Building my garage.

[Joel Thomas]

I am embarking on my mission to build a garage onto my friends' house that they just bought. Building permits will be researched, measurements taken, plans drawn and re-drawn, concrete jackhammered, removed, footings dug, walls and roof framed, electrified, sheathed, sided, and finally insulated and finished with sheetrock.

I plan to use as many reclaimed materials as possible. It will be roofed with corrugated steel with stripes of green translucent corrugated roofing as skylights. I am not sure what it will be sided with, probably the horizontal beadboard siding to match the house.

Inside, I will have a steel fabrication shop and a textile& screenprinting facility. The top will have a full loft for me to live in. It will be about 3/4 the height of an entire story. The plans need to be drafted and then refined.
Here are some photos of the house:

This is the side the garage is going. The crappy addition probably never got a permit as the roof line along the left edge has no overhang and it is a shoddy structure sheathed in nothing more than plywood. It will have to come down before a foundation is started. I will probabbly at least have to jackhammer up the old shifty slab around the perimeter for the footing, I am not looking forward to hammering the whole thing up, so hopefully I'll be able to pour a new slab over the existing one with some wire mesh reinforcement in the new layer over the old one. Input welcomed.

 

[tcianci]

Your observation that the addition never was permitted may be correct, but the reasons you state for your conclusion really don't have any bearing on whether or not it was permitted. Overhangs (or lack thereof) on gable ends are merely an aesthetic choice and there is no code I know of that requires them. Also I know of no code that prohibits the use of plywood for siding. T-111 is a very common siding and it is just plywood with decorative grooves machined into it. The addition appears to be more of an attached shed than anything else and was probably built with an eye toward minimum cost and not design excellence.

 

[Mark-in-NH]

I am embarking on my mission to build a garage onto my friends' house that they just bought.
Inside, I will have a steel fabrication shop and a textile& screenprinting facility. The top will have a full loft for me to live in. .

These must be exceptional friends.
I apologize for sounding sarcastic, but why would you want to invest thousands of dollars building a garage + onto someone elses house and on the other end, why would someone want another person to build and own a garage w/ living quarters attached to their home ?
Sooner or later lifestyles, work habits & schedules are going to clash. Even between the best of friends this will raise conflicts.
This has disaster in the making written all over it.
If your going to invest this kind of $$$, build your garage on your own piece of land.

 

[typquopro]

I plan to use as many reclaimed materials as possible. It will be roofed with corrugated steel with stripes of green translucent corrugated roofing as skylights. I am not sure what it will be sided with, probably the horizontal beadboard siding to match the house.

 

[Joel Thomas]

Thanks for the input, all. To reply to the various comments and constructive criticisms:

These must be exceptional friends.
I apologize for sounding sarcastic, but why would you want to invest thousands of dollars building a garage + onto someone elses house and on the other end, why would someone want another person to build and own a garage w/ living quarters attached to their home ?
Sooner or later lifestyles, work habits & schedules are going to clash. Even between the best of friends this will raise conflicts.
This has disaster in the making written all over it.
If your going to invest this kind of $$$, build your garage on your own piece of land.

I may not have stated that I will not be putting any of my money into this project. Rather, I will be paid an adequate salary, rent will be taken care of, and the H.O.s are covering all costs of materials, permits, inspections and anything else. Their garage, my work. Agreed, even the best of friends may eventually clash in lifestyles, but we are very open and even redundantly communicative about everything to make sure we are all on the same page and that no unforseen issues arise. If worst came to worst, I'd be walking away with another construction job under my belt and a pocket full of money.

Your observation that the addition never was permitted may be correct, but the reasons you state for your conclusion really don't have any bearing on whether or not it was permitted. Overhangs (or lack thereof) on gable ends are merely an aesthetic choice and there is no code I know of that requires them. Also I know of no code that prohibits the use of plywood for siding. T-111 is a very common siding and it is just plywood with decorative grooves machined into it. The addition appears to be more of an attached shed than anything else and was probably built with an eye toward minimum cost and not design excellence.

With that said, I agree on the assessment of the current addition. T-111 also has tongue-and-groove machined into it, so you don't have the gaps between the panels like this structure has. The plywood could have used a little better flashing or overhang, since the plywood is rotting a little where it meets the shingles. Agreed on the fact that is more of a shed. It also has a laundry room inside so it is plumbed with drain, water, and likely 220 or gas for a dryer.

More small progress today, we took measurements of the house and surrounding property such as house-to-fence and even some of the roof dimensions so I could replicate the pitch of the roof on the other side. The importance of this is that I can draft plans with real proportions now. Then it will be off to the library to research how to draft plans that will be acceptable by the building permit people and once those are drawn, estimate the materials. Any pointers on where to start would also be appreciated in that department.

