Which garage size would have the greatest resale value?

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
Getting down to the planning stage for building a garage next spring. Leaning towards a stick built garage instead of a pole barn.

What size garage would have the greatest resale value and be considered a useful 6 car garage?

A 32x48 = 1536 sq ft

A 36x44 = 1584 sq ft

I'm thinking the 36 wide would allow me to put 2 ft workbenches down both sides and leaving the end without workbench.

BTW, I don't need garage for car and truck. Just tractors and tools.

So which of the two do you think would have the greatest return on investment and make property easier for my boy to sell when I'm gone?
 
(quoted from post at 17:13:20 12/13/18) Getting down to the planning stage for building a garage next spring. Leaning towards a stick built garage instead of a pole barn.

What size garage would have the greatest resale value and be considered a useful 6 car garage?

A 32x48 = 1536 sq ft

A 36x44 = 1584 sq ft

I'm thinking the 36 wide would allow me to put 2 ft workbenches down both sides and leaving the end without workbench.

BTW, I don't need garage for car and truck. Just tractors and tools.

So which of the two do you think would have the greatest return on investment and make property easier for my boy to sell when I'm gone?
expect that it will not matter.
 
If it is zoned residential or commercial, it probably won't matter either way. Build what fits your needs. If it is zone farm, don't bother building. Out buildings are often a liability to be torn down or sold off separately, bare farmland is easier to sell.
 
It's residential.
I have an empty 3/4 acre lot. To get permit to build, I had to connect the lot to my property adjacent to it. Once a garage is built, I could sell the property if buyer wants to build a house on the 3/4 acre lot. Otherwise lot has to remain attached to my house next to it.

So this may be valuable for someone wanting to build a house. 3/4 acre lot has a value of $12k. Natural gas, city water and sewer, DSL, cable and phone lines are all available. I'm thinking lot may be more valuable with a nice 6 car garage. Property is country, a mile north off city limits.
 
I think two cars could be parked end to end and fit in 44 length. 3 cars could fit in 36 wide and still have workbenches. Do you have workbenches?
 
I've seen shops where too many work benches just makes junk collection and storage more appealing. A good mechanic or trades person doesn't need 70 feet or workbench to be efficient. Benches often become storage shelves underneath and temporary storage space at waist level on the bench top. Just my two cents, I don't see a huge amount of difference for tractors in your two sizes. Family cars and trucks though might be different for some individuals when it comes to selling ..... BUT I doubt whether anyone would ever look at either size and be critical thinking it should have been wider or maybe longer.
 
Just MHO for what it's worth. I suspect either one would be sufficient, my concern is the height, I built a 30' X 40' , 12' ceiling with 10' X 10' doors . You would think that was terrific , how ever my Massey 180 just barely goes in with out scraping the muffler (need to make sure the door is all the way up..first time in bent the muffler). Then I bought a fifth wheel trailer , that needs about 13.5' door so no go on putting it inside, it sits outside covered in snow. If i had it to do over i would have gone 16' ceiling and a 14' door. This may be way more than you think you need, but i wish some one had told me to go the extra 2' and taller doors.
 
(quoted from post at 16:33:07 12/13/18) 36 wide. That is what mine is, and I wish it was wider. Mine is 36 x 36 attached to the house.

I had the same thinking as you. When we built our new house here at the farm in 2016, we did a very large attached garage on the south end. Our house is a walk-out ranch with an 8 foot covered front porch and back deck along with a 36 foot house depth for a 54 foot roof span. So we just extended the same roof profile and moved the outer walls out from 36' to 54' wide for the garage and built it 36' deep. Keeping the same roof profile with no valleys or corners simplified building and made it more less likely to have roof issues. So 54x36 for 1944 square feet. Two 18' wide by 10' high insulated garage doors, 12' ceiling, fully sheet rocked and insulated (R30 attic, R21 cellulose in 6" walls). Stays 50+ during the winter with no heat in mid-Missouri execpt when it gets really cold and then it might drop to 45. I put a walk door between the two garage doors and then offset everything to put 8 foot of "shop" space for shelves, workbenches, tool boxes, welder, compressor, etc. on one side.

I park 4 vehicles, 6x10 box trailer, riding mower, two ATV's, snowblower and a bunch of other stuff in there. Even my new to me Allis 8030 fits in there (by a few inches!). I could easily park 8 vehicles in there if it was empty. 36' deep will handily park almost any car/minivan/mid-size suv back to back. It won't park a couple extended cab pickups. I do park my Expedition and 5'x10' box trailer back to back with room to spare. I also wired it with it's own 100 amp breaker panel straight from the meter pole.

I so need another big machine shed to fit everything in. I built a 18'x31' carport this spring for more space and it's full with two tractors and other grain truck. I have my oldest son starting college next fall so not sure when I'll be able to afford the shed I want anytime soon. But at least I can bring equipment in my garage to work on it. Just had the Chevy C65 grain truck in this past Sunday working on the parking brake.

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Thinking workbenches are a nice place to store things underneath. Make a shelf above benches to store wood and other long things. Save the end for my 6ft6 in metal brake, bandsaw, table saw, miter saw, drill press, wood planer and jointer. 10ft6 in aluminum brake. Need a bench for 10 inch Metal lathe. May store 2 welders, and welding bench near door.
 
