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Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman

Member

Garage addition

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After like 2 months of stuff it looks like the contractor we picked will be starting out new garage addition next week. The prices from contractors varied from $49,000 to $77,000 on the work but in the end it looks like it will run about $59,000 to get the project completed. Anyone do anything like this recently? Any advice, tips, or things to look for during the process? I'll post pictures as the project progresses as well if anyone in interested in that.
Draiman

Draiman

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Here's a cool picture of the framing.

alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC

alkizmo to Draiman

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to Draiman
Get ready for going overbudget! I hope you budgeted to go overbudget

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman

Member

The other cool thing about this contractor is they do 'progressive' payments. They do the designed then I sign off on them and pay them 5% of the job cost. They obtain the permits and I sign off and pay them another 5%. They do the foundation and we sign off and pay 15%. We sign off on all work before we paid for it on each step. I think there like 14 sign off and payment points in the payment schedule.
Draiman

Draiman to alkizmo

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to alkizmo
said by alkizmo:

Get ready for going overbudget! I hope you budgeted to go overbudget

The contractor gave us a detailed quote and guarantee the costs won't change unless we want upgrades. Our lawyer said it looked good as did 3 of the contractors references whom had projects done in the last 8-10 months. That's why we picked this contractor. We'll see though.

nunya
LXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO

1 recommendation

nunya to Draiman

MVM

to Draiman
It's not too difficult to stay close to a budget if you can avoid making changes and lock in the price of materials.

It's the "might as well's" and "while your at it's" that cost a lot of money.

alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC

alkizmo

Member

said by nunya:

It's the "might as well's" and "while your at it's" that cost a lot of money.

Yes and people here on the forum are heavy on pushing that stuff

Edrick
I aspire to tell the story of a lifetime
Premium Member
join:2004-09-11
San Diego, CA

Edrick to Draiman

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to Draiman
Wood construction? Pah-lease all steel I-beam construction is the way to go.

leibold
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join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
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leibold to Draiman

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to Draiman
Just some thoughts related to safety:

Is this garage attached to the house ? Is the room above the garage considered living space ?

Walls and ceiling of the garage will most likely require a minimum fire rating (1 hour unless local codes require more, less if there is a sprinkler system). Doors between garage and home also need to be fire rated (steel or solid wood doors, hollow core interior doors are not permitted).

If the garage and home have a common roof, spread of a garage fire through the attic to the home is also a concern.

If the garage floor is slightly sloped towards the garage door flammable liquids (gasoline) will drain away from the house (as well as making it less likely for rain water to enter the garage).

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman

Member

Some of the upgrades I wanted was 2"x6" construction over 2"x4". I changed a window on the back to a door with a small deck. I added the tornado strapping on the front since it was cheap. The quote didn't include asphalt, garage door openers, painting, certified plot plan, or door hardware so I added that in. I fired the contractors electrician who was overpriced. He wanted to scale the electrical plan back from what I wanted for the $3,000. I called my normal licensed/insured electrician in to quote the job. He'll do it as designed plus change it from (2) 20 amp circuits to a 60 amp subpanel plus (3) 20 amp circuits plus add in 2 extra gfci outlets and 4 extra lights for $300 less so $2,700. I also added in the framing on the second floor so it's easy for me to insulate and drywall next year. The wife added the octagon window in the back corner too. I wanted to get this done for like $45,000 but the best I can do is $59,000 right now.

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru to Draiman

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to Draiman
said by Draiman:

Anyone do anything like this recently? Any advice, tips, or things to look for during the process?

A friend built a similar sized detached garage several years ago. The two of us along with a few other people from time to time did all the work with the exception of the concrete foundation.

Is the 2nd floor going to be finished at the time of construction? Or later on?

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman

Member

The room above the garage isn't going to be finished this year. They are making the wall on the left with 5/8" fire drywall, fire door, etc. No code that says we need to finished the garage ceiling or upstairs to fire code until we make the area above the garage into GLA space. The garage floor is sloped 2 1/2" inches per the specs. There's just 21 pages in the design doc and I only posted 3 pages so far. I can slowly crop more pages and post them if people want. There's electrical design, a few pages of elevations, few pages of framing instructions, rough open info for windows/doors, foundation specs, 3D rendering of new garage, etc.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to Draiman

Premium Member

to Draiman
said by Draiman:

The other cool thing about this contractor is they do 'progressive' payments. They do the designed then I sign off on them and pay them 5% of the job cost. They obtain the permits and I sign off and pay them another 5%. They do the foundation and we sign off and pay 15%. We sign off on all work before we paid for it on each step. I think there like 14 sign off and payment points in the payment schedule.

that was my advice, never let a contractor get ahead of the work.
AVD

AVD

Premium Member

picking nits, one too many lally columns.

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob to Draiman

Member

to Draiman
said by Draiman:

The other cool thing about this contractor is they do 'progressive' payments. They do the designed then I sign off on them and pay them 5% of the job cost. They obtain the permits and I sign off and pay them another 5%. They do the foundation and we sign off and pay 15%. We sign off on all work before we paid for it on each step. I think there like 14 sign off and payment points in the payment schedule.

I agree. This is how we did our home improvement too.

Dave

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman to AVD

Member

to AVD
said by AVD:

picking nits, one too many lally columns.

