The Abiding Garage; it really ties the house together

[Dude Lebowski]

Been lurking for a while and reading, finally decided to get off my *** and make a thread.

My name is Chris, and I'm in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. Last year I finished building my first custom home in between working and finishing my graduate degree. It was a clean sheet design, and the covenants where I am require a 2 car attached garage, so I decided on a 3 car 40x28 as that was all my budget could afford. I decided to build the house out of ICF because I wanted to. Cost me more than stick building, but the insulation is phenomenal and this house is not going anywhere in my lifetime.

But first, dirt work, lots of it and retaining walls. The lot has a great view, but it slopes a lot so I had to build 2 retaining walls and use all the dirt in between to make a flat pad. This is the before, about where the middle of the house now sits.

This was then levelled, watered, compacted and the retaining walls began to take shape.

This is the northern retaining wall beginning to take shape.

And the southern retaining wall.

Each retaining wall is about 14ft high at the highest point, tapering down to 1 course. Both walls were completed in about 7 days.

Here we are looking south from the northern retaining wall to give you an idea of the layout, just past the far formboards is the edge of the southern retaining wall with the driveway leading off to the right.

Here are the shop dogs in the "garage".

Fast forward thru some really boring stuff and the garage begins to take shape. Well, at least the floor part does. Here the ICF footers are already poured (4ft deep) and the insulation is going down before the concrete chairs, rebar and radiant heat tubing gets placed on top of it. I used 2" foam with a reflective foil covering on one side, kinda like those solar blankets. The thought behind this being why heat up cold dirt when you can have all that heat reflected back into the slab.

I didn't get a picture of the radiant tubing in the garage before my crew poured the concrete, but it looks like the rest of the house.

The garage slab is 6" thick 4000psi concrete, #2 rebar throughout with mesh and pex-a tubing, monolithic. No expansion joints and no fibermesh. Not a single crack yet. But 2 things I know about concrete is it gets hard, and it cracks.

Off to bed, will try to post more up tomorrow.

 

[karlhungus]

I'll come over and fix the cable.

 

[green2kgt]

Damn!!!!!!!!

 

[ishiboo]

Obviously you're not a golfer.

 

[1/2 Cup]

That is awesome, keep the pics coming.

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Well I got sidetracked by a bright red piece of Italian Machinery that I couldn't pass up and just had to have in my garage. But we're not there yet, more on that later. And since I don't roll on Shabbos, here's some more pictures.

So after the slab cured it was off to start putting the lego blocks together, cause that's literally how it goes, except with a whole lot of rebar in between. The house has a 10ft plate height, and I wanted the garage to be 12ft tall to accomodate a lift in the single car bay on the left, so instead of changing the roofline, I decided to drop the finished floor elevation of the garage by 2 feet instead. The bucking you see is 2x12 since the walls are 11" thick before drywall on the inside and stucco on the outside. Double door is 18x8 and single door is 10x8, and there's a large window in the back of the garage that has a view of the valley.

And this is essentially the reverse view of the picture above, showing the retaining wall decreasing in height as it moves west of the house.

Here's a closer shot looking into the garage from the single door on the left with window straight ahead and off to the right you can see the door leading to the covered rear patio from the garage.

Here is a wider view showing the rest of the house for perspective, with the view on the back of the house. FYI, if anyone wants an incredible shoulder workout, try dropping and lifting the vibrating rod all the way around the perimeter as concrete is being pumped. My shoulders ache just thinking about it. The solid wall in the middle is the game room/theater room which was purposely formed without windows to keep it dark. Front door alcove is to the right of the game room, bedrooms right and in the distance you can see all the bucking for the French Doors and Large window panels in the dining room. I wanted to put a window in the game room looking into the garage but the wife called me a ***** and promptly shut that down. Same with my idea for a urinal in the garage. Best I could do is a half bath in between the entrance to the house from the garage and the back patio. I wanted a floor drain in the garage so I could wash cars in the winter time (it does get cold here as the FFE is 5647 ft ASL) in the garage. Turns out code won't let you tie it into septic and I'd have to put a French drain in, which isn't that bad until you consider a Trackhoe with tiger teeth could barely scratch the sandstone where the garage sits and the soil is very clay like and doesn't perc at all -so I canned the floor drain. The expansive clay soil caused me to have to process the dirt quite a bit, compact it and water it in lifts, and make a hell of a stout footer system to get the structural guy to sign off on the design. Would have been much cheaper to build a crawlspace or walkout, but I absolutely can't stand climbing stairs in my own house and I don't care how much adhesive and screws you put into a floor board, it's going to squeak eventually. I wanted warm, solid concrete under foot, and it cost considerably more than all the other construction around me, but it's my castle so why not.

