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Florida Garage Project: 1,500 sqft Block

LilRichard

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Jul 30, 2013
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57
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Flori-duh
Gents,

I have been lurking for a while: learning, grabbing ideas, and soaking it all in. So first, thanks for having a great site for me to leverage your collective knowledge / experiences.

The wife and I live in a suburban area of Tampa, but are lucky enough to have a half acre to work with. We have a small two car garage currently - which after the detached garage is completed, will be rebuilt as a master bed/bath, thereby satisfying her wants as well as mine.

We have a few fun hobbies that the garage will assist with. First we do a lot of wakeboarding, and my poor boat sits outside (covered). I also race motorcycles in the CCS series, so I need a good workspace for my bikes / gear. Last, I like to "tinker", and was tired of pulling the bikes out the the garage to make room for projects.

Our idea was to have a four car garage with a shop. Due to property constraints I was forced to go two wide, two deep... which is fine because I will put the boat in the back space, as well as my bikes. The shape of the garage was also heavily dictated by property rules, so that's how we ended up with this configuration.

It will be all block construction, 12' walls. I have a 15' overall height restriction, so I am limited to a 2.5/12 pitch roof - but that almost matches our home (ranch style, early 60's, low pitch roof). I put the windows up high to get light into the shop, and avoid me putting tools / parts through them at working level. Dimensions of main garage are 25x45, shop is 20x20. Roof is gable ends - again to match our current architecture.

Here's a rough conceptual 3D rendering:

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We have decided to go with a single 18' wide door instead, and have moved the man doors around a bit. As well there is no header spanning across the shop area (that was just a hangup on the drawing software). The plan is to build sliding doors between the shop / garage so I can do my work in the shop without coating everything in the garage with dust.

Here's the finished elevation plan and floorplan:

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Floorplan.png


I am homeowner permitting this due to the outrageous markup I discovered when quoting from GCs. I have a good friend who is a GC, but specializes in metal buildings - so he has been very helpful in guiding me through the process! Hillsborough county was remarkably good to work with so far.

We are permitted and the footer was dug last night. Footer is a little bit overkill, but we have had sinkhole / settling problems in this part of Florida for decades - so we purposely overbuilt a bit. We went 24" wide, 14" deep.

Progress (finally):

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Jackson the GSP says "not bad":

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Enough for now I suppose... more to come obviously.
 
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jayz66ragtop

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Sep 11, 2009
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SoCal
Two things:

1. Cannot tell very well form the pictures but what is on the other side of the wood fence? Are the lots back to back or is there an ally/road back there? Reason I ask is if it's a road, it might be nice to have a roll up back there are well so you can "pull through" the garage if need be. If it's another lot, nevermind.

2. May want to consider a small roll up instead of a window from the show out to the yard just in case you are working on say a riding lawn mower and have the car part of the garage full. You would have to move at least one car to get it out of the shop. Maybe replace the window in the shop part that is facing the same direction as the roll up door so a sidewalk could be poured to connect the "driveway" up to the garage to this additional roll up.

Just a thought and easier to do these now rather than later.
 
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jimmie jam

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Oct 16, 2005
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fort lauderdale, fl
I did 600sf addition to the existing garage a few years ago and put a 7 x 8 rear door. You may want to consider something like that. I'm in for this.
 
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LilRichard

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Jul 30, 2013
Messages
57
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Flori-duh
Two things:

1. Cannot tell very well form the pictures but what is on the other side of the wood fence? Are the lots back to back or is there an ally/road back there? Reason I ask is if it's a road, it might be nice to have a roll up back there are well so you can "pull through" the garage if need be. If it's another lot, nevermind.

No road back there, otherwise I agree completely!



2. May want to consider a small roll up instead of a window from the show out to the yard just in case you are working on say a riding lawn mower and have the car part of the garage full. You would have to move at least one car to get it out of the shop. Maybe replace the window in the shop part that is facing the same direction as the roll up door so a sidewalk could be poured to connect the "driveway" up to the garage to this additional roll up.

Just a thought and easier to do these now rather than later.

Also a good idea. I had thought about this, but it's partially facing the house... And very visible from the living room. Want to keep it as "residential" looking as possible. Thoughts?

Thanks... And please keep the feedback coming!
 

jayz66ragtop

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SoCal
No road back there, otherwise I agree completely!

Darn, too bad :sad:



Also a good idea. I had thought about this, but it's partially facing the house... And very visible from the living room. Want to keep it as "residential" looking as possible. Thoughts?

Thanks... And please keep the feedback coming!

Hmmmm, maybe a slider with window covering? Not very workshop friendly but maybe some sort of covering so from the outside it looks like curtains but from the inside it's fire resistant at least for stray sparks and such.
 

LutzTD

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Dec 31, 2011
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3,673
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Lutz, Florida
Hey neighbor, looks like a nice building but I have one word. Insulate, insulate, INSULATE!. Now mines a little different with a metal roof, Im assuming yours is not, but its intolerable hot in the summer. When I finally get to put on my stucco it will be over 2" of styrofoam insulation.
 
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LilRichard

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Jul 30, 2013
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Flori-duh
Thank you guys. Nothing exciting to report - had my footer inspection today and passed. Was hoping to get it poured, but to no avail. For now all I have to share are a few pics of my exciting Ufer ground...


Ufer.jpg



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Hopefully tomorrow will yield more!
 
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LilRichard

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Flori-duh
Take plenty of pictures and share with us. Also this documents where utilities are in the future if something needs to be upgraded.

Amen. I rebuilt an older boat (an Aquasport, they're very popular guide boats here in Tampa) and took tons of photos for that reason. Whenever i wonder about something I have great documentation to go back to...
 
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LilRichard

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Almost forgot - Santa came early... and he was driving an Old Dominion truck. More fun toys to play with.

Liftex.jpg



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The plan is to recess this into the floor, another great idea I got from reading the posts on here. That will reduce the impact on floor space, while still getting the bike plenty high off the ground.
 

RdRasher

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Sep 9, 2013
Messages
93
Location
Eustis, FL
Almost forgot - Santa came early... and he was driving an Old Dominion truck. More fun toys to play with.

Liftex.jpg


The plan is to recess this into the floor, another great idea I got from reading the posts on here. That will reduce the impact on floor space, while still getting the bike plenty high off the ground.

Great looking start to your garage!

With that new lift it looks like you plan on working on some bikes, you might want to check out & post up in the motorcycle garage thread.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46792
 
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LilRichard

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Haha, yes... it's all bikes at the moment. If you look VERY carefully, you can see a pretty burned up Michelin Power Cup rear tire sticking out from under that cover. About 60 laps (give or take) at Jennings GP.
 

RdRasher

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Sep 9, 2013
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93
Location
Eustis, FL
Haha, yes... it's all bikes at the moment. If you look VERY carefully, you can see a pretty burned up Michelin Power Cup rear tire sticking out from under that cover. About 60 laps (give or take) at Jennings GP.

Nice. No chicken strips there!!!!

I'm always looking for an excuse to take my ol' R6 track bike out for a spin up @ Jennings GP! :thumbup:
 

ufvj217

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Nov 21, 2013
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What zoning is your lot? I'm in tampa and too and at first I was mad because I though I had to stick to 15 foot total height but theres other setbacks you can follow and go up to 35ft high.

Nice build though!!
 
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LilRichard

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Flori-duh
UFV:

Thanks. I am in Forest Hills. I agree I could have gone higher... but I would have had to move the building further in on the lot. As it stands, I an only 3' off my side property line.

It's OK, that neighbor isn't one of my favorites anyway. He's going to be less than thrilled when he says a 12 wall go up!
 
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ufvj217

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Im considering applying for a variance to see if I can stay 3 ft but still go higher than 15ft. The main thing is the rear setback being 20' if higher than 15 feet. I dont have a back neighbor, its a school, so I think that may convince them since its not a house that someone back there would have to look at.
 
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LilRichard

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Good luck, please post up your results. I wanted to avoid any kind of variance because I've heard it's a giant PITA... and I was happy with 12' walls.
 

ufvj217

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Nov 21, 2013
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Well regardless I'm preparing for the worst and doing 7' sides and 20' rear so I can go over 15' height and larger than 900sq ft.

so worst case is they say no and I still build it, just 20 off the rear rather than 3.
 
