Finally Building My Detached Garage, Build Thread

[KYGTP]

Well Guys, This is one of my First posts, but I have been reading for WEEKS, I just can't stop. The amount of Info that is on this site is unbelievable, and I wish I would have found this site years ago, but I am here now.

Anyways, I have saved and planned for about 5 yrs now, and Tomorrow, they are breaking ground on my 50 X 42 Garage. I am going into work late, just to see the first scoop of dirt taken out and snap some pics of the progress.

Here are some pics of the plans, since I do not have digital copies of them, but you can get the idea.

This is the Side that is in line with my house.

This is the back elevation. I wanted it so that if you wanted to you can enter the upstair loft area without having to use the stairs in the front.

This is the front of the garage that will be facing my garage on my house.

Under the Dormer, the ceiling height will be 12' so that I can put a lift in that bay, and the rest of the garage ceiling will be 11'. So the room upstairs will have 2 steps to get into it, which is not that big of deal.

In the furture I may finish it out with a small apartment, either for my mother who is getting older and live by herself now, since my father just passed away on March 1 of this year from complications of a bone marrow transplant. Or it may be for my son, who is special needs, and we have no idea how he will turn out, since he is only 5 right now. He has Global Apraxia, which cause him to not have good Gross motor skills and fine motor skill. It affects his speech, abalitiy to use his hands (fine motor). He has made great progress over the past couple of years and is the best little boys a dad could as for, he is great and keeps telling me "Daddy, big garage, bulldozer help" Its great. Anyways for now, I am just going to leave it all open and unfinshed

Here is the Site:

This pic is taken from my garage on the house. Just beyond the cars and the gravel, that is where the front will start. About 7 feet past the gravel. (the white flags are the dog fence that I had to pull up and relocate) If you look really hard, I tried put red circles around the corners. (did not turn out well)

Back side of garage.

Side

Front Right corner

Well, there you go guys, I hope to have more pics up through the week as things get going. As long as the rain holds of, I should be able to have the footers in by the end of the week. Keeping my fingers crossed on that.

Let me know what you all think and any input would be great!!!

 

[wormwood]

Very ambitious project! Can't wait!!

 

[Bib Overalls]

Going to watch this one. Keep the photos coming. We love photos.

 

[scheu]

I hope it never snow where you are. Damn those are some steep driveways! Beautiful plans though.

 

[KYGTP]

Going to watch this one. Keep the photos coming. We love photos.

I am just now leaving my house to head to work, and I have taken a bunch of pics this morning, which I will post later tonight when I get home. I don't have time right now.

I hope it never snow where you are. Damn those are some steep driveways! Beautiful plans though.

Yes, It snows all the time in the winter. That is my brother's driveway, he just makes sure to keep it cleared with his John Deere tractor that he has. Plus both him and his wife drive 4 wheel drives, so it is really not a big deal for them. After he plows it, he puts down a little bit of salt and it stays clear. The nice thing, is, if he does slide down in the snow, at the bottom of the hill is a field, so as long as you keep the tires moving, you just end up driving into the field.

Pic to come later tonight.

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

This looks like it's going to be a beauty.

I'll be checking back on this one.

 

[soccerman002]

Any info. on the Mustang? I like the FR500 wheels, exactly what I plan to put on my '99 Cobra.

And congrats on the build, looks like it's gonna be terrific when finished.

 

[KYGTP]

Any info. on the Mustang? I like the FR500 wheels, exactly what I plan to put on my '99 Cobra.

And congrats on the build, looks like it's gonna be terrific when finished.

Well, the mustang is a friends of mine that is staying with more for a bit, he has done a little bit of work to it, cam, heads, headers, exhaust and a small little tune. Runs ok, but not the fastest. He shows it more than anything.


Pics from the day, soon to be up.

 

[John in OH]

Definitely a classy looking project! What state do you live in?

 

[KYGTP]

Well, day one is finished, and WOW, there is alot of dirt that was moved. I had no idea how much was going to come out, now we have an issue as to what to do with the rest of the dirt that has to come out.

Anyways, here are the pics from day one, from start to finish:

Here we are getting a game plan together, I am the one talking with the guy in the red.

And it begins

This is what was finished by the end of the day. The large pile in the hole is dirt we are going to pile even higher in the background. That part is to elevation, but still need to trench for the footer, I MAY have to put in put in lean crete, 1000 PSI conctrete if we don't hit solid ground when the footers are dug. My house sits on fill and has about 40 peirs under it, so I know that the garage will need something, we will just have to see when we start to dig. But here is the end of day results.

