Triple Garage + Upstairs Suite in the City

vorpal · Mar 19, 2021

Greetings all,

Here's my story of our build here in Edmonton, Canada, pop. ~ 1M.

Summary: Old house & garage in center of city... knocked down old garage in 2017, built 3 car with workshop & upstairs suite 2018-2020. Many pictures.

Backstory:

Bought an old 1913 two story heritage house near downtown in 1998. It's on a narrow width lot (37'). Had a two car garage that had been an old conversion from a single like most of the others in this neighborhood. For years, it was all we needed... as the old place had no garage and we were just happy to park myself and Mrs. Vorpal under an (unheated) roof.

Well, as time went on, I joined a car club and started getting into fixing and buying cars. Also, I'm a professional piano repair tech who was employed at the local Baldwin dealer. I was running a respectable workshop there, but had no work space at home for any side-projects. Mrs. Vorpal got into quilt making and started buying more and more equipment which gradually but completely took over the dining room of the house.

More space was needed, and we talked about knocking down the old garage and building a larger one with a loft or upstairs work area. We started planning in 2010 but at the time, the city was very strict with development in a mature neighborhoods. Neighbors were jumping through development hoops just building a standard 24 X 24. Finally in 2016-2017, the city decided to start on a program of densification and infill. Many old houses in the area were knocked down and 2 skinny houses built on the lots. Several large garage projects were done in the old neighborhood, and we revived our plans and decided it was time.

vorpal · Mar 19, 2021

Part I Old Garage Demo & Planning

Here's what we had... a double enlarged from an old single. Not a straight wall or window. Two concrete pads inside that were tilted away from each other. Main door had to be realigned every season as the structure shifted:

Managed to start my sports car hobby rolling around on my back on unheated concrete dropping tools and fasteners into the cracks in the concrete... did this for many years:

However, we had bigger plans for the space:

RPR was going to be tight... city allowed larger non-conforming structures, but hard rule of 1.14m (3.75') setback from the property line limited structure width to 30' exterior

Got approval after making the rounds of the neighbors and getting them all on board for the development permit application.

After many elaborate but unworkable designs I created and abandoned, finally here's what the designer we talked to came up with:

With the development permit in place, a builder lined up and our bank onside, it was time to start... October 25, 2017:

TomcoPDR · Mar 19, 2021

****. Keep posting please

Boosted1 · Mar 20, 2021

Hello TTNet'er. Nice Z32s!

driftpin · Mar 20, 2021

Yes, an interesting project. The city must've decided that to allow infill and legal, non-conforming dev't, (did you need to file for variances?) was one way to see taxes rise from redevelopment.

One question: has your site been surveyed for a historical component? Something tells-me that you may run into a problem, from what I see.

captain14 · Mar 20, 2021

Interesting project. Ill come back again to see how it’s progressing.

vorpal · Mar 20, 2021

Hello TTNet'er. Nice Z32s!

Thanks, greetings back at cha. Posted this garage build in a thread over there, but going into more detail here.

Yes, an interesting project. The city must've decided that to allow infill and legal, non-conforming dev't, (did you need to file for variances?) was one way to see taxes rise from redevelopment.

One question: has your site been surveyed for a historical component? Something tells-me that you may run into a problem, from what I see.

We submitted the design plan that was 18% lot coverage (15% was the maximum in the development guide) and they approved the design at the city planning office. We were ready to ask for variances if they refused, but we were granted the building permit. We said 'Thanks!' and didn't ask any questions.

Our neighborhood is designated 'Mature Residential', not particularly historically significant. The only supporting documentation they required was a Abandoned Wells Survey that showed we had none at the building site.

vorpal · Mar 20, 2021

Part II Foundation and Framing

October 2017 - February 2018 - Work proceeded fairly rapidly:

House spacing is close in this area

Plumbing service access install

Grade done

Concrete and grade beam:

Jump ahead to the grade beam forms removed:

vorpal · Mar 20, 2021

Framing... this happened over 2 months, didn't get pics everyday

Engineered beam for second story support:

Second story getting framed up:

Now it's taking shape:

Future workshop:

Upstairs trusses:

Love this shot:

OSB sheathing:

Upstairs bathroom & kitchen:

Windows installed:

Shingles installed:

and now .... PAUSE CONSTRUCTION FOR 6 MONTHS!!!!

67CarGuy · Mar 20, 2021

Nice progress!

I realize you had all the drawings before you started, but was it always that tall when you pictured it? It seems like there's an extra couple of feet added, both from grade up to the bottom plate/mud sill and between the floors. Not meant as a criticism, just an observation.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your progress!

LXCam · Mar 20, 2021

Very impressive. I really like the design, its got a ton of character.

rixtrix1 · Mar 20, 2021

Great looking design! Ready for more pics/info.

