Dream garage!??

[savageactor7]

As long as it's a 'dream' garage avalancher brings up an excellent recommendation with toilet facilities.

Not only do you not want to be tracking in dirt but eventually all you buddies will be hanging out there and it's better to keep them in the garage.

Back in the 90's I had an indoor driving range in the garage and in the winter my buddies would come over to hit balls ...and drink.

 

[svon89]

One more thing that I forgot was a piece of steel angle inside the door to raise up the floor level about an inch from the apron. It keeps any driving rain from pushing its way under the door and into the garage. My neighbor didn't do it and every time we get a driving rain from one direction he gets rain pushing its way into the garage. When I put mine in, I just fastened it right to the concrete foundation where I was going to have the floor. It also made for a nice straight shot when I was pitching the floor toward the door. I just put the screed on that and used a little level on the screed.

 

[avalancher]

All great ideas but I recomend going over to garagejournal.com. Prepare to spend the rest of the week drooling on your keyboard. They have a ton of information over there.

They got some pretty nice pictures of garages over there all right, but I guess Im different.If a garage is cleaner than my bedroom I reckon you just aint into any serious repair work.Maybe Im different, or just a slob,but a nice painted floor,upholstery,stuffed chairs,pool tables,next door neighbors wife, etc just wouldnt last long in my shop.they would all be covered in a nice even coat of grinder dust before the paint was dry.

 

[Streblerm]

I've been building/having built a 24X36X12 pole building. After fixing lots of "contractor" mistakes and finishing the inside myself, I have about $25K in mine. That includes heat, wiring, insulation, wrapping the inside with steel just like the outside, and concrete.

I thought long and hard about radiant floor heat. In the end I decided against the expense because radiant floor heat is slow to react to changes. I figured no matter how efficient it was, If I had to leave it on all the time to work out there maybe as little as several hours per week, it just wasn't worth it. I settled on overhead radiant tube heat. I love it. You keep most of the benefits of radiant floor heat, but it warms you immediately when you turn it on. It also had a lower install cost than floor heat.

I did insulate the slab however. I went vertically around the outside down to the footer and horizontally around the edges 4' in from each wall. No matter what the temperature outside, it rarely gets below freezing inside in the winter. In the summer I crack the door and rear window at night and shut them in the morning. It rarely gets above 80 in the summer.

 

[headleyj]

just FYI on Radiant floor heating...I emailed "Radiant Company" about a 40x60 all one zone.

Total price was $3200..didnt think that was awful really

 

[aokpops]

still waiting . got the kids out still no money . anyway here it is about 30 buy 50 a big mig welder some metal cutting tools with heat an AC a cooking area might not go back in the house

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

i hate insurance companies

My old shop burned down and I was way underinsured. I replaced it with a 40 x 60 x 14 with 4 windows one man door and a 12 x 13 overhead door. IOt was by far the most building I could get for the money. I went with pole barn construction with a dimensional shingled roof to match my house.

I can handle the electrical and heating systems myself. The cost of this building was $12k for the material package and $5K for that labor to put it up.
This did not include concrete because I built it over rthe existing fire damaged slab, patched it the best I could to keep the cost down.

It is a lot of space for the money.

was you insurance a pain tio deal with? i'm getting a private underwriter and lawyering up if they haven't got it right by next week

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

wow!

i think i'm gonna lawyer up monday morning they are trying to play games with me too and i am not underinsured have a replacement value policy

No but it was a very confusing process. I learned that because there wasn't any special coverage for the out buildings (apertinent structures, anything on the property that isn't part of the house, including fences), was only insured for 19% of the value of the house. Since the house isn't/wasn't worth much as it was built in 1923 and had no insulation in it, and it was struck by lightning and the wiring got burned up and then the Amish bought it and removed the heating and plumbing systems from it so there wasn't much value there. When I bought the place I told the insurance guy that I planned on installing a heating and plumbing system and new electrical and then I was going to add insulation and complete new interior finishes. It is about 1100 Square feet, 2 bedrooms one bath. The insurance guy said "o.k. I think it will be worth about 100K when you are done with it so that is what we will insure it for.

When the pole barn burned down the adjuster estimated it would cost $38,000 to replace it. The origional barn was insulated and finished on the inside and had three large doors and 3 man doors and 8 large windows, an extension off the south side and a 14 x 14 extension off the east end.

My aluminum boat had a replacement cost of around 16K and I had at least 4K of fishing tackle in the barn also that got destroyed. It was insured for only $1000 because I did not have a seperate policy on it.

So my loss was around $58,000 for just the boat and the building.

The south end of my house was also melted and all 4 of the south windows were broken from the heat. They allowed about $900 to get that fixed in addition to the $19,000 for the barn. They depreciated all of my tools and motorcycle parts in the barn and paid me less than ten cents on the dollar for them. I had a 44 year accumulation of stuff in there and I am to old to replace it.

I rebuilt the end of the house myself, new windows and siding and I had about as much in the materials as they had allowed for materials and labor. It was a special order 4 1/2" dutch lap siding to match what was on there so it cost a little more than the cheap stuff.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

i think insurance companies bank on this

I just wanted to get it over and done with.

i'm gonna fight em. wifes an insurance agent and kid sis is an ambulance chaser

 

[stint]

Just a word of caution if you do decide to build a pit instead of a lift.

Seems so much more cost efficient.

But be very careful

So many possible dangers

Just driving the vehicle in can put enough poison in that pit to be deadly

They are dangerous enough to be illegal according to zoning in many localities

Best to ya

 

[Blackjack1234]

I have a 40x56x11 foot shop, pole barn construction, white steel lined inside, insulated, heat in the floor provided by an electric boiler, I keep that at 40 degrees then have a wood stove that I fire up to bring the temp up when I'm working in there, two 8x10 doors. I love it, it cost about $300 to keep the temp at 40 from November to March.

Things I'd do different:
1) make one door bigger, 10x10 at least, its tight when I bring my tractor with implement in.
2) Change the layout of the doors or make it wider so I could back my truck with fishhouse or boat hooked on into it and shut the doors.
3) Pipe the floor drain to an outlet!!! Mine just goes to a reservoir with holes in it and when I drag a lot of wet snow in it doesn't drain away fast enough.
4) Make sure the contractor doesn't skimp on the horizontal inside 2x4's, mine cut one row out to cut costs and it makes it tough to hang stuff, nothing solid behind the liner tin.

Good luck!

 

[TJ-Bill]

Thanks for all your input guys.. After heading to the bank and looking what was available to us I was in a good mood. after taking a week off work and spending time with the little one and talking to the wife about having another I think we're going to wait. Yes I want one but do I really Need one (kinda) Anyway. We just bought a new SUV so I guess we'll look again next year and see where we're at. I figure I might as well build what I want not what I can afford.

and I have written down alot of your good ideas. I'm planning on doing up some plans so next year I'll be in a better position to understand what the costs will be..

Thanks again