Garage 30x40 Superior Walls - precast concrete

tstealth32 · Sep 18, 2018

Starting my garage build!

Ill be using Superior walls. I've seen people talk about building a garage with this system, but haven't seen anyone actual do it.

I cut down some trees to make room for the garage.
30 X 40 garage.
10' wall height
8/12 Roof pitch
Front doors are 10x8
Rear door is 8x7
windows 3x4
1 man door. Might be adding another on the right side.

90amp subpanel
I'll be laying radiant heat in the slab and adding mechanicals later down the road.

I'm going to go with storage trusses on front half. and scissor trusses on the rear. Plans for a lift down the road.

I decided it would be best to put the 3rd garage door at the rear. This will allow me to expand the garage down the road without knocking out concrete.

The lift will most likely go in the rear right corner by the garage door opening.
Then I could have a desk and seating in the rear left by the windows.

I'm thinking no windows on the right side of the garage, it only faces a fence and also gives me more wall storage. The sun rises in the rear left of the property, sets in the front right.

Mockup pictures to come.

tstealth32 · Sep 18, 2018

Here are some renderings. The walls will be concrete, but this helped me get a feel for what it will look like on property.

tstealth32 · Sep 18, 2018

A few more.....digging starts soon.

Jackie Treehorn · Sep 18, 2018

Interesting, is it a kit where you order the walls and they ship in? I'm planning on doing icf for my house and most likely a stick build for the shop, but your precast walls piqued my interest

tstealth32 · Sep 18, 2018

The company designs the walls with you, then they ship them on a truck and use a large crane or track vehicle to put them in place. They do all the heavy lifting.

The walls will be above grade. So I need to provide them with a level pad of clean crushed rock. The subbase is 30" deep and 3' wide. They set the walls directly on top of this and they bolt it all together.

The walls come with the headers and frame out for the garage doors/windows/door. You just tell them the size of the openings.

tstealth32 · Sep 18, 2018

I was quoted 13,500 for 30x40. 10' walls. And an additional 1k for the track lift because I can't get a crane in the back yard.

tstealth32 · Nov 13, 2018

Here is the layout and specs for the pex heat. Sent the sealed drawings for the walls and trusses to the city. I start digging at the end of the month!

tstealth32 · Nov 13, 2018

I'll upload better pictures tomorrow if I can.

I picked up a couple of nice Anderson windows on Craigslist that someone had ordered the wrong size. Built the openings to accommodate them.

The rear garage door by the lift is an insulated steel roll up door, this way it won't interfere with the lift or get in the way. It's 8 x 7. Sandstone in color. Same with the windows and the front garage doors.

Riley · Nov 13, 2018

This is a neat idea that I'm interested in following along with. As you mentioned, I've not seen it done on a residential build. Cost wise seems pretty decent for a termite proof, rot proof, practically weather proof shell. Can I bother you with a few questions about how it goes together once the shell is up? Wall thickness? Insulation? Electrical - all surface mount? In conduit? Overhead - trusses I'd guess? Pretty good pitch; storage above? Door hardware mounting - Would you lag a header to the walls then attach to that? I'd guess you'll be getting to these as you go though it would be handy to have a summary in advance is it's not too much trouble. Thanks in advance!

davo727 · Nov 13, 2018

Ok im confused, you said precast concrete but the renderings are of stickbuilt.

tstealth32 · Nov 14, 2018

davo727 said:
Ok im confused, you said precast concrete but the renderings are of stickbuilt.

Yeah, sorry, that was just for a general idea on size and layout. I used menards garage planner to see what it would look like in the backyard. It really helped give me a better idea of the foorplan, instead of 4 windows, i'm just going with 2 windows on one side.

tstealth32 · Nov 14, 2018

Riley said:
This is a neat idea that I'm interested in following along with. As you mentioned, I've not seen it done on a residential build. Cost wise seems pretty decent for a termite proof, rot proof, practically weather proof shell. Can I bother you with a few questions about how it goes together once the shell is up? Wall thickness? Insulation? Electrical - all surface mount? In conduit? Overhead - trusses I'd guess? Pretty good pitch; storage above? Door hardware mounting - Would you lag a header to the walls then attach to that? I'd guess you'll be getting to these as you go though it would be handy to have a summary in advance is it's not too much trouble. Thanks in advance!

A lot of those questions are located here ..... www.superiorwalls.com/tech_resources

The cost is about the same as if you finished a typical stick build.

Wall thickness : concrete Shell is 1 3/4" with concrete studs 2 1/2" concrete studs @ 24" OC.

Insulation : For the XI wall - 2 1/2" xps foam. Fire rated so you don't have to drywall over if you don't want to. You can add extra foam if you want, but will then have to drywall over it.

Electrical and plumbing - Galvanized steel studs are molded into the concrete. So you run your electrical and plumbing as you normally would.

Roof- You attach a 2x10 pressure treated board to the top of the walls after. They provide the 1/2" x 2 1/2" Bolts to secure your top plate. Then the trusses and truss ties attach as you normally would.

Pitch is 8/12 asphalt - I have ordered 17' of attic trusses, the remaining will be scissor trusses. The attic trusses will have an opening of 8' high x 12' wide. I plan to store the air compressor, hvac equipment, and auto parts up there. And also throw a couch and tv up there to get away.

Door mounting - The quote with the walls includes all the wood framing. So your overhead garage door beam will be there, all your windows will be framed with wood and man door. You just attach everything as usual. Makes it very simple.

Concrete floors - The walls include steel ties that you bend down when you pour the concrete. This ties everything together. Then you can throw on the roof, then backfill the outside of the walls.

Siding - You have the option to add furring strips at the time of the casting so they are already attached when it gets delivered. It comes with a knock down texture that really nice, and ready to paint.

Making holes - There is guidance on if you wanted to add a door or window after your walls have been set. As far as running electrical from inside to outside, you go through the bond beam between the panels (basically caulking) You can add larger plumbing holes with a hammer drill in between the concrete studs.

Subbase - The walls include the concrete footer. You just need to lay down a subbase of 3/8 clean crushed stone. Since it's a garage and above grade walls, your stone has to go to the frost line, here in South NJ, I have to do 30" deep and 36" wide. compact every 8". You can use a different stone for under the slab, but the 2' inside the walls, has to be 3/8 clean crushed as well, then you can transition to whatever stone you want.

Deezler · Nov 14, 2018

Very interesting to use superior walls totally above grade like that. As typically, they are a foundation-wall replacement.

4 years ago we had our superior walls installed for our rear/north home walls. Superior walls was very nervous about us backfilling until we had the slab poured, and most of the interior walls and roof built for some additional bracing. It seems the wall system on its own doesn't have a lot of resistance against bowing in or out. I guess your walls will be tied across by the roof trusses though. Good luck!

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Rockcam · Nov 14, 2018

I used Superior walls for our house and garage foundation so far we've been really pleased.

Just the tops are above grade.

Tstealth, the info you posted above all seems correct. They did our entire house and 24 x 45 garage in one day IIRC. Quite something to watch with a big crane to get them into place.

ConCretin · Nov 14, 2018

This should be interesting.... How much frost do you get down your way? I assume that the working theory is that the 30" of stone under the panels provides the frost protection? I'd want to make sure the frost doesn't get under the wall and lift the slab. Will the exterior concrete face be left exposed? Please keep us posted!

tstealth32 · Nov 14, 2018

They say the 30" will protect it from frost and heaving. You'll also backfill once the concrete floor is poured and trusses in place, that additional soil should be enough protection from frost.

Riley · Nov 14, 2018

Thanks for the link and info. Nice they have a good resource library available. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

CharlestonJoe · Nov 15, 2018

This is interesting, I’m following.

wasfast · Nov 15, 2018

I'm a fan of prefab in general but wasn't familiar with this company. Sadly, I live on the wrong coast and they don't service this area yet. There are some real advantages to what they make for below above options. I'm sure cost isn't the lowest but the quality and speed are worth it in some cases

Deezler · Nov 15, 2018

Actually the costs of superior wall systems are quite comparable to conventional poured concrete walls, IF you consider: Superior walls are 6000psi concrete, and thus require no exterior damp-proofing, are already R12.5 insulated, and already have usable framing studs on the interior. They definitely cost more than the raw concrete, though.

tstealth32 · Nov 28, 2018

Digging started. Have to wait for the ground to freeze to bring the rock in.

sberry · Nov 28, 2018

You should do yourself a huge favor and go 40 wide.

tstealth32 · Nov 28, 2018

Wish I could. Went as big as I was willing to go. And I'm in too deep to make any changes now.

tstealth32 · Dec 11, 2018

Trusses have been dropped off. Scissor and attic trusses. 1' overhangs.

CharlestonJoe · Dec 11, 2018

Alright! Some more progress!!

jimmie jam · Dec 11, 2018

Wow, this is cool...I'm in.

jkeyser14 · Dec 12, 2018

I looked at these walls for our basement when building our house since it would have saved significant money. I ultimately chose against it because I was worried about leakage at the seams when used below grade. For an above grade application like this I can see a lot of benefit. I am eager to see how your project turns out.

jkeyser14 · Jan 30, 2019

Any progress over the last 2 months?

tstealth32 · Aug 5, 2019

Well the work is starting again. My big issue was waiting for the ground to be dry and firm enough for the rock trucks to get into the back yard.

Excavation starts in 2 weeks. And the walls should be set by early September.

TeamTruett · Aug 5, 2019

Glad you are back on track, very interesting build. My house foundation is S. Walls and they are great 23 years later.

tstealth32 · Aug 6, 2019

2 more trucks showed at 5:50am! 2 loads to go.

tstealth32 · Aug 6, 2019

And the grand total: 94 Tons of 3/8 stone!

DynoDave · Aug 6, 2019

That's a lot of rocks.

tstealth32 · Aug 22, 2019

The first layer of rock is down to level the ground. Digging the 30" x 36" trenches tomorrow.

tstealth32 · Aug 23, 2019

Too much rain today to start digging. So I picked up factory seconds XPS 2" foam. Drove 1.5 hours to Baltimore and back. Half price! No detects, it just came out the wrong color.

tstealth32 · Aug 26, 2019

Digging the trenches for the 3/8 stone.

tstealth32 · Aug 27, 2019

The trenches are dug and now are being filled and compacted with the 3/8 crushed stone.

Also have a confirmed wall set date for September 6th!

tstealth32 · Aug 28, 2019

Day 3. Excavation for the walls is complete. The 3' wide perimeter is level for the walls to be set.

Set day has been moved to Wednesday. I'll try and post a video lapse of it.

tstealth32 · Sep 5, 2019

Walls are going up tomorrow! I have a camera on the 2nd floor that will be taking a time lapse video. I’ll post it tomorrow.

Sent from my iPad using The Garage Journal mobile app

tstealth32 · Sep 6, 2019

Morning delivery of the walls.

Garage 30x40 Superior Walls - precast concrete

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