Finally dropped trees and broke ground

[Steve22629]

I have been planning on adding a detached garage to my house. I live in the mountains and the steep slope of the lot has been an issue. My plan is to build a 24’ x 36’ garage/shop with 9’ exterior walls and faulted truss ceiling with 8:12 pitch. Because of the work required for the foundation I knew I would need a contractor. Getting bids was tough. Picked a contractor and finally the work has begun. I will try and keep this updated with the progress, and any input or advise will be appreciated.

 

[landlord30]

Sweet!

 

[JDMopar]

Welcome from another NC Hillbilly! I live just a few miles west of Asheville, in Candler. Enjoy your build!

 

[rburke65]

Good luck! It’s always exciting to break ground.

 

[MushCreek]

I'm right down the road in upstate SC. Looking forward to following your build.

 

[OptionalStop]

Good luck with the build, I broke ground a few weeks ago on my 24' x 36' build. Been too wet though so it's been slow going.

 

[JamesW84]

9’ exterior walls and faulted truss ceiling with 8:12 pitch.

I'd recommend not using faulted trusses.

 

[Shadowdog500]

Congratulations on the ground breaking! The one word of advise is to make sure your shop is high and dry, and do everything you can to keep the inside dry with a vapor barrier, proper ventilation, insulation etc.

I live on flat ground so it was easy making my shop floor higher than everything around it. I have a friend who built his shop on a hill and the one wall is deluged with what looks like a waterfall every time it rains hard. Between that, no vapor barrier under his concrete, and no insulation in his metal roof, his shop turns everything he puts in it to rusty junk inside of 6 months.

Since you are on a hill I’m sure you have planned so that don’t happen to your shop. Chris

 

[Lucid Moments]

Must have been some heavy trees to break the ground. How many pieces did it break into? How are you going to fix it? Superglue?

 

[MFolks]

Sit,with a big pad of paper,listing all you will and might need,when trenching, install extra PVC pipe, or electrical conduit for burial, for future expansions. The company www.bigassfans.com makes some great air circulators.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If the garage is downhill from any ground, plan for water flow. Do it NOW before the foundation is in place !

 

[Steve22629]

Things have begun to move along now, once foundation and slab is in the structure part shouldn’t take too long. I will do my best to keep updated.

 

[Steve22629]

The foundation walls are done. Next week will fill block with grout and start backfilling with gravel. Lots of gravel....

 

[Terrick down Under]

Looks like you have the perfect opportunity to have a basement for storage under the slab!
and would save on rock.....

 

[ConCretin]

I assume your last pic is the viewpoint looking at the future garage doors? That is quite a slope and I've been having trouble figuring out the orientation.

As I'm sure you are aware, that is a lot of fill and compaction will be crucial. Even if done perfectly, you will get some amount of settlement and compaction is rarely perfect. I'd suggest isolating the slab from the perimeter walls with an expansion material and using steel reinforcement to hold everything together if you happen to get a crack from differential settlement. There is sometimes a temptation to tie in the slab to help restrain the walls but this is just asking for slab cracking.

While we are on the subject of the walls; I'm more of a concrete wall guy that looks like a lot of fill for a CMU wall....