sierrahotel
Member
Started researching this project about 18 months ago, and this forum was a gem as regards the multitude of questions that come up during design and construction, so first - thanks to all the many contributors. Without your input, documentation and sometimes dissertations, I might not have tackled this project, and definitely would have spent more $$!
A little background - we bought our place in 2016 and started renovations on the ca. 1780 farmhouse. All of the systems had been updated over the years, we just wanted to upgrade the finishes. Of course old houses didn’t have cars, so SWMBO stated she’d like to have a garage to park in for winters. Our beautiful barn is far enough away from the house and not able to be reconfigured for car parking, so a 2 car garage it was slated to be!
I searched quite a bit for plans, and came across Jamaica Cottage Shop, a small, Vermont-based company that designs and builds shed, barn, and garage pre-cut kits using post & beam design concepts. The Little Woman Who Lets Me Live With Her and I drove over to the shop to look around, and came away pretty impressed, they put out a decent product for a decent price. I chose a 24x24 design with 10’ walls, and placed the order for the kit.
Originally planned to be my retirement project, a job opportunity came along that took all of my planned activities away, but gave me disposable income to have someone build the garage for me.
I hired a local contractor to do the earthwork, concrete foundation, and paving for me, which also included having to build an 8’ retaining wall out of boulders due to the slope on the site. The earthwork and foundation were done from April to June (I was in no rush, so my contractor sometimes interrupted work for days, and once for a couple of weeks). He finished the paving in September, which included resurfacing all of my existing paving.
I ordered the pre-cut kit in June, and it was delivered Oct 1. It was delivered (shipping included in kit price) on 3 long pallets, and place directly on the concrete pad, with some incredible precision I might add. I got my contractor back to site the second week of Nov., and he was able to erect the garage in about 10 days, with no significant hiccups. There were minor issues with board lengths from the factory, but as JCS included extras there were no delays.
Some items of note and lessons learned for me:
- the design from Jamaica Cottage Shops did not call for any underlayment for the roof under the metal roofing. I wanted a little more sturdiness, so I added 5/8” OSB. The contractor thanked me as he was the one walking on the roof during installation.
- Hurricane clips were optional from JCS, and they were asking for an unreasonable adder. I picked them up from a box store and they were installed for less than $75.
- The design description did not allow for an option for door swing on the Man door, so I am stuck with a door that opens outwards that causes one to have to walk around the open door. I might change this someday . . . Or not.
- I delayed making a decision on electrical supply (utility service run from the house, or solar/battery?) until such a time that installation costs were about 20% higher than they could have been. a few hundred bucks, but lesson learned.
- The design I chose from JCS with the 10’ walls was a new design (the original design is 8’ walls). The designers missed a change to the size of the garage door, such that the doors they provided were too small. jCS took the doors back and credited me for them, but the replacement doors are 3x more expensive, as I wanted insulated doors versus the very basic steel doors provided with the kit. Some of this cost is on me as I wanted a better door, but some of it is on them.
I have an electrical contractor in now who should finish up this week, so I’ll have lights and power for the garage doors openers, and the new garage doors show up in January. New garage doors are all wireless controlled, I ran Cat 6 in separate conduit to the garage while running the electrical to forestall wireless range problems, and all LED lights are also wireless controlled. Exterior painting will be done in mid-spring along with a house re-siding project, so all in all, about a year to complete and ~$50K poorer, but SWMBO is happy.
Again, thanks for the many ideas and warnings I garnered from the site, they really made a difference.
R,
John
A little background - we bought our place in 2016 and started renovations on the ca. 1780 farmhouse. All of the systems had been updated over the years, we just wanted to upgrade the finishes. Of course old houses didn’t have cars, so SWMBO stated she’d like to have a garage to park in for winters. Our beautiful barn is far enough away from the house and not able to be reconfigured for car parking, so a 2 car garage it was slated to be!
I searched quite a bit for plans, and came across Jamaica Cottage Shop, a small, Vermont-based company that designs and builds shed, barn, and garage pre-cut kits using post & beam design concepts. The Little Woman Who Lets Me Live With Her and I drove over to the shop to look around, and came away pretty impressed, they put out a decent product for a decent price. I chose a 24x24 design with 10’ walls, and placed the order for the kit.
Originally planned to be my retirement project, a job opportunity came along that took all of my planned activities away, but gave me disposable income to have someone build the garage for me.
I hired a local contractor to do the earthwork, concrete foundation, and paving for me, which also included having to build an 8’ retaining wall out of boulders due to the slope on the site. The earthwork and foundation were done from April to June (I was in no rush, so my contractor sometimes interrupted work for days, and once for a couple of weeks). He finished the paving in September, which included resurfacing all of my existing paving.
I ordered the pre-cut kit in June, and it was delivered Oct 1. It was delivered (shipping included in kit price) on 3 long pallets, and place directly on the concrete pad, with some incredible precision I might add. I got my contractor back to site the second week of Nov., and he was able to erect the garage in about 10 days, with no significant hiccups. There were minor issues with board lengths from the factory, but as JCS included extras there were no delays.
Some items of note and lessons learned for me:
- the design from Jamaica Cottage Shops did not call for any underlayment for the roof under the metal roofing. I wanted a little more sturdiness, so I added 5/8” OSB. The contractor thanked me as he was the one walking on the roof during installation.
- Hurricane clips were optional from JCS, and they were asking for an unreasonable adder. I picked them up from a box store and they were installed for less than $75.
- The design description did not allow for an option for door swing on the Man door, so I am stuck with a door that opens outwards that causes one to have to walk around the open door. I might change this someday . . . Or not.
- I delayed making a decision on electrical supply (utility service run from the house, or solar/battery?) until such a time that installation costs were about 20% higher than they could have been. a few hundred bucks, but lesson learned.
- The design I chose from JCS with the 10’ walls was a new design (the original design is 8’ walls). The designers missed a change to the size of the garage door, such that the doors they provided were too small. jCS took the doors back and credited me for them, but the replacement doors are 3x more expensive, as I wanted insulated doors versus the very basic steel doors provided with the kit. Some of this cost is on me as I wanted a better door, but some of it is on them.
I have an electrical contractor in now who should finish up this week, so I’ll have lights and power for the garage doors openers, and the new garage doors show up in January. New garage doors are all wireless controlled, I ran Cat 6 in separate conduit to the garage while running the electrical to forestall wireless range problems, and all LED lights are also wireless controlled. Exterior painting will be done in mid-spring along with a house re-siding project, so all in all, about a year to complete and ~$50K poorer, but SWMBO is happy.
Again, thanks for the many ideas and warnings I garnered from the site, they really made a difference.
R,
John
