New Home Construction - the do's and don'ts thread

[Glenn]

OK, I have started to update my post. I promise to keep it coming quicker this time.

http://www.toolandfab.com/forum/show...92&postcount=3

[VegasBruce]

OK, an update on my situation, I'm planning an early retirement this year. So this year on vacation I picked up a free singlewide. I'll refab it this Winter for livable space. Then I'm going to start my home building project in about a year. Here is what I have now.

When we saw it




Moving it.



Home sweet home.

[Bmac]

Something that I see a lot of these days in this rural area are metal machine shed/shop type buildings with living quarters inside. Sounds odd I know,but have seen some really nice units with wrap around porches and cedar fronts. I've built some expensive cabinets for a few of these. Some of these are Doc and Lawyer types building weekend homes and lodges for their buddies during hunting seasons.

Would love to have one myself. Large attached garage/shop,outside pretty much maintenance free. One downside would be concrete floors,but guess a raised floor and crawl space wouldn't be out of the question.

[VegasBruce]

In the colder areas the sheds wouldn't be to hard to build on a foundation, the concrete slad would be good too. It could be polished up and save on flooring.

[Bmac]

You could heat a portion of the slab too,hear that's fairly efficient. Been in homes that actually poored concrete floors in their bathrms,just for the heated floors.

[VegasBruce]

You can actually keep the t-stat set cooler with radiant heat.

[Neuswede]

Thought I would chime in again on this subject. The spousal unit and I have been combing the countryside in search of a suitable new location for the house and shop. Have decided to locate a pre-existing home (under 1500 SF) and build a new shop. The plan with the garage/shop is 2 separate spaces. 28x44 for the clean side with 2 storeage lifts and room for 6 cars (2 up and 4 down). The working side will be the same size, with a 2 post lift and plenty of room for car assembly and fabrication. We are currently looking in 2 separate counties here in PA, with each township having some interesting zoning regs, but have found the zoning folks to be very easy to work with. Will report more in an upcoming e-mail.

[MXtras]

Excellent - at least you are moving forward!

I am stalled right now. I have "lost" nearly $40K in equity in the last year. I wish I had gotten a better jump on this endevour before the housing prices tanked.

Keep us up to date, Swede.

Scott

[Neuswede]

Well, it's been a busy few weeks. Currently we have an offer in on a home sitting on an acre, with an attached 2 car garage and room for the dream garage. We made the offer (it's a short sale) after my appraiser and contractor had a chance to look it over. The asking was $129,900, with an appraised value of $162,000. I had my appraiser provide a "Cost to Cure" estimate and a projected value of $184,000 after repairs of approximately $12,000. We're pre-approved for both the mortgage and repair loan, so we hopefully won't have to live in sawdust too long after we move in. The deadline I gave to receive a response has expired, so I have the option of walking if I find something better in the interim, which we already have. We hope to have their answer by next week.

Made an offer last night on a nice property sitting on one-third acre with 1,554 SF and a 3.5 car garage of 24'x40'. Has additional parking for 2 large car haulers and 10 cars outside. Based on it's location on the property, I can re-size the garage to my needs but am looking at the cost estimates to see if its worth it and whether I should just build an additional space provided I don't run in to a coverage problem (the township has a 25% coverage rule). I have made contact with the local zoning officers in each township as well as each county, and once they realize I'm a guy who knows some of the rules and wants to know all that pertain to my project, they have been very helpful and cooperative. Quite a pleasant surprise. Anyways, I'll keep you updated and once we have a deal on either house, I'll post a few pics along with the anticipated floor plan for the garage. The spousal unit has really gotten behind the project, so I think she must want something in return...just don't know what it is just yet.

[Neuswede]

Well it's been a long road to finding a house, but we FINALLY had an offer accepted! The home sitting on an acre (the short sale house) is still sittingthere and after almost 6 weeks of waiting, the bank holding the mortgage still can't make a decision, so we've found several other houses in the mean time, made several offers (six to be exact) and had each one countered or rejected. Finally, yesterday we had an offer accepted on a brick cape cod with a second floor. The house is structurally sound (pending confirmation from my inpsector and appraiser) but is tired, outdated and in need of some cleaning and freshening. BUt enough of this stuff, let me get to the stuff you really want to hear about....THE GARAGE.

It has none...consider the yard a blank canvas on which I will create my masterpiece. The property is approxiamtely 1/4 acre (9,840 SF) in a mature neighborhood. The lot dimesions are 80'x125'x81'x123'.

Have had another pleassant conversation with Julie, my zoning officer and who has been most helpful in my quest for a big garage. The maximum allowable structure coverage is 30% (up from 25% on many sites I looked at)The site requires 10 ft. setbacks on each of the property lines, with no minimum requirement from the house, and no miniumum requirement for the driveway length (unlike some other properties which had 25 ft. minimum requirements for both). City water and sewer, so no issues on placement of garage in back yard, but I am faced with an issue of whether I want side load or front load garage doors. Side load will mean a tight turn into the garage, but front load means not much grass between the house and garage (not a bad idea, actually). My original dream garage of 44'x56' has been downsized somewhat along the way. Looks like 28'x44 ' if I go with a sideload and 32'x44' if i go with a frontload. Either way, I will be going with a 12' ceiling height to accomodate 2 storage lifts with room to accomodate 5 cars. I will be adding an enclsosed trailer to my fleet, so the race car can sit in that rather than taking up shop space. I have also decided to add a second floor, which will house my parts room, air compressor, blast cabinet and 50 gal. parts washer. Will probably go with a room down the center of the upper floor, and build shelving into kneewalls to make the most use of the space. Flooring will be built over engineered joists for strength. Planning on including PEX pipe in the slab so that I can add radiant heat later. Will also be including a sunken slab to house my mid-rise lift, which will have a plate covering it when not in use, and not an obstruction to parking.

Will keep you posted as we proceed and once things get moving, I'll post the finalized plans and site pics.