25x28 Detached Garage

[Gentle_Ben]

Well, finally I get to make one of these threads for myself.

Been through a lot with this garage already, denied several permits and had to go back to the drawing board quite a few times (all b/c I was pushing the limits of what was allowed for an accessory building in my area).

But today we broke ground on our 25' wide by 28' long garage. It will serve many purposes, storage for various toys, race workshop in the winter for snowmobiles, place to park my truck, and it will also be an extension of our home for when we need to entertain large groups.

We are going to have heated floors, two 10x10 doors, 12ft stud height, integrated sound system with TV/Projector (still deciding), beer fridge, sink, etc.

A lot of the features in the garage were borrowed from stuff I've seen done on this website. I'll do my best to give shout outs to the people I borrowed ideas from, and hope they understand that I do it with the utmost respect.

Anyways, on to the pictures!

Side of existing attached garage facing backyard where new garage will go.

Build site.

Digging.

Really good soil here.

Site more or less prepared for gravel.

Tomorrow we are getting gravel delivered, and will start prepping for rebar. The idea is that we will pour concrete on Friday. I will update this thread daily with our progress.

 

[HOTFR8]

Looks and reads like you have it well planned out. Will be waiting to see more.
Nifty little tractor you have for breaking the ground and making a start.

 

[Moose97]

Good start, can't wait too see more.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Day 2 we didn't get as much done as I hoped. I had to go to work today leaving the contractor on his own. There were some survey flags put up by my neighbor and they got accidentally used. Good thing I came home at lunch and caught the mistake before it was too late!

With the forms moved and staked, we started moving gravel in. Tomorrow I start my holidays and will be able to help the contractor full time, the goal tomorrow is to have the site fully prepped for pouring concrete on Friday, we will see how close we can get.

End of day 2.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Well I've lost track of the days, but we've been busy with the garage.

Me and this thing got to know each other well over the past few days.

Insulated and laying down rebar.

Finished rebar just before the sky opened up and rained/hailed on us.

Digging out the area for the 4ft apron we decided on at the last minute.

Pex lines installed for heated floor, ready for concrete.

Concrete truck sunk trying to come into our yard, we had to hire this massive pumper truck which came right over the house.

This guy was great at his job and made things go super quick.

Power troweling.



If your thinking the concrete looks like ****, you would be correct. While the pour went fine, we lost control of the cement towards the end due to it drying too quickly. It was a series of events out of our control that caused it. I'm not happy about it but there is nothing I can do about it now. We are patching concrete all day today, and once it fully cures then we will put an epoxy coat on to hide the ugliness.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

One wall built.

Two walls built.

Two walls standing.

It was a bit of a scramble, but we scrounged up 9 people to help us and we lifted the 12ft high sheeted walls without too much trouble. We used the tractor with the lifted bucket to help catch the wall if it went too far.

Tomorrow we will build the gable ends and if all goes to plan we will be putting rafters up on Saturday.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

The 12ft stud height is a lot higher in person than it seemed on my computer screen when I was drawing up plans for it. When I woke up this morning and looked out my window I was kind of in shock for a bit. It literally dominates my house and my yard and all the buildings around it already and it doesn't even have the roof on yet.

The rafters were supposed to be delivered today, but the supplier doesn't know if that's going to happen or not. Fingers crossed they come in so we can get the rafters up tomorrow before I have to go back to work again.

 

[andgott]

Looking good! I agree, 12' walls seem MASSIVE once you're under them... Mine looked much shorter on paper.

 

[Kevin54]

It's going to look good. I wish I had that black dirt you have also. All we have is clay that is hard as a rock.

Just out of curiosity, but why the ******* size at 25'? I was always taught that it was easier and less wasteful to make any building or remodeling on an even number. 24', 26', and so on. Was it the square footage size allowed that got you?

Looking forward to the build though. I'm hoping I can get a bumpout on mine before it gets cold, but I'll be pushing it. That damn cold weather is right around the corner. Hopefully you can beat it with your build. At least to the point that you can work inside with some heat.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Looking great, keep the pics coming!

 

[HOTFR8]

Yes, more progress pics please.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

It's going to look good. I wish I had that black dirt you have also. All we have is clay that is hard as a rock.

Just out of curiosity, but why the ******* size at 25'? I was always taught that it was easier and less wasteful to make any building or remodeling on an even number. 24', 26', and so on. Was it the square footage size allowed that got you?

