Detached vs Attached hangar

[Clint Campbell]

Brand new to the forum:

We are in the beginning phases of home design for a hangar home. There are pros and cons of building detached vs attached. I have attached the first draft and was looking for some input on the layout of each option. The biggest problem that I am dealing with is the rising elevation of the northwest corner. It should be manageable with a low retaining wall. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Kenny Phillips]

When I retire and move to an airpark, I will certainly go for detached, for safety reasons. In case I do a stupid whilst building/working on an airplane.
Edit: Totally separate his and hers closets, lest some of his becomes part of hers until he is finally evicted to using another room for his closet. Just sayin'.

 

[Stewartb]

Love my attached hangar. Love wandering around it in my robe with my coffee. Mine serves as a garage for wife's car, too. Also has my elliptical, a lounge with sleeper couch, sleeper loveseat, and a comfy chair, and has its own bathroom. Wouldn't change a thing.

FWIW, State Farm insures it as a house with an 8 car garage. They know its a hangar house. They didn't take exception to the 500 gallon fuel tank, either.

More is more. Make the hangar bigger!

 

[Sinistar]

Doing a (hangar only) renovation right now. Your question is interesting. I always thought a home with a Hangar attached just doesn't quite look as nice as when the home is standalone. Just my opinion. Being attached would be more practical though. Only other comment is you show the hangar being only 35ft deep. Ours is 35ft deep with a second room in back that is 20ft deep. I would trade that 20ft in back for another 10ft up front. That is the difference between 2 low wings or 2 high wings fitting instead of just one. Looking at your design if you do want a deeper hangar the detached might work out better not make the hangar look way bigger than the house. Is there a way you could do a covered breezeway from house to hangar if detached?

 

[Flyxaos]

From a design standpoint getting the usually taller roof of a hanger structure to look good with the usually lower roof of a house can be difficult to not make look awkward. Even separating it with a breezeway type structure makes the the roof and aesthetic design easier and usually nicer.

 

[Lndwarrior]

You want to look at the fire separation requirements of your building code.

A hangar attached to a residential building will require a fire wall. It is likely to be a more stringent requirement than a garage separation.

If you need a 2 or 4 hour rated separation it could get very expensive. The codes on this have changed a lot in the last couple of years.

 

[manac]

Didn’t have a choice mine’s detached.
Pro’s more light/ventilation to the house,
Less noise, 5hp compressor in hanger w/air tools
Less fire risk
Somebody mentioned better visual appeal, I agree

Con’s
My site is laid out backwards, mud room/garage on opposite side of house than hanger.
Heating/cooling cost is higher

Since I moved in I added remote control for heating and lights, saves a few trips.
Second transfer switch so the generator in my garage can power my hanger especially the door.

Really up to you

 

[JOhnH]

A friend of mine has an attached hangar and I love it. Makes me jealous every time I visit. Just walk down the hall from the kitchen and look out over your pride and joy, and your other toys.

The way his house is layed out, the hangar floor is about 4 feet lower than the rest of the house so there are just a few stairs up to the house. Since the hangar opens to the side of the of the house, and with the roof design, you can't really tell it is a hangar from the front. It just all runs together and is beautiful

But I agree with making it bigger.
And I ESPECIALLY agree with @Kenny Phillips about the closets.

 

[Stewartb]

My house shares the roof slope of the hangar. That's fine by me. One feature that everyone who sees my house likes is how the living room sits forward of the hangar so it has windows on three walls. It also sticks past the rear hangar wall. Attractive, functional, and efficient. I can sit on my couch and watch planes go by or go to the bedroom and not know I live on an airport.

 

[pmanton]

Our place is the one with the red truck in front of the open hangar.
The detached hangar is connected to the house with a roof. This gives us a nice patio.

 

[Sinistar]

Our place is the one with the red truck in front of the open hangar.
The detached hangar is connected to the house with a roof. This gives us a nice patio.

View attachment 86806

Yeah, way more than just a breezeway!

Aside: Does your neighbor (to the left in the picture) also live onsite? In that case the hangar being attached is really dwarfing the size of the home. But still convient.

 

[pmanton]

There is some living space in the hangar in addition to the small house behind the hanger.
He's single so I guess he doesn't need to much room.

