Budget Morton build questions:

[weatherby460]

30x36x11 6/12 pitch
1- 8'x18' Raynor Door
1- 36" Morton Door

I will need some advice on building my garage. My first question is, does cement get installed before the Garage door is installed?

Also, can anyone see anything I should add to the exterior that won't cost a ton to make it look nicer.

Thanks

 

[Rookie2]

I would wait but I would ask the concrete contractor. Are you in the north ? snow will slide off your roof !

 

[weatherby460]

Good observation, never considered that....but this will not be a garage that will get used for everyday vehicles. More of a workshop/pool table/place to get away from wife.

 

[Showkey]

More of a workshop/pool table/place to get away from wife.

So........it will get use 5-6 time per week

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

If you want to dress it up more you can do the corners and door trim in a different color from the walls. Same with the upper trim or soffit if you have overhangs. Shouldn't affect cost at all.
Windows also add visual appeal.
Other than that you can add plants around the building, but I wouldn't expect the builder to do that.

 

[weatherby460]

I cant afford to finish it completely this year, but in order to have the garage door installed, will I need to have the ceiling finished first? Can I do the walls later then? I plan on using metal for the ceiling and walls.

 

[Rookie2]

You need to do a search on here for pole buildings. Lots of info !
I have a morton 40x60x14 , metal roofs cause condensation ! mine rains inside because I didn't insulate the roof. Morton knew I was going to enclose it and didn't TELL ME !

 

[Jlbc212]

Having worked for several years as an overhead door mechanic, I always liked to have the floor poured before I installed the doors. It is easy enough to remove the rear horizontal track hangers and reinstall after you install the metal ceiling.
Here's a couple of suggestions for installing the metal ceiling:
You can order the metal ceiling to almost any length. I ordered easily manageable pieces, 9ft 2inches long and overlapped the pieces 2 inches.
I picked up my order with my pickup truck. The pieces were all stacked together. I predrilled the pieces while they were still in the bed of my pickup truck, drilling through the entire stack.
I rented a drywall lift to lift the panels up to the ceiling. My ceiling is a few inches over 12 feet and needed and found a lift that went to that height. I installed the entire ceiling by myself. It was one of the easiest jobs I had to do.
Put a vented cupola on the roof.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I had my Morton building put up 5 years ago. I had the floor and door both done through Morton because I only wanted one company to point at if there was a problem. Morton had thier subs put in the floor and door. Both subs were extremely good reputable companies.

My building was finished a few days before christmass and the door was installed the week between christmass and New Years. The floor was poured in May because I didn't want anything to do with a winter mix.

One of the first things Morton did was to survey and put a marker on my 6x6 fence post indicating the finished floor level. To make sure the floor was "high and dry".

everything from that point on was based on that height. The guy who installed the door set the base of the door to that height no problem. He said he did it all the time. This guy installed my 14x14 door by himself. He also turned up at my job later to fix one of out really big roll up doors.



When the Morton guy comes out to your house he will have a software program to design the the building for you. This guy does this all the time, so I leaned on him a little to help pice the color combination, and looked at a bunch of his photos of completed buildings in that color combination before making the final decision. A big pole barn is not a good thing to learn that your color combinations won't look good.

The Morton building was expensive, but I would do it again without thinking about it.

Chris

 

[Shadowdog500]

Put a bay window between the man door and the garage door.

My wife wanted a porch put on ours by the man door. That was a great move. I'm always out of the rain while fishing for my keys, and I have a table to put stuff on when opening the door. It is also a great place to BBQ, hang out with a beer, and to calm down and regain your thoughts when a project isn't going well.. If you do put a porch up put an outdoor fan to keep the bigs off you, it works great.

Chris

 

[coljar]

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I agree with Shadowdog about the porch. It's nice to sit on and gives great curb appeal, but Morton was too rich for my blood. The quote was twice as much as my building.

 

[Rookie2]

Have the concrete guys/contractor drop the concrete 1/2" under the garage door. You can't believe how much water will flow in under/around that garage door. A 1/2" isn't noticeable when you drive over it.

