Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT 24x26 garage in Utah

[Pike2350]

I've been lurking here for a little while, mostly looking at storage and other ideas for the garage that I had built in the backyard.

It's currently done, although I still need to add the driveway up to it, as well as remove the walls on the enclosed carport that is currently attached to the house...but for now, I've finished the garage for the most part.

This process all started early last spring (before Covid really kicked in) I had some site work to do before I could have the foundation poured. Our east backyard boundry has about a 6' height difference between the next lot up...so I had to shore it up with a retaining wall...as well as remove a large tree and other things.

here is the Google maps view of the lot....you can see the canopy of the large tree.

Here is the layout of the new garage to the house and lot (rotated 90* from previous satellite photo...East is the top on this one)

EDIT

Since the pics aren't working for everyone here is a link to my album where they are located until I can get them fixes.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/scg5c3GJwJ2ZgdXS9

 

[Pike2350]

Here's the view of the front of the house...and you can see why, in order to make the new garage useable for a car, I have to remove the small enclosed carport.

I began by cutting down the large tree myself to save $. I had a few neighbors help guide the falling limbs to safe areas and only managed to damage the gutter on the cover porch (which will get torn out this coming spring anyway).

My father-in-laws buddy that does excavation work said he'd do it for cheap, so he brought up his excavator and started by removing the tree stumps and getting the dirt hill in the back corner removed and the trench for the wall footer blocks.

 

[Pike2350]

Due to Covid, he had some work get pushed, so he even laid the blocks for the wall.

It took a while to get the GC to get everything worked out with his crews...and concrete was backlogged over a month...so it just sat until early July. They day before they came to start the foundation, I laid it out in marking paint and changed my size from a 24x28 to a 24x26. We plan on adding on to the house a little bit and the extra 2' would make it so I could still access the rest of the back yard with a 10' opening....and be able to get most machines back there if needed.

they came and poured the foundation/slab over the next 2 weeks

Again, the access is too small for vehicles to get back to the garage. Once the wall is brought up to the front driveway, it limits access to just about 7' wide...and while I was able to get my wife's Santa Fe back there before the rest of the wall was laid, it was very tight and required pulling mirrors and rubbing the ivy on the fence...with the wall, even the Santa Fe won't get back there.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Great. Hope everything goes as planned can’t wait to see the final thing.


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[Pike2350]

Framing started and was a fiasco. They would only show up for around 2 hours at a time and leave....never informing me of what was going on. Turns out, after numerous calls the the GC and arguments over the timeline and what was going on...the framers never received enough material due to some errors with the lumber yard. They also screwed up the LVL beam for the 18' door. They cut it short by 3" even though numerous times they claimed they fixed it and delivered it....which they didn't. Once that was corrected, the framers knocked it out in about 2 days.

I had the trusses designed for light duty storage. There was a misunderstanding on it, as I thought this would mean they were designed similar to attic trusses only smaller scale...but instead I got these. They will be fine, and after the already long delay with the framing and concrete, I just dealt with it.

 

[Pike2350]

I didn't want this to stand out as an afterthought too much from the house...so I upgraded the front to have wainscoting brick on the North & west walls since these will be visible.

The back and east side are vinyl siding along with the top 2/3 or so.

This is the truss shape I ended up with. It's a 5/12 pitch, and still allowed for some attic space...but not quite as much as I had hoped.

 

[Pike2350]

we had a rare hurricane force wind storm in September that pushed off the electrical service by over a month. I took this time to work on the attic, since this wouldn't impact the permitting since framing had been signed off.

I extended past the webbing joints to allow for longer items to be stored and not take up the center....then I added back walls to keep things from getting lost in the low crevices.

I left the side with the pull down ladder less deep to allow for some rafter storage of longer items (scrap wood, piping, etc) When I drywalled in the ceiling I left a bay open to be able to access this area. I will add a metal grate that is hinged so I can see up in it and not have to climb up all the time. I've debated adding a few more along the ceiling to make it easier to see as well as give me ways of accessing this material easier...but I can always do that later on.

 

[Pike2350]

The electrical was done in early October and the permit was closed with the city.
At this point, I had the floor epoxy (polyasparitic or whatever) coated. However, we had an unusually early freeze and it made for some off gassing and craters in the final coat...so it had to be redone. That was going to take a month, so I continued inside with insulating and drywall.

