Michigan Tandem

[Rockcam]

I've been a monster lurker here at GJ, and I continue to be addicted to this site. I suppose there are worse places I could be hanging out....

For the past three years, we've been in the planning stages of building a new, smaller house on an existing lot in western Michigan. Our needs are fairly typical- more open floor plan, fewer maintenance issues and costs, better, more walkable location.

My one must have? You guessed it. The lot is 75 x 150, so we designed a 24 x 45 tandem detached garage.

Vital statistics:
45' deep
24' wide
12/12 roof pitch
10' ceiling in the front half, with storage trusses above
Cathedral ceiling in the back half to accommodate 4 post lift

Things are rolling on the site, so it's time to start posting. Thanks to all of you that have posted before me - I've learned much here that has helped me in the planning.

There was a 1850 sq ft Sears kit home on the lot. Very well kept, but with 1-1/2 baths, low ceilings 6' basement (I am 6'5"), and a plan that did not lend itself to renovation, so it had to go. Demo and removal of the existing house and garage, including foundation, was completed in 2 days flat.

We selected Superior Walls for the foundation. SW is a precast custom foundation system that uses 5000 psi concrete, with integral XPS insulation (XPS in house only).

Foundation for the garage, including sand fill.

This is moving incredibly fast! I hope to enjoy the journey.

More later - thanks for reading.

 

[ConCretin]

Wow, off to a great start. That's a very cool modular foundation system. Are there ties that hold the sides together - looks like you've got about 4' of fill. More details please.

 

[HiHoSilver]

Congrats!

I do have a question, so do the foundation walls just sit on a bed of gravel?

One of the things I like about this site is seeing all the different building techniques used around the world. Any details about this system would be greatly appreciated.


Looking forward to following your progress.

 

[Rockcam]

LL:
Sections simply bolt together. Flooring system or fill keeps sections in place to below the frost line. Fill on the inside, and backfill on the outside, all sand, is about 54" deep.


HiHo:
Depth of base depends on the area of the country. I think it was 10" of crushed stone (pieces of stone lock together).

Cost was neutral with a poured wall. I went this way because of better R value, and reduced condensation from the wall/insulation system vs poured wall. Poured walls are a proven, time tested system - But I thought this was the best pick for us.

 

[Rockcam]

Framing is coming along nicely.

You can start to get a feel for the layout here - storage trusses on the approach side, cathedral ceiling in the back.

Left side is 45' deep, right is 39' deep to maintain code required distance from the house.

 

[Rockcam]

Framing update:

The scale seems to work from the street view.

Here's a side view. Right side is the cathedral ceiling section, which is at the rear of the property.

Looking from the back, up toward the attic in the front half of the garage. Need to figure out a great ladder system to get up there.

 

[M-technik-3]

Very cool would have like to see the before hand. Please post them up if you get a chance and welcome oh lurker.

 

[Rockcam]

I'll see if we have some "before" images.

 

[dfreeman616]

No progress in the last 3 months?

 

[CNGsaves]

That old Sears house didn't want to be knocked down . . . . it keeps sneaking back during the night and sabotauging the new build !!

 

[kyle@hcb]

In for updates

 

[Rockcam]

No progress in the last 3 months?

Lots of progress, though most of it is inside the house. I know - I need to get my priorities straight!

They poured the garage floor Monday, and they are cutting the control joints this morning.

Stay tuned for pics.

 

[dubber]

Nice design, love to see more pics of the progress.

 

[Rockcam]

Time for an update.

Our new home/garage project is progressing nicely. The great weather we had last Fall and early Winter got us ahead of schedule. But since Winter won't seem to go away, I think we are back to the original timing.

Here are a couple of shots of the house and garage, so you can get your bearings.

House, from the street

Garage on the left. Hopefully it does not look massive from the street. Sure feels that way when I get inside (no, I'm not complaining)!

Garage, 24' wide, 45' deep.

Side of garage, from neighbors driveway. My neighbor said "Your garage is really big." I said "I know - isn't it great!?" Luckily their main view goes the other way, and she likes us!

 

[Rockcam]

Lets go inside.



2" of XPS below and along edge of slab.

Time for some see-ment!

Truck #1:

They had fun getting into the driveway:

It's a long way back there. The boys worked hard. Began at 7 am, finished up about 8 pm:

Side view. 6 mil poly over 2" XPS, with two floor drains.

Dean cut control joints after the concrete hardened for a couple of days:

 

[Rockcam]

A view from the back.

We back up to a cul de sac, so we don't have anyone behind us. Good thing, because the garage looks giant from here. Everything within building code, no variances needed.

The windows in the back were extras from the master bath after a couple of changes there. Why not use them to bring morning light into the garage?

White plastic fence not our cup of tea. It will stay there for the build, then be replaced with something more modern, in wood. I'm hoping this fence can find a new home via Craigslist.

More inside shots.

As mentioned earlier, the front half of the garage has a loft for storage. To get heavy items up there, I want to put in a nifty lift like The Asylum or Jones Mechanical builds. This will be a perfect spot for the Jeep hard top, snowblower in the Summer, etc. Not planning on storing any engine blocks or cruise ship anchors up here, but it looks sturdy enough to handle them.

Plenty of room in the loft. It's about 9' high in the middle.

