Has Anyone Torn Down a Garage and Rebuilt?

[HPRifleman]

My wife and I have been half-seriously checking availability of some houses out of state. Most of what we are seeing will have a 2 or 3 car attached garage with some kind of additional building. The other building may be a simple 24'x24' garage or 80 year old barn something else. Many examples are un-heated, or low ceiling, or poorly built.

I'm curious if anyone has bought a property with an unsuitable garage, torn it down, and rebuilt to their requirements. Any pitfalls, recommendations, thoughts?

 

[larry_g]

I'm not even going to attempt this. There are so many weird rules in different places that it is impossible to know what hurdles the local AHJ's may throw up in your face. Then there the things that the site may throw at you like septic, wetlands, ledge, access and more. So without location your just going to get opinions and stuff from all over the country.

One local story.. A coworker tore down an old garage with intent to rebuild it. Went to get the permits and one of the requirements the city put up was she had to pave the alley running behind her house. Later found out that one of the planners in the city owned a block of apartments at the end of the alley.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[HPRifleman]

Just to clarify, I wasn't asking about rebuilding a garage to match what was there before and having to conform to the same requirements. I was asking about tearing down a garage that the owner doesn't want and replacing it with something better. Obviously working within the local regulations can be a problem. I was just curious if anyone has gone down this road as opposed to just living with a garage they don't like.

 

[mike93lx]

All the joys and expense of a new build with the added costs and headaches of demo. What more could a guy want?
At least it's not renovation, though.

Barring stuff like asbestos and buried fuel tanks, demo is usually not a huge deal, just money and time.

We (at work) demo'd an old 2 story house last year in MA. Between the asbestos abatement, disposal, permitting, labor, etc, it was over 30 grand

 

[zkdiesel]

Just more money! Your way better off buying what you want, it will be way cheaper as I’m $200k into a pole barn renovation

 

[WisJim]

Another problem is changing zoning or building codes. My neighbor has a garage built up to the property line. It was okay when built decades ago, but if it burned down or otherwise needed to be replace he would have to comply with current code, requiring a minimum 6 foot set back. One son had a house with a slab from a former garage (long gone), and he couldn't build on all of it because it is too close to property lines.

 

[loganb]

I actually considered the reverse in 2009. Was looking for a rural acreage and there was a very nice 3 car garage on a paved road....but nothing else. The house had burned about 2 years prior and they were able to stop the fire before it spread to the attached garage. So they knocked down and cleaned up the house site etc, closed back up the wall where it was previously attached to the garage and it sat. I dug in enough to find out it was going to be costly and moved on

With the costs I've seen of GJ "average" build and gauging what I expect you'll be looking for based off your current build...$200 a sq/ft if in a cheaper cost of living area for the new build plus demo costs for the existing...I'd try to wait and find one that's viable or needs some "love".

I've got a standing Zillow search for houses in my area with 4+ beds, 3+ baths, 3k sq ft AND 4+ parking spots....and the 1 or so hit a week excites me up until I play with the mortgage calculator and remind myself it would more than 2x my monthly housing costs and all it's doing is buying garage spaces in a 10 year newer house.....but I haven't turned off the search yet as it's fun to see what's out there

 

[Bondo]

Just to clarify, I wasn't asking about rebuilding a garage to match what was there before and having to conform to the same requirements. I was asking about tearing down a garage that the owner doesn't want and replacing it with something better. Obviously working within the local regulations can be a problem. I was just curious if anyone has gone down this road as opposed to just living with a garage they don't like.

Ayuh,... It depends entirely on the local zoning laws, where ever you decide to move too,.......

Years ago, in a town with some oddball zoning laws, we poured a new slab, 'n put up a brand new steel barn, all inside an ole falling down cow barn,.....
Then tore down the ole cow barn, to get 'round those oddball zoning laws, 'n end up with the brand new steel barn,.....

 

[CoogarXR]

I'm planning on doing this at the place I just bought. It has a 30x30-ish old wooden pole barn (with actual round wooden poles). It has a nice metal roof, but that's about it. The wooden sides are rotted and many panels are missing. It has 2 bays worth of crooked/broken concrete slabs, and the rest is gravel and **** poop, lol.

