Montani Semper Liberi

[mounties1782]

Well if the Latin title didn't catch your attention, hopefully my build thread will. I've been lurking on this site for approximately 4 years now and after many jealous hours of reading these threads front to back I finally get to create my own.

My wife and I built our home in 2015 on 10 acres of ground. If anyone is familiar with my title you would already know i'm from West Virginia and a proud Mountaineer. We built our home with an attached 3 car garage; however, it didn't take long for us to outgrow the space. I've been fortunate enough to have my dad as a neighbor and have been able to invade his 32x40 garage as needed over the years, but now I finally get to have my own.

We signed our contact 2 weeks ago with a local Amish builder for a 40x56x16 pole building garage with a 12x56 lean-to. The garage will have a 4:12 pitch roof and then transition to 2:12 for the lean-to. I'll get access via 2-14x14 insulated garage doors and 1 man door. 4 additional 3x3 windows will be included. The walls will be house wrapped and the roof will have the standard bubble insulation installed. 5" gutters will be installed with 2 downspouts on each side. The floor will be 5" reinforced concrete with thickened pads poured for a future lift and 2 floor drains.

The plan right now is to start building early next month and the builder is claiming 4 days to build and 1 additional day a couple weeks later for the concrete. I wouldn't believe they could get this done in 4 days; however, they also built my neighbor's 24x28x10 with a 12x28 lean-to in approximately 7 hours (not including any concrete). As you can tell i'm beyond excited and since I've gained so many great ideas over the past 4 years and enjoyed reading all the different posts, I wanted to share my own. Thanks again for a great site and I'll do my best to keep this build updated as it progresses. I have attached a couple pictures of the dirt work for the pad build which I had completed late last summer. This is my first post so hopefully the images come through.

 

[thammel]

Very cool! Love the latin....Jesuit education many years ago and I had 3 years of latin. As a high school freshman we had 2 periods of latin every day but Friday! I do remember a lot of it....good for trivia!!

Your garage will be neat. That size should do you well for many years! Think of everything you want to do to it and do it ALL before you move in!

 

[mounties1782]

I opted to have 2' overhangs installed all the way around the building. My question to you guys is, what are the main advantages of larger overhangs? I did 2' instead of 1' simply being it wasn't a whole lot more $ and with the size of the building, I thought it would be more aesthetically pleasing. Do the larger overhangs also aid in better ventilation (yes the soffit will be ventilated). Thanks in advance.

 

[Riley]

Depends where you are. In my location, a larger overhang will provide summer shading and still allow winter heat gain. Win Win!

Not to under estimate the improved looks of the structure as well as improved roof drainage away from the foundation.

There are calculators you can find online that can determine the most favorable overhang based on lat/long. I found it varies on cardinal direction.

 

[four.cycle]

Hello mounties1782 and welcome to the site!

Yes, your thread title definitely caught my attention, although as I just woke up and I may not be fully awake yet, I got it confused with "Sempre Libera", which coincidentally was the song that was stuck in my head last night when i went to bed.
Good luck with your project there, and just in case you're interested, here's Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón doing the aria from Verdi's La Traviata:

 

[mounties1782]

Thanks fourcycle. I'm not really an opera fan just a die hard Mountaineer lol.

Riley, that's kind of what I was thinking. More shade and improved looks were enough alone to justify the extra $$.

I talked to my builder and he is thinking the schedule could be pushed up a couple weeks. We've had a strange warm and wet winter here in WV and everything is a muddy mess. I'm hoping the next couple weeks provides some dryer weather before they begin working. In the mean time, I need to work on getting the fabric down for the parking pad in front of the building and get about 25 trees cut down where the power will be coming from. I'm opting to go with a complete separate 200amp service instead of coming from my house. Not including the initial fees for the power company setting the pole and running wire, it will only cost me an extra $15/month to have the service (minus of course electrical consumption). Once I get the trees cut, they'll just have to set one pole and run wire overhead from my existing transformer and then overhead to my building. Since i'm sure it will be a couple months before I can get power established, does anyone have any good recommendations or hacks for opening a 14' tall door without an opener? Below are some pictures showing the exact building from the company providing the building package.

 

[6SpeedBowtie]

Another die hard Mountaineer fan here, so I was immediately drawn to the title of this thread!! I'm about 45 minutes outside of Morgantown. I had to take a good look at the pictures, because I have a good friend about 30 minutes south of Morgantown who is soon setting forth on his own build.

I look forward to watching this build take shape!

Let's Go Mountaineers!!

 

[mounties1782]

The builder made quick work of the shell of the building and completed the structure in 3 days. They finished the exterior about 2 weeks ago and now we're just waiting for everything to dry up enough to get the concrete completed. I ordered 3 full tri-axles worth of stone for under the slab and lean-to which should be arriving before the middle of next week. The garage doors will follow once the slab is completed. Once all that is completed it will be up to me to get the electric ran and the gravel driveway approach usable before I can begin moving everything in. Unfortunately, I broke my ankle last Sunday cutting down trees for the power line so now i'll have to wait a little while to heal before I can get everything completed . Here are some updated pictures. For reference, I'm 6' tall in the picture with just the roof completed.

 

[Riley]

Project looks great! I like the extended overhangs, gives a more finished look to these I think.



Sorry to hear about the ankle. Hope it heals well and you're able to get things wrapped up in short order.

 

[36truck]

Great looking building. Love the leanto that helps with the storage.

 

[6SpeedBowtie]

@mounties1782 - any updates??