Need some direction...

[Ries]

Alright I'm in the design phase of our new house, but the biggest portion of it that I'm focused on is the shop garage space. We've been looking for a lot for quite some time to give us the space we want and we've finally found one within the cities, but it does come with some challenges.

First off excuse the length of this post, I'm trying to put it all out there.

The lot discussed below is half acre corner lot on a cul-de-sac.

Plan one: Have main level three stall garage with a shop directly behind it that is two stories at 32'x40'. The back three stalls will have a loft over it and have a door into both the house and the main garage. The lower level will also have a door entering into the basement of the house. The lower shop will have three bay doors opening into a driveway exiting the rear of the property and curving up to the cross road. The main garage will have the driveway entering into the cul-de-sac.

The above plan couldn't work with the lot because the elevations on the rear of the lot would make for a very steep graded driveway 12+%. This could be addressed with fill and retaining walls, but because of a utility easement this is not possible.

Plan two: Cut off the third stall on the main garage and create a split driveway that enters into the shop from the front. This would have roughly an 8% grade driveway, but would come at some very high costs due to need for structural retaining walls on both sides of the driveway. One would be to support the soil under the main garage and the other would be to support the soil on the setback from the street. I would still have a small slab in the rear of the shop so that I can pull vehicles out and back into the bays, without having to turn around inside the shop.

Plan three: Maintain the three stall main garage, but install a subterranean lift to bring vehicles into the lower level shop. This avoids the secondary driveway (minus the slab mentioned above) as well as the retaining walls. However from everything I can find these subterranean lifts come at a high price and take lots of planning to complete the install. Some need to be brought in with a crane and built around.

So there you have it. This is my latest and greatest issue. Any recommendations? I've been searching around the site and either this particular scenario has not been discussed or I'm not using the right keywords. I suspect the latter.

Thanks!

 

[kbs2244]

You need a pro.
The money spent on an architect consultation will be well spent.

 

[Ries]

Here are the images of the lot and concept sketch of the house to give you an idea.

 

[Ries]

You need a pro.
The money spent on an architect consultation will be well spent.

For sure. Pro is already hired. More or less looking to see what other people have done and which way would make more sense (ie retaining wall and driveway or lift)

 

[rsanter]

I like the lift idea.
You are looking at the specially built car elevators and they are expensive.
I think you can accomplish the same thing with a high lift car lift.
They have car lifts that will get up over the height of an RV. This will work fine for you but you will have to do some added planning to make this work easily.
With that said this will be fine for occasional use for project and hobby cars. I would not recommend for every day use for driver cars

Bob

 

[fabjunkie]

How high of a difference between the garage floor and shop floor are we talking? I like the lift idea, but why not make the shop floor the same level as the garage and have one bay of the garage drive thru under the loft?

 

[fabjunkie]

NM, after reading it again and looking at your layout I see what you are attempting. I think I would go with a lift and raise the loft a few feet to gain more overhead clearance into the shop area. You could use a regular 4-post lift if the floor elevations were close enough with the loft raised enough to give the ceiling height under it needed.

Another option may be to move the loft to the rear of the house with the door coming into the dining room instead. The shop and garage could be left open if desired. This would eliminate the concern for ceiling height for shop access from the garage.

 

[NUTTSGT]

How old are you and is this going to be your dream home and last home ?

Sometimes when you work the numbers of cost, you need to figure out what will give you the best return over the life of the project and how you'll use it. What seem expensive now might yield the best investment in the coming years.

 

[Ries]

I'm 35. It has the potential to be our last home, but I feel like we'll probably want to move down South to GA/SC in 25-30yrs were most of my relatives live.

A thing to note is we're not locked into this lot, but like I said we have been looking for a while and I feel like we may not find something of this size in the cities. There are a number of large lots outside of the cities, but then you have to start talking about septic tanks and wells for water not to mention the commute to work so... no bueno in my opinion.

 

[matt_i]

Re: Plan 1, it looks like there is a lot of "flat land" between 1004 and 1002 in the "backyard" which goes up to 1010ft at the road...if I make that out correctly I don't see a big issue with a drive descending for 6-8 feet over ~40 feet (at the shortest point going east, could be angled to the north to be much more gentle) unless you have a lot of snow and ice. Does the utility easement prevent a paved surface or does it prevent the permanent structure like retaining walls? Could you put in crusher-run natural surface drive despite the obvious potential for washout?

Personally, I like that concept plus make a regular drive up 2-stall garage from the front. I'd keep tweaking until you can make that fit.

In my thinking, a subterranean lift is for the rich & famous. You probably have to have active or passive ventilation + CO monitoring unless its well-concealed. I wouldn't plan to get a lot of resale value out of that feature when thinking of the general public.

 

[Ries]

Well the easement does not allow any permanent structures. So building a retaining wall or driveway would be at my own risk. I could build the driveway out of pavers so that if it needed to be removed in a section it would be possible.

City won't allow a driveway with a grade larger than 10%, nor would I want to drive on it either. So with a 6-8 ft drop over 40ft that would be quite excessive... 6' or 8' over 40' would be a 15 or 20% grade add ice and snow in the winter... no bueno. Now you might be able to angle the approach some and curve it, but you would need to 80' and retaining walls to make a 8' drop work with a 10% grade.

However all of that said I did sketch up a curving driveway with the house at 1004' lower level I could swing a 60' driveway at a 6' drop. However I would have to convince the city to move their easement line.

 

[Playwme]

I'd look for another lot. The other issue you will have is the house orientation. Your shop door, main living areas and master bedroom will all be facing North. In the winter, all those areas as well as a good portion of the yard is going to be shadowed by the house.

It just looks to be an incredibly difficult block of land, which may be why it's still available and cheap. A forever house you want to get right, otherwise you regret things forever.