After the walls were pumped to the top plate, threaded rod was inserted into the still wet concrete and a double top plate was set over the threaded rod in between the ICF forms to give a solid base for the trusses and a way to anchor them to wood without a gazillion tapcons. Overhang is 2ft all the way around. I might add there is no furring strips required for this building system. Every 6" OC there is a plastic reinforcement strip that is rated for screw pullout. The plumber and electrician only had one chance to get it right before the concrete was poured and luckily they nailed it and we didn't have to cut out any concrete after the fact as that would have been a major biatch. They did have this cool hot wire thingy they used to cut out all the conduit and tubing runs that was literally like a hot knife thru buttah. No surprises next, flying and setting trusses and decking the roof. Since it's a desert and it never rains here, the second I decide to build a house it rains and snows non-stop and the world turns to a giant mud pit.

Since this is the garage journal I'll try not to drift into any of the house details unless anyone asks me to. I just realized I never really described the property, but it's 1.2 acres and approx 355 x 155ft and is laid out like such:

This view is looking due south so you can see how the wraparound porch ties into the garage, the two windows are kitchen and garage. In the distance you can see the ridge line that sits to the west of me and creates afternoon shade. Off to the south you can see where the valley starts to transition to the bluffs.

Couldn't really find any good pictures of the half bath positioning, but here's a view from the laundry room looking thru the wall to the half bath. Just behind the left hand dryer vent is the garage entry door to the house and behind the right hand dryer vent is the half bath exterior door that leads to the porch. Perpendicular to the bathroom exterior door is the door leading from the porch into the garage. I mention this as I consider the garage, half bath and gameroom to be "my" portion of the house as in man-cave, and the wife is the overlord of the rest of it.

And then a long period of time went by where nothing exciting happened in the garage as the rest of the house took priority. But it wasn't long before we had drywall. I'm 6ft tall, and the 4ft drywall sheets make it pretty easy to see the ceiling is 12ft. Apologies for my ugly mug being in the frame - I was giving the shop hounds an opportunity to sniff out any quality issues. I wanted a bright garage so I wired it for 6ea 8ft T5 HO fixtures, with a total of 24 T5 bulbs in the garage, plus 4 bulbs for the garage door lights. Notice the tar paper on the concrete? No mortar bucket circles here. You'd be amazed at how pissed off the carpenters and drywallers were when I made them put paper down and tape it together, even though it only took about 45 mins to do the whole house with everyone working and taping at the same time. I also had a roll off dumpster in the driveway and would hold each trades draws until they came back and threw all their trash in the dumpster. I've built a lot of houses and learned early on that you can have a trash can in every room, a roll off dumpster in the driveway and the guys will still dump everything on the floor or in the tubs (even worse) and leave fast food wrappers all over the property. Oh, and if you leave a broom in the house and ask them to sweep, they will break the broom instantly. I did have a few trades that were tidy, namely the electrician, who even picked up every piece of wire stripping and broke down all the lighting boxes flat before stacking them neatly in the dumpster so I didn't have to walk the dumpster to flatten everything. That is the exception and not the norm though. I did write housekeeping and sweeping into all my subcontracts and my advice to anyone building a house is to do the same. Holding back a check is an incredible incentive to get trades to come back and clean up their mess.

