I'll start off by saying I wish I could go bigger, however much room you have is never enough, I'm sure that's true and have always found it to be the case, if not right away eventually.
When we were house shopping in 2012/2013 having extra garage space was important(to me) but only part of the needs/wants although high up on the list. I was happy enough the house in the location/price/condition had an extra detached garage, 22x20 in size with the attached 2.5 garage. This would house my Monte's. Over the years the idea of taking it down to build a bigger one was there but in 2022 the idea started becoming a closer reality due to selling my co-owned rental property. Money didn't go as far as I thought but the ball was rolling and earlier this year agreed to build the best garage allowed and didn't cause me to eat ramen for the next year or two. Re-using any of the old garage wasn't practical as it was going wider on each side, deeper and taller. Plus the concrete was only 4" thick without any rebar(!). Built in 1978 it was still in decent shape structurally, the concrete had some big cracks and heaving, mudjacked 10 years ago helped. My city only allows 840 square feet for an accessory building if you have 0-2 acres of land, we have just over 1 acre, kind of stinks 1/4 acre is the same as almost 2, but due to many factors I wasn't going to try and file a variance, I can't pretend this is some critical thing just wanting a bigger garage. Setbacks were further than I thought at 25' also due to our suburban/rural zoning, that with having an inground pool it needs to be at least 10' from that and 10' from the house, although there is leeway there if you use a certain thickness of drywall. Basically I couldn't get much bigger than is getting built without a variance (and maybe even another one for the side yard setback), although having maybe 2' wider and deeper would be ideal. Size is 32'x26'. Having 3 wide was critical and just fits the 10' from the home and 25' setback on that side. The bulk of our yard is the back but not practical to build the garage on for a few reasons, the location of the old garage is perfect to me, sharing the driveway which has a larger area.
Old garage
After my prep
Originally told in early March when signing my life away that it would probably be mid July to start, they called and asked in late May if I was ready or how soon I would be. They had started building one, almost identical to mine, on a property adjacent to us, small world. They build 80-90 garages a year but to have one being done next door isn't too likely. I originally thought I'd save some money and do the demo myself, glad I didn't bother. Demo was done in one day by one guy from what I could peeping in watching on two cameras setup pointed at the area. Concrete and all, dumpster rental came and gone. I removed the garage door, opener and windows to sell, I should of made more time to take more siding since it was aluminum but ran out of time. Stripping the osb and insulation I put in also took some time. I rented a 16' long storage pod which is jam packed with tools, parts and some garage materials. Organized well at first the end I just started tossing and piling things up.
When we were house shopping in 2012/2013 having extra garage space was important(to me) but only part of the needs/wants although high up on the list. I was happy enough the house in the location/price/condition had an extra detached garage, 22x20 in size with the attached 2.5 garage. This would house my Monte's. Over the years the idea of taking it down to build a bigger one was there but in 2022 the idea started becoming a closer reality due to selling my co-owned rental property. Money didn't go as far as I thought but the ball was rolling and earlier this year agreed to build the best garage allowed and didn't cause me to eat ramen for the next year or two. Re-using any of the old garage wasn't practical as it was going wider on each side, deeper and taller. Plus the concrete was only 4" thick without any rebar(!). Built in 1978 it was still in decent shape structurally, the concrete had some big cracks and heaving, mudjacked 10 years ago helped. My city only allows 840 square feet for an accessory building if you have 0-2 acres of land, we have just over 1 acre, kind of stinks 1/4 acre is the same as almost 2, but due to many factors I wasn't going to try and file a variance, I can't pretend this is some critical thing just wanting a bigger garage. Setbacks were further than I thought at 25' also due to our suburban/rural zoning, that with having an inground pool it needs to be at least 10' from that and 10' from the house, although there is leeway there if you use a certain thickness of drywall. Basically I couldn't get much bigger than is getting built without a variance (and maybe even another one for the side yard setback), although having maybe 2' wider and deeper would be ideal. Size is 32'x26'. Having 3 wide was critical and just fits the 10' from the home and 25' setback on that side. The bulk of our yard is the back but not practical to build the garage on for a few reasons, the location of the old garage is perfect to me, sharing the driveway which has a larger area.
Old garage
After my prep
Originally told in early March when signing my life away that it would probably be mid July to start, they called and asked in late May if I was ready or how soon I would be. They had started building one, almost identical to mine, on a property adjacent to us, small world. They build 80-90 garages a year but to have one being done next door isn't too likely. I originally thought I'd save some money and do the demo myself, glad I didn't bother. Demo was done in one day by one guy from what I could peeping in watching on two cameras setup pointed at the area. Concrete and all, dumpster rental came and gone. I removed the garage door, opener and windows to sell, I should of made more time to take more siding since it was aluminum but ran out of time. Stripping the osb and insulation I put in also took some time. I rented a 16' long storage pod which is jam packed with tools, parts and some garage materials. Organized well at first the end I just started tossing and piling things up.
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