We are hoping to build a garage, breaking ground this late spring early summer. The spot where I want the garage is a large bank at the moment, drops probably 12-14 feet just past our current parking area. It is currently just forrest. Current parking area is directly in front of the house and I want the garage to be off to the side, trying to keep in mind room to turn around and space to deal with moving snow. Instead of bringing in a metric chiton of fill and making a flat spot for a slab and then having to build a retaining wall to make sure the new flat spot remains stable I'm thinking about putting the garage on a full daylight foundation. This gets me twice the square footage under the same footprint. The lower part being shop space with vehicle access for the outdoor equipment/tractor and the upper space being typical stick built garage space for the passenger vehicles that we could drive into from the current dooryard. The ground around the lower level would be cleared and covered with material suitable for accessing the lower level with a road from the rear of the house, it would also create a flat working area and space for a future woodshed and maybe sawmilling space. I can already access the rear of the house with a vehicle around the side of the house opposite of where the build will be. The size of the building is yet to be determined, at least 28x28 maybe as big as 36x36 and I would like the foundation to be daylight with the sides having concrete walls that step down and the back being complete daylight. The construction of the upper "suspended deck" where the passenger vehicles would park and how to support it is the big question. I was originally thinking just wood planks a' la a typical "bank barn" you would find on any farm and just throw enough support beams and columns at it. After talking to a few people I'm leaning more toward concrete for the suspended deck. I've consulted a couple of PEs and gotten two different answers, both of which would require the daylight portion of the foundation be steel, which could then be built out with typical framing to support any windows, man doors etc. -An I beam "pocketed" into the concrete walls and probably with a couple of steel columns supporting the I beam and a corrugated steel deck that would attach to the top of the concrete/daylight walls and have a concrete pad poured on top of it that would then be epoxy coated. -Precast hollow core concrete slabs that would sit on a lip built into the top of the concrete walls and be supported by the steel daylight walls. The seams between the slabs would then be grouted and a skim coat of concrete poured on top and epoxy coated. This has the advantage of being clear span, meaning the concrete slabs would not require any I beam/supports posts. I've also run across some "ICF" options but I can not find a builder in my area who does this type of work. So what do you think? -KISS, just bring in a bunch of fill and build a retaining wall, put a garage on a slab and build a separate shop building. -Bank barn with wood plank upper deck and a bunch of support beams/columns. -I beam and support columns/steel deck/concrete on top/epoxy coated upper deck -Precast hollow core slabs/skim coat concrete/epoxy coated upper deck
I like the idea of the over under shop garage most places limit your square footprint I am partial to the bank barn idea but poured floor would be nice for working on and keep in mind in the winter melt off from the car or truck would drip through a wood floor as to support the pockets in the wall seem like a good route to take JB
In high school days I helped drive nails in the upper part of this shop. Two-story gambrel roof on top of this walk-out basement shop. Concrete on 3 foundation walls, appears to be framed on the end with the two roll-up doors. Doors are on the end, rather than side, so no snow or drips. Top ground level was a feed store. I pulled these off the web, sorry for the lack of detail. He designed it. Had friends who did the concrete work. I wasn’t around to see the steel work.
At our previous home I built a shop like you are talking about. I used treated posts 4' on center with 2x6" treated T & G on the outside for the basement. Regular platform framing for the upstairs. I beefed up the beam and put joist 12" on center where vehicles would be. With the price of lumber now ,concrete will probably be your best option. I built a few homes concrete panels for basement walls with concrete bridge beam down the middle. They set the panels in a day then we would set the full width TJI's the next . Soon as the TJI's were set we could backfill
I found this googling, apparently the hollow core suspended deck is a fairly common thing in other (hilly) parts of the country. Arnoldsen Precast & Construction | Arnoldsen Precast & Construction
I'd keep it simple...block walls and a big steel beam down the middle as needed, then just lay steel decking down and pour your upper floor on that...super common way of doing it. Metal Deck For Concrete: Types & Uses of Composite And Form Decking I suppose a big timber could take place of the steel beam if it costs too much, but not sure how much cheaper that would be...could have one milled if that would pass code.
Don't know why but I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see a workshop like that, especially when it has a dog in it.
So I think this project is going to get scaled back to a simple garage on a slab, probably not where the bank is, thanks for the input.
We are actually "thinning the herd" so to speak, we'd like to do some traveling while we are "younger". I'm pretty particular about how the animals are cared for so I don't think we will be adding any new Hounds to the pack, maybe later when the travel bug wears off.
Yes, I know what you mean. Just keeping track of more than one dog while you are traveling is a worry never mind the care and feeding of them. After one event when we had three dogs, a nose count was done before the vehicle left anywhere.
Started clearing for the earth work today. Here is the area. My buddy came over with his Kubota and winch to help out. We will save any saw logs for him. We winched the whole trees out to the drive and limbed them there. some firewood some small cedar bunch of brush to chip tomorrow After cutting today.
Looking forward to seeing the build process and final result. I badly want a timber frame built garage/ mancave, that resembles a barn or carriage house. I got a couple quotes last year. I think I blacked out both times I heard the estimates.
Dave check around and see if anyone makes them within 100 miles before you decide. Doubling your s/f with the same roof and foundation is a good thing. I've seen these precast floor panels and I believe that they require pouring a thin cap? (might be a normal slab) that covers the long joints between the panels and once you get away from"normal" resedential construction methods, contractors will price it high because of their unknowns and plenty of"regular" work is out there. The foundation wall that's fully into the bank might require some engineering, especially if it's over 10’ and fully backfilled to the top. A lot of pressure there.
I agree about more square footage under one roof, that was one of the reasons for the original plan. That plan was just getting too complicated/expensive. It was going to require plans from a structural engineer to pass code, something I would have done anyway. I talked to 4 different engineers, two wouldn’t do it, the other two said they might get to it by the end of the summer. The daylight portion was going to have to be steel with wooden framed walls as well for door and window framing, for the size building I want with 12 foot lower level ceilings the concrete walls were going to have to be 10 maybe 12 inches thick as you thought, the closest source for hollow core panels is St John NB, the earth work to access the lower level was also going to be extensive/expensive. I’m my own GC for this project and I don’t have a clue about any of that sooo on to the new plan…. 3 Bay 40x36 on a 6” slab with frost walls where needed, directly on ledge in places with two 9x8 doors and a 10x12 door in the middle, clear span scissor trusses to get the center height without having to have 14 foot walls and to keep the pitch of the roof lower, hoping for 5/12 but we’ll see what the designer comes up with, small porch with a man door on one side, that’s going to be my new “smoker” space, metal roof. No plumbing except floor drains and nothing insulated. I have the earth work and concrete contractors lined up, although he said “first thing in the spring” and that’s already here so we’ll see. The carpenter I had lined up was also wanting a first thing in the spring job so we’ll see now that that is not happening. It’s a garage so if it gets done by next years snow I’ll be happy.