Around this time the roofers put the ice and water shield down, furring strips and started setting the roof tiles. I had the roofers work on weekends while there were no other trades in the house. I've tried to get roofers and other trades to work simultaneously, but none of the ground guys seem to be worth a **** with roofers nailing over their heads, and they absolutely refuse to wear hardhats even though I tell them a small chunk of tile breaking off can kill them. So to save heartache I just had the roofers work on weekends. These guys came up from Phoenix and worked incredibly quickly. They had 6 men in their crew and the roof appeared almost overnight. Out of words!

 

[m_dunnie]

Can't wait to see more. What a beautiful setup this will be!

 

[CNGsaves]

Welcome to GJ and thanks for sharing pics of your awesome house and garage.

Foundation and concrete slab work is excellent with the radiant heat.

Might be helpful now to Update GJ Profile with City / State as once thread gets multiple pages, you'll get asked the same question.

Keep pics coming . . . and please be aware that Photobucket free version won't display pics later if out of space, or "bandwidth exceeded" !!

 

[Hugo L.]

You're out of your element, Donny!!!

 

[60766244]

Looks great. Keen on more photos as they come about.

 

[iPhone1]

looks amazing ! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Welcome to GJ and thanks for sharing pics of your awesome house and garage.

Foundation and concrete slab work is excellent with the radiant heat.

Might be helpful now to Update GJ Profile with City / State as once thread gets multiple pages, you'll get asked the same question.

Keep pics coming . . . and please be aware that Photobucket free version won't display pics later if out of space, or "bandwidth exceeded" !!

Updated profile. Let me see if I can get dropbox to host my images since I already pay for that, unless you know of something that's better and free...

Looks great. Keen on more photos as they come about.

I also own land in a remote part of Oz (Far North Queensland), though without a container on it!

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Re-hosted on dropbox. I set the image resize for the same output but for some reason the second post pictures were larger. Oh, well, off to the garage for some work son!

 

[WarrenJ]

Great looking build. I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.

 

[Flatland Dave]

Great build!

 

[superspec]

In for the shiney red machine.

 

[scab]

This garage will not stand, man.

 

[60766244]

... I also own land in a remote part of Oz (Far North Queensland), though without a container on it!

Queensland can be a beautiful place! You've got a good chunk of it I hope?

I'm in talks for building a concrete walled mega shed on my place right now.

 

[jsherid1]

I know Farmington quite well, great project and welcome to the board (from a long time board lurker). Great roads to the North and East of you--love the road across the Carson National Forest from the Chama Valley.

 

[chiefav8r]

Not to hijack your thread, great looking setup by the way. But what is the retaining wall system?

 

[Mr. Welsh]

Looks like a great start. Might as well include the updates about the rest of the house too. I'd like to see.

 

[atfulldraw]

sweet build doc, dude!

 

[kerryt1]

Love it! I wouldn't mind seeing the construction of the whole house as well, if you feel like sharing. Very cool.

 

[Dude Lebowski]

In for the shiney red machine.

Been working furiously on that the last couple days, will update soon. Got sidetracked last night helping my sister change rear shocks on her Camry. Not very exciting, but she's a broke college student.

Queensland can be a beautiful place! You've got a good chunk of it I hope?

I'm in talks for building a concrete walled mega shed on my place right now.

I have 23 hectares, which reminds me, I just got my property tax notice that I need to pay. I grew up in Cooktown, which is where the land is.

I know Farmington quite well, great project and welcome to the board (from a long time board lurker). Great roads to the North and East of you--love the road across the Carson National Forest from the Chama Valley.

I love driving Million Dollar Highway, Chama and Jemez trails. We also do a lot of 4 wheeling, but I'll get to the vehicles eventually in this post.

Not to hijack your thread, great looking setup by the way. But what is the retaining wall system?

