Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT My 24x40 Attached Garage Build Thread!!

[JeromeM]

Hi Everyone!! I'm finally ready to start this build thread!

Some background: It's currently Sept 2022, I live just outside of Toronto, ON, and live in a bungalow that had a old, beat up detached 14x21 garage with really terrible pre-cast concrete step that had been sinking into the house for years and years (see pic below). It had a plywood floor even but it was insulated and had a heater so for last winter (I'm a big snowmobile guy) it did me good. I've been in this house for just over 1 year and right away when I went to see the house before buying I knew the garage was going to be the first thing I needed to tackle.

Here's what I was working with, my Before pics:





While I had been thinking of and going through different ideas in my head since I moved in, I started the formal planning process in Jan 2022 with the Architect and working on drawings. First thing was figuring out the size, here in Ontario there's a size limit to build a floating slab garage, it can only be for garages under 592sq ft and 1 story, anything bigger or taller needs footings/foundation. I knew this wasn't going to work and also, I only have a certain width between the house and the property line so attaching the garage to the house was the way to go to get the max width. I also wanted to put a room above the garage because the house currently is a 2 bedroom 1 bath so there's no true master bedroom with ensuite bath therefore above the garage was ideal. Therefore since I was attaching it to the house and having it 2 story, then we needed proper foundation with concrete footings and walls tied into the existing footings and walls. We went through a few different scenarios, finally landed on a 28x24 attached garage (yep, that's what we had originally) with a "storage loft" (more on that later). It took MONTHS to get the first set of drawings done, delays, etc. finally in April 2022 we had plans approved by the city and I got my building permit, woohoo!!

April 22nd, 2022 - 1st set of approved drawings:

 

[JeromeM]

It was now finally time to start my project, I called all the concrete company to line them up, they had been waiting for me to give them the start date so they were good to go soon as it was excavated. But first things first, needed to get the existing garage torn down including the existing foundation for the garage and the leaning concrete steps. It was now end of May and thankfully I have a good buddy who does this kinda work, they used a machine and made quick work of it!

May 30th, 2022 - Started with the garage so they could dispose of the building materials:






Then the Concrete foundation and steps were taken out (forgot to take pictures of that.

I was so happy to see some progress finally, I immediately took out the measuring tape and layed out where the new garage would go. My excitement was extremely short lived when I saw that the width of the garage as drawn on the approved plans put me 2ft away from the property line (bi-law here is 6ft away). So we had a huge problem, I start checking to see if I made a mistake or what happened, only to find out the architect measured the house wrong. He had it down at 38ft wide, it's actually 42ft wide. I was not very pleased.




So I called my architect, he apologized, came out and re-measured and then we had to come up with a new plan. I didn't want to just make the garage 24x25 and I was already thinking I wanted to make it bigger anyways, so we decided to go with 24x40. And since we didn't have the space anymore it meant losing my front man door but I didn't want to get narrower garage doors so we moved that to the side. If you are wondering why there's a weird section at the back where it narrows it's because the addition that's on the house is on concrete pillars not a foundation wall so we couldn't use that wall or be super tight to there. I'm going to incorporate storage in there after.

June 23rd, 2022 - The new drawings were done, permit revision and drawings approved by the City, Here were the new drawings:





All in all, I wasn't too upset with the revised plans, much bigger garage, nicer use of space, so I was happy.

That is, until I called the concrete company to let them know we are good to go.....they were now in busy season, no time to do my foundation . Here I was, delayed again.

 

[JeromeM]

So, my concrete guy tells me he can't do it anymore because while he was going to just fit me in between jobs before since it's not so big, he was too busy now to do that. So I tried to find someone else, had several people come have a look, I just didn't trust them. My guy had a superb reputation so I decided to wait. He said to call him early August, I called Aug 1st, he still had no time. The following week, Monday Aug 8th, 830am he calls me, asks me to have it excavated by Wednesday I told him I will see what I can do!

I call up my buddy again and he sent his guys over, everything was excavated by the Thursday and the foundation guy agreed to start the project, woohoo!!!

Aug 11th, 2022 - Excavation for footings, this concrete company is super picky, they wanted minimum 5ft wide trenches, 6ft if we could, had to be near perfect for them:



OOPS!! Tried to bridge the gap, was a little too wide lol



Excavation done!!

August 16th, 2022 - Now the following week the Concrete guys came and framed up the footings, they needed to be 22" wide x 6" thick with 2 15M rebar. Overkill even according to the building inspector but that's what the plans called for.







