Adventures in boat ownership - continues!

[dansshin]

@Dough My work bench would go on the side of the garage. My 3rd stall should be ~25' wide after the addition and 18'x 8' door should leave me ~6' for work area.

@Trm1765 Yes, if cost and space wasn't a consideration...

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

I am a contractor as well and I would say if you have the room for a taller door get it. That is one thing I always did for my customers when I built them homes with garages, I always tucked my headers and gave them a full opening to eve height. They all always thanked me afterwords because something always came up specially for a work shop area etc. It won't cost but a few dollars more for the door, construction costs are the same regardless and this would be one of those times that is much cheaper to do now than later down the road.

I have a feeling you may have misheard you contractor saying in the 50K mark vs. $50 a square foot. Typical construction including his overhead, insurances etc that you do not have as a homeowner my min. cost was $75 a sq. ft. for non living area and double for living space. Not out of the question also depending on quality. If you are confident you can schedule, monitor and maintain your project then go for it but you will see there is a lot of leg work involved in this. Now one thing I will add as advice, 99% of contractors never request a foundation survey nor do they request soil compaction on cheap jobs unless it is mandated by the engineer. Each will cost you about $100 to have done. What this does is makes damn sure you are building on your property and within your setbacks as well s since this is an addition, your existing house has already settled. You need to compact the ground under your addition so it does not settle and separate. This leads to cracks in the walls and flooring and could lead to a total separation between the buildings. I have seen it numerous times and it is an unsightly thing to try and repair or hide.

 

[dansshin]

@Bruce By the way new addition will demo the existing wall so there won't be any door or wall between old and new. It will be 2nd double garage. And this is one reason why I choose not to go with 9' door because of the look with existing double garage.

 

[dansshin]

@Englewoodcowboy Thanks for your input. I originally thought 9' door but knowing I probably won't go any bigger with boat and you still need to fold the 212x tower to get it in I decided to go with 8' for estatics of the front look with existing garage.

I didn't mishear my contractor. He apologized for being way off and said he was surprised how high it came in.

One comparison of his quote, excavation and foundation was $12k vs $9k or even $8k from some that I didn't pick.

 

[Bruce]

I do not know what kind of city ordinances that you may have deal with in construction.

@Speedling, I know you are a masonry expert. Do you have advice here?

Removing the old brick is a sledge hammer job and primarily manual labor until you get close to what you want to keep. New brick in my area sells for $350 to $500 a thousand. A thousand brick covers ~ 180 square feet. Brick labor cost is between $300 and $500 per thousand. I paid $700 a thousand for 32' tall brick walls. My $5 a square foot brick estimate is $900 a thousand assuming $400 per thousand each for labor and brick plus $100 for sand and mortar. My estimate above was an over estimate because I forgot to remove 144 sqft of wall where the garage door will be.

Concrete in my area is typically $4.50 a square foot for slabs. You have an extra apron that I was not aware of. Costs for the slabs would be 416 sqft slab @ $4.50 = $1872 and 128 sqft apron @ $4.50 = $576. The concrete crew would form up the day before then pour the next morning, continue finishing work into the afternoon then pull their forms and go home. A crew of two to three could easily handle the job.

Your footers look elaborate in the drawings. I am uncertain how elaborate they end up in reality. The drawings also look like they may be intended to be made from some sort of precast blocks. Typical labor rates for footers in my area are less than $5 a linear foot to dig and pour the footers. I estimated 60' linear foot of footers. I can't tell how long the extension of the existing wall is. I assumed it to be 4. Assuming you are doing something more complex or using extra concrete in your footers I assumed the cost at $10 a linear foot.

I have not seen the area to be excavated. The drawings show the slab area as "unexcavated" so I assume that area to be fairly flat and in need of very little work. So I our excavation job is limited to trenching 60' of perhaps 2' wide trench 3.5" deep. Unless you are on rock that is a small job. If you were on rock you would not need such a strong footer.

Actually as I look at the drawings again I believe the footer is a 20" to 16" wide x 8 " thick poured concrete footer 40 inches below the surface with 12" to 8" concrete blocks stacked on the footer with rebar through the blocks and into the footer on 32" centers. Then a 4" block is used above ground to keep the wall from touching the ground. This top block removes the need to form the slab everywhere except across the garage door opening. I would dig a 2' wide trench. Add vertical rebar every 32 inches with marks to identify the 32" below slab point. Then fill the trench up to the marks on the rebar all the way around. allow it to dry, stack the blocks with mortar, allow that to dry, fill the blocks with concrete then back fill. Concrete is not one of my skills but I have contracted out lots of it. So when I say I, I mean I would have a skilled crew do that. But it is a small job that should not cost anywhere near 9k. The trenching should not take more than half a day of a normal sized backhoe. In my area that would cost around $400.

I have assumed that you are using the existing garage wall as most of one of the walls. The plans show this. So I do not include that wall in the costs.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Just be sure you at least get a foundation survey for your setbacks etc. I used to be the on-call general contractor for my county that would go to the board of director meetings when someone was discovered to have built over a property line or setback. Let me tell you I was shocked at the frequency of it and to me it became just something I had to do so there was no chance I would ever be on the short end of that stick. Also be sure to read your contract with whomever is doing your foundation work, I am fairly certain you will find a rock clause that puts you on the hook if they run into something that was in the ground that they could or can not get around without special tools etc. I had them n all of my contracts and you need to be prepared for an issue should it arise. Boulders you can't dig and have to be cut or chipped get expensive quick.

 

[dansshin]

@Bruce Your knowledge on this is amazing. I really wish it was cheaper but what I'm paying is somewhat in line with what other foundation contractors were quoting in my area. I know home prices here are some what on the high side probably because of labor rates.

