Anyone Ever Build Their Own Garage?
 

I'm going to be building a garage and have been flipping between having someone else build it and doing it myself. I've been watching the self-build youtube videos and it seems like it would be easy but the devil is in the details. Anyone ever do it, and any tips or lessons learned or coulda woulda shoulda advice?:D

I would say yes I built it but I have a friend who is a very good carpenter that did a big chunk of the framing(I was simply labor not the brains). His help and advice really made the framing stage much much easier.
I shingled, did the electrical (again with some help from another friend when the garage panel and meter base were installed plus the mast and weatherhead), hung the drywall, installed the unit heater.
A gable end roof with manufactured engineered trusses would be easier than the hip roof on my garage.
Garages are fun projects! Go for it....

BTDT... If you have the time, I'd say go for it!

Racerbvd has some pretty cool pictures of his garage build.

1994 - Built a detached 3-car garage 28 x 36 Ft......

Hired some local firemen to build forms and pour the concrete.......Framed the walls myself, with siding and windows installed before stand-up. Had 3 friends to help stand the walls and 2 the next day to help set trusses......Took about 2 weeks of evenings and weekends. Cost about $7,500 back then......Did not do insulation, drywall or heat. I did wire for lights and outlets........This was just vehicle storage when the hoarding started getting out of control.

Advice:
1) If you avoid getting a building permit, you will suffer a big drama when you sell the place.
2) Plywood sheeting between the trusses provides a lot of overhead storage space.
3) Can save a lot with used doors/windows off Craigslist.....
4) Don't trust a friendly neighbor in regards to the property line and required "setback"

I built mine minus the concrete. I had to do footings as it was connected to the house, so I hired out the footings, slab and the couple courses of block on top of the slab. Had the contractor put the sill bolts in for attaching the sill plate.

I would say it is pretty easy to do. The City had a couple handouts about framing the garage door side as it is much weaker because of the huge opening. My local home center, a Menards had a design program that then gave a list of materials which I ordered and had delivered to my yard.

Get a pneumatic nailer to speed things up.

Another piece of advice I can give you is take the extra time to make sure studs are square and properly spaced- the time you save being a little sloppy will cost you three fold in messing around at each following step.

Rutager

This, nobody uses a hammer anymore...

I built mine after the Northridge quake. Did everything except drywall. Just make sure your measurements are dead on for studs, joists and rafters and it goes together nice and easy.
Add windows and a nice work bench and insulation. Oh, and farm out the drywall, don't even mess with it.

^This is truth. I remember reading a "how to build a house on a rainy weekend" book by lowes or something. It stated "There is nothing rough about a 'rough-in' " They were so right.

Not sure where you live, but 2x6" walls don't cost much more and get your R value higher.

Another small tip is to install your outlets higher that 4ft, people seem to always use 4ft, but if you lean a 4x8' sheet against the wall, you lose the use of the outlet, so put them a bit higher.

Rent a drywall lift for the ceiling- trying to hold sheets up and screw them up at the same time is miserable.

I drew this up using some free sketch app. The placement is along my property line which has an angle so in order to honor the setbacks I couldn't make it symmetrical. The larger side is 30ft deep, the shorter side is 20 feet deep. The larger side is for my truck and will have a 12 ft door. The other side will host our date car and has an 8ft door. Both will have 8ft openings to allow for my truck to fit.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1440727814.jpg

Front
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1440727850.jpg

Top
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1440727881.jpg

I do live where it snows but it's usually not that bad. I'm not sure if it's worth heating the garage.

If it will have wood framed walls, set them on a course or two of block. Keeps the interior wallboard (drywall or plywood) off the floor. Helps to keep the bugs and moisture out and make cleaning easier on the inside.

I almost bought my neighbor's house:
~700sq. Cheap 2x4 construction. No insulation. Cardboard walls. kitchens and baths gutted. Orangeburg main pipe. Asbestos(cough composite) sheathing. Broken supply line under slab unfixed for years and years. Poor grading and trees ready to topple throughout the yard. There was deadly mold inside that left me puking for hours after only a 1hr visit.
A definite tear down.

+Land value
-removal -main -trees -regrading -city taxes -rebuilding
=next to zero habitable value on the market, per my estimation.

I would have combined driveways, gutted the structure, and made the house into a garage. Geothermal loop and heated floors for the winter. Big yard for chickens.
That would have been my summer project starting this year if all went well.
But alas, some sucker bought it for way too much.
Oh well. Dreams revamped.

(House on left is precise to within inches/House on right is poor estimation and very oversized in pic)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1440728186.jpg

Found an old photo I took when a Cedar tree uprooted:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1440734137.jpg

I think you would get a huge level of satisfaction from building it yourself. And that's the main thing.

I would want it finished sometime in the next decade.... So unlikely I would ever DIY it.

My advice, hire out the concrete work. Everything else DIY would be lots of fun.

Pretty simple if you are under say 45....you will need help with concrete and some odds and ends.
It goes fast till the trusses are set....
Roofs take for ever

if DIY, there's no rush on everything else. With concrete, you have time limits and need to know hot to work that float. That's not even it, its all the work leading up to it, the grading, and the digging is not too much fun unless you have access to equip.

agreed