Ak Jim · Mar 20, 2021

I like it. Will be great to have room for your projects. Curious about the upstairs floor plan. It looks like the bathroom separates the kitchen from the rest of the living area. Why didn’t you put the bathroom against the outside wall and then have the kitchen area be next to the living area?

vorpal · Mar 20, 2021

I realize you had all the drawings before you started, but was it always that tall when you pictured it? It seems like there's an extra couple of feet added, both from grade up to the bottom plate/mud sill and between the floors. Not meant as a criticism, just an observation.

The backfill hasn't been done in the pics and even now, the lot needs proper grading for drainage. Exposes more of the grade beam on the outside and makes it look taller in these pics. Later, with the siding on, it looks proportionally better.

Why didn’t you put the bathroom against the outside wall and then have the kitchen area be next to the living area?

That was entirely up to Mrs. Vorpal and the designer... they came up with that layout and I had control of the downstairs. The agreement was we get to set up our areas the way we wanted as we were into this as a joint project. You'll see the finished upstairs in later pics, it works well.

vorpal · Mar 20, 2021

Part III After a good start... the Slowdown

Well, things were going great from Oct 2017 to March 2018... but then the builder started to drag things out and not show up for weeks at a time... not good. He was also harder to get a hold of and the trades started grumbling about payment... not from me, as we were advancing based on staged completion.

Still, a few things got done between April and September 2018.

Concrete poured (5" on my request)

Staircase installed... electrical and water rough ins done:

Upstairs, insulation and drywall installed:

and then some incredible boneheaded stuff... I came home one day and the drivepad was poured:

All done WITHOUT HOOKING UP TO CITY WATER AND SEWER!!! They left the connection stands in place and poured around them... WTF?!? :dunno:

Finally got a hold of the builder and he 'explains' that the concrete guys were ready and we can cut in later to hook up the city services... WHAT?!?!? Then why even pour in the 1st place?

Things were going south with this guy and Mrs. Vorpal started sending weekly status update requests (on her law firm letterhead). That goosed him a bit and got the upstairs finished in September... flooring down, taping and paint:

We had a local place come install a Murphy Bed build in:

Started moving some of her quilting furniture upstairs:

This was basically the beginning of the end with this building outfit. He wouldn't answer calls or texts. I was getting pretty steamed as winter was coming and we didn't have garage doors in yet. So I got on it.

I wanted as much head space as possible downstairs, I had 9'6" to the bottom of the engineered beam and didn't want to lose any room to a overhead door track. So I contacted an outfit to come install 3 Trac-Rite 944 insulated roll up doors

I had them paired with Liftmaster LJ8950W Jackshaft openers

By now, we didn't have water, drains, furnace, siding, and we were at a standstill with the builder. We gave him one last go before we would terminate the contract.

That got the siding on in December 2018. We had contracted for Hardieboard and Hardieshake, same as we had installed on the house in 2011.

And the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and countertops came in and were installed:

And.... that was it. No more work done, no phone, e-mail or text contact... We said if we don't hear from you in 30 days, the contract is done. Crickets.

So on Jan 28, 2019, we fired the builder by registered letter. He immediately sends us a bill for unpaid work. We laugh, as he's been paid up to date. My wife opens a file at her law office... we wait for his statement of claim.

We have the panel in with electrical connected and inspected. I fire up a bunch of 220V space heaters to keep the place above freezing and we start looking for a new builder.

cros13 · Mar 21, 2021

Great story and build so far mate. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it!

Is your DP a finished photo of this current garage? If so, your photo has been doing the rounds on the internet for years, I remember seeing that photo a while ago!

Love the Z's, I have a 260z I'm doing a nut and bolt restoration on too. I'd love a Z32 or Z31 but I already have plenty of Jap steel that isn't running, don't need any more projects.

Rudi.

nc.detail · Mar 21, 2021

Very nice! thanks for sharing

vorpal · Mar 22, 2021

2019, New Year... New Resolution

With the old builder out of the picture, we got a new one recommended by people at my wife's office. They were awesome to deal with and started in March.

Condition of the downstairs shop/garage:

Some drywall and insulation done, I hung some T5's I got cheap as free from a fellow car club member:

Upstairs furnace ceiling mounted with rough frame in... couple of my cars rolled in :

New guys got the water installed in a day:

Upstairs furnace installed and bulkheaded in the garage ceiling:

Now, the water hookup. they demo'd and removed the old pad and dug down 12' to connect to the city services:

Fun fact: the previous builder didn't elevate the rebar into the pad they poured... the metal was at ground level!

Now we had upstairs heat, water and drainage... all in 2 months. Competence!