I had to leave one bay uninsulated for awhile. This is where the gas line for the overhead heater was going to enter the garage and up over to the back corner.

 

[Pike2350]

drywall

I added OSB strips where I knew I was going to hang cabinets.

In this one, you can see the access hole for the rafter storage.

 

[Pike2350]

After the floor was refinished (the guys rocked and did the final coat on Thanksgiving so I can start moving things in that weekend) I sprayed the whole place.

hung the cabinets as well

 

[Pike2350]

This is where I am at now. I started on my workbench (not loving it, so it may change) I also don't have all the storage done. The black brackets are holding 3/4" plywood shelving that will wrap around the whole garage.

I will make a shelf that sits on top of the cabinet to the right of the garage door that will hold my small 6gal pancake compressor and have a PVC pipe running down the cabinet to be my quick connect point. This will keep the compressor out of the way. I also made the outlet for the compressor switched so I can shut it off easily when I don't need it.

 

[softailgarage]

just sayin

 

[Pike2350]

just sayin

You can't see them? They are showing for me...but it is linked to my gmail photos..so maybe that's why?

 

[theundermount]

Pics no worky for me either sounds awesome though !

You can't see them? They are showing for me...but it is linked to my gmail photos..so maybe that's why?

Sent from my SM-P610 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Pike2350]

Updated first post with link to album...until I can get the pics sorted out.

 

[Pike2350]

Sidenote:

I'm putting a shelf above the cabinet to the right of the garage door to house my 6gal Porter-Cable pancake compressor on. I plan on running PVC down the cabinet to have a quick connection at a useable height. I don't really use the air for much, but like having it if needed. The shelf is larger then the cabinets (17 x 29). I'm curious if the cabinet alone will be enough to support the shelf or if I should add some 'L' brackets on the top. I can't add them to the bottom due to the cabinet doors opening. I also will not hit a stud and will just have to use anchors. The cabinet is mounted to the strips of OSB in one of the other pictures, which is fastened to studs. Being that it's fully floating, I didn't want to overload it....even though the compressor is pretty light.

any thoughts on it? Also, the plan for PVC, which I understand is not everyone's preference....but the compressor is only 150psi....so I feel it should be ok. Is there another suggestion for it?

I hope this pic comes through.

 

[captain14]

Sounds like an interesting garage. What’s going to live in the garage if you are limited by access of 7 feet clearance?

No pics from post #6-15. I can see post 1-5 and #16 pics.

 

[J-man67]

Looks great! Now you can enjoy!

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[Pike2350]

It's been a long time since I updated anything here....although, the updates have been lacking and slow anyway. I spent the first 7 months of this year renovating a newly acquired rental, so that ate up most of my time. Then I promised the wife I would take 2 months off to be more involved with the family. So, in September I started prepping the existing single car garage infront of the new garage to be taken down to a carport. Over the winter I did a tiny bit here and there in the garage, but not much....it mostly acted as storage for all things out of the single car garage since we couldn't get to the new one yet to park in.

I started by borrowing a bobcat from my wife's uncle and removing the last dirt that was still around. This was approx. 4 dump trailers full.

Here's looking from the new garage to the back of the single garage (man it's ugly)


I removed an ugly planter that was put in at some point in the 70's or 80's, man it was built tough.





I also began to cut down the covered patio to get the part out of the way.


The plan is to have the hew concrete go from the front of the house, replacing the concrete in the carport, and around the side of the garage for a patio that will connect to a deck. This is why the removal of the planter...plus it was just horribly ugly.

Here is the part where it will go around the west side of the garage. Partly replacing some of the rock patio that is not covered (the covered patio will be an addition to the house in the next few years, along with a new kitchen)



The front of the single car garage.



This is how it sits now


I have jack hammered out part of the carport concrete to put new footers for posts that will be placed against the house and carry a new steel beam across the entire driveway (to eliminate the posts in the middle that are just in the way) I found that the downspout on the side of the garage has been dumping water underneath and slowly eroding the original sandy soil under it.



I will be pouring the footings tonight and my father-in-law will come measure for the beam and posts this weekend.

I have 3 bids on the concrete work and all are within $500 of each other. roughly 1350sf of concrete, 4" thick with gravel....all, right around $12k, including removal of the carport concrete.