It was then time to get the footings inspected before any concrete could be poured per the City.....

 

[JeromeM]

August 19th, 2022 - Building inspector comes to inspect the footings, sees everything looks good but then asks on the west side how I'm going to get my 48" of frost protection because the lot slopes down there. I tell him I'm just going to put a 2ft retaining wall there to build up the grade and that will cover me for frost protection, it will enable me to go into my side man door and I can walk around the garage this way. He then tells me since I'm "significantly" changing the grade, I need to get City Engineering Department involved I call the concrete guy who was scheduled for the Monday and put him on hold for the time being because if this is a true problem I'd need to have them remove the forms, excavate more and re-form. Something I did NOT want to do.

I get a hold of the Engineering Inspector and he tells me that even though originally it wasn't required because my permit is just for an addition, I now need to get a Lot Grading Plan done So I call around, get some quotes from Engineers, find someone reasonable (3k CDN ) he comes over, has a look, I explain what I'm looking to do, he says it shouldn't be an issue, does some surveying and says I'll have a lot grading plan done in 2-3 weeks.

This is what I wanted to do, nothing crazy, if anything, it would prevent water from flowing really hard into the neighbors house:


I didn't want to hold up my concrete so I made the decision to move forward anyways with the concrete footings, risk on my part for sure.

August 22nd, 2022 - Concrete guys came to pour the footings, the sweet conveyor that the concrete supplier had just received came in super handy, it meant that we didn't need to have a pump truck so a lot better and cheaper that way!




They came the next day to strip and fill in a bit beside the footings.



Now I needed to wait until they came back to form up the foundation walls!

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 6th, 2022 - Concrete guys come and form up the walls as they were coming back the next day to pour them.





September 7th, 2022 - They came to pour the foundation walls, unfortunately I had to go to the office that day so I couldn't take pics of them doing the work. Here's one of when I got home:



Sept 8th, 2022 - They came to strip the forms, now I could see a lot better what it looked like, and they did such a great job. Everyone that's seen it, building inspector, framer, included have commented on how good it is so I'm happy I stuck it out for these guys.





Now we need to wait a week to backfill, scheduled for Sept 15th!

Sept 12th, 2022 - Engineer finished with my lot grading plan, how surprising he came up with basically the same thing I would have done anyways just now I'm 3k poorer lol So I had to take this, submit to the city as an attachment to my permit and now I'm waiting for City Engineering Department to review and approve. I'm hoping since this is stamped by an engineer and follows City by-law they wont have issues with it and this covers them in case something were to happen like all of a sudden my neighbors house floods because of what I did.


Sept 14th, 2022 - We are all caught up now! I have the framing guys ready to go for week of Sept 19th, material for walls should deliver on the 19th. The Trusses are being build Oct 13/14. I did request a change from my architect and the truss company, I wanted to move the access to the "Storage loft" from inside the garage to from inside the house as it serves the future purpose a lot better this way. The Truss part of that is done just waiting on my architect to send the revised plans so I can submit to the city for approval of the revision.

Tomorrow the garage will get backfilled, I can't wait to be able to fully walk inside it, hard to get a full sense of the side before backfill.

 

[dmittz]

great progress, things will go fast once the framing starts.

I hear you on the concrete delays I waited from the end of june when my forms were ready until the middle of august for concrete and that was after nearly a year waiting for permits! Its hard to belive how long can take to build something.

 

[JeromeM]

Yeah absolutely, because I didn't have a timeframe while waiting for the foundation I couldn't really line anyone up. Now that it's done all of a sudden I've been super busy getting everything lined up. Framers, roofer, garage doors, windows (they were ordered in May thankfully and are scheduled to deliver end of October), driveway, etc. The only thing not lined up right now is someone to pour the garage pad. I'm also doing infloor heating.

My goal is to have a weathered in building by Dec so I should be good. Likely siding won't be done until the spring as I will do the house to match and there's some changes needed on the house too.

 

[captain14]

Everyone is busy nowadays. Just be glad you have a good contractor to complete the job.

Are you still going with a master suite above the garage since the initial plans were changed?

 

[JeromeM]

Everyone is busy nowadays. Just be glad you have a good contractor to complete the job.

Are you still going with a master suite above the garage since the initial plans were changed?

