Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The West Wing (24x36x12)

[hydrojim]

2023.01.22 UPDATE: I need to cleanup these first few posts but I'm headed outside to work on the garage. Look for new updates soon!



Welcome to my garage build thread. In an effort to keep things organized, this first post shall contain a table of contents with hyperlinks as the thread grows.

Summary:
This garage build is a 24x36x12 addition onto my existing 2 car attached garage. The intent for the garage is for car storage, car modification/repair, machining, and other projects. The building will be completely finished inside with HVAC and the upstairs attic will also be finished. So far, I am doing all the work myself (along with the occasional helping hand) when time permits on the weekends. I plan to contract out the floor slab and the driveway. My budget is $75,000 for the finished building including the driveway work. As of 04/03/2022, I'm estimating I'll actually end up closer to $85,000 by the time it's all said and done.

Table of Contents:
Background
Plans
Electrical Service Relocation & Upgrade
Foundation Mud Mat
Foundation Forms
Foundation Pour
Slab
Driveway

Finished Build Pics:

 

[hydrojim]

Background Placeholder

 

[hydrojim]

Plans Placeholder

NOTE: The plans below are for a 24x32 building. After permitting I made a last minute decision to increase the size to 24x36 and also grow the tornado shelter from 4x6 to 6x6. That's why there is a discrepancy.

As alluded to in the background section, I thought about this quite extensively. I played around in CAD with a lot of layouts and started putting together CAD drawings but, once I thought I settled on the final dimensions, I figured it would be easier to annotate the dimensions by just using hand drawings. I do CAD a lot in my engineering day job and I get sick of it quite easily now. Little did I know, I'd make a last minute switch from 32x32 to 24x32 and had to pretty much re-do all the hand drawings anyway.

Here are some snippets from the final plans submitted to the county. To avoid having to pay for an engineered drawing set, I generally followed IRC 2018 prescriptions which is what led to the 24' truss span, the 2x6 framing, the 12' wall height, and the blocking every 4' on center. I probably could have 'gotten away' with more (such as a larger span), but I wasn't really sure what to expect in the permitting process. For example, I provided engineered truss drawings but no details on the door opening header sizing. The 2018 IRC does not provide a prescription for walls above 12 feet combined with a truss span beyond 24 ft span.

The building is permitted as non-habitable space, no plumbing, and no electrical. My intent is to get through the final inspection with open walls so that I may get my 'certificate of occupancy' and then do as I wish with all the interior work.

Plan Details:


Plot Map


Elevations:


Foundation Layout:


Foundation Details:



Here is a tentative floor plan. Things are subject to change depending on the exact details of the equipment. None of the machine tools exist yet and I only own 1 car right now with my in-progress racecar build taking up another bay. I'm hoping to start expanding the collection once I get this garage built. A key consideration is I tend to drive smaller, lighter cars rather than large SUVs and trucks so this should be plenty of space for me.

The portion on the right is for the attic. At one point, when I was planning a 32x32 and had a full 16 ft across the attic, I was going to turn it into an office and recreational area with a pool table. however, I scaled things back and now I only have 12 ft across the attic. I'm thinking about making it into a woodshop area, but this is still TBD.

 

[hydrojim]

Back in September/October, 2021, in anticipation of the garage build, I relocated my electrical service and upgraded from 200 A overhead service to 400 A underground service while I was at it.

I purchased a Seimens meter main combo and got approval from my utility company to use it. I mounted the meter box on the outside of my house and trenched in about ~125' worth of conduit from the utility pole to the meter. I then ran conduit up through the wall and into the attic about another 20 ft to my house's existing electrical panel. I pulled in the conductors and then played the chicken and the egg game coordinating the utility disconnect of my old service, swapped out old de-energized conductors for my new conductors, got the county inspection, and then got the utility company back out to pull in their end of the service and install the meter. All told, I managed to be without power for only ~2 hours.

Now I have 200A for my house and 200 A for my new addition.

Seimens Meter/Main Combo.


I rented a jack hammer, a concrete saw, and a trencher and got to work crossing my driveway and my entry walk.


Box mounted at new location on front of house.


