Designing a RV Garage

[Jere and Laur]

The SIP panels we put up are so quiet I need to put up an intercom for the front door. Friends come knocking at our front door and we literally yell for them to come in and have to go open the door for them, they can't hear us. The truss ceiling height is 16ft but I was building a home not an RV garage. When erected and install windows and doors it done. All you add is siding for outside and (after wiring and plumbing) sheetrock and paint, done!  Our heating bill dropped by over half and I cool the whole house with one 11k btu window A/C unit.

 

[JerArdra]

Another comment on our swamp cooler.  It is placed on a stand outside the MH garage about 2-feet above the ground level so the cool air enters the garage at a point 28 inches above the floor (definitely NOT at the ceiling).

The two windows that are open so the cooled air can escape from the garage when the air cooler is running are at the most distant far side of the car garage and they are at ceiling height many feet above the floor.  It was done this way so the cool air enters at floor level and, as the cool air is blowing in, it creates a slight air pressure pushing upward on the warmer air above and that in turn pushes the ceiling level hot air out the two windows.  A roof mounted air cooler would not cool as well as this arrangement.  And changing filters is MUCH easier at ground level rather than standing on a roof that is 17-18 feet high!!!

BTW, our air cooler pushes 6000 cubic feet of air into the garage every minute.  A neighbor of mine who did NOT have enough windows for the air to escape actually discovered fine cracks in the stucco walls of his garage, cause by air pressure, so do make sure you have large enough windows.

See the photo of my windows.  When open they provide about 12 square feet for air flow.  The outside screens are on to stop bugs.  Notice that the windows are horizontal sliders so the open part is closer to the ceiling because a normal household window is usually vertical which would put the open part much lower down from the ceiling.

JerryF

PS, In our garage floor plan the cooled air enters into the MH garage at the front driver's side of the MH.  It then goes to the rear of the MH and then into the car garage to cool it too and finally out the two windows.  So as the Frenchman Alexis de Tocquevile wrote about American Democracy in the 1700s, "this is the best of all possible worlds."  That is...as far as cooling goes!

 

[Oscar Mike]

Another comment on our swamp cooler.  It is placed on a stand outside the MH garage about 2-feet above the ground level so the cool air enters the garage at a point 28 inches above the floor (definitely NOT at the ceiling).

The two windows that are open so the cooled air can escape from the garage when the air cooler is running are at the most distant far side of the car garage and they are at ceiling height many feet above the floor.  It was done this way so the cool air enters at floor level and, as the cool air is blowing in, it creates a slight air pressure pushing upward on the warmer air above and that in turn pushes the ceiling level hot air out the two windows.  A roof mounted air cooler would not cool as well as this arrangement.  And changing filters is MUCH easier at ground level rather than standing on a roof that is 17-18 feet high!!!

BTW, our air cooler pushes 6000 cubic feet of air into the garage every minute.  A neighbor of mine who did NOT have enough windows for the air to escape actually discovered fine cracks in the stucco walls of his garage, cause by air pressure, so do make sure you have large enough windows.

See the photo of my windows.  When open they provide about 12 square feet for air flow.  The outside screens are on to stop bugs.

JerryF

PS, In our garage floor plan the cooled air enters into the MH garage at the front driver's side of the MH.  It then goes to the rear of the MH and then into the car garage to cool it too and finally out the two windows.  So as the Frenchman Alexis de Tocquevile wrote about American Democracy in the 1700s, "this is the best of all possible worlds."  That is...as far as cooling goes!

Very good idea, I hadn't thought about that way before. In my current shop the swamp coolers are mounted about 10' above finish floor, and I leave my shop overhead doors open about a foot. Leaving the swampy at grade level would make maintenance much easier too.

 

[Oscar Mike]

The SIP panels we put up are so quiet I need to put up an intercom for the front door. Friends come knocking at our front door and we literally yell for them to come in and have to go open the door for them, they can't hear us. The truss ceiling height is 16ft but I was building a home not an RV garage. When erected and install windows and doors it done. All you add is siding for outside and (after wiring and plumbing) sheetrock and paint, done!  Our heating bill dropped by over half and I cool the whole house with one 11k btu window A/C unit.

As soon as we get an Architect involved we will definitely look into this product. Anything we can do to save money over time is worth the look-see. We are also looking into Solar Power.

