jasonsamara

With 4 collector cars and a 2 car garage things are tight. So I have 3 in there and one in storage for $35 a month. So my dad wants a garage and offered me to go 1/2 on one at his house. Once he is gone or they moved I would get my money back. Well that just isn't a good scenario so I passed and my parents were mad for a few weeks. So I decided to get a quote at my house for 38 x 36 fully finished attached to my house. I was hoping to come in around 35 - 40k and it came back at 60!!! Now I'm waiting on an estimate of 28 x 32 but I don't think it's going to come down 25k. Now I can get other estimates but I can pay $35 a month a looooong time for those prices. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has dealt with this.

Railroadman

"...fully finished..."

First question would be what can YOU do to bring the price down? Wiring? Cement work? Framing? Paying somebody else to do it all is not the hot setup.

rtruman

Did a nice pole barn with drywall heat and AC for around 20,000
28x 26

After38Years

I think you were wise to pass on the arrangement with your parents. If they hold the house until they pass, it can be sticky getting your money back.

If you have some friends who have basic skills, consider hiring a carpenter to supervise the construction with you supplying the grunt work. You can be your own general contractor and save a bundle, especially if you can deal with delays.

Seeing that it is to be attached to your house makes it a little more difficult, but doable...

66jack

Find a contractor that will work with you and If you are able to do some of the site work or do some or all yourself under the contractors license for a small fee..
The work can and will still be inspected to meet all the expectations as if it was the contractor themselves doing the work...

OR...revisit the offer your parents made to you...

MikeM

I dealt with it. I worked in a barn with a dirt floor and no doors on my first cars. When I got married I moved into a rental house with a two car garage and O/H doors on it. Thought it was great, especially when I added and propane heater.

A few years later, I built a new home and set aside a spot in the basement, 20'X30' for a garage. Now, I'm really living. More cars come and go.

I had three cars stored in the upstairs attached two car garage. The basement garage got so full of "stuff" you couldn't move and the attic over the main house was packed with car parts. This isn't gonna' work.

So, about the time the three kids got out of high school, I tapped into part of my retirement account and built a 30'X40' garage behind the house. It has a basement, a ground floor of 8" heavily reinforced concrete, an upstairs and an attic.

I couldn't afford having it finished (didn't think I could) so I moved in with it unfinished, no electric, no insulation, no drywall, no water, no forced air heat, no AC, no hot water heater, no TV. All of that I added later as I got the money. I provided the labor and now all those luxuries are in the garage along with two, two posts lifts I bought and installed.

It's not fancy, but it's big enough to hold some of my accumulated junk and I did a "pay as you go" building it.

I built that garage in 1988.


The price I paid back then wouldn't even cover the cost of the concrete today. It'd probably cost me three times the money today or more. Buildings will not get any cheaper

Moral of the story, if you want a garage bad enough, you can probably find a way to do it. I did and I didn't wreck my retirement money.

corvetteed

I was thinking like that too. Plus, being attached to your house, assuming the local building codes permit that, gives you the chance to be right there and manage all the activities. In fact, you'd want to do that anyway, just to ensure that the contractor does what was agreed to, when the original plans were drawn up. I had my garage built a couple of years ago, and needed to be on their case every single day, just to ensure that the plans were adhered to.

If you can take time off of work occasionally to manage big activity days, and if you are not in a hurry, and if your wife can stand the temporary inconvenience of having the yard torn-up, you really can cut the costs of those estimates you've received, substantially.

bradc6

I had a 30x40 metal building put up a few years ago and it came in around $25k. The concrete for the slab and extending the driveway cost more than the building.

This is an older pic, the 68 is gone and the C6 was traded for a C7. I think my next purchase will be a lift.

GTOguy

I ended up moving to a better house that already had an attached 2-car garage and a 2+ car detached shop. I then spent about 30k having the shop expanded into a 4 car shop, 24X42, with 16' ceilings for half of the shop to accommodate the lift I awarded myself with after a lifetime of gravel-backing. My main issue and expense was in the permit process. The construction was fast and easy. I have absolutely no regrets. I live in town, in a nice area, and have a 6 car garage capacity plus tons of extra room and shop space. Worth the move.

jasonsamara

The biggest issue I have is I'm not sure I want to live here forever and I would never get my money back. Another problem is I paid the house off and I'm not going to remortgage it for a garage. I think I will just keep going down the road I'm on. I have my eye on a few different houses that already have the facilities built, but k owing when one of these go up for sale is like playing the lottery. Thanks for the comments and ideas and I will update my adventure as I go.

tubman

The deal with your parents would probably be OK if you are an only child. Maybe OK if you can get a written agreement with your siblings and parents. Otherwise pass. You can't believe how nasty things can get between siblings when parents pass with even moderate assets. I saw a side of my brother that I wouldn't have imagined when my mother passed.

cbernhardt

Does your area have a Morton Building dealer? If so you might get an estimate from them. Of course if you are located in a subdivision, a Morton building may not be "acceptable".

Charles

wmf62

40x40 metal bldg with 12' clearance.

$600 for sitework
$17000 for bldg
$8100 for concrete
$2000 for garage doors and openers
$1500 for electrical and fixtures
no a/c or heat or insulation

Bill

vettebuyer6369

Yeah, the deal with your parents is just asking for trouble. You even said it started unrest already because you didnt do it. Wait until you are in a house you are pretty sure you are staying in for awhile.

I had a similar problem when I moved in my house. It had a nice deep 3 car garage that I could comfortably park one lengthways along the back and make it a four. One year I used rollers and put another car in front of that and made it a 5. But, it was tight and unconfortable. My property layout and landscaping made it impossible to put up a separate out building or I would have done that. So I got an estimate on opening up the back wall and making it a full 6 car, plus allow for space for a lift in one corner to make it 7.

The estimate came back at mid $40's without the lift. My wife and I looked at each other and said %$#& it, and went out and bought another car instead.

427435

Get quotes from more than one contractor. When I expanded a garage many years ago, some quotes were twice as high as others.

Also, check craigslist for small contractors.

capevettes

As was stated earlier, The Morton Buildings are a very good deal. You can get alot larger building for the money. If you are resolved to having a conventional wood/shingle building, they are alot more money.

What saved me alot of money was being my own general contractor. I knew alot of the people in the area, so I was able to get my own individual site prep/excavators, foundation, framers, roofers, electricians etc. That cut the price down dramatically.

AZDoug

If you want to be your own general contractor, you can save some bucks.

I saved $15K on my 1300 SF metal building by doing that.

The GC is responsible for getting the permits, and drawing up the site plan for submission with the permit application. It is tedious, but with a flat table and some drafting instruments you can do it, esp if you ever had jr HS drafting class), finding the subcontractors, and arranging tehir schedules one the permit is approved, then after each phase you call up the inspectors to come out and sign off.

You may have to hire an architect to do an engineering drawing of what you want, he provides wind load calcs and stuff like that for the permit people.

Signoff times include excavation for the footing and rebar install. Inspections after concrete pour, inspections on any plumbing that is done BEFORE the concrete pour, inspection after building erected, inspection of electrical after installation.

As a side note, my county has requirement for something like 1" per 10' of slope on the concrete for a garage (for drainage of leaked gasoline, I think). I didn't want a 5" slope over the 50' length of my garage/shop, so i called it a shop/storage building.

Doug

Doug

1snake

Dealing with neighborhood covenants is a major problem. The next problem is the permit process. Fortunately, I live on acreage and can build anything I want regardless of size. That's why I have two 2+ car garages plus a large shop with a high ceiling and a lift. My wife complains that we have more S.F. in garages than we do in our house. I doubt anyone here would have an issue with that.

biggd

A friend of mine put up a Morton 34'x 60' pole barn complete for 60K. It was a sweet looking building but it probably won't go over well in an area of well groomed close residences. It still looks like a barn, although a nicely refined one. I have to admit I was a little jealous.

4 Speed Dave

As a structural engineer that line almost made me choke on the food I was eating for lunch. For prefab metal buildings you will need a structural engineer to design the foundations. The loading the building imposes on the foundations will be provided to the engineer by the metal building company.

You don't ever want an architect doing any sort of engineering drawings or calculations. Trust me, you don't.