Detached Garage Questions

CV355

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I'm looking into a 2 or 3 bay detached garage for our backyard, weighing out the costs vs return equity-wise. It has been a motivator for me lately. The area it would be installed on is currently a lightly wooded section of our yard- I plan on (and have been) cutting the trees down myself, so the excavation would be mainly stumps and earth.
  • Anybody have any experience with excavation and slab foundation costs in the Southeast US?
  • Any issues if there isn't heating/cooling initially (tool storage, wouldn't think there would be an issue)
  • My existing breaker box in the house is full- can a second J-box be added at the new garage off the same service? Is that code-compliant?
  • Is there much of a property value boost with a properly installed metal/fab building, or should I consider stick built at the highest cost?
  • What pre-fab company did you use for the building / recommendations? (been looking at Alan's Factory Outlet)
  • Was there much of an increase in property insurance?
  • Any surprises/pitfalls/words of advice from those of you who have done this before?
I may tackle it in phases, such as excavation/foundation this year, building next year, or something like that. My plan is to tackle it without incurring any debt, so I have plenty of time to plan and no rush factor.
 

HillbillyHotRod

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Best I can say is get the permits for it. We live out in the sticks and never thought we would need a permit. Nope even out in the county they want their cut. Found out we were 2 feet too close to the highway so had to get another fee for waiver.
 

sleek98

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Your not going to be able to do the excavation one year and build on it the next. You will end up having to do some of the work again.

Metal buildings will add little value, but also cost less. Stick built will add more value but still nowhere near what you will pay for it.

We did a 40x50 stick built 12 foot walls. With all the options I wanted/needed to get past the HOA, it was 65-70k give or take. If we had to sell today I would lose my ass on it, but we plan on staying in the house until we retire which should be 35-40 years from now. Most appraisers don't add very much for detached buildings, esp metal buildings. If I had to guess they would add 35-45k for our garage.
 

CV355

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Your not going to be able to do the excavation one year and build on it the next. You will end up having to do some of the work again.

I may have misworded that- I would do major excavation and paving/foundation this year. Everything to prep for the build phase. Then, next year, I'd put the building up. It really depends on a lot of factors. If my GT500 starts to depreciate, I'm selling immediately and that'll fund the whole project, plus pay off my wife's truck. I'm trying to set myself up so that there is no financial risk whatsoever.

Do you have pics of your garage that you're willing to share? Stick built looks so much nicer than metal, but you can't argue with the cost of metal... If a 30x40 metal building adds 50% of its cost in equity, I'm ok with that. It beats the $25k we put into the house last year that added 0.
 

Coiled03

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Cost vs. equity analysis would say don't build it to begin with. You'll get out of it what you put in to it, especially detached. If you want to build it just to have, that's different.
 

sleek98

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Metal might be 10-15k in equity, but you might have a hard time finding a buyer thats willing to look at it if you can see it from the house. Not knowing how big your lot is could change that.

Full 200 amp panel in the garage, now has heat/AC and fully insulated. Need to get the wall/ceiling covering up but thats the next summer plan.

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CV355

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Cost vs. equity analysis would say don't build it to begin with. You'll get out of it what you put in to it, especially detached. If you want to build it just to have, that's different.

There's truth to that, but it's more of a psychological thing with me. I have a hard time spending money unless it's either contributing to equity or a necessary utility (one of the reasons I struggle to take vacations, but my wife is hammering on me to fix that one haha)

Metal might be 10-15k in equity, but you might have a hard time finding a buyer thats willing to look at it if you can see it from the house. Not knowing how big your lot is could change that.

Full 200 amp panel in the garage, now has heat/AC and fully insulated. Need to get the wall/ceiling covering up but thats the next summer plan.

That is gorgeous and I am green with envy!! Where I'm building is behind the house. My property is like a giant slice of pizza, so I wanted to have the garage nestled in the back. It'd be visible looking out the back window, but there's also a perfect view of the blue ridge mountains that would remain unobstructed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the original owners of the house did a lot of very expensive landscaping, so we're going to keep that in tact and make the garage work in with it tactfully. After all we've done to this place so far, the last thing I want to do is sell it. I couldn't buy back my old shitty house for the same cost as my current one, so the "equity gain" is more of a mental thing. Easier to put a dollar in the bank than spend it sort of thing.

I think you're convincing me to go stick built...
 

sleek98

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Forgot to answer a couple of your other questions.

Build what you can afford and live with. Some guys dont care if they are looking at a metal building because they are cheaper. But they can end up more expensive if your planning on finishing the insides.

Either metal or stick built can have issues with humidity if you are in a humid part of the southeast. Running a decent humidifier can solve that problem if you end up with one. I did not have an issue before I added the mini split.

