Building a Garage - From Plans to Finished (Hopefully)

[LowStandards]

I moved house a year ago, it has a 23 feet by 9 feet concrete sectional garage.


It's been fine for the year I've been here, I've mainly had a Midget and a Jago in there, so it's size seemed adequate.

A month or so ago I bought a Rover 100 (the big one, not the Metro type affair) and this highlighted I needed a bigger garage, in width, if not length.



So, there's the pointless background, lets get onto it.

I've literally just applied for planning permission, so I have no idea what will happen from herein, but hopefully this thread will show the full process.



First up you've got to measure your plot, accurately. So I bought a big tape and set to it. I roughed this up



You can see the plot is 9.1m wide, I've left 0.65m all round for access, giving me a decent 7.8m wide garage, which I believe is classed as a triple.


Next I drew up some plans and went through all the forms on the Planning Portal website, which is surprisingly straight forward. I paid my £172 and waited for some correspondence.

This came in an unfortunate email explaining my fag packet plans were not adequate and go home, cry and come back later when you've done them properly to a scale of 1:100.

So that's what I did. And damn, they want every conceivable elevation going, so it took me a few hours to come up with this.



To be fair I could see their point, the new plans are much betterererer and even give me a better idea of how things will look.

You can see I've included an internal shed to keep the mower and bikes etc nice and warm and safe. My workbench will be in the area behind this, leaving me with just over a double garage width of working space. This makes me happy.

Here's another of my 'Not good enough for planning permission' mock-ups to give you a better idea



So that is where we are currently at. I can't imagine this thread will progress with any sort of pace - they have 8 weeks apparently before they have to give me a decision - but I will update it as and when I know things and stuff.


Hopefully folks will be interested to see the whole process of a self build garage?

[ProjectBobcat]

Love a new garage build, best of luck with the planning app.

[mikeyp247]

Mar 22, 2017 9:30:32 GMT LowStandards said:

Hopefully folks will be interested to see the whole process of a self build garage?

Yup. Bookmarked.

[LowStandards]

So, I've had another reply from the Planning Dept.


My new drawings are of an acceptable scale, but as they are line drawings, they show no detail.

I asked for an example to copy and was sent some.


Basically I had to add the ridge tiles, guttering, door/window detailing and faint lines to show direction of brick/tile


I got the ruler out again and I've just submitted this, so fingers crossed that will suffice.

[LowStandards]

Just a note to say, I've had confirmation the newly submitted plans pass muster, so the planning decision can commence

Go me!

That proves you can save what; £400-£600 on architect fees (I'm pretty sure I will still need some drawings made up for building regs, but I think these are much much cheaper)

[slater]

Correct me if I'm wrong but that's big enough to require building regs approval too? Have you considered that?

[slater]

Hmm some how didn't see the last post!

[LowStandards]

Mar 22, 2017 17:31:16 GMT slater said:

Hmm some how didn't see the last post!

Was gonna say 😂

[dodgerover]

You should be able to draw up enough details to make them happy you are going to comply with building regs.
Failling that look at plans submitted online and copy theirs.
If there are no trees close by foundations are simple.
As it's a non habitable building really it will just be having a 1m strip foundation all the way round (300mm would do in decent soil but building control will ask for calculations) and restraint straps onto the wall plates.
Are you going to do it double skinned in brick and block? If so you may as well insulate to normal house standards anyway.
Timber details you can get from the trada span tables.
Have you thought about where the water off the roof is going to go? They will usually want a new soakaway dug to take it.

[LowStandards]

Yeah, I've briefly looked into it and it seems simple enough.

Foundations will be a metre deep with 250mm concrete infill then trench blocks to build up. Doing it this way as it means I can pour them myself with a few lads on the mixer as it's location means every time I have a cement truck, I also need a pump, and the thems rich!

Single skin walls with pillars which in the future will be insulated between and boarded over. I have no intention of making it anywhere near habitable.

