detached garage 6" off the ground? or no attic?

7 years ago

Hello!

I am nearing what is hopefully the end of the process of getting a prefabricated Amish-Built detached garage (dealing with my town has been a nightmare).

There have been way too many problems to post along the way, but here is an 11th hour choice we now have to make per our town:

1) Get rid of the grade-level foundation a detached garage would typically have and make a foundation that is 6 inches above grade. I have a minivan, not a jeep; I don't want to drive up a 6-inch curb. Nor do I want a giant apron/ramp extending out into the driveway. Is there a way to make this look halfway normal?

2) We can keep the grade-level foundation and go with a truss system. This would eliminate most of the attic storage space, which is one of the main reasons we need the garage in the first place.

So it's lose most of the attic OR raise the garage 6" off the ground.

Any advice? What would you do?

I heartily dislike both of these options, but have to figure out which one is less bad.

Thanks!!!!

Kelly

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Comments (11)

User
7 years ago
A Site built garage on a site built foundation should be your first option. Pre Fab is costing you hassles in time and money. Which translates into expense.
kdw72697
Original Author
7 years ago
Too late, unfortunately.
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jellytoast
7 years ago
"Too late" meaning that you are already into this project too far and at too great an expense to change your mind?
User
7 years ago
I'm not understanding all of the complexities of how you got here, but there are things called attic trusses, that specifically are designed to have an open space down the middle for storage. The whole thing wouldn't be storage, but a good portion.
User
7 years ago
The very idea of "Amish pre-fab" is comical. It is Pure Marketing Genius to tie into America's weird reverence for a cult.
palimpsest
7 years ago
How long is your driveway or parking pad for the driveway?
sambah006
7 years ago
The permitting authority in your area is requiring a 6" foundation wall between the driveway and where you would park your minivan in the garage?

That does not make sense. Unless they are insane.

Most likely they are requiring a 6" foundation wall everywhere but where the garage door is, and the slab would flush with the surrounding grade so you can drive in and out of the garage like a normal person.
User
7 years ago
I have no idea what you're talking about. You could peddle a tricycle up a six inch garage apron, and how could the floor elevation affect the attic space of a detached garage?
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
7 years ago
You'll never notice the 6".
kdw72697
Original Author
7 years ago
Sorry, some non-garage crises took me away for a bit.

Thx for the replies!

We've kind of figured it out, but to satisfy any lingering curiosity...

Yes, the town basically wants a 6" "plateau"(for lack of a better term) of a foundation. We will just have to create an incline in the driveway to drive up into it. Sounds weird to me, and I think it will also look weird, but at this point it is path of least resistance in getting this over with before snow flies. They tell me this is some new regulation. The driveway will just have to be graded accordingly.

If we wanted the garage "at grade" (this might not be the correct terminology as I am a layperson, but "totally flat on the ground, not raised" is what I mean), it could be done, but it would set off a chain reaction of MULTIPLE other town-required changes resulting in the builder having to go with truss roofing. In other words, one change wouldn't directly cause the other, but the end result would be the same for us: at-grade with truss roof.

I will look into attic trusses, Ichabod Crane, if we end up having t go that route! Thanks!

And our original plan was to build on-site with a local contractor, but it just did not work out. We contacted several companies/individual contractors over the course of a year and had a lot of no-shows or no return calls. I guess construction business in my area is going well and nobody needed my particular job. So we decided to roll the dice and go pre-fab. So far they've been very easy to work with and very patient with the many questions and changes from our local municipality.

Thanks again, all!
freeoscar
7 years ago
I would just make sure that the garage is high enough to account for the raised foundation and then go that route. 6" grade is very minimal, and I'm assuming you wanted the attic space as storage for a reason, so best to keep it.

detached garage 6" off the ground? or no attic?

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detached garage 6" off the ground? or no attic?

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