Well guys, that is it for day one, alot of dirt was moved and a lot happened, plus I took a half of day off work to be there, but I hope to be able to give daily updates with pics, If I can. I got a long way to go, but its a start. I just hope the weather stays good to get the footers in by Friday or Monday. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[KYGTP]

Definitely a classy looking project! What state do you live in?

Sorry, I need to update my info. I am about 10 miles south of Downtown Cincinnati in Northern part of KY.

 

[KYGTP]

Well, today they finished up getting the hole dug, squared up and cleaned out. It is to the evelation of the bottom of the footers right. Then it was re-staked out to make sure that the hole was big enough and the the garage was going to fit in the hole and the the over dig was big enough as well.

Tomorrow, the soil engineer will be on site for the "trench" digs and if they hit solid ground before 7 feet all the way around, I will be good. IF not, then the project will come to a hault, and I will have to get piers engineered for the footers to sit on. I just hope that is not the case and we can get by with the trenches.

If they DO hit solid ground, then we have concrete lined up for 1 pm, with 1500 psi leancrete to fill in the "trenches" for the footers to sit on.

Once again, IF the weather holds out, I may be able to get footers poured by Friday. Then MAYBE have foundation walls by next Friday. Now, this all depends on all kinds of factors and if any of you have built anything, you KNOW that it will not play out like that, but that is wishful thinking on behalf.

Now, on with the pics of the day:

THis is a shot from the top of all the dirt that they pulled out, and did they dug a good amount out, wow.

And here is the LONG pile of dirt, at the highest point, I would have to say that is at least 20ft or higher worth of dirt and is about 100ft long, which it does taper down, but it is still a ton of dirt though.

And here is the love of my life (the wife) and my special little guy, the best little boy a dad could ever have!!! He is Loving all this activity.

Well, that is it for now, I hope you all are enjoying the updates, i have not had alot of feed back, but it is just dirt though and not that exciting.

 

[Old Gas Nut]

Sounds like a cool build.So where are you in northern Ky? I live in Erlanger. Just thought it was kind of cool to see somebody on here so close. I plan on starting a garage myself this fall or spring. But it will have to wait till the remodeling is done.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Dirt defies all the rules of economics.

It is common and there is almost an unlimited supply. But when you need a truck load it seems unreasonably expensive.

If you have dirt it is impossible to sell and and almost no one will take it for free. In fact, you usually have to pay to have it hauled off.

Hopefully, you can simply "lose" your excess here and there on your place.

 

[scuba0459]

First you pay someone to remove it, then you buy it back for the driveway or to build up around the building.

 

[KYGTP]

Sounds like a cool build.So where are you in northern Ky? I live in Erlanger. Just thought it was kind of cool to see somebody on here so close. I plan on starting a garage myself this fall or spring. But it will have to wait till the remodeling is done.

I am in not too far from there.

Dirt defies all the rules of economics.

It is common and there is almost an unlimited supply. But when you need a truck load it seems unreasonably expensive.

If you have dirt it is impossible to sell and and almost no one will take it for free. In fact, you usually have to pay to have it hauled off.

Hopefully, you can simply "lose" your excess here and there on your place.

First you pay someone to remove it, then you buy it back for the driveway or to build up around the building.

Boy, you hit that right on the head. If I do have any left over, there is a guy right up the hill from me that wants to fill in his back yard to raise the elevation. When he bought the house there was a empty lot behind him and he bought it and wants to raise up that other lot to meet his curretn back yard. So I may get lucky and be able to work out a deal with him.

But I am not giving up my dirt just yet. I am going to wait till the very end when all the back filling is done and I get everything graded the way I want, THEN I will figure out what I going to do with it all, but I am sure I will have plenty left over though, I will just have to burn that bridge when I get there.

 

[hmbemis]

I love the shot with your wife and son in the corner, it really helps give a sense of just how high that wall of dirt is!

Looks great, looking forward to reading updates

 

[KYGTP]

Well, I do not have any pics for today, way too muddy, but we did get some work done. The soil engineer was out today to over see the digging of the "trunches" that were filled with the leancrete (sp??) to set the footers on. One wall did not need anything, it is on good soil, but when they started on the back wall, it ended up being about 8 ft deep before hitting good soil. The frontside was about the same, except that the front trench was only about 2 ft wide compared to the other trunch which was about 6ft wide. That is because the back wall has a 5ft wide footer for the poured wall, since it will be holding the hill side.

