This process has been in the making for over 2yrs. My wife and I wanted to move out to the country a bit for peace and quiet from the busy suburban noises. We went through 3 different properties and 2 house designs to finally getting things to go our way. We found 5 wooded acres on an older street when the small family homes were falling down and being replaced with new ones. We had to move into an apartment and I had to put all my shop/car stuff in storage. The house was as supposed to be done in 4-6mths which ended up being 14mths including the time waiting for city permits.. Original plan was a 30x50x12 with a 10ft lean-to down one side. When I submitted to the city got push back about size says I was limited to 75% of the house footprint. So I compromise and get it to a 30x38x12 with no lean-to. Which saved me 6k on the building and concrete. Then they come back about zoning and how my property had a residential zoned area and agricultural one which was never brought in any paperwork when we bought the land and submitted a site plan. Needless to say I let the city have it for doing half asses permit reviews and not staying any and all issues at once. Got told could apply for a rezoning after paying a fee and then appear at a board meeting. Or apply for a agriculture exempt which I ended up doing and was approved. Even with all yh delays and issues we came out better because we were under contract for our house and the garage. No surprise price increases due to the covid excuse shortages and managed to catch a low mortgage rate before they took off.
So back to the garage. The concrete was poured back in Dec. It's 4" 3000psi fibermesh concrete with a 5' area that's 8" thick across the whole pad for future lift installation. Footers are 1'x1" with rebar. Just a two man crew came and dug the footers and lift area by hand. They put down poly vapor barrier I believe 4 or 6mil and setup the rebar. Another day they came back and had the concrete delivered. They worked it and once set enough power trowled it. These poor guys didn't leave my house until 9pm that day. They were power troweling in the dark with a spot light and their truck lights. I ended up buying them some dinner/beers/and waters. I have to say they did a great job. Before they arrived I had the area degrubbed/raised 6"/compacted and graded level. Now we have been waiting on the building company to get caught up with installation. Currently scheduled for last week of April and I can finally stop paying for storage in May!! It was so strange not having a garage or my tools while I lived in the apartment. Thankfully my daily drivers didn't need anything other than oil changes which I did at the storage place.
So back to the garage. The concrete was poured back in Dec. It's 4" 3000psi fibermesh concrete with a 5' area that's 8" thick across the whole pad for future lift installation. Footers are 1'x1" with rebar. Just a two man crew came and dug the footers and lift area by hand. They put down poly vapor barrier I believe 4 or 6mil and setup the rebar. Another day they came back and had the concrete delivered. They worked it and once set enough power trowled it. These poor guys didn't leave my house until 9pm that day. They were power troweling in the dark with a spot light and their truck lights. I ended up buying them some dinner/beers/and waters. I have to say they did a great job. Before they arrived I had the area degrubbed/raised 6"/compacted and graded level. Now we have been waiting on the building company to get caught up with installation. Currently scheduled for last week of April and I can finally stop paying for storage in May!! It was so strange not having a garage or my tools while I lived in the apartment. Thankfully my daily drivers didn't need anything other than oil changes which I did at the storage place.
Last edited:
