RV Bays, Oversized Garages & Storage Solutions: Building for the Idaho Lifestyle
April 17, 2026
By Waite Homes of Idaho
If you’ve spent any time in Idaho, you know that the way people live here requires more space than the average home is designed to provide. A standard two-car garage was built for a standard life — and that’s not what most Idaho families are living.
Between the boats, the ATVs, the side-by-sides, the trailers, the snowmobiles, the horse trailers, the campers, and the full-size trucks that haul all of it, storage in Idaho is a real and serious need. Add to that a culture of outdoor recreation, agriculture, and trades, and you quickly understand why RV bays, oversized garages, and purpose-built storage are some of the most frequently requested features in our custom home builds.
At Waite Homes of Idaho, we design our floor plans around real Idaho life — not a catalog vision of what home should look like. That means garages that actually work, storage that’s built in rather than bolted on, and RV bays that accommodate the rigs people actually own. This post breaks down what to think about when planning the garage and storage portions of your custom home.
Why Idaho Demands More Than a Standard Garage
A standard two-car attached garage in a production home is typically designed to fit two average passenger vehicles — with limited room for much else. For a large portion of Idaho homeowners, that’s functionally useless before they’ve moved in.
Think about what a typical Idaho household actually owns: a full-size pickup truck or two, a boat on a trailer, an ATV or side-by-side, seasonal equipment like snowblowers and lawnmowers, tools, recreational gear, and in many cases a fifth-wheel or travel trailer that needs covered storage. None of that fits in a standard garage without compromising the vehicles themselves.
When you’re building a custom home, you have the opportunity to solve this problem from day one — designing the garage and storage configuration to match your actual life, not a builder’s minimum standard.
Understanding the RV Bay
An RV bay is a dedicated, oversized garage bay specifically designed to accommodate large recreational vehicles, trailers, boats, or other oversized equipment. It differs from a standard bay in several important ways.
Height. Standard garage doors run 7 to 8 feet tall. An RV bay typically requires a door height of 12 to 14 feet or more to accommodate the profile of a Class A motorhome, fifth-wheel, or tall toy hauler. Getting the height right is critical — even a few inches too short creates a problem you’ll live with every time you try to use the space.
Depth. An RV bay needs to be long enough to accommodate your specific rig, with room to walk around it and access service points. A 45-foot motorhome needs meaningfully more depth than a standard travel trailer, and getting this wrong upfront means parking outside anyway.
Width. Wider is almost always better. A bay that fits the vehicle but doesn’t let you open a door, slide out a drawer, or move past the rig comfortably defeats part of the purpose.
Electrical. Planning electrical service into an RV bay from the beginning — including a 30 or 50-amp shore power connection — is far easier during construction than retrofitting later.
Floor. A properly poured, reinforced concrete slab that handles the weight of a loaded motorhome or fifth-wheel without cracking or settling over time. This isn’t a place to cut corners on concrete thickness or reinforcement.
The best time to get the RV bay right is before construction begins. Once the framing is up, changing dimensions becomes expensive. We work with clients upfront to understand exactly what they’re storing and design the bay around those specific dimensions.
Our Floor Plans Built for the Idaho Lifestyle
RV bays and oversized garages aren’t afterthoughts in our design library — they’re built into the majority of our floor plans because we know what Idaho homeowners actually need.
The Willowridge (3,130 sq ft) features a 2-car garage plus a dedicated RV bay. With 3 bedrooms, an office, a loft, and 3 bathrooms, this plan gives you a full-featured home without sacrificing the storage capacity you actually need.
The Ashwood (2,800–3,294 sq ft) pairs a 3-bedroom layout with an office, bonus room, and 2.5 bathrooms with an oversized 2-car garage and RV bay. The flexibility of this plan makes it one of our most popular for clients who want generous living space alongside serious storage.
The Elmont (2,542 sq ft) is our most efficient floor plan — 4 bedrooms plus an office and 3.5 bathrooms — and still includes a 2-car garage with RV bay. This plan is designed for families who need the bedrooms and don’t want to trade off the garage to get them.
The Alpine View (3,225 sq ft) includes a 2-car extended garage plus an RV bay — the “extended” designation meaning extra depth beyond a standard 2-car configuration. At over 3,200 square feet with 3 bedrooms, an office, a bonus room, and 3 bathrooms, this is the plan for clients who want generous space in every direction — inside and out.
The Boulderview (3,104 sq ft) takes a different approach — a 3-car garage plus a dedicated storage garage. For clients whose priority is vehicle storage and workshop space rather than a specific RV bay configuration, this plan delivers serious capacity. It also has the option to include a 1,489 sq ft basement, making it one of the most storage-rich options in our library.
The 3-Car Garage: When an RV Bay Isn’t the Right Answer
Not every client needs an RV bay. Some need a dedicated workshop. Others want a separate bay for a project car, a riding mower, or a trailer that doesn’t have the height requirements of a motorhome. In those cases, a 3-car garage layout often makes more sense than an RV configuration.
