How big is big enough?

[sfGnome]

Just how much space do you need to construct a home-built? Some of the photos that I've seen lately are in sheds bigger than my home (lucky sods!). Clearly, there's not much use in starting to follow the dream if step #1 requires moving house first!

 

I presume that the initial phases (fuse, wings, tailfeathers, etc) don't require as much space as when it all starts to come together, so what do you think are the minimums you'd require (ie X metres x Y metres) for both the early and later phases?

 

 

[PapaFox]

Most aircraft (apart from those with single piece wings) can be built in a single car garage... technically. This relies on completed parts being able to be stored elsewhere (suspended from roof, lounge room, etc). Things can get very tight, but it is possible. I've seen others errect a temporary gazebo type structure in their back yard and build in there. Heck, I've even seen pictures of people building their fuselages in the middle of the lounge room... of course, no significant others are involved I dare say.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Im looking at building a RV 4 in one side of our double lock up garage.When I need more room. the missuses X-trail can spend some time outside.I know she will whinge LOL, but if its good enough for my Patrol to be out side, its good enough for the X-trail.lol

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Yeah it's a problem. I purchased a big GA kit so I've agreed to my wife to build onto our house; a new large family room with a row of sliding glass doors onto the back yard as my garage is just too small.

 

Yes we do need a larger house anyway but I must admit I haven't chatted to her yet about building an aircraft in the proposed new family room....

 

To your question personally if space is tight I would take the fuselage size and add about a metre all around it for a start, a small kit seems viable in a conventional garage as dazza says above.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

5Mx10M shed holds my 2 tornados tools and crap

 

[ATTACH]13118.vB[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

[Chird65]

Mine currently sits in a temporary 6 x 6.7 garage bought from a company in WA delivered to Vic in 4 days and cost $2,200 to my door. Erecting took 3 hours with 4 working on it, 3 pizzas and a slab of beer. This is it http://www.shelterstation.com.au/product.php?pid=15. It has survived all the rain and recent wind here and is secured to the ground on 8 plates with an auger and stake in each.

 

 

 

[rgmwa]

Until about a year ago, my workshop was a typical flat-roofed, freestanding 6x6m carport with a gravel floor which housed our old pop-top caravan and 1975 landcruiser. When I decided to build an RV-12, I raised the roof half a metre (to clear the tail), put some extra posts in to make it a metre longer (so I could fit the fuselage in), put walls on, plus two big hinged doors at the front, a side door and a couple of windows. Also had a slab put down.

 

Apart from the slab, the labour (mine) was free, but it still wasn't a cheap exercise. Anyway I ended up with a good 6x7m workshop/garage. The plan was to use half for the plane and put the caravan back in, but the reality is that the caravan is still outside and there are shipping crates and assembled parts spread over its half of the shed.

 

I'm glad to have the extra room because it makes life easier, but it would be no problem to build in a single car garage, provided you had somewhere to store parts.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[kgwilson]

I will be building my Sierra in the double garage of my new house. It is 6.0m x 5.8m. It is only when I need full assembly that I will need a bigger shed or hangar. As the wings come off in 10 minutes or less I don't expect a major issue. At 50, I downsized from 12 acres & 12m x 20m shed and workshop plus 2 other smaller sheds to 1160 sq m block & a 6m x 6.5m garage with a separate 3m x 2m shed. Now at 60 it is 6x5.8 garage & no shed on a 560 sq m block. Not sure where this will end. Maybe I will just buy a big shed with no house but that would be quite unpalatable in current domestic circumstances. I can dream though.

 

Kevin

 

 

[dazza 38]

HI Kevin, My dream would be a Airpark at Murwillumba.Close to my work Which is the Gold Coast and Brisbane.But the missus has agreed that I can build a A/c in the garage, but she wants to build a triple lock garage in front of the existing garage.I said to her " have you every heared of over capitalizing LOL".