 

[John From Detroit]

Three things you should remember
One The maximum legal height for road vehicles without an oversize permit and special routing is 13'6" so make sure The door is at leaSt 14 feet.. NOTE; some doors hand down below the header, so if you hae that kind make sure the clearance is FOURTEEN FEET.

Two Motor homes are 8 1/2 foot wide NOT counting mirrors and awning arms and such,, and may be taller than you think so MAKE SURE THE DOOR IS WIDE ENOUGH.  At least 12 feet.

Third: the NEXT RV you buy may be taller.  (But still no more than 13'6") so make sure the door is tall enough (Fourteen high by at least 12, if not 14 wide. )

Oh, and make sure it's deep enough.. I mean I just read the story of a guy with a 35 foot RV and a 32 foot garage.

 

[Oscar Mike]

Oh, and make sure it's deep enough.. I mean I just read the story of a guy with a 35 foot RV and a 32 foot garage.

When we built our current home in 1999-2000 I wanted to build my shop at least 30' deep, but the way our house lays out, my wife convinced me to build it 25' deep. When I bought my first RV a truck camper F550/Lance 1121 the overall length was 25', inches too long to fit in my shop. Lesson learned.

My new shop will be as long as I can appropriately fit on to the property. As soon as I can get a dimensioned site plan then I will be able to put pencil to paper and see how much shop I can appropriately fit.

 

[Jeff in Ferndale Wa]

....how does one get rid of all the crap...

Divorce... ;D

 

[Kevin]

Divorce... ;D

but it's all my stuff.lol ;D

 

[Oscar Mike]

but it's all my stuff.lol ;D

It gets easier with each piece you get rid of. My stuff was taking me over, I sold my 2009 Ultra-Glide on Craig's List (that was a hard one), I got rid of my 1996 Harley by giving it to my youngest son, next was the Corvette and I gave that to my oldest son, then the CJ5 went, I sold it to a friend, next was the F550,which I sold to my company and converted it to a flatbed truck, the camper went on Craig's List, and the little stuff, and camping stuff that I had accumulated went in a yard sale. It looks like I'll have another two rounds of yard sales before all of my lifetime of accumulation will be gone...forever.

In the next year I want to be rid of everything that I don't need for RVing and then the challenge is to keep it that way.

 

[Becks]

John, you are correct about it being a challenge not to accumulate stuff back down the road. Because we were not able to sell our house after getting rid of everything we have accumulated some back. And yes, it is stuff we really did not need.

 

[Kevin]

well I went into the rv garage today and started. I went thru six boxes of stuff and ended up throwing out enough stuff so what I kept went into three boxes. so I guess that's a start.

 

[Oscar Mike]

well I went into the rv garage today and started. I went thru six boxes of stuff and ended up throwing out enough stuff so what I kept went into three boxes. so I guess that's a start.

The Old Chinese saying that a Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step...Congratulations!

 

[Oscar Mike]

We crossed an expensive hurdle this week, we received the proposals for the Civil Engineers. Now I have to beat them up a bit to get their numbers down into the breathable atmosphere and out of the Stratosphere. Then I have to read between the lines of their proposals to understand what they want to nail me for in additional services. It's a game they play here in Clark County, bid low in hopes of incurring additional costs to offset the low bid...CHANGE ORDERS.

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

We had our garage wired in Texas, the new one Tom never even go to use. 
The guy couldn't believe the amount of lights and receptacles he had put in, and I don't blame him,
I like to see and not be stringing cords all oer
.
So he said I'm doing this one.  He wants LOTS of lights, I said lets do LED's so you can really see,
think he will.  He had the side walls in his garage proper insulated but not the ceiling yet so he
could do the wiring.  But my RV garage only had a vapor barrier in the top and no insulation, but
just keeping the wind off does wonders.
Ours is 44 long, he wanted 42 and I added more, then its 48 wide I believe its 3 bays, then we did
and add in the back for another bay that squared it off.  He is going to add a lean to type garage in the
back to pt all his trailers and I call it yard junk in there.  So maybe another 20 foot out back?

I said we should have just built a big rectangular one, but we wanted it to have lines like the house so
that's what we did.  Tom drew it out and the amish guy did all the dormers and everything with no
drawings, I'm sure they had built similar and all the proportions came out nicely.  The motorhome garage
I believe is 18 foot high with a 16 foot door.  We wanted it big enough.  We have it dug out about a foot
with 6 inches of rock and then 8 inches of concrete I think it is, they said don't worry it won't crack.