I am going to have a buddy look at it and see if it's able to be gutted and re-use the skeleton and maybe the roof, or if it would be better to just start over. It's in a rural setting with no zoning restrictions, so I am not worried about anything other than the financial aspect of it.

 

[Rst277]

Just to clarify, I wasn't asking about rebuilding a garage to match what was there before and having to conform to the same requirements. I was asking about tearing down a garage that the owner doesn't want and replacing it with something better. Obviously working within the local regulations can be a problem. I was just curious if anyone has gone down this road as opposed to just living with a garage they don't like.

I've done it twice. Your local zoning laws will be what you need to figure out and get the required permits. Here I needed a permit to take down the old garage and another to build a new one and inspections etc. Not hard to do if you are building something that fits the neighbourhood size wise. I took down a 10x20 garage and built my current 16x24 garage in the same place. Not a huge deal.

 

[niget2002]

My sister tore down an entire house and had a new one built in it's place. They inherited the original house. It was a stilts style house built on water front property on a lake. The house was old and while it looked good, it had issues. They had the house ripped out and put in a beautiful 2 story country style house with a wrap around porch to take advantage of the views of the lake.

I'm sure a garage could be done.

 

[ddurrett896]

Just check with zoning for setbacks, etc since it might have been grandfathered in,

If it has been grandfathered, use what you have and expand if possible.
If it hasn't been grandfathered, demo and rebuild. This is what I did.

 

[u2slow]

Demolition costs these days.... both environmental and machine/trucking.

Bylaws - could work in your favour on a larger grandfathered building. Otherwise everything is getting more strict.

 

[bdbecker]

I'm living with a garage that I didn't like at first, but am gaining appreciation for as I make it my own.

I seriously considered knocking down the two car detached garage that I use as my shop (unfinished 24x24 on slab) and starting fresh. It would have been a stretch on the budget and we were also planning on starting a family around that same time, so I decided to just improve the space I had instead of trying to replace it. If you were to ask me today if I regret that decision, I don't know that I could really give you a clear answer.

On one hand, having limited space has forced me to prioritize what is important and to carefully consider each decision I make. DIYing the improvements has also taught me a lot and given me confidence that with enough time and planning I can do whatever I set my mind to. I'll even admit that its been fun at times trying to come up with workarounds and fixes along the way. While it has certainly taken longer than I'd like, I think I'm about four big projects away from being "done" with my shop (fix and level the slab, upgrade electrical, install mini-split, and build the cold storage bump-out on the back).

On the other hand, yes, I'd love more ceiling height, square footage, thicker walls, and a somewhat flat and level floor. If I came into some money and had all my other financial obligations taken care of, give me the keys to the bulldozer, I want to be the one to knock it over. Since this scenario is unlikely, I guess I did make the right decision after all.

 

[stoich]

I did exactly that at my small property in the Chicago suburbs. Decided I was going to be here a bit and the garage wasn't cutting it. Tore down a small 2 car:



And had a slightly bigger, but more importantly, taller garage built:



No pitfalls or any big hurdles. Basically went as big as the city would allow. Hired a local garage builder and they did everything from demo to electric. All went great and I'm happy for now.

 

[Debcrow]

Ayuh,... It depends entirely on the local zoning laws, where ever you decide to move too,.......

Years ago, in a town with some oddball zoning laws, we poured a new slab, 'n put up a brand new steel barn, all inside an ole falling down cow barn,.....
Then tore down the ole cow barn, to get 'round those oddball zoning laws, 'n end up with the brand new steel barn,.....

Did just the opposite to get around the zoning changes. Old horse barn, sad shape.
Built the metal building around it.
Started on the side facing the street. Made it look like I was just putting metal siding on the old barn. Did the rest of the sides. Tore down the barn inside and put on the metal roof. No hassle with anybody because it looked a lot better than the old building and it looked like I was just fixing up the old building.

 

[finn]

I started tearing down a 1942 single car garage. Got the &200 permit and started ripping off the roofing .

After about an hour’s work, I took a closer look and decided to replace a couple of studs, a rafter, and some of the roof boards with some rough sawn lumber I had milled up a few years prior but never used.

A new layer of osb underlayment to level the roof, new shingles, and some used vinyl siding, recalled windows and a pane of glass, and an inexpensive roll up door, and I have a useful albeit small storage building.

The late neighbor told me he built his house next door in 1949, and that little garage never looked better.