 

[flyingron]

<---- ATTACHED

Mine is attached. I can walk down the back stairs to work in the shop or hangar without worry. The hangar has its own fire supression (ceiling mounted dry chem/halon combos). The house has water sprinklers elsewhere. Other than electricity, the only thing shared with the hangar is the hydronic floor heat.

My wife and the architect worked closely to fit the house to the lot. Since we're on a hill, it allows the hangar and garage to share the same roofline.

Here's the enlarged version of the photo to the left

[

 

[Sinistar]

<---- ATTACHED

Mine is attached. I can walk down the back stairs to work in the shop or hangar without worry. The hangar has its own fire impression (ceiling mounted dry chem/halon combos). The house has water sprinklers elsewhere. Other than electricity, the only thing shared with the hangar is the hydronic floor heat.

My wife and the architect worked closely to fit the house to the lot. Since we're on a hill, it allows the hangar and garage to share the same roofline.

Here's the enlarged version of the photo to the left

[

I think you just converted me. Gorgeous!!!

So where's the runway

 

[flyingron]

That grass stuff is the runway. We had a discussion about whether we were going to put in a lawn. I pointed out we had 3000' of lawn out there.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

I would have to be able to go out to the plane barefoot in my underwear at 2am to work on something without freezing or upsetting a neighbor, lol. Enclosed climate controlled breezway, or attached hangar. I can dream.

 

[Bill Watson]

My home and hangar are detached on a 3.5 acre lot (includes some drainage easement). I’ll try to avoid the natural inclination to defend my decision as the best one.

At the time I built I simply couldn’t afford a house/hangar combo and I wanted a hangar capable of housing an assembled 15meter sailplane. So the house is about 50 yards away from the hangar and before we took out some trees, it was barely visible from the house in spring and summer.

This enable us to build a quality home and an oversized 40’x60’ steel hangar. I never did use it for the sailplane and instead put a Maule in it and ended up sharing it with my neighbor’s Cub.

About 10 years after building it, I decided to build an RV10 and put in an insulated shop with HVAC. For the next 5 years the Maule was flown and the ‘10 built.

Now I fly and maintain the ‘10 while my spouse does mosaics in half the shop.

Given the acreage, keeping the 2 buildings separate paid off in flexibility and costs. My home insurance is the same as if I didn’t have the hangar, but the hangar is covered. My tax rate is no more than other non-hangar homes in the subdivision. Before we cleared some trees we were unable to convince the tax assessor that the hangar was ours and on our property. Oh well.

During the build, I turned part of the shop into a paint booth - not an activity you really want with a home attached. Frankly it’s nice to have the airplane stuff separated from the home. The short walk is welcomed most of the year and the slightly longer drive is sometimes done a half dozen times a day. Can’t sneak out to the plane in my skivvies to fool around but can’t say that’s really my thing.
There’s a lake on the other side of the runway with a launch ramp 1 mile away so I keep a boat in the hangar as well.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Ravioli]

The questions about code requirements are very good arguments for separation.

But also consider the impact on the physical plant. Are you going to want HVAC in the hangar? What about goofy stuff like Wifi and plumbing? Attached may be better for those.

But I'll tell you this: You've come to the right place to have people help you spend your money!

 

[flyingron]

As far as the codes here (and we follow the IRC), there's not much of an issue with sharing a hangar with a house. There's a requirement for a two hour fire wall, but many places have that in place for any garage. The house isn't allowed to share HVAC with the hangar though we actually share the hot water circulation for the hydronic floor heat with ours. The hangar only has a sink for plumbing but the bathroom in the house is only steps away. Even if you separate the hangar, there are firewall considerations if you are either close to your house or to the property line.

I've got six Ubiquiti wifi hotspots (one in the hangar, three elsewhere inside and two on the exterior of the house), that gives us good wifi coverage all over our two acres. This is good since we have lousy cell coverage and the phones all failover to wifi.

 

[Stewartb]

I suspect you meant IBC?

House to Garage separations in non-commercial buildings typically require nothing more than 5/8" drywall in the garage and a solid core self closing door between house and garage, but not all jurisdictions enforce the self-closing provision. I've never seen a residential occupancy, single family or duplex, require a fire rated door to a garage. Triplex is considered commercial and that triggers traditional fire separations with UL, WH, or FM labeled fire door assemblies. My own attached hangar fits the description above. 5/8" drywall in the hangar and a simple insulated metal door with spring hinges.