 

[Pike2350]

I finally was able to finish the major work on this project. I poured footings for new posts to support the carport. My father-in-law came with his crew and threw up some metal beams that extended from the house to the fence line, making for no posts in the middle of the new driveway.






Then the concrete got poured.

Here is a pic of where the patio is going to be on the west side of the garage.


Concrete


I don't have better pics (usually try and get the same perspective as previous pics) I will have to take one further down the driveway.

Overall I am happy. I debate on if I should just remove the carport all together to allow for taller passage to the garage, but in reality, I don't forsee me parking a TT or anything tall back there. The height of the beams over the driveway are right under 8'. The garage door is 8', so anything clearing the carport can clear the garage...plus, I like having covered egress from the house.

Now I am working on reorganizing some of the garage inside....but the wife has been able to park in the garage the last few nights.

 

[Chrisb62]

You could also extend the roof over to the fence line for a larger carport.
Everything looks great no matter what you decide to do.

 

[fouckhest]

Very cool space, I like the carport with allowing access to the new garage. I've been thinking about doing something similar at my place.

Did you have issues with how close to the property line you could put the posts for the carport?

 

[Pike2350]

You could also extend the roof over to the fence line for a larger carport.
Everything looks great no matter what you decide to do.

That has been asked by everyone that sees it The problem is the setbacks for zoning in our city. Technically I'm not supposed to even have the posts against the property line. When I talked to the city 2 years ago when I built a shed on the other side of the house, they told me the setbacks are "Nothing permanent" between the house and the property line. I asked about a beam and they said that would count as permanent. We have thought about adding some joists and making it look like a pergola.

Luckily I ignored them on the shed. It's bolted to the slab and not attached to the house, so TECHNICALLY, it's not permenant.

 

[Chrisb62]

I am partial to outdoor structures as seen from this slightly older photo from my roof , since this picture was taken I have added a 12 x 20 shed. Last house I added what ever I wanted, where ever I wanted, because my neighbors loved everything I built.

A pergola would look awesome .

 

[Pike2350]

I finally got the garage moderately cleaned and the heater installed. My wife and I had some friends over on Saturday night and hung out in the garage....it's getting there. I need to add more insulation between the garage ceiling and the attack to hold the heat in better. Now that the heater was hooked up, and the cleaning was done, we were able to finally park 2 cars in the garage. Such a nice feeling to come out in weather in the 20's to a garage/car that is 55*

 

[Pike2350]

Not that anything I've done since the last post comes even close to what others are doing...I thought I would update this a little (although I am terrible at getting good pics)

Last summer I finally had the remainder of the patio poured on the west side of the garage. I came home to find that the concrete guys didn't trowel in the expansion joints like they did to the driveway. I was PISSED, but they were still doing work for me at a rental (not that that went great either) They did come back and cut the lines...and while I'm not happy about the mismatch, I did hold back some of the final payment to satisfy me enough. I had run a gas line to the garage for the heater and Teed off it for a firepit....well they also covered the pipe. Luckily my wife got home right then and noticed and made them fix it. They did a piss poor hand formed square much larger then it needed to be. I had told the owner of the concrete company numerous times I only needed a small 4x4 square around it...just enough to make sure I could get a wrench on the pipe to tighten down the valve. Again, I am not happy with the concrete guys and did get a discount.







I added outdoor speakers to the eaves wired into a Sony amp in the garage, that also has speakers inside...so I can listen to them outside or in, or both.

 

[Pike2350]

I started looking at firepits last fall....MAN they are expensive. So I decided to build my own. I used metal studs, concrete board and stuck thin brick to it. I cut the brick at the corners and added mortar to disguise the joints. I was asked a few times a few weeks ago at a poker tournament we held how I found bricks with those edges and a few people didn't believe me when I said I did it myself....so that's a win.








You can also see in the last pic that I hung up a Roku TV over the workbench location.

I cast my own caps, then had my father-in-law weld up a metal ring with expanded metal for the pan. The ring also has a flat piece that sits on top and supports the concrete caps.





We got some red, black, and clear fire glass (not enough the first time) and got it lit the for the first time in November.



It's been a long winter here in Utah....so we haven't gotten to use it much, until the last month or so.



Here it is as of today.



Later this year we will be redoing the entire fence in the backyard as well as adding an addition to the house (why the concrete stops where it does in the last pic) This view will be the view out the new kitchen window with the door to the backyard just to the right of the pic.