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36X48 Garage Build - AKA "I Love Debt" is Underway!

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MelvinManiac

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Ground was broke today. Excited and nervous. Most folks in the construction world start work at sunrise. I work often at night, so probably won't be sleeping much while this is going on. Day one, they did the digging and got the footing poured. All concrete work should be done early next week. Will be 6" floor, 12" stem wall, 12ft walls, (13ft ceilings).

The crew seemed competent and friendly. I bribed them with donuts first thing in the morning to make sure they are getting all necessary vitamins and minerals.


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MelvinManiac

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zkdiesel said:
Awesome! Moneys rolling out now! Trench pour atleast saves a lot!
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I wish! There's no money savings in this baby, unfortunately... I was originally going to do a 30X42...but once they laid out the stakes it looked so small...especially the 30ft span. Increasing to 36X48 jumped the price about $27k.. Hard pill to swallow, but here we are. I was already in a contract with these guys, so too late to shop it at that point.

"Buy once cry once" has been my rationalization for letting this get out of control.
 
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zmotorsports

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MelvinManiac said:
I wish! There's no money savings in this baby, unfortunately... I was originally going to do a 30X42...but once they laid out the stakes it looked so small...especially the 30ft span. Increasing to 36X48 jumped the price about $27k.. Hard pill to swallow, but here we are. I was already in a contract with these guys, so too late to shop it at that point.

"Buy once cry once" has been my rationalization for letting this get out of control.
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Agreed. You won't regret going larger. I built mine as large as the city would allow on my property, and as large as my bank account would allow. :ROFLMAO:

Looking forward to seeing the progress. I see that you are relatively new to the forum, welcome. Out of curiosity, whereabout are you located? I didn't see it in your profile.
 
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kbuhagiar

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The donuts always worked for me. ;)

Back during my working days, I'd stop at the Rolling Pin Donuts on my way to work, usually around 5:30AM, ask for two bakers' dozens, and the gal behind the counter would inevitably ask, "Big meeting or project kickoff?"

She was obviously quite familiar with my management style. :LOL:
 
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MelvinManiac

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Metal-Marc said:
OP needs a commemorative plaque when the project is done.
"November 2025, 640 donuts were consumed during this build."
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:ROFLMAO: ..Luckily the concrete shouldn't be more than 4 days, and the building is coming factory built...so, maybe 100 donuts total. I'll try to keep track. Had a dozen for day one, but with only 4 workers, I dialed it down to 8 for day 2. Might have to splurge for 2 dozen/day when the builders come. I imagine that will be 10+ workers at a time. They put these buildings up fast.IMG_1694.jpgIMG_1688.jpgIMG_1695.jpg
 
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MelvinManiac

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IMG_1705.jpgWell, no donuts for the 3 man crew this morning. Had a check stolen from my car last night when I was parked outside a Dollar General for like 2 minutes. Made me a bit frantic until I could cancel it this morning.

Forms removed. Prep for slab Monday. Pour slab Tuesday.
 
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iagsxr

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The shop part of my building is 36' x 48'. I only did one big door. For the most part it works fine for how I use it, but sometimes I wish I had doors similar to what you're going to have. facebook_1702635880170_7141372482743165002.jpg
 
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racecougar

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zmotorsports said:
Looking forward to seeing the progress. I see that you are relatively new to the forum, welcome. Out of curiosity, whereabout are you located? I didn't see it in your profile.
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IIRC, from the OP's other thread, he/she is near St. Louis, MO, but not in any of the counties bordering St. Louis county (so not that near).
 
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bad_idea

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Congratulations on the build. I built my 30x40x12' around about 6 or 7 years ago. Was probably 2 years before it was organized to function good. I moved from a 14x20 attached, attic above for storage and a 8x16 shed for storing woodworking tools. I had that last setup so packed that it overflowed in the 30x40 until I could get some cabinets and shelves built.
 
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Cairo94507

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Congratulations! We just completed a 44'x36'x12.5' garage. We have large windows on two sides, double 2-car garage doors, a large 12'x5' dormer with 2 large windows. Fully insulated with its own HVAC. Concrete floor is 6" to 7" 4300 PSI power hard trowel finished. Plenty of lighting and electrical too. We sunk a mid-rise BendPak scissor lift in the floor and concealed all of the lines and hydraulics. Makes playing with cars lots of fun.
 
