Ultimate Garage Ideas Needed Please

This is not some theoretical post designed to generate bandwidth, this is a real scenario about a garage being built by someone without a lot of mechanical experience, and your input would be appreciated.
A friend of mine (from when I was in the NSX car club) is building a house with a 30 car garage. Yes you heard that right. Thirty cars. I've been on the property already (just outside of Ruby Hill, where he is finishing up a four million dollar house in there), and have seen the blueprints. The master bedroom wing for this house is 10,000 square feet alone. This place looks like a miniature Taj Mahal.
My point is, when I looked at the blueprints for the garage, it was just a huge, empty room. I told him that, if a car collector/enthusiast was going to buy the house (that's why he's building it, to sell and make a profit), I mentioned that maybe there should be a bathroom down there, or a deep sink, or maybe a lift or a pit, maybe some ventilation, some electricity, maybe a microwave, or a big air tank so some people could run some pneumatic tools, etc.

Please help with some ideas of what should be in a "dream car garage".
Thank you!

 

Pit
sunk in floor lift
Freestanding lift
overhead air lines (on pull down reels)
Compressor OUTSIDE (noise)
airlines, power, network, phone lines run along all bench tops
220/110 power
at least one door tall enough for a large Class A RV or Race hauler rig
Pull through door for above

 

Those are some great ideas! Half of them I hadn't even thought of. I was thinking more along the lines of a shower, kitchenette, bathroom, deep sink, etc.

 

I remember this thread from Corner-Carvers, there were some good/practical ideas in it:


http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28553&highlight=shop

 

How do you build a house over 10,000 sq. ft. (I'll assume his is at least 15,000 if his master is 10K) for 4 million. That is my question.

 

pressure washer like at a car wash. Thats my dream...this house sounds awsome.

 

If he's a builder, and the price does not incude the land, a nice house can be built for $200/ft.

 

post pics of construction and when done! my pops' is an archtitect and would like to see this work of garage art. as for Ideas, i don't really have any off the top of my head, try back later.

 

Well, seeing your location (San Jose, CA) and you stating your friend is building in "Ruby Hill", I had to find out where the keck is this place located at (I was born and raised in the Bay Area and I never heard of Ruby Hill before - I lived in Sunol for a period of time) ... after doing some quick googling, I found at that Ruby Hill is in the Pleasanton area. It appears to be another "Blackhawk" community. Now I (we) know ...

Well, there is a forum that deals directly with your question:

www.garagejournal.com (formally garagejunkies.net)

This is the Motherload of garage information.

There are several "Taj Mahals" shown/discussed at this forum ... give it a try.

Here are a couple of threads of interest:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2539
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1253
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2323

And then again, there is always "The Ultimate Garage" where you can see and purchase goodies.

http://www.ultimategarage.com/

Keep us updated on what your friend ends up doing.

 

Thank you so much for all of the great info.
I apologize for not being clear...
He is finishing up a 6-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 6-car garage home IN Ruby Hill right now for around 4 million. He is building another home (35,000 square feet) with a 30 car garage OUTSIDE of Ruby Hill (right across the street from the back entrance) within 20 acres of wine grapes. The guy next door has a humongous house with (I think) a 15 car garage or something like that, but doesn't have enough room to store all his cars (is a collector). Joon doesn't want to make the same mistake.

 

definately a facility (sperate room?) to wash a car in.

wall plugs every 6' on the wall near where work may be done on cars (over by the lifts/pit as opposed to by the storage/display area).

seperate room to store hazardouus and flamable substances, that meets code for storing said substances. supposing he wants to store race fuel, oil in quantity, etc...

maybe an automated fire sprinkler system like in commercial buildings and hotels in the event of a fire

area for lounge activities, couch, large TV, refridgerator, etc

excellent security system

 

If i was him i would put atleast a couple of guest rooms,a kitchen,and a bathroom room with a jaccuzzi,a sauna and ofcourse a standing shower as you never know who the guest would be...I would also suggest to put atleast 15 4 posts lifts inthere so that if the collection goes past 30 cars then he won't have to build another garage..
well 35,000 square feet is not that big of a house,Shaq i think has an 80,000 sq feet so if he is targetting a big fish to sell the house to then he needs to build atleast 60,000 sq feet house...
Hope that helps..

 

i always thought it would be cool to have a pool (like in PGR3) then have all your cars around the pool haha

But i can see someone getting drunk then backing into the pool while someones swiming.. That wouldnt be to good...

EDIT: kind of like this

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/krunkedoutchicken/726_0022.jpg

 

80,000 sq. ft. for shaq? Are you sure, that is enormous.

 

Definitely have a single bath with a shower and such. It's SOOOO nice to be able to clean up (assuming the owner will really work on his cars) with out tracking crap through the house.

And a space to wash/detail the cars would be nice, preferably with treated water with hot/cold. It's so much nicer to wash a car with warm water.

 

I'm working with a client on a large garage currently under construction and the first issue to come up (before the town would allow the plans to go forward) was what kind of fire system will be installed.

The system I recommended (a clean agent Inergen system) was quoted at around $80,000. A very nice sprinkler system for the garage came in at around $20,000.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

An F40!

 

How about a 312P body on the wall ?
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Be sure there's multiple commercial-sized drains in the floor. Also, epoxy flooring is very nice. Recessed florescent lighting + recessed stereo speakers. Plasma TV. Cabinets EVERYWHERE.

Remember - this is just like any other room in the house, except you park your cars in it.

 

Anyone mention a stripper pole?

 

lol! Do not forget the disco light and fog machine and if you want to get really crazy and argon Laser system!
gordon

 

You have to have a full bar. There would be nothing cooler than having a kick ass bar to serve drinks to a bunch of car guys and do it in a room full of cars.

 

I would rather have the nice 63 vette

 

Wow this sounds amazing - 10,000 sq ft bedroom? My whole house is only 1,400 sq ft! One thing I've always wanted in a dream garage is an adjoining wall with my living room made out of glass. Then I could sit and relax and maybe park a couple of my favourites from my collection next to the living room - much better IMHO than wasting money on pieces of art, etc.

BTW, your friend wouldn't happen to have a cute, single daughter in her mid 20's by any chance would he...?

 

The big house with a 10,000 sf master suite is not being built for $4mm. Another house he is finishing up is costing $4mm. Anyway, I think a dream garage would include a 'men's club'. We are adding these to our houses in Arizona, though not in the garage. The men's club includes a big screen TV, bar, desk area, pool table area, and a walk in humidor. Definitely add a bathroom, lots of built in storage, and an interesting ceiling / floor finish.
BT