Designing a RV Garage

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Can you expand it, budget-wise, to 30' wide?  Even number sizes are easier for companies to build.  For that matter, if you are handy, companies make these things in kit form, you bolt together.  You will need to hire a couple of laborers and get the slab poured.  Be sure to insulate it, using chicken-wire to hold the insulation in place.
 
Mike ,

We built a 1650 square foot home in  2006 with an RV garage attached.    It is 20 x50 with 16 foot ceilings.  50 feet works but if you have a 45 foot motorhome  it would be nice to have a work bench so longer would have been better for us. Even  though our motorhome is  40 feet there is a good deal of  space taken up by the tow bar on end.  We took many of Jerry Fitzgeralds suggestions and put lots of ceiling lights along the  perimeter of the ceiling.  If the lights are in the  middle they don't shine down when rig is  parked.  Other  must have's have been mentioned, sewer  drain,  50 amp electrical. Water to fill rig.  Lots of  outlets along the walls.  We had tv antenna connections built in the  garage so  he just has to hook up a cable and we have TV inside while it is parked.  Another nice feature for us is that we  had a window placed at the  end of the garage.  Since we live  on a golf course, the  view from the rig is quite nice even when it is parked.  We use  it as a guest suite when we  have  any visitors who don't have a MH.  Our two car garage is open to the RV garage and  I have access directly  out my  back door through garage to  RV.  I love that.  We also  have swamp coolers with vents we can use if rig needs to  run for a short time  inside the vents circulate air.  I manage to store too much junk along the  perimeter walls.  Don't know how to avoid collecting  junk.  You know  Jeep parts, spare tires, sewer hoses Christmas decorations  what ever!  have a yard sale but stuff collects again!

We took tons of  photos during construction so ask away and we'll have a photo to show you!
 
Motorhome Garage

My MH garage dimensions are 50 feet long and 18 feet wide.  The inside ceiling is 16 feet high.  The door is 12 feet wide and 13 feet high (the door header gives 13 feet overhead clearance).  Inside ceiling height is 16 feet.  The sewer drain is 18 feet back from the overhead door so it is in close proximity to the coach sewer drain.  There is one 50 amp and one 20 amp electric socket on their own breakers along with water so I have water, sewer and electric inside the garage (full hookups).  I have a 30 amp electric connection and water at the outside rear of the garage.  This is so I could install an air cooler (swamp cooler).  There are 12 two-tube florescent lights around the perimeter of the ceiling about 3 feet in from the wall.  Do NOT put them in the middle of the ceiling because you will get poor lighting if you do because the height of the MH will block the light.  The overhead door is insulated with styrofoam insulation.  The garage is insulated.  There are three windows on each side of the 50 foot length.  The MH garage is connected to the car garage with a 9' X9' opening and we can enter the house from the car garage.

If I were doing it with more space on my lot I would make it 60 to 65 feet long in order to have more storage space at the front of the MH.  Also, it would add value at resale if the purchaser had a 45 foot MH.  Even though there is plenty of room to open the slide outs and walk around them I would make it 20 to 22 feet wide.  If you think that a Prevost owner might ever buy your property, should you sell it, make the overhead door clearance 14 feet because the newest Prevost MHs with a dome type satellite dish require 13 feet 5 inches of clearance.  The bottom line is make it larger when you first build it because it is MUCH more expensive to modify it later.

JerryF
 
I think I would just lock the door and keep the little ones out of the garage altogether...they don't need to be into everything. How about install a play yard outside with a little rv playroom for them, then you can have your maintenance pit, which seems to the-no-rv-guy a lot better than crawling under a motorhome or putting it up on some sort of steel ramps, but hey, what would I know.

In the reverse, if you like working on your roof, you could install a moveable rv roof platform for safety sake or a harness attached to the roof. Or just install rv Armor Roof, which is what I plan to install...when the time comes and stay off the roof.
 
Hey JerArdra, sounds like the garage might be built, a few anticipated years forward, for his next rv beyond his current purchase, for when he goes full-time to 45 feet.  :)
 
Now I'm assuming, of course, that even full-timers may have a couple of concrete pads they own, maybe with a garage on top.
 
80+ feet long

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/IMAG0585.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/e93b2fca432ee7bf10bf3216603d49c8c4883b7d43cec073c81e1a6f72c74cbd.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/0f315c324c7bfa734ba4cfd6c43e431f5b08989159abdc1358fce4ca0526c99b.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/99c2abfcdc0f5f7ebf6ef91ca6f547ce7ec6151a7b0a3770dd03c1345f56c67f.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/IMAG0592.jpg
 
HueyPilotVN said:
80+ feet long

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/IMAG0585.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/e93b2fca432ee7bf10bf3216603d49c8c4883b7d43cec073c81e1a6f72c74cbd.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/0f315c324c7bfa734ba4cfd6c43e431f5b08989159abdc1358fce4ca0526c99b.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/99c2abfcdc0f5f7ebf6ef91ca6f547ce7ec6151a7b0a3770dd03c1345f56c67f.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/IMAG0592.jpg

Very nice place...but too much stuff in the shop.
 
