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Stepped floor garage options

pago cruiser

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Messages
65
Location
Tucson
First poster here. What a great site. Lots of great ideas. But my first post is gonna be a problem...

Designing a 38x28 garage (22x28 shop and 16x28 1-car), which is a portion of an ultimate 62x28. I can only build the 38x28 part due to codes in my area limiting the garage to 70% of the house size. :wtf: So the plan is to build the 38x28, then add onto the house next year, then build extend the garage another 24 feet for a 2-car.

THE PROBLEM is that the garage area has bit of a slope. The current 38x28 slopes 2 feet in the 38' length, but I can deal with that easily with a 2' block retaining wall, then add fill to the driveway. BUT the future extension slopes another 5 feet in the 24' direction. So I either need to add lots of fill (it would be about 7' worth once I allow for slope aspect, then add fill for the driveway slope, which would total about 400 yards:shocking:.

I believe instead I'll step the future garage floor about three to four feet lower than the first build. Which means a designing a retaining wall now, and installing when I do the first section. The exterior design is a southwest style, so the odd(?) stepped roofline would not be too abnormal... It also means about 4 to 5 steps inside the future garage leading up to the current build. Which means if I want 24' clear inside, I need to size the future for at least 28 feet wide:headscrat.

Anybody see another way around this? I would really like to be able to enter the "first" garage from the future expansion without going outside. Can't really move the garage anywhere else onsite. And can't have more than one "accessory outbuilding" by code, which prevents me from splitting up the garage and the shop sections to different parts of the site. This is really a pisser, as I have almost 5 acres to work with, but codes seem an unreasonable pita...
 
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raildawg

Active member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
33
Location
sidney mt
welcome. it is craze that you can own something and still be told what you can or cant do with it.good luck.
 

kbs2244

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
14,065
I would start thinking about how to use that empty space as a service pit.
You won’t have to do any digging.
Just build it and fill in around it.
In fact bigger is better since it is that much less fill.

I don’t like the idea of a stepped floor.
I have worked in shops with them and something heavy that you need is always on the wrong level.
 
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Zeke

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
17,176
Location
Long Beach CA, the sewer by the sea.
Bear in mind that "pits" are not to code. Start with the heavy gas thing like CO2 and CO and add in the danger of falling in w/o a guard all around when not in use. Just sayin'.

I think I'd excavate the first project in order to provide for the second one. All one one level when finished.
 

JSBriggs

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2009
Messages
1,041
Location
Auburn CA
Split the grade. Dig down 3-1/2 and use the excavated material to build up the the lower end. I would grade enough for the entire building (62x28) and any apron areas now.

That is what I did with mine. Its 35x40. Also like you I planned for an expansion at a later date hoping to expand to 60x40 someday. In the pic you can see where I dropped the stem wall (on the right wall at the back) so that I can have the floor continous when I go to build the second phase.

-Jeff
 

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kbs2244

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Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
14,065
Every quick oil change place and WalMart service area I have seen use pits.
 
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