building a new garage

Popular vote is concrete right off the bat.
To be honest I can't imagine building something like this without a concrete floor. I understand cost issues, but to me that is a mandatory part of the cost if you want a garage.

A while back I was required to relocate unexpectedly due to a family matter. The current property only has a standard 2-car garage, while in the past I had a very large shop full of equipment. So just my equipment fills this garage, leaving no space to get any vehicles in or actually do any work (other than on a crowded workbench). The property is large with plenty of space but only dirt and gravel (decorative rock) covering it. At first I tried working on my cars in the gravel by using planks, etc. It was a royal pain in the arse to try and work that way, and it even caused one car to fall off its stands. However this is a temporary situation and not worth investing much to improve things. I ended up covering a large pad with flat pavers and that is where I've been working on my cars. But even that isn't very good. Things like jacks, carts, or creepers get caught on the edges of the pavers as you roll over them. It beats the gravel but nothing can replace having a flat, smooth, level, solid concrete floor to work on. If it absolutely came down to it financially, I'd delay something like the lift in favor of a concrete floor first. And I'm sure the contractor would agree that it is better to lay the concrete before constructing the actual building (I'm sort of surprised they don't require it). Just be sure to plan the concrete for things like mounting the lift later on.
 
ok decision is made I WILL do concrete at the time of build Lift was of course going to be delayed until after the floor as there would be no place to mount it. . you guys convinced me. AS far as concrete before building, most of the ones around here are done after for post/pole buildings as you cant really dig the holes for the poles after the concrete is there.

Odie
 
I would move the lift as far forward as you reasonably can. Being able to get a car behind the lift with the door closed, lifted or not is very convenient.

Due to logistics of my property I am thinking about a two building approach, one for storage and adding on to my existing garage for the actual work area.

Your plan is an excellent one that deals with the other realities of your life/home.

Put in an intercom...you will be hard to find in that building :)
 
I would move the lift as far forward as you reasonably can. Being able to get a car behind the lift with the door closed, lifted or not is very convenient.

Due to logistics of my property I am thinking about a two building approach, one for storage and adding on to my existing garage for the actual work area.

Your plan is an excellent one that deals with the other realities of your life/home.

Put in an intercom...you will be hard to find in that building :)
Intercom? isnt part of the purpose of a garage to NOT be found :) I am for sure going to have the lift place so I can get a car through with with my wife's daily driver (Subie Forester). if i have anything bigger and need to get in/out, I can use the other side and drive through. Part of the reason I am not going with 2 separate is for legal reasons. Craigs trust is written as to we can use money from the sale of the house to replace the garage we converted. the lawyer said we probably wont have an issue with using it in any way we wanted, if someone complains about it a one-for-one (even withe the size difference) will hold up. Down side the contractor we are going with wont be able to fit us in until fall. worth the wait IMO rather that get what will work, but not really totally what wanted.

in other good news on the project. We have 3 very large (65', 68', 87') pines that need to go for this to fit. there really isnt space to drop the, as we have power lines to the left, house to the right, trees we want to keep to the east and west. So my friend who does tree stuff off the books part time, said rent a lift for 2 days and a case of beer and he will help me do it. cool! 2 days rental ~$500. Plus I will need more than my home depot special chainsaw to cut it up after so I got to get a batter (farm/ranch) Chainsaw. then he pointed out a will need to rent a stump grinder (~$200) . Still about $1200. workable. Last time I had an estimate for a professional company estimate trees for me it was about ~$500 a tree. My wife still wanted an estimate. Because I still kinda wanted to have fun bringing the tree down, I called the most visible tree company in the area. told them I need the 3 trees down and stump ground, no clean up. (we have plans for the logs to use a decoration outside) the estimate was $900. I was shocked. but at this time it became a no brainer. Fun or not, this was far safer. for ~$200 more than the rental, I am good. still having a tree party, still got my new chain saw (husqvarna 460 rancher) Dave will still get his beer because we do have a couple dead pines we were going to take down that we can drop our selves.

Odie
 
I am glad you got a good deal on the trees from a 3rd party. It is a lot of work and can get dicey when quarters are tight and the lumber is large.
 
I spent nearly 5k on removing trees from my suburban lot at my old house. Huge trees that had to be taken apart piece by piece. Good price.
 
I spent nearly 5k on removing trees from my suburban lot at my old house. Huge trees that had to be taken apart piece by piece. Good price.
I spent that much taking out one tree and that was the lowest bidder by a fair amount. It was about 130' high and leaning right over the middle of my house so it also had to be taken apart piece by piece.
 
