What would you do?

[kyboy1]

So, here's the idea.

I am going to build a 24x24 gambrel roof garage on a slab, for my family and I to live in while I build our home on the same property. Since we are self financing the entire project, I am looking at roughly 4-5 years until we can "officialy" move out of the garage and into the home.

I am very comfortable with all areas of home construction except for insulation; there are too many products for me to keep up with. This is where I need some experienced help/ideas.

What are my cost efficient options for insulating the garage? I am specifically concerned with the slab floor being cold in the winter.

None of my plans are set in stone as far as construction materials, metal vs vinyl siding, traditional wood studs or pole barn style, wood vs metal studs. I am very open to ideas but please remember that this will eventually be a detached garage for our vehicles so I don't want to spend a small fortune on materials if I won't need it in the future.

Think of this as a "what would you do" type of question.

FYI
Zone 6/ Central KY

 

[RivennHewn]

What would Jesus do?

 

[jtbinvalrico]

......does the misses know you are asking around about this idea?

By the way, welcome. You are to immediately photograph any tools and/or projects and post them for us to visually play with.

 

[bigbubba]

......does the misses know you are asking around about this idea?

By the way, welcome. You are to immediately photograph any tools and/or projects and post them for us to visually play with.

Don't forget to have him take some pic's of the missis as well

 

[MScott]

As to the floor, you should certainly put foam insulation under the pour to avoid a cold floor. Think ahead to whether (and how) you will heat the garage in the future and consider pex tubing for a heated floor. I'm not sure what you intend for toilet and kitchen, but you will need to install plumbing in the concrete slab. Do you intend to have a loft/upstairs?

 

[kyboy1]

RivennHewn, he hasn't responded to my thread yet, so I'm not sure.

jt, thankfully the wife is all for the idea, as long as the house gets built she doesn't mind "ruffin it" for a few years.

bigbubba, I will make sure and get those pics posted in the near future.

MScott,
In order for me to get a certificate of Occupancy from the building inspector I will have a working bathroom among other things. This is basically going to be a little house, complete with a loft. As far as the heating goes I haven't explored those options yet.

For future reference, I am leaning towards metal siding and roof for this project. I just don't want to spend $10,000 if $5,000 will do the same job as far as insulation goes.

 

[GYOGI65]

Insulation is the cheapest thing you can do and if a house or garage will have the cheapest and earliest pay back weather a/c or heat in ny 100 gallons of oil is almost 400 dollars quick pay back over one winter not counting a/c some guys have in their shops
i would personall ck spray foam

 

[nehog]

Well, lay some foam down, put sub-floor ply down on top of foam, carpet pad and carpet and it should be warm enough... (That assumes the garage is already built and the slab is there.)

 

[Beercan321]

I assume the garage has heat, plumbing, a shower etc correct? 4 to 5 years is a long time to live in a garage in my opinion. My wife would never do that. I assume money is tight and that's why you are considering this. I don't know your financial situation but if it were me I would consider buying a used mobile home to put on the property until your house is finished. That way you could have all the comforts of a conventional home while you are building your house. Once you move into your new home you could sell the mobile home. Just my $0.02

 

[NitroPress]

Um, if you're planning to live 4-5 years in it and want to snip every dime out of its construction and fittings, I suggest that the companion project be a comfortable, well-insulated doghouse... as that's where YOU are going to be living. :/

 

[Thirsty]

I would (and just might) build a garage with a loft or a second story where you can have a small living quarters with all the necessities of home. I would have a small part of the garage petitioned off for a laundry room and a round hole cut into the upstairs floor to toss dirty laundry, maybe have a fire pole for quick access hehe. You can even build a deck off the top floor to have a nice area to sit outside.
When your home is finally built you can use your small living quarters for guests to stay or an awesome man cave etc.

 

[rsanter]

a good friend of mine is doing exactly that. he built the shop (stick framing) which will also be the garage for the house later on. he is self financing the project and has a timeline of about 3 years. he installed a full bathroom in the garage which will stay and a kitchen counter with sink and all that will become the garage sink and counter later.
he has about 1000sqft of living space and then the remaining 3 car garage space to work out of.

if you are going to pour the slab then I would put tubes in the floor for hydronic heating. there are systems that will act as a water heater and the heat supply for the floor so you will get both in one unit and then use the floor heating for the shop later

the other option is to get a mobile home, used they are generally cheap

bob

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I worked with a guy that did exactly this.

He, his wife, and 2 kids lived in the garage while he built the house.

I think he got his divorce papers within a month of getting the house done. I don't think the garage living was the reason for the divorce.

He did lose the house by the time it was all over.