Routing conduit through wall and up into attic. Although they are fused conductors, I felt better running the conductors through a conduit. The original lines from the meter to the electrical panel were unfused and just laying loosely in my attic. That wouldn't pass the modern code. I specifically avoided cutting the top plate and intend to go back in and frame a chamfer around the new conduits. This is in my laundry room / utility closet so I'm not too worried about a slight protrusion from the wall / ceiling.


Here you can see the new conductors left hanging while I wait for the utility company to disconnect the old service. Since I now have disconnects on the outside of my house, I'll always be able to de-energize my panels for any work in the house.


Finished wiring on the outside prior to meter installation. I pounded in two copper ground rods on the outside of the house. The left side of the box is now locked with the utility company's tag but I'll be able to pull in the conductors for my new addition when the time comes.



That's where things ended in October, 2021 before finalizing my garage plans and getting the permit with the county.

 

[hydrojim]

My soil has a lot of silt & clay content. It has high moisture content and poor bearing capacity. I got some free advice from a geotechnical engineer who suggested I overdig and pour in a concrete 'mud mat' since the trench would be open for an extended period of time before my foundation was poured. This was an unexpected expense but I'm glad I did it. It cost me about $2,000 worth of flowable fill because I had to overdig about ~10" to the strata with better load bearing capabilities. Retrospectively, I would have just dug the footing and poured an earth formed footing ASAP before the next rain. This is how the existing house was done. In my quest to do a monolithic footing+stem wall pour, I complicated things because the soil at the bottom of the trench would have lost its bearing capacity when saturated with moisture. I figured that a monolithic footing+stem wall would be significantly stronger than a poured footing + CMU wall. While this is true, the extra costs and time of the mud mat and form work are probably not something I would do again.

I rented a mini excavator and began digging. Here in Northern Alabama, the bottom of the footing only needs to be 12" below the finished the grade. I can't imagine what folks do up North with 4'+ deep foundations or something like a basement. Just this shallow trench was a muddy pain in the ****.

Another lesson learned is I should have gotten a 36" finish bucket instead of the 12" toothed bucket. It would have been a much easier/cleaner dig.


Final Trench Form. The rose bush was left in place for some ambiance.


Mud mat poured:

 

[hydrojim]

In February, 2022, form work began:


I epoxied in rebar to the existing foundation. I also learned that my existing stem walls are not grout filled so I'll have to fill them in after I demolish the existing gable end wall.


Some footing rebar detail. In hindsight, I probably would have went up to a #5 or #6 rebar for the footing just to beefen things up a bit.


After getting the footings roughly placed, I pulled string lines and laid out my walls.


Getting into March, here you can see the forms starting to go vertical and some additional detail on the rebar.



Eventually, the formwork was completed and it was time to schedule the pump truck and concrete. In my area the concrete places require a two week lead time. I scheduled the pour and hoped for good weather...

 

[hydrojim]

Finally, on March, 26, it was pour day. In exchange for lunch I got a bunch of buddies over to help me out and to ensure things went smoothly. Zero concrete experience among them so everyone was excited to learn.

The pump truck guy helped out way more than I thought he would so we ended up with a relatively stress free pour. My forms held up perfectly.


For a moment I even got to step back and snap a picture while my friends worked hard and I supervised.


After letting things cure up for a day, I began stripping forms and finally got them all removed the next weekend. You can also see the new rock pile getting ready to backfill inside the walls. Final length/width dimensions ended up spot on and I'm only a little bit out of square from corner to corner.

 

[joey1320]

Nice work.

 

[jbrentd]

Looks good. I like the design and look forward to future updates. How much of the gable wall will be demo'd?

 

[captain14]

Will you be doing the rest of the build yourself?

How will you access the 6x6 storm shelter? And keep your stuff from being placed there temporarily?

 

[hydrojim]

Nice work.

Thank you! What part of NE Ohio are you in? I'm originally from the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland.

Looks good. I like the design and look forward to future updates. How much of the gable wall will be demo'd?

That whole wall will be coming down. It's not particularly load bearing but I'll have to shore up the other walls temporarily until the new wall is in place. I studied it up quite a bit and decided this was the best way to go about it. However, it's probably not the cheapest or easiest. I've seen plenty of additions where the new wall would just be framed in right over the old wall. The old wall is 2x4 framing and the new wall will be 2x6. I'll be adding in a walkway between the garage as well. I'm undecided if I'll put an actual door or not. It may be good to have a 'clean' side and a 'dirty' side.

