My Garage Plans

Hints and tips on building a garage and buying garage plans.

Sign of the Times?

My Garage Plans Staff

Garage Plans People Want

A quick search through Google revealed a somewhat surprising result for the typical sized garage associated with homes for sale in the U.S. Both of the terms we used in the search phrase were entered as exact searches (enclosed in quotes), meaning we only wanted results that included the words 'home for sale' and 'x car garage' in that order. The results of our extremely unscientific poll showed:

  • 667,000 searches for "home for sale" "1 car garage"
  • 420,000 searches for "home for sale" "2 car garage"
  • 122,000 searches for "home for sale" "3 car garage"
  • 3,750,000 searches for "home for sale" "4 car garage"
  • 587,000 searches for "home for sale" "5 car garage"
  • 403,000 searches for "home for sale" "6 car garage"
  • 149,000 searches for "home for sale" "7 car garage"

These results fly in the face of what we would have expected. Before doing the survey we thought that "3 car garage" would probably dominate. But hold on, "3 car garage" was actually the weakest entry with even fewer searches than "homes for sale" "7 car garage". And who would have thought "4 car garage" would blow away the competition with more than 5 times as many searches as the next closest competitor, another shocker "1 car garage".

Generally we see more online search interest in 2 car and 3 car garage plans than any others, so we assume those are the most popular among the U.S. population. It just goes to show you one more time, don't guess when it comes to the U.S. consumer.
 
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Garaging Your Boat

My Garage Plans Staff

Garage Size for Boats

Boat Storage Space


No one likes to leave their boat out in the open over the winter, and if you don't have a covered dock your options are limited. One alternative is to store your boat in a garage, and building a garage for just that purpose might be the answer.

Generally, boat trailers are about 2 feet longer than the actual length of a boat. So if you have a 22' boat, the trailer is going to be about 24' in length. We are not going to try to list all of the different brands of boat trailers here, there are far too many and each one will have their own dimensions, so make sure to visit your manufacturer's website for more information. You need to be careful with this measurement, because different boat manufacturers can have different ways of measuring the boat. Be sure to find out if they include the pulpit and the swim platform in the overall measurement if you have either of these items. Unless the pulpit is longer than the front of the trailer and extends past the front end of the trailer, you probably don't need to worry about it for purposes of finding a garage plan to meet your needs. The swim platform on the other hand, could present a problem. If the swim platform is not detachable, make sure to include its length in your overall measurement.

Keep an eye on the width and height of the boat as it sits on the trailer as well. You may need to find a garage plan with a double wide overhead door (16') to accommodate the width of your boat. Some garage plans use an oversized overhead door that measures 8' in height rather than the normal 7', so that might help you out also. If your boat is fairly large you might want to consider a RV garage. RV garages are much deeper than a standard sized garage and they also usually have a nice large overhead door at 12' by 12'.

Here are a few of our garage plans that are more accommodating for storing a boat:

Four Car Garage Plans

Three Car Garage Plans

Two Car Garage Plans
Happy Boating (and Garaging)!

 
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Tips on Using the Garage Plans Search Tool

My Garage Plans Staff

How to use the Garage Plans by TRC Garage Plans Search Tool

With the garage plans search tool you can search by any combination of the following garage attributes:
      • Number of Cars
      • Maximum Width
      • Maximum Depth
      • Living Space
      • Number of Levels
      • Storage Space
      • Workshop
      • RV Storage
      • Carport
      • Name of Garage
You can select just one or any combination of the search criteria based on your garage needs. If you have a specific number of stalls you want to have in your garage, pull down the Number of Cars drop-down box and click on 1, 2, 3 or 4. That will restrict your search to one car garage plans, two car garage plans, three car garage plans or four car garage plans respectively. If you don't care how many stalls the garage has just leave the drop-down box alone and don't make a selection.

In some cases you will have a limit on the width or depth of the garage you plan on building. It might be due to the size of the lot you are building on or it might be due to government regulations. Whatever the reason, just pull down the Maximum Width or Maximum Depth pulldown box and select the limited number of feet you have available to build in. The Maximum Width and Maximum Depth pulldown boxes are in increments of 2'. You can select either one of the boxes or both of them. If you don't have any size limitations you can just leave the boxes unselected. For example, say you only have a 30' wide space in which to build your garage. In that case you would select the Maximum Width pull-down box, scroll down to 30' and click that entry in the box. Select any other criteria you want to set then click on the Search button. In another example, if your site limited you to a depth of 39.5', you would select the next lower increment in the Maximum Depth pull-down box, in this case 38'. Select any other criteria you want then click the Search button.

There are three options you can choose from with the Living Space selection drop-down box, None, Apartment and Loft. If you don't care whether the garage plans you search for have living quarters or not, then just leave the drop-down box unselected. In some cases you might choose to leave an apartment area unfinished, or you might choose to finish a loft into an apartment. If that is the case then you should probably leave the box unselected and the search will return you all possible options including both apartments and lofts. Once you have made your selection in the Living Space drop-down box and selected any other applicable options, simply click the Search button and you will get back the garage plans that meet your needs.

You can also search based on the name of the garage. If you have been here before and seen a garage plan you liked, you might remember the name of the garage. Simply type the name of the garage in the Garage Name box and click the Search button. Your results will show up in the search results area under the search criteria box.
 
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