Yes, but I can't officially call it a bedroom because here that has implications to my septic bed size. And according to the new "rules" even though no additional people Wil be living here adding a bedroom and bathroom mean my septic is too small and so far everyone I've talked to said I can't fit the proper sized septic "based on current code" in my front yard where it currently is so they suggest I move thr septic to the backyard and consequently move my well which would now be too close to the septic (needs to be 50ft) to the front yard..... No way I'm doing that.

So officially it's a storage loft, once all inspections are done it will become a bedroom with bathroom.

 

[dmittz]

The septic implications of adding on sure can be tricky! your smart to just call the future bedroom a 'storage loft'.

My city wouldn't let me even put a hose bib in my workshop without adding a permitted septic field, which I am now stuck doing. Here the septic has to be 100ft from my well or any of the neighbors which even on an acre left not that many places for it.

 

[captain14]

JeromeM

What happens when you sell the house down the road. Do they recalculate the septic tank capacity?

What are you doing to separate the “storage area” from the garage now during construction? Fire walls,etc?

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Two steps forward one back, keep your eye on the prize, your making great progress.
It will be a nice shop when you're done.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[JeromeM]

The septic implications of adding on sure can be tricky! your smart to just call the future bedroom a 'storage loft'.

My city wouldn't let me even put a hose bib in my workshop without adding a permitted septic field, which I am now stuck doing. Here the septic has to be 100ft from my well or any of the neighbors which even on an acre left not that many places for it.

I saw some of that on your build, crazy! My lot is only 80ft wide (.25 acres total) so can't have too too many rules with septic.

 

[JeromeM]

JeromeM

What happens when you sell the house down the road. Do they recalculate the septic tank capacity?

What are you doing to separate the “storage area” from the garage now during construction? Fire walls,etc?

It depends on the market, even right now if you ask a home seller for a copy of the permit for a reno that was done and they don't have one, we'll if you want that house you are buying anyways.

I'm hopeful that we can fit a new septic at which point I will put one in and it would then be officially a bedroom and bathroom.

Everything will be fully insulated amd drywalled.

 

[jarhead]

That's going to be a nice space, you were more patient than I am.

 

[Boostingaz]

It depends on the market, even right now if you ask a home seller for a copy of the permit for a reno that was done and they don't have one, we'll if you want that house you are buying anyways.

I'm hopeful that we can fit a new septic at which point I will put one in and it would then be officially a bedroom and bathroom.

Everything will be fully insulated amd drywalled.

I don't know how it is there. But here, no permits, no financing, would force a cash only sale which might severely limit your buyer's pool. Just a thought. When we were looking for rental houses we ran into a lot of homes that were "modified" with no permits and that totally removed the possibility of financing.

 

[dmittz]

I don't know how it is there. But here, no permits, no financing, would force a cash only sale which might severely limit your buyer's pool. Just a thought. When we were looking for rental houses we ran into a lot of homes that were "modified" with no permits and that totally removed the possibility of financing.

I work in real estate and haven't run across that where i live. However if a property does not have potable water or it becomes known to a lender that the septic system has failed or maybe was done without permits then it might put financing in jepardy as can full on unpermitted additions, by that I mean the whole thing was done without permits. unpermotted detached building don't seem to be a problem for financing suprisingly nor are run of the mill unpermitted reno's/finishing from the perspective of financing. But I do live up in Canada so maybe its totally different elsewhere.

 

[JeromeM]

I work in real estate and haven't run across that where i live. However if a property does not have potable water or it becomes known to a lender that the septic system has failed or maybe was done without permits then it might put financing in jepardy as can full on unpermitted additions, by that I mean the whole thing was done without permits. unpermotted detached building don't seem to be a problem for financing suprisingly nor are run of the mill unpermitted reno's/finishing from the perspective of financing. But I do live up in Canada so maybe its totally different elsewhere.

Yeah here it's kinda like that, the bank wanted to know if the small addition on my house had a permit, I had a survey from 1994 showing the addition on there, that satisfied them. My garage and storage loft has a permit so I'm not too too worried. And like I said I will do my very best to actually get a adequate septic done providing they can size one up for my existing location, then everything will be above board!

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 15th, 2022 - My buddy sent a guy today to do the backfill and grading, it became evident 2 hours into him being here that he would need help so I put on my boots and helped him. This meant no progress pictures, only after pics. He had already filled a bunch of the area with dirt when I asked him what he's basing his grade level on..he looked puzzled lol So I took out my measuring tape, the chalk line, laser, and we marked the foundation walls with the proper heights.

