Indiana Garage Builder Review

[Hephaestus29]

I am starting this thread in hopes of someone avoiding a potential mistake and or hopefully they have a good experience with the builder & the garage etc.

Topics would include most anything you can think of I guess.

Companies Name / Owner etc.

Beginning with Site Preperation & without having read a book about it but instead going by what i've learned from a reputable builder.

All the top soil should be removed, this includes any stumps & or debris also.

The ground underneath should be compacted, if you don't have access to a compactor you can always drive back & forth over it with a backhoe, traxcavator, dozer, dumptruck etc. or other heavy vehicles, keep driving back & forth over it while adding fill dirt if it needs fill.

My friend & neighbor is in the concrete frame up stage of having a Garage
built. I came home today & they had partially framed up the area for the slab & were going to hand dig a 32x32 footer ??? Red Flag Red Flag in my opinion. The guy framing it up was just going by what the salesman had written up so he just layed one corner of the slab frame on the ground & the other 3 are at quite a slope from about 17 - 24 inches roughly at the other points. & they were going to bring in fill actually just sand is what my friend said instead of removing the topsoil & digging out some from the high side Not only would he of had to have about 4 tri axle loads of fill brought in for the slab he would have also had to bring in fill for the driveway! DUH what were they thinking ??? He told the guy it wasn't what he wanted so the owner came out & is now charging him another 1000.00 on top of the original price & dropped off a little 2 cylinder rentahoe backhoe for the job.

The companies name is Smith Brothers Ultimate Builders, I believe they are related the the former Smith Brothers Builders Who I think went out of business & or their father retired ???? At this stage it's too early to say about their building skills but I believe if they had much experience at all they could have at least recomended or seen the better way of preparing the site for the foundation. I will try to take a picture or pictures of the site.

Anyone having any comments about a former builder, current builder, or having suggestions for site prep or any other topic for a garage build feel free to jump in & give your advice.

 

[IndyGarage]

The original Smith Brothers built the cheapest garages that could possibly be thrown up.

When I was a teenager, my grandparents had one built and I swear it was falling down in 5 years. That was quite a few years ago, but last time I drove by there it was gone.

Now to be fair, the price was dirt cheap too, so it's not to say they couldn't build something better.

My BIL Greg has a friend who builds pole barns in Shelby county. He came over and directed several years ago when Greg was building a DIY barn, and I was really impressed with him. He knew every trick in getting the building square and straight and done right, and he could out work the other 5 of us combined, because he worked so smart.

Last time we talked, Greg said he had a crew that was staying plenty busy even through the recession, but that was a couple years ago. I don't know if he's still doing it or not.

I had another friend who paid a premium price for a Name brand Barn/Shop - which supposedly gets 100% custom cut in the factory and arrives in a "Kit" . It was a nightmare. The crew that showed up set up the walls all out of square and he literally had wavy outside walls. When he complained to the company he found out they had subbed the construction to an inexperienced crew, and when one of their most experienced subs showed up he didn't want to touch it, and turned around and left.

So they sent a third crew out, which fixed some of the major things, but generally did a sloppy repair job and created a few new issues. After that the company told him they thought he was a "problem customer" and they basically said " see you in court".

I would suggest going to one a couple of the large commercial lumberyards and asking them who they recommend: 84 lumber, Butz lumber (if they still exist). Those folks know who the good and bad builders are.