Seeking ideas on garage rental for both storing and working on a car.

So, last week I bought a car I have no place for. I was going to ask my dad if I could keep it at his place for a while, and I may still have to do that, but he doesn't have a garage and this car seems to have a box full of neutrals, which I don't want to have to swap out in the snow. I'd *like* to rent a storage space/garage for it, but there's two problems:

1. most of them are kind of not cheap, which I could live with, but...

2. many or most don't allow for working on the car, due to liability or insurance reasons or some such thing.

So...any ideas? I've found a few "diy garage" places but they're geared towards bringing your car in, working on it for a few hours, and taking it back home again, not so much for storage.

Located about 30 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh, btw.

I rent (2) 40’ shipping containers. One is storage, the other is where I am building my Challenge car. There is enough room to put 3 small cars. I have it set up with 2 plus a little workspace. 

Guy charges me $95 per month, and doesn’t mind if I work on stuff. There is no electricity, so I use a generator. 

Look for storage containers for rent on Craigslist. 

Try your local airport. I have a friend who just moved his cars to the back of someone's hanger.

Another idea is to set up a greenhouse hoop building. You can use two layers of heavy poly and use a small fan to blow air between the layers which gives you pretty good insulation. Then sell it when you are done. 

Or just man up and be like the 359 Twinsticks guy and work on a major project in your mud driveway through two Alberta winters.

I have a garage in Baltimore I rent out to a race team.  They store and work on stuff there.  *knock on wood* they've een there 3 or 4 years and no issues.

I'd peruse local craigslist for rent and try to find a similar deal, a dude with a garage he wants to rent space in.  

you might try this , https://www.neighbor.com/

its a website where people offer storage , from a closet to wherehouse space , 

there are many postings around here , you might try your area,

Good Luck

ohh they are a little sneaky , if the price is in blue its the first month price at 50% off  ,  it took me a bit to figure that out  :)

californiamilleghia said:

you might try this , https://www.neighbor.com/

That's a cool site that I never knew existed!!  Wish I'd known about it back when I had a trailer taking up most of my driveway.

-Rob

Good suggestions all. I just looked at neighbor.com and have also kept poking a stick at CL with various search terms. It seems I'm in some sort of storage black hole where everything is overpriced, overly regulated, or otherwise infeasible, but I did find a few that might work. Now I just need to get over my "calling people I don't know" anxiety.

californiamilleghia said:

you might try this , https://www.neighbor.com/

its a website where people offer storage , from a closet to wherehouse space , 

there are many postings around here , you might try your area,

Good Luck

ohh they are a little sneaky , if the price is in blue its the first month price at 50% off  ,  it took me a bit to figure that out  :)

I looked at this, around here its $285 on that site for a car outdoor, and $385 a month indoor. I need 4 more spaces at the current rate. SIGH.

My friend suggested using an RV lot. Problem is how dusty it is. Might just do that, its so much cheaper . 

mr2s2000elise said:

californiamilleghia said:

you might try this , https://www.neighbor.com/

its a website where people offer storage , from a closet to wherehouse space , 

there are many postings around here , you might try your area,

Good Luck

ohh they are a little sneaky , if the price is in blue its the first month price at 50% off  ,  it took me a bit to figure that out  :)

I looked at this, around here its $285 on that site for a car outdoor, and $385 a month indoor. I need 4 more spaces at the current rate. SIGH.

My friend suggested using an RV lot. Problem is how dusty it is. Might just do that, its so much cheaper . 

you live in a pretty expensive place , did you look at Lompoc or up that way ?

In reply to californiamilleghia :

My friend suggested Agua Dulce. He has motorhomes there for $120 a month.

rob_lewis said:

californiamilleghia said:

you might try this , https://www.neighbor.com/

That's a cool site that I never knew existed!!  Wish I'd known about it back when I had a trailer taking up most of my driveway.

-Rob

Glad it helps ,  I just found out about it  a month or 2 ago......

