building my own garage

stranger12

Hi All,

I am thinking of extending my own garage and raising the roof of it

As far as I can see that means building a layer of brick at the front futher than where the current wall is . it needs to be 2-3 columns and on each side and then install a garage door.

re roof, I think mine has a wood frame bolted into the wall using wall plug and then wood layed on top plus roof asphalt to make it waterproof.


why would engineers charge me 7k for this ?


how I see it is layers of brick on top of each other using cement and a wooden roof. am i missing something?

one thing that is puzzling me is how is the wall weight supported?

for instance if you put 10 legos on each other you can just tip is to one side slightly to make is collapse , does same concept not apply to wall? if so why house and garage have a straight wall up which can take a great force? what is protecting it agianst lateral force?

Tothepoint.

If you're talking single skin then piers.

Norman_Castle

stranger12 wrote: »

why would engineers charge me 7k for this ?

Because they're engineers. Try asking a builder.

Ozzuk

I like your approach, if you are building it out of legos then you don't need foundations. If you aren't, then you might want to consider having them, along with a better understanding of building techniques!

7k...depends how big it is, foundations, roof construction, internal finish, door quality...could be a good price, could be terrible.

phil24_7

If you have the relevant knowledge and skills then this should be easy to do but these skills come at a price. Normally training/education and on the job learning. This is what is included in the labour element of a quote.

Without a basic grasp of things such as foundations, mortar ratios, roofing techniques then you will be well advised to get someone in!

Get a minimum of 3 quotes and see what a fair price is for the work. Ask them to break the quote down into labour and materials for a fair comparison.

stranger12

I have to be honest, I am not a professional in this but I have done lots of work to my house including re plumbing, changing door frames, plastering and bonding etc

regarding one of the posts, I was thinking a ratio of 1:4 for cement to sand and that is all I need.

I am obviously not a professional and doing research on how it is done as it looks straight forward yet I was confused on how a wall with no fondation can take load.

this is why i asked the questions.

I appreciate any advise you might have. I may still consider paying someone but the way I look at it is there is around 1k of cost so what is the other 6k for ????

1k including garage doors and bricks and roofing made of woods and asphalt on top

phil24_7

It all depends what bricks, what lintel, what garage door, what footings etc etc. An electric, insulated garage door could be well over 1K on it's own without fitting!

That's why I said get at least 3 quotes which include a breakdown of works. If they are all similarly priced and the materials are all in the same area then you will have a good idea of the materials cost. You can the decide if their labour and profit are worth considering.

Just remember if they mess it up, they put it right. If you do it you will need to rely on your own bank account...and maybe your house insurance!

phil24_7

How much do you intend to extend it? How wide is it? How much do you want to raise the roof? What is the current construction of the walls and the roof?

brightontraveller

If your planning on building it yourself then learn the required skills needed stop playing with lego what lego does is a completely irrelevant....

If you want to do it cheap then use pallets often free, With other materials £300 -500 all in to extend and raise if you do it yourself, The extension only needs to be brick because you wish it They want to charge 7k because they wish too....

27cool

As you don't seem to have the slightest idea of the basic principles of building. Perhaps 7k might be a good investment.
If you propose to do it yourself then you need to do a fair amount of research as to what is required. There are many excellent videos to be found on You Tube to make a start. It is not a difficult project. Almost any competent DIYer could do it.
Foundations/ footings are the key. If you don't have good foundations then the rest of the money will be completely wasted. You can't go back and redo the foundation if you get it wrong.

krey

You are clearly thinking about just doing it yourself aren't you?
Just go for it, I built my own garage with a help from a family friend over 5 weekends ,
and spent something around £1.8k for a garage to fit 2 cars ( that is with a nice finish & nice flooring so I can use it as workshop as well,not the small crap garages everyone has...)

It's hardly rocketscience...