how big is a garage?

H

HOtrainman

New Member
Jan 15, 2007
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McKinney, TX
ok. so i am moving to a new house in 2 weeks or so. it has a 2 car garage, I get "one car" part. I am planning to build a model train layout. what would the dimensions be in feet? I plan to make a round the room layout perhaps.

any help?
 
It will depend on the builder of the house, on how big a two car garage is. I would guess it will be about 20'X20'. Don't forget- you only get 1/2.sign1 It could be larger of smaller. The builder might be building for small cars, them the size will shrink. NOT GOOD.:eek:
 
Yeah, some newer garages are a lot smaller than others. They cannot go any narrower than 20', but depth-wise, they can try to skimp. The house I had before this one we're in was exceptionally deep. I had a good 6' beyond any full-size car. The one we're in right now, we had an option. I believe it started out at about 18' and we could add up to 4' for a price, which we did, and that's still too tight once you make room to store all your not-used goodies and shop tools.

A few other things to consider when putting a layout in the garage is temperature, humidity and dust, all of which can be a factor where you are.
 
"How big is a garage?"
Let's see.....2 car garage, one car part is for layout........How big is "the other car"??? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I have a "one car" garage. In it are the following: A 4' X 8' trailer. a cover for the aforementioned trailer, an air compressor, a radial arm saw, a band saw, a woodworking lathe, a drill press, two storage shelf units ( full), a bicycle, and a 1994 Dodge Shadow, and, unfortunately, no layout.
In the 441 square feet of basement, modules!and all the usual suspects, furnace water heater,laundry,etc.etc.etc. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
HOtrainman, I recently finished my train house, an 8 foot by 14 foot storage unit with insulation, sheetrock, plaster and electrical outlets. It's adjacent to the garage and it's about a 6 foot walk from the side garage door to the train house. I put in a room air conditioner and small heater. Otherwise in summer it would get about 110 in there since we live in a very warm part of the country. The trains are located on a perimeter setup around the walls. I can sit in the middle and control from the control panel. I duck in underneath from the door side. The layout totals 3 connecting main tracks with 2 connecting sidings and 5 deadend sidings using about 160 feet of track. There are 9 locos with 51 freight and 10 passenger cars. All are working using Marklin digital and 7 of the locos are wired for sound. It can get a bit noisy when there are 3 or 4 running at the same time. The whole setup has worked flawlessly from day one which is about two years now. The switches and uncouplers are hardwired to switches while the trains run digitally using their code #'s. Any train can run on any track and at the same time. It's a great system. If I was using a garage, which I had thought about doing, I would wall off the train portion from the rest of the room. Put in 2x4's, a door, wallboard, electrical and the whole 9 yards. Make a separate room for your trains. You won't regret it. I haven't. And if you want to make it really quiet from the rest of the house, insulate or use soundboard in the wall. I have found insulation to be very nice for both temperature control and sound control. I have the real "Union Pacific Railroad" about three quarters of a mile from my house and their whistle tooting is just barely audible inside my train house. Interestingly, some of the sounds are very similar, except they don't have steam anymore. Hope this gives you some ideas.
 
sumpter250 said:
"How big is a garage?"
Let's see.....2 car garage, one car part is for layout........How big is "the other car"??? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I have a "one car" garage. In it are the following: A 4' X 8' trailer. a cover for the aforementioned trailer, an air compressor, a radial arm saw, a band saw, a woodworking lathe, a drill press, two storage shelf units ( full), a bicycle, and a 1994 Dodge Shadow, and, unfortunately, no layout.
In the 441 square feet of basement, modules!and all the usual suspects, furnace water heater,laundry,etc.etc.etc. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Yeah, no matter how big the garage or basement, there'll always be something other than trains to use up the space. I built my own house with an eye to having the entire 1200 sq. ft. basement for trains. I placed the water heater and electrical service panel on the ground floor, and opted for electric baseboard heaters, so there'd be no furnace. The laundry room was planned for the ground floor, too, but wifey decided that it would be better in the basement. Then I realised that I needed a shop for working on trains. No problem, still lotsa room left. I started building benchwork in the remaining 3/4 of the basement, but it was soon decided that the kids "needed" a rec room, even though we already had a living room and a family room. Out comes the benchwork, and out goes the trackplan. The "revised" 1200 sq. ft. layout is now in a 560 sq. ft. room! :curse::-D:-D

Wayne
 
rhtastro said:
If I was using a garage, which I had thought about doing, I would wall off the train portion from the rest of the room. Put in 2x4's, a door, wallboard, electrical and the whole 9 yards. Make a separate room for your trains. You won't regret it. I haven't. And if you want to make it really quiet from the rest of the house, insulate or use soundboard in the wall. I have found insulation to be very nice for both temperature control and sound control.
Click to expand...


Hi rhtastro, and :welcome1: to the Gauge.

You make a good point about properly preparing the room where you're going to put your layout. Do all the armchair railroading you want, but don't start your layout until you have a clean, comfortable, and well-lit area in which to build it.

Wayne
 
Yeah, some newer garages are a lot smaller than others. They cannot go any narrower than 20', but depth-wise, they can try to skimp.
Click to expand...
I recall reading somewhere about a modeller who built in a 2-car garage that was just over 18' square. I thought, "That's unusually small."
 
