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Hangar dimensions

G

g zero

Well Known Member
Question…. Without the Build a Huge Hangar comments .
What would be a reasonable Hangar size and Door Size for a hangar for 2 or 4 planes and have some resale value. I could put 3 RV 7 or 8’s in a 4 car garage with a 8 foot height door ! . Would a 50x60 with a 40foot wide 16 foot door be sufficient? Wider … not as deep ? What would be the optimal use of square footage and door width ? In the design/ wish list phase .
 
I built 60x60 with a 50’ door. This allows you to have two RV’s, or similar, side by side and no jockeying around to get one or the other out. 50’ door also opens things up for larger Aircraft. 40’ is too narrow for many common GA airplanes and might affect resale. .
An 18’ bi-fold door will give you 12’ clear. I consider that to be a minimum.
You don’t need that for an RV, although prop tips on a RV10 might be getting close.

You can get by with a shallower hangar, but most lots and designs are oriented the other way. If you want to have a small shop, etc… in the back, the depth is very useful.
 
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JonJay said:
I built 60x60 with a 50’ door. This allows you to have two RV’s, or similar, side by side and no jockeying around to get one or the other out. 50’ door also opens things up for larger Aircraft. 40’ is too narrow for many common GA airplanes and might affect resale. .
An 18’ bi-fold door will give you 12’ clear. I consider that to be a minimum.
You don’t need that for an RV, although prop tips on a RV10 might be getting close.

You can get by with a shallower hangar, but most lots and designs are oriented the other way. If you want to have a small shop, etc… in the back, the depth is very useful.
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My hangar is 53' X 35' exterior with a 45' X 12' door. This hangar is too shallow . Another 10' deeper would have allowed me to get two Rv's side by side. As it is, I can only get a low wing and a high wing in at the same time and that's tight. A little deeper and it would be no problem.
 
Door should be as wide as the wall it is on. I have a 50x50 with a 48 foot wide 17 ft high door. Very little jockeying of airplanes to get them out.
 
You mentioned not talking “bigger is better”, but if you have the lot or space, extra square footage can be penny’s on the dollar, for the steel. The big ticket items are the bi-fold and the concrete, both inside and the pad. These are more like 75cents on the $. I chose a full width pad, 60’ ,enough to get both airplanes side by side outside with room to spare. This isn’t necessary, but it sure is nice especially since I store a trailer and collector vehicle that come out from time to time.
My prior hangar had a narrow pad, just the size of the door and then tapered to around 25’. I hated it, even when I wasn’t storing anything.
 
have no regrets, build as big as you can build. if someone hangars a plane, the rule is you can fly it. :)
 
JonJay said:
An 18’ bi-fold door will give you 12’ clear.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, my Schewiss bi-fold door is 14 feet tall and has 12 feet of clear space when open, i.e. only two feet of "lost clearance".
 
Our hangar is 44' wide, 40' deep with 14'6" inside wall height. The door is a Diamond bi-fold door that yields a full 41' width of opening and 12' of clear height.

I could pretty easily accommodate three RV's in this hangar.

As it is, I accommodate our Glasair Sportsman, our Davis DA2A and our Luscombe 8E in this hangar, as well as the Kubota tractor that I use for snow removal and a Mazda Miata for winter storage. Yes, it's tight, but also very do-able if one is careful and takes one's time moving airplanes.
 

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I believe your question is more easily solved by you driving some stakes in the ground and running string around.
Then try park the exact planes you want in the box. Simple matter of enlarging the box or door before spending huge bucks on the actual.
I used to build houses for a living and did this with most of the custom homes I built so the customer could get a feel of where they were in context to the house/view.
My luck varies with age Fixit
 
My hangar is 49' x 39' inside. The door is 49' x 12' or a little higher. When I bought it the seller had a Cessna 190, a Fairchild 24 and a J-3 inside.

Don't know how many RVs would fit. Probably depends on things like shelves, sofa, fridge, desk, chairs, tool chests, etc. are packed in there. I can say that my C180 plus either a Swift or an RV-4 fit comfortably, even with the stuff in the hangar now (which is not the full list I just offered).

Dave
 
Paper airplanes

I took an hour or so for me to make “to scale” paper cutouts of the planes I intend to put in the hangar I was building. This helped in a lot of ways. Determined how big of a hangar I’d need, AND what type of turnaround areas I’d need in front of the hangar.