No worries, the system is called Verdura 30 by Soil Retention Systems out of California. I bought 4 semi loads at contractor pricing direct from the manufacturer, but you can special order it thru the home depot. Let me know, as I think I have the SKU and price somewhere in an email. The nice part about this wall is it doesn't require a poured footer or fancy drain system as the wall passes water. The soil here is very alkaline, and all my neighbors with retaining walls have white stains from water seepage. Every third course is a geo-synthetic mating tied into the blocks with 1" schedule 80 pvc pipe. The blocks are heavy (~72lbs each) but the wall system goes down very fast once you get going with it.

 

[dubber]

Great project, really looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

That wall looks like it was no fun, looking forward to the rest of the build

 

[Stuart in MN]

Good looking house! What are your plans for the exterior finish - stucco or some kind of siding? ICFs seem to lend themselves to stucco. Also, with nice insulated walls like that what did you use for insulation in the roof?

 

[SiGmA_X]

Off to a great start! I'm also curious of the roof insulation. Did you consider SIP's for it?

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Your Dudeness,

I've heard of people building a 'Zen Garden', but I've never seen a 'Zen Retaining Wall' before. Very cool! Who manufactures those blocks?

 

[Stuart in MN]

Your Dudeness,

I've heard of people building a 'Zen Garden', but I've never seen a 'Zen Retaining Wall' before. Very cool! Who manufactures those blocks?

Looks like he mentioned the manufacturer a few posts back:

No worries, the system is called Verdura 30 by Soil Retention Systems out of California. I bought 4 semi loads at contractor pricing direct from the manufacturer, but you can special order it thru the home depot. Let me know, as I think I have the SKU and price somewhere in an email. The nice part about this wall is it doesn't require a poured footer or fancy drain system as the wall passes water. The soil here is very alkaline, and all my neighbors with retaining walls have white stains from water seepage. Every third course is a geo-synthetic mating tied into the blocks with 1" schedule 80 pvc pipe. The blocks are heavy (~72lbs each) but the wall system goes down very fast once you get going with it.

 

[BHR4CE1]

Looking great. Can't wait to see where this is going.

 

[kyle@hcb]

Beautiful house/garage. I really like the layout!

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Good looking house! What are your plans for the exterior finish - stucco or some kind of siding? ICFs seem to lend themselves to stucco. Also, with nice insulated walls like that what did you use for insulation in the roof?

Off to a great start! I'm also curious of the roof insulation. Did you consider SIP's for it?

Went with a three coat stucco system (2 layers cementitious covered by 1 layer synthetic)

Roof has 16" of blown fiberglass insulation, it was the most economical way to achieve >R50 value.

 

[Dude Lebowski]

So to give everyone an idea, here's the general layout of the house as first designed. This is the lighting layout as the floorplan gets a little busy on a small print with all dimensions and descriptions. Due to terrain and distances I chose to eliminate the garage door on the top left of the plans and I went with a oversized double garage door and a single instead of three single doors. Otherwise it's pretty much close to an as built.

 

[Dude Lebowski]

So now you know the layout of the house, some more pictures as a diversion before we get back to the garage. Back of the house looking in the french doors and the windows for the dining room.

And this is standing approximately in the front entry way looking thru what would be the pantry to the kitchen and dining room.

more to come in a bit.

 

[slob]

Far out, man

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Framing out the wraparound patio. It's 12 ft deep with 2 ft eave overhang.

And here's the private patio coming off the master bedroom. 8 ft deep plus 2ft overhang and a 220 outlet for the hot tub to the left.

View from the dining room (no, not the Backhoe).

Normally you see this looking out the back of the house and over the Valley. Feature is Angels Peak.

Here we have the guest ensuite as the brits would say. This guest bedroom has a private bath and it's own exterior doors and patio.

Back patio framed out prior to stucco.

Front entry way detail starting to be formed.

Straight on view.

Gotta go help unload groceries.

 

[Hardware]

Awesome Build... bout time you got off your *** and made a thread...

 

[Dude Lebowski]

Awesome Build... bout time you got off your *** and made a thread...

You got a very nice garage yourself.

I'm trying not to blow my wad of pictures all at once or people might expect me to get more done around here. I know my wife sure does. I like how your garage took some time to complete, I also will have to build mine out as the wallet allows.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Very impressive