 

 

[sfGnome]

Thanks very much for all the help & ideas. I particularly like the idea of Chird's temporary garage - I could put something like that up in the back yard without

 

1. having to worry about council permission, and
    
    
   
2. affecting eventual resale on the house. Yes, you and I might like a house with a whacking big shed taking up most of the back yard, but we're probably few and far between. Besides, I'd be able to explain to the bride that it's only temporary (for about 5 years... ).
    
    
   

 

 

Might be a bit cold in winter and stinking hot in midsummer, and I'd have to sort out a reliable electricity supply, but that's all possible. Yes! The dream lives on to fight another day.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Any standard garage will be big enough for most builds. I am currently building a savannah in a 6x6 std garage and there is plenty of room in there for it. The wings are completed and sitting in a rack I made at the back of the shed and the rest of the aircraft still have plenty of room with access to both sides easily. A local up this way built his in a single car garage built in his house I must say it was a bit cramped and I dont think I would have likesd to build it in there but laurie did and its now completed and flying very nicely but hangared of course at a airfield now. Final assembly was done at the hangar. My build will soon be transferred to my much lager sheds at my house here. I will build the fuselage here the main reason is not the room its being able to work on it in any spare time I get not like now where I have a 15 min drive to get there and get back so its hard to go and work on it if I get a few minutes or and hour free from my normal work I do here at home. The old saying where there is a will there is a way will apply always

 

Mark

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

If you are looking for a way of anchoring a temporary shed to the ground, Google "Ground Screws". They aren't cheap, but very effective, and as they are temporary... just unscrew them to relocate, you avoid council permit for a permanent building. There's a range of sizes and types to suit different requirements.

 

I used them for a gazebo.

 

 

[Yenn]

I am building in the equivalent of 2 big single car garages. Wingt tied up to the ceiling also most of the tail , flaps and ailerons. One other thing to think about is that the kit comes in boxes and you don't want to pull everything out, except to do the inventory. That means that as you build you will be going back to the boxes to find pieces. Vans give a good packing list, but what I did was list what was in each box, so I didn't have to go through everything to find pieces. Having said that there have been a few occasions when I have been at a loss to find something.

 

 

[Jack Tyler]

Not all garages - nor all kits - are the same...

 

It's always helpful to hear the experiences of actual builders when it comes to wondering about a build space. I've been researching this recently because we are about to buy a new home....and also a new kit, which needs it's own home. Here are a couple of add'l lessons I've learned:

 

-- a single car garage can be quite small indeed, or fairly generous as car sizes go. Talking about space in 'garage terms' can be misleading

 

-- you may be building 'a kit' but you may be ordering it one portion at a time...or to save shipping costs, all or most of it all at once. So a one car garage may be plenty for the 'one portion at a time' builder but be overwhelmed by multiple kits arriving concurrently

 

-- one single kit may be easily swallowed by a single car garage...while the kit with the 7m wing spars may be another thing altogether.

 

-- It's not just "the kit" that needs space. If I plan on setting up a small paint booth for priming parts, that needs a slice of my build space...as does parts storage...as does fastener organizers...as does the little laptop & monitor I'll want handy since I'll be indexing all the bits when the kits first arrive...and then there's the actual - ahem... - Build Space that's needed.

 

Here is an interesting benchmark for me: Mitch Lock built the second RV-12 (Vans Aircraft's 'East Coast Demonstrator') in a one car garage. (This would be an 'American One-Car Garage...so let's say it's ~3.5m x 6.5m). But he got the first set of plans and the first issue of each new kit when they became available, so he never really faced a storage issue with kits he'd received for which he was not yet ready to build. He'd previously built a RV-6, an RV-8 and, if memory serves, an RV-9 - again, all in a one car garage. But again, only one kit portion at a time, and with a hangar available for kit pieces that needed a temporary home.

 

My conclusion: A "one car garage" may be j-u-s-t enough...but plan on telling the guests they'll be sharing the back bedroom.

 

Jack

 

 

[rgmwa]

My conclusion: A "one car garage" may be j-u-s-t enough...but plan on telling the guests they'll be sharing the back bedroom.Jack

... with the completed parts :)

 

 

[Guest rocketdriver]

I've got two completed but not yet flying KR2 a/c , wings off and stacked in a 6m x 9m garage workshop. I have room, but only just. I am reparing wing dings etc and can only work on 1 wing at a time because the exit from the garage is blocked by my caravan and one or other of our two cars ..... so I can't temporarily remove one of the a/c to make room ....