On the insulation question? 2" HD polystyrene under the slab. You can probably get it from your concrete supplier. When I built my garage, I was able to go through an insulation installer and get the job done (including labor) for less than the cost of the insulation if I bought it myself.

Phil

 

[ffjeeper]

I have a friend that did this, and he was really thinking when he built his. Any of the interior walls that were installed for living quarters on the ground floor that he planned on removing after the house were built, were wiring free. He had all of the wiring run on the outside walls. It meant that some of the light switches were a little bit further than normal from the doors, but there was zero rewiring when it was transformed back into a garage. He also framed the ovehead doors in, but never put them in right away. He figured that the garage would be more comfortable, and afterwards he just cut out the opening, knocked out a few studs and his doors were installed. He didn't have to pull a permit for structural framing or electrical. The bathroom stayed exactly where it was.

 

[ibedayank]

use in slab heating...it wont be cold
so much easier to heat the slab and let the slab heat the rest than use AIR to try and heat from the top down. remember heat rises

 

[Brad54]

I think this is definitely do-able.

Fill the exterior walls with fiberglass batt insulation.
For the slab, plan on carpet and a regular carpet pad under it. It's going to be a garage when you're done... I wouldn't spend a dime extra. You're in Kentucky, and while it DOES get cold there, it doesn't get cold like Michigan, Ohio, etc. There are plenty of houses built on a slab in COLD states that don't have in-floor heating.
As for heat, I'd get a cast-iron fireplace and heat the whole building with it. 24x24 is damn small, and a decent-sized cast iron stove or fireplace is going to roast you out of there.
For the summer, if there aren't a lot of trees on the property to keep it cool (supplemented with fans and open doors), I'd go with a single big window or in-wall AC unit up high, letting the cold air hit the loft first (where I assume your bedroom will be) and fall through to downstairs.
Also, while it's old-fashioned, I'd look at putting floor grates in the loft like houses had 100 years ago, to let the warm air come up from the stove, and the cold air go down from the AC.

You might also consider having a lean-to type "addition" on the back of the building, and use that for the bathroom and laundry room, then put your kitchen on that wall in the "garage." You won't have to worry about removing all of that plumbing when you reconvert it to a garage.

My wife and I have often said that if we ever got a cabin, this is exactly what we'd do--build a garage and finish it like this.
-Brad

 

[TWX]

I agree that 24x24 seems awful small for the "house" for several years until the main house is done, and once completed won't make for a very comfortable two car garage with the water fixtures like the bathroom and kitchenette in the way.

My workshop is 24x38 inside and is a little oversized for a three-car garage. The main area is 24x30, with 24x8 raised four or so inches up in an area inaccessible to vehicles. If I had built this garage to be the house temporarily, the kitchen and bath would occupy half of the 24x8 area, with bathroom against the 8' wall, the kitchen in front of it using water from the wall separating the kitchen and bath, so that if I wanted to later remove the kitchenette and put in a utility sink I could, or could repurpose the cabinetry for the shop. If for some weird reason you would want a lower level, put that basement level below the 24x8 portion, where a vehicle won't sit over it.

I live in the desert, but some of the opposite problems to what I have could be beneficial to you. Consider the placement of the shop on the grounds- do you want the big doors on the South or West side to try to get a mild amount of solar heat? That would let you insulate the East and North walls completely, where the sun won't help.

You might also want to consider how you're going to deal with the garage doors in the interim years. If I was in your shoes, I wouldn't install garage doors at all in the mean time. I'd make a nice frame opening for them, but I'd fill it in with walls, a pedestrian door, and a couple of windows, so you're not living in a dark hole for several years. Install these walls where they're fairly easily and inexpensively removed when it's time, then install your insulated garage doors later. If anything, if you want a window in the workshop later, build one of the permanent walls so that it can take a window from the temporary wall easily, like boxing the studs for it but not cutting out the outer sheathing.

Put in adequate 240V electric service with hot-hot-neutral-ground, at least 50amp capable, to wherever it'll be best for when it's a shop, and plan on putting the washer/dryer there in the mean time.

I'd also recommend having plenty of room in front of where the garage doors will be for whatever projects will spill out of the shop. The one thing that's annoying about my setup is that I have a common driveway for the 3-car shop garage and the two-car attached garage for daily drivers, and the doors for the two garages are at about 90° to each other, so I literally can't leave anything out in the driveway near the shop if I want to leave access to the house's garage. The other day when I was working on the shop itself I had to drag the project car out into the driveway after verifying that my wife didn't want to go anywhere for a few hours. It would have been nice to not have that constraint, but as that's my only real complaint I guess I should shut my trap...