Soon To Be Garageless Noob

[BuckeyeInMI]

Hey,

Just found this forum. Living in Michigan and about to buy a house that doesn't have a garage (please approve the short sale Mr. Banker!), but I'm hoping to have one up by next winter so my car doesn't have to sit outside, and I don't have to brush snow off it every morning. Money's gonna be tight, so I'm hoping to do alot of it myself. I'm really interested in the Socket System approach, but we'll see.

I'd also like to put in some nice features from the start, like a heated floor, insulation, and a drain. Shooting for something around 24x24 with an upstairs loft/workshop, 10/12 or 12/12 roof so I don't bang my head up there. I'm a little space restricted by the city, so 800 sq. ft. or so is my maximum floor space, counting garage and upstairs. And they also want it to look like the house, so the roof pitch serves 2 purposes (house is 114 year old "Victorian"). It'll have plenty of power and both wired and wireless internet, secured of course. The internet that is. Well, the garage too.

Anyhoo, looking forward to learning, participating, sharing, eating humble pie, the usual forum stuff.

Bill

P.S. Yes, I'm an Ohio State fan living in Michigan. New place has a flag pole out front, so I will be flying my scarlet flag with the big gray O, especially the third Saturday in November.

 

[sammerdog]

Welcome aboard MrBuckeye!

Clue us in Sir - what's the "Socket System" approach?

Sorry to hear about your unstable, twisted, and sadistic dimentia regarding all things Buckeye, but hey - you off set that weakness by living up in God's country..... it's all good I suppose.

 

[boostedgt]

i hope a large bird takes a dump on that ohio state flag.

welcome to the forum!

 

[BuckeyeInMI]

Socket Systems

I'm a fan of the UM school, it's one of the best public schools in the country. And I really don't have any ill will for their football team, unless they're playing Ohio State. The last 8 or 9 years have been a combo of great OSU teams and mediocre UM teams. I think Mr. Tressel has had something to do with that too, but I'm not sure Mr. Rodriguez is the answer. I've never been convinced that a spread offense can work in any of the major conferences because the defenses are just too fast. Some individual teams have managed it, but with few exceptions (Florida with Tebow being one of the them), the system isn't a long-term winner. You can beat up on a weaker conference like the Big East has turned into, but not the Big Ten.

But we all agree, Michigan is a great place to live. As a kid, we vacationed up here from Ohio almost every year (Grand Haven and Pentwater mostly). My dad was born in Grand Rapids, and several of his brothers graduated from UM.

 

[babzog]

I'm a little space restricted by the city, so 800 sq. ft. or so is my maximum floor space, counting garage and upstairs. And they also want it to look like the house, so the roof pitch serves 2 purposes (house is 114 year old "Victorian").

I wonder if you could play a little game of "funny buggers" here. If you went with the A frame type roof rather than a truss roof, you could build in the second floor support structure, but rather than put in the flooring, just use the joists as your ceiling hangers and leave the cavities open topside (where the flooring would go). Drywall or tin the ceiling covering up any access to the roof save an access hatch. Now, design your garage to have the main floor be 800 sq ft, get it built and approved and think about opening up the "attic" later on. Your engineer/architect should be able to help you come up with an approvable design that you can later easily modify (ie: leave out the central beam support post since it's not load carrying, etc). Might need to grease him a little...

 

[BuckeyeInMI]

I've been thinking about that, not so much from a "get more space" angle, but rather from a cost savings angle. Garages are more expensive than I expected, so I might get it framed for a second floor, but not actually put the stairs and flooring in until some later date, like next summer. I'm not really restricted that much with the 800 sqft figure. A 24x24 garage is 576 sqft, and the upstairs can only be 21 ft long (3 ft stairs), so I can do 11x21 upstairs and that's plenty big for what I want/need. I also think the upstairs area that counts towards the 800 is only the area where the ceiling is above a certain height, like 7 feet. But I'll put flooring all the way out to where the roof and floor meet, which gives me lots of extra storage space.