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LilRichard

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Got the stem wall blocks in this weekend, and had the fill dirt brought in today. A few pics of the stem wall going in:

Literally the first blocks:

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More to come later this week!
 
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LilRichard

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Moving along rather quickly now. Got the fill dirt put in place, and had my compaction tested - was 95%. Had my termite treatment today. Then they put down the visqueen and mesh, pictures below.

One quick note, you'll see three reliefs in the floor. Two are for car lift "piers" and one is for a recessed motorcycle lift. We're doing 4" 3500 PSI concrete, but we wanted a large margin of error for the lift, so we went an additional 8" (total of 12" deep under the lift posts). The two lift "piers" are 6' x 6'. These "piers" will have four pieces of #5 rebar placed at the bottom of the holes.

The relief for the motorcycle lift will be 1" wider than the actual lift on all sides. It is 7" deep so that the lift will be perfectly flush with the floor when down. We plumbed a 1.5" conduit with a 90* sweep down into the lift recess to run the air line that powers the lift. So enough talking!

Here is the lift again for reference:

Liftex.jpg


Jackson says "Nice slip and slide old man"

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Note motorcycle lift relief in foreground, car lift piers in background (one intersects the edge of the bike lift relief):

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Inspection tomorrow, pour it Monday. That will be great timing, lets it cure over Christmas. And on that note, Merry Christmas to you guys, have a great holiday!
 

jimmie jam

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Oct 16, 2005
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fort lauderdale, fl
Looks good! It's nice to do the recess for your MC lift as long as your positive of the location. A buddy of mine didn't know where he wanted his to end up so he just cut it in after the fact I just did 6" of 4,000psi and #5's five feet checkerboard so I can move my 4-posters anywhere in the garage.

p.s. keep it wet after the pour for a slower/cooler cure.
 
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LilRichard

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Looks good! It's nice to do the recess for your MC lift as long as your positive of the location. A buddy of mine didn't know where he wanted his to end up so he just cut it in after the fact I just did 6" of 4,000psi and #5's five feet checkerboard so I can move my 4-posters anywhere in the garage.

Good idea. I put it in the rear of the garage because I figured if I have a project going, I want it the furthest out of the way possible. But your approach was good too!

p.s. keep it wet after the pour for a slower/cooler cure.

I have read this, but also read that some people cover it with visqueen to achieve the same result. Thoughts?
 

jimmie jam

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fort lauderdale, fl
I have read this, but also read that some people cover it with visqueen to achieve the same result. Thoughts?

Well, i've been in Fort Lauderdale for nearly 40 years and have always listened to the finishers who have told me to keep it wet for at least 4-5 days and have always done that with great results. I think that covering it is more of a northern thing (i remember it growing up in Ohio). In some climates you can't keep it wet due to temps so you cover it. I guess it's your call, i'm no expert. They don't cover fresh pours here in SF. Good luck!
 
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LilRichard

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Flori-duh
Ok, thanks. Trying to develop the 'ole knowledge base.

My concrete guy (who is "old school", and has been fantastic) basically said "leave it be". LOL
 
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LilRichard

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Got the slab inspected this morning and will be pouring Monday! Couple of pictures of rebar in the piers we're building.

First, an obligatory shot with the silly dog:

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I'll get some more pics up after the pour!
 
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LilRichard

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Got the slab poured Thursday. Went 3,500psi concrete with fiber (obviously have mesh down already). Slab went down fine – first batch seemed a little wet – but my knowledge of concrete is very small. We poured every cell of the stem wall solid.

They power finished the top. Went out to see what I had this morning and it looked pretty darned good! They cut the control joints this morning as well.

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Audimann

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Dec 28, 2013
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WOW !.....every "car nuts"dream garage !!!
Regards....a Canadian, living in Riga, Latvia....Have a "Garage Happy New Years !!".
 
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LilRichard

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Flori-duh
Thanks guys... got the recessed lift idea from perusing posts here.

Will definitely keep the pics coming!

Windows and doors should be here shortly. My mason is targeting walls up by end of next week or early the following week.
 
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