JerArdra said:
Motorhome Garage

My MH garage dimensions are 50 feet long and 18 feet wide.  The inside ceiling is 16 feet high.  The door is 12 feet wide and 13 feet high (the door header gives 13 feet overhead clearance).  Inside ceiling height is 16 feet.  The sewer drain is 18 feet back from the overhead door so it is in close proximity to the coach sewer drain.  There is one 50 amp and one 20 amp electric socket on their own breakers along with water so I have water, sewer and electric inside the garage (full hookups).  I have a 30 amp electric connection and water at the outside rear of the garage.  This is so I could install an air cooler (swamp cooler).  There are 12 two-tube florescent lights around the perimeter of the ceiling about 3 feet in from the wall.  Do NOT put them in the middle of the ceiling because you will get poor lighting if you do because the height of the MH will block the light.  The overhead door is insulated with styrofoam insulation.  The garage is insulated.  There are three windows on each side of the 50 foot length.  The MH garage is connected to the car garage with a 9' X9' opening and we can enter the house from the car garage.

If I were doing it with more space on my lot I would make it 60 to 65 feet long in order to have more storage space at the front of the MH.  Also, it would add value at resale if the purchaser had a 45 foot MH.  Even though there is plenty of room to open the slide outs and walk around them I would make it 20 to 22 feet wide.  If you think that a Prevost owner might ever buy your property, should you sell it, make the overhead door clearance 14 feet because the newest Prevost MHs with a dome type satellite dish require 13 feet 5 inches of clearance.  The bottom line is make it larger when you first build it because it is MUCH more expensive to modify it later.

JerryF

You make some very good points. We are gathering proposals to get the Civil Improvement Plans completed, in Vegas subdividing and permitting a piece of raw land takes 12-18 months to get done. I agree I should go a big as I can for the RV Garage, that's why I wanted to get some experienced input.
 
Oscar Mike said:
I agree I should go a big as I can for the RV Garage, that's why I wanted to get some experienced input.

How about nearly doubling the size and rent out the other half to help pay for the building.  You wouldn't have to go that much bigger, because the slide outs on the other rig would never be opened inside. You would need a second overhead door though.
 
Rene T said:
How about nearly doubling the size and rent out the other half to help pay for the building.  You wouldn't have to go that much bigger, because the slide outs on the other rig would never be opened inside. You would need a second overhead door though.

I only have 1/2 acre to work with, my RV Garage will have 3-4 auto bays attached. We are going to put in a RV Guest pad (uncovered) for framily& friends.  But the truth is I wouldn't want to have any responsibility for anyone's rig in a rental situation.
 
Oscar Mike said:
I only have 1/2 acre to work with, my RV Garage will have 3-4 auto bays attached. We are going to put in a RV Guest pad (uncovered) for framily& friends.  But the truth is I wouldn't want to have any responsibility for anyone's rig in a rental situation.

I don't blame you one bit there.  There is absolutely no way I would rent out space.  If I couldn't afford to have it the size I wanted without it needing to bring in money from rental then I simply couldn't afford it.  Which is exactly why our coach has to sit outside. :(

Mike.
 
Re those overhead lights.  The electrician thought we were nuts to have so many lights.  I told him I was tired of not being able to see stuff in our previous garage.  We LOVE them, especially at night when we can see into underbays and such.

Also, the swamp cooler is wonderful.  I can load and unload in relative comfort regardless of the temperature outside.  That thing is worth every penny!  And it's cheap to run. 

The ceiling height should be as high as you can make it.  You might not stand on the roof very often, but there have been a few times where it was nicer than crawling or kneeling.

ArdraF
 
we converted our truck wash shop for our mh garage. It is 60'long'50'wide not sure on the height, it has 6"concrete floors with drain, 5' concrete side walls then the trusses are on top of that, I think the opening is 16' tall. we park the mh on one side and are able to open all the slides. if it wasn't for all the crap we can't seem to get ride of, you could park 2 side by side. but with that said....how does one get rid of all the crap...lol we have a 48" fan in the center of the back wall, we turn it on when we run the mh or the gen.
 
Kevin's comment reminded about another wonderful use for the swamp cooler.  When we start the motorhome in the garage, there are always some diesel fumes.  We open the car garage door/s and the swamp cooler pushes those fumes right out.

Which further reminds me.  I have been known to burn a few things on the house kitchen range ( :-[ ::)).  When that happens, we turn the swamp cooler to fan, open the garage door into the house, open the sliding door in the kitchen, and blow the smoke out.  Yes, I do love the swamp cooler!  For those of you who live in high humidity areas and are unfamiliar with them, swamp coolers are used in the low humidity deserts.  Before air conditioners, swamp coolers were used to cool homes.
 
A swamp cooler is a large square box that has a big squirrel cage fan inside it.  the sides have a bulky filter bed type composition that is soaked with water from nozzles to make all the incoming air have a much higher humidity, (water content in the air).  This humid air cools a dry desert type environment very well.

IN a humid part of the country a swamp cooler is not comfortable for the same reason that you do not use spray misters in that part of the country.

Hope that helps you to understan a swamp cooler.
 
As this seems like a dream project for me, all I can see that you are missing is a real good surround sound system with proper baffling and sound proofing so your neighbors will not complain. :)

Love this thread as I built a hot rod shop something like this years ago.

Enjoy!
 
Sr Fox said:
As this seems like a dream project for me, all I can see that you are missing is a real good surround sound system with proper baffling and sound proofing so your neighbors will not complain. :)

Love this thread as I built a hot rod shop something like this years ago.

Enjoy!

I will absolutely have a killer sound system in this well insulated garage... The insulation is a necessity in this geographic location, the Desert Southwest. My neighbors will be my two sons...  ;D

I am having fun thinking and dreaming about the possibilities. I can't do it all up front, but what I can do, is allow for it up front.
 
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