Ontario 28X32 With Loft - In Progress

[NickD]

Hey everyone, thanks for checking this out!

I've been meaning to get this thread started for a few months now. I intend to use this as a bit of a project log for my own reference as well as a resource to anyone else who may find use reading through my trials and errors. This is a work-in-progress and to date I do not have a floor, the siding on, or the garage door in place. It is a budget build and I am doing everything myself and with the help of friends and family (Thanks to those helping me out) so things are moving a little slower than anticipated.

After deciding on the floor area I wanted and getting the wife to admit that the garage can be bigger than the house I set out to create a garage to match the rest of the property. The home is a 1-1/2 story with the gable facing the street, and has a 10/12 pitch roof. I wanted to keep the costs down so I kept it simple and just followed the geometry of the home.

House Circa 1883

Garage Front Elevation (3 different door sizes, 16', 18', and 20' to help me decide what size opening to frame)

The First Draft - Which ended up being pretty close to what was built

The size I ended up going with was 28X32 and a 18' single door on the front. I decided that I would leave the three windows off the left hand side and also not to put a stone around the base to keep costs low. The Foundation is ICF, walls are just over 10', and the loft/roof is engineered trusses.

 

[NickD]

Foundation:

I am big on trying everything once, so this build is a example of how someone with very little experience can be resourceful and come out in the end with a decent product. I was lucky to have a father-in-law and Grand father-in-law who run an excavation company. They came up for the big start while I rented equipment -The drive was a little to far to bring their own.

Me in front of rented backhoe being delivered

The Site

The first Scoop - 'Papa' was slightly annoyed by the size of the equipment I rented (For anyone in the know, I think he has a Terex TX760B, so the little JD110 was a tid bit slow)

Of Course it rained all day, and following day I went out to check on the hole and found a nice moat. We live in a valley which was once a river bed and I found out why very few people in town have anything more than a crawlspace.

The Moat

Attempting to pump water out
It ended up taking 3 sump pumps strategically positioned at the corners to keep ahead of the water coming in the hole. Needless to say, this was unexpected and caused a few setbacks.

All I could do was pump the water to my lot line, luckily I have a small park on one side so no-one to really complain about the puddles.

Drying out

Luckily, the walls didn't come crashing in and I was able to clear our what was left in the hole by hand. There were a few places where you could see water trickling in and I was a little worried about pouring the footings in a puddle. I ended up contacting an engineer, explained my situation and he provided a revised footing detail to implement. It called for geotextile fabric with 6" of 3/4" clear stone on top. The footing was beefed up a bit too.

20 Tonne of Stone - Some for fill beneath the slab too

In the Hole

Working my way around the hole with fabric and stone

Plate tampered

Footing Forms

It was nice to be out of the MUD!
I guess I missed the footing pour, here it is. Not too bad for an amature I think

I plan on heating this garage, and also have planned to use in-floor heating. For this reason, and to stick with the DIY trend, I opted to use insulated concrete forms for the frost walls. Nudura was recommended and looking through the website I noticed they provide installation training courses at a reasonable rate. After signing up they let me know that because I work in the industry that they would be letting me attend the training at no charge. Bonus! This was a nice product to work with and I enjoyed putting it together and setting up for the concrete pour. Its a lot like playing with LEGO. They only problem I had was getting the product on site. I admit, my order was small. People in this area are using it to big houses with full basements, not just for a frost wall for a simple garage. When they failed to deliver on the date I asked for, they explained that another contractor needed product in a hurry and that they figured I could wait. That was annoying, especially when it didn't arrive the next day either!

Playing with forms

Coming Along Now
The challenge with the forms on any long straight section is that they have a tendancy to bow and shift. I took the time to square the forms and brace both the top and bottom as well as I knew how.

Sealing up the Bottom - Plumbing and electrical penetrations in place. You can also see where I used tapcons to secure wood blocks at each joint to prevent a blow out. The cut out along the front is where the garage door will be. I originally intended to keep the interior side of the form as a thermal break between the heated floor and the apron outside the garage but it got pretty beat up with vehicles roaming over it. I still have to figure that detail out.

Here come concrete. The local yard had an ICF mix design. Not sure what they do differently but I do know it cost more than the stuff used in the footings.

Thank goodness for the conveyor. I don't know what people do without this or a pumptruck. It was lucky I didn't make the garage any deeper otherwise he would have had trouble getting to the back wall. Lucked out there I think.

It's amazing how much the mix settles through the webbing and rebar of the ICF's. Its a good thing I had a couple of good helpers that day. Concrete ******** was worth its weight in gold.

Had a little extra for a pad where the garbage and recycling is kept (Yes I have since rebuilt the enclosure - It had a rough winter last year.

