Wasted time - building a garage while trying to use it and the mistakes I made

[aftermath]

I started building a 900sqr foot second garage last Sept. Im still not done.

What did I learn?
1) Putting stuff in the garage while building it doubles the effort as Ive moved piles of lumber\cars\tools around so many times Ive lost count.
2) As carefull as you think you will be, you can damage stuff. I dropped a 2*6 block from the attic onto the hood of my 944.
3) Build grade beam and pile instead of a giant slab. That would have solved a lot of issues for me, saving me time and money and having a wall much higher than the soil level.
4) The worst I did was build the walls at 70 and 110 degress because thats what fit on my lot. When I got to the roof, that added 5* the effort as I had to cut every sheet of wood, trim every pience of insulation.....For the little bit extra of storage space I got, I had more headaches and wasted material than it was worth.
5) Really think about your electrical. You cant put in enough service, plugs, lights.
6) Next time im hiring a company to spray in the insulation, in the long run it makes for a more air tight building. In Canada that can pay for it self in heating savings.
7) Even though it cost more to have the storage truss, its really worth it to have the extra storage in the attic. Ive tossed so much stuff up there already it amazes me.
8) Build high enough for a lift because you all know you want one. I put a vaulted ceiling over my lifts ( scissor truss it was called ).
9) It costs more than you think it will.
10) Build in a floor drain if you can. I cheaped out and now Im regretting it.
11) Prewire it for phone\alarm\tv\computer. Its nice to have all that stuff in your garage.
12) Really think about your heating, do you want radiant floor, furnance or radiant tube. How you use your garage will affect your choice. I would want radiant floor, but I keep the heat down and I want it to warm up fast so I went forced air furnace.
13) Plan where you will put your tools\compressor\workbench\shelves. If you do it as a afterthought like I did you might find you dont have electrical where you want it, etc. That goes for doors also.
14) If you think of putting in something that would be handy and you cheap out and dont do it, you will probably regret it.
15) You will regret not building it bigger than you did.

Crappy iphone picture attached.

[URY914]

Did you do all this work yourself?

Did you permit the work?

Did you consult with anyone that had done this sort of thing before?

From your list it would seem you did just about everything wrong. Failure to plan is failure to complete.

Sorry for being so frank.

[snipes]

URY914
From reading his list I do not think he did it all wrong. He got #7 right for sure and you can plan the space all you want, but you will never get the layout 100% right. Some times you just have to "live in the space" to know what you should have done. And there is no way in the world to get #15 correct.

Good work aftermath.

[whiteSC59]

post some better pics please. thats a very kewl second area above. how do you move those cars up and down?? congrats, know its been a headache but youre almost done. Ive built 2 houses without contractors except for brickwork so Ive always tend to overthink stuff. the light at the end of the tunnel and think how much more you'de have spent on the contractor, money saved.

[Rich Lambert]

Building a garage sounds easy, heck, building a garage that's everything you want sounds easy, but it's not. I just finished my 3rd garage (3 in 15 years) and I still haven't figured it out, but then, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. That said, I made way fewer mistakes on this one than the previous two.

A garage can be anything from a pseudo-lounge to a full-on working shop and everything in-between. It's all about compromise and $$$. The iniitial estimate I got from my architect was so far off (low) that I had to make quite a few compromises to the original vision.

The most important lessons I learned were:
- Don't start a garage in the fall, do it in the spring when the weather's nicer and the days are longer.
- Estimates are just that and undoubtedly too low.
- Expect the unexpected.
- When your contractor doesn't return 2 phone calls in a row, move on.
- Learn to do stuff yourself so you don't have to rely on flakey tradespeople that would rather be playing golf or fishing than showing up at your job site.
- You will quickly acquire more stuff in order to fill the new space.
- I love new garages. The next one's gonna be killer.

[aftermath]

I did all the work except for the gas line and heater install.

Of course I got the permits.

I spoke with the supplier of the garage package and their truss designer at length about not going with 90 degree walls. No one had done it, the concept is simple, I knew it would be extra work for the roof, but it made it way harder than it needed to be.

Some of my list isnt mistakes, its what I did right, like build it high enough for lifts and put in a storage attic. Some of my choices worked for the best and some didnt. The slab and the goofy angles are my biggest regrets. Using the garage before it was finished meant racing or missing a year of racing, but it sure wasted a lot of time moving stuff around. I can fit 6 cars easily into the garage, 7 for storage but then it gets hard to work on anything. I also installed 2700sqr feet of paving stones for the driveway\patio\sidewalk. That was the hardest Ive ever worked in my life.....

The slab idea seemed simpler and every 'expert' I talked to said you could do it grade beam and pile or slab. The engineer drew it up both ways. It turns out that grade beam and pile would have worked better.

[URY914]

I asked if you permitted the work because in many areas permits are not required.

And the floor drain are easier said than done. Most if not all permitting agencies will not allow a floor drain in a shop area without an oil/water separator being installed. Add $10-20K to your budget for that little 4" drain.

Here is the shop I just finished. A Caterpillar Equipment dealer's new "store". About 100,000 sf with offices, warehouse, shops, etc. It had a $12 million price tag. I was the senior project manager. I know a lot about planning.