Will you be doing the rest of the build yourself?

How will you access the 6x6 storm shelter? And keep your stuff from being placed there temporarily?

I'm getting contractors for the slab and the driveway. I will also probably hire out the garage door and the roof just to get the building dried in more quickly. Everything else will be done myself aside from any help I get from friends, family, and neighbors.

I purchased a FEMA-320 rated door for the shelter. It will have 4 individual locks so it will be inconvenient to open and will also double as a safe room. My motivation for not cluttering the room is being able to fit inside and live if a tornado comes my way. The track of a historical F5 tornado runs right across where my house now sits. Plus there are plenty of other long track tornados that have come this way. A nearby subdivision was leveled in 1995 and then hit again in 2011. That being said, my house has been here for 33 years so it could go another 70 without being hit. It's definitely one of those "have and not need" rather than "need and not have" situations.

Here is a picture of the door I bought:

 

[captain14]

Ok. I thought it was an in the ground shelter.

My great aunt was at home in Xenia Ohio when the 1973 tornado went through. I think she went to the cellar. Houses on both sides of the house were damaged or destroyed. Changed the landscape of Xenia.
The house was originally my great grandparents and then my grandmother and great aunt became the owners along with my cousin.

 

[joey1320]

I'm in a neighboring Cleveland suburb.

 

[hydrojim]

It has been about a month since the last update. I took one weekend off and spent another weekend at the beach so progress has been a little slow. It was good to let the backfill get rained on a few times. I backfilled the foundation with crusher run and have gotten things prepped for the slab pour. I've put down a 15 mill vapor barrier, a 1/2" expansion joint around the perimeter, and I've completed most of the rod busting. I've got to finish up some of the plumbing and then it'll be good to go. I'm also gonna drop some termiticide around the inside perimeter before the pour starts.





I found a concrete contractor that I think will do a good job. He's supposed to start in about a month. In the meantime, I plan to start working on the tornado shelter block.

The specs for the slab:

• 5,000 PSI mix fibermesh reinforced
• #4 rebar reinforcement on 2' centers 1.5" to 2.5" from bottom of slab
• Contraction joints will be cut with an early entry saw while the concrete is still green
• ~6.5" average thickness. I was originally going to do 8" but ended up with extra rock which is cheaper than concrete by volume. I dug out some pads where the lift will be to bring those areas closer to ~11" thick and I'll have some #5 rebar in those areas.

I also plan to moist cure the slab by flooding the foundation with water for a few weeks. There is some conflicting data out there on how much this helps the strength, but it no doubt should make it stronger. I've seen 50% stronger after moist curing for 28 days and as high as 100% stronger after moist curing for just 7 days.

 

[hydrojim]

Slab pour day finally came. It felt like I was waiting forever, but this was the only contractor I found that provided a professional quote and seemed trust-worthy enough to actually do a good job. Some contractors didn't even understand what an early entry saw was...

We originally agreed to use a pump truck because my yard eats trucks when it's wet. However, it ended up being super dry in the preceding week so we probably could have gotten away without it. That being said, it also helped from tearing up my existing driveway by not having the concrete trucks moving in an out. A little overkill for the job, but fun to watch.



Despite the heat (high 90s) they did a good job keeping the pour under control and added minimal water during initial troweling.


As agreed upon in advance they lifted the forms up so I could pond cure the slab for a few weeks.


No cracks yet. We'll see if any appear over the next month or so. I'm happy with the work so far and I'm excited to see what the final product looks like after I drain the slab and clean off all the dust.

 

[captain14]

Progress.

What’s your schedule for the framing? Have you ordered all the materials and have them on hand?

 

[hydrojim]

Progress.

What’s your schedule for the framing? Have you ordered all the materials and have them on hand?

My schedule was originally for the 2022 labor day timeframe, but that got delayed to around Christmas / New Year.

 

[hydrojim]

After the slab cured, I started building up the tornado shelter. This was my first time doing masonry so it was definitely a learning process. I learned a lot about what not to do and a little bit about what works. I broke my finger playing softball at the end of July so that delayed my progress on the shelter by about 2 months while it healed up.

