How much did it cost to build your 2/3-car garage?

I had a 20'x40' metal building built last year with a garage door, a regular door,one window,insulated roof and slab for about the same as Ryan paid for his. Right around the $17,000 range.

 

26x40 for $6500 in 2000. No heat. No insulation. Wired for 200 amp. I did it all myself including the slab. I still have all the reciepts and the list saved in a Word file. It includes every nail, screw, and shingle...I will e-mail if anyone wants it....

 

Wow.

What an eye opener.

I incorrectly figured that $5000 bought you a bare bones, but well-constructed 2-car garage and $10,000 would buy something pretty nice and sizeable.

I'm also suprised at the size of everyone's garages. I'd be floored to have a 24 x 24 garage. It seems most have 24 x 32 or larger.

Does anyone have input on the garage "kits" sold by local and chain lumber yards -- the ones with shingles, siding, lumber, etc all in one package? I've seen them advertised around $2000 in the sizes that I'm looking at. What am I missing? How does it jump from $2000 to $10000?

How much will I save by doing my own labor? I come from a very "handy" group of friends and family, so I assume we can tackle everything except the slab... I've even been told we could do that, though I've never done any concrete work.

Thanks for the replies!


Ed

 

PS- TDC, I would like to see that list. Maybe I can glean a little on the costs of building materials. Please send it to erb22@drexel.edu Thanks.

 

I just built my 20x24 garage "myself". Well with the help of some of my friends. I have less than 5 grand in it. A friend is a electrician, he told me he can help me get power to it, said it shouldn't cost more than 250.00.

If you don't know anything about concrete, pay somone to do it. I wish I would have paid to have mine done or at least someone there when I frormed it up. It was a real bitch. I'm not happy with my floor. I can only blame myself.... At least there are no cracks yet!

If there are some home improvement centers they can work up a estimate for you. Good Luck!!

 

Labor generally is about the same as lumber cost, just a ballpark. Do you have a Menards were you live? If so, they have a computer setup that you can go in and virtual build your garage and it will give you a basic pricelist. Pretty easy to use and is generally located in the building area. Like I said before, mine will cost me around $7000 and that was a 24x40, with rock and insulation about another $1000.

 

Whatever you do, don't scrimp on the insulation, especially the cieling. If you live where it gets cold you will never regret putting R-36 up there. If you get a lot of snow, I would consider a cold roof. I had a 16x30 in Alaska with a cold roof and 12 inch fiberglass insulation in the cieling. I het it with a very small oil stove from a 50s trailer house for about $3.00 a day during the coldest months (20-40 below zero) and I never had even the smallest icecicle off the eve. I only had 4 inch walls too.

 

Ah, garages...

My friend has a 18x20 garage that we wanted to fix... Cinder block structure, dirt floor, shitty fiberglass roof...... All the fun stuff...

Heavy destructive winds convinced the insurance company to replace the roof, since it made no sense to have the roof protecting part of the yard...

We dug the floor by HAND... That's 25 bux for the pick-mattock and the shovel....

A drunk toothless redneck did the stones and poured and smoothed the concrete for under a grand...

Check the local "red-neck shithole" bar in your town... MOST of the guys in there are "self-employed construction workers"... You ask 'em what they do, and they say how they have a roofing business or a masonry or a concrete business... It's all bullshit, but they still have connections to get the work done CHEAP... To find these types, look for a guy with a mustache, a NASCAR shirt, a camo "deer-slayer" jacket, and a BUSCH can in front of him.... He's your guy...

Overhead doors go for around 200 a piece at Lowes... They're pretty easy to install...

Flourescent fixtures with bulbs are around 15 bux... Try to find wire that they cut off by mistake... LOWE's always has a little cart with assorted lengths of wire that came from the end of a reel, or was cut by mistake... It's usually at LEAST half price...

Outlets and boxes are cheap as fuck... Something like 2 bux....

*Here's a neat trick... I ran the 2 light fixtures in the celing in parallel on each side, and spliced them into one plug... So, there's 2 plugs for 4 lights... I installed a 4-outlet box in the celing, and ran that out to the power inlet... I soldered a plug on to that (Left over from clipping the light cords)... This way, the box is plugged in to extension cords from the house... We have lights and 2 free outlets for a radio and whatever else needs plugged in for now....

This way, when I install the breaker box, I can cut the plug off of the wires and run the line for the 4-outlet box into a switch.... Basically, it's a temporary fix that will be adapted to the permanent set-up....

Even when you add the 60 bux for floor sealer, 40 bux for wall paint, and 100 bux worth of expanding foam, we're still under 2 grand for a 2-car garage that the only original part of the structure is the cinger block walls....

My friend gets electrical shit at wholesale, so when we're done we should be under 3,000 with permanent wiring (240 line) and R-8 insulation...

By the way, cardboard in the rafters makes great poor-mans insulation...

Ok, I'm done rambling like a drunk.... I hope that made sense...

 

Ed, the first garage I built in 1986 was a 24x24 kit from a local lumber yard and it worked out great. I gave them a drawing with dimensions,then had a full foundation poured professionally( $6500) in '86 money.The kit was $2500 and it came with the walls all built.By the end of the first day we had the walls up and the trusses on.(three guys)By the end of day 2 the plywood was on the roof and I was starting to shingle. The walls were made of Texture 111 over the studs. The lumber yard sent two guys to deliver and install the walls with me as part of the deal.