The only expense was a few squares of shingles and a $350 door, plus a gallon of paint.

 

[Sumboodie]

Demolition costs these days.... both environmental and machine/trucking.

Bylaws - could work in your favour on a larger grandfathered building. Otherwise everything is getting more strict.

Maybe $500 rental for a day rental on a 200ish sized excavator.

Seperate burnables, non burnables.

 

[u2slow]

Maybe $500 rental for a day rental on a 200ish sized excavator.

Seperate burnables, non burnables.

Roofing and painted lumber/siding may not be allowed to be burned. Drywall and insulation may contain asbestos - specialized disposal. Where is the concrete rubble going, and how does it get there?

All adds up....

 

[sansbury]

I'm curious if anyone has bought a property with an unsuitable garage, torn it down, and rebuilt to their requirements.

I did step 1 three years ago and am hoping to complete steps 2 and 3 in the next 6-9 months. You can check out my thread on the start of the process with everybody calling me an idiot here:

Construction cost sanity check: western mass

Finally starting to get pricing back from my builder and it’s eye-popping. Project is a ~1200sqft four-season garage in western Mass. The one that’s blowing my mind is he’s saying close to 250K to frame it, and that’s not including the roof trusses. All the other items—excavation, concrete...

www.garagejournal.com

I would have loved to find a place with a suitable building but I had about six items on my checklist and this place ticked off five of them, including a really hard one, so I was willing to take on the need to demo the glorified 2-car shed and rebuild. Does at least give me the chance to build some key things to my spec.

I do agree with what others wrote about being careful to not make assumptions about what you can or can't do easily. When I was buying I read the zoning bylaws myself and used a well-recommended local attorney to verify my layman's reading. Some of the most common gotchas to understand include:

- Setback rules (how close to property lines can you build/rebuild)
- Lot coverage (if you have a 100K sqft lot, you can only build say 20K of structures on it) - more a problem for small lots in town locations
- Height limits (I can only build max 25' high ground to roof peak without a variance)
- Usage restrictions (less of a concern if strictly hobby use)

All this assumes you're not dealing with an HOA, if you are then stop, turn around, and burn rubber getting out of there because the only things you're allowed to do in your garage will be parking a car or flower arranging, and the flower arranging might be a gray area.

Also, assume that if you close on your dream property by June 15 you may have a roof over your new garage around Halloween--2026. This depends heavily on location though as well as your willingness to throw some money around.

 

[Sumboodie]

Roofing and painted lumber/siding may not be allowed to be burned. Drywall and insulation may contain asbestos - specialized disposal. Where is the concrete rubble going, and how does it get there?

All adds up....

Concrete goes in the ground.

I never said to burn roofing. That's a non burnable.
Asbestos... a couple days exposure never killed anyone. Close the cab door and wear a mask if it's such a bother.

Can either get it done or play what ifs for the next 20 years...
Or bust of the wallet if you want to afford it that way.

 

[u2slow]

Concrete goes in the ground.

I never said to burn roofing. That's a non burnable.
Asbestos... a couple days exposure never killed anyone. Close the cab door and wear a mask if it's such a bother.

Can either get it done or play what ifs for the next 20 years...
Or bust of the wallet if you want to afford it that way.

I've spelled out my warnings. YMMV.

A demolition permit will quickly get you up to speed on all the required environmental/disposal stuff. A big machine is an easy way to attract the bylaw guy. I know the BS runs deep here, so I'm not poking the bear. My existing structures get "repairs and maintenance". Nothing more

 

[Sumboodie]

I've spelled out my warnings. YMMV.

A demolition permit will quickly get you up to speed on all the required environmental/disposal stuff. A big machine is an easy way to attract the bylaw guy. I know the BS runs deep here, so I'm not poking the bear. My existing structures get "repairs and maintenance". Nothing more

Wouldn't get a 2nd glance here. Granted I already have equipment sitting in my yard, as do many folks.

 

[the shifty jesus]

Considering the same thing, as part of a larger renovation. Zoning in my area is pretty liberal in terms of height/size, but a bigger garage that could support an ADU above would involve removing the current slab to put in a foundation and moving the whole thing a few feet to meet setbacks and building envelope requirements. I’m not real wild about that.