The shelter is built according the prescriptions in FEMA-320 with some slight modifications here and there for my preferences.

Supporting and squaring up the door came first. The entire jamb of the door got filled up with wire anchors, rebar, and mortar during the build so it's not going anywhere!



I built up the shelter one source at a time. I couldn't find a source for bond-beam blocks so I had to cut all ~200 blocks with my angle grinder. Bending, cutting, and installing all the rebar also took a lot of time.




Finally it came time to build the forms for the roof pout and wrap up the rebar.



Before I could pour the shelter, I also had to begin the demo of my existing garage's wall so I had enough room to fill in the blocks on that foundation. I shored up the inside so I could safely cut out the bottom of the wall. I did it this way to prevent weather from ruining all the stuff I had in my existing garage. You can also see where I cutout for the doorway between the garages. I'm undecided if I'll actually put a garage door here or not.

The existing garage has no rebar in the walls, no fill in any of the blocks, and no foundation anchors. It's been there 34 years already so that leads me to believe my new garage will be alright!


Finally pour day came. It was just me and the pump truck guy. He placed the concrete and I did the finishing. I think it came out pretty good for an amateur.




Finish product after I stripped the forms. A little bit of leakage here and there but nothing that can't be ground off.



I had cleanouts at the bottom of the shelter so I could cleanout leaves/junk and also verify penetration of the concrete all the way to the bottom. I poured with about a 9" slump. I think I could have gone even higher because you can tell the blocks sucked the moisture right out of the concrete.

 

[hydrojim]

I had the shelter wrapped up just in time to start framing. My dad and my step mom came and helped me out with the build for two weeks. Great memories for sure!

Overall, I underestimated the time needed to complete the job by about 2X. I previously helped my dad with his 30x40x16 versatube building which we built in 12 days. Based on this, I surmised that my 24x36x12 building could be done in 2 weeks. I also had a 3rd week off from work as buffer.

In the end, I fell a bit short of the goal by spending 3 weeks on the build and not getting the siding done.

Materials and machines arrived




On 12/15 I started putting the first wall together.


By 12/16 we got oriented and started putting walls into place. We used the boom lift as a crane which is definitely not OSHA approved.


On 12/17 we had the end wall demo-ed and in the dumpster.


On 12/18 we had about half of the walls up


By 12/20 we had all the longest sections of walls up and plumb.


12/21 we wrapped up some details and started setting the first hand-framed end truss.


At some point some nasty cold weather came in and slowed us down for about a day and half. Even with all our layers on it was hard to work. By 12/24 we had the first few trusses up, braced, and plumb. The first few take some time to get right so nothing falls and all the subsequent trusses go on easily.


By Christmas we had all the factory built trusses set and braced.

 

[hydrojim]

The day after Christmas we framed in for the garage door opening and placed the LVLs just in time for some rare Alabama snow.


The next day, we finished placing the final hand-framed truss.


In subsequent days it was just a matter of sheathing the walls and starting the roof sheathing.


On 12/31 we got the existing house tied into the new garage and all my help departed.


On 01/02 the roofers came, finished up the roof sheathing, and had the roof on in about 6 hrs. It felt good to have my existing garage dried in again! I got super lucky with the weather during this process. Aside from the 2 very cold days and the day with snow, there was minimal rain.




I'm heavily biased, but I think it looks good!



By 01/04 I cleaned up some odds and ends and had all the rough openings cut in the sheathing. Next it was time for housewrap.

 

[hydrojim]

Housewrap was a lot more of a pain than I anticipated. It was windy and driving in all the cap nails by hand was quite tedious. I'm not a huge fan of the hammer stapler approach but by the 4th row up the wall, I was happily using the hammer stapler to save some time.



By 01/08 I had all my windows and the attic door in place. Then it was time to return the boom lift.

 

[hydrojim]

Here is a timelapse of the build up to this point:

I parked my daily driver inside for the first time:

 

[hydrojim]

The garage door got installed on 01/19 while I was on work travel. The guy showed up unannounced, but I'm pretty happy with the work. I just need a 5/8" shim where the tracks attach to the ceiling to account for future drywall. He said he got sick so he's coming back next week to install the opener.