Now for some fun stuff:

2 X Quality (Challenger) 4 Post CL4P7/

With rolling bridge jack:

And BendPak DP-30 15 Gal. rolling oil drain pan:

But now... do the cars fit?!?

Tape measure says 9'6 to the ceiling beam...

Z cars are 50" high with 6" ramp height:

YES! With 6" to spare:

Now to finish the downstairs and get the shop set up.

MacTexas · Mar 22, 2021

Let me guess the builder you fired was the low bidder.

vorpal · Mar 22, 2021

MacTexas said:
Let me guess the builder you fired was the low bidder.

Actually he came in middle of the pack for quotes. We went with him because he was local, had good references and a couple completed infill projects in the neighborhood and my wife did a background search on his company before we signed the contract and aside from 1 court matter on his company's file, everything looked clean.

Things started going south in spring 2018 and we know two other people he was building for who had the same problems at about that time. We think he got too big too fast and couldn't manage the trades and keep the cash coming in for all the projects he was doing.

If he'd just come out and said he's having some issues and we have to put things on hold, we could have dealt with that. Instead we got the run-around and after we raised a stink in the summer about work not getting done, new trades guys finally showing up who were not companies we recognized from the start of the project... guys in scabby vans who I didn't want to let onto the property.

fortunately, the new builder didn't have a lot of deficiencies to correct and we passed all our inspections, which was my big worry.

vorpal · Mar 22, 2021

With the lifts in and everything pretty much done but the new drivepad, time to start bringing the Z cars and Datsun Roadsters home:

Mrs. Vorpal gets the third bay:

Had to let the soil settle after they dug up the old pad to connect up the water... new pad poured in 2020:

Avatar Shot

Full stack:

And for fun, a car club buddy made me some Hot Wheels lifts on his 3D printer:

Boosted1 · Mar 22, 2021

Nice lift setup.

vorpal · Mar 23, 2021

And after 2 years and 1 month with some bumps along the way:

Final inspection and occupancy:

WooHoo!

Of course, that by no means says it's complete.

New pad poured June 2020... went both sides to the property line:

That's better:

And with the extra concrete either side in our narrow setback alley, finally have enough room for car washing on the pad:

Inside washing station with retractable hose... I move everything outside when needed:

All the Zeds and roadsters:

If only the city would pave the damn alley...

Super Sport · Mar 23, 2021

Awesome garage! Sorry to hear about your experience with the builder, but that's been about my luck in the past as well.

I'm looking to build a 3 stall with upper finished space this year or next, so I may steal some ideas from your design!

Bruce 993 SEA · Mar 23, 2021

Very nice result! The construction was pretty epic...glad you were not too impacted by flaky contractor other than time.

Curious, doesn't your municipality require a drainage plan for your downspouts? You could bury some corrugated flexible pipe and route to a dry well.

Cheers!

vorpal · Mar 23, 2021

there are storm drains for surface water drainage in the back alley, all runoff from garages goes to the alley which is sloped towards the drains. Makes springtime melt interesting as channels have to be banged into the melting ice to the storm drains so the water doesn't pool behind garages. Month of March is Mud Month in the back lane... we have one of the few non-paved back alleys in the area, which makes it way more fun.

City is slowly upgrading alley paving, our central neighborhood should be re-done in the next couple years, unless we want to talk to all the neighbors and pay upfront to have it done now.

vorpal · Mar 23, 2021

Part IV - The Suite

This is Mrs. Vorpal territory. In early discussions, she asked 'Why am I paying for half this project when you're using up pretty much the whole garage?"... cause you get this as a quilting studio:

Built in Murphy bed cabinet on the wall:

Full bath with shower:

Mrs. Vorpal at work as I chill in a chair by the front window:

Had a storage unit full of her parent's furniture that we used to furnish the suite... refinished one of their teak tables:

3 coats of clear Tung oil:

All her quilting tables fold up and can be rolled aside for guests.

TomcoPDR · Mar 23, 2021

What a lovely build. It’s such a relief when issues finally gets smoothed out.

vorpal · Mar 24, 2021

Part V The Workshop

I'll start this section by observing that it should have been bigger, however we were already over the allowed lot footprint for the new garage by 3% and weren't sure we'd get approved without applying for a variance. Turns out it was approved with no hassle... so in hindsight, should have gone bigger

Couple of design changes from the original plan:

- Sink moved to the opposite wall
- a shallow utility closet where the sink area was for on-demand water heater
- had to add a separate garage furnace as the main one wasn't allowed to heat both upstairs and the garage.