I was seriously shocked. but it was pointed out that the cleanup is usually time consuming. when we were going to do it our selves we were going to top it (section by section) because of its location.

these guys are also the biggest around here. they have the power company contract as well .

tree.png
 
Intercom? isnt part of the purpose of a garage to NOT be found :) I am for sure going to have the lift place so I can get a car through with with my wife's daily driver (Subie Forester). if i have anything bigger and need to get in/out, I can use the other side and drive through. Part of the reason I am not going with 2 separate is for legal reasons. Craigs trust is written as to we can use money from the sale of the house to replace the garage we converted. the lawyer said we probably wont have an issue with using it in any way we wanted, if someone complains about it a one-for-one (even withe the size difference) will hold up. Down side the contractor we are going with wont be able to fit us in until fall. worth the wait IMO rather that get what will work, but not really totally what wanted.

in other good news on the project. We have 3 very large (65', 68', 87') pines that need to go for this to fit. there really isnt space to drop the, as we have power lines to the left, house to the right, trees we want to keep to the east and west. So my friend who does tree stuff off the books part time, said rent a lift for 2 days and a case of beer and he will help me do it. cool! 2 days rental ~$500. Plus I will need more than my home depot special chainsaw to cut it up after so I got to get a batter (farm/ranch) Chainsaw. then he pointed out a will need to rent a stump grinder (~$200) . Still about $1200. workable. Last time I had an estimate for a professional company estimate trees for me it was about ~$500 a tree. My wife still wanted an estimate. Because I still kinda wanted to have fun bringing the tree down, I called the most visible tree company in the area. told them I need the 3 trees down and stump ground, no clean up. (we have plans for the logs to use a decoration outside) the estimate was $900. I was shocked. but at this time it became a no brainer. Fun or not, this was far safer. for ~$200 more than the rental, I am good. still having a tree party, still got my new chain saw (husqvarna 460 rancher) Dave will still get his beer because we do have a couple dead pines we were going to take down that we can drop our selves.

Odie

Odie:
Good call on the 460 Rancher, the power company had to cut this one because it was close to the wires. This is what they left me, the trunk was 40"+, the rest ranged from 8" to 30". The 460 took care of all of it.
20190624_194427.jpg
 
Update.. ok the only thing to update is my frustration. Due to our lovely legal system, the monies from the sale of his house is tied up for a bit. Love when all the named people on the trust agree that the money we planned on should go to us but the lawyers keep putting things in the way. Which of course means more time/money for them. then My mother in law said screw it and she said she would give us the money and the trust can pay her. cool. well except for Covid/fires. if you havent looked at the price of lumber on nasdaq for the past 6 mo. you should look. The price at the store doesnt do it justice.. So the contrator we had for 55k is now 75k. UGH.
I have a few bids out right now to see where a metal post barn would be. I know it is usually more expensive, but I am not sure how much. SO frustrating not having a garage for 3 years when having a garage was key to when we bought the house.

On the good note, the X is running great although I havent had places to drive it as nothing really went on this summer, The Spider; I am finally at the point were I think it is as reliable as an 1981 car can be and my wife loves driving it. I need ot put a radio in it as that is her only complaint.

Odie
 
Yeah nothing about this year has been what one would have thought.
Sorry you haven’t been able to get things going.

We have had no events this year. I went to one autocross and that has been it.

Have you considered going to the Italian Happening tomorrow?
 
Yeah nothing about this year has been what one would have thought.
Sorry you haven’t been able to get things going.

We have had no events this year. I went to one autocross and that has been it.

Have you considered going to the Italian Happening tomorrow?
Concidered. Was even ready to go but then life happened and family plans got in the way.

Odie
 
Need an area for a proper machine shop ( 5,000 pound lathe (suggest Mori Seiki MS850 and similar), nothing smaller than a bridgeport style milling machine, drill press is not really useful, too grinder and etc) and related.

Bernice
 
Well things are going well. Poles are set, framing is going and the trusses were dropped off today. Pretty excited even though it will be a bit shorter than originally planned (36x48 rather than 36x56)

Odie
garage_live_1611672027144.jpg
 
Congrats on things moving along so nicely.

And with our first real snow of the season.

Well things are going well. Poles are set, framing is going and the trusses were dropped off today. Pretty excited even though it will be a bit shorter than originally planned (36x48 rather than 36x56)

OdieView attachment 41876
 
I'm envious. I really miss having a proper shop with space to work in.
Curious, why did it get shortened?
Google lumber nasdaq. Then look at the price last year compared to now. Total cost increase was higher than my budget. Once i.shrunk it, between the materials and concrete i didnt need (36×8 plus i took out the concrete under the 24x10 leanto/porch) i was back to the same cost last year for the whole.thing

Odie
 
That really sucks. I've experienced similar things where prices suddenly shot up to outrageous levels, necessitating changes to my plans. But not at the expense level you are talking about. I feel for you.

Is there any possibility of having one end of the garage made in such a way that it will be very easy to add to it in the future (if you decide to)? I'm not versed in building construction so I have no idea if such a thing is possible.
 
Back
Top