Yea I thought the back lally seemed like overkill but the engineer wouldn't sign-off on the plans without it. They wanted another $2,000 to change to engineered lumber to eliminate the lally's also and it wasn't worth it to us.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
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join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

I was sitting here with my architect buddy and we couldn't figure out what the point of it so close to the wall was.

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman to nunya

Member

to nunya
said by nunya:

It's not too difficult to stay close to a budget if you can avoid making changes and lock in the price of materials.

It's the "might as well's" and "while your at it's" that cost a lot of money.

Yea all the "might as well's" and "while your at it" are already in the cost right now. The original price was $46,800. The cost after going through the design phase jumped to ~$59,000. The contractor forecasts his material needs 6 months in advance and prepays for it with his supplier. He said this saves him and me like $3,000 on a job like mine.

Ken
MVM
join:2003-06-16
Markle, IN

Ken to AVD

MVM

to AVD
said by AVD:

I was sitting here with my architect buddy and we couldn't figure out what the point of it so close to the wall was.

Looks like there is a center beam effectively cutting the joist spans in half. That beam can't span front to back on just one column, so it required 2 columns. I'm guessing instead of spacing the 2 columns out equally someone decided to just have one in the car area and push the other into a more out of the way area. Perhaps they thought it would make it easier to get in and out of cars with just one column instead of two in the car area? I can think of a couple different ways to do that, but they would all be at an increased cost.

fluffybunny
@teksavvy.com

fluffybunny to Draiman

Anon

to Draiman
mine cost $18K for a two car garage. i threw in a lot of labor and supervised closely so that was probably it.

John Galt6
Forward, March
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp

John Galt6 to Draiman

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to Draiman
Make sure when they stack the roof and put in the rafter ties they are careful. Otherwise it will look like hell when you sheetrock.

alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC

alkizmo to Draiman

Member

to Draiman
said by Draiman:

The other cool thing about this contractor is they do 'progressive' payments. They do the designed then I sign off on them and pay them 5% of the job cost. They obtain the permits and I sign off and pay them another 5%. They do the foundation and we sign off and pay 15%. We sign off on all work before we paid for it on each step. I think there like 14 sign off and payment points in the payment schedule.

Don't forget to withhold 10%-15% for X days after the end of construction.

I don't know how things work in the states, but here, a sub-contractor or material supplier can put a "legal mortgage" (Don't know the equivalent term in english) which supersedes any other mortgage, if they don't get paid, even if the main contractor is the one who didn't pay, your property becomes the sub-contractor's collateral.

After 35 days (In Quebec) of the end of construction, the deadline is reached and you're in the clear. Then you pay your contractor the last 15%.

But that's just a suggestion.
XXXXXXXXXXX1
Premium Member
join:2006-01-11
Beverly Hills, CA

XXXXXXXXXXX1

Premium Member

said by alkizmo:

I don't know how things work in the states, but here, a sub-contractor or material supplier can put a "legal mortgage" (Don't know the equivalent term in english) which supersedes any other mortgage, if they don't get paid, even if the main contractor is the one who didn't pay, your property becomes the sub-contractor's collateral.

In the U.S. it's called a mechanic's lien.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me ··· c's_lien

nunya
LXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
·Charter

nunya to alkizmo

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to alkizmo
Not gonna happen. Nobody (contractor) in their right mind is going to sit and wait for their lien rights to expire before the customer makes the final payment.
Your advice is unrealistic.
I wait until the last minute to file liens (liens are a "last resort"). If someone was holding out on me just to try and ride the lien period, I would file the lien immediately and then make them pay the filing and processing fees to remove it. Theft of services is a big problem these days. There may be a lot of bad contractors, but there are even more bad customers. It's a double edged sword.

All you have to do is ask your contractor for a lien waiver from himself and anyone who worked on the job. Obviously good lien waivers are nullified by cancelled checks or cancelled credit card payments.

alkizmo
join:2007-06-25
Pierrefonds, QC

alkizmo

Member

said by nunya:

Not gonna happen. Nobody (contractor) in their right mind is going to sit and wait for their lien rights to expire before the customer makes the final payment.

Standard procedure by banks who finance major renovations like this and base their loan/value ratio on the potential value of the property after the project is complete.

Draiman
Let me see those devil horns in the sky
join:2012-06-01
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Draiman

Member

Bottom line ask for a lien waiver when making the final payment. Thanks for the advice.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
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join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to alkizmo

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to alkizmo
said by [bquote=nunya See Profile :

Not gonna happen. Nobody (contractor) in their right mind is going to sit and wait for their lien rights to expire before the customer makes the final payment.

I think most residential contractors expect payment after final inspection, retainage is quite common in commercial construction, but usually for leverage in warranty issues.

Gord
@teksavvy.com

Gord to alkizmo

Anon

to alkizmo
Just remember this is taking place in the US where the Banks don't follow any rules.

Here in Canada they never lend money to people based on what they say they earn hoping it was actually true.

Nice garage by the way. I only wish in the future I can get a lot with enough space to build something similar.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
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join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to Draiman

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to Draiman
Thank you for this posting. You are expressly instructed to provide progress photos and reports at each phase of the project going forward.

leibold
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Sunnyvale, CA
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leibold to Draiman

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to Draiman
said by Draiman:

There's just 21 pages in the design doc and I only posted 3 pages so far. I can slowly crop more pages and post them if people want.

I'm not know about everybody else but I would find it interesting.