Building plans....you get what you pay for!

[willie1280]

My plan is to draw my own set of plans for my spring garage build using a combination of what i pull off other various plans and my learnings from the books i've bought/read and what i've seen here.  Country Plans didn't have any gambrel roof structures and Barn Plans started at $250 and went up....so off i went on my search.

The first place i bought a set of plans was from SDS Plans as they had darn near exactly what i wanted to build and the price was right...$10 bucks!
Now i didn't have high hopes for the $10 set of plans, but apparently the low expectations i had in mind were still to high!  The "plans" was a PDF file of about a dozen 8.5x11 pages of vague renderings, images and dimensions.  Now closely studying you can figure out the gist of what's going on, but for someone like me who's a rookie to ground up construction but does have a design/engineering background, still took some time to figure out what's going on.

Second place i ordered from was my local Menards (similar to Home Depot).  They had a set (only sold online) that wasn't exactly what i wanted, but had features (particularly the gambrel roof) that intrigued me enough to spend the $40.   Plans showed up this weekend, and boy was i surprised (didn't take much after buying the $10 set)!  The GarlingHouse was the name of the company on the plans. It was 8 actual blueprint pages with TONS of details, verbiage, dimensions, etc.  The design also had a fixed width but could be adjusted to a couple various lengths depending on how big you wanted.  Every page also had a red stamp on them for authenticity (I'm assuming a stamp is probably a requirement for certain buildings/locations).

I tried to find more of a selection from Garlinghouse, however i can't seem to find a direct website.

If you know of any other places that have gambrel roofed garage plans, let me know!!!

[DaveOrr]

Here's their website.

Info on the company
http://www.familyhomeplans.com/how-the-home-plans-business-was-born

Garage Plans page
http://www.familyhomeplans.com/garage-plans

[MushCreek]

I used barnplans.com for my 28 X 48 barn. They have plans in all sizes from sheds up to houses. More money than you're used to spending, but I was happy with mine. It's an interesting website with tons of pics and ideas. Their method of building and erecting the trusses is worth studying.

[willie1280]

I used barnplans.com for my 28 X 48 barn. They have plans in all sizes from sheds up to houses. More money than you're used to spending, but I was happy with mine. It's an interesting website with tons of pics and ideas. Their method of building and erecting the trusses is worth studying.

Mush,
Yeah, i really liked the example they showed here http://www.barnplans.com/showcase.php?show=33
I liked how the balloon framed that second floor to give it more head room upstairs.  I thought about going this route so that i wouldn't have to put the second level in right away, however i think i would still need some sort of cross ties to hold the walls in place.