Villa Gorilla: New 2-Car Attached Parking Garage

Hello, all! I've been reading this site for many years. I owe a big debt of gratitude to all the wonderful members here for all the useful information and hours of entertainment I have gained from this group. I finally have a project of my own that I can journal and ask for advice on:

About 8 years ago my wife and I were shopping for our first home. We looked for a long time to find a place in our price range that had either a 3-car garage, a separate shop, or room (both physical space and budget) to build a shop. We finally found our little 1600 ft^2 3-bed, 2-bath ranch with a "2-car" attached garage and a 40'x46' 2-story detached steel arch building on 1-acre. Since then we have had a couple kids with another on the way and the house has filled right up and we're feeling a little cramped. The shop is a story for another thread but the last 8 years has given us plenty of time to build a list of things we would like to be different in our home. For the past couple of years we have been watching every house listed for sale in our area but everything that is interesting is just more money than we are comfortable spending - especially considering how high our property taxes are (like $5K/year per $100K of property value). The other factor is the local market is extremely low on inventory and every deal has to be an on-the-spot decision followed by a bidding war and forget about any contingencies. We also love our school and have the best neighbors ever - so we have decided to expand rather than move.

The addition will tear down the existing attached garage. Its deep enough at 24 feet but the back half is only 16' wide so fitting 2 cars in really isn't pleasant. It also has a shed attached to the side of it that will be coming down. In their place will be a new 27'W x 24'D garage with 2x 10' wide doors, a 300+ square foot addition to the first floor including a half bath, mudroom, laundry, pantry, new front entry, access to the pool patio, etc. and a half-story upstairs with space for a family room and future bathroom and bedroom. It will also come with the bonus of an expanded basement.

We are in the process of working with our architect to detail everything and also dealing with building permits, a setback variance, and utilities. Construction will be done by a friend in the business who is a "1-man show" and a true craftsman. Seriously, I can't believe the pace he can get things done at working alone, he will personally do everything other than excavation and concrete flatwork, and the quality of his work is impeccable.

Focusing specifically on the garage the basic design has been set. 27 feet wide, 24 feet deep with 2 10' wide by 7' tall garage doors and an 8-foot ceiling. There will also be a man door on the side and possibly another 6'-wide overhead door out the side for the mower. Since I have my shop for a workspace this garage will really only be for parking of 2 daily drivers and then outdoor kid toys and seasonal yard and gardening stuff. I'd love some help from the forum on planning and useful details for this garage. I already know I want some kind of nice floor. We live in the road salt capital of the world and bare concrete gets destroyed very quickly. I'm considering porcelain tile as well as Rust Bullet / Hellfire. I also plan on having finished walls. Drywall will be required by code but I'm open to suggestions of another material to layer over than maybe just on the bottom half of the walls. I like tons of light so I'll plan for adequate switched outlets on the ceiling and may try to come up with some kind of relay or contactor setup so that the garage door openers turn on the room lights as part of a 4-way switch circuit. I'll plan for lots of wall outlets just in case and I think I'll put in a hot/cold frost-free sillcock too. What else do you folks think I should consider? Any super-handy elements that I should plan for now? Anything you've always wished your garage had?

My setback variance was approved by the town last night. I also just talked to the architect and he should have the first revision of the "final" plans early next week. With those and the variance I am ready to apply for a building permit. Hopefully I'll have some interesting pictures to share then.

Congrats on getting the variance! They are just short of impossible to get around here...unless you know someone (I don't).

DynoDave said:

Congrats on getting the variance! They are just short of impossible to get around here...unless you know someone (I don't).

Click to expand...

Thanks. They are surprisingly easy to come by around here. Basically you provide documentation, pay a fee ($125 I think), they send out mailing to neighbors and post in the local paper, then go to a monthly meeting to make your case. If you aren't asking for anything that the board thinks is excessive or will negatively impact the neighborhood, and no neighbors complain, then you get it.

In my area its under the jurisdiction of the town and I'm lucky that my town is relatively rural with tons of people having large detached pole buildings, etc. The board is made up of 7 residents who are all pretty reasonable people. Basically most things that people ask for they view as improvements and improvements are good. Plus they usually increase the assessment of the effected property so more tax revenue.