He still wants to put an apron out there so he can work on it outside and not on the gravel.  He uses the apron at the house now we had done last summer about 36 by 38 so that helps. All that is expensive but he can use it even if we don't have a motorhome, right now he has his 16 foot trailer in the garage at the new rent house we bought.  I'm putting his tool trailer and our little trailer in the motorhome garage and lock it up when we leave.
The other side is half full of shelves, my boat and Tom's truck, the back part his tractor and one lawn mower plus shelves.  We bought those heavy commercial shelves from Sam's for it.  There are 10 to 15 of them, they also
line one side of the motorhome garage.  We got rid of tons of stuff in Texas, some Tom said I shouldn't have.  I asked him over and over and he told me get rid of that stuff and after I did, he goes you got rid of some of my
good stuff, sigh.  We are overloaded still.

 

[johnandcarol]

2 years ago I completed my 24'x42' steel building on a cement foundation. I've managed to just keep the RV, tow dolly and boat in it.  I sure love the fact that my toys are out of the sun and rain unless I'm using them.

 

[zmotorsports]

2 years ago I completed my 24'x42' steel building on a cement foundation. I've managed to just keep the RV, tow dolly and boat in it.  I sure love the fact that my toys are out of the sun and rain unless I'm using them.

That would be nice.  I would love to keep our coach and trailer indoors.

Mike.

 

[taoshum]

All good points and I added them to my list. The building will be stick framed, stucco/stone exterior, with R-19 walls, R-30 roof, and drywalled. I will add a few swamp coolers for our hot summers and I will have a natural gas ceiling mounted forced air heater for the two-weeks per year we get sub-freezing weather.

If zoning would allow I would just build an apartment inside the shop, but alas it is not allowed.

We are going to incorporate a stand-by natural gas generator into the house/shop construction for long term power outages.

didn't see a provision for coax connection to the satellite TV dish that is mounted outside somewhere???  Also internet service, probably wireless, unless you can access the fiber optic data pipes...  Also a roof vent, powered maybe?  You might want to "look" at some of the "Arizona Rooms" that have been designed in the big RV facilities around Phx... some very clever and thoughtful approaches...  One, for instance, is a floor outlet for power tools as compared to a dangling power box from the ceiling or extension cords lying around...

 

[mnmnutswer]

Water supply.

 

[zmotorsports]

John, I realize it has been well over two years since you started this topic and started designing your RV garage for your new home.

I was wondering if you ever were able to get your house and RV garage built and how it turned out?

Mike.

 

[taoshum]

Another comment on our swamp cooler.  It is placed on a stand outside the MH garage about 2-feet above the ground level so the cool air enters the garage at a point 28 inches above the floor (definitely NOT at the ceiling).

The two windows that are open so the cooled air can escape from the garage when the air cooler is running are at the most distant far side of the car garage and they are at ceiling height many feet above the floor.  It was done this way so the cool air enters at floor level and, as the cool air is blowing in, it creates a slight air pressure pushing upward on the warmer air above and that in turn pushes the ceiling level hot air out the two windows.  A roof mounted air cooler would not cool as well as this arrangement.  And changing filters is MUCH easier at ground level rather than standing on a roof that is 17-18 feet high!!!

BTW, our air cooler pushes 6000 cubic feet of air into the garage every minute.  A neighbor of mine who did NOT have enough windows for the air to escape actually discovered fine cracks in the stucco walls of his garage, cause by air pressure, so do make sure you have large enough windows.

See the photo of my windows.  When open they provide about 12 square feet for air flow.  The outside screens are on to stop bugs.  Notice that the windows are horizontal sliders so the open part is closer to the ceiling because a normal household window is usually vertical which would put the open part much lower down from the ceiling.

JerryF

PS, In our garage floor plan the cooled air enters into the MH garage at the front driver's side of the MH.  It then goes to the rear of the MH and then into the car garage to cool it too and finally out the two windows.  So as the Frenchman Alexis de Tocquevile wrote about American Democracy in the 1700s, "this is the best of all possible worlds."  That is...as far as cooling goes!

Interesting perspective on the dynamics of the air flow.  There's no free lunch tho... cool, wet air is much heavier than warm, dry air so the fan on your swamp cooler has to work harder to move the cool, wet air from low to high.  OTOH, the warm, dry air wants to vent anyway since it is lighter... in fact some of the ancient middle east home designs used this effect to vent hot air and pull in cool air from below.