I've rented 4 different garage/warehouse storage spaces about 12 miles NNE of downtown Pittsburgh.  I found the first on CL, the second by word of mouth with coworkers, the third on FB or CL (I forget which) and my curent space from the same owner as the 3rd space when it became available and was a better fit for both of us (the 3rd space was always meant to be temporary until they had a tenant for the space which was too big for me).  I think storage units are ridiculous for what they charge around here - even outside parking for boats to me is expensive.   Your challenge is what kind of work you want to do, and depending on what you want to spend.  Minor mechnical work should be fine if they allow any work at all, but if you want to weld, grind, etc., you'll need proper shop space.  I have seen older vacant garages for rent from time to time, some with lifts.  Those tend to be $800/month or so - well past my monthly budget just for storage.  My first 2 spaces were a steal at $100/mo for a 1+ car garage and then a 2 car garage.  

Did you see this listing?

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/prk/d/curtisville-garage-for-rent-2-lifts/6981218491.html

I found Toiletbird Industries HQ by seeing a hand-painted sign along the side of the road.  They literally didn't advertise anywhere else that I could find.  You might try driving through the light-industrial sections of town to see if any places have "For Lease" signs hanging.  Everything I found on loop.net or craigslist was either super-expensive or way more space than I needed.  Sure $0.25/sqft triple-net is a fabulous price, but if the smallest sub-divide you'll do is 150,000 sqft, that's just not going to work for me!

Before moving into our current space, we did have space in a self-storage lot.  The owner was completely okay with what we were doing and we had a dedicated 20amp outlet in each of the two 10x30 garages.  These places aren't zoned for doing work on cars for the most part and there's always the liability that you're going to set something on fire, be hanging around making the place look like a hillbilly paradise, or creating smells that permeate other people's Nice Stuff.  But not all of the places worry about that sort of thing.  You might try asking for an outdoor place to keep an RV and if they're okay if you do a little basic work on it like brakes and oil changes.  Then you could put up one of those portable garages over your space and work in that and probably get away with it.

An additional thought for consideration - there's probably good space available that just doesn't get advertised.  My current space is in the middle of a building that has a dentist office on the end, and the middle space is an office connected to a 40' x 25'(?) warehouse space, followed by a storage garage on the end (the landlord uses).  The office/warehouse tenant left, and an insurance agent wanted to move into the office but did not want or need the warehouse.  The landlord was happy to have the new tenant but now had a vacant warehouse and a bathroom that would be difficult to rent.  She knew it was perfect for me for storage and be able to move boats/trailer/stuff in and out on evenings and weekends as needed and not bother the other tenants.  It has been a win-win for all of us.  She does not want me storing any cars there and frankly that's the only downside - I'd like to move a car in there for the winter. Now that I've been there for a year and she knows me, I may ask again.

In reply to klb67 :

I did find that one, it's actually real close to where I work. Just need to call them and ask for more details.

In reply to slowbird :

If you talk to them, can you message me and let me know what they want for rent and what the details are?  I'm not looking for a change now and it's farther than I'd want, but I'd like to have the info as a benchmark.  

mr2s2000elise said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

My friend suggested Agua Dulce. He has motorhomes there for $120 a month.

Long way from your place but it is "dry' out there !

Maybe the old Airplane junkyard has some room :)

Pole barns...

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Going to "tour" two places tmrw 

I have been looking here for the last two years.  Everyone wants a damn mortgage payment a month for decent storage and if you want something with electricity just forget about it! 

This was the best deal I've ever found and i was a day late. I thus screen shot just to inquire every so often. 

Garage is a necessity of a car.  One must have a perfect place for a car especially for such cars that are rented. As one has to take care of it. Our [canoe sites] provides you the best car rental services.

Canoe

Feiend told me to use a shipping container 

"We do rent some of the containers you see on site. We offer 21' containers for $189 per month of 40' containers for $310 per month"

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

If they ever move out, let me know.