 

[Hounddog]

Have the concrete guys/contractor drop the concrete 1/2" under the garage door. You can't believe how much water will flow in under/around that garage door. A 1/2" isn't noticeable when you drive over it.

It's typical around here that concrete guys will take a 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 and and attach to the top of the forms on edge (so the 3.5 flat is showing). That'll make for a 1.5" recess for the door to slip into. The tricky part is ensuring the door and just the door fits into the recess. If the guy gets sloppy you end up with a recess that is too wide and you got that to deal with when your go to frame up your jack/king studs at the garage door openings.

As long as were talking concrete....I'd be more concerned with expansion cuts in the slab. So many people don't (they don't know any better and the crete contractor gets lazy)

FWIW...if I had it to do over again... I'd have done a metal building. My exterior maintenance is more that I'd planned... A nice Morton or Other is the way to go

My recent garage addition was as a result (or the lack of) contractor did not recess the garage doors. Water would run under the door. Kept the bottom plates wet...the plates would have rotted away if I hadn't done something about it. Look at the last 3 or 4 pages of my build (see sig line) you'll see what I did. Typically the rains hit me from the side of the barn with the garage doors...my new overhang and repositioning of the one door solved my problems.

 

[930dreamer]

The porch is a great addition, my 40x60 shop has the side wall sky light panels for added light.

 

[readhead]

Morton builds a quality building. That being said, I don't think you can use Morton and budget in the same sentence especially if it is a tight budget.

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

Ya, morton buildings are not cheap. My buddy had a 30x60 put up, 2 overhead doors and one man door. No windows, I think he was into it for about 60k. He did alot of the prep work for the floor. He finished the interior such as insulation, walls, ceiling and paint.

I used to work for overhead door as well. we did most all of the doors for morton in the area. Quite a few doors were put in before the floor. It is possible.

My floor is the same grade as my driveway, Its nice when I'm alone and pushing cars in and out that don't run. But it's not nice when there's a heavy rain. I have a deck above my garage doors, so that helps alot. Most of my issues are from someone installing the man door lower then the floor..?? for some odd reason.

 

[John in OH]

I would wait but I would ask the concrete contractor. Are you in the north ? snow will slide off your roof !

I can speak from experience that this can be a problem if you are in a snow area! With your roof/passage door configuration you will get dripped on during rain storms and huge gobs of snow/ice will slide off the roof in front of your doors. Either add a porch (which definitely increases curb appeal) or add the roof clips (I don't know their real name) that hold snow from sliding off. Even if you don't add a big porch, a simple small roof over the door will add protection and make the external appearance better.

If you want to dress it up more you can do the corners and door trim in a different color from the walls. Same with the upper trim or soffit if you have overhangs. Shouldn't affect cost at all.
Windows also add visual appeal.
Other than that you can add plants around the building, but I wouldn't expect the builder to do that.

Yep! These suggestions will improve appearance also. Another suggestion is to class up the style of the overhead door. Your sketch shows a very utilitarian style door. You could add windows to OH door or even get a door with faux carriage styling if that appeals to you.

I have a morton 40x60x14 , metal roofs cause condensation ! mine rains inside because I didn't insulate the roof. Morton knew I was going to enclose it and didn't TELL ME !

Yep! A bare metal roof will drip condensate on the inside of the building. Before the roof is installed, have a layer of 1/4" thick reflective "bubble wrap" style insulation added beneath the steel roof sheets.

Have the concrete guys/contractor drop the concrete 1/2" under the garage door. You can't believe how much water will flow in under/around that garage door. A 1/2" isn't noticeable when you drive over it.

Yep! Essentially Rookie2 is recommending a small step of 1/2" (I used 3/4") at the OH door. The bottom of the OH door sits on the lower part of the step and the upper part of the step is at garage floor elevation. DON'T use a recess pocket if you are anywhere north of the equator!!

The porch is a great addition, my 40x60 shop has the side wall sky light panels for added light.

Yep! A source of passive light is really nice. If placed high on the end walls security will not be significantly compromised.

