Building a garage

[7FootYeti]

I'm looking into building a new garage. probably 22' x 22'. Just enough to get by. My current garage looks more like a shanty built prolly for a model A

I want to buy a kit so I can do it myself. I've looked in town at some home improvment places and lumber yards and it looks like I can get by for about 3k for the building supplies. Now I don't plan on being in this house for more than 3 more years, so I'm not concerned with "the best". Just something that looks and works well. Are there any places out there that offer garage "kits" that I should be looking into?

Concrete question:
This may be regional, I don't know. Do I need footings for a garage, or is a floating slab sufficient? I've been quoted around $3100 for the slab without footings and about 4k with. Do these numbers look in line?

[plunkinberry]

84 Lumber has garage kits - stop in one of their stores and ask them - they should be more than willing to help.

22' x 22' is pretty small. My 2 car internal garage is 24' x 20' and it is not large enough to do much except work on my project jeep. I end up working on everything else in the driveway. If you could expand in one direction - just to buy yourself some storage and working room, it'd be a big help.

For the concrete... you should be able to do the slab for $1k on your own. I don't know about the footings as requirements differ regionally. Yu'll need to look into your local requirements. If you use a 6" thick reinforced slab, you should be able to do without the footers, but local codes may require it anyway.

[7FootYeti]

I agree, 22 x 22 is a little on the small size. I'm trying to build this for under 6k. I have not looked into doing the concrete work myself, but If I did then I would be able to go 24 x 24. At this point anything is better than what I have.

Can you say wooden floor

Where can I look up info on doing the concrete myself? Links, Books etc...

Thanks for the help.

[D60]

The concrete is entirely regional. My county req'd stem walls 8" wide and 30" below the ground, minimum.

If you're thinking about building it without a permit, be careful.

[SeanP]

Just go into your city or county building office and ask them for help. I had a good experience with Sacramento City Building and they were totally helpful when I wanted to do an addition on my house. They should give you print-outs of what the concrete will look like and the rebar, etc. Don't try to do it without plans/permits


SeanP

[camo]

www.steelbuilding.com has garage kits.

your best bet for a deal on concrete is to find a concret guy who is willing to do it as a side job. I just poured my 34 x 30 slab and their is now way in hell it would have worked if i would have tried to do it from any amount of info i gathered from reading. it takes skill and experiance that comes from doing the job.

also keep in mind while building your garage that it will add to the resale value if done correctly and detract from resale if done incorrectly.

my guess is that your budget is gonna be closer to 10k to get the job completed.

[camo]

check this out

http://www.steelbuilding.com/clearance.htm

[7FootYeti]

No I do not plan on doing this without a permit. I will make it a point to visit the county office and get some more info. Hopefully this will happen but I'm not counting on it at this point. I just really, really hate working on my truck in the driveway when it's -20 out.

Thanks again for the info, now I've got some research to do.

Camo,
I don't know that I wan't to go with a steel building. This is a small lot (40 x 126) in the city and you don't see many of those around here.

[trainrech]

Ditto on the footings. If it ever stops raining in KS I'm putting up a 24 x 36 this summer. City codes require 8" wide x 36" deep footings here. Our local code services department was a great help in getting my sh*t together for the permit.