Cost per sq ft for Garage?

[asphaltgambler]

Hey all - Looking for approx cost per sq ft for new construction 3 car garage under roof. Wood / vinyl siding with A-frame roof. Basically concrete floor 5" thick, 12ft ceilings with 4 windows, door, roll up doors. I would do inside all finish work, electricity, etc.

There are many material 'packages' but I'm trying to figure cost including labor. I'm in Northern Va - so labor prices are higher because of proximity to DC metro area. Anyone here done this recently?

Thanks!

[LakeCleElum]

When I built this house in 2007, me builder quote garage Sq Ft. at 1/2 the cost of inside the finished house. So, back then $55/ft vs $110/ft

My neighbor just had a 24 x24 garage built...Footings had to be 4 ft down. It was framed and totally finished, sheetrock, lights, paint, etc.......Cost him $38,000..........Ouch

Back in 1994, I built a 36' x 28' 3-car detached garage for $7,300.......No insulation or sheetrock on that one.....All labor myself except concrete.

[Bugsinrugs]

I have been planning a 36x36 garage for a long time. Just the permit process in itself makes it somewhat prohibitive. The county i am in throws so many fees on I am surprised there is any building going on at all.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by Bugsinrugs

I have been planning a 36x36 garage for a long time. Just the permit process in itself makes it somewhat prohibitive. The county am in throws so many fees on I am surprised there is any building going on at all.

The "CA" at the end of your address is the reason.

[tdw28210]

I am thinking about building a shipping container garage with a living space above. A 20' container would likely cost you $3k-ish (plus shipping) and depending on what you need for a roof, you could maybe get it all done for under $15k. This one is a little rustic for my 'hood, but I like the ingenious work areas he has built into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvJJfmyV_ms

[fireant911]

We had one built with the groundbreaking taking place in April 2013. The garage was 24'X40' with a divider in the middle (half garage / half shop). Three garage doors were included (two electric one manual). The roof pitch was 10/12 so we have a 10'X40' bonus room above the garage (stairwell included). As part of our project, we also had a 'connector' built that essentially joins our home to the garage (10'X11-6"). Architectural shingles (matching our house), five windows, two man-doors were part of the project and included in the cost. Nine foot ceilings in the garage and eight foot ceilings in the bonus room. The outside is brick and vinyl. I 'think' that I remember the concrete thickness was 4-1/2". The ground floor construction was 16" OC 2"X4" and the upstairs was engineered attic trusses. Upstairs flooring was 3/4" material. The total square footage was 1,475 (960' + 400' + 115'). Drywall, plumbing, and electrical was not included. I did the design for this project in Google Sketchup and this was used for permitting and for the builders.

Our cost was $31,500 which equates to $21.36/sq ft. We shopped around for a while and the prices we were getting were crazy (we live just outside of Huntsville, AL in a town called Owens Cross Roads). The crew we went with more than cut our previous quotes in half. These folks had one than an hour commute to us every day but they were there EVERY DAY! I visited another garage that they had recently built prior to us committing and was pleased by what I saw. The framers, vinyl installers, and brick crews have all been back for additional projects because their prices were good, quality was great, and they exhibited pride in workmanship.

[fred cook]

3 years ago I had a 24x40 shop built. It has one 30" "people" door and a 16 foot wide car door. No windows, just gable vents on each end. Roof pitch is 6 in 12, open inside with 2 large ceiling fans. 24'x28' is actual shop area with the end 12' being a carport. The area over the 12'x24' carport is floored to make a storage are open to the inside of the garage. A year later, I added central heat and air. Power in the shop provides for several 110 volt outlets mounted just above work bench height. In addition, there are two 220v outlets for future use. Costs including removing 3 trees, grading, slab and insulated metal building ran about $24,000. That price included the materials for finishing the inside walls. Since I am in the deep south, the roof is an off white and the walls a medium brown. Lots of shade trees all around the building so that it is only in the sun for about 4 hours a day. A lot of things have been added since these pictures were taken, just about all of the wall space either has workbenches or various tools in place. Not nearly as roomy as it started out being!

[johnsjmc]

I built a small (22x22) detached garage with concrete slab and 2 overhead doors a couple years ago. Cost about $6500 plus labour. I traded a car trailer for the slab. I had estimates approaching 20k for the complete job. A quick rule of thumb is your labour is approx. equal to your cost of materials.
$6500+ trailer x 2=$20k.

[dyount]

Using the International Code Councils building valuation data table it comes up as $42.48 per sq ft. as a garage associated with a single family home? ICC provides a base for what any project may cost. A steel frame,metal skin type building should run less than a site built stick frame

[GH85Carrera]

Go hang out on the Garage Journal site. They have one entire forum on garages. They even split it up into the flooring and heat & AC sections.

You will see some neat ideas and know what works and what does not.

[wayner]

I went through the same exercise a few years ago looking to add additional space to my garage.

I quickly figured out that the the build price plus annual taxes, I could throw out a lot of almost worthless crap and buy it again if I ever needed it.

I even contemplated throwing away the kids seasonal sports equipment at the end of every season and buying new the next year. Soccer cleats, skis, bicycles, sports cars...

[MBAtarga]

My detached shop (38x60) ran me just less than $16 sq/ft. I contracted out the slab, trusses and roofing - but installed the siding, 15 windows, garage door (16x9) and entry door, and did all electrical (panel, >30 outlets, 20 lights) and paint myself (including sealing the floor). Inside is studded only at this point - no insulation, no air/heat yet.

[asphaltgambler]

Thanks all !! Hey MBAtarga did you use a material 'kit' from a big box store?

[rwest]

One big cost factor is if the garage is attached to a house, you may need footings, which can really bring the concrete price up.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Thanks all !! Hey MBAtarga did you use a material 'kit' from a big box store?

No kit, my shop was designed by me. Stick framed 2x4 10' walls with scissor trusses on the garage end of the shop (18'), attic trusses on the remainder over the woodworking section (42'). Exterior is Nichiha siding.

[1979 930]

Will be able to tell you soon on a 140'x40 this should be painful!!

[TimT]

How long are you going to let that settle before you build on it? Was it compacted?

When we construct large fill sections composed of overburden and fill, settlement is monitored via gauges placed at various elevations in the fill.. when settlement approaches a number defined by the soil type... further construction can continue..This is for bridge construction...and approaches

I mention this because it looks like you have a nice bit of fill in place...