Apartment Garage - Removing dividing walls

[MaxThroughput]

Hey all, I'm new to the forum here but have found its answers useful for years as they tend to rank at the top of most google searches. Anyway, I need to post here because I seek an answer which I have not found.

I am looking at buying a multifamily home with a 4 car garage. I will be living in one unit and renting out the other three. Garage space is a premium for me, like most of you. I do auto body work and build motorcycles in my spare time. Fortunately, this home is in a neighborhood with lots of street parking and a parking lot, so the tenants do not currently use their garages anyway. All is good up to this point.



The bad, and what I seek advice on:
Each garage unit is divided with a brick wall that the roof/ceiling seems to be resting on. I need to know how I could go about removing these walls to open up the garage to one space. I'd rather not replace the entire roof, but I have a feeling that it needs to be done. Whatever the options are, I'd like to keep the cost down since it is a rental property and I won't get any of this garage investment back. Also, I may plan to heat the garage, but I'm willing to make these plans without that in mind. Garage dimensions are approximately 18x40.

Here is an album with pictures that I grabbed of the garage which will hopefully help answer any questions that you might have:
http://imgur.com/a/Z6zST

Teaser Pic:
http://i.imgur.com/EucGWsR.jpg

Thanks in advance.

 

[fireguy]

Looks like the dividing walls are load bearing walls. You need to get a structural engineer or an experienced and qualified contractor to look at the walls. And if you are going to be doing that much work, you should contact the local building department, before doing any work. There may be requirements that each apartment has garage/storage space available.

That brick may be hollow

 

[MaxThroughput]

I believe the brick is hollow. Is that going to cause any problems? I called the city building dept and there are no problmes modifying it or with renter storage, although theres enclosed basment storage also. Could this problem be solved with a couple beams allowing me to keep the current roof? How much is this going to cost me?

 

[Kevin54]

Your ceiling joist are setting on the wall, therefore making it load bearing. You have two ways to go. Either put a structural beam from front to back that is rated for the weight, or run new beams side to side that will rest on the supporting walls. Either way, the ceiling/roof will have to be supported before you ever break out the sledgehammer.

 

[MaxThroughput]

Thanks for the advice Kevin. Do you think this would be an expensive project? The width of the garage is 18', so it shouldn't be hard to find a beam that length.

 

[evildky]

Nice 240Z. I'd build a temporary wall on both sides of the block wall, tear it out, then put in the new engineered ro laminated beam suitable to carry the load. The math is in the codebook for how large fo a bean you'll need.

 

[MaxThroughput]

Nice 240Z. I'd build a temporary wall on both sides of the block wall, tear it out, then put in the new engineered ro laminated beam suitable to carry the load. The math is in the codebook for how large fo a bean you'll need.

Thanks, it's a 1973. There are actually 3 walls to tear down. Seems like it might be a lot of work, but not too much cost wise.

 

[Kevin54]

Thanks, it's a 1973. There are actually 3 walls to tear down. Seems like it might be a lot of work, but not too much cost wise.

So you are getting all of the space that 4 garage doors take up?

In doing that, you will need to run an engineered beam from front to back. What you will have to do is add lumber at the front and rear to support the beam as you won't be able to set the beam on the front and back wall. From what it looks like to me is the ceiling joist are tied into each other on top of the current walls between the doors. Actually there are two ways to support the beams, and that would be lumber that is strong enough to support the engineered beam, or you could have block laid up to the correct height and rest the beams on those.

It's not going to be a lot of work, and it won't be too costly as some projects tend to be. But you will need three beams that will carry the weight of the roof structure, and you will need either the blocks, or lumber to build a column at the front and rear of each wall to carry the beam and the load.

Make sure you keep the thread updated as to how you go about things.

 

[kazlx]

Why don't you just rent a shop? Seems way cheaper than whatever removing the walls would cost...

IMO you are asking for trouble A) either doing it on the downlow and having it fail or B) doing it the legit way and having it cost a ton. There's always C) where you do A but get caught and forced into B. There is no real situation that benefits you.

 

[Shocker]

Check to see if there are HOA's that will cause issues with the type of work you are going to be performing there before you do anything else.

 

[Zeke]

Nice 240Z. I'd build a temporary wall on both sides of the block wall, tear it out, then put in the new engineered ro laminated beam suitable to carry the load. The math is in the codebook for how large fo a bean you'll need.

That's what I'd do. I'd even put a little wing wall at each end. I find a few corner niches come in handy when locating tool boxes, benches and cabinets.