They started to pour concrete around 2pm and finished the last load at around 4:30 or so, and in the middle of all this, it poured down rain for about 15 min, you gotta love the afternoon summer storms. But that did not hold them up at all, if anything it cooled them down from heat. Heat index was around 105 today here in Cincy.

Now, at first I did not think that it would have been alot of concrete, but WOW was I wrong. They ended up pouring 100 yds into the holes that they dug today Yes, 100 yds. I was like, You gotta be kidding me, but then he showed me all the receipts from the day. Not only that, but I still have one more side to do, at least it is the short side of the garage, the front and back are finished. My contractor seems to think it should only be half that tomorrow. You know, it is what it is. At least I know that it is being done right.

Now the good news, the concrete contractor came out today and looked at job site and he seems to think that they will be able to frame the footer in a half a day and pour late in the afternoon, as long as the weather holds out. Then on monday, they will start to frame for the foundation walls!!!!!!

So, I feel we are moving at a pretty good pace and once again I HOPE to be under roof by Nov. Mother nature is the biggest factor right.

There you go, the daily update for ya...................

 

[T VETTE]

Great, a new build to follow! Looks good so far and nice pics of the work.

 

[KYGTP]

Sorry for the late post, alot has happened in the last two days. Yesterday, they finished the "trench" digs for the footer to sit on. A little on that......The last little bit that needed to get dug was only going to have to 12" wide, well it ended up being about 8 ft deep before hitting good soil. So now they had a hole, about 15' long, 12" wide and 8 ft deep, ready to fill with the leancrete.

Well, right before they were going to fill it in, the hole caved in. Since the soil engineer was on site, he was not too happy about that, so they dug it back out, and it caved in again. Long story short, what was supposed to be 12" wide, ened up being about 5 ft wide and tapered down to 3 ft wide and about 8 ft deep, and all of that was filled with the leancrete.

Total for yesterday's concrete = 100 yds Total for yesterday and the day before = 200 yds total for two days, and have not even poured a footer yet. The concrete co. even said that since we bought so much they were going to give us a break on the price, what that price is, I don't know yet, I will see when the contractor summits the draw to me.

Here is a pic of that wide area they filled in, sorry it was late when I took the pic, but you get the idea:

Yes, that was only supposed to be 12" wide.

Today, they started at 6 am framing the footers and putting all the steal in, and let me tell you, these are some big ol' footer, since they are going to be holding the hill back. I think we used about 80 yds of 3500 PSI concrete today.

I really felt for these guys, it was WAY hot out today, and one guy almost did not make it, he had to sit out for a bit in the shade with some water and cold rags on his head to get him cooled down. I felt bad and helped them out with a cooler full of water and ice with some hand towels in it so they could wrap it around their necks. I think the heat index was around 102 with high humidity. My shirt was even soaked just from standing there in the sun watching them, but at least I made sure to try and get them water and keep their towels wet with cool water. I know, it is a little much, but the heat is nothing to mess with, and I felt bad for them and felt that I needed to help them. Plus I wanted my footers finished.

They seem to think by the end of next week, I should have all the foundation walls up and finished. On monday, pea gravel will be shot in around and in the footers.

Sorry for being so long winded, but alot has gone on, now on with the pics from the day:

Here, the truck got hung up trying to back out of the hole and we had to get the front loader to pull him out.

Once he was out of the way, they were able to continue on........

Well, that is it for now, they got finished up around 5:30 this evening and they were wiped out, the heat got them all pretty good but they made it. I have not idea how they made it through it, but they did and got it all finished. At least I know my garage is not going to go anywhere, that is for sure, with all this damn concrete we just put in the past couple of day, I think I will be just fine.

More updates to follow................

 

[NASTYZEN]

Wow!That is some major footing Batman!

 

[sumobro1]

cant see nuttin used up a;; yer bandwidth.

 

[naki kid]

All the photos have gone on holliday.Ray

 

[KYGTP]

cant see nuttin used up a;; yer bandwidth.

All the photos have gone on holliday.Ray

Yeah, Photobucket only allows so much to be uploaded before you have to pay. So since I am going to be uploading lots of pics for this build I went ahead and payed the 24 bucks for year to have unlimited uploads. So All fixed now.

Do you need to address the slope behind and above the building? Now is the time to figure that out. You don't want that hill collapsing on your project before, during or after the build.