George we have all kinds of buildings here but the one for shop is as you say you are leaning a stick built building.. BUT what we did was pour a concrete curb or wall that moves the building up off the floor 12 inches. Makes washing out the building easy and lessens the danger of fire at the floor level. Trying to attach a photo. Finished the inside with a lot of peg board and do have the work bench with shelf under for storage.
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Good idea. Planning on 3 row of block. Not sure my concrete man can pour footer and wall. My garage has to pass building inspection.
 
both of your measurements add up to 160 lineal ft of wall. a 40 x 40 ft building also adds up to 160 lineal ft of wall, but you pick up a few more square ft of building. just a thought. good luck with your project.
 
Think about your INTERIOR measurement, door sizes, and door placement. The attached garage at my city home is about 33' wide. It has a 16' wide door and an 8' wide door. While it is considered a three car garage, it certainly is too narrow for three full sized vehicles and any sort of storage or work benches along both side walls.

I had a 36' x 48' pole barn built at my county home with an 18' wide door and 10' wide door on the gable end. It fits my needs much better.

As for resale value, I think that it's a crap shoot. Who knows what a potential buyer will need, want, or be able to afford?
 
It is hard to predict what future buyers will want on a building site. The new shed could be right where they want to build their house, or they want it fifty feet over and turned 90 degrees to where you built it. Build it to suit your needs and don't expect to get much for it later.
 
Which is the cheapest to build?? Have you checked out the pre-engineered buildings at your local lumber yard. You may have and I missed your posts
Loren
 
I built a 32'x40' garage in 1998.I wish I had made 32'x44' or bigger. I have 1 8'door on a side and a 16'door on the other end.I have a wall separating the back for a 'shop' area,where I park my 4wd p/u. And 2 vehicles on the other end,along with a quad and a zero turn..I think it would be hard to put 3 cars side by side,although when I built,I thought they would fit. It fills up quick,and you need to allow room to open car doors,and to walk around.Build as big as you make it.Mark.
 
In a more or less residential situation, the man cave should have a door big enough to get the giant camper in.

So often I see a building like you are thinking about, and it has one silly little car door in it.

Make the blamed door big enough! And make the shed tall enough.

Paul
 
I agree with some of the others - build what works best for you now. I seriously doubt that a few feet one way or the other will effect the future selling price at all. I also wouldn't plan on the building itself being an investment. To see a return on investment you'd need the building to add more value to the lot than what it costs to build, maintain, and be taxed for from now until the future sale. This would be unlikely to happen, especially considering the opportunity cost compared to dropping the same ~$25k into a mutual fund for the same amount of time. The "perfect" building size, shape, and location will be different for everyone and finding potential buyers with the exactly the same idea as yours may be difficult. Everyone else will know the cost of their "perfect" building and will weigh that against the older, "not perfect" building already on your lot. If they can buy an empty lot and put up their "perfect" building for anywhere near the same as your asking price they will probably not be interested in what you have. And, as strange as it sounds to the typical YTer, such a large building would actually be a turn-off to some potential buyers that might otherwise be interested in the lot. It's a guessing game no matter what and there's no right answer.
 
There is no predicting what a future buyer would want.Might be like the place across the river from me the previous owner spent a fortune fixing up an old wooden bank barn
the first thing the present owner did was have the barn torn down.
 
I don't think my boy will ever mover back to Terre Haute. He has a great job in
Indy and loves Plainfield. Can't see daughter moving back either. Her husband
has a great job and has to live near Indy too.
 
I was planning on at least one tall door just incase I can find a gas tractor with a cab that doesn't weigh too much. Not sure if I'll make door tall enough for a Camper because I'll never own a camper.
 
No, not a good idea. If I built one as big as I could afford, I would have very little grass to mow.
 
I already have two 2 car garages and 2 one car garages up north where I want to build the garage. Also have a one car and a 30x40 pole barn at the south end of the county. I have a 1200 ft garage across the river, west side. I have no use for it so I rent it out. Is that enough garages?
 
So far materials to build a garage is cheaper than a pole barn the same size. I want metal siding and 35 year shingles on roof. The difference in price is close enough to pay for a footer. Not sure if footers are required for a garage, have to check with building inspector. Also need to check to see if wall can be 2x4's. Someone told me a house's exterior walls must be 2x6 to put in more insulation. Whatever I build, I have to get a permit and pass inspection.
 
Are you building it to use or to sell?
I suggest that you build what will be the most useful to you. After all, whatever you do end up building will most likely not suit a potential buyer. Unless you have a specific use in mind, why try to build for some unknown future buyer. That would be a big gamble on your part.
 
Don't skimp on the height. Dad built a polebarn back in the early 70's the guys putting up the plates asked him how high . He told them 12 feet under the plates. They complained and said 10 was plenty high. He held for the 12 foot. Now almost 50 years later and before that he wished it was 169 feet. And glad it has been the 12 foot all these years.
Now for the 3 cars wide, park your cars beside each other then try getting in or out of them then measure the width and add some space for door jambs and such. Can also park them length wise and measure leave the appropriate space again. You will find the 10 foot door height will be close to to low for most tractors with cabs. They will need the 12 foot.
One advantage to the sticks with a footing you could always lift it and move it if needed to.
 
36' X 48' there now that's solved. lol. 6 cars ? well that depends on the size of cars too,or trucks ? For resale taller may be better as far as getting motor home into it or installing a car lift. Likely costs more but I've seen some nice split height ones where one side was tall for a car lift or motor home ? and other side was a normal 8 ft. tall door.
 
Going too big might hinder for future house building area if that lot gets split off ?
How about 1 or 2 of the large buildings on skids ? They make them pretty big now. You can park cars in them. They could also be sold off and removed later. But your area may not allow those ?
 

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