A Great Garage

by Jonathan McGaha | 3 February 2015 12:00 am

Metal helped make a 75,000-square-foot boat and recreational vehicle storage facility

Spanaway, Wash.-based Garage Plus Storage provides an interesting product: garage condos that are owned and customized. It refers to them as personal toy boxes and their only limitations are their owners’ imaginations. The storage facilities are ideal for enthusiasts who are out of garage space or who simply want to escape to a man cave. Owners can actively manage these garages just as they would in their own home. With them, car and bike enthusiasts, boaters and small-business owners have a secure place to indulge their hobbies in a climate-controlled facility open 24/7, with Internet connectivity, a club house, meeting rooms, showers and more.

For its 75,000-square-foot boat and recreational vehicle storage facility in Spanaway, Wash., Garage Plus Storage used Bossier City, La.-based McElroy Metal’s Mirage and Mega-Rib roof panels for the design. Phase one of the project, completed in May 2011, included buildings A, A1, C, E, F, G, H, consisting of the ramped, two-story building, a car wash and clubhouse, which has an indoor fire pit, pool table, two conference rooms and locker rooms. Buildings B, B1 and D are scheduled to start this spring and phase II is expected to begin later this year.

Carlsbad, Calif.-based Mako Steel Inc., the roofing contractor, completed the framing, siding and roofing on the office building and the roofing, siding and trim on the stick-framed clubhouse. Caesar Wright, president of Mako Steel, says the main challenge was the two-story over/under building and it was rare for his company to work on a boat and recreational vehicle storage facility. “It’s a bit of a hybrid design, meaning we used a rigid frame shell with a welded deck that had to support 250 pounds per square foot to accommodate the weight of a boat or recreational vehicle. We also designed the retaining walls to support the slope at the ramped area.

This site has one two-story building that is cut into the grade. It’s rare we see this with boat/RV storage, mainly because it significantly increases the cost to design a second floor with the capability to accept the load of vehicles.”

The project consisted of both light-gauge metal and structural steel. “In storage type buildings we use the metal framing and partition panels as bearing walls,” Wright says. “This allows the system to be priced at competitive costs. In fact, it’s the most economical way to build these structures.”

McElroy Metal supplied the light-gauge steel for the project. The roof was built with 24-gauge Mirage Standing Seam Roof panels with a 2:12 slope and the exterior siding is 26-gauge, horizontal Mega Rib panels. The interior light-gauge framing is galvanized steel. Lathrop, Calif.-based CBC Steel Buildings supplied a rigid frame for the two-story building that has a 250-pound deck load for recreational vehicles. Additionally, a 2-foot overhang with soffit was installed on all the buildings and 6-inch roof and wall insulation was used.

Thus far, the facility has been a success and customers are happy with it. “I’ve always wanted more garage space and Garage Plus is very convenient for me,” says Garage Plus Storage customer Doug B. of Spanaway. “Being that close allows me to stop in and work on projects in the evening on weekends.

The heated space is a plus too. My garage at home is unheated. The community atmosphere is a nice benefit as well. So far I have my truck and RV in my man cave. I’ve been doing some upgrades on the RV that would be impossible to get done at home because I didn’t have covered storage.”

Garage Plus Storage LLC Facility, Spanaway, Wash.

Owner: Garage Plus LLC, Tacoma, Wash.
General contractor: BNR Construction, Auburn, Wash.
Architect: Jon Graves Architects, Tacoma
Roofing contractor: Mako Steel Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.
Metal building: CBC Steel Buildings, Lathrop, Calif., www.cbcsteelbuildings.com[1]
Metal roof/wall panels: McElroy Metal Inc., Bossier City, La., www.mcelroymetal.com[2]

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/a-great-garage/

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