Hard to get a decent angle on this shot, but here is a look at the ceiling in the back half. No problemo with ceiling heights + lifts here!

 

[Jack 07]

Very cool, we'll keep watching for updates.

 

[Rockcam]

Very cool, we'll keep watching for updates.

Thanks Jack. Sounds like siding is next.

 

[dfreeman616]

looking good.
when it comes time, i might have interest in that fence. depends on the how much there is and cost.

 

[Rockcam]

looking good.
when it comes time, i might have interest in that fence. depends on the how much there is and cost.

PM sent!

 

[Re-Volv]

This build is looking great! I know this is a garage site, but i wouldn't mind seeing a little more of the house as well.

PS, Looks like that Volvo near the cement truck could use a little body work!

 

[BoostAddiction]

What are you planning for insulation in the garage?

Looks like foam would be one logical choice given the design.

 

[Rockcam]

Re-Volv: thank you. We live near a high school, so our street serves as "auxiliary student parking." Looks like a hand-me-down from someone's mom and dad!

BA: not sure yet about insulation. We did closed cell foam on the house, but it was $$$, more than I want to spend on the garage. But I will get quotes on all options. I can tell you I don't plan on doing it myself given the height of the cathedral. We do have one wall that must have drywall per code, so I am going to insulate that before that work is done. I'm thinking dense pack cellulose for that part of it.

 

[Rockcam]

Ah, progress! The paint color has turned out nicely. Several of the neighbors have said they love it, so we are apparently doing at least something right....

Construction on our project is nearing completion - two more weeks!

Doors go in next week, as does the driveway.

Side view

 

[Rockcam]

Time for an update.

The garage has become cluttered, yet the loft remained empty.

From the beginning, the plan has been to use the 12'w x 16'd loft to store out of season items like the snowblower in the summer, mowers in the winter, lumber, really anything I don't need below for awhile. Two challenges were getting myself up there without using a ladder, and lifting heavy objects.

Reading great threads like The Shrine and Jones Mechanical lead me to buy a HF hoist. While the most I thing I will lift is 500 pounds, I wanted some capacity headroom. The 1300lb model was on sale and fit the bill.

 

[Rockcam]

Unistrut has a great material handling system that I decided to use to allow the hoist to travel horizontally - slide out to pick up things off the floor of the garage, and slide back into the loft to set them down. Using two of their four wheel trolleys, rated at 600 lbs each, and some rectangular tubing, I developed a way to connect the the HF hoist to the 20' section of unistrut I bought for the job.

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Now to attach the Unistrut track to the structure of the garage.

 

[Rockcam]

Not knowing if the collar ties from the trusses could handle the vertical load from the hoist system, I attached 2x6 supports into the truss structure.





Using Unistrut's components designed for their material handling system, I assembled the supports to attach the track to both the new 2x6 supports, and the triple gluelam beam in the cathedral section of the garage.





This nut allows the track to swivel a few degrees for off center lifts without bending things - probably a reality as I'm sure I won't always have things exactly under the track.

Here is the finished product - works like a charm.

 

[Rockcam]

More shots of the (nearly) finished product. Still have need to detail the electrical connection, and design a more elegant solution (than the yellow nylon line) for retrieving the hoist from the far end of the track....





I've lifted the snowblower, mitre saw/stand, and several other things up already. The hoist is freeing up space in the garage as I had hoped, and is simple to use.

The loft is quickly filling, and shelves will really help organize it.

 

[Rockcam]

Yesterday was a good day - got a lot done in the garage and it's beginning to be habitable.

I've been using temporary lighting in the loft, which I replaced yesterday with a couple of cage lights. I'm infamous for breaking things, so the cages should prevent same with the new lights.

 

[DynoDave]

Very clever. I like it!

Looks like that Gulf sign might get in your way though. Better send it over here to the east side.

 

[Rockcam]

Thanks DynoDave.

Gulf sign definitely needs some backlighting. I've done the wiring, but need to figure out how to string some LED's behind it.

 

[Rockcam]

Developing The Loft

When I'm up there, the loft feels dangerous - one clumsy step, common for me, and it's a ten foot drop onto concrete. And without shelves, it was disorganized, making it hard to find things.



I decided to use OSB to enclose the inside of the loft, while the rest of the garage will be drywall. OSB made it easy to install, no seams to tape, and a strong surface to mount shelves and hooks. A couple of coats of Kilz helps reflect light, and really lightens up the space. And a simple crossbar mounted on a cleat should reduce the chances of falling out when I trip up there.

Overall, a big improvement!

Here's an in process shot

 

[Rockcam]

The Changing Of The Seasons

With snow finally over and the grass needing a cut, I changed the oil in the snowblower and hoisted it up to the loft for the summer.

 

[vintageracer31]

I love the hoist! Snowblowers take up too much room in the garage lol

 

[Rockcam]

Safety First

i added a hand rail for going up the drop down stairs. With it, I have something to hang onto as I go up. Much better. Sorry for the lousy pic.

 

[cat06]

looks great........lol you know you wouldn't risk tripping if you'd wear shoes rather than flip flops, lol just messin with you

 

[Rockcam]

Thanks for the laugh cat06 - actually you're probably right!

 

[rburke65]

Rock.....a very nice build on both the house and the garage!

 

[racer-john]

Pictures are sporatic.

 

[racer-john]

Still having problems with pictures not showing up.