I'm doing 1% slope from back to front for water drainage (this is code, well, code really just says has to drain back to front and 1% seems to be the acceptable minimum, anyone do less than that???)

I'm factoring in 4" of concrete, 4" for Amvic Pex Insulated foam Panels and we did 4"+ of clear gravel

Probably missing about a ton of gravel so he's going to come back tomorrow to finish up. It's really nice now to be able to envision the space! (first thought, wish I had room for way bigger...lol)

The trucks have to navigate the neighbors hydro line and cable line above, it's tight!!

 

[dmittz]

nice job going with the crushed rock under the slab. I did that also, much better base than sand or native soil IMO.

 

[JeromeM]

nice job going with the crushed rock under the slab. I did that also, much better base than sand or native soil IMO.

Yeah here 3" clear gravel is the minimum for under slab. Mine will have at least 4" plus 4" rigid foam which will have the PEX lines for the heated floor in them.

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 20th, 2022 - Not too much has happened, yesterday the guys came to start grading for the retaining wall along the side of the garage:


We decided to go the economical way and order some Concrete blocks at $150/Block (SOOO cheap compared to other options), they were supposed to be 2x2x5 smooth top only a recessed hook, they delivered 2x3x6 with keyed top and protruding hook.....needless to say that wasn't going to work.


So a wasted day today (it was a nice day at that) figuring out an alternative solution and I'm going with Siena Stone Wall from Unilock. They came and trucked these blocks away this afternoon.

Like this (this property is significantly nicer lol), my wall is only 3 courses then the coping so not super tall at all:


Hopefully all the rain they are calling for tomorrow doesn't come because they are supposed to finish this week and the framing next week!!

 

[runit]

Wow they let ya'll build close.

Following!

 

[dmittz]

Yeah here 3" clear gravel is the minimum for under slab. Mine will have at least 4" plus 4" rigid foam which will have the PEX lines for the heated floor in them.

Its funny how building codes are different everywhere. Here most just put sand under slabs. Doing road pack crushed gravel like I did my contractor said was great but no one does it due to cost. I ended up with like 24inches of the stuff under my slab since I didnt want to refill at all with soil. I think we can both have confidence our concrete slabs should be on a solid base.

Very nice your going to have a heated floor!

 

[JeromeM]

Wow they let ya'll build close.

Following!

Yeah I'm a bit "rural" so 6' from the property line is the by-law. In the city it's much much closer.

 

[JeromeM]

Its funny how building codes are different everywhere. Here most just put sand under slabs. Doing road pack crushed gravel like I did my contractor said was great but no one does it due to cost. I ended up with like 24inches of the stuff under my slab since I didnt want to refill at all with soil. I think we can both have confidence our concrete slabs should be on a solid base.

Very nice your going to have a heated floor!

Yeah tell me about it, I see all these amazing huge garages on here built on slab, no foundation needed, so nice for them lol

I'm not sure I will have the floor heated right away but I definitely and spending the bit of $$ to run the PEX now.

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 21st, 2022 - Today the tree guys came to cut a few limbs off this tree back here as they were overhanging on top of the new garage. They made quick work of it!




I used the skid steer to help get some of the logs out!


This is much better!!


Then I had to pull out of the ground and re-run the Phone and new Fiber Optic lines that the local Telecom company ran. It was easy to pull up since it was only 1/2in burried But they ran mine and my neighbors basically right along my driveway so I moved them over to the property line as we will be bringing the wall further forward and didn't want to cut them.


I marked the new location with paint.

 

[rocco]

I like how you adjusted it to a 40ft deep garage, it’s going to be a much more useable space.

 

[dmittz]

It sure is nice to have machinery like a Skid steer during construction! What's the story with the loader in the picture?

Your storey about the conduit has me a little worried I have 220ft one inch conduit for internet/cable. Hope the telecom company can get the wire through it all, my electrican thst put it in said 'no problem the telecom' but I wonder....

 

[JeromeM]

It sure is nice to have machinery like a Skid steer during construction! What's the story with the loader in the picture?

Your storey about the conduit has me a little worried I have 220ft one inch conduit for internet/cable. Hope the telecom company can get the wire through it all, my electrican thst put it in said 'no problem the telecom' but I wonder....

The loader was for those huge concrete blocks! They were supposed to be 2x2x5 so the skid steer would have been able to unload them. Well at 2x3x6 there was no way so they needed to go get the huge loader from their shop to come unload from the flatbed. Then loaded it up the next day.

