Looking for MA builder for concrete garage

[vlocci]

I'm in the early stages of building a 30x50 garage into a hillside at my home.

The hope is to build this as a 3 sided concrete structure with a concrete ceiling/roof. Essentially a basement with a concrete roof. The garage door side would be stick built to save on cost. I'm only after a shell, and will finish this as time and budget permit.

Problem is, I cannot find a local builder that shows any interest. To date, they have all been residential builders, but I can't interest a commercial guy for such a small project.

Anyone have a suggestion for a competent Boston area builder for such a project?

Thanks,

Vin

 

[vlocci]

Figured I would bump this before giving up. Anyone know a decent contractor capable of a foundation style garage outside of Boston?

 

[Bull]

Back from Europe?

My concrete guy is from way out here in the forgotten zone of the state, so I can't help you.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

My guess is that you would need to build a three sides concrete structure with a steel front and steel beams and posts to help support the center of the ''roof''.

Any engineer that could design this for you would probably know someone who could build it for you. 30x50 is a lot of concrete to support. But to put it another way, once you have the specs, a lot of concrete guys could do this. Very few could do it without plans. But I see this in concrete and steel, and it looks like bucks to me.

 

[bad_idea]

Why do you want a concrete roof?

 

[vlocci]

This will be built into a hillside and the roof portion would be used as a patio above. I would cover this patio in bluestone to match the existing yard so concrete seems like the only viable alternative. I think a concrete roof pour is going to be tough and expensive but hollow core precast panels seem reasonable.

I have talked with a few concrete guys and the roof aspects scare them away. The few local GC's aren't interested in anything but tear downs.

Hopefully I can find a reasonable guy looking to work with me

Vin

 

[rottie1]

Hello,

Sorry I can't help with your question but I am in the same situation that you are. My yard is slopped and I want to add a 24 x 42 garage in CT with a cement roof which would double as a patio when exiting the back door of the house. There are products such as BuildDeck which may be an option. One of the major questions I have for my project is can you anchor the roof to the existing house foundation wall or would a new support wall have to be poured directly against the existing foundation? I hope we both can find some answers.

 

[readhead]

Have you had it designed yet? The simple way to do the roof would be to build it with beams and decking then any concrete guy will pour the deck since they will not have to form anything.
It sounds like you are assuming that the concrete roof will be water proof. You might want to look at water proofing options.
It might be a lot less expensive to do a wood roof and a water proof roof/deck system.

 

[vlocci]

Rottie,

I have not brought an engineer into the mix as I'm still trying to ballpark a price before spending money on stamped drawings. If this is way outside my budget I rather not have a set of expensive plans hanging on the wall.

What I've learned is the foundation portion is pretty straightforward and most of the concrete guys that I have spoken with can handle this. Very few have dealt with precast panels and they immediately shy away from this. The precast yards typically have an engineer on site who can produce drawings of the wall/panel joint and I'm presently investigating this.

The other option is the common (commercial) solution of slab on metal deck, where corrugated metal is supported by steel and concrete poured on top. There are also a few similar alternatives that I'm trying to price.

The concrete roof will still need a membrane covering to be waterproof. On top of this either goes a thin (2-3 inch) layer of concrete or simply a decking solution to support pavers. There are dozens of these out there and I'm trying to get pricing as well.

I'll gladly share whatever I come up with.

Vin

 

[woody611]

I recently built a house in iowa with an attached garage that has precast hollow core panels as the floor. This allowed me to build a second lower garage for my workshop. Our concrete contractor worked with the precast company to properly engineer the system.

It sounds like you are well on your way. How do you plan on finishing your concrete walls and ceiling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[unclemat]

Bump. Curious if you made any progress with your project.

 

[boston88]

I live outside Boston and went with poured walls, steel beams, metal deck, commercial water proofing membrane, mortar bed and blue stone. Did that about 10 years ago and it worked out great. Other than picking out the membrane, it's all standard construction. I forgot what we picked but it was a commercial product that they use on bridges, etc. Biggest price variable will be the number of posts that you have as that will drive the size of the beam.

The original part of my garage is a concrete waffle pan than spans 25' with no posts or beams. PM me and happy to talk with you about it or have you take a look.