Hey guys and gals, another garage question again. I am considering on building 36 x 64 garage with a living area for my mom. My mom is getting older and she lives half hour away from us, keep her close so we can keep check on her. She is by herself, the whole elderly thing. Anyways I am thinking 36 x 24 x 8' wall living area for her and 36 x 40 x 12' wall garage for me. All slab floor 6 inches thick with thickened edge, with inflooring heating and cooling. The living area, the floor I would stap out on 16 o/c and sheet with 3/4 T+G fir. Just easier on the legs and hips to walk on. All 2 x 6 walls insulated, garage would be all corrugated metal on ceiling and walls. I am thinking 3 overhead doors. Also build a bathroom in the garage. Lots of lights and plugs. Or maybe 16' high and build a mezzanine floor. Maybe a little longer? Any thoughts on garage size or what you guys found best.

 

Thinking of something like this

http://www.northlandbuildings.com/ty...908-36x64x124/

 

If you were going with living accommodations... I would do more than a six in slab I would put in proper footings prior to the build unless your building on clay with not much ground movement.

 

IMHO I would trench below frost and pour a footer and put a frost wall. 6" 3500 psi concrete floor with 6"x6" 10/10wwf is fine even with lifts.

I just noticed you are in Canada perhaps frost is dealt with differently up there.

 

I would consider an addition to your house for your mom and a separate garage. The smells generated from a garage always seem to get into the house.

 

X2
Another thing to consider, depending on your local building codes, is that you will probably have to have completely separate HVAC systems in a split duty shiop/residence due to the CO poisioning issues inherent with internal combustion engines.

 

With radiant floor heat this won't be an issue.

 

I was hoping to get away from a grade beam and footing. This adds alot to the cost the concrete. We built alot of shops on slabs with thickened edges and they are doing good. As for an addition to my house, I added on 1300 sq ft in 2005. I have no more room in my yard to add on, I have 5 acres just at the end of my street for this project. All the room I need also for parts cars. lol. May turn the garage doors on the gable end in stead. The separation wall from the house to garage would be spray foamed with closed cell. Air tight seal, shouldn't be any smell getting in. Keep on kicking the can on this

 

A garage 36 x 40 would be a nice size for restorations?

 

I use haunch slabs often on garages they are great for that purpose. But the movement you will get in that slab will cause problems in the finished living quarters IMHO, drywall cracking etc. also when heating a home I would prefer the frost wall with at least a 1-1/2" foam thermal break between the slab and wall. A 18"x10" footer with a 10" cmu frost wall would be the norm. in my area for this application or a precast wall. The cmu wall is much lower cost than concrete. We finish the 10" walls with 1 course of 6" cmu's to leave a ledge to catch the slab.

 

Would be awesome

 

I was hoping with the heated slab that would prevent the frost from getting underneath. CMU? If you mean concrete block, we can only use that above ground. The only other option I could do is build a footing 5 feet in the ground and build a PWF wall on top. That might not even be deep enough. When we do piles, they want 8 feet in the ground.

 

That would definitely be an awesome garage. I was thinking of building a simple 20X24 with one of the steel kits. I agree with the others that a garage and living area together might cause smells to leak in. That would be bad.

 

......I know this is obvious but....I built a 60X 40 shop on a floating pad....an older fella from the area came in to inspect...all he said was it was not big enough!
He was right!....it is now full....soooo make it big enough to accommodate any plans that you may have in the future!
Living quarters should be separate IMO......

 

Precast concrete isn't an option up there I take. Code here requires all heated slabs to be insulated underneath, some are engineered with a heat sink in the center but the perimeter is still insulated, I would worry about the frost crawling under even with the heated slab. Also the heat loss with the slab on grade could be a factor in the long run. With today's heating prices a few years of saving on heating costs could make up for the cost of the wall. I can't really comment on frost requirements up there but piling depth tends to be determined more by soil conditions than anything else in my area. As far as smell, as long as your not running a full out commercial restoration shop out of it you should be fine. Attached garages aren't an uncommon thing.

 

60 x 40 and not enough room Rethink build How high is your walls? Maybe detached I would go then, just build on a crawl space

 

doors are 14feet from floor to header...and 12 feet wide.....
The building you posted appears very nice.....lots of people live in the same building as their garage/ shop...I am just not a big fan and as mentioned^^smells, and fire would be my biggest concerns..

