Anyone ever expanded a garage???

[Jim Oaks]

Anyone ever expanded a garage?

I was looking at a house with a 1-car attached garage. I like the house, but not the garage. It would be nice if I could widen it to a 2-car garage with a wider door. Anyone have any experience with that???

 

[kimcrwbr1]

cut it off at the ground and start again taller wider deeper

 

[Larry's shee]

Shouldn't be to hard Jim. Wether one big door or two small, wouldn't matter much. End wall would be moved out, other walls added on. Biggest problem might be with building dept. If you had the room I would almost consider making it a 2 1/2 car, not much more cost. BTW thats the only thing I know, been a carpenter for 35 yrs, lol.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I have a friend who is a builder and it`s not too hard to make it wider if you have the room but it depends on your family also because the garage seems to end up as a storage for all the crap the bigger the garage the more crap ends up in it. having room up in the attic to funnel the crap into makes room in the man cave.

 

[Jim Oaks]

That's the only pic I have of the house. Since the roof goes the direction it does, I figured you may be able to add a concrete slab, tear off the roof (leave the trusses) move the side wall out, frame the rest, add more trusses, and finish it off. Have to check the distance to the property line to see how much room I have.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

yea don`t know where you are but be sure and check for codes, around here you cant build a deck without a permit and depending on what the back is like a drive thru garage can be real handi while you have it apart.

 

[Capt Jay]

The big problem is property line set backs. Every city/county is different. Around here they have a maximum attacked garage size (that's why I'm building a detached). You need to do the research before buying. Other than that, if you want to punch that out it shouldn't be a big problem. Where do the utilities come into the house and where is the circuit breaker panel? I'd punch it out to the most you can. I have a three stall garage and not nearly enough room (hence the detached). You'll never want smaller.

 

[Capt Jay]

Looking at the picture. You may want to remove the old garage and build higher and deeper. Go to the roof line of the house and the depth of the house. It's a little more cost but gives a lot more room. I don't know what your financial abilities are so that will also be a big determining factor.

 

[Jim Oaks]

The garage is the same height as the house. There is actually a lifted Jeep sitting in that garage.

We looked at a house that had a newer 30x50 pole building in the back yard.

It makes me drool!!

Concrete floor with a drain going down through the middle. Garage door opener. Very nice. It's just above our price, but if we offered the full amount the bank would give us, we might could get it. The problem is that the house needs updates and the house payment wouldn't leave much extra cash to pay for it.

My other concern is resale. Selling a house with a 30x50 foot building in the backyard won't be a quick task. It will take a unique buyer.

Vanessa and I decided to go lower and buy a house we like that could still be a good investment, but a much cheaper house payment. Then we'd rent a garage for our trucks. Found one close to the size shown above for $275 a month. It would be easier to sell a house later, than a house with a 30x50 building in the back yard.

Another thing is if something happened and Vanessa couldn't work for a while, it would be easier to get rid of a rent payment on a building than a big mortgage payment because you own a building on the lot with your house.

So basically, we like the house I showed, just wish the garage was a 2-car. All the trucks and stuff will end up in a rented garage regardless.

 

[mjonesjr]

You wouldn't have to tear the roof off complete, just enough to tie in the new roof sheeting to the existing roof.

I would almost bet you would be locked into the current garage because of property line restrictions. I would say at most, based on the picture, you have about 10-15 feet past the side of the garage to the property line.

 

[Jim Oaks]

A lot of these older homes around here only have a 1-car. The 1-car would be used for Vanessa's car. The parking is wide enough for me to park my F-150 off to the side so she can get in and out. I think a wider garage would be a bonus for this house though.

If I could get the garage wider, I'd probably back a Ranger in as close to the wall (passenger side) as I could so she had plenty of room to pull in and get out. Everything else would be at the rented garage.

 

[turtle3.0]

Looking at the first pic, I would guess that you would be hard pressed to add onto that garage as it looks close to the property line (judging by the white fence in the background). Although if you CAN add on (check local codes) that would add to the re-sell value of the house, potentially you could recoup the cost of the addition if you were to resell the property.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

As long as there's enough room between the side of the existing garage and the property line it can be done. If the area you live in has a minimum distance to the property line and you'd have to exceed that minimum, you can usually file for approval to build anyway, but it usually costs a few bucks and there's no promise you'll get approval. But usually as long as you're neighbors don't mind, you'll get approved from what I've seen.

Like mjonesjr said, you wouldn't have to tear off the whole roof, just enough to tie back the sheeting.

Because of the way the rafters/trusses are run, it makes it easy to add onto. But you'll still probably want a contractor that knows what he/she is doing.

Depending on where the electrical and phone service comes in at could be an issue.

Downspout line would need relocated, but that's not much of a problem since it'll have to be trenched for a footer anyway.

You'll need some sort of blueprint of what is being done to take with you to get the permit. They usually want to know the size and specs for something like this. Not sure if they'll accept one not drawn by an engineer (there is really not that much need to have it engineered since you're adding to an existing, but sometimes they're funny that way).

[shameless plug]I am a contractor. [/shameless plug]

 

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

That's the only pic I have of the house. Since the roof goes the direction it does, I figured you may be able to add a concrete slab, tear off the roof (leave the trusses) move the side wall out, frame the rest, add more trusses, and finish it off. Have to check the distance to the property line to see how much room I have.

As long as the set-back from the property line is met (30 inches here), shouldn't be too hard to pull a permit for it.

I'd pour an entirely new slab otherwise you have potential for one heaving and not the other - and that causes structural issues. You'll have to pull that end wall off and support the roof with temporary posts, but that's not insurmountable.

Nice house.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

As long as the set-back from the property line is met (30 inches here), shouldn't be too hard to pull a permit for it.

I'd pour an entirely new slab otherwise you have potential for one heaving and not the other - and that causes structural issues. You'll have to pull that end wall off and support the roof with temporary posts, but that's not insurmountable.

Nice house.

It's an interior floor, there shouldn't be any movement if it's done correctly. Thus why it should get a trenched footer and block to grade.

Really there is no reason to just randomly tear the end wall off. You'd have to strip the siding off and strip the corners down to the studs (or block depending on construction, but it's more than likely studded) to get the points to build from. Trench and pour the footer, frame the walls, frame the roof, peal off enough shingles to do the roof sheathing tie-back, etc. Once the framing is done, you can finish tearing out the divider wall. The exterior walls (front and back) are the load bearing ones because of the way the rafters/trusses are run, the side wall is just to enclose it, it should have no real load on it.

Once the remainder of the end wall is tore out, then you can pour the new piece of floor and match the existing floor. It'll have to have an expansion strip run along it, but you can do that with a zip-cap and caulk it for appearances. The original floor should be sitting on a sill around the edges run up from the footer with block. If it's not, then it might have to get tore out and replaced as one big pour to prevent movement. So if it was done correctly, there is no need to go through the trouble of tearing it out, it'll stay put just fine.

This is the kind of work I do for a living, it would be far more difficult if the rafters/trusses were running the other direction, trust me.