14' X 11', not a big space, but I do piano restoration and small woodshop work, and it was definitely better than nothing. The ceiling mount furnace for upstairs had to be bulkheaded off for fire separation between the upstairs suite and the garage, but with 9'6" ceiling height, not a huge impediment:

Looking at the shop area from the bay door:

i had the new builder raise the bulkhead as much as possible so there is 6.5' under the low part when finished:

Utility closet behind firedoor:

Additional standard gas shop forced air added:

So this is the shop when all the construction rejigging was done:

understairs storage area:

piled my stuff into the space for a few months:

moved some rolling benches in:

Had a vintage height adjustable workbench I'd been keeping for years... bought a butcherblock top for it:

set up a functional workspace for a few months:

Well, you can't just leave things well enough alone...

Time for some enhancements:

Starting with finish taping & paint:

insulating and boarding the grade beam:

And a little paint to accent (same blue as the exterior... natch)

And got a deal on some vinyl plank flooring:

1/4 round vinyl to finish it off:

And roll everything back in:

vorpal · Mar 25, 2021

Part 5A Assorted Audio & Video Upgrades

Can't be all work... gotta add some entertainment. Dart board on the fire door:

And as I'm an audio snob piano technician

, I can only work with a boom box as my shop audio source for so long... so I moved my basement stereo system ... Dual 704 turntable and Kenwood 740 twin power receiver with my vinyl into the workshop... made a vinyl rack with 1" angle and 3/8" threaded rod to attach to my vintage workbench:

Had to get the Altec Lansing 310s and the Kenwoods mounted up out of the way, more 1" angle and 3/8" threaded rod and some 1/8" cable and assorted hardware to make a ceiling mount speaker system:

and a projector and speaker mount under the stairwell:

Decent audio in the shop:

and I can watch racing projected on the bulkhead:

vorpal · Mar 25, 2021

And, as a piano technician, some cabinets are in order. Had a local cabinetmaker build these (my precision carpentry skills are non-existent):

00

and filled with the requisite piano parts:

vorpal · Mar 26, 2021

Part 5B Fiat Lux

The overhead T5 fixtures are fine in the main garage area and in the back half of the shop behind the bulkhead. However, there are definitely areas that need some enhancement...

Such as, under the lift checking the Zeds...

Amazon order: 2 rolls of white IP67 rated LED strips, dual 12V power supply, switched powerbar & aluminum channel with covers used for undercabinet lighting. Total cost, under $ 200.00.

2 X 2M (6.5') sections linked together for each side:

Plastic lens cover clips to the channel diffusing the individual LEDs for that lightsaber look:

Mount each 4M section inside the inboard ramp channel:

Nice individually switched powerbar to run the power supply which I mounted front inside the lift cross support (background of pic):

Instant underbody neon:

But more to the point... full underbody illumination for servicing:

The 45 degree upward angle of the LED strips creates a bright, no-shadow working area... and looks cool reflected off the silver Zed underneath:

With some of the leftover channel and LED strip and a couple of old 12V DC power supplies, mounted a worklight under the cabinet:

And even had a small bit left for one of Mrs. Vorpal's sewing machines upstairs:

For the area under the furnace bulkhead, just picked up some cheap surface mount LED discs:

also provides dart board illumination:

Clemson13 · Feb 16, 2022

I missed this the first time around, awesome build thread! Any further upgrades to the setup?

jbrentd · Feb 16, 2022

Nice job on the new structure! Where do you park your daily if the the Mrs's Infinity get that spot in the garage? Also, it looks like you had to deal with overhead power lines. Does your main panel now come in to the new garage and feed the main house underground? Or do you have two service feeds?

dubber · Feb 16, 2022

Awesome project, and even better results. Shout out from someone who grew up in Strathcona!

Boosted1 · Feb 17, 2022

Looks good!

vorpal · Sep 2, 2022

Nice job on the new structure! Where do you park your daily if the the Mrs's Infinity get that spot in the garage? Also, it looks like you had to deal with overhead power lines. Does your main panel now come in to the new garage and feed the main house underground? Or do you have two service feeds?

Thanks! Mrs Vorpal gets the bigger bay as agreed and my daily Frontier pickup lives on the curb out front. As I have 4 sports cars inside (and a couple more at a different location), I get the lions share of indoor parking.

Regarding power and overhead lines, I wanted all overhead lines removed from the backyard for this project. So I had power pulled into a new 200A panel in the garage from the pole in the alley. From there, we had underground conduit for the power, cable and internet installed with access risers at the garage and the house. House has a 100A panel fed from the garage. Garage is a separate municipal address but the power and cable come into one account for both the house and garage.

vorpal · Sep 2, 2022

Awesome project, and even better results. Shout out from someone who grew up in Strathcona

Southside Represent! We’re just off 124St Westmount area.

Triple Garage + Upstairs Suite in the City

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