Don't be discouraged by the added cost of the concrete. Every build runs into this kind of thing. Once you're done you'll quickly forget the bumps in the road.

Yes, the hill has been taken into consideration from the very beginning. I know that I would be cutting into the hillside on those two side of the garage, so I made sure we got a engineer involved when doing the prints.

If you look at the last 3 pics in my post above, you can see that those footers are huge. It is meaures about 6' 10" wide with 6' 8" long #4 rebar 16" on center front to back and #4's 16" on center continuous, running the whole length of the footer.

On top of those footers, will be full poured walls measuring 11' 11.5" tall. In those walls, there is more steel than most bridge peirs have in them. The wall will be a 10" WIDE poured wall, with #5 vertical rebar set 6" on center in addition to #4 horizontal bars set at 12" on center. Then I am going to have drain tile and pea gravel filled in almost all the way to the top of the wall, to ensure there will be plenty of drainage from behind the walls. Once they get some lumber on the walls, then we are going to back fill and work out the grade on the hill.

Now the added cost so far, I know it is alot of money now, but at least I know that it was done right and was supervised by a geo tech engineer. I know that I was going to go over from what the bid was, I just hope that I am able to stay within budget from here on out.

The contractor that is doing this built my house 5 yrs ago, and when they did the bid, they were VERY close in almost everything. Some stuff went over and other stuff came in below, so it evened itself out in the end. The only overages that we had was stuff we add as we went along.

Tomorrow, they are going to start on framing the walls for foundation and get some pea gravel put around the inside of the footer.

More pics to come in the next day or so..................Thanks for looking

 

[Hardware]

Massive Footers . That garage aint movin.

 

[Jey]

This thread needs more pix!!

looks like a great build. I am excited to see it done, as I'm sure you are.

 

[KYGTP]

This thread needs more pix!!

looks like a great build. I am excited to see it done, as I'm sure you are.

I am assuming you are kidding with the "More Pix"??

But don't worry I have lots more coming, I have taken more over the past day or so and today they are pouring the foudation walls. I hope to be able to get out of work for a few hours to watch it all happen and take some action shots.

I must say, the weather has been GREAT, we have had only a couple of days of summer showers during all of this. Once the foudation walls are up and we get a some drain tile and pea gravel in, I will feel MUCH better about the shear dirt walls that I have right now.

I just have not had time yet to upload the pixs from my camera yet and post them up. I hope to do that tonight, I know the waiting game is a crappy one to have to play.

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

That looks sweet. I just can't get over the size of those footers.

 

[KYGTP]

That looks sweet. I just can't get over the size of those footers.

Bigger is better, right???

 

[cdrewferd]

That's gonna be a good looking shop. Oh yea, "Holy concrete KYGTP!!!!!"

 

[USMCBay]

Good night... Didn't look that big til I saw your family out there and then I could tell it's a good chunk of property... Good for you Bud!

 

[Jey]

I am assuming you are kidding with the "More Pix"??

But don't worry I have lots more coming, I have taken more over the past day or so and today they are pouring the foudation walls. I hope to be able to get out of work for a few hours to watch it all happen and take some action shots.

I must say, the weather has been GREAT, we have had only a couple of days of summer showers during all of this. Once the foudation walls are up and we get a some drain tile and pea gravel in, I will feel MUCH better about the shear dirt walls that I have right now.

I just have not had time yet to upload the pixs from my camera yet and post them up. I hope to do that tonight, I know the waiting game is a crappy one to have to play.

I never kid about pictures, i was implying more that i needed more updated pictures, keep the content flowing. It gives me a boost while trying to get contractors lined up for my (small compared to yours) garage.

 

[KYGTP]

That's gonna be a good looking shop. Oh yea, "Holy concrete KYGTP!!!!!"

I only have about 340 yds total so far, that includes subfooter, footer and walls. I still have the floor, 50 X 43, and the apron infront of the garage.

Good night... Didn't look that big til I saw your family out there and then I could tell it's a good chunk of property... Good for you Bud!

I lucked into my property and got 1.25 arces in the city. I am close to everything, but with alot of property and privacy.

I never kid about pictures, i was implying more that i needed more updated pictures, keep the content flowing. It gives me a boost while trying to get contractors lined up for my (small compared to yours) garage.

Thats cool, pics it is then. I thought that I was putting up to many pics, but I guess it is all good.

Now on with the progress....................