You will need to move a 2 of the breakers to a new sub panel and then run a line from the subpanel to the garage. Depending on how far your going and the amp you want at the detached will determine the size of wire.

If your insurance company already comes with a detached amount it might not go up much. My policy came with 20% of the value of the house for detached buildings, that covered the detached building. I had to add a little when I put solar panels to cover them, via adding additional cost to rebuild the house. I think it was 50 a year to add 30k in coverage.

If you dont have the next 3 days of your life check out garagejournal.com I have bounced ideas off those guys in my build thread and they have helped a ton.
 
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CV355

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Forgot to answer a couple of your other questions.

Build what you can afford and live with. Some guys dont care if they are looking at a metal building because they are cheaper. But they can end up more expensive if your planning on finishing the insides.

Either metal or stick built can have issues with humidity if you are in a humid part of the southeast. Running a decent humidifier can solve that problem if you end up with one. I did not have an issue before I added the mini split.

You will need to move a 2 of the breakers to a new sub panel and then run a line from the subpanel to the garage. Depending on how far your going and the amp you want at the detached will determine the size of wire.

If your insurance company already comes with a detached amount it might not go up much. My policy came with 20% of the value of the house for detached buildings, that covered the detached building. I had to add a little when I put solar panels to cover them, via adding additional cost to rebuild the house. I think it was 50 a year to add 30k in coverage.

If you dont have the next 3 days of your life check out garagejournal.com I have bounced ideas off those guys in my build thread and they have helped a ton.

It'll be a short hike to get to the garage from where the existing panel is.

I've poked around on garagejournal. It's about the same as 20 year old me poking around on SVTP haha. Could I afford it? Sure. Should I afford it is the question though... I've also toyed around with the idea of a decent loft area that would work as a place for friends/family to crash, and possibly an in-law suite someday if the need ever were to arise. It's sounding like I should push the timeline back some and save more to go stick built and get it done right the first time.

After doing a little side-digging, I'm finding that detached garages (When done right) are in the 80% ROI for building cost, excluding excavation, etc. So your figure is probably dead on.
 

7998

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I did a 30'x30' metal building with 12' ceilings for a lift. I wanted to do 30'x40' but needed a permit to build anything over 1000 sqft. In retrospect I wish I would've just built the 30'x40' without a permit.
The whole thing with 6" 4000 psi concrete cost $21k. And the Amish came and put it up in 2 days. For me to stick build, it would've cost me (as the builder) $40k
I'm in the process of insulating the ceiling and walls for heat and I really regret not using MC cable instead of the Romex.
As far as value, it don't add much but it does add appeal.
I'd post a pic but I don't know how to do that here.
 

PaxtonShelby

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Metal might be 10-15k in equity, but you might have a hard time finding a buyer thats willing to look at it if you can see it from the house. Not knowing how big your lot is could change that.

Full 200 amp panel in the garage, now has heat/AC and fully insulated. Need to get the wall/ceiling covering up but thats the next summer plan.

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Ok sleek - we are going to need to know what’s under the cover...another ‘69? And what is that on the right lift...an early 60’s El Camino? Great collection and gorgeous garage!!


This is one fantastic website. You can spend months in there. HIGHLY recommended!!!
 

sleek98

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Ok sleek - we are going to need to know what’s under the cover...another ‘69? And what is that on the right lift...an early 60’s El Camino? Great collection and gorgeous garage!!

This is one fantastic website. You can spend months in there. HIGHLY recommended!!!

Full disclosure, my dad and I swap cars around so they are not all 100% mine. He has 10-12 nice cars that I help store since I can’t afford to fill the space with my own. Part of building it this size was knowing that someday I will end up keeping the nicest cars when he passes away.

Just the shelby and the yellow 69 are mine. The rest are both of ours.

Under the cover is a Candy apple red 69 mustang grande with a 351. Second owner car and it’s in great condition.

The teal car is a 1963 Buick Invictia that needs a total resto but it was also a one owner when my dad found it.

I have since swapped out that red 69 for a black and white restored 69 gto with a built 400 in it. And added a full restored 55 Buick century.

No matter how big you build it, soon it will be cramped and you wish it would be bigger. The winter is the worst since our boat is stuffed in there and I have no room.
 

ford fanatic

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My 30’ X 40’ X 12’ garage I built a couple years ago.

I cleared about 6 big trees and had the stumps removed during the foundation work. I went stick built because I figured it would look nicer matching the house and would bring more on resale. I don't think insurance went up much at all, maybe a couple hundred a year.

It's fully insulated, (9) 8' lights, coated floor, 2X6 construction. I had an electrician friend do all of the electrical work, I also had him ad a generator panel in the house and ran a separate line to the garage so I can run my generator out there to run most things.

I'm all in at about $42K for the garage and a fresh blacktopped driveway about 1/4 mile long and the pad you see at $17K.
 

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