Car storage fee survey

[Guest BillP]

It's that time of year again and the amount of machinery exceeds the spaces in the barn. What's the going monthly rate for heated, dry, secure, "museum grade" storage? Maybe give me your rough geographical location, too. To kick it off, I see that the Gilmour museum (Mich) is offering unheated for 250/month, heated for 350/month. Local (Ohio) unheated barn space is fifty bucks and up. Thanks for your input.

[CTW]

My son is paying $150. In central NJ. I doubt it has any heat and the 1930 Cadillac just fits in there with no room for anything else.

So not museum grade storage - but it was the only garage space he found to store the car in his area.

[ex98thdrill]

For the money that you'd save in paying unheated storage space, you could afford to put your car in one of those "bubbles." At least with those bubbles (about $400) it would solve the moisture and dust problem.

In my area, the going rate for unheated storage is about $45 a month. What I used to like is that one of the big Rochester car dealers use to advertise storage, and then put dealer plates on the cars and bring them to a guy who has a barn right here where I live (about 30 miles). All of these "poverty impaired" individuals with these high dollar Porsches, BMW's, Mercedes, etc paid the dealer big money, and yet the dealer paid one of the locals here $45 a month to store the cars. When the weather got nice, they'd come down with a stack of dealer plates and take the cars back to the dealer. Needless to say, I'll never do business with that dealer.

[Guest]

my fleet stays warm and dry in an old apartment complex garage that has four floors of 80 antique cars per floor in it.

heat, water, electric, and ventilated, you can drive the car around inside the garage.

We think of it as our club house, were someone is alwalys working on something. The retires are the day shift, then there's the after work people in the evenings, and sometimes the night owls working at 2am.

Space runs about $140 a space.... The is cheap for NYC.

I've worked is a cold garage, were you hands crack and the bloody knuckels dripping on the floor

To you who have "free" garage space, and have no room to run the creeper around because the lawn moer is in the way, this money is thought of as our "green fees" or club dues.

Most guys just come by on the weekend to chit chat...

You know what a open hood does.....

[Bill Boudway]

WOW!!!

I feel guilty responding to this post.

I'm paying $200 for the season, total, for our '25 Dodge and '62 Corvair in a wood frame garage, unheated, not "museum quality".

We're located in western NY State. The garage is in a rural location.

There is another place near here that is asking $40.00/month. Concrete block construction, unheated.

Another place is an old dealership building in a village, brick construction, unheated. $1200.00/season.

Good luck,

Bill Boudway

[Rick Hoover]

Bill,

Here in the Harrisburg / Hershey area, a single, unheated private garage will run around $75.00 and a unheated two car, about $140.00 a month. A unheated "community" storage space is about $50.00 a car, per month. I'm not even aware of any heated storage units around here, unless it would be a private garage owner leasing out a space or two to someone.

Rick

[rocketraider]

Don't feel quite so bad- I'm paying $90 a month for 10x30 unheated in a self-storage facility with 24 hr access.

Rentable garage space is at a premium here because people didn't build them due to the reasonably mild climate. Some older neighborhoods have small ones, but they're no longer good neighborhoods and not the kind of areas you'd want to be in at night. The other alternative is warehouses, but there's no after hours access if you need it. I also don't like the idea of anyone in the warehouse being able to look at my stuff or mess with it.

A few years back I had the basement of a restaurant rented for $175/month, lights, water, space for 3 cars and parts, and it stayed pretty much room temp all year from the restaurant's HVAC. It was excellent storage... until the night I got the 1 AM phone call saying the restaurant was on fire. When I got there, the roof was falling in.

I lucked up and only had some minor water/soot damage that the detail shop cleaned off. The building was originally a motorcycle dealership with the shop in the basement. It had 12" I-beams supporting the upstairs, and asbestos tile floor under the restaurant's carpeting. I think that combination is what saved my stuff, because everything in the restaurant was vaporised. The fire marshal said they couldn't even determine exactly where it started.

I aged 5 years that night.

[Guest Skyking]

Right around the corner from me is a three car garage that the owner rents out. He gets $100.00 per month per bay. Not museum quality, but wood structure & dry. Most of my neighbors have garages full of junk & their new cars are sitting outside. That goes up my butt a mile.

[Tom M]

I used to store the car down the block for $50 a month until last fall. We had another garage added onto the back of the original garage. Old Bessie in New Garage

[Guest Dave Mills]

After reading these posts, I am beginning to think I don't charge enough. I usually rent 4 to 5 spaces a winter in my garage. Not heated, but it is clean and dry. I only charge $20.00 per month.

[Guest rcirilli]

In the Pittsburgh area $50.00 per month seems to be the going rate for unheated. Sure am glad I built my garage years ago, now if it would only grow.

[6219_Rules]

Here in Longmont, my new home has a garage the size of a mouse house...only my Father's 2000 Beetle fits, and only just. So where to put the '47 Caddy or the Eldorado? I am looking at some expensive all weather car covers. You should be aware that I drive my cars year round weather permitting but I do miss having a large garage to house them. I am still considering a storage center or something, but on a fixed income that is not easy. $110 a month is what is quoted and that bites into my finances. I don't mind skimping on food, but I hate to take away from the car's. Do any of you have suggestions or experience with car covers in snow and ice?

That would help my decision greatly. Thank you.

[Guest Randy Berger]

Local fellow who belongs to our car club charges $30.00 a month to anybody - it is heated and has sprinkler system and someone walks thru a couple of times a day. He packs them in pretty good - no room to work on them. Pittsburgh seems really reasonable compared to other locales.