On monday, they started to pull the footer forms off and started to drop off the foudation forms and more steel rebar.

By the end of Tuesday, they had two of the outside walls up with most all the rebar tied together. Let me tell you, there is a TON of steel in these walls.

On to the pics

By the end of the day on Weds., they had most of all the forms set and only had a little bit left to do. The inspection was scheduled for 10am today, with the pumper truck and concrete to be there around 11am. Here is the end of the day on Weds.

Now, do you think I have enough steel in this wall. I think you would be hard pressed to even get a small volley ball through all this steel.

Now for today, they are showed up at 6:30am to finish up what they needed to get ready for the concrete and by 3:30, everyone was gone. Here are the pics from today............

More money on its way down the hill for some more..

It was kinda neat watching them this afternoon, they would pour about 4ft at a time and work their way around, so that when they went back to where they started, it had a little bit of time to set up, so that the "liquid" weight of the concrete did not blow out the wall. I had no idea, since I have never been around this kind of stuff. The Boom guy said that he has seen wall blow out before and it is one heck of a mess. Everything went without a hitch today and we are on our way to getting lumber in the near future, YEAH!! Lumber!!!!

From what I understand, they will start pulling the forms off tomorrow, like I said before and finish up on Monday with that. Then I think we will get the walls water proofed on Tuesday and also the plumber may start the rough in on Tuesday too. I am sure that will take in a day or two, and IF I am luckey, I could MAYBE see a garage floor by next friday, depneding on how the weather holds out. Right now, it looks to be all clear for the next 10 days.

I must say, I have been one luck guy with this project and the weather. At the end of wk 2 I already have walls up, I can not beleive it.

Well, guys, there you go, the update of my build, hope you enjoy looking at all the pics and I hope it's not too many. Till Next time....................

 

[KYGTP]

Oh yeah one other thing I thought this was kinda neat shot of a before and after of where the project is taking place! I am standing in almost the same spot, but the after I am standing on top of the huge mound of dirt that I have now.

BEFORE

AFTER:

 

[Jey]

awesome. I am confused on one aspect, and maybe you covered it somewhere else, but why the road coming in from the side of your property? How are you getting access to that area? Do you have an easement to another road above you though there or??

 

[KYGTP]

awesome. I am confused on one aspect, and maybe you covered it somewhere else, but why the road coming in from the side of your property? How are you getting access to that area? Do you have an easement to another road above you though there or??

Well there is a subdivision behind me that my brother's Father-in-Law's family owns the property to and just so happens that lot is empty. The reason for bring all the trucks and equipment from the top is to keep alot of the weight of the large concrete trucks off our main drive way. I know our drive will hold the weight, since we had to have two concrete trucks come that way, but my contractor did not want to take the chances.

Once all the construstion is finished, I will regrade that lot and seed and straw it. In a way, it keeps all the construction traffic out of the way of the main drive, since I share this drive with my brother who lives up the steep drive way that you can see in some of the pics I posted. We have a agreement written up "You mess up the driveway, you fix it". We had that worked out long before this project, so that was another reason too.

The "after pics" of this project, that "road" will no be there, it will be a graded hill side with grass and such on it.

 

[Jey]

Well there is a subdivision behind me that my brother's Father-in-Law's family owns the property to and just so happens that lot is empty. The reason for bring all the trucks and equipment from the top is to keep alot of the weight of the large concrete trucks off our main drive way. I know our drive will hold the weight, since we had to have two concrete trucks come that way, but my contractor did not want to take the chances.

Once all the construstion is finished, I will regrade that lot and seed and straw it. In a way, it keeps all the construction traffic out of the way of the main drive, since I share this drive with my brother who lives up the steep drive way that you can see in some of the pics I posted. We have a agreement written up "You mess up the driveway, you fix it". We had that worked out long before this project, so that was another reason too.

The "after pics" of this project, that "road" will no be there, it will be a graded hill side with grass and such on it.

Ah, makes sense, it's great that you had that available!

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

Bigger is better, right???

Over here on this tiny little island a two car garage is big so I love reading the build threads from the US.

Keep the updates and the pics coming.

 

[mustangboy]

Looking good!! Once you get some framing done I'm gonna have to cruise over and check it out.

 

[Old Gas Nut]

If you don't mind my asking, how much is All-Rite charging you a yard for concrete? I'm should be in the planning part of building a garage here in a couple months. I just thought it might be nice to get an idea of what I would spend on mine when I get around to actually starting on it.