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MelvinManiac

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Donut rejection! Today was really only a few hours of work. Just a little grading and dumped some gravel. Definitely going to have to talk to them about how much they charged me for fill. Only took 3 truckloads.

Chalkline for gravel is about 6 inches up the wall, so we should be good on floor thickness.

Rebar and vapor barrier go on tomorrow and the slab should be poured.

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MelvinManiac

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Dozen variety pack of donuts were provided today.

A little disappointed with the lack of rebar... I saw them laying it...Assuming they would be adding more doing a cross pattern, and the concrete trucks starting showing up. Well, nothing I can do about it now. I asked the guy about it...and he just hemmed and hawed about how strong it'll be and isn't really needed, I've done this a million times, etc etc.. Standard contractor speak. I would have at least made them use fiberglass mesh if I knew there would be this little rebar.



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MelvinManiac

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racecougar said:
:eek: This is why we were adamant about getting more detail in your contract.
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In the end, I'm sure it'll be alright...I'll probably choose a lift with a 4" concrete requirement just to be safe.. If it really bothered me, I guess I'd have to cut out the section where the lift will be and have it done properly. Trying to not let this stress me out too much. Already a few things I could get pretty pissed about if I fixate on them long enough lol.

I mean, if you have to specify exactly how rebar is done, then where does the detail end? What size nails/screws are used, etc?? Just a reminder I don't want to do any more building projects in the future. Too stressful and can't trust any contractor.
 
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zmotorsports

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MelvinManiac said:
In the end, I'm sure it'll be alright...I'll probably choose a lift with a 4" concrete requirement just to be safe.. If it really bothered me, I guess I'd have to cut out the section where the lift will be and have it done properly. Trying to not let this stress me out too much. Already a few things I could get pretty pissed about if I fixate on them long enough lol.

I mean, if you have to specify exactly how rebar is done, then where does the detail end? What size nails/screws are used, etc?? Just a reminder I don't want to do any more building projects in the future. Too stressful and can't trust any contractor.
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To be honest, I would be more concerned about the compaction of the substrate under the concrete than a little extra rebar. I think that is more important than rebar.
 
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MelvinManiac

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zmotorsports said:
To be honest, I would be more concerned about the compaction of the substrate under the concrete than a little extra rebar. I think that is more important than rebar.
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They compacted it just fine....However, I think some areas didn't get that much gravel. I didn't measure before/after...but watching my timelapse footage, it looks like the one side didn't get much more than a dusting... They needed to pull more dirt out of that spot probably. The contract stated 8"... but people are going to do what they are going to do regardless of what's on paper, in my experience. I'll have to get the footage off my memory card and watch it more closely to know for sure. However, the lift will likely go on the other side anyways, so I was trying to not let that bother me too much.
 
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MelvinManiac

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I went back out and they are nearly done. Looks like they added some cross pieces of rebar on the parts I can see exposed now. If anything it's needed for ease of install to just keep the concrete from spreading the rebar all over when it's poured.


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MelvinManiac

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Saw cuts will be done tomorrow.

Talked to the sales guy/rep and said they'd work with me on the gravel price. He seemed good about it. Will likely be a few weeks until the building is up.

Wondering if I should put a tarp over it if we end up getting a lot rain cold/freezing weather in the meantime. Nothing really on the forecast yet...but I'm sure it will happen at some point. Apparently garage slabs are supposed to slope towards the doors. This slab isn't sloped much because of reasons/excuses..stem wall height concerns, form limitations, etc.. I don't care about the slope much anyways, because there will be a roof over all of this...just don't want water to freeze on it before that happens.


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racecougar

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If you can get them to cut the slab today, I'd recommend it.

I'd also recommend reading ConCretin's guide: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-concrete-undergrounds-guide-to-floor-slabs.382626/

A worthwhile excerpt:
If you are cutting your joints, use an early entry or Soff-Cut saw and make your cuts immediately after finishing. These saws have a thin blade that turns into the floor and a plate that presses down on the concrete, which keeps the blade from pulling up the surface.
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MelvinManiac

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MelvinManiac

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At least we got good weather for all of this. The only downside is all the leaves constantly falling on it. I'll try to keep it leaf blowed after they're gone.
 
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