 

[Tom-D]

Climate, is the primary consideration, Alaska may prefer attached/wet, Hot areas may go the other way.

 

[flyingron]

No, I meant the International Residential Code. The code mandates a 20 min door for garages. Indeed 5/8 drywall is fine for garages. However, when I was in Northern Virginia, we had to have a steel door on the residential garage and other stuff (so it does happen). The NC residential hangar rules (yes we have such) are not that onerous nor is the commercial hangar rules if you end up having to comply with them (the hangar proper can't have more than 2000 sf for the residential rules, but I got around that by walling off the shop/storage area in the rear of the hangar to keep the sf down.

 

[Stewartb]

Interesting. I've owned WH licensed fire door shops for over 30 years and have never provided a WH labeled door for a residence.

 

[flyingron]

Interesting. I've owned WH licensed fire door shops for over 30 years and have never provided a WH labeled door for a residence.

Well I guess people buy them elsewhere. 20Min doors are in the IRC and all the suppliers (even Home Despot and Lowes) sell them to residential customers.

 

[Stewartb]

Not exactly. Fire labeled doors are registered to the shop order, customer, invoice number, and project. Fire labeling shops get their logs reviewed quarterly. It's a very specific process. You and I have different definitions of fire rated doors.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

I suspect you meant IBC?

House to Garage separations in non-commercial buildings typically require nothing more than 5/8" drywall in the garage and a solid core self closing door between house and garage, but not all jurisdictions enforce the self-closing provision. I've never seen a residential occupancy, single family or duplex, require a fire rated door to a garage. Triplex is considered commercial and that triggers traditional fire separations with UL, WH, or FM labeled fire door assemblies. My own attached hangar fits the description above. 5/8" drywall in the hangar and a simple insulated metal door with spring hinges.

My insurance company mandated a self-closing garage door for my [non-hangar] home. There is a 1K sq. ft. apartment over the garage. I think that the steel self-closing door is code, anyway, but it didn't have a closer, so we added it immediately.

 

[FastEddieB]

Huge vote for an attached hangar.

Here's the view from our kitchen/living area just now:

Excuse the mess. Besides the Sky Arrow, the hangar also stores a tractor, motorcycles, bicycles, a car in inclement weather, work benches, tools, recycling, a workout area and lord knows what else. Having the ability to just waddle out to work on stuff or get stuff is immeasurable.

If you missed our "Pole Barn Adventure", just search for "Pole Barn". Our original plan was to build a "pole barn with a bathroom" to serve as a hangar and an efficiency, then build a 1,200 sq ft home later. Plans changed for a variety of reasons, and what we ended up with was a 1,350' 2-bedroom*, 2-story "house" with an attached "garage". Nicknamed "Wingin' It" because that's what the whole process felt like at the time.

Like I said, you can check out the really long thread for an idea of how we ended up where we did. We've been living in the hangar/home for just over a year and a half and are very happy with how things worked out.


*Actually a 3-bedroom, but with one of the rooms built into the hillside with no emergency egress, we can't actually call it a bedroom. So we call it the "BatCave".

 

[Bill Watson]

Huge vote for an attached hangar.

Here's the view from our kitchen/living area just now:

Excuse the mess. Besides the Sky Arrow, the hangar also stores a tractor, motorcycles, bicycles, a car in inclement weather, work benches, tools, recycling, a workout area and lord knows what else. Having the ability to just waddle out to work on stuff or get stuff is immeasurable.

If you missed our "Pole Barn Adventure", just search for "Pole Barn". Our original plan was to build a "pole barn with a bathroom" to serve as a hangar and an efficiency, then build a 1,200 sq ft home later. Plans changed for a variety of reasons, and what we ended up with was a 1,350' 2-bedroom*, 2-story "house" with an attached "garage". Nicknamed "Wingin' It" because that's what the whole process felt like at the time.

Like I said, you can check out the really long thread for an idea of how we ended up where we did. We've been living in the hangar/home for just over a year and a half and are very happy with how things worked out.


*Actually a 3-bedroom, but with one of the rooms built into the hillside with no emergency egress, we can't actually call it a bedroom. So we call it the "BatCave".

Kind of a small house with a big adult play room. I like it!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro