25'x32' Detached Garage - 2 post lift

[sp00led]

So I had some money burning a hole in my pocket from the RHD Integra Type-R I sold a year ago. I lost use of my rear patio because it became storage for a riding mower, honda foreman, and yamaha raptor. I really wanted to buy a new project car with the money but I've already got two trailers and a truck outside my house. Bottom line, I'm in need of storage in a serious way.

And so the dream began.... Detached Garage with two post lift!

I started with plans of a 1008sq ft (almost 2/3 size of my house...) 32'x28' three bay garage. Well the day before I started digging my farmer neighbor informed me that I was led astray by the realator. I don't own the 15' wide section of land between my driveway and his cattle fence. Back to the drawing boards...

I downsized to a modest 25'x32' (800sq ft) garage. I lost a bay but nothing else would fit without having a garage behind my house and that wasn't an option with my .4 acre layout.

The plan is to have 2x6 12' walls for lift clearance. I'm going to have a row of block layed on top of the slab so I can wash it out. Slab has 2-3" slope from rear to front for drainage. The front will have a 18' residential garage door. One 3/0 side entry door and one rear door. No windows (security). I'm going to brick everything except the rear wall. Saves money, isn't visable, and leaves room for additions later. Gable roof on a 6/12 pitch with brick on the front gable to match my house.


My budget is $15,000. I figured I would start this thread to document the process and share my attempt at staying on budget.

Running total on $ spent:
$1300 - Labor (outsourced) - Dig footer, tie rebar, pour footer, prep, pour, and finish slab
$214 - Rebar, anchor bolts, 6 mil plastic
$604 - 7 yards concrete for footer
$62 - rebar stakes, plumbing and electrical conduit
$800 - 50 tons of 6/7s gravel. I did have about 15-20 tons leftover I gave to my father for his driveway.
$275 - Sand/mortar
$350 - Labor for block masons
$265 - 8x8x16 Cinder block
$125 - Wire mesh

Here is a picture of the existing wooden fence that was removed. Couple taps from a hammer and I had it apart in sections.

This is after the footer was dug, rebar laid, electrical conduit and plumbing drain/supply installed, and two 12" deep, 3' long trenchs dug. I've got some serious sweat equity in those ditches!

The footer was poured yesterday. It took 7 yards of concrete. I got lucky and got to place the order with Alabama Concrete through a company (wholesale). Saved me $9 per yard. Rain delay today and probably this whole week... I'll get some more pics up before the block mason arrives to do his thing.

Here the footer was poured. You can see where he made the step downs.

I didn't get any block only pics. Here you can see the block laid, gravel spread, plastic and mesh laid. Notice you don't see the electrical and plumbing pipes anymore. We discretely placed them inside the cinder blocks covered in morter. We filled in matching cells on each side filled with rebar to "reinforce" the slab *cough*. Permits aren't cheap

Here are a few pics of the slab the day after it was poured.

Day1 of framing we got the walls up. No guns, all hand nailed!

Day2 and much better conditions. Humidity was gone and we got everything except the front wall covered. Working off a extension ladder makes 4x8 OSB get old quick!

 

[bluesman2a]

hopefully this isn't too late, but if you still haven't poured the slab itself, you might want to dig a couple of caissons a little deeper where your lift will go so the mounting legs have a little more beef to bolt to. Not strictly necessary, but I did that on mine and I feel better when I get something heavy up there on it.

 

[sp00led]

I haven't poured the slab yet. I'm going to remove some dirt from the center before the gravel is spread from the looks of things. I'm not sure where the lift will go. I'm still up in the air on which model to get. Looking for a local deal so it might be a while.

I really did want to beef up the area where the lift is but the unknowns at this point are getting in the way.

Almost all 10,000lb lifts require min 4" 3000lb mix. I'm going to pour the whole slab 5" to be safe. Still up in the air if I'm going to pay extra for 3500lb mix.

 

[FlameOut]

2 to 3" of slope for drainage seems excessive. I'm building a 28x34 and doing most of the work myself, I was figuring around $16000. I'm now over $18,000 and it's not complete

 

[autoist]

Yep, gotta get lots of that dirt out so you can do the gravel, plastic & wire.....don't forget to have it sprayed for termites.

 

[sp00led]

2 to 3" of slope for drainage seems excessive. I'm building a 28x34 and doing most of the work myself, I was figuring around $16000. I'm now over $18,000 and it's not complete

The slab has not been poured yet. I heard him mention 2" slope. I think I exagerated with 2-3". I take it you don't need anymore then 2" to drain properly should someone forget to shut the garage door and rain water enters?

As for funding I was really only expecting to have water proofed. My goal of 15K didn't include finishing the inside, electrical, or plumbing. I roughly estimated 5k for slab, 5k for brick, and 5k for lumber, siding, and shingles.

Yep, gotta get lots of that dirt out so you can do the gravel, plastic & wire.....don't forget to have it sprayed for termites.

Sprayed for termites? That's a new one on me. It appears you live less than 5 miles from my house. How much does that cost and who did you use?

I see you're a MG collector. I'm not to familar with them but I remember my dad telling me stories about the MG he owned back when he was my age (28). He's owned two miatas and currently DDs a Honda s2000. He's definitely a roadster guy at heart.

 

[autoist]

Yep, real close...that's why I mentioned termites...in the H'ville phone book are lots of companies that do it...your vermin protection company might also do it.

We need to get together & tour one another's garages.

 

[matthewbounds]

I would love to see how this project works out. I too live in HSV and am looking into building another garage myself. I do alot of work on VW's and want space to store all of my cars plus work on others. My current plans are for a 38x30 garage with 14' center and two 16ft wide garage doors. I should be able to store my 4 cars and still have room for a lift.

 

[om-nc]

Good luck with your build. I recognize your "handle" from the hsv board I'm not too far away from your place.

 

[T VETTE]

Plan to follow your build real close as I plan to do the same next spring with about the same size and budget.

 

[sp00led]

New pics posted. Inspector is getting called in at 7am. I made friends with a chick at the inspection office. Hopefully she can get the inspector out there earlier than later. That way worse case senario if we need to fix something we can do so and still get the OK to pour on Saturday.

My only worry now is drainage. We had to pay extra attention with slab height and slope of the ground. My lot has a serious grade to it that really stands out once you stand on a level set of cinder block and not my sloping concrete driveway

Nice to see felllow bama forum members in this thread

 

[TRC51]

Did you do the block yourself? If so, are you famliar with that kind of thing, or did you just go for it?

I was considering a block foundation under my slab, but every price I got to do it was more than just having it poured... by a lot!

 

[sp00led]

Did you do the block yourself? If so, are you famliar with that kind of thing, or did you just go for it?

I was considering a block foundation under my slab, but every price I got to do it was more than just having it poured... by a lot!

I outsourced that one. The guys doing my brick work here in a few weeks did the block. I only did the patch work for my conduit modifications.

On larger jobs I found it isn't hard to get someone to lay it for a $1 a block. Since I really didn't need that many I was charged $1.50 a block. I paid $350 for labor and the 8x8x16 block was $1.10 + tax at lowes with my 20% discount trick.

Intresting block weight note. I found out that a pallet (108) of blocks is almost 4000lbs! I loaded two on to my 18' dual 3500lb axle trailer. I nearly didn't get home but somehow the tired old 318ci in my Ram made it. Both the truck and trailer looked dangerously loaded... Good thing it was a short drive without any hills.

I called in the inspection at 728am this morning and was told that I had to call by 715am to get someone out today.... Once I made sure the little cutie pie on the phone knew who I was she called the inspector while I was on hold.

He said he would get by before EOB today.

*Fingers crossed* I really would like to watch it get poured so having it done on Saturday will work great. The concrete guy is even going to let me use his bobcat to load the extra gravel in our trucks so we can spread it on my dads gravel driveway.

 

[sp00led]

I just got the word I passed inspection. I've got 15 yards of 3000psi with fiber headed to my house at 8am. It's going to take two trucks.

Hopefully everything goes nice and smooth.

 

[frank1380]

Nice to see felllow bama forum members in this thread

Did your trucks ever show?

I'm in Huntsville, AL as well.

 

[sp00led]

Sure did. Everything turned out as expected. I've got some pictures I'll try and upload showing the final product. The slab was was almost finished with 9 yards. Used the rest for the flatwork to connect the existing driveway and had enough to pour pads in front of the side/rear entry doors. I even had enough to get a nice pad for an air compressor to be bolted out back.

I've been trying my best to keep it wet. Probably do so for the next few days.

Plan to start framing it in two weekends.

 

[Kevin54]

Looking good so far and looking forward to the build pics.

One question about the blocks....Why didn't the block layer "strike" the joints? I thought it was common practice as it helps seal the mortar joint.