Don't forget, any garage built before the 1970s will probably be smaller than you expect. Old cars didn't demand as much space as the land yachts of the 1960s and 70s. This is especially apparent in garages originally intended for Ford Model As or Model Ts. You can barelly fit a modern econo-car in them.

Being a 2 car garage, I trust it's pretty new. Just wanted to refresh some memories.
 
N Gauger said:
Yeah those "Pre-70's" garages are strange :) I always thought it funny, that our house had a 1 - 1/2 car garage :) :)

In reality it was 1 car and storage (trains in our basement) :)

But if you really tried.... you could SQUEEZE in 2 mid sized cars :)
Click to expand...
Just to the north of us is Sun City Grand. We toured the model homes there and several models appeared to have three-car garages. That is until you look at the floor plan and find it is for two cars and a golf cart.:eek: :eek: Yep, in the Sun City communities, golf carts aren't just for playing golf with, but they're a way of life. :p
 
ezdays said:
Yep, in the Sun City communities, golf carts aren't just for playing golf with, but they're a way of life.
Click to expand...

When my parents were managing Bethany Grand, in Glendale Az., my father had a two CART garage, where he kept his golf carts for park maintainence. The car was kept under an overhang.

How big is a garage..Mine is big enough for a workbench, my huge toolbox(more like a NASCAR pitbox), some lawn stuff, and to squeeze an Hyundai Elantra in it.
 
We have a house from the late 60s. I've always wondered how the folks with the big cars they had back then managed; we bang the walls with the doors of our rather modest car and I figure anything wider and nobody could get out. (Scenario: daddy comes home from work, spends the night in his car in the garage and in the morning drives back to work.)
 
N Gauger said:
Yeah those "Pre-70's" garages are strange :) I always thought it funny, that our house had a 1 - 1/2 car garage :) :)
In reality it was 1 car and storage (trains in our basement) :)
But if you really tried.... you could SQUEEZE in 2 mid sized cars :)
Click to expand...

Much to my shock, I can fit both of my cars into my 1950's garage. The right half is about 6" longer than the left half...which means that our Toyoda Corolla fits with about 2" to spare...nose first. Our Dodge Neon then will fit, backed in, on the left half. We have to park them exactly like that with the mirrors almost touching the walls as we need the center isle to get in and out of the drivers seat :thumb:

You couldn't put much of a layout in there...that's what our third story is for!
 
davidstrains said:
In most of the recent construction around here, the 2 car garages are around 22' wide x 24' deep.

ymmv
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WOW! That is large for todays homes. Here in Arizona, I think that the builders are thinking that everyone owns a golf cart! Most homes have a very small garage. Most you can not park a full size 1/2 picup in.
And they way they cram houses on the lots. Front of the homes are all garage door, with a small side entrance for the front door.:eek:
Untill you get into the $350,000- and up houses. Then you are talking semi custom?
 
This discussion on sizes of garages in various parts of North America is interesting. We designed our house 15 years ago with a large 2.5 car space. The 2300 sq ft house is situated on 5 acres of hilly oak covered land here in NorCal. We are able to easily park our 2 average sized autos in the garage and still have plenty of storage space. Even so, when I wanted to build a train layout I thought about using some of the garage space but decided to use a separate 8x15 ft. storage unit instead. I insulated, sheetrocked and plastered the inside to completely seal out dust and moisture. It works very well and is close to the garage for utility and entrance purposes. However, during the first summer, last year, I found that I needed a separate cooling system since it can easily get to 110 or higher in there. I got one from a local dealer and it works quite well. We live in a so called "warm" Mediterranean climate here in Northern CA. Temps of 110 to 120 a couple times a year are not unusual. But at least I don't have to shovel my way to the train house or the mail box in the winter.

Black holes are "Out of Sight" Support you local universe
 
My dad had two different houses that I would be happy to have either one. The first one was a house here in So Cal. Dad had a wholesale trucking business. In the fall, winter, and spring he hauled nursery plants from the growers in So Cal to nurseries in Tucson, Az. In the summer time he hauled watermelons to grocery stores here in the Los Angeles area. We had 10 acres in the town of Norco, and he had a garage made of concrete block. It was big enough to hold 1 40 foot semi trailer van in one bay, the tractor and a bobtail in the second bay, and the car with a work shop in the third bay. There was also a 4th 1/2 bay with a room in the corner that he built for mom to store fruit and jams that she canned. I think that garage was 40 feet wide, 60 feet deep, and 25 feet tall! Man what a train room that place would make! I could put a floor in 14 feet above the ground floor that wouild leave room to install a lift for working on cars and the layout room could be 40' x 60' with a 9-10 foot ceiling! He spent $3600.00 to build the place in 1950, and sold it in 1958 for $36,000.00 and thought he had made a "killing." To buy the place back today would cost in excess of $2,000,000.00!

The other place he had was the house he bought after he sold the So Cal place. He had sold out the trucking business and started selling life insurance. He was then promoted and transferred to the San Fransisco peninsula. The house he bought there was a 2 story house with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. The upstairs was layed out like a 3 bedroom 2 bath rancher. Downstairs was a 4th bedroom, a large family room and a 2 car garage with an adjoining space that was the same size as the 2 car garage but without the door! He bought that house for $25,000.00 and sold it 6 years later for $50,000.00. I would probably need $1,000,000.00 to buy it now!
 
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