 

[duneslider]

"Remodels" in my area are getting more popular. I don't know the exact code on it but what I am seeing is they will tear down an entire house except for maybe one wall and this allows it to be considered a remodel vs a new build. They build a completely new house on the same foot print. I don't believe this is allowing them to skirt any codes but the building permit for a new build is considerably higher than the building permit for a remodel. Most places don't really allow you to grandfather new work. New work usually has to be done per the current code, many places are even requiring bringing existing stuff up to current code if you are making any changes.

I know for some reason people are really afraid of talking to the local AHJ but my experiences have almost always been pretty favorable. Have a chat with them and see what their rules and guidelines are for what your are thinking of doing. When I was looking to build I had a lot of conversations about specifics with several different cities that everyone claimed were difficult to work with and they all seemed pretty responsive to someone wanting to do something nice.

 

[driftpin]

One son had a house with a slab from a former garage (long gone), and he couldn't build on all of it because it is too close to property lines.

I bought a south Florida CBS single-story house, the cheapest house on the block, and for blocks around. It was > 50 years old then, built between WW I & WW II. Now, if it was still standing, it would be nearly 100 years old. There was a one-car wood garage at the back alley, and in violation of current code for setbacks. A previous owner knocked it down, just before I bought the house. I never saw the garage, but neighbors said it was in poor shape, and the slab was too-low, after heavy rain, the slab would become submerged, so unfit for use. After I bought the house, I contracted to have the slab demo'ed, and the hole from it filled and graded.

In many jurisdictions, 'being grandfathered-in' does not mean you can raze the existing structure and replace it with something new on the old setbacks. The liberal interpretation would be that you can make repairs to an existing non-conforming wall, but you cannot remove it and use the non-conforming setbacks to re-build. You could attempt to obtain a variance for the parts of the structure in the setbacks, in rebuilding, if you removed the non-conforming structure but such work is usually referred-to as a 'self-imposed hardship,' and is grounds for disallowing a variance request.

We demo'ed an existing attached 2-car garage and had it rebuilt on a new floorplan, meeting current setbacks of the time. It's entirely CBS or solid poured concrete, and would be a safe space in the event of a hurricane. It's designed to withstand 180 mph wind gusts. The renovation was an addition, designed with a loft for heavy storage, like motorcycle engines and parts. It has clear-span rafters, not trusses, though it has a low ceiling to keep costs down and the loft is considered 'not-habitable space.' A Munchkin could fit in there, I suppose, but the only means of access is a ladder.

I am now retired, but was a FL licensed plans examiner, a planner, and a lifesafety inspector.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I was going to mention all the aspects that everybody else already has. Then it came to me, that's exactly what we did with the attached garage on the house.

Our house originally had a (roughly) 20x20 attached and poorly built. The valley between the house roof and garage roof were done wrong, the east wall had a section of windows that extended 4-5 studs with no header. When the bank came out to do an appraisal prior to loaning the money, I was showing them the property and explaining stuff. I hit that wall with fist and you watch the entire garage shake. They about **** their pants, it was quite funny.


In the end, I tore it down, built a 24x32 in it's place along with wrap around front porch, windows, new roofs and siding on the house. The bank was quite impressed and glad to see the investment in their "loaned money". They even complimented on the neatness of the wiring in the garage when they came back and asked who did it.

 

[draco_1967]

I tore down and rebuilt. When we bought the place, we planned to do it. We couldn't find any place with a decent garage. They are all half carports, or tiny, or falling apart. The original garage was cobbled together, the electrical was sketchy, and the floor was broken and unlevel. The demo added about $3k to the total cost of the new garage. We had to adjust setbacks because the old garage was built right on the property line. To me, it was worth it to have what I wanted.

 

[GrayFlattop]

Yep, when we bought our house a million years ago,it had a 18 x 18 "2-car" garage on it, but it also had a larger lot (for an urban area). I used that garage as best I could as a woodshop for about 8-10 years until we saved-up enough $ for a larger garage. Moved the equipment out for temporary storage then demo'd the old garage. Myself and a friend, 2 sawzalls, a skilsaw, 2 sledgehammers and one dumpster. We started in the AM and we were both enjoying beer and a pizza by 3:00 PM.

I was nice enough to let my concrete guy remove the old broken slab when he did the excavating for the new slab & driveway. 2 days later he poured a slab for a 24 x 40 garage (the largest one that would be permitted). The next day he stripped the forms off the slab and poured the new driveway.

One of the best moves I ever made.

 

[HPRifleman]

I appreciate all the responses. Municipal build limitations is something I became familiar with when I built my current garage.

For background on my original question, my wife and I have been researching potential retirement properties in a different state. Probably still 5 years away but we're trying to see what type of real estate is in that area.

It seems that just about everything 2-10 acres has some kind of supplementary garage/barn already there. But, as @loganb has already surmised, I've been spoiled by the garage I have now and want something comparable in a new place. I would prefer finding a property with no shop and having one built to my specifications but that seems hard to find.

Building a new garage with one (or two) outbuildings already there seems untidy. That's why I started thinking about razing an existing garage and building a new one.

 

[dandan111]

If you find a good foundation your money ahead in my opinion. But lots of guys take down old buildings these days. Build new pole barns and a pond to top it off. It’s just a personal choice. We built a new house with a 3 car garage. We have an old barn and old garage that have been cleaned up and maintained. - I like the old buildings.

 

[ambenz]

Oh I hear you neighbor, get the hell our of this state, if you can! We are so screwed.
You are going to miss that sweet garage you just finished a few years ago and I am kind of in the same boat. I am spoiled with my big garage but mine is over 23 years old now and would need something as nice if I moved to SE Tennessee or Corpus Christi, Texas. I figure with the money in property taxes and taxes here in general, you could recoup the cost of a new built garage in a few months. Finding quality help or the resources for builders, like we do here in a HUGE metro area, could be your biggest challenge. Out in the boonies, you just don't have the shear volume of garage builders nor the speed of building we have here. You might have to settle with a big corporate builder covering multiple counties for anything bigger than Juniors grandpa can build you during days that are not too hot or cold or rainy or soggy...humidity is hard to work quickly in....just be prepared for a 20 week plus build, for something small.

 

[HPRifleman]

If you find a good foundation your money ahead in my opinion. But lots of guys take down old buildings these days. Build new pole barns and a pond to top it off. It’s just a personal choice. We built a new house with a 3 car garage. We have an old barn and old garage that have been cleaned up and maintained. - I like the old buildings.

Interesting that you mention keeping the foundation. The main reason to build from scratch is that almost no garages that we've seen have in-floor heat. It's one of those things that are impossible to retrofit in an existing structure and it's also something that I loathe to give up now that I have it.

We've also seen many properties that have ponds. I don't get it. Why would someone waste a portion of their land by having a body of water on it?

 

[tfalk]

Did just that last year. Knocked off the 2 car side entry garage and turned it onto a front entry 3 car garage with 12 foot side walls and the center 20 feet is a 15 foot ceiling. With (2) 4 post lifts in the old 20x24, couldn't walk anywhere without walking into a column, nowhere to work on anything without hitting something else. New garage is 28 deep 36 wide with (3) 9 foot doors on the front. Wish it was bigger but it's the biggest the town would let me go and it still took over 7 months to get permits approved in the peoples republic of NJ.

 

[Hilltopmasonry]

I did exactly that at my small property in the Chicago suburbs. Decided I was going to be here a bit and the garage wasn't cutting it. Tore down a small 2 car:



And had a slightly bigger, but more importantly, taller garage built:



No pitfalls or any big hurdles. Basically went as big as the city would allow. Hired a local garage builder and they did everything from demo to electric. All went great and I'm happy for now.

How tall are those doors? That is nice

 

[Skooterj]

Sorta had too

 

[stoich]

How tall are those doors? That is nice

Thanks. 9' tall

 

[John in OH]

All depends on your local building jurisdiction ... but ya gotta be really careful with a tear-down-and-replace plan!

True story ... a guy I used to work with in Ohio bought an older house with an old detached POS two-car garage. After he got the house fixed up to his wife's liking, he decided to tear down the old garage and build a new garage for his hobbies. It turned out that the old garage existed ONLY because it was grandfathered in under updated zoning requirements. If he tore down the old garage he literally COULD NOT get approval for a new two-car garage!! The only thing he could do is "repair" the old structure. Cost him all kinds of money to get it "repaired" one section at a time and he still didn't end up with a garage he had hoped to have.