Two Story Garage?

[MattRMagnum]

So, I'll admit that I'm ~3 years from starting to build my garage, at least (if the short sale succeeds, my realtor and I are guessing I'll be signing papers around December/January). But that doesn't stop me from dreaming and starting to plan.

The property is sloped, and the 'top' of the property is where the house sits, with a circular driveway. There's a secondary driveway that goes off to a lower section of the land in front of the house, that's been filled and grated and ready to build a shop on (it is, honestly, probably half the reason I'm buying this place). I love the idea of driving down the secondary driveway to a two bay shop, but have a upper level that's simply two parking spots (my daily drivers), and an internal staircase down to the main shop.

Space isn't really my issue, since the grated area is probably 60x40, and I can easily cut into the hillside if required. It's design and construction (the second floor has to be able to comfortably hold ~9000lbs of cars) that worry me.

Anyone tried a project like this? I'm starting to flip through the garage gallery, but am seeing a bunch of guys with nice big properties and a single story garage.

 

[djkeev]

Totally do-able but...... Check with your building officials, they may not allow wooden garage floors on new construction. Various reasons, rot, fire, strength, etc.

If they allow them, most likely they will require steel primary support, not wooden.

I am firmly a "can do" guy, but for this application, you should really spring the $$'s for an engineered design.

My 2 cents.

Of course farmers have parked heavy field machinery in the wooden upper levels of barns since steel farming equipment was first invented during the industrial revolution. Those early barns were built with little more than fallen tree trunks and seat of the pants engineering!

Dave

 

[Dragster Racer]

I had a boss who had a pretty upscale house built. They had garage over basement. Concrete slab under garage. Looked like some pretty expensive engineering to me.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Second floor to hold cars, break out the check book.

 

[madjack]

I built my new garage with the second floor as my project car space. I'm sure I've over built, but who knows what will get stored up there by the next owner.
16" on center, 14" floor trusses that are plated over with 3/8" A/C plywood. Flooring was doubled, glued and screwed 3/4" diamond-ply t&g. My space is 36'x48' with a 12" concrete round pillar centered on a 8"x8" "I" beam from the garage below. I used scissor trusses for the roof (8/12 pitch due to heavy snow loads) for a 12' head room along the center ridge and 8' at the side walls. From the lower level floor, the total height is 36' for the whole structure.
I built into the hillside and have a 14' long aluminum ramp ( built by LandSport) to access the upper level from the alley behind the property. The alley is 52" below the upper story floor height. The ramp is rated for 20k per axel. It was originally designed to use two of them to load an Abrams tank.
The bad part of this is I don't have any pictures. Never took any, as I have been to busy building. Just finishing the siding now and will start trenching in for services in the next couple of weeks.

 

[BJ42LX]

I was at an estate sale last week that had a basement under the garage. It was supported by a network of I-beams. The (presumably reinforced) concrete was poured on top of corrigated galvanized steel; same general construciton as many bridges. This was in a very un-assuming working/middle class house - not a $million place.

The problem here in the snow belt is moisture and salt. Those two agents had taken a significant toll on the corrigated steel. Even through the weather has been very dry and the house has been vacant for some time there was still moisture in the concrete ceiling. That place must be fantastically wet in every day use. Yuck.

 

[tab2]

http://www.spancrete.com/markets/residential/

There are pictures on their site showing exactly your application. We have this is in our barn. It allows for a walk out lower level. The previous owner used to keep his construction equipment in there. It is amazing but can give you no information on cost, other than I wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

[Dragster Racer]

Now that you mention it, I bet there are a million 2 story barns with tractors upstairs. I have been in probably 50 of them. They tend to have close support downstairs.

 

[kbs2244]

If you have a dealer near you Spancrete is the way to go.
It is what they do and they have done all the engineering many times.

 

[LowKat]

I built a house for a customer a few yeas ago. Steep hillside. 14' crawlspace below the garage. We used glue-lam beams 6' o.c. and the flooring was solid 2X6 standing on edge.

After completion, the owner had a hardwood floor company finish the rough floor. It looked very nice.

 

[MattRMagnum]

Thanks everyone for the input! I was planning to have an architect and engineer take a look at the property once I've actually purchased it, and take my simple design and legitimize it. From there it'll be figuring out how to rapidly get my mortgage down to 78% of the total amount (so the PMI kicks off), and I can afford to take out a home equity loan. The biggest downside to this design is that I can't really do much construction myself. If I stick-built in the middle of the property, I could easily do it myself with some friends (the ground is already mostly level. It'd just be a matter of building the foundation, and then constructing up from there).

Snow shouldn't be a major issue for me. I'm in the Pacific North West, and while it does get wet, we rarely get more than an inch or two where I'm living.

Anyway, as you guys travel around, if you see a garage that makes you think of this, snap a picture if you can. I'd love to see how others have done it.

 

[aardquark]

Here is a link to a project that seems similar to what you have in mind.

http://newhillgarage.com/other/construction-of-the-new-hill-garage/

There is a nice slideshow there showing the construction progress.

 

[MattRMagnum]

That is a similar project, though mine was a bit more 'into the hill' than that. However, after looking at the property extensively, having a drink, and staring more, I realized it'll probably cost me less to simply buy my neighbor's property in 3-4 years (it's his second or third property and he inherited it), and rent his house out until I can afford to 'remodel' the house into a 4 car garage with an apartment above it.

 

[90zcar]

mattrmagnum did you ever get this built and finished?


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[Stuart in MN]

mattrmagnum did you ever get this built and finished?

He hasn't been back to the site since 2013, so chances are he's not going to reply...

 

[MattRMagnum]

mattrmagnum did you ever get this built and finished?


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I did not! Digging into the hill was unfeasible and the county won't let me build anywhere else on my property.*

* LSS: The only buildable spots (without major deforestation and further terracing) are within 20' of a private road. County says they won't grant me an easement to use 2-5' of that easement, so I can't build a garage.

He hasn't been back to the site since 2013, so chances are he's not going to reply...

Oh ye of little faith. Don't buy a lotto ticket today.

 

[90zcar]

He does exist! Thanks man just curious.


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[James-W]

I am sure parking cars on the second floor can be done, the real question is, is it economically feasible to do it? If money is no object, then practically anything is possible.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Oh ye of little faith. Don't buy a lotto ticket today.

I stand corrected, sorry about that.

Back to the original question - there was a two story garage discussion not long ago, I think in the garage gallery section. Pretty much the same thing, built into the side of a hill with an upper and lower level. I looked and can't find it right now, hopefully someone else will be able to provide a link.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

This post reminded me of a garage that was down the hill from me when I was a kid. It was a single car "shed" style garage where the garage door was at street level and the rest of the garage set on posts as the hillside dropped rapidly away from the road.

The floor that I recall was rough sawn lumber going side to side with extra boards laid the opposite direction along the "tracks" the tires would follow. Very similar to wooden floored bridges of the era. Code enforcement would have a heart attack if you built something like that today.

And this story brings to mind another story. There's a hotel down here with a 200-foot spanned unsupported dome. The story goes that the owner asked for the dome and his architect told him it couldn't be done. So, instead of an architect he hired a bridge builder who told him that 200-foot unsupported spans were no problem. The dome roof is 6 stories up and held by trusses meeting at a central cylinder in the middle, that sit on roller bearings on the outside circle to allow for thermal expansion. It's been standing for over 100 years, so I guess he knew what he was doing.

You can build about anything when money is no object.

Phil