Its a good thing they are easy to get. On my little 1-acre lot I have variances for:

- Shop height (previous owner)
- Shop square footage (previous owner)
- Shed setback (previous owner - to be replaced by this project)
- Swimming pool setback
- Fence height
- Fence construction style

Most of those are due to the fact that I have a corner lot and they require a 60' front setback from both roads.

After hearing some of the horror stories on here I'm definitely thankful that I have it so easy.

Sounds like the way things SHOULD BE done.

Here, the attitude is that the law is the law. And if you're asking to bend it, you'd better have a damn good reason...like a river popped up overnight creating the need for a variance. Simply wanting something not allowed, or even having a legitimate (to you) need for something not allowed...that's not a valid reason for a variance.

Yet, when a landlord wanted to split a lot across the street so he could build another house, and that landlord was a deputy county sheriff who swore to the board of appeals that he had every intention of living in the house...he patrols the area, loves it, wants to live here, and has no intention of renting...that one goes to the board...we and several neighbors show up to object, and they unanimously grant the change....and the deputy never lives in the house a day and it immediately becomes a rental....that's the sort of system we have here.

First time trying to post pictures so we'll see how it goes...

Drawings are more or less finished. Some snips of the garage-relevant ones are (hopefully) attached to this post.

My permit application should be going in this week and I have begun the process with the relevant utilities for new/moved gas and electric services.

Now I need to get cracking on cleaning out the existing garage, shed, and affected area of the basement.

I just dropped off the building permit application. It took another couple iterations to get the final drawings that I submitted but the changes made should save a few grand in materials that were over-spec'd. The original design called for I-joists for the second floor but 2x12's are plenty strong/stiff enough. We also adjusted the foundation design to 10" CMU for the basement but 8" for the garage stem walls.

The builder is almost ready to start so hopefully the permit approval happens quickly and smoothly.

Permit was approved last week without issue. The building inspector made a note that the project will require a blower door test which I thought was odd since the living space portion of the addition is 100% open to the existing house with no feasible way to test only the new portion. But we'll deal with that later.

Demo officially started yesterday. The garage ceiling was torn down to begin the process of temporarily moving the electrical panel from a wall that will be torn down soon to a wall that won't be torn down until later in the project. The good news is most of the wiring is long enough that it can move live without disconnecting and extending more than 5 circuits. The bad news is I'll be losing power to my detached shop for a while pretty soon. The wall between the garage and living room was also cut open to remove an unused woodstove and to make room for new framing. I'm going to do my best to get some pictures up here semi-regularly.


We also got 'final' pricing from the builder. I am contracting the foundation, concrete, and plumbing separately so I don't have final quotes for some of those aspects yet but the cost is coming in to be more than I hoped for but not as much as I had feared. Its going to push the budget but should be doable without sacrificing any major features.

Lots of progress but I can't figure out how to post pictures from my google photos without downloading and re-uploading. I have lots of pictures to share...

Basement excavation finished yesterday with the garage footing trench finishing up this morning. Footings get formed tomorrow and poured Thursday then block starts being set for foundation walls.

Excavation did not go easily. We got 100% confirmation of my suspicion that my basement floor is setting directly on bedrock. They had to use a relatively small excavator to fit in the spot they had to work in and ended up pulling out seemingly endless boulders. They actually had to saw out a trench through a portion of the bedrock in one spot to get enough height for the footing. I now have a mountain of rocks in my yard because the chunks were too big for my neighbor who was taking the fill. We'll figure that part out later...

We've been busy selecting finishes and components too. We're settling in on our roof selection, matching existing siding, and buying a ton of new windows. Does anyone here have opinions on vinyl windows with painted exteriors? We dig the look of black windows but I'm not sure of the durability...

After much research here and elsewhere online I also picked out our mini-split for the bonus room above the garage. I think we'll be going with the Fujitsu 12RLFFH and thanks to a terrific thread here by a user whose name escapes me I'm going to attempt a DIY install with purge, vacuum, leak test, and commissioning done by an 'on-the-side' pro.

http://www.fujitsugeneral.com/us/products/split/floor/agu12rlf.html