Looking forward to the build though. I'm hoping I can get a bumpout on mine before it gets cold, but I'll be pushing it. That damn cold weather is right around the corner. Hopefully you can beat it with your build. At least to the point that you can work inside with some heat.

Thanks for your comments. Yeah we have had a lot of offers to take that soil off our hands, haha.

It caused a lot of grief to go with the 25' width, but yes it was a square footage limitation that caused me to go with that size. My ideal size was 26' wide and 28' deep. Everyone told me to just build it the size I wanted and that the inspector likely wouldn't even notice. Sure enough, the building inspector showed up the day we poured the pad and he didn't even take his hands out of his pockets, let alone measure. Ah well, its done now.

Its been stupid hot this entire build, today had to have been the hottest by far, it was 37 Celcius or 98 Fahrenheit with the humidex. We are making good progress so far, hopefully be done long before any cold weather hits.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Well I lucked out and found enough people to help raise the front and rear walls today. If my rafters had come in time we would have the roof on tomorrow, but instead that will have to wait until Monday now.

We got the walls up just in time, and then we got hammered with a torrential thunder storm with powerful winds. Other than the pool of water everything held up well.

Two building inspectors showed up today, I guess they received a complaint about the height of the garage. We showed them the plans that had already been approved and we were following them exactly so they said we were fine. We aren't even building this to the maximum height allowed!

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Nothing too big happened today, it was hot so we buttoned up some small stuff and just worked out our plans for lighting and logistics of trenching in power and other lines to the garage from the house.

Finished sheathing.

Recycled our electrical panel from the house when we upgraded to 200amp service last year.

Open sky for now, should be rafters up there Monday afternoon hopefully.

Wedge anchors installed, pex piping trimmed.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Trusses arrived on site today. Of course they are the wrong pitch. I had custom ordered a certain pitch to comply with my height restriction and it looks like the manufacturer just did whatever the hell they wanted.

Luckily we had designed the garage to be slightly lower than the maximum height allowed, so with the trusses being taller than what I ordered, we are basically sitting bang on with whats allowed for height with the sheathing on, and we will be a 1/4 inch over the limit with the shingles on.

If the inspectors aren't happy over a 1/4 inch then I don't know what I'll do, haha.

 

[ky-mike]

Are your walls framed with 2x4 or 2x6 lumber? My builder told me that for 12' walls, I needed 2x6, which increased the materials cost quite a bit.

 

[shocwav3]

Are your walls framed with 2x4 or 2x6 lumber? My builder told me that for 12' walls, I needed 2x6, which increased the materials cost quite a bit.

Walls look to be 2x6

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Are your walls framed with 2x4 or 2x6 lumber? My builder told me that for 12' walls, I needed 2x6, which increased the materials cost quite a bit.

Walls are 2x6, not for strength but for insulation reasons. With our climate here 2x6 just makes sense for a heated garage.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Trusses arriving on a rainy (but hot and muggy) day.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Another mile stone.

 

[80ECLT]

I wish I had 12' walls. Looks good!

 

[RSOllie]

that is massive

would never in a millions years get that over here lol

 

[Gentle_Ben]

that is massive

would never in a millions years get that over here lol

You're right, it is massive. Lol, believe me when I saw the walls going up at first I was feeling sick to my stomach, who knew 12ft would look that much different than 10ft (which is prety much standard for a detached garage height around here).

I am sure once its all sealed up I will remember why I did the 12ft height again, and hopefully over time whoever complained about it already calms down once they see it all finished.

We are redoing the outside of our house at the same time so that everything matches. Our house is a bit of an eyesore on the street, it was the first house built in a new development back in the 1980's, and it doesn't really match the rest of the houses here.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Past few days I have been working and helping out the contractor in the evenings.

He basically did all the roof trusses himself except for a few. He is a one man construction crew!

 

[Kevin54]

I don't know how you would feel about it, but if it were me, I would have a saw cut across your door opening as a break for water infiltration. With no separation between the floor and apron, even with a good seal, a driving rain will get under the seal. A saw cut across would be enough to stop the water being forced under.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

I don't know how you would feel about it, but if it were me, I would have a saw cut across your door opening as a break for water infiltration. With no separation between the floor and apron, even with a good seal, a driving rain will get under the seal. A saw cut across would be enough to stop the water being forced under.

The attached garage on the house has the same setup for doors as this garage. I've been living here 5 years and have never seen water come under the door even in extreme conditions.