Here you can see my concrete has a hump that will probably prevent the door from sealing well. The slab contractor's form must have been bowed or something. I'm annoyed about that so hopefully they are willing to at least grind it flat. I've accepted they'll never come back and re-do the whole floor. The grinding will probably expose aggregate though which might push me to do a grind and seal on the whole floor. I was planning to consider my floor options once I had the drywall & paint finished.


View of the garage door from outside:

 

[hydrojim]

A long time since the last update. I have a lot of pictures so this will be spread across a few posts.

After the holidays, I ran out of time off from work so I ended paying someone to install the siding & soffit. They didn't do things as well as I would have done them, but it was a decent job overall.








You can see some paint samples on the siding. My existing house has 35 year old vinyl siding that has seen better days. At some point I want to re-do the house siding, put in new windows, and add some new windows. I contemplated painting the garage some kind of blue in preparation for later changing the house color. However, I decided it's going to be a long time before I re-do the house siding so I ended up painting the garage to match the house.

 

[hydrojim]

From February through April I dealt with the concrete guy from hell. I entered into the contract on 01/24 and he said he could start right away and we agreed the work would be done within 30 days as stated on the contract. I didn't make the final payment until 04/17. It took him that long to do the work and it was an ordeal the whole time. The guy was so impressively incompetent that I think I've tried to repress the memories.

• The guy worked horrendously slowly and unprofessionally. He's stop by about once a week, work for 3 hours, and then disappear. There was one point where I didn't see him for a month. Job site was always messy with tools and materials strewn about. Oftentimes my belongings and tools were used without my permission. One time he had a load of rock delivered in the middle of my driveway on a Friday and left it there all weekend blocking in my cars.
• General craftmanship was poor. The guy didn't understand that concrete needs slope/fall to drain properly. I had to tell him about 10 times where to lower the forms so I didn't get pooling in un-wanted places. Certain areas of the base were well compacted while some areas were not. Some areas I got a full 4" of concrete and other areas I'm pretty sure might be as low as 2" thick.
• This seems to be a theme among concrete contractors, but he didn't understand where to place contraction joints and how to space them. The one going down the middle of the slab is about 1 ft off center from my garage door and in another area he missed a critical joint where a crack formed soon after pouring.
• He damaged my property by tearing up my yard, somehow splashing concrete EVERYWHERE, and cracking my existing driveway slab in multiple places.

Before the concrete was poured, I laid in pipes for the gutters. I'm on septic so these just drain to daylight in the yard.


By the end of February the guy completed the forms for the back patio and the sidewalk around the garage. It was a battle getting him to properly slope the back patio so I didn't have water pooling against my house. Retrospectively, I should have cut things off with him then and there.


About 2 weeks later he poured the back patio and sidewalk around the garage. It actually came out fairly well. There was 2 areas with some minors finish defects and some concrete splash on my house, but I think I was just happy to finally see things progressing.


A few days later they came and poured the driveway. During the middle of the pour, the main guy left for about an hour because his wife's car broke down. During this time, the 2nd concrete truck didn't show and his workers just sat around. I get that **** happens, but it came pretty close to having a cold joint in the middle of the slab. It was quite something to witness in real time...


Now for my complaints...

Here you can see the off center contraction joint. If it were me, I would have put two contraction joints spaced every 8.67 ft. The driveway is about 26 ft wide. Instead I got 1 contraction with 11 ft on one side and 15 ft on the other. By the time I noticed, it was too late.


Concrete splash on my brand new garage door and trim:


This portion of the driveway slopes towards the garage so I get some water pooling. I pointed this out to them as I was looking over the pour and they tried to slap some concrete ontop and work it in. You can see the discoloration since things were pretty cured by then. Water still pools in the corner, but it isn't horrible. You'd think they would have just sloped it properly... Also you can see some concrete splash on my old garage dooor.



To pour the concrete, they backed the concrete trucks into my existing driveway and right over the edge of the slab. Predictably, this caused concrete pops on the edge and corners. This photo shows three concrete pops, one which they tried to fill in as they poured..


Near where I trenched in the conduit for my 400A service, they caused 3 concrete pops. When I brought this up, the guy genuinely seemed to think there was nothing they could have done...

 

[hydrojim]

Almost done with my complaining...

