Replacing a Prefab garage with a block one

BaileyB

Hi,

We have an old prefab garage in our garden (at the bottom of it about 12m from the house) which does need a new roof as it's leaking quite bad. As well as the bacl wall has been hit by what looks like a tow bar, this was before we moved in.

Now i was speaking to a friend and he said the cost of a new roof it might be better in the long run to just rip it down and start again with blocks.

Now the base that is already there would this be strong enough to hold a block garage ( i will need to see how deep it is first) or would i need to rip this up too?

Has anyone done this before? Any tips would be great.

I'm looking at doing some of the block work myself (have built a wall before )

But will get help from my friend who has done a block shed before.

Thanks

lagi

I would say it the base would be strong enough. There are lighter concrete blocks compared to some really heavy ones. The fact its held up a prefab which would have been concrete anyway i would say it will be ok. The weakest points will be round the edges as this will be where the weight is. If you can dig up and see how thick the base is, if its not enough dig a little trench round and fill with concrete, this will stop the edges crumbling away.

ormus

depends where you live, but near me theres a chap who advertises a new pre-fab garage, supply & erected for 999 quid.
(base not included).

BaileyB

Thanks, but don't wanna go back down the pre fab again

thebaldwindowfitter

have you got room around the edge of the slab to put a footing all the way round and build up off that a lot of prefabs are only fitted on 4" thick slabs with no hardcore .if this is possible i would advice this

27col

A6windows has the right idea. Another point to bear in mind is that the block walls will be wider than the old construction and the inside dimension of the new garage may not be very usable due to its reduced width. This presumes that the existing garage is a single and not a double. If it was my project, I would do a new foundation on the outside of the existing slab. If you make a mistake on the footings, there is nothing that you can easy do to remedy the fault later. Over the years garages have stayed the same width and cars have got wider, which is one of the reasons that so few single garages are actually used for car storage.

BaileyB

It's a single garage door but i say about a little bigger than the standard garages you see.