|
I started this in the discussion thread, but there will hopefully be a lot of updates (unless my ADHD distracts me), so I don't want to constantly clog that thread with pictures of beams while people are discussing the beauty of an inline 6. I'd also love to solicit some of y'all's opinions and suggestions as this thing goes up, so here's my personal In 2021 we bought a new house so that my wife could be closer to the sites she visits for work. It's a great house in a quiet area near a ton of great stuff, but our last house had a 23x26 garage with a 14' ceiling, so that was pretty tough to leave behind. The new house has a 20x20 garage, which should be more than enough for normal people, but we have a Dodge Challenger, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Ford Escape, Harley Road Glide, Ducati Scrambler, and a Kawasaki KLX. You can guess what my wife owns.  The house is on just under an acre of land, so I figured that was enough space to build a big enough garage. What's big enough? Hopefully 24x40 is big enough. This house also has poo poo for storage, so it's going to have a second floor that I'll eventually turn into an office/storage/soundproof drum space. The hardest part of this entire process has been actually getting someone to do the project. I'm not remotely competent enough to not dig through a sewer line or blow up my house trying to extend lines out to the garage, but after almost two years I finally found a company to start the project. First things first, I needed a survey. For ease, I overlayed it over the actual property to give an idea of where the garage is going in comparison to the house and patio and whatnot.  Once that was done, I got architectural plans. There's considerably more pages, but for your benefit, here's a vividly detailed rectangle:  On Friday, we had an excavator delivered, and on Monday I came home from a doctors appointment to find that he'd effortless ripped all the trees out where the garage is going.  Yesterday he asked me, "do you care at all about the patio bricks?" I said no, because while we plan to redo/extend the patio, there's no point trying to match them. And just like that, the patio was ripped apart. We're currently here:  He'll also need to dig a trench to run electric, water, and sewer, as I intend to put a bathroom in this so I'm not running across the yard between calls in the winter when my office is upstairs. Lingering questions: Where is the bathroom going to go, and just how much of that needs to be worked out before the slab is poured? For the floor, do I do polished concrete or swisstrax? Do I need more windows? Is 24x40 really big enough?? What I'd really love is any suggestions you folks might have on what I should make sure to include before this building even has walls. I'll post updates and challenges as they come, as well as what I'm sure will be a cavalcade of scope changes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a piece. Also, in 20+ years I think I've made 4 threads on SA, so hopefully I didn't gently caress this up. I blame Radium.
|
#
?
May 18, 2023 00:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 14:37 |
|
|
Neat! I'd want natural light in the office. Depending on what you do in the workshop however the windows might just become unsightly with dust. Speaking of dust, straight up concrete floors always seem to leave me covered in white powder when I get up from lying on the floor trying to unscrew a skidplate or whatever. I like the one we had at college which was light grey and slightly softer than concrete. It doesnt break things or itself when you drop them, and it's easier to see that little nut that inexplicably costs 40 bux and is mission critical. Big sink in the workshop is handy, for hand washing and fluids that aren't inimical to biological life. And basically I'm jealous because you have tonnes of room.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2023 18:24
|
|
|
Shelvocke posted:Neat! I'm hoping if it's polished it won't be quite so dusty, but I'm still 50/50 on whether I do that or swisstrax and just powerwash it every time it gets dirty. But definitely good call on a washout sink. I'm debating just having a big sink built into a countertop rather than even putting one in the bathroom. No reason to have two sinks. As far as office windows go, there's fortunately two big ones right where I'm going to build out the office, and they actually face into the sun so it'll get a ton of light.  Today the cement mixer arrived and started pouring. I had a momentary panic that I should have considered burying something for eternity, but that was quickly replaced by a regret that I didn't have them build an underground bunker/batcave.  This pad might actually be done by Monday. Wild.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2023 20:35
|
|
|
Every day I remember that, oh yeah, I don't know poo poo about construction. Obviously they couldn't pour the pad until the supports were done. Since we last left our hero, they came and built the form, filled it, and now we've got a cement knee-wall.   The spaces in the front are for the doors, so the floor will be roughly level with the bottom of those gaps. Seems they've taken today off, likely because there's rain in the forecast. But it's currently not supposed to rain until June, so I assume with the clip these guys have been moving at, they'll make a lot of progress between now and then. I assume they'll fill the hole back in, level it, and then pour the pad. Most of it is 4" thick except for where the lift is going, and I'm curious how they'll handle varying depths. They know what they're doing, I just want to see it come together.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 20:04
|
|
|
Are you going to need any sort of inspection or approval before they move forward with the build? Also rip to the nice clean square patio you had.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 08:16
|
|
|
Uberlieder posted:Are you going to need any sort of inspection or approval before they move forward with the build? Also rip to the nice clean square patio you had. They might need to have the foundation inspected before the walls go up, but everything is permitted. Either way that's all being handled by the GC. I basically just sit back until there's a shell of a building with its own electrical panel and some pipes coming out of the floor. From there, well, whatever happens indoors is no business of the city. And tbh we planned to replace the patio anyway. I'm thinking outdoor countertops and a built-in grill, as well as extending the brick/pavers out to the door in the front of the house. There was an addition built in the 80s (the part with the attached garage), and the door there we use as our "front" door, but occasionally delivery drivers get confused and just walk right across the lawn to the door that has no walkway. It's kind of a pain in the rear end to get to from the inside or outside, so maybe having a walkway to it will deter people from walking across the lawn and give us a path to the door itself. Yesterday at 9 PM the GC called me to tell me he needed three payments. Which is fine, but I'd prefer if someone is asking for $35k that they give me a few days notice because I don't exactly keep that amount in my checking account.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 19:57