I couldn't even get other brick guys to come to give me a bid. My brick contractor initially wanted $5500.

@Englewoodcowboy I'm using the survey that my builder provided which shows 21.71' distance from side of my garage to property line. My side easement and setback is 5'. City already approved this 16' wide addition.

 

[dansshin]

Here are few pictures of the area where the addition is going. It's pretty flat with exception of the back where I'm extending out 6'.

 

[Bruce]

I have a better understanding now.

The amount of brick to be removed is small and almost all of the new wall will be siding.

The downhill footer is more of a retaining wall. And you are going to need some crushed stone (sewer rock) or city pit to bring it up to grade. A dump truck or two. Perhaps $500 of fill material.

 

[dansshin]

Here are some pictures from the foundation work. This guy tore up my neighbor's yard too!

 

[dansshin]

First day isn't even over and here are things that are damaged already!

Landscape boulder must have rolled down the hill, crushing one of my wife's plant and landed on the paver stone and cracked it.

My neighbor's grass is toast and dirt is overflowing into his yard!

 

[dansshin]

I have a better understanding now.

The amount of brick to be removed is small and almost all of the new wall will be siding.

The downhill footer is more of a retaining wall. And you are going to need some crushed stone (sewer rock) or city pit to bring it up to grade. A dump truck or two. Perhaps $500 of fill material.

Front of the garage will be full matching brick and side and back of the house will be matching siding. I'm not sure if my foundation guys is putting crushed stones. He is doing a poured concrete wall and backfilling it. He is going to put 6" of class 5 gravel under the garage floor with 6mil vapor barrier. I had him put rebar for all my concrete floor and apron and he is charging me extra for that! I thought it should have been included with his base quote.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Have the surveyor come out and set a corner pin. Its not an issue of what the county approved, they approved numbers you gave them, you want to make sure your house is sitting exactly where you think it is in regard to that survey. That is the problem with lots of builders I have found. They submit the initial site survey showing the house etc, it gets approved and built. You are now adding on to it with the assumption it was built precisely where the plans show. A professional survey and a corner pin will save you aggravation down the road. By the looks of it you are building right up to your set back and what if the house was actually built 6" to the right of where the drawing indicates. I am just trying to relay cheap insurance for the future is all. It was also like when I was a cop and the amount of people I pulled over without insurance, needless to say I now never go without uninsured motorist coverage on anything... the odds are not in your favor in the grand scheme of things. Now if you site survey was done say when you bought the house and was an actual verification survey it should be noted on your paperwork but I used to get corner pins set for around $100 and then if they were wrong it was on them to pay fines and push for re-zoning etc. or worse case, reconstruction to make something fit. I have been to cases where houses where built and were built over their neighbors property line because someone moved a survey stake that was very old etc...

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

You may also want to check your county ordinance for silt fence during construction. Ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law and if you are required to have it as a boundary you need to have it in prior to your inspector arriving or you could face a fine. You may live where there is no ordinance for it but I find it highly unlikely in this day and age. Also make sure your permits are displayed, that could be a big issue as well.

 

[dansshin]

@Englewoodcowboy Here is the survey I'm using and also submitted as part of my paper work to the city.

 

[dansshin]

Inspector stopped by for the foundation and he approved the foundation. He didn't mention anything about silt fence so it must not be needed. He did note that with me going another 2 feet back for total of 26 feet I may be closer to the 5 feet of the property line. He said if I'm less than 5 feet I would need to sheet rock the soffits for extra fire proofing.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Do you see the date if the survey? Being it is almost 9 years old while enough for permitting etc. I would still get them to come set a corner before you pour. Being you have dirt already on your neighbors yard tells me you are already right at the edge of your 5' set back and have crossed it. I hope you have cleared this with your neighbor and are on good terms so that he did not come home to a surprise. I am only giving you suggestions of which at the least should and would have been done by a reputable contractor. Interesting things always turn up when a new survey is done, just relaying my personal experience and things I did to ensure I was not causing any upcoming issues.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

You have to remember he is assuming your survey is accurate along with your location of the house to that survey.... he is not responsible for anything other than if your building to code or not. He does not have to mention silt fence either, he is not there for that, I would have asked him if it is required but you have to keep in mind these guys are used to dealing with professionals who are suppose to know this and they adopt the attitude that if you don't know they don't tell and if you don't ask they do not offer. If it is required he would simply place a call to the code enforcement division and they would send another inspector out. It all has to do with construction but an electrical inspector will not tell you if you have a plumbing problem etc...

 

[dansshin]

Thanks @Englewoodcowboy. I'm sure you can't go over the property line but I get the feeling that it's ok to be closer than 5 feet from the property line as long as I sheet rock the soffits. I still think I'm still over 5 feet from the property line as I feel I can trust the survey information I got from the builder and there are other markers on the lot that you can use to determine the existing property line (i.e. catch basin) but even if it was off a bit by chance it seems like city is not going to make you tare it down.

Reason why dirt is overflowing to the neighbor's lot is because there was so much of it and he didn't have a lot of place to put it currently. I have tree near the front of the new addition and it's got some landscaping so he can't put the dirt there so he has been piling on the side.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Its not that they will make you tear it down, they can. They can also give you alternatives, typicaly the set back is to allow for future utility expansion etc. as well as other various resons. I have seen cases that resulted in a home being moved over, as well as fines and penalties and other arrangements of the neighbor with an agreement to sell you whatever inches you may need to become legal again. Again take it for what it is, this is somehting that is typically discovered when someone buys or sells and orders a new survey for such then these problems become huge isuues. All I am doing is trying to give you some professional advice so it is ultimately up to you wether you want to explore it or not. Good luck with your endeavors.