 

[Mark-in-NH]

Thanks for the input, all. To reply to the various comments and constructive criticisms:


I may not have stated that I will not be putting any of my money into this project. Rather, I will be paid an adequate salary, rent will be taken care of, and the H.O.s are covering all costs of materials, permits, inspections and anything else. Their garage, my work. Agreed, even the best of friends may eventually clash in lifestyles, but we are very open and even redundantly communicative about everything to make sure we are all on the same page and that no unforseen issues arise. If worst came to worst, I'd be walking away with another construction job under my belt and a pocket full of money.
.

The title of the thread would leave one to believe that this garage was to be yours. Your further explanation certainly seems a more reasonable and understandable project.
Good luck with it

 

[79BlackPearl]

Inside, I will have a steel fabrication shop and a textile& screenprinting facility. The top will have a full loft for me to live in. It will be about 3/4 the height of an entire story. Input welcomed.

First Question, you mention "fabrication" and "screenprinting"; will this be used as a commercial / retail space that you would use to make money out of? If yes, I would make a phone call FIRST to the local Zoning / Planning Office. This is usually not allowed by Zoning / Planning to have commercial operations in a residential area. Plus, the neighbors might have something to say about all the steel grinding and noise. I'd check first with your local Zoning ordinances.

2nd phone call would be to the Building Inspector. Attaching commercial space to residential on the side and a residential "loft" above = big $$$$$$. Most codes will require, depending upon garage space, firewalls and fireceilings that will completely separate the space. This can get very costly, again depending on code.

Otherwise, if you get pass both of these, post up some pictures of the progress and good luck!!!

 

[Joel Thomas]

First Question, you mention "fabrication" and "screenprinting"; will this be used as a commercial / retail space that you would use to make money out of? If yes, I would make a phone call FIRST to the local Zoning / Planning Office. This is usually not allowed by Zoning / Planning to have commercial operations in a residential area. Plus, the neighbors might have something to say about all the steel grinding and noise. I'd check first with your local Zoning ordinances.

2nd phone call would be to the Building Inspector. Attaching commercial space to residential on the side and a residential "loft" above = big $$$$$$. Most codes will require, depending upon garage space, firewalls and fireceilings that will completely separate the space. This can get very costly, again depending on code.

Otherwise, if you get pass both of these, post up some pictures of the progress and good luck!!!

No commercial retail space. I would describe it as a one man home business. Any grinding taking place (minimal) will be quiet enough for residential. After having figured out the sound issues of my 2-piece band in the suburbs, I know what the sound of a lone grinder would be by comparison. So I wonder if just the fact that I do make money in the space means I can't just go on doing so with just a business license. I work out of my local TechShop for this sort of thing currently. Far as I know I am welcome to do any kind of work for money or otherwise out of there and I don't have a business license yet.

 

[sungrove]

HI Joel,

Good luck with your project. Sounds like you have lots of ideas for the use of the space. I just wanted to mention that there is a company in your area that sells steel truss/ wood building kits. You can either buy the whole kit from them or just the steel package and then go buy the lumber elsewhere. Here is a link to their site: http://www.websteel.com/ I know about them simply because I have been looking for something to build and I like the fact that these buildings are part wood.

Neil
Seattle

 

[huumingh]

Thanks for the input, all. To reply to the various comments and constructive criticisms:


I may not have stated that I will not be putting any of my money into this project. Rather, I will be paid an adequate salary, rent will be taken care of, and the H.O.s are covering all costs of materials, permits, inspections and anything else. Their garage, my work. Agreed, even the best of friends may eventually clash in lifestyles, but we are very open and even redundantly communicative about everything to make sure we are all on the same page and that no unforseen issues arise. If worst came to worst, I'd be walking away with another construction job under my belt and a pocket full of money.



With that said, I agree on the assessment of the current addition. T-111 also has tongue-and-groove machined into it, so you don't have the gaps between the panels like this structure has. The plywood could have used a little better flashing or overhang, since the plywood is rotting a little where it meets the shingles. Agreed on the fact that is more of a shed. It also has a laundry room inside so it is plumbed with drain, water, and likely 220 or gas for a dryer.

More small progress today, we took measurements of the house and surrounding property such as house-to-fence and even some of the roof dimensions so I could replicate the pitch of the roof on the other side. The importance of this is that I can draft plans with real proportions now. Then it will be off to the library to research how to draft plans that will be acceptable by the building permit people and once those are drawn, estimate the materials. Any pointers on where to start would also be appreciated in that department.

Nice thread - some good stuff to consider.