24x24 garage with a loft

[Tinkerinmatt]

We’re buying a house that has a “2 car garage” that’s 19x23’, but the stairs into it eat up 4’ on one bay, so it’s really only a 1 car garage. It has a FROG above it now that’s 23x14’, and I want to replicate that garage but as a 24x24 detached.

This can’t happen tomorrow, as we’re just buying the house and I need to save up cash, but I need to be able to park my camaro and my boat on concrete for now, so I want to pour the pad now, then frame and build it later. What would the foundation/pad need to be? What do the 4 outside edges need to be, and what does the slab need to be? What do I need to put in now other than a sewer and cold water line and electrical stub? How much higher does the side concrete need to be than the slab, like 6”? Here’s a pic of the existing garage that I’m going to replicate except with 8’ high by 9’ wide double garage doors. The garage would go behind where that boat is pictured, with the doors in the direction of the boat.

 

[PhantomEB]

Are there height restrictions?

If not I would make that 6” into 12 or 18 and gain ceiling height room in the main shop to make up for loss of floor space.

 

[Tinkerinmatt]

My goal is about a 9’ ceiling height in the garage, or whatever distance I need to clear the garage door opener with an 8’ tall door. My boat is about 7’ 8” tall at the windshield and an 8’ beam, and clears my dads 8’ x 9’ door. I didn’t measure the existing garage but it looks like about 9’ ceilings. There is a neighbor with a similar garage to what I want to build but he only has a single 8x9 door in the center of the front.

My fear with a 12” or 18” curb is that for the year that it’s just a slab it will look weird and the HOA will complain. There’s a pretty strict HOA that apparently didn’t used to allow people to keep their boats in the driveway (even tho there’s 2 private boat ramps in the community), but now they do, and my plan is to bend the rules and keep my camaro and a kayak in my 8.5x20’ enclosed trailer (if there’s a kayak in te trailer it’s a “boat” trailer, right?) at the back of the property as a temp garage until someone complains, then sell the trailer and pour the slab. Then when someone complains about the slab, finish the garage.

I hate HOAs.

 

[CombatNinja]

Sounds like a solid plan: buy house in a community with an HOA, push the limits and take action only when "someone complains", repeat process. You said you are "buying" the house. As in, present tense. If you can back out, do it now and save yourself and your future neighbors a lot of aggravation.

 

[PhantomEB]

I am still trying to figure out where the loft comes into play.

I have a 24x24 with 18” curb walls, total 9’6” to the ceiling. 16x9’ door. Lots of ways to make it look good, fake rock to hide the curb walls with, don’t have a plain white door.

 

[Tinkerinmatt]

I am still trying to figure out where the loft comes into play.

I have a 24x24 with 18” curb walls, total 9’6” to the ceiling. 16x9’ door. Lots of ways to make it look good, fake rock to hide the curb walls with, don’t have a plain white door.

From the outside it would look like the garage has 14’ ceiling, but really it would be only 9’ 6” ceiling. Then the loft would only be about 4’ walls on the edges, then go up to a peak in the center.

When I said “when” someone complains, I really don’t think it will cause any issues. It’s a very laid back community, and we always make friends and are very active with neighbors. There are other houses with open car trailers, and a 72 c10, and some hot rod cars I saw in the driveways. “If” someone complains, and it’s justified, I’ll follow the rules, but hopefully being a good neighbor, people will understand they long game to add value to not only my house, but also theirs by increasing the average value of the houses. My house is about the cheapest in the neighborhood, so there’s lots of room to add value.

 

[PhantomEB]

Ok now it makes sense. Scissor trusses!

I wish I had done those too for the 16-18 feet where the trucks are anyways. 9’6” ceiling makes it seem a lot bigger.....scissor trusses would of made it even bigger! Next shop.....

 

[nadogail]

Are the legs of the FROG edible?

 

[Tinkerinmatt]

Are the legs of the FROG edible?

I will lick the walls when we move in and report back.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Are the legs of the FROG edible?

Curious myself as to what a FROG is.


To answer some of your questions, it depends where you live.

