2nd Floor Addition to Garage/House

[Youngbuck]

Hey ya'll. First timer (poster) here. I love this site and I figure you guys will net me the best advice on my most recent brainstorm (read: crazy house/garage plans)

I just bought a house this past October (1st one) and I have been doing a few modifications here and there whenever I have some extra cash. I'm getting married this comming October so most of my big jobs are gonna have to wait til next year due to mostly my fiance and myself paying for the wedding.

Anyways, here's the gameplan. I did a quick rough layout of the house, garage, and lot during my lunch break. (I plan to actually make it more complete, detailed, colored, and more to scale eventually.) It really isn't too great but gives a basic "take a look" to get an idea of what I want to do.

We've been discussing ways to create additional livable space, ie: finish the attic, basement, or do an addition. (I'll end up doin all 3 though I bet.) The current addition plan is to add a 2nd story to the garage and attach the upstairs to the house. One of the garage's walls is the outside wall of the house, but the garage isn't directly connected to the house (gotta go outside to get inside type of deal). In addition to this...well...addition, I was hoping to push the front wall of the garage out a bit further, as well as the side wall (opposite the house) to create an extra bay in the garage (future lift).

Basically I want to increase the footprint of the garage and add a 2nd floor to it which would be attached to the upstairs of the house.

Mostly wondering if this is a decent idea and how much of a pain it would be. We're located in PA and most of the work I'd be able to do myself, or get a fairly decent rate on from my previous boss who is a contractor.

Any input, suggestions, or pics of something similar would be greatly appreciated. I check the forums pretty often so I can answer any questions, or make sense of my ramblings fairly fast. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: sorry for the poor quality pic. it was a print screen and i couldn't get the resize right...

 

[Steve_S]

"Pushing out the walls" most likely means you will be building a new garage from scratch. I had the same plan as you... push out two walls and make them 3-feet taller. The amount of work to modify the existing walls was more than tearing the garage apart down to the ground.

Fortunately the layout of your house would make it relatively pain-free to go down the to dirt and build from scratch. You would have no gaping holes letting rain, cold and intruders in.

 

[1320stang]

I agree with Steve, you'll only use the existing rear wall, which looks like it may line up with the rear wall of the house. If it's 24" oc, it won't be up to snuff for load bearing a 2nd floor. The other thing is, you'll end up with a couple seams in the floor in the garage which **** for rolling over with anything smaller than a car tire with. Now it looks like the garage floor elevation may be significantly lower than the house, you could just pour over the top of the existing slab and likely be good. Do you have a dwg file of the existing floor plans? Email it to me if you do, I'll shoot some stuff back at ya.

Larry

 

[Youngbuck]

rear wall of the garage is back from the house about 7ft. and if i remember correctly the walls were 16" on center...i think.

garage floor is lower than the house as well...few steps to get into house 1st floor.

you could just pour over the top of the existing slab and likely be good

not sure what you mean here...care to elaborate?

also, i don't have any drawings made up yet...workin on those too.


thanks for the advice you 2.

 

[1320stang]

By pouring over, you raise the elevation of the garage floor. If you want to raise it higher, you can just cover the existing slab with sand.

 

[cc_rider]

They're right about 'adding on' to the garage ending up being 'rebuilding'. Even if all you did was put a 2nd story on the garage, you'd have to strengthen the structure first; it likely wasn't designed to have a 2nd story. Might as well start with a clean slate.

I'd talk with an architect and structural engineer, just to make sure you're not building something that will: 1) fall down/burn up/flood out, and 2) pass inspections in case you (or your heirs) ever want to sell the property.

It's been my experience when you're building or BUYING a property, the inspectors are, shall we say, less than particular. But when you try to SELL a property, their inspector will note every minute detail. Like 'The switchplates in the garage are not the same color'. You think I'm kidding...

Keep us posted!

c.