Adding a floor to a mostly underground garage

[keelan]

As I rapidly run out of room in my 18x24 garage, I'm starting to contemplate adding a second floor to it. My garage (30 years old, built without a permit) is almost entirely underground, it occupies a piece of hillside where the grade increases 8' from the level of the driveway to the level of the back yard. The top of the back wall is level with the back yard, and the garage door is level with the driveway. Except for the front wall and the roof, it is constructed entirely out of concrete blocks.

I thought adding a second floor would be as 'easy' as pulling the roof off, constructing a floor and walls, and putting the roof back on. But on closer inspection of the local (BC) rules and regulations, any building over a 600 square feet is required to have footings below the frost line.

The back wall and most of the length of the side walls are almost completely underground, so from the perspective of the back yard, those walls have footings below the frost line. I hunted around with a shovel to find the footing for the front wall, and I found the top of it about a foot down from the grade of my driveway.

What kind of difficulties might I encounter when trying to get a permit for this? It's essentially have a walk-out basement with a roof on it at this point. Should I expect to have to dig up the front of my garage and put a footing down where code wants it to be, or is there some give and take in the typical permitting process?

I'm just trying to get a feel for my options before I invest too much energy into designing around the current structure.

 

[Diesel Dan]

I would expect some problems, could be wrong though.
A multi-story structure needs a proper foundation and you already know yours is sub-standard.

The footer is only 1' down at the minimum but what is its construction?
Is the width and thickness of the concrete enough?
Is there rebar in the footer?
Are the walls tied into the footer?

 

[larry4406]

Underpin the sub-standard footing to get adequate frost protection.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Go talk to the local building inspector. He will have to approve it in the end any way.

 

[keelan]

The final say will come from the inspector, I'm just trying to prepare myself for the worst. I wish the original owner hasn't been such a cheapskate, everything is during on narrow footers. The house is 60 years old, and the crappy foundations have held solid, but I understand why that isn't going to help when it comes time to put another floor on my garage.

Option two is to save for a few more years and build a shop elsewhere on the property.