YFAM, Randy Berger

[Guest 57 pontiac]

Lots of things determind the price that you will pay, one of these is the location that you live in.An other one is what are you getting for the money, If you want a place where the car is put away at a certain date and then has to be removed by another date, expect to pay a certain price. If 24/7 access is important to you then you add night lights, security cameras, security fence and a prime location then you have to pay what that is worth. When you live in "the cold " county in the upper States then heated is something that you might want to avoid unless you have big bucks or are very lucky to find a place where the owner does not know what the location is worth. I own a self storage business here in Vermont and I rent several units to car owners as well a motorcycle owners. My rate is $90 a month and I offer all the above except heated space. converted cow barns are not my choice of storage places for anything of value. don't cut back on spending when it comes to storing your toy, a little bit of damage on it can run into big bucks to get it fixed.

[another old car]

boy after reading all these posts

theres only one back yard garage listed

that was top of my list(not hers) when we went shopping for another house

it had to have one on house / 1 1/2 car

and a back yard big enough for a two car detached garage (wife calls it my house) keep old car & jeep out back in shop. I keep other toys in house garage / seeing wifes astro van wont fit in there anymore/ its my garage annex

[wldavis]

I'll put my two cents in.

I wish I had a backyard garage, but do not.

I found a place for my car by advertising in the little weekly

classified paper, but it is about seven miles away. It is on

private property, but it is a commercial-style storage building

of seven units. I have a space of about 23 x 11.5 feet, concrete

floor, metal roll-up door, lights, electrical outlets, insulated

metal roof, concrete block/wood stud walls, unheated, with a

monthly rent of $30.00. I have access on this property to an

owner-owned workshop with most any type tools I would need to use.

-Bill

[rocketraider]

I'd like to have one here at the house too, but setbacks get me anywhere I could try to put it on this narrow city lot. The concrete driveway/patio beside the house needs some work, but it is riding right on the property line and if I bust it up to repour, then it is no longer grandfathered (1959) and the damn setbacks get me again <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. So I watch the cracks grow and dab some more sealer in them... I'd have had to jump thru hoops even to put up a metal carport on the existing driveway. Zoning is not always a good thing...

[CTW]

hmm.. I just realized I posted where my son pays to have the cadillac stored.

I'm lucky to be living in a house with probably the same sq ft in the garages as my living space! There's a 3 car garage here at my house. During the winter I won't have access to one of the bays since my roomates father who owns the house has first dibs to put his Lincoln town car/Presidential (whatever it is) when it snows.

Otherwise I have the 1904 olds in one bay & the other side is reserved for the 1930 Cadillac when I get it up here. Then the back of the garage has all my flea market junk - fridge, & portable heater.

here's a pic of the garages the gray doors to the right is a very wide garage - good thing or I would have to sell all that flea market junk! *giggle*

I plan to move soon & #1 on the priority list is a 2 car - climate controled garage.

[6219_Rules]

Claire! What a beautiful car! I would love to have a garage like that. I tried to get my Father to look for a large garage (4 to 6 car) with an apartment above it...the perfect solution...but no deal. I may still look for something like that in the future. Probably in the crappiest part of town too...but it might be worth it. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[CTW]

Randall - thank you!

Now that would be an ideal solution having your apt above your cars. We always joke - that all we need is running water in the garage & we have another apt.

After reading this thread - I will take great consideration when buying a new home how my cars (old or new) will be stored.

[Amphicar BUYER]

I have a smal-ish (for my needs anyway) 800 sq/ft garage with a 1000 sq/ft house behind. When I call for Pizza, they always show up in the alley at the garage door! Most of my friends come through the garage anyway. Right now I can put my boat, car, HD and sidecar, and my truck in there while having enough space to get my wheelchair around all of them. In the driveway I have 3 cars and 3 boats lined up on one side.

Now if I ever ggggget it insulattttted, I won't be fffffreezing mmmmmmy ___ off and sssssssmashing my fffffingers sssso mmmmmuch.

[wldavis]

Claire,

I agree with Randall. Your '04 Oldsmobile is a beauty.

I know that it must be a thrill to drive and to show.

-Bill

[ex98thdrill]

Bill are you talking about the old Becker Motors?

As for storing vehicles, another alternative is to keep your vehicles in cold storage and try putting the cars in those enclosed car covers (more like a bubble). For the extra money that you'll pay for heated storage, I'd think that after one season you'd pay for the bubble with the money that you'd save.

[Guest]

In yesterdays paper there were ads for collector car storage spaces at rates from $175.00 to $450.00 for the season.

That's in Mpls/St. Paul, MN.

[JanK]

In our area of Wisconsin we're lucky to see anything under $40 a month (unheated), but rates rarely exceed $75. We've got space for our cars in a heated garage for a bit more than the minimum, which is great for our pocketbook, but the garage isn't in the best part of town. And when the cars are in, they're in until we pull them back out for the season.

In a perfect world we'd add another detached two car garage to the property, or extend the existing garage to add another two spaces. But as we all know, the world ain't perfect! I've often wondered what the breakeven point would be, though, between renting storage and building our own. I suspect it would be sooner rather than later....

Jan K.

Wis Region

[ex98thdrill]

Back in 1982 my father was looking at building either another barn, or adding on to our old one to store the cars. As luck had it, he found a house with an apartment, with a 30x70 barn in good shape. He used the money that he had set aside for the barn as a down payment, bought the place, took the entire barn for himself, filled it, locked it, and rented out both halfs of the house. The beauty of it is that the rent paid the bills, and he claimed the whole works on his taxes as rental property. Had he simply built that other barn, he would've lost the tax advantage, and wouldn't be having the income coming in that he has today.

Today the place is paid off, he collects the rent from both apartments, and still has the barn to himself. If you're looking at renting storage space, versus building a something to store your cars, this method might be a good alternative.