What’s the first thing you need to know when considering the purchase of a new carport? While things like budget, features, and design are all important, they are not the first item you need to check off. Rather, you need to measure the lot size for your carport. You need to know how much space you have available for this new structure before you go any further.
In this article, we will offer some practical advice on how to determine the room you have available for a carport. Once you’ve planned the location, you can get to work with our Build & Price tool to design a metal building that both serves your needs and fits in the space available. If you run into any questions along the way, just contact us and we will work with you to get it figured out. Thanks for considering American Carports, Inc.!
Pick the Location
Before you start to take any measurements, you’ll first want to figure out where on your property you would like to locate the building. If you have a relatively small piece of property, there may only be one location that would make a suitable home for the new building. However, on bigger pieces of land, there can be several possibilities, so take the time to decide where the building should be before you go any further.
To help you make this important decision, we’ve identified three key points to consider.
Access
This is the big one. Whether you are using your new metal structure as covered parking, storage, a workshop, or something else, you’ll want to make sure it is easy enough to access for your purposes. Obviously, if it’s going to be a carport that you’ll use day after day, locating the structure near the road with an easy path to come and go is essential.
Site prep
In some cases, the work that needs to be done to prepare a site for building is actually more expensive than purchasing the building itself. To keep your site prep costs under control, think about how much work will need to be done on each potential building site that you identify. For example, if you have one spot that is covered with trees and on a slope, while another possible area is relatively flat with minimal vegetation, the second option will be much less expensive to develop.
Rules and regulations
You can’t afford to overlook this key point, as much as it might be a hassle to consider. Depending on where you live, there are likely to be some code rules in place that will limit where you can build and what you can build. For instance, you might have to obey setback rules that don’t let you build within a certain distance of the property line, and you may be limited on the height of your structure. Take these factors into account as you decide where you’ll build so there are no unwanted surprises later.
Collecting the Numbers
With your homework out of the way and a site selected, taking measurements is actually pretty simple. You can decide if you’d like to take a low-tech or high-tech approach to this job, but either way should get the job done.
On the low-tech side of things, you can use either a long tape measure or a measuring wheel to see how much space is available. The accuracy of these methods might not be perfect, but they should get you close enough to make an informed decision on how big your building can be. Just make sure to build in a little margin for error so you aren’t surprised when the structure arrives and your lot isn’t quite as big as you thought.
An alternative to the low-tech method would be to use your phone and its GPS capabilities to take measurements. There are a variety of apps that will help you with this task, and all you’ll need to do is walk along the edges of the property you want to use while holding your phone. This method should deliver pretty accurate results and the whole task can likely be completed in just a few minutes.
You may also opt to get an experienced builder and engineer to examine your property and make an informed decision on the placement and size of the carport.
Take the Time to Get It Right
The last thing you want to do in this process is order a carport that simply won’t fit on your property after it is delivered. So, take your time to get the details right in the lot measurement process, and consider going over the measurements two or three times just to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Reach out to our team at American Carports, Inc for any questions during this stage. We’re here to make sure you get a metal carport you’re happy with.
