Finally getting to build a detached garage/shop!!!

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So I've been a long time lurker on here and probably only registered in the last year or so when the reality of possibly getting to build my own detached garage started to look feasible. But I've gleaned a lot of good info from this site and plan to continue to use it and hopefully contribute, so thanks in advance.

So the wife and I moved back in August of last year to a home that we intend to be in for 15-20+ years. Part of my requirements when we moved were either a minimum of a 3 car attached garage or preferably a lot big enough and a house situated on it in such a manner that I could build what I really wanted on it. We came out pretty nicely on the sale of our last house and decided to basically jump right into building a detached at the new place (after the wife got some of her "required" renovations done inside the house... wall down, some flooring, appliances, paint, etc). But the things we did to the house were all good investments and worth the money... especially since I was going to spend 2x to 3x as much on the garage and needed the wife to be happy.

I ultimately would have like to have gone bigger (mostly wider) but we were already going to come in over budget and this building should serve it's purposes more than fine. The quick run down is a 24' (wide... gable end) x 36' long two story building. The building started off "reasonably" priced but once you add in all the "extras" it ads up quick.

- 12' ceilings on first floor (for lift!!!)
- some upgrades on the front of the building wood work/trim to match our house
- brick veneer on the entire front of the building (to match house...required by HOA) along with a few "decorative" extras
- Hardyplank to match the house (again required by HOA)
- brick foundation
- oversized 8x18 insulated garage door w/ extended flush mount rails (up front)
- 9x7 insulated garage door with extended tracks in the back
- an 8x12 lean-to concreted area out back
- upgraded concrete (4 ksi concrete vs. 3 ksi)
- roughly a 24' x 17' drive connecting the garage to existing driveway
- a couple extra deep "pads" for where the lift will go
- extra windows

I'm sure there are a couple more but that's the majority of them. I'm going to do all electric and plumbing and will eventually finish off the inside (insulation, drywall, paint, etc). I'm really going to want to do drywall sooner rather than later just to give it that finished look but it may be a while before the budget allows those things and other items that I'd like to have soon too (lift, epoxy floors, new tool box, new compressor... you get the idea, lol). And I figured I might as well give myself something to do on/in the garage because there won't be any money left over for a project car again for quite some time. But one thing at a time.

Anyway, the planning stage of all this took longer than I expected as far as selecting a builder and getting plans and permits together but we finally got rolling about a month ago. We've had some weather and supply delays but framing started yesterday and it's finally starting to look like a building!!! She's gonna be damn tall but adding the second story seemed like a no brainer given the extra squarefootage vs. the cost.

Here are some pics of the progress so far and I'll try and keep it relatively up to date as work continues.

How it all started:



After some tree clearing (sadly not only on our lot but all of the woods behind us ... we knew this was coming when we bought the property though):



Footers dug:



Footers poured, although you can't tell from all the damn rain and mud:



This past weekend they finished up the foundation!:




I never knew I'd be so excited to see building supplies but when they arrived earlier this week it was like coming home to new car parts on the front porch.



And the framing progress made yesterday. I can't wait to get home today and see how much more they've done!






Thanks for reading my novel above,
Ryan

Nice start. I love Raleigh. My corporate headquarters are located there (Red Hat). In for more pics What type of cars will occupy this space?

kyle@hcb said:

What type of cars will occupy this space?

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I like all kinds of things... but my typical MO is V8 RWD American. Whatever "project" I might get next will have to be relatively cheap so I imagine I'll end up with another notchback Foxbody Mustang.

Prior to building this I was hoping to get into a CTS-V wagon. But I sold my daily driven supercharged Dodge Magnum SRT8 to help fund the garage so it may be a while before I get into a V. Currently I'm driving my wife's "old" '07 Acura TL Type-S. A great car for the balancing of many things (price, styling, handling, power, options, reliability) but not my preferred method of transportation. Realistically I may end up with an '11+ Charger SRT8 or another first gen Jeep SRT8 in the coming year or so. Just depends on how much money I continue to dump into this garage, lol.

Nice, I just finally signed on here as I'm getting near pulling the trigger on something very similar (well after the wife gets her new bathroom!) I live in Greenville, NC so I'll be checking your progress. I'm trying to figure budget now.

That is a great start to a great shop!

Thanks guys.

Great start, good size shop, I'll be following this....... I live in Garner...

Great start, what are your plans for the second story?

Durham here, hoping to start on my detached this spring. Looks great!

Yeah, we're actually out in Holly Springs and have been for about 14 years now. I just put Raleigh in my "info" section so that folks that weren't familiar with NC would have a ballpark idea of where I was located.

skcj213 said:

Great start, what are your plans for the second story?

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Thanks. And no real plans for the 2nd story at this point. My wife and I just decided that for the money (about another $7k) that it seemed silly not to add it on. You'll never get that kind of squarefootage for the money anywhere else and there's no going back and adding it later... at least not without spending three times as much.

We have an unfinished partial third floor at the house which is awesome for storage. But with adding the second story to the garage we will also have the option of finishing the third floor one day in the house and then we'll still have ample storage above the garage. In the mean time the 2nd story will allow me the ability to get things not used very often out of the way on the first floor.

Lots of progress so far this week!

Going to be nice. The second garage door in the back will give you nice flow through ventilation when the wind is blowing in the right direction. Keep the pictures coming. We like pictures!

Looking great so far! I know you say the drywall is not in the budget right now. My biggest mistake on my workshop was not finishing the interior before I "moved in". Here it is 14 years later and it is still not finished. Just my .02 cents worth.

toolferone said:

Looking great so far! I know you say the drywall is not in the budget right now. My biggest mistake on my workshop was not finishing the interior before I "moved in". Here it is 14 years later and it is still not finished. Just my .02 cents worth.

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Agreed!

I'm up to about 2 months worth of weekends going back and clearing the walls to do wiring/insulation/drywall/paint on my 2 car attached. Having to do it one wall at a time since there's not enough space to vacate all 4 walls at once. What a pain! If I'd done it when we moved into the house I could have probably finished it all in a couple weekends and possibly built shelves too...

Nice looking build! Do you have a rough idea of cost? I'm planning a 44x36 detached and leaning toward a pole building mostly because I can do the majority of the work myself...

Bib Overalls said:

Going to be nice. The second garage door in the back will give you nice flow through ventilation when the wind is blowing in the right direction. Keep the pictures coming. We like pictures!

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Yeah, between the doors on either end of the building and two windows on either side I should have great ventilation when/if I need it.

toolferone said:

Looking great so far! I know you say the drywall is not in the budget right now. My biggest mistake on my workshop was not finishing the interior before I "moved in". Here it is 14 years later and it is still not finished. Just my .02 cents worth.

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I'm going to complete all electrical and then see what kind of money I'll be looking at to do insulation and drywall. I know I am very much going to want to finish off the interior, if for no other reason just for aesthetics. But as you said, I know it will be a lot harder to go back and do it later after I've cluttered up the walls with shelves and stuff. We'll see... I honestly haven't even looked into what insulation will cost but I get the feeling like it won't be cheap.

texasranger said:

Nice looking build! Do you have a rough idea of cost? I'm planning a 44x36 detached and leaning toward a pole building mostly because I can do the majority of the work myself...

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I got quotes ranging from mid $40k to near $70k. The "base" price of my 24x36 with the company I went with was around $36k I think but after adding all my options/upgrades it's coming in just over $50k. The majority of the extra costs being the brick foundation and front veneer as well as the 12ft ceilings and addition of the second floor. And again, that does not include electric or plumbing or any interior finish work. That also did not include tree removal, which for me was 4 "large" trees which ran me about another $1200.

By the time I finish the inside, add epoxy flooring, and a lift I'll be in it for $60k I imagine. That hurts to say/type but we're here for the long haul, we hope anyway, and it is to some degree a financial investment in our property as well. We certainly won't increase our property value dollar for dollar invested (maybe 50% if we're lucky) but it'll be worth every penny in enjoyment. And the wife and I both agreed we might as well go ahead and do it sooner rather than later in order to reap the benefits of having for as long as possible.

Based off some real quick Google searching it would seem I might be able to do insulation and drywall for around $3000. If that is true that is probably something better invested in immediately as opposed to purchasing a lift. I can always get my lift down the road and I've gone 20 years without one so what's another one or two, lol.

I'm sure there are many on this forum who can comment on a ballpark cost per squarefoot of each... does roughly $1.00 - $1.50/sqft for insulation and $0.50/sqft for drywall seem about right? Obviously that's doing all the install myself. I would probably pay a couple guys to come in and mud the drywall though. From everything I've ever heard from friends/family that is money well spent.

CarCrazyRDM said:

I'm going to complete all electrical and then see what kind of money I'll be looking at to do insulation and drywall. I know I am very much going to want to finish off the interior, if for no other reason just for aesthetics. But as you said, I know it will be a lot harder to go back and do it later after I've cluttered up the walls with shelves and stuff. We'll see... I honestly haven't even looked into what insulation will cost but I get the feeling like it won't be cheap.

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To get an idea, it took me right around 12 rolls of R13 fiberglass to insulate my 26x26x11 attached. That's the side walls and around the garage doors, the wall common to the house was already insulated and rocked/taped. 8" of blown cellulose in the attic for R25. The ceiling was already rocked and taped along with the common wall in '91 or '92 but I'm re-doing all mud work since most of the tape fell off.

I'm up to about $170 worth of fiberglass and another $250-300 for the cellulose (added some to the house attic at the same time), plus 30 sheets of 1/2" drywall which is around $300. I tend to buy everything at Lowes to use the 10% and 20% off coupons that are floating around. 5/8" drywall is another ~50% if you want the extra durability and fire retardant. $150 or so in paint at $30 per gallon. Add in drywall mud, tape, screws, rollers, brushes, etc. and I'm right around $1000 total for my project doing it all myself. If I had to do the ceiling and common wall, that would add another $400 or so in 5/8" drywall (required for attached garage).

CarCrazyRDM said:

I got quotes ranging from mid $40k to near $70k. The "base" price of my 24x36 with the company I went with was around $36k I think but after adding all my options/upgrades it's coming in just over $50k. The majority of the extra costs being the brick foundation and front veneer as well as the 12ft ceilings and addition of the second floor. And again, that does not include electric or plumbing or any interior finish work. That also did not include tree removal, which for me was 4 "large" trees which ran me about another $1200.

By the time I finish the inside, add epoxy flooring, and a lift I'll be in it for $60k I imagine. That hurts to say/type but we're here for the long haul, we hope anyway, and it is to some degree a financial investment in our property as well. We certainly won't increase our property value dollar for dollar invested (maybe 50% if we're lucky) but it'll be worth every penny in enjoyment. And the wife and I both agreed we might as well go ahead and do it sooner rather than later in order to reap the benefits of having for as long as possible.

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Ouch, that does hurt to say out loud, but it will definitely look nice in the end! I'm hoping I can rough mine in for $30k or so, then add nickle and dime stuff over the next few years as I need it. My quote so far for base materials is in the $15-20k ballpark but I'm still debating a 14' tall garage door and some other stuff that could really affect the price.

I put up steel and slat board and skipped the drywall. Just an idea. Easier and faster than drywall and less expensive. I purchased all my materials from the local salvage wholesale shop.

I have a tall ceiling in my shop. It was about the same cost to pay a company to do it then myself. They get crazy discounts on the materials.

I did a 200 amp electrical panel in my shop. The difference in price to go from 100 to 200 was pretty cheap. The cost to upgrade later thousands! I also did all it myself. I had a very nice elec inspector. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm up in north Raleigh.

Texas, thanks for the info. Sounds like I might be able to do it cheaper than I thought.

dwysywd, I appreciate the idea but I think I'm going to want the "clean" look of drywall in the end.

toolferone, I will certainly get a couple quotes before doing the drywall, just to make sure I'm saving enough to make it worth it. If it only ends up being something like a 10% savings then I'll just let someone else do it. But if it's a 50% savings then I'll do it and probably be happy to have something to work on out there, lol. But like yourself I will definitely be doing the electric myself... for the sake of saving money and just for being able to take my time regarding how I want to lay everything out. And I will definitely be going with a 200 amp panel. Speaking of, did you run the main line over from your house or have an electrician do it or will Duke Energy do that? I haven't gotten that far but I need to start looking into these things soon so that I'm ready to rock and roll on that front as soon as the building is complete.

Came home from work today and down the street to see I had a roof!!! The boys are moving right along. Can't wait to see it with the brick veneer all along the front.

That is going to look really great, and it's a very practical size too.

CarCrazyRDM said:

...no real plans for the 2nd story at this point...

We have an unfinished partial third floor at the house which is awesome for storage. But with adding the second story to the garage we will also have the option of finishing the third floor one day in the house and then we'll still have ample storage above the garage. In the mean time the 2nd story will allow me the ability to get things not used very often out of the way on the first floor.

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OR, you could keep the 3rd floor in the house as storage and finish the second floor in the garage as a man cave.

Great thread! I'll be following this closely as I'd like to do the same one day at my house.

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First I confirmed from the power company that the line from the street to the house would carry the extra load. Mine was good, but Duke would upgrade that for free if needed. I ran the line from the house to the shop. I had to get that inspected. I was upgrading my house service from 100 amp to 400. I had to get a new meter base for the side of my house. Once I had my final inspection on th shop. I scheduled the inspector and Duke power the same day. Duke came out and dropped power to the house and took the meter out. I pulled the old meter box out replaced it with the bigger one, hooked up all the wiring on my side of the meter, passed the inspection on the new meter. The inspector called in the pass and Duke came back out and hooked up the power on their side. I was with power for only 3 hours, had a generator running the fridge in the house during that time.

How we you going to access the 2nd floor?

Great looking build so far!

What's going on behind you where they cleared trees? House development?

Thanks for the info Tom.

memphisnate said:

What's going on behind you where they cleared trees? House development?

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Yeah, they are building a new neighborhood. It's too bad because it looked so nice when it was all woods. They cleared the trees right before we bought the house. We knew it was coming though and honestly I'm kind of glad we never lived here before it was cleared because then I would have been used to it. I built the garage to block half of what we can see over there, lol. The developer is supposed to plant some "barrier" trees when it's all done but I may plant some of my own before then. Come Spring time it will fill back in a good bit though.

I think your garage is coming along great. You mentioned "clean look" of drywall. For some reason I thought you asked why people put steel up. Nbd. Mine is very clean. It was easier and less hassle than drywall. But I get it if your going to have that kind of cheddar into a garage. If you'd like some photos of my ceiling, I can shoot a few. It worked out nicely. I just wish I had done steel on the inside walls instead of slat board. Stuff hanging on it made my walls look messy. I hate it. I'm leaning toward just putting stuff in cabinets.



Regards,
Jeff

Sent from my bag phone...

Well we've got a lean-to, windows, a man door, half a staircase, and nearly all the hardy plank siding up now! It won't be long until it's done... or at least the structure is done, lol. I'll still have quite a bit to do on the inside but I'm looking forward to that. And the weather this time of the year should be great for working out there. Shingles and brick veneer on the front should be early next week and grading and concrete will follow soon there after.

Two things I need to get figured out before the slab is poured are exactly where I am going to position my lift (because we're going to pour 3'x3' "footers" in the post areas that are 8"-12" deep) and then where I am going to put my sink so that I can properly position my drain and supply line exit/entry points.

Which is something I need to get some clarification on, and if anyone on here knows the answer or has recommendations please chime in... but what is the best way to drill/knock a hole through the base of the foundation wall as to not totally split the cinder block? And then what size pipe to run for the drain? And I'm under the impression that I should run a sleeve, or two (one for hot and one for cold), for the supply lines? I plan to go by or call my town's inspection office and just see if I can speak to an inspector and get the "low-down" on what is best or preferred. I'm not running lines before construction is done (my GC doesn't do plumbing) but I want to make sure anything that is going to pass through the slab is obviously in place before we pour it so I don't have drill/dig later and potentially crack it. I also plan to run a gas line out there (I may wait though) but that can come up the side of the building somewhere and pass through the siding if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, on to the pics!









I think the space under the stairs is going to make for a great compressor storage area. I may even close it in and put up some sound deadener to try and isolate its noise a little more.

Looking great man!

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Yes, you will want to find out the plumbing code for the drain. I ended up having to run a 4" drain for my detached shop. I had to tie in to the plumbing around the front of my house. A 75' foot run for me. All the while keeping my 1/8" per foot drop in the drain pipe. I would definitely get it put in before the concrete is poured . Looking great!

Nice progress! You have a beautiful house as well.

Nice addition!

Nice looking property, and great progress on your garage CarCrazy! I can relate to your excitement at this stage, as it wasn't that long ago I was at that same point.

I gather that you are planning for a two post lift with the deepened pads you mentioned?

Your garage has many construction similarities to mine (in Wake Forest), and your plan to finish the inside yourself is what I did also. Here's the link to my build thread if you want a preview of some of what you are in for, should you take the DIY route.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200759

Thanks guys.

Tool, I shouldn't have to go nearly as far as you did with the plumbing. My septic tank isn't but maybe 25' away from the left side of the building. Or what I am trying to find out is if I am only going to have a sink out there if I can just run my drain line directly into the leach field. Or this might happen and not be inspected, lol.

Gerald, yes, there will be a Benpack asymmetrical 2 post lift going in. I had originally planned on ordering it soon after the garage was complete but I think I've decided to use the money set aside for the lift to do insulation and drywall downstairs instead. I lived this long without the lift, what's another year, lol. Finishing the downstairs will just be so much easier to do before I fill it with a lot of **** and secondly it will make it look so much nicer.

And thanks for sharing your garage post. I made it about halfway through this evening but I've got to get bed here shortly. You are right though, they share many similarities. I like the stuff your guys used weather proof your walls better than my standard Tyvex(?) wrap. I'll have to review the rest of your post tomorrow or later this weekend... I'm curious to see how all your finish work has come along.

I spoke with my foreman this evening and it sounds like the shingles should be here tomorrow and hopefully start going up on Monday. The mason should also be back early next week to finish off the front. And then we're basically down to grading and concrete!

Well we're down to the final days! At least as far as construction goes. They nearly finished up all grading yesterday (see pics below) and supposedly shingles are going on today. Concrete is scheduled to be poured Monday! I think they are waiting for the driveway to be poured so that the mason has a more stable surface to setup scaffolding on in order to finish the brick veneer out front. I had a plumber buddy come by yesterday and pre-run my plumbing connections. And soon after the final inspection of the structure I plan to get rolling on getting power out there. Exciting stuff!

The only area I'm not currently happy with is around the pad out back... there is just too much drop off, particularly on the left end. I talked it over with the foreman yesterday and I think they're going to bring in some fill dirt to make the transition a little less abrupt.

During the initial construction I was a little worried about the slope of the "ramp" extending from the existing driveway to the detached. But I think it's going to be fine and shouldn't cause me any issues with low or lowered vehicles I may have in the future.

Looking good! Are you doing anything special with the concrete like fiber reinforced?

texasranger said:

Looking good! Are you doing anything special with the concrete like fiber reinforced?

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It will be 4000 psi fiber reinforced. My builder said he's never had anyone have any issues with lifts, or otherwise, in the past with his typical 3000 - 3500 psi slabs but I figured better safe than sorry. It's supposed to be 4" thick throughout except where the 3'x3' pads for the lift are, which will be 10" - 12" deep.

Does the fiber require rebar or is it strong enough without?