 

[sp00led]

Sloppy work I guess. I didn't know enough to bust balls as it was done. We ended up with some extra concrete and almost all the cells of the block were filled with the leftovers. After seeing them do that I feel pretty good that they are solid.

The foundation/slab work is the weakest point for me in construction. I've always arrived after this step was completed.

This whole process is just one big learning expereince. No doubt there have been some some amature hour questions and actions up to this point

I just ftp'd a picture to leave everyone with a little idea how it turned out. I'll update everything later on tonight when I have time to work on things.

 

[sp00led]

New pictures uploaded. We got the walls up in 5hrs. Hand nailed, no guns. The second day we got all the OSB up. Well everything but the front wall and we have to build the 18' garage door header first. I couldn't of done it without the help of my cousin, dad, brother, friend Steven and of course Robert who has the most current experience and spearheaded the framing portion.

Wilson's lumber is building the trusses. I've got 17 coming on Friday if I'm lucky. They normally take 7-8 days but they are trying to rush the order to get them delivered on Friday. My cousin has access to a crane of all things. So the plan is he is going to drive it over Saturday morning to set the trusses before kickoff at 7pm. Roll Tide!

From the looks of things I have something around a 9/12 on my single story house. The 12' walls on this garage make it look HUGE. I think with 6' more for the peak of the roof it will be just short or even with my houses roof in terms of height. The goal was to have it not tower over my existing house and we just barely made it.

I should have 12'2" in the lift area from the slab to the trusses.

 

[sp00led]

New pictures posted of the garage dried in. Lots of labor was put in on labor day weekend.

 

[jkrswld]

looks awesome so far

 

[sp00led]

Pictures from a camera phone don't really do the quality of the brick work justice. The mortar joints look great. Instead of using the normal tools to wipe out the mortar inbetween the bricks they used a tool that had wheels and a nail head. It's time consuming but the mortar is all the same debth versus doing it free hand.

Now for the BS part.

I get a call at lunch saying they are 8 bags of mortar short. No biggie, went to Jenkins on Hwy 20 in Madison and picked some up.

So I called Wilson's garage door. They told me it was a 2-3 day lead time on garage door install when they came out to quote it. Well they ran out of 18x8s so it will be up to 2 weeks before they get one in and get me on the schedule.... But wait, it's not over yet!

I get home and I find out they are out of brick! Thanks Robert@Jenkins brick for under estimating. The brick is in bham and I can't get another cube (~500) until Friday at the earliest or Monday.

If it ain't one thing its a MF another.

Oh and a big thanks goes out to ChrisTR and crew for putting on the roof you see in the pictures. Paid $65sq for Owens Corning 30yr AR shingles, $20 box for nails, $19 roll 15lb felt X3, $200 labor to install 12sqs.

 

[TRC51]

Sounds like you are having the same problems I am.

So how are you doing with staying on the $15K budget? My 24 x 30 is starting to approach that number just to get it built. With insulation, electric and rock (down the road a couple years), I will easily be in the $20K range. Yours looks way bigger. Hopefully you can still make it.

 

[sp00led]

I need to crunch some more numbers after work. Last I checked I was looking at $17,500 to get the building inspectors out of my way. They won't sign off on the final until the vinyl siding and metal wrap is done, landscaping work is completed, and garage door is installed.

That leaves me with a secured but unfinished interior and no power garage. The service cable is going to cost me about $200 and I've got a free 100 amp panel w/ breakers. I'm guessing that by the time I buy a few lights, outlets, romex, and insulation/drywall I'll be closer to 20k than my 15k estimate.

Still not to bad all things concidered. Going from 8' to 12' walls really does kick up the cost of things...

 

[birdman1]

Looks great--would like to be that far along on mine.
Mike

 

[mdadgar]

I need to crunch some more numbers after work. Last I checked I was looking at $17,500 to get the building inspectors out of my way. They won't sign off on the final until the vinyl siding and metal wrap is done, landscaping work is completed, and garage door is installed.

That leaves me with a secured but unfinished interior and no power garage. The service cable is going to cost me about $200 and I've got a free 100 amp panel w/ breakers. I'm guessing that by the time I buy a few lights, outlets, romex, and insulation/drywall I'll be closer to 20k than my 15k estimate.

Still not to bad all things concidered. Going from 8' to 12' walls really does kick up the cost of things...

Man, you guys are killin' me. I could barely get the slab and driveway poured for that here.

- Mark, lives in SF Bay Area

 

[JBAUTO]

So whats the status on this build so far? I wanna see more