Here the telecom companies (Bell) just run the Fiber Optic lines just barely buried in the ground, no conduit at all.

 

[JeromeM]

I like how you adjusted it to a 40ft deep garage, it’s going to be a much more useable space.

I 100% agree! I went the biggest I could, we have bylaws that give us max 20% lot coverage for buildings, I'm at 21% after this so technically I'm supposed to get rid of my shed. Or so the plans call for anyways.

 

[rocco]

Is the back 20~ feet going to have a tall enough ceiling for a future hoist?

 

[JeromeM]

Is the back 20~ feet going to have a tall enough ceiling for a future hoist?

The ceiling is going to be ~11ft, most 2posts probably not fitting but I don't really like those anyways from an appearance point of view. I pretty much only work on dirt bikes and sleds so I may just put a small lift for those flush mounted in the floor. Or I go with a flush mounted scissor lift and I can use that with a car or toys. Still pondering lol

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 23rd, 2022 - New Retaining Wall blocks showed up at 730am, guys weren't here yet but the Skid Steer keys were so I dropped the bucket, hooked up the forks and helped unload and stack the skids on the driveway, so much fun lol





Then the guys showed up and started final leveling and laying blocks, I went to do some running around while they did some of the first blocks.









They finished the day with the rest of the 3rd course along the garage and they ran the 4" Weeper along there and backfilled it with Gravel (Will insert a pic here, not sure where my picture I took went).

They will be back on Monday to finish the final row and then do the section along the driveway, it looks AMAZING! I wish I could have this be further out but due to setbacks etc. this was the best I could do. It's not going to be a high traffic area, will remove the fence after and grade in there and will look a lot nicer.

Finished the day off by receiving an email from the City with my approved revised Plans! WOOHOO! They didn't say anything about me moving the stairway to my "unheated storage loft" from inside the garage to from inside my house...WINNING! lol

I'm not sure what these stairs will look like inside the garage, meaning how much it will intrude into the garage space but will work with my framer to minimize that as much as possible. It's going to give me lots of space for a great master suite up there with room for bathroom and closet etc. so I'm happy about that!




That's it till Monday! Hopefully the wall is done by the end of Monday, lumber for walls is being delivered on Monday and framing can hopefully start Tue/Wed.

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 26th, 2022 - Today the guys came early to start on finishing the retaining wall. They did great work today, I mis-calculated when I ordered the stone I didn't realize we needed to step up at the end of the wall to give it a nicer more gradual finish so I was missing 2 x closed end coping pieces and of course they are now out of stock so just waiting on those for it to be finished finished.

Tomorrow they are coming just to wrap things up with the weeping tile and backfill. I'm going to do some interlock along the side of the garage, not sure what yet as there's not a lot of room so I'm hoping to find something that I won't need to cut every single stone. I should have a ~3ft walkway along the side. This also enables me to widen my driveway with a nice finish. Before my driveway had crumbling asphalt sloping on the side, gross.


Pics of today's work:








Finished wall minus the 2 closed end coping pieces one on the 3rd and one on the 4th row creating that step up to help transition, you can see that front coping piece (second from the bottom, that bottom one will be burried once final grading is done) has a closed end so you don't see the "key". Will look sharp one done.



Material for the walls showed up! WOOHOO!!



Framing might start this week apparently, framer is really good but not the best at keeping to a schedule. Once he's onsite though, works really fast. (He framed my buddies super complicated 2nd floor addition done all within the existing roof structure. was a lot of work.

Will post better pictures tomorrow once they fill in and grade around the wall.

 

[JeromeM]

Sept 26th, 2022 - Retaining wall finished today (still missing 2 Coping pieces at the end and I need to put some interlock between the foundation and the retaining wall).








I haven't seen the framer yet...he didn't seem to be too worried about getting the walls framed before the trusses show up on Oct 13/14 so let's hope or else I will do the walls by myself!!!

I'm away next week on vacation, what are the odds something is built when I'm back? lol

 

[Eric W11]

Suspense builds...

Interesting to see the different ways that foundations are done. Mine seems like it was much less involved, but still an unexpectedly long wait for the concrete.

Your retaining wall is looking great

 

[MayfairDude]

Looking forward to seeing the finished produc, we start our 24x24 attached garage to house and work on our 1954 Dodge Mayfair

 

[jarhead]

Any progress updates?

 

[ScottW]

Just read and started following your thread, would love to see some updates.