Lifting 1 Car Garage....Foundation Options??

[kweiner]

Hey Guys,

I recently bought my first home, which came with a pretty nice 24x40 pole barn! (More on that later). As an added bonus, the property has this decrepit 1 car garage that is in desperate need of repair/replacement. I figure repairing this garage to "good enough" condition to use as a storage shed for lawnmowers/yard tools/maybe parking would be my best bet to avoid pulling permits and spending the money to replace it considering I'm on a budget.
The garage has this wicked lean to it, partially due to rotten sill plates and partially due to an old settled 4" slab.

Here's the game plan; I would like to lift this garage in order to replace the sill plates and foundation underneath it. My original plan was to use fine gravel to create a 3-4" compacted foundation on top of the existing slab, then using a single row of cinder block with rebar and concrete fill to rest the new sill plates on (thus, lifting the garage about a foot). I am not sure if this is an effective foundation method, but this garage shouldn't be that heavy, even though we get snow here in MI. I am not sure if gravel under cinder blocks is a good idea, anyone with experience willing to chime in?

Other options include building a form and pouring an 8-12" concrete foundation wall and probably a new floor while we're at it $$$, or just putting the garage on compacted gravel and calling it a day.

I'm not nervous about getting this thing up in the air, just want to solidify my foundation planning before getting started.

So whats the consensus...block, concrete, tear it down? Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[mike93lx]

For stuff like this, I am solidly in the tear it down and rebuild camp. It may cost more, but you will have a better end result and way less chance of something going wrong

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

What is/was the current foundation? Am I seeing some type of tile/brick facing layed on carpet for the floor? Whats under the carpet?
Is that post/beam framing original? I cant see any ridge beam (if there is one). The joist ties appear newer.

Saving it is probably as much labor as building new. If the wood is solid saving th material is worth it. I'd fix the roof framing fixed before lifting it. Maybe pour a slab with a thickened edge (to deal with foundation and floor issues).

 

[firebirdparts]

if you put blocks on gravel, it needs to be way below grade, where containment of gravel is at least sort of possible. You can't do that on the surface. So I would never do that, under a building, it's just a ton of awkward work for nothing. Concrete is a liquid that turns into stone. Perfect application for it.

 

[K'ledgeBldr]

Considering the frostline in MI is 42" you'll need to dig at least that far down for a compacted gravel footing. And for what it is- it wouldn't be worth it to me.

So, I too am in the tear-down and rebuild camp. And instead of 3-1/2'- 4' deep footing, just go with an insulated monoslab and call it done!

 

[Toomanytools?]

For the amount of work involved to lift and build a footing, I'm in the tear down and rebuild.
You could save any good material like the 5 newer 2x4's.

 

[Wolley]

I'd take it down and start over. Salvage any material if you can.

 

[The Cobbler]

At today's prices I would resurrect what you have there and save a ton of $$$ , especially if you can do a lot of the work yourself.
cross brace and stiffen up . lift it up. pour a monolithic pad underneath it. set it down on the new pad , anchor it & fix iu up cosmetically. not that hard a job and looks like you have a decent structure there already

 

[kweiner]

What is/was the current foundation? Am I seeing some type of tile/brick facing layed on carpet for the floor? Whats under the carpet?
Is that post/beam framing original? I cant see any ridge beam (if there is one). The joist ties appear newer.

Saving it is probably as much labor as building new. If the wood is solid saving th material is worth it. I'd fix the roof framing fixed before lifting it. Maybe pour a slab with a thickened edge (to deal with foundation and floor issues).

Current foundation is a 4" concrete slab, previous owner tossed a bunch of junk (brick/stones/carpet apparently) into it to even out/raise the floor? (Not sure what he was going for here). The garage structure itself sits right on the slab below. Obviously before doing anything, everything sitting on the concrete will be getting removed so we know exactly what we're up against.

The post/beam framing seems to be original, although the walls appear studded. I noticed the joist ties as well, not sure what or why the attempt was made there, obviously the roof is in bad shape which will be replaced after its sitting pretty...along with many other things. Obviously we'd brace the hell out of it before it moves in the Z axis. I appreciate the input.

 

[Uncle murph]

Hey Guys,

I recently bought my first home, which came with a pretty nice 24x40 pole barn! (More on that later). As an added bonus, the property has this decrepit 1 car garage that is in desperate need of repair/replacement. I figure repairing this garage to "good enough" condition to use as a storage shed for lawnmowers/yard tools/maybe parking would be my best bet to avoid pulling permits and spending the money to replace it considering I'm on a budget.
The garage has this wicked lean to it, partially due to rotten sill plates and partially due to an old settled 4" slab.

Here's the game plan; I would like to lift this garage in order to replace the sill plates and foundation underneath it. My original plan was to use fine gravel to create a 3-4" compacted foundation on top of the existing slab, then using a single row of cinder block with rebar and concrete fill to rest the new sill plates on (thus, lifting the garage about a foot). I am not sure if this is an effective foundation method, but this garage shouldn't be that heavy, even though we get snow here in MI. I am not sure if gravel under cinder blocks is a good idea, anyone with experience willing to chime in?

Other options include building a form and pouring an 8-12" concrete foundation wall and probably a new floor while we're at it $$$, or just putting the garage on compacted gravel and calling it a day.

I'm not nervous about getting this thing up in the air, just want to solidify my foundation planning before getting started.

So whats the consensus...block, concrete, tear it down? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Its been there a long time,it’s sitting on something,the bricks are just poor mans concrete. I would pull the bottom board off the outside and see what’s under the walls,jacking it up and installing a treated 4x6 would be dead easy and probably allow you to level it.I’m not a engineer,just a carpenter but I’ve done it multiple times,if you lived closer I would gladly give you a hand.

 

[jcarapet]

add a tally to tear down and rebuild vote column. depending on how old the structure is it also might have a bunch of no fun materials in it you don't want sticking around like lead paint.

 

[619DioFan]

Since you mentioned the slab has settled building on it is pointless. you should first have the slab raised and made stable ( I believe the technique is mudjacking ) of course if the slab is cracked this probably won't work. once you have a stable slab the rest should be straight forward with replacing sill plates , truing the walls , etc

 

[73fxe]

If You take it down to rebuild it, you will need to get permits and build it to present day codes. To repair it you should be good to go.

 

[mike93lx]

If You take it down to rebuild it, you will need to get permits and build it to present day codes. To repair it you should be good to go.

Sometimes that rebuild is a good thing. Working around all the half ***, crooked, rot poorly fastened, over fastened junk that going along with a rebuild just isn't worth it sometimes

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

If it's not rotted to hell, I'd save money. YOUR labor is cheap, paying for labor is expensive.

Lift it, dig a footing as deep as you can relatively easily. Form a perimeter foundation and make the pour.