They left a nice rusty chain in my yard. The grass grew perfectly to obscure it so of course I went right over it with my lawnmower which tore up a belt and a pulley. I didn't feel like I had much recourse here since they only indirectly caused the damage. Still annoying though...


They somehow managed to crush two of my brand new downspouts. Frankly, I have no idea how this even happens unless you lean on it or something. To the guy's credit, he did replace them, but only after I withheld payment.


Left my front yard like this.


Here you can see how much he tore up my backyard. The whole job could have been completed without driving the skid steer back there.


Somehow they go concrete on the complete other side of my house.


This is my front yard after the pour day. Garbage, concrete, and my neighbor's wheelbarrow. My neighbor had let me borrow his wheelbarrow and the concrete folks just decided to use it and let concrete dry all over it. I did make the concrete guy replace it.


More concrete just left in the middle of my yard for no reason.


In the end most of the damage got fixed, but it took forever and I had to ask and withhold payment to get it done. I wanted to get the guy off of my property so we came to an agreement on a reduced price and I'll fix the concrete pops myself in the future.

 

[hydrojim]

Whether I realized it or not, I think the concrete guy soured me on the project so progress was slow for a while. I also did a lot of travelling and I've been working on and racing my Lotus Elise. In August I got around to starting to paint.

Primer. I don't love being on an extension ladder and it's about 26 ft to the peak so I'll have to think of a good way to get up high and finish the gable ends. I'll probably get a scissor lift over here and use that when I go to build the rear deck.


Finally got some paint on. The paint matches the back of the vinyl siding really well. The front side of the vinyl is really faded so the color doesn't match great. The thinking was the paint will also begin to fade at some point... We'll see. Plus, once I started spraying, I wasn't going back to the store to re-mix the paint

Long-term I'd like to re-side the house anyway so I can address it then.


Here you can see the difference in color between the faded siding and an unfaded portion:


More angles:



I still need to work the corners, trim, and front. I was running out of time & daylight so I saved the rest for another day.



Next up, I finish painting and start working the rear deck. Once I finish the rear deck it will be time for attic flooring, electrical, insulation, drywall, lighting, and HVAC. Hopefully I can pickup the pace.

For now, I'm already enjoying the garage for working on cars and projects.


Stay tuned...

 

[hydrojim]

A financial update for those interested:

DIY costs:
Framing Tools: $1,000
Windows: $863
Doors: $550
Paint: $1,500
400A electrical upgrade and underground utilities: $6,670
Framing Lumber: $3,030
Sheathing: $2,228
Trusses: $5,081
Concrete Foundation & Sit Prep: $15,945
Plumbing (so far): $404
Buried pipes for gutters: $869
Tornado Shelter & Door: $6,035
Machine Rentals: $3,483
Dumpster: $375
Permitting: $225
Misc supplies that I haven't bothered categorizing: $2,000

DIY & Contractor mixed:
Concrete Slab: $12,749

Contractor costs:
Roof: $4,500
Fascia & gutters (including replacing some gutters on old house): $4,700
Siding & Soffit: $7,043
Garage Door & Opener: $3,808
Concrete patio, sidewalk, and driveway: $17,097

That's right. $101,155 with tons of DIY for an attached 864 sq. ft. garage with tornado shelter, 12 ft 2x6 walls, 7" 4,000 PSI concrete floor, driveway, 432 sq ft attic, and 200A service to the garage. I don't even have electrical, insulation, or drywall yet.

If you include the attic, I'm already sitting at about $87 per sq ft.

I'm estimating about $10,000 or about $8/sq ft to finish it out bring my total to about $95/sq ft.

There is certainly areas I could have reduced costs and I built during a time with highly inflated costs, but this is what is costs to build something like this. I'm curious how my costs compare to what someone would have charged to do this whole job. I do think I got a significantly better product than I would have received by hiring a contractor. I just haven't come across good contractors in my area. My understanding of new home construction costs in my area is about $200 per square foot. Plus, there was the added complication of it being an addition to an existing house. That included a decent amount of demo and made a lot of things more difficult. It doesn't matter though because I couldn't find anyone to even quote the job.

 

[jcarapet]

Thanks for breaking down the costs as such. I ran into the same result when I put together my barn. People are surprised when I tell them it isn't $40/foot like they expected, but anything I could I DIY'ed, and it still came out more. Sadly, the rules have changed.