Also, make sure you check your local building codes and how the size can change the building requirements for your structure. I’m guessing in FL you can do a lot without being nit picked by code restrictions. In my county in WA state, they were using IBC 2015 code. That meant anything over 2,000 sq Ft was almost cost prohibitive due to the additional things you’d have to do once you go over 2,000 - things like adding a fire suppression system, drained floors, etc.. It forced me to shrink my 40 X 60 plan down to a 40 X 50 size. Doable for my plan but not as ideal as the larger size.
 
mburch said:
For what it's worth, my Schewiss bi-fold door is 14 feet tall and has 12 feet of clear space when open, i.e. only two feet of "lost clearance".
Click to expand...

Sorry guys, my door is 15’ 9” with 12’ clear, not 18’.
My interior height is 18’.

Schweiss door with straps. So, my particular door requires almost 4’ of “headroom”.
 
Mike S said:
My Higher Power door only eats 6 1/2" of clearance ----- your bi-fold door is eating 1/3rd of the opening.......
Click to expand...

My "Hi-Fold" (bi-fold) door needs 7". Header opening is 12'7" and door opens to 12' clear opening height.
 
I made a quick call to Schweiss, out of curiosity.
They engineer the door on application. I asked my steel building supplier for 18’ walls, 50’ door, 12’ clear. That’s what was engineered into my building. That’s what I got.

They told me it’s possible to engineer greater door height in that same size opening. The building has to be engineered, braced, for the increase in loading as the door goes higher. Not sure if my door would change or not.
This all makes sense now.

So, something to consider as you engineer the building, and door, for your hangar.
 
Rick RV-4 said:
I’m guessing in FL you can do a lot without being nit picked by code restrictions.
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Florida and it's worse than where you are. On one of my property outside of city limits, I had a sprinkler system made of 1/2" pvc pipes laying on the ground that I would move around the property. One day a county code enforcement vehicle stopped and asked me if I was going to leave that there. I said yes but that I might eventually bury it 1" into the ground so I could mow over it. He said I'm ok as long as I leave it exposed but if I want to bury it I have to get a building permit first and that would cost me around $350 for the permit. I'll sell it all one of these days but for now they're rented.
 
Mike S said:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQyzPV6Cpg4?autoplay=1

Not trying to diss Schweiss, but HP does not load the hangar other than wind load. All vertical load is supported by the side columns.

Horton stack doors also have pretty minimum load on structure-------

Do your research and pick what works best for you.
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Plus’s and minuses to everything. Not a big fan of the look of the external braced doors. By the way, Schweiss offers one, more like Hydro-Swing with the bracing on the bottom, and probably more load requirements on structure.

Hadn’t seen the HP before. Cool design.
 
Mike S said:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQyzPV6Cpg4?autoplay=1

Not trying to diss Schweiss, but HP does not load the hangar other than wind load. All vertical load is supported by the side columns.

Horton stack doors also have pretty minimum load on structure-------

Do your research and pick what works best for you.
Click to expand...

The Schweiss single-swing hydraulic on my shop doesn’t load the building either. It has a dedicated frame bolted into the foundation, doesn’t transfer any loads to the wood framed structure.
 
I went to Horton in Kansas to see how they made them and liked it but ended up going with the same concept but made of aluminum, instead of heavy steal, in the northeast.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I’ll probably start with pricing out a 50 X 60 with a 50 foot door on the 60ft wall . I’m also thinking a 70 X 50 would be more efficient use of space vs 60 X 60 …. If I go larger .
 
I took an hour or so for me to make “to scale” paper cutouts of the planes I intend to put in the hangar I was building. This helped in a lot of ways. Determined how big of a hangar I’d need, AND what type of turnaround areas I’d need in front of the hangar.

Also, make sure you check your local building codes and how the size can change the building requirements for your structure. I’m guessing in FL you can do a lot without being nit picked by code restrictions. In my county in WA state, they were using IBC 2015 code. That meant anything over 2,000 sq Ft was almost cost prohibitive due to the additional things you’d have to do once you go over 2,000 - things like adding a fire suppression system, drained floors, etc.. It forced me to shrink my 40 X 60 plan down to a 40 X 50 size. Doable for my plan but not as ideal as the larger size.
 
jssaylor2007 said:
I’m guessing in FL you can do a lot without being nit picked by code restrictions. .
Click to expand...

Not really, read this https://vansairforce.net/community/showpost.php?p=1724601&postcount=18

You live in Muleshoe, TX? I loved Cannon AFB so close to you. I flew out of Clovis for over a year, in fact the first time a doctor ever grounded me in my entire flying career was in Muleshoe, TX. He was the closest doctor who could see me as I was driving from Lubbock to Clovis and wasn't going to make it there due to the pain.
 
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