The 24x24 was the biggest I could get into the space I had and with 9foot walls it was perfect.I could put the wife's car one one side and have plenty of room to work on my hotrod in the other bay.
Of course,I like my new 3 bay garage better.The 26 feet deep part is just enough more than the 24 feet deep old one that I can put shit against the front wall and still move around in there.

 

I got a quote from a local garage builder when I built a garage at my last house. 24x36 was the biggest I could put on my lot... They wanted 18,000 to do the whole thing...

Then I went to menards, and priced out the actual material itself,,, 10' side walls, insulated garage door, 1 service door, and 1 window. about 3500 for the wood, siding and all doors.. My cousin poured the slab so all I had to do was pay for the concrete...

The mortgage company saw the "estimate" for the builder to get it, sent me a check for 18,000 I built the garage for about a total of $6000 and had $12,000 left over for more fun stuff

 

Thanks for the second round of replies.

My cousin installs kitchens and bathrooms into new constuction homes, so he probably knows somebody who can help me out with the concrete. I'll ask him next weekend at my family's Super Bowl party (GO EAGLES!).

One other thing that might help me keep the cost down is that I can re-use stuff from my existing garage: the lighting, man-door, one garage door, outlets and switches, shelving and cabinets, etc.

Can I re-use the concrete slab by adding on next to it, or would I be better off to pour a new one? I'm not sure that it's level (never checked), but it is in good crack-free condition.

Also, demolition is no problem. My dad owns a fence company, and amongst his collection of goodies is a Bobcat and a dump truck. I'm actually looking forward to that part of the job.



Thanks,
Ed


PS- What parts are usually not included in the "kits"? There has to be some reason behind the low cost.

 

PS- What parts are usually not included in the "kits"? There has to be some reason behind the low cost.[/QUOTE]

Ed, I don't see why you couldn't add a concrete slab next to the one under your existing garage.I'm sure someone on here smarter than me will come up with a reason,though.
The kit I bought didn't include a walk in door or windows.The openings were there,though.It did include two overhead fiberglas insulated doors with tracks and hardware,all of the roofing stuff including nails,plywood clips,rolled tar paper and shingles.The walls,trusses, enough T111 to finish the front and back peaks and the lumber to build the soffits were included.

One thing I did with the new garage was take my dimensions to a big (Home Depot) lumber store and they figured out everything I needed and itemized it for me. Then I took this list to other lumber yards for their quotes. Rotten thing to do? Nah, I've spent lots of money at the Depot and I figured they owed me.

 

The biggest thing that I'm unsure of is the cost of a concrete pad.

I'd also be very interested to hear what the wiring cost you and if you'd consider doing it yourself (I do have an electrican friend who I'm sure I could co-erce into helping).


Thanks!
Ed


ed, my coworker just poured the walls and floor of his new home last summer. he paid 85.00 a yard for concrete.. delivered.. no labor. so if you figure that a yard of concrete is a cube 3' by 3' by 3' you should be able to calculate the cost of the crete for the floor. I would bet that this expense will be the most costly part of the project.

I personally would not reuse the existing slab unless it was darn near perfect.. in the long run you'll just be pissed you cut that corner..

later jeff

 

How thick do I need to have the concrete poured? If I go with a 24 x 24 slab, 4" thick, that works out to be a little less than $650... I can swing that. 5" thick is about $750.. Does a per yard price typically include the levelling, rebar, etc?


Ed

 

Hey, just a tip about saving on steel sheeting. These places that build pole barns, like FBI & Morton, they take & sell what's left over (not scraps, full/new sheets) to someone in the area...kind of like a standing contract, if you can find who it is they usually sell it for about 30% the cost per sheet. Even excess poles , and half sheets which are usually dirt cheap, like 1.00 or 2.00ea. You just need to poke around and get one of the workers on a job to tell you where they take it.

 

Oh, I forgot. My out of pocket was about 1,500.00 to build mine. My neihbor's insurance paid for nearly all of mine. He ran into the old one. (12x22 dirt floor and more termite veins than actual wood. Thank God the inspector didn't look too hard...)

 

Boy you've got that right....been there done that. I would advise to NEVER, do concrete work....not because of your ability or how it'd come out or whatever, but there's no harder work on earth other than diggin' ditches with a short-handle shovel than concrete work....if it takes your last dime, pay experts.

 

mine's 24wide, 32 long, 2 roll up doors,1 window, 1 walk in door.
friend in the concrete biz did the slab with 18in footers for $2500
another friend got me the complete kit from 84 lumber, cost $5800
i wired it myself with one of those home depot how-to books
insulated & drywalled myself(i woulda paid somebody to hang that shit)
16 outlets 16 4ft lights benches & cabinets(salvage)
i've got just under 10k in the whole deal.
need to go bigger to fit 3 cars but 2 and all my stuff fit great.

 

We are buying this house, it already has a 26X26 garage in the back with cement that runs from the street all the way back to the garage. Wish he would get out! haha Fuck, I NEVER had a garage to buying a house with this garage out back with a 2 car garage attached with a two car carport. The owner built this himself and had about 18k including 220V, insulation,dry wall, and 5k in cement from the driveway up front.