 

Re the lounge room solution, IMHO thats a short term solution that rapidly leads to separation poverty!

 

 

[PapaFox]

I've got two completed but not yet flying KR2 a/c , wings off and stacked in a 6m x 9m garage workshop. I have room, but only just. I am reparing wing dings etc and can only work on 1 wing at a time because the exit from the garage is blocked by my caravan and one or other of our two cars ..... so I can't temporarily remove one of the a/c to make room ....Re the lounge room solution, IMHO thats a short term solution that rapidly leads to separation poverty!

or AIDS... Aeroplane Induced Divorce Syndrome!

 

 

[eightyknots]

Would a single garage be OK for building an ultralight (I will have storage for completed sections as well)?

 

 

[fly_tornado]

depends how large the wing is

 

 

[sfGnome]

Funny how history catches up with you. I am, after many years, in a position to get a shed so that I can home build, and I thought I’d search the archives to see if anyone had advice on shed sizes. Guess what? I asked exactly that question 12 years ago. Time flies! Anyhow, based on the above, I don’t need to ask it again. 🙂

[Thruster88]

So, what are you going to build? 

[sfGnome]

Ah, well that depends… The RA weight increase is a significant factor, because my beloved was never beloved of being limited on the amount of luggage she can pack when visiting family interstate. However, I don’t want to start something on the assumption that it’s all going to (eventually) go through smoothly and end up with a pile of unusable metal if they change the proposed rules. 
 

If the weight increase becomes real, then the ICP Ventura looks interesting (though I’d be a bit wary of being the first in Aus to build one). Also, the new Brumby that is being developed is also a possibility - I’d love to support a local - but I don’t know how that is progressing. Maybe an RV? I haven’t looked closely at them to see if any of them fit the requirements. 
 

In the absence of a weight increase, then maybe a Sling or an RV12? Lots of options in that area. Still plenty of thinking to do. Our recent move has opened up a possibility (probability!) that has been closed for the last 12 years. 

[rgmwa]

A Sling 2 is good for 700 kg and would be a nice choice for either weight limit. I've never yet been loaded even to 600kg in the RV-12 on any trip.

[skippydiesel]

Building & final assembly (of built component's into an aircraft) require diffrent dimensions.

 

My Sonex  fuselage (less wings & empennage) fitted into my Sons workshop, about the size of  a large single car garage. Wings & empennage stored elsewhere. There was plenty of  room on each side of the fuselage but very squeezy for & aft.

 

Final assembly & test flying was done in/from a hired hanger. Terrifying expense but for 4 weeks was worth it.

[skippydiesel]

2 hours ago, sfGnome said:

Ah, well that depends… The RA weight increase is a significant factor, because my beloved was never beloved of being limited on the amount of luggage she can pack when visiting family interstate. However, I don’t want to start something on the assumption that it’s all going to (eventually) go through smoothly and end up with a pile of unusable metal if they change the proposed rules. 
 

If the weight increase becomes real, then the ICP Ventura looks interesting (though I’d be a bit wary of being the first in Aus to build one). Also, the new Brumby that is being developed is also a possibility - I’d love to support a local - but I don’t know how that is progressing. Maybe an RV? I haven’t looked closely at them to see if any of them fit the requirements. 
 

In the absence of a weight increase, then maybe a Sling or an RV12? Lots of options in that area. Still plenty of thinking to do. Our recent move has opened up a possibility (probability!) that has been closed for the last 12 years. 

For a much bigger bang for your dollar (Wider speed envelope, from 27 knot Stall -134 knot Cruise, intuitive handling, quiet in/out, comfortable, low low operating cost, 300kg(+/- fit out) empty weight, check out the ATEC Faeta (available as a fast build kit or factory built) -Full disclosure: I am no longer an ATEC company representative. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by skippydiesel