|
|
|
Thursday they filled in the hole in/around the footing, so now I can get my trash to the curb without pulling some tightrope poo poo.  Before they started, I asked what the plan was for the utility trench. Since I'm going to need plumbing and, yknow, electricity. Those will be run from the main house in a conduit. "..the what?" Friday this was delivered.  I assume it was. Maybe the big yellow one gave birth. They haven't been back because it's been full on Wizard of Oz raining since Friday afternoon, but I assume the next step is to fully gently caress up my patio. Maybe they'll build the walls simultaneously. Probably not. Also there seems to be some debate on when they do the actual floor. The guy who operates the machines says they'll likely wait until the walls are up (which doesn't make sense to me personally, but I suppose that would protect it from the elements). The GC running the project says they'll do the floor first. Flip a coin, I guess. Total cost to date: $38,850
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2023 01:24
|
|
|
Small update, because I was holding off until something more interesting happened, but they haven't done anything since the 14th. Where we're at now, they've dug the trench and poured/leveled the stone.  The electrician is apparently coming out today to lay some pipe for the garage panel and blast some holes in my walls. I assume they're going to be capped or it's going to wind up being a habitrail for chipmunks. We'll see. EAGERLY awaiting the actual foundation being poured. I assume once that sets, actually getting the walls up shouldn't be too much effort. ..Shouldn't.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2023 18:10
|
|
|
"The hell happened with Strife? Did he get distracted and is now just gleefully enjoying his new big garage?" God, I wish. It's finally stopped raining in Massachusetts, but for a bit there I was regretting not building an Ark. Construction has finally resumed on my garage, and today, some wood arrived.  The GC assures me that the building itself will go up so fast that I'll barely notice construction happening. In the last three months, I've fantasized about what I'll actually do to finish out the interior, but I reckon I'll have forever to figure that out. In the meantime, I've been perseverating about whether I should get him to put a drain or a slight grade in the floor for water. I guess ultimately it shouldn't really matter, as the garage is basically going at the highest elevation of my property, but that's potentially something I could regret immediately after it's finished. Anyone have experience with either grading a floor in advance, or retrofitting a drain afterward?
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2023 16:03
|
|
|
I'd be surprised if a slight grade wasn't already planned, but I'm only basing that off of my own garage having such and assuming that's the norm.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2023 16:27
|
|
|
Yeah, a slight grade towards the entry would be my preference for a garage, especially in Mass where you’ll inevitably have something in it with snow or rain on it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2023 16:55
|
|
|
Man they're really flying through this building. Here's a photo from Monday where I thought to myself, have I perhaps purchased a building that is too large? Of course not. This is normal and fine. A super long two-car garage with a second floor and a bathroom is a completely natural thing for a person to own.  And this was about an hour ago:  They should be starting with the siding tomorrow. Not entirely sure when the pouring starts for the floor, but it should be graded per the GC. Redoing my driveway is not part of this project but that'll be interesting. Looking at these photos, it's kind of annoying that the easement requirements basically forced me to put the garage at this weird angle. Would have been nice to have it at a more comfortable angle to the existing garage, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 19:55
|
|
|
Strife posted:
Normal? No. Ideal? Yes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2023 15:03
|
|
|
Strife posted:Man they're really flying through this building. If there's a bathroom, there'll be hot water; make sure you get a sink in the garage proper, to wash your hands etc.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 23:43
|
|
|
With the garage at an angle like that, it will probably be easier for your plow guy to shove the snow off to the side of the garage (assuming you have a plow guy since it's Massachusetts). And speaking of New England, do a floor drain if it's not too late. Then you can wash the salt off your cars and bikes during the winter.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2023 20:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 14:37 |
|
|
Hey I'm back. I work a lot and between hanging out with my son, putting effort into this building, and occasionally actually riding, I haven't had a ton of time for SA. Okay, we're about done with the building itself. The city came and signed off on everything Friday, and all that's left is running the plumbing. For some reason the contractor filled in the trench that was dug for the electrical, probably because he forgot, and now he'll need to dig another for the water and return. Not sure if that's possible in the winter, but whatever, I can park in there now. I'm hoping to bury a couple Cat 6 cables in the plumbing trench when it actually gets dug, because the wireless in my house doesn't quite reach the garage.  I also need to get someone out to pave a driveway which can't happen until the spring, but it'll be about where these orange lines are:  Inside looks like this:   Eventually I'm going to put my office upstairs, but that's probably a 1-2 year timeline. Today I laid a really lovely brick path for the sole purpose of getting to the rear door of the garage without an entire acre of mud in the tread of my motorcycle boots.  I think I'll stick with my fake computer job. Onto the interior. At some point soon I'm going to go get some insulation and start at least sealing off the inside so it's not quite so cold in there, and then at some point I'll have a mini split installed. In the meantime I might get a propane heater (and a CO detector..) in case I'm going to be in there for an extended period. But I've got my cars in there now. The bikes too, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  Total cost to date: $153,524
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2023 02:14
|
|