SteelMaster Buildings

SteelMaster RV Storage Building Featured in Motor Home Magazine

In a May 2009 issue of Motor Home Magazine, SteelMaster was featured for providing customers with a steel building that is ideal for RV storage. 

RV’s are  financial investments that need to be protected and preserved.  At SteelMaster we know how important these investments are to our customers and we wish for nothing less than to keep them in prestine condition.  The unique design of our RV storage buildings provides security and durability against things like snow and hurricane force winds, while remaining aesthetically pleasing. 

If it’s lifelong protection you want, than it’s a SteelMaster you need!

Motor Home Magazine

Ports, Pads, and Parking at Home

Most motorhome take up a lot of space, which leas owners to ponder the question: Where can I store my motorhome when it’s not in use?  While many RVers park on their own property—that’s what my husband, Paul, and I do—others rent commercial sites or purchase RV storage facilities near their residence.

As long as your community allows it, you can park you motorhome on the street, in your driveway or elsewhere on your property.  While some communities don’t have specific rules, others have very detailed criteria about the length and height of the vehicle, the distance it must have from the street and even requirements for constructing the pad on which it is parked.  To learn of any restrictions for your area, ask you neighborhood homeowner’s association or contact your city or county zoning office.

We park our motorhome on the side of our house in a secondary driveway that was constructed by a home improvement contractor.  It has a concrete pad and full hookups.  Because we back the motorhome into the driveway and onto the pad, we placed the electrical and sewer hookups on the far side of the concrete pad.  This meant going underground before the concrete was laid and chiseling holes in the cinder-block wall of the home’s foundation.

We mounted a 30-amp electrical cable hookup on a short post beside the driveway that connects to the electrical panel in our basement.  Nearby, a plumber installed a sewer hookup with a 2½-inch-diameter PVC pipe for water drainage and waste matter that connects to our home’s septic system.  The house already had an outdoor water faucet on the side near the motorhome.  We find it’s not always convenient to empty the holding tanks on our way home, and—for us—a local dump station is not available, so the convenience of having full hookups at home was well worth the cost of providing them.

Motorhome owners who want to build a concrete pad for their coach should first check on local building codes and zoning regulations before hiring a specialized driveway or general home improvement contractor.  When planning the project, be sure to include a generous amount of space around the pad so that you can conveniently work around the motorhome.

Because we live in an area where it snows, our contractor dug out soil 9 inches from the surface, laid in 3-4 inches of base stone, covered it with plastic sheeting and wide wire mesh, inserted rebars where needed and when poured the concrete.

I know of one motorhome owner who was working with a contractor to install a sewer hookup beside a concrete pad for his motorhome.  When the municipality would not allow him to hook up to its sewer line, the contractor installed a septic system on the property.  This kind of situation varies widely and will depend entirely on your local code and zoning requirements.

Another at-home storage option is to order plans for building a detached RV garage to blend in with your existing home.  Before ordering, obtain any local government permit or zoning variance that may be required to add a carport or garage on your property.

If you’re looking for a home with an RV garage already attached, there are specialized communities that offer homes with oversize garages or ports.  Homes in the gated Indian Palms Country Club in Indio, California, for example, include an RV garage with full hookups inside and a finished interior.  Other examples include The Great Outdoors RV Resort in Titusville, Florida, Retama Village in south Texas and Lily Golf Resort in Frostport, Florida.

If zoning or other reasons prevent you from storing a motorhome at your residence, you can rent or buy RV storage.  Feature of rental RV storage include outdoor or indoor parking, indoor climate control, 24-hour video surveillance, resident security staffing, a dump station, wash station, electronic gates with coded access, 24/7 accessibility and others.  Storage can be on a month-to-month basis or long term.

A growing option is condominium storage, in which the owner buys a unit to store the motorhome.  Following purchase, the owner pays monthly dues to the condo owners association.  Condo owners may rent or sell their units and they may improve and customize them with drywall, paint and other choices.  All-Stor Storage Condominiums, Fairview, Oregon; Eucalyptus at Beaumont, California; and River Palms Storage Condominiums, Mohave Valley, Arizona, are examples of firms selling condo units for RV storage.

Additional options for storage include military bases, such as the 99^th Services Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada (military bases offer low-cost RV storage for member of the military); fairgrounds, such as Northwest Missouri State Fairgrounds in Bethany, Missouri, and Westmoreland Fairgrounds in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania; and campground, which often have areas set aside for RV storage.

Finding or building the perfect parking spot for your motorhome may feel like a chore, but properly protecting your investment will make the effort well worth it.

             - Bernice Beard