill and sat the garage back down.  Repeat on front and opposite side.  It worked very well.

The same principle should work for you.
 
If there is room enough above the door header to get the height, you might be able to get a low clearance door and raise the header up into the gable end. The gable bears very little weight, so raising the header above ceiling height would be easy enough for an experienced person. I have a ten foot ceiling in my garage and a nine foot door, so I know you can get doors with only one foot of clearance. This would require about a 12 ft ceiling to get an 11 ft. door. 
 
James, I would be happy to email the pictures to you and anyone else interested, but I have been unable to reduce the size of my pictures.
 
Looking at the photos it looks exactly the same as mine and I was able to raise my door header and extend the total height of my door by 15" to accommodate the height of my new coach.  It was some work but not extremely difficult, definitely doable and I had no help, 1 man job.
 
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