 

Nice size,so you have 16' walls then. Do you have a mezzanine floor as well? Gotta love the smell of burning wood. Always loved a wood stove. Nice too see you have snow too.

 

No mezzanine floor....yet
Three things I am doing this summer...increasing natural lighting...bigger windows and sky lights...mezzanine floor ...and insulating the doors with spray foam....the walls are 14'10 to the top of the header
Just build it big enough....I am regretting that I did not...

 

Sky lights, just make sure they are installed proper. I have seen them installed by qualified carpenters they leaked for years till I came along. Were never flashed right. Do you have a hoist?

 

Yea, most skylights leak if not sealed correctly.
I was thinking of the clear roofing ....putting in 3 or 4 sheets.
I do have a hoist....good for 9500lbs.
I had to drill the floor to install, as it came later..fun fun
Again, if you are thinking of a hoist, make provisions for it in your building plans.Saves a lot of work later!

 

Since your planning a slab, and I made note of your location. Maybe consider putting heat into the slab floor for the living area. I have built some aircraft hangars with thet type of heating (either heated fluid or Electric) and it worked well for extremely cold climates. Just a thought, might not be approprite for up their.

 

Yes it would have all infloor heating. Electric boiler system

 

A great forum for ideas and input is Garage Retreat

 

Not Big enough... mine is 50 x 50 and I can barely move around in it....

 

Ah cool and thanks

 

Good advice. Build it as big as you think you'll ever need.... then add at least 20%. It is likely construction costs will never be cheaper than when you build it and some how you will always be able to fill it up and run out of room. Mine is 40x80, 16' eaves and I realized it was too small in 90 days

 

I'll have to check it out. Since the city folk are coming out further every year, we've been tossing around the idea to move in a few years. Don't really want to have to build but we know that we'll never find a place (affordable) to be able to store everything.

A friend in Atlanta bought a big commercial building for his sudden and head first jump into vintage cars along with weird art (statues, sculptures, other big things). He and the wife built a loft and love living with their stuff.

We're thinking of maybe doing the same thing; either a commercial building or barn with living quarters included.

 

Thanks fir the information guy's. Do someone have a hoist in their garage? I would like to have one of those one day. Anything I should know about? Thanks

 

I have a 2-post asymmetric 7,500 lb Mohawk.

To install I literally had to raise the roof, which required use of scissor trusses to make the need room. The other thing is the floor has to be of sufficient thickness to hold the posts permanently in place.

I would advise/recommend that you leave plenty of room in front/behind the lift for working. I also heartily advise on having professionals do the install. In my case, each column weighs 1,000 lbs.!

 

Best to pay a pro to design your foundation/slab. You'll save money in the long run and it will be to code. That Red River gumbo heaves like a bucking bronco when frozen and acts like a soup bowl when it thaws. Also, make sure your concrete contractor pays his concrete bill or you will have a builders lien on your house by the supplier.

 

Dave,


Do you have a shot of your garage door? I was going to use scissor trusses for half of my garage to accommodate a future lift but it seems like garage doors are a problem unless you go with a roll up (which I won't). Do any garage doors hug the sloped ceiling?

 

Thanks for the input. That's the same hoist we had in shop class, may let the pro's install that one. As for Winnipeg gumbo, we are a few hours from there so that doesn't affect us. We are more sandy up here, as for building we need blue prints. I would have to get someone to draw them up, but the rest I would do. Form and pour my own slab and frame. Done this for years so it's not a problem just as long I have enough time before I go back to work

 

Yes. Recommend you check out a fire station. A lot of garage doors can go up at about a 15 degree angle leaning back from vertical. I am sure a 45 degree angle could be achieved.

Of course, there's always hangar style (slide to side) or barn door style (open like a large people door.)

 

What does your Mom think of all this? You have asked her opinion, haven't you?

 

Yes she knows we want to move her to our town. She likes the idea, and would feel safer

 

How is mom's hearing? Hope she likes the sound of a compressor running all the time.


Your intentions are good but there are better solutions than what you are considering. A home renovation to accommodate her is a better all around answer.

 

The door is a standard type. And yes, it does hug the slop of the scissor truss. Not a problem at all.

But I should add it operates manually. One could get an electric opener to work on it, but it would be expensive.

 

Can always build a compressor room. That would stop the noise.