Hottrod
Well-known member
I'm doing a new build here in the Caribbean, and have been chatting with Andy about flooring after reading his awesome “Modern Garage in the Far East” thread. He's been hugely helpful, and in conversation he suggested I post a thread of my own, so here it is.
The construction was started in April, so a lot of progress has already been made, and I'm including a lot of the backstory in case it is of use to you in your own decision-making!
To make a very long story short, we purchased an old home expecting to fix it up, and realised after all of the planning was complete that it would be better to start from scratch, which is what we did - we’d get exactly what we want, and would not have to deal with the myriad problems of living in an older home.
We got the plans sorted out, and considering the realities of Island Time, the approvals process was pretty quick, but not as quick as the 2 days it took to literally remove the house and its foundations. We knew we were making the sensible decision, but truth be told, it seemed almost sacrilegious to demolish an entire house, and watching the process start was a bit unsettling! In for a penny, as they say…
It turns out that during the demolition we uncovered some structural deficiencies, so any lingering uncertainties I’d had quickly evaporated. Plus, I didn't have enough glue to stick things back together at that point.
The site is on a hill, but the lots are terraced so we had an almost flat piece of land, and all of the retaining walls etc. were in place and in excellent shape. The layout of the house would be largely dictated by the shape of the land and the view of the sea to the South, and with the location of the driveway there was only one sensible place to put the garage.
We’re into modern architecture, and the height restrictions in the neighbourhood dictated that we’d need to stick to a single storey. In order to achieve the highest possible ceilings we knew that a flat concrete roof was the way to go, and the advantages of hurricane resistance, the lack of noise from rain when compared with a metal roof (when it rains here, it REALLY rains), and the fact that we were going for a contemporary home anyway made this an easy decision.
My primary goal for the garage was to allow me to detail the cars in a perfect environment – clean, comfortable, extremely well-lit, a place for everything, ample power sources, and easy to clean/wash down all of the polish dust etc. Secondarily, I wanted to allow for minor mechanical work to be undertaken, and to have a space for tinkering.
Lastly, I wanted to ensure that we could hang overhead racks off the walls or ceiling when I eventually need additional storage for infrequently-used items.
I knew I wanted a 3-car garage, to accommodate our 2 cars plus a toy car at some later stage, and my thinking was that I might want a lift in the future for more substantial mechanical work or possibly to create an extra parking space underneath the toy car for when the kids get older. The area in front of the garage would be for visitors to park and there needed to be a turning area as well.
After factoring in the many other considerations (budget, available space etc.) we decided upon a space just shy of 32’ x 22’, with an additional 2’ deep by 11’ long workbench area which is to the NW of the garage, and this will have a small shop sink on one side. I also have a 12’ 6” x 5’ 5” closed storage room off of the garage, for luggage, Christmas stuff etc.
The layout we ended up with was this:
The house is being constructed of concrete block and has a flat reinforced concrete roof that will be covered by 2 types of sprayed polyurethane foam to create falls, and to function as a waterproofing and insulating material. Depending on the thickness of the base-layer, we'll be getting an R-value in the range of 14-24 from the foam alone. The whole shebang will be coated with a UV-protective paint, and then be topped with an inch and a half of gravel to provide additional UV protection and to help burn off water. The gravel will also have the advantage of giving the appearance of a uniform surface to the roof, as the nature of sprayed foam means that it has a gently undulating surface. With all of this good stuff up there I’m expecting that the house (including the garage) will be relatively cool on even very hot days.
So far, the plan is for the garage to be finished in a light colour, with a white or v.light grey epoxy floor. Porcelain tiles are my second choice, but the absence of grout lines afforded by the epoxy is hugely appealing to me. I would of course welcome your input on this point!
Lighting is to be provided by nine 1'x4' T8 fluorescent fixtures, each with 3 32w bulbs, and aluminum-framed glass garage doors with frosted starfire glass inserts throughout will round off the look, allowing lots of light in during the day, and a nice diffuse light out onto the driveway at night. I'm going for the Close Encounters look! The lifting mechanism for the 9' and 18' doors will be the side-mounted jackshaft types from Liftmaster.
Electrically we'll have 5 duplex plugs spread around the perimeter of the garage, and there will be one high up for a wall-mounted fan. The panel supplying the garage has lots of room for more circuits if needed. I plan on having a wall-mounted vacuum cleaner, so far either the Hoover GUV, the Metro HRS83 or the Bissell Garage Pro. Any input on this point would be most happily received!
Cabinetry is totally undecided so far, this will depend on how badly I blow my budget, but will basically comprise built-ins with a nice long workbench and further storage below.
So, on to the pics:
So this is what we started off with:
Which soon turned to this
And left us with this – a clean slate!
An auspicious start – the garage is the first point to be laid out!
Trenches being dug for foundations
The wooden guides look crooked because I've blended several pics together, but as you'll see later on, the walls are straight as an arrow!
Base layer for foundations poured, foundation walls and steel starting to be built up...
Detail shot
Floor ring beam all made up
Spaces being filled and compacted
More compaction, plus a little help from the rain which helps to further pack the base, and the Pesticide went in sometime around here. Water barrier is laid.
On to the Garage, which had been left for last in order to afford easy access to the rest of the house up to this point. The trenches for the floor beams in the garage can be seen, to the lower right of this shot.
Rebar for the columns going up - 8 x 1" bars in each column!
Column rebar being tied
Columns ready to be formed up and poured
Out of time for now, much more to come. Next up- preparing the base and pouring the concrete for the garage. Stay tuned!
The construction was started in April, so a lot of progress has already been made, and I'm including a lot of the backstory in case it is of use to you in your own decision-making!
To make a very long story short, we purchased an old home expecting to fix it up, and realised after all of the planning was complete that it would be better to start from scratch, which is what we did - we’d get exactly what we want, and would not have to deal with the myriad problems of living in an older home.
We got the plans sorted out, and considering the realities of Island Time, the approvals process was pretty quick, but not as quick as the 2 days it took to literally remove the house and its foundations. We knew we were making the sensible decision, but truth be told, it seemed almost sacrilegious to demolish an entire house, and watching the process start was a bit unsettling! In for a penny, as they say…
It turns out that during the demolition we uncovered some structural deficiencies, so any lingering uncertainties I’d had quickly evaporated. Plus, I didn't have enough glue to stick things back together at that point.
The site is on a hill, but the lots are terraced so we had an almost flat piece of land, and all of the retaining walls etc. were in place and in excellent shape. The layout of the house would be largely dictated by the shape of the land and the view of the sea to the South, and with the location of the driveway there was only one sensible place to put the garage.
We’re into modern architecture, and the height restrictions in the neighbourhood dictated that we’d need to stick to a single storey. In order to achieve the highest possible ceilings we knew that a flat concrete roof was the way to go, and the advantages of hurricane resistance, the lack of noise from rain when compared with a metal roof (when it rains here, it REALLY rains), and the fact that we were going for a contemporary home anyway made this an easy decision.
My primary goal for the garage was to allow me to detail the cars in a perfect environment – clean, comfortable, extremely well-lit, a place for everything, ample power sources, and easy to clean/wash down all of the polish dust etc. Secondarily, I wanted to allow for minor mechanical work to be undertaken, and to have a space for tinkering.
Lastly, I wanted to ensure that we could hang overhead racks off the walls or ceiling when I eventually need additional storage for infrequently-used items.
I knew I wanted a 3-car garage, to accommodate our 2 cars plus a toy car at some later stage, and my thinking was that I might want a lift in the future for more substantial mechanical work or possibly to create an extra parking space underneath the toy car for when the kids get older. The area in front of the garage would be for visitors to park and there needed to be a turning area as well.
After factoring in the many other considerations (budget, available space etc.) we decided upon a space just shy of 32’ x 22’, with an additional 2’ deep by 11’ long workbench area which is to the NW of the garage, and this will have a small shop sink on one side. I also have a 12’ 6” x 5’ 5” closed storage room off of the garage, for luggage, Christmas stuff etc.
The layout we ended up with was this:
The house is being constructed of concrete block and has a flat reinforced concrete roof that will be covered by 2 types of sprayed polyurethane foam to create falls, and to function as a waterproofing and insulating material. Depending on the thickness of the base-layer, we'll be getting an R-value in the range of 14-24 from the foam alone. The whole shebang will be coated with a UV-protective paint, and then be topped with an inch and a half of gravel to provide additional UV protection and to help burn off water. The gravel will also have the advantage of giving the appearance of a uniform surface to the roof, as the nature of sprayed foam means that it has a gently undulating surface. With all of this good stuff up there I’m expecting that the house (including the garage) will be relatively cool on even very hot days.
So far, the plan is for the garage to be finished in a light colour, with a white or v.light grey epoxy floor. Porcelain tiles are my second choice, but the absence of grout lines afforded by the epoxy is hugely appealing to me. I would of course welcome your input on this point!
Lighting is to be provided by nine 1'x4' T8 fluorescent fixtures, each with 3 32w bulbs, and aluminum-framed glass garage doors with frosted starfire glass inserts throughout will round off the look, allowing lots of light in during the day, and a nice diffuse light out onto the driveway at night. I'm going for the Close Encounters look! The lifting mechanism for the 9' and 18' doors will be the side-mounted jackshaft types from Liftmaster.
Electrically we'll have 5 duplex plugs spread around the perimeter of the garage, and there will be one high up for a wall-mounted fan. The panel supplying the garage has lots of room for more circuits if needed. I plan on having a wall-mounted vacuum cleaner, so far either the Hoover GUV, the Metro HRS83 or the Bissell Garage Pro. Any input on this point would be most happily received!
Cabinetry is totally undecided so far, this will depend on how badly I blow my budget, but will basically comprise built-ins with a nice long workbench and further storage below.
So, on to the pics:
So this is what we started off with:
Which soon turned to this
And left us with this – a clean slate!
An auspicious start – the garage is the first point to be laid out!
Trenches being dug for foundations
The wooden guides look crooked because I've blended several pics together, but as you'll see later on, the walls are straight as an arrow!
Base layer for foundations poured, foundation walls and steel starting to be built up...
Detail shot
Floor ring beam all made up
Spaces being filled and compacted
More compaction, plus a little help from the rain which helps to further pack the base, and the Pesticide went in sometime around here. Water barrier is laid.
On to the Garage, which had been left for last in order to afford easy access to the rest of the house up to this point. The trenches for the floor beams in the garage can be seen, to the lower right of this shot.
Rebar for the columns going up - 8 x 1" bars in each column!
Column rebar being tied
Columns ready to be formed up and poured
Out of time for now, much more to come. Next up- preparing the base and pouring the concrete for the garage. Stay tuned!
Last edited:
of your view!!!