I'll be digging a soak away to, no drainage up that end of the garden and I'm not sure I'd get the fall needed to reach the drain 40 odd metres away


I'll take a look at the roof specs cheers

[dodgerover]

For the roof you could probably buy ready made trusses for speed and simplicity but you will still need to cut and pitch the bit where the roof turns either with a valley rafter or layboards.
Are you having storage above in the roof space?

[LowStandards]

I was hoping to put storage up there, but i worry about getting timber in a 7m span that will hold up to it.

Though i was also planning on a steel somewhere in there to hang a winch off, so maybe the ceiling could be incorporated into that.

I don't really want to get into the details till I get permission as they could change the whole layout as they please really, so it's best to wait and see...

[Wilk]

When I built my 6.5m wide I did it just using building regs as that was 2009 before the height restrictions changed from 4m total height to 2.4m? After that anything over 2.4 needed planning app
Issue to is height being only 4m it left me with a low pitch that's only suitable for storage. To help, I opted for a loft style truss. This gives me approx 2m in width x 1m in height the whole 6m length of the garage.... a very useful area plus side areas for smaller items
The only issue I had was cross bracing. This was sorted by fixing sheet ply to the underside of the pitch rafters instead
I also built a full depth pit in the floor and fitted a recess for the motorbike lift so when down it was level with the finished floor

[LowStandards]

If i gained that sort of storage I would be happy as sin!

[oli8925]

Following, as I'm yet to build a double width, double length concrete drive way/standing at the bottom of my garden with a generous double width, single length timber garage on it, and preferably a wooden car-port to cover the rest of the driveway. Not looking forward to it if I'm honest.

[porsche944]

From experience.
Double skin it & insulate it WHILST building it.
Put a DPC in
Epoxy paint the slab before anything is installed.
Plenty of sockets & lights.
A wash basin & water with a hose point if possible
Buy an insulated door.
Look at security, garages are a magnet for thieves especially this big

[dodgerover]

7m is a large span with no supporting walls.
I think it would be an idea to sit down and work out how you are going to do that roof, with those spans steelwork is going to be involved to stop the roof trying to spread the walls apart.

[LowStandards]

It will be single skin with no insulation. It will be another £1500 or more to double skin and insulate, or I can put a jacket on.

I don't have an issue with cold in the current concrete garage, so anything better will be a bonus.


I'd love a sink but it's a good 40m to the drains so not sure it's a possibility.


Doors will be steal framed timber affairs

Yeah, they'll def be some substantial security, it's a bonus being in the back garden that it is pretty much invisible from the road

[nomad]

Another garage build? Bookmarked

I invited the local planning officer onsite to my place last year to discuss options for building works, I was a bit unsure what to expect but they were very helpful and friendly. Not at all scary   

Thoughts from when we built a 4x7m sectional garage in the back garden a few years ago :
Drainage - we just dug a decent sized soakaway and ran a drainpipe from the garage roof into that.
Electrics - can be left til later if needed, just run a length of steel pipe thro' the foundations when they're poured - makes it easy to feed power thru' once the place is built. Would advise armoured cable to the shed, and a small fusebox in there with 2 trip switches (light + power)
Pit? Now is the time to think about it, but you need to find if any service pipes run under the shed base.
Materials? Start looking on Gumtree etc and you might get lucky (I got a near new up & over door for about £50 inc delivery )
See if anyone is building a new housing estate in your area,  I took the easy option and got a squad of brickies to turn up on their day off - extend the existing foundations - put shuttering in - order & pour concrete base (3.5 ton from memory) over a grid of wiremesh fence panels (to stop the base cracking). I normally do my own work but this saved so much hassle and avoided any daft mistakes   
If buying prefab roof beams confirm the sizes, and work out how long (exactly) the walls will be. Get the base made to fit them (you want the base a few inches oversize for rain runoff etc). It would be *very* silly to make the base the wrong size or shape! Ask me how I know this   

[forkliftfred]

Bookmarked. I love a garage build thread.