Carport ideas! what have you done?

Looking for some carport ideas and would love to see what everyone has done. trying to create a year-round outdoor work area and storage for a couple cars.

helpful tips on roofing and lighting would be great.

-NICK-

 

What ever you do, it pays to do it to code and with a permit, unless you are out in the middle of nowhere. There have been cases where a guy built one then the code enforcement people came around and made him tear it down.

Now the disclaimer so I am not accused of being a "dooms dayer".

This advice was offered at no cost to the OP, and therefore may or may not be totally accurate. We suggest you follow up with an Attorney who specializes in this area. The opinions offered here are strictly for entertainment purposes and any persons, living or dead, portrayed are simply coincidental.

Don

 

That would be a great place to start,,BTW,when I was much younger and didn't have a place to do minor repairs in inclement weather,,I used our neighbors car port when they were at work.

Got away with it for years until his wife came home early and I was gone to the parts store and left my car there,,she got scared someone was in her house and had another neighbor call the police.

Needless to say from that day own I worked under the old shade tree. HRP

 

Happend to my dad when when I was young..... This lady a couple streets away built one and they made her take it down so what did she do? she went all over town and turned everyone in that had a carport......

 

That is the way it always happens.........If I can't have one nobody else can either.

Don

 

Some of the horse barn & railing guys have semi prefabbed carports pretty reasonable if you not looking for an architectural solution...

 

me and the wife put this up two months ago total cost about 1800,permits,dont need no stinking permits, at least where i live..

 

^^^Nice! wish I had that much room!

 

hire an Architect - not someone who builds hot rods

Seriously - if you are out of your realm of expertise - get a specialist - don't just tack on any old thing to you house

 

Don, that's great advice. Here in Houston, they have guys who drive around looking for new buildings or structures being added to a house. Believe it or not, they use unmarked, white trucks. They note which homes do or don't have a carport. If they come by and you've added or are in the process of adding, they check for permits. If you don't have them, you have to tear it down AND pay a fine.

The father of a friend of mine just went through this. It sucks. It takes a month to get the permit and you have to pay, so most folks hire a company who's responsible for the permits.

Funny, I have relatives, who back in the day, would add an addition to thier house as the family grew. Life was sure stress free back then.

 

I had a 50' x 14' slab pored next to my tiny garage. Then I had a nice carport constructed over it. After that I covered the sides with clear lexan and then hung outdoor shade fabric ends that roll up to move cars in and out.

 

Check out what the neighbours have got that suits you and you reckon you can afford.
Buy a bunch of angle or tube and fabricate one of your own - that's traditional, budgetty, qand you can copy what others have done.
The permit thing is true - get one - they use Google Maps now to check for unauthorised stuff in Aust - it's tough to hide a roof from the satellites.
Building the thing isn't rocket science - a welded steel frame will on use or improve your welding skills - make things square and level / plumb and you will probably be OK.
Good luck with it.

 

....if you plan on doin it yourself - check with the zoning office.....are you planning attached / detached?........detached is typically tougher in my neck of the woods - - it's an accessory structure - with it's own rules and regs....

any side/rear/front yard setback to conform with?
imperivous coverage
max building footprint issues?
Floor area ratio?
freeatanding height issues?


some towns EVEN require a enginner to calc rain run-off - crazy as it sounds......


go down to town and strike an informal conversation with the Zoning Office - while is some cases it best to ask for forgiveness instead of permission - i'd say find out first

you may even need a Variance

-

yes I'm playing devils advocate here - but - it's best to find out at the beginning - than mid way - or worse at the end

 

You hit the nail on the head here for sure! When we built our shop it cost $60 for the permit and $350 for the variance hearing. We wanted a 4/12 pitch on the sheet metal roof so it would blend with all of our neighbors out buildings and the city insisted on a 6/12. I took pictures of all the neighbor's buildings and presented them to the hearing board.

 

Do it like building a car. Get the paperwork done first. No i didn't get a permit for the carport you see my coupe under.

 

One of the local places that sells metal carports has a nice looking double carport with a storage/workshop on one end of it. I stopped and looked at a couple of years ago and can go back out and take photos of it.

I agree with the guys who say find out about permits, set backs and what not first. Guys here in Yakima were/are getting nailed left and right with those 800 metal carports because they didn't have a permit and they weren't setting on a slab or solid pavement.

 

I'd like to get one of the portable ones like this, but have it enclosed. Has anyone done that?

 

Carports can be nice. Apart from the security question, I like 'em better than garages. The light is better and you are open to any breezes. Best solution is a carport hooked up to a garage.

 

the people that sell carports like the one above have kits for enclosing them too.

 

There are carports all over town here ("Models") You just go in and order the size you want. If you want extra sheet metal to continue down the sides, it is reasonable. (they usually give you a deal for buying their product!)

There are about 5 of them with side coverings around here. Some double wide, they start at $695, and that includes their crew's installation.

A friend had one installed, he ordered it 20 feet long by 12 feet wide. They got the order mixed up and had a 25 foot by 12 wide. He said it wasn't what he ordered...the crew foreman said they'd install it for the same price. He said "O.K.!!!"

I was ready to do this, but a bud gave me a 25 foot square metal building. My wife and I took it down, he even loaned us his car trailer to make 2 trips to get it here!
Concrete pad 6" thick (25' X 25') cost $800 labor for the crew, and $1,000 for the truck (9.5 yds)
My gorgeous wife helped me put it up, (we made some improvements)
She installed 1,750 drill-screws in that thing. (she's a 130-lb lightweight, did all the roof work...)

 

Thanks for the "legal advice" everyone! But I was already going to do it the legal way anyway.

looking for good ideas on making it a useful area for working and car storage so I can plan it right.

Show me your carports, I love pictures

 

Must be great to work out of a carport,,,,in my neck of the woods you need an insulated heated abode,,,summer,,,we usually play baseball that day

 

I just can't find a pic without snow,,WTF

 

drove out to a guys house to pick up some parts he advertised and he had a 4 bay garage with two of the bays enclosed on the sides but no doors. In the covered area he had fabricated a 5'x5' lift and could hoist his spare trannys, motors, rear ends etc. up into an attic area and thus out of the way. Absolutely great storage and I still foam at the mouth when I think of the building..

 

I have a few of the Harbor Freight portable garages. I hang shop lights in them and run an extension cord out to them. I use them for storage mainly but I will work in them when I cant get my o/t project out of the real garage. Once that car is done, it will go in one of the portable garages and the other project will come in the garage.

 

I haven't had much luck finding good info on this topic at garagejournal.com or any others sites. I have a few projects outside that I'd like to just shelter for a couple years. I'd like to know information about how the different carports hold up to northern winters.

What I've found out about the Shelter Logic tents is they need to be shaken each time it snows

 

There are hundreds if not 1000s of these across TX that have been closed in, and not just a few of them have been used as living quarters too.

 

here is mine I did it in wood. Its just to park in

 

My new one for the cars to be out of the weather.

 

Thanks for a good laugh.....Deninitely not an idea I think I can use!