A well-designed 3-car garage gives you discrete spaces: two bays for daily-driver vehicles and a third that can be used as a workshop, gear storage, or overflow parking. With the right depth and electrical planning, that third bay is just as functional as a standalone shop — and it’s physically connected to the home, which changes how convenient it is to use.
The Boulderview’s 3-car garage plus storage garage combination is specifically designed for clients who want this kind of layered, organized capacity.
Planning Your Garage Around Your Actual Life
One of the most common mistakes people make when planning a new home’s garage is designing it around what they have today rather than what they’ll have in five or ten years. If you’re building a custom home, you’re likely staying in it for a long time. Build for where you’re going, not just where you are.
A few questions worth thinking through before your initial consultation:
What’s the biggest thing you currently need to store? The answer to this question determines your minimum door height, bay depth, and slab requirements. Be specific — “a fifth-wheel” is not specific enough. Bring the actual length, width, and height to the conversation.
What do you plan to acquire? If you don’t have a boat yet but have been talking about buying one for years, plan the space now. Adding an RV bay after construction is expensive. Planning it in upfront is not.
Do you need workshop space? A dedicated work area inside the garage needs different lighting, electrical outlets, and floor treatment than a parking bay. Plan this separately from the storage bays.
How many people are parking vehicles? If two adults are working from home or regularly driving different directions, having one car block another is a daily frustration. Bay width and configuration solve this.
Do you need interior access from the garage to the home? This affects where the garage connects to the floor plan and what that entry transition looks like — mudroom, drop zone, pantry access, or a direct hallway.
Garage Features Worth Planning Into Your Build
Beyond the basic dimensions, there are several features worth considering during the planning phase that are much easier to include during construction than to add later.
Insulation. Idaho winters make an uninsulated garage extremely cold and can create moisture problems. An insulated garage is more comfortable to work in, protects vehicles and equipment from temperature extremes, and helps regulate the temperature in adjacent living spaces.
Heating rough-in. Even if you don’t plan to heat the garage from day one, roughing in the gas line or electrical for a future heater costs very little during construction and saves significant money later.
Epoxy or finished flooring. A finished garage floor is easier to clean, more durable, and more pleasant to work in. Specifying this during construction ensures the slab is properly prepped and sealed.
Dedicated lighting circuits. Workshop-quality lighting in a garage requires more circuits than a standard parking garage. Plan for this during the electrical rough-in phase.
Utility sink. A slop sink in the garage is extraordinarily useful — for washing up after outdoor work, rinsing equipment, cleaning fish, or any of a hundred other tasks. Roughing in the plumbing during construction is straightforward.
Storage cabinetry and wall systems. Our Legacy pricing plan includes specialty garage storage solutions as part of the package. For clients on other plans, we can discuss what makes sense for your specific garage layout.
The Signature Plan and RV Bay Inclusion
It’s worth calling out specifically that the RV bay is a standard feature of our Signature pricing plan — starting at $250+ per square foot. For clients building at the Signature level or above, the RV bay is built in, not an add-on. This is one of the more meaningful distinctions between the Essential and Signature tiers, and it’s one of the reasons clients who are serious about their gear and recreation so frequently step up to Signature.
The Signature plan also includes a 2-car garage with upgraded features, and the Legacy plan extends this further with specialty garage storage solutions built in as a standard feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add an RV bay to a floor plan that doesn’t already include one? Yes, in many cases. Floor plan customization is part of our process, and adding a bay or modifying garage dimensions is something we can explore during the design and pre-construction phase. The earlier you raise it, the easier it is to accommodate.
What’s the minimum door height I need for my RV or fifth-wheel? This depends entirely on your specific vehicle. Bring the manufacturer’s height specifications to your consultation — we’ll design the opening around that, with appropriate clearance added.
Does the RV bay need to be attached to the main garage? Not necessarily. Some floor plan configurations allow for a detached or semi-detached RV bay positioned adjacent to the main garage. This can give you more flexibility in how the overall footprint sits on your lot.
Can the RV bay be used for something else if I don’t have an RV? Absolutely. A dedicated bay with appropriate height and depth is useful for boats, trailers, horse trailers, ATVs, woodworking shops, and a range of other purposes. The oversized door configuration doesn’t limit you to RVs — it simply gives you the clearance for anything that needs it.
Ready to Plan a Home That Fits Your Life?
If your current home doesn’t have room for everything your Idaho lifestyle requires, building custom is the solution — and the garage and storage configuration is one of the most impactful decisions you’ll make in the planning process.
Waite Homes of Idaho designs homes around how people actually live here. Contact us to start the conversation about your project.
- 📞 (208) 631-7799
- 📧 contact@waitehomesofidaho.com
- 🌐 www.waitehomesofidaho.com
- 📱 Instagram: @waitehomesofidaho
It’s what you’ve waited for.
Add a comment
0 Comments