Don't forget that some nicely styled exterior lights around the doors and lots of landscaping will also reduce the utilitarian appearance of the building.

Also, before the concrete is poured, don't forget to install several generously sized in-ground stub-ups for electrical, water, alarm system, and any other miscellaneous future use where you will want to bring an underground utility into the building via conduit through the floor .

 

[Firebird 1]

Rather than going 1- 18' door you may want to price 2-9', will break the front up a bit visually. Personally I would try to go a bit higher as well for more space but I guess it depends on your long term plans. If youre ever planning on selling, a taller ceiling height would be a good sell to a car guy wanting a lift. As it is I think its too low for that application.

 

[weatherby460]

Great advice....keep it coming...

I am considering doing 12' walls...I didn't want to go to high, in order to heat.

Great tip on leaving the cement open for electricity runs.

I am just using the garage to store a vette, atv, snowmobile, and a utv. The rest of the area will be used for a nice size work table and some seating to hangout with friends.

Hopefully the size is good enough.

 

[Rookie2]

What utilities ? water, heat? Insulation?

 

[Firebird 1]

Any size is good, don't over extend, keep in mind what you will need in the future for heat, elec and whatever else you plan on outfitting it with, but build it the BIGGEST you can afford to. I have yet to hear someone say they built their garage TOO big.

 

[John in OH]

Hopefully the size is good enough.

Ha, Ha!! Silly boy!! Such a thing does not exist!!

 

[weatherby460]

Only need insulation, (with metal walls/ceiling) and electric for lights, outlets, and garage door opener. I may put a 75K BTU heater in later on.

Any advice on type/how many lights? I want to get LEDs for sure.

Thanks for any advice...this is a great site.

 

[Kevin54]

Weatherby460.....welcome to Garage Journal. If you would, could you put at least the State or Country you live in into your profile? It really does help with answering questions.

As far as here in Ohio, when it comes to pouring the concrete, it depends on a few factors, but most will wait until the Pole Barn in completed until they pour concrete. It gives them more time to work it, and it keeps the concrete out of the weather. If it's super hot and dry out, it gives them a longer working time, if it is going to rain, it still lets them pour, and if it's cold, they can heat the interior. We have been going past a....probably 75' x 150' new pole barn being built, and they just completed it all except for the floor. As of the other day, they haven't poured it yet. ON my road, there was recently two pole buildings built and both waited until the buildings were complete with the doors before the floors were poured. That seems to be the norm in my area.

 

[Dave88LX]

I'm shopping right now, looking at options. Have heard many many good things about Morton buildings.

Is there any room for negotiations in their pricing or is their price final?

How does their financing work?

Just trying to get information before making any contact.

 

[Rookie2]

At one time they offered a discount at the farm shows/ county fairs . They usually have a display set up.

 

[rburke65]

I really do not think that metal roofs cause condensation! I have a metal roof and I have not experienced any condensation.

 

[Voi]

30x36x11 6/12 pitch
1- 8'x18' Raynor Door
1- 36" Morton Door

Hopefully the size is good enough.

I will need some advice on building my garage. My first question is, does cement get installed before the garage door is installed?

Old thread but I just went through this with our local Morton rep. He said to get cost per square foot down to build the length a multiple of 8' and the width (gable) a multiple of 6'. But that likely has to do with our local snow loads so that may not work in Wisconsin. But I'd ask.

For our needs he did think it would be cheaper to build higher and put in a loft/mezzanine but said he'd be happy to run numbers both ways. He did specifically say it's not a big deal to build pole barns taller, which make sense because you're just adding another girt and a longer extrusions of siding.

We talked a bit about overhead doors and final floor elevation and I left the conversation with the assumption that they frequently leave their buildings with overhead doors installed but no concrete floors installed. Now whether there were problems down the road after the floor was poured is another question, but I think it could be worked out.

I am considering doing 12' walls...I didn't want to go to high, in order to heat.

If you do radiant floor heat you won't really be heating the upper part. In my friend's pole barn it's actually cooler in the loft than it is at floor level. See attached pic.