Assessing a House for Garage/Shop Project

[moparfreak]

Hey folks, I'm a lurker, love the forum. My wife and I are relocating and have our house up, and I plan to use the move as a good reason to set up a proper shop/garage.

The way I have things set up now, I have a large WW shop in my unfinished basement and I've made the most of my 2.5 car garage as an automotive type work area on cars (I'm performing an old mopar restoration, do welding, and other auto repair).

Ideally, I'd like to be able to assemble a large enough garage shop that I could crunch my WW into it or adjacent, and be able to utilize the basement as play area/etc. for the kids (2 yr and 4 yr old boys and 3rd sometime soon). This means as we look at houses, I'm paying attention to how the garage is laid out on the lot and is there room to expand.

The thing I'm not really sure at all on how to tackle is to understand what the building code requirements are for the village. Are there square footage restrictions that will prevent me from expanding the garage/shop? Are there other things that I'm not considering? I'm sure of that. It's kind of overwhelming, but I need to figure out what the basic requirements of the village are to make sure that I don't make a decision on purchasing a house based on some fictitious scenario I might be able to dream up of adding on the garage/shop when I actually won't be able to.

Any tips on finding this stuff out? Who/where do I search? What steps need to be taken? I'm lost...

Thanks,
Adam

 

[smschriefer]

It is hard to say. A village is usually quite small and most farm out their responsibilities to the county. I'd check with the village and see what department(s) they have for zoning. It might be a zoning office, a local commission, or it might be handled by the county. Your best bet is to ask your Realtor as they should know the town well enough to give you a starting point.

 

[Falcon67]

You go directly to City Hall (or whatever they call it up there) and ask. Make/get/pay for copies of anything you need to reference. Some cities carry this on a web site, many small communities do not. Our city can't even get around to posting the council agendas on the web site, let alone scanning in books of city codes that have been on the shelf for 80 years.

If the property is outside the city limits and outside of their territorial jurisdiction, you go to the county courthouse and ask.

 

[bczygan]

First find out who is the controlling agency for zoning. Contact them and find out the zoning of the property. Sometimes the zoning map is online. Then get a copy of the zoning regs. Also sometimes online.
This will give you all the rules for your zoning. Pay particular attention to area, space and height requirements, setbacks, lot coverage percentages and accessory building rules.
This tells you what you may and may not do.
Then get a copy of the plat map showing the property or a mortgage survey. Look for utility easements. Overhead wires can be a clue, but don't tell the whole story.
Look at the property description on the deed for any easements that encumber it.
Check if there is a HOA and if so, what their rules are.

Then, if you want to know how to do what you want, call the building department and find out what codes they use.

While you are checking on utilities, make sure you have available the ones you need without large additional costs. Your property may be in the planning stages for a new sewer or water line and associated assessment that could ad 10's of thousands. Adequate electrical may not go all the way to the location, etc..

 

[472scout]

Personally I would find a home with an adequate shop already there. In most areas that will cheaper in the long run.

Otherwise, you need to talk to as many people as possible. Zoning office, permit office, and contractors. All bigger cities have restrictions on size vs land area, roof height, set backs, etc. Villages may or may not have as many rules.

 

[moparfreak]

Thanks all for the advice. I did some searching and indeed found the zoning map and even building codes and such. I'm not used to reading these types of documents so it's difficult to find the useful information in them but I can see that this is where I start.

Based on the advice here, I called the city (Glendale, WI) and turns out the planner/zoning person there is really nice and helpful. He said it's obviously dependent on the situation mostly, but that in general what I intend to do (expand an attached 2-car into a larger shop/work area) could definitely be doable provided my back/side yard had enough space for it.

Pretty much every house in this area has a pretty bare bones 2-2.5 attached garage. I can only have one garage attached or detached. This might seem extravagant, but I'd like to expand the 2-car into a 4-bay for cars, then another 2-3 bay's worth that can be made into my WW shop. The 2-car portion would have one bay w/ lift, and the other bay would probably be consumed as an auto shop work area. Then build a shed into the backyard so all the typical garage/yard tools can get stored there.

We're looking at a house we had our eye on this Friday that dropped in price considerably ($50K!), and these are things I'm thinking about....

Adam

 

[kert]

Also look around at what nearby properties have. If several of your neighbors have larger garages similar to what you want, it is a good sign that you may be able to do the same. It is also a sign that you won't be an oddball home if you ever want to sell.

 

[Outlawmws]

While you are looking at the codes, get the property line setbacks. For a standard lot it will probably have a setback from the back lot line for a required back yard, (which you can often impinge on if kept to a predetermined maximum percentage) , side setbacks (this is to keep you and your neighbor from building too close for (fire) safety), and another for the front limiting how close to the street you can build.

If it is a corner lot, the side street side will probably have a setback something between the normal side setback and the front or rear setbacks, which are generally the largest.

The other thing to watch for on the property are easements. You probably can't build over an easement at all.

Lastly there may be a maximum percentage of the lot you can cover with buildings.

 

[ddawg16]

Can you go up? At least for storage.

It sounds like your off to a good start. Be very nice to that planning person. Chances are that if you are reasonable, they will help you get the maximum footage.

One thing to take note of regarding wood working.....saw dust. Right now you have it contained....as soon as you start sharing an area....you will see just how much saw dust you have.....it gets everywhere.

 

[jlckmj]

A lot of good info above.

I sell real estate in the Waukesha / Milwaukee area, one thing I would do is make your real estate agent work FOR YOU. Have them do the leg work, tell them up front what you want (IN WRITING!) so they can not come back later and tell you that you never said that.

A good agent should be able to find out what can and can not be built. Generally, in that area if the garage is at the end of the house, it can be expanded into the back yard with two more bays for a 4 car two deep garage, and still fit within the set backs.

Tell them that you will not consider a house that does not have a garage that can not be expanded. They should be able to get the set backs and do the leg work for you, I do it all the time.

PM me if you have any questions
Jim