Grabbed a beer and set the anchors for the bottom plate. Even with the conveyor truck it was hard work!

Here is a picture showing what WAS my biggest mistake so far

If you didn't pick it out, I didn't put a 90 elbow in the electrical conduit and have it come up through the foundation to come out in the stud wall. Still kicking myself for overlooking this. I haven't gotten to the electrical rough in yet so I have yet to deal with the panel and figuring out how run the conduit into the wall cavity. For now, I put two 90 degree with access panel fittings. Not happy about it. Don't even know if its allowed. Still a problem...

This is also when I started the parging. It is a base coat, followed by fibermesh, a top coat and a finish coat. So far it has held up pretty good but I am not sure it will last.

Rented the backhoe again to do the back-filling and rough grading around the foundation. Another hot summer day.

I think that's about all I can share for the foundation. I'd appreciate any criticism from more experience builders, thats how we learn!
Cheers,
Nick

 

[NickD]

I think this is a pretty self explanatory process. 2x6X10' studs.
Pressure treated bottom plate, sill gasket and double top plate. 1/2" plywood sheathing.
Let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

My supervisor

 

[NickD]

The Roof Frame was done by others - Engineered Trusses.

I rented a telehandler to lift the trusses up. Had a team meeting with my helpers to discuss a plan.

The Money Shot! Wasn't much room to maneuver in the driveway, was difficult to center the truss over the building but we got better at it as we went along.

A view from the road:

 

[NickD]

More updates

 

[melvscott]

Hey Nick,
The garage looks great! My husband and I are looking to build a 27' x 45' garage in the Waterloo area, doing most of the work ourselves. Can you give me an approximation on costs to build yours? We also have a circa 1886 home on a massive lot. Trying to keep everything to scale and within a budget!
Anything you can offer would be appreciated.
Melissa

 

[BluCamaro]

Ooooo, last updated more than a year ago. Nice build. How'd it turn out?

 

[NickD]

Man time flies! Especially with little ones running around.
Here is the front of the garage, still a work in progress. Exterior is 90% complete

@Melvscott - To date I am up around $55000. Nothing but a little wiring is done inside.

Might try to get some more info up here, share in some lessons learned for a first-time garage. If I ever find the energy or time!

 

[MacTexas]

Looks good.

 

[kaferfahrer]

@Melvscott - To date I am up around $55000. Nothing but a little wiring is done


I can second that..... I am building in Grimsby, on, 30x40 with a modern look single slope roof, 2x6 walls and 2x12 roof, concrete block foundation, hardie siding and vic west steel roof, some wiring inside and some insulation/clading but maybe 10% done inside and i am $60k in. I had someone do the concrete block walls and framing, but at a discounted rate.

Ontario or canada for that matter is not cheap to build in

 

[dubber]

Just found this thread for the first time. Great to see such a cool project, and especially here in Ontario!

 

[rmsg0040]

@Melvscott - To date I am up around $55000. Nothing but a little wiring is done


I can second that..... I am building in Grimsby, on, 30x40 with a modern look single slope roof, 2x6 walls and 2x12 roof, concrete block foundation, hardie siding and vic west steel roof, some wiring inside and some insulation/clading but maybe 10% done inside and i am $60k in. I had someone do the concrete block walls and framing, but at a discounted rate.

Ontario or canada for that matter is not cheap to build in

Works looks good.

I always wondered what the cost to build a garage in Canada would be, seeing as most builds on GJ are in America.

Unfortunately for me I live in suburbia and everything is tight.

 

[burleyfarm]

Nice garage NickD.
So are you happy with the parging? Did it hold up? I'm digging down along my garage foundation this spring to install rigid foam and plan on the same process as you.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Nice build, please keep us updated

 

[justin1795]

nice shop

 

[NickD]

Nice garage NickD.
So are you happy with the parging? Did it hold up? I'm digging down along my garage foundation this spring to install rigid foam and plan on the same process as you.

Yes, the parging is surprisingly strong. Its only a couple of years in but it seems to be holding up nicely. Two points of caution, the Nudura foundation is an EPS foam, or like the white styrofoam you'd find in packaging. This has a much rougher surface than the XTPS or SM board and allows for much greater bond of the parging to the foundation. In addition, a fiberglass mesh is used in the application with a Nudura Prepcoat B2000.

 

[burleyfarm]

Yes, the parging is surprisingly strong. Its only a couple of years in but it seems to be holding up nicely. Two points of caution, the Nudura foundation is an EPS foam, or like the white styrofoam you'd find in packaging. This has a much rougher surface than the XTPS or SM board and allows for much greater bond of the parging to the foundation. In addition, a fiberglass mesh is used in the application with a Nudura Prepcoat B2000.

Thanks, this will be helpful.