 

[Jtrudel90]

Curious myself as to what a FROG is.


To answer some of your questions, it depends where you live.

A FROG is an acronym for Front Room Over Garage.

 

[NUTTSGT]

A FROG is an acronym for Front Room Over Garage.

I guess I have never heard that term. For the OP, do you have room to build a detached garage or will the HOA even allow it ?

 

[CombatNinja]

FROG = "bonus room" Different regions use different terms for the same thing.

 

[NUTTSGT]

FROG = "bonus room" Different regions use different terms for the same thing.

Ok, bonus room, I'm getting the picture now. Are these stairs the only access to the room above ? If so, can you create another hallway from upstairs into the room ?

If you can, this would allow you to remove the garage stairs.

 

[CombatNinja]

Ok, bonus room, I'm getting the picture now. Are these stairs the only access to the room above ? If so, can you create another hallway from upstairs into the room ?

If you can, this would allow you to remove the garage stairs.

Looking at that picture and seeing the type of standard subdivision house from 20 years ago we are dealing with, I am pretty sure when he said the stairs "eat into" one bay, he did not mean that they were physically in the garage. That 'Finished Room Over Garage' or 'Bonus Room' is likely accessed from inside the home but the stairs are hung out over his garage slab so it effectively limits how far into that bay he can pull a vehicle, etc. A lot of builders do this because people will easily overlook losing effective use of a few square feet of garage space as opposed to inside the home.

 

[matt_i]

Can you put your location into your profile?

My advice is after you research all of the building and zoning and HOA requirements dictating what and where you can build, is then to design the building as a complete package, as much as you can, and then do the concrete work to match the plans. The location part is important because you want your structure to be frost-protected with a foundation deep enough to preserve that. Just pouring a slab can lead to a lot of cobbelty framing work down the road to match it, and eventually there's some sort of dimensional conundrum to resolve and the only good way is to reference the original plans.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looking at that picture and seeing the type of standard subdivision house from 20 years ago we are dealing with, I am pretty sure when he said the stairs "eat into" one bay, he did not mean that they were physically in the garage. That 'Finished Room Over Garage' or 'Bonus Room' is likely accessed from inside the home but the stairs are hung out over his garage slab so it effectively limits how far into that bay he can pull a vehicle, etc. A lot of builders do this because people will easily overlook losing effective use of a few square feet of garage space as opposed to inside the home.

Been using my phone the last few days and I actually missed the attachment of the pictures.

I'm not well versed on that style of home as we don't have any "subdivisions" here that are massed produced cookie cutters.

I can see how a stairway could be placed in a garage (albeit in the interior of the home) to create the issue of effective parking space.

 

[Tinkerinmatt]

Looking at that picture and seeing the type of standard subdivision house from 20 years ago we are dealing with, I am pretty sure when he said the stairs "eat into" one bay, he did not mean that they were physically in the garage. That 'Finished Room Over Garage' or 'Bonus Room' is likely accessed from inside the home but the stairs are hung out over his garage slab so it effectively limits how far into that bay he can pull a vehicle, etc. A lot of builders do this because people will easily overlook losing effective use of a few square feet of garage space as opposed to inside the home.

Bingo. One plan I have that I might do prior to the detached garage is convert the current electric water heater that is in the garage under the steps that go up to the FROG to an instant propane water heater, then swap the FROG stairs with the garage steps so the garage steps go the 19’ way and the FROG steps go the 23’ way so I can use the second bay.

Lots of other houses have detached garages as well, but they look just like the house with the same siding, roof pitch, etc.

As far as frost line, yes I’ll update my profile, but I’m in Hampstead NC which is the land side of Topsail Beach. There is no frost line, but there are hurricanes which will require me to do certain things that add cost like the roof, and being a mechanical engineer I’ll probably overkill the bracing in the walls.

 

[Kevin54]

Where the garage is showing, is that the front of the house or the side of the house? And do you have an overhead view of the property?

 

[jeep63]

I'm not sure if this helps at all, but I build a 24x26 detached garage with a loft over one bay and the other bay open to the top.

Here is the link...

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34235&postcount=1