They use a pretty heavy duty seal on the bottoms of the doors, and the apron is inclined so water flows away from the garage.

I'll mention it to the contractor about your suggestion to see what he says though. Thanks for the comment.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

We got our electrical permit this morning, pretty simple stuff. Unfortunately we didn't know how they charged for the permits here, and they basically count every fixture you have in your diagram and charge based on that. Would have given them a lot simpler version of our wiring plan had we known that!

Anyways, today will be building the overhang on the front of the garage, and then sheeting the roof this afternoon. Contractor wants to have the roof shingled by Friday. I'm hoping I can take some time off work to help him with that.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

I spoke to the contractor regarding your comment, and his response was he doesn't do that due to water collecting in those cut lines, freezing and expanding and cracking the concrete. We have ordered an extra heavy duty seal for these big doors, and it should be sufficient to keep the weather out.

I don't know how you would feel about it, but if it were me, I would have a saw cut across your door opening as a break for water infiltration. With no separation between the floor and apron, even with a good seal, a driving rain will get under the seal. A saw cut across would be enough to stop the water being forced under.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Didn't quite finish sheeting the roof today, but just a few more pieces to put up tomorrow. Been working lots lately, so not much time to help with construction.

Hoping to have the roof shingled by the end of the day tomorrow so we can get our frame inspection done.

As it sits today.

Have to trench in power before we can start sealing it up or else we won't be able to see in there.

 

[PERFORMANCE-RED]

Maybe i missed it but why did you choose 12' walls? Will you be installing a lift?

 

[jdeck]

I think if I was going to build myself a garage from scratch, I would do it exactly like this! 25x28 with 12" walls and all.....it's coming along great so far. From what I gathered you are hobbyist? This is going to have the feel of a professional auto/race shop. but sounds like it will serve many purposes.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Maybe i missed it but why did you choose 12' walls? Will you be installing a lift?

12' walls to clear the 10' door with high lift option. I wanted 10 ft doors so I would never worry about clearance when pulling into the garage with my wakeboarding boat, or when I have snowmobiles in the back of a lifted truck.

Right now I don't "need" 10 ft doors, but I wanted to future proof myself against anything I might purchase in the future which might need more clearance.

I will not be installing a lift, I thought about it, but I don't work on cars really, and my good friend lives 15 minutes from me and he has a lift at his house I can use anytime I want if I have need.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

I think if I was going to build myself a garage from scratch, I would do it exactly like this! 25x28 with 12" walls and all.....it's coming along great so far. From what I gathered you are hobbyist? This is going to have the feel of a professional auto/race shop. but sounds like it will serve many purposes.

Thanks for the comments!

I am into a lot of different things, this garage will definately be multipurpose. I race snowmobiles in the winter, and working on them takes up a lot of space. I am quite happy to vacate my current single attached garage and move into this new space. I am not a professional mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but I do work on my own stuff, and hope to take on many projects in here.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Drove past the house to check on progress and the delivery truck had arrived with our shingles.

Don't mind the mess, its a construction site afterall

 

[HOTFR8]

Great progress.

 

[DFW-LSX]

Looks amazing!

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Something very satisfying about a freshly shingled roof. It rained un us briefly but we got it done.

Windows installed. Got them on sale for cheap, was worried about quality but they seem to be pretty nice.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Taking a couple days off from the build. Its harvest time so everyone is busy, including my contractors family who he went to go help.

My wife and I will take this time to clean up the job site and get our framing inspection done so we can start wiring and then insulating when the contactor gets back.

Plan is to get the garage sealed up, then switch to working on the exterior of the house. We got approved for a rebate if we add 2" of insulation to the exterior of the house, so we are going to take advantage of that, and at the same time put new siding and windows in so the house and garage will match.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice looking garage. Reminds me of mine sitting behind and slightly offset from the garage on the house.

Looking forward to seeing more pictures, especially once the driveway is done going back to it and the inside.

Mike.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Nice looking garage. Reminds me of mine sitting behind and slightly offset from the garage on the house.

Looking forward to seeing more pictures, especially once the driveway is done going back to it and the inside.

Mike.

Thank you. Yeah the offset worked out great for the driveway beside the existing attached garage to line up the right hand door perfectly. The left hand door won't be used as much. I thought about putting a smaller door on that side but decided I would rather have matching doors than save a few $.

I can't wait to get started on the inside, I'll continue to post progress pics.