Help with my 40's detached garage
Hi All!
Looking for some advice on my home. I have a 1940's dutch colonial in CT which is built on a hill. It has a detached 1 car garage at street level and the home is raised one level above this (please forgive my lack of technical terminology). The garage is at the same grade as the basement of the house, separated by a 20-24" stone foundation. My question - is it possible to add an exterior door from the detached garage through the foundation to the basement? Like a passthrough, hallway, breezeway, etc. I'm looking at it primiarily for convenience purposes, as I have to go outside and down two levels of stairs to get to my garage. I'm sure there is some resale value attached to it as well, but that's not a main concern. I've talked with some people in the past about why they didn't purchase the home and the detached garage came up.
Ultimately, may not be worth the cost but wanted to see if it was even with pursuing with a quote from a contractor.
Comments (10)
5 months agoRelated Discussions
Detached garage yet bonus attached to main...possible?
Comments (11)Hollysprings, you made the following statement "You can't have bathrooms in two different structures share the home's main sewer drain." Can you show any zoning/building laws that agree with your statement? I believe you statement is not true. I just built a detached guest house and the bathroom was tied into the main home's existing sewer drain. All the guest houses and pool houses in this area are hooked up in similar ways to sewers or septic systems. If the structure is part of the main property and not a second home/apt that might be rented out then it is all hooked up together. They actually don't want separate hook ups with different meters because that would make it easy for some homeowners to rent that space out, which the town does not want at all....See MoreWater Supply to Detached Garage/Living Space
Comments (1)Contact your local utility about separate utility services for the detached building. You will need a separate sewage hookup and supply as well as a separate gas supply if that is planned. On a separate meter. That is if local codes even allow a separate detached living quarter. Many do not, to keep people from violating the single family zoning for the property. They don't want people creating rentable structures....See MoreOverhead wiring to detached garage
Comments (5)Not sure why I didn't think of this initially. Although it's not the shortest route, there is a way for me to go out the side of my house via a buried cable and into the side of my garage without dealing with any concrete at all. This will be much simpler than going overhead and much less work than breaking and patching concrete. The few extra feet of cable to buy will be well worth it. Thanks everyone!...See MoreCustom detached two-car garage
Comments (2)A rectangle garage is “simple” enough, that if you’re not looking for detailing your match the house, then you don’t need an architect involved. But, if you do want a building that looks great, and echoes the house detailing, an architect can help you with that. Does he have a transit and can measure the future site? Because “flat” isn’t usually flat. That’s the biggest issue that people don’t realize, until they try to fit garage plans to the actual site . Garage entries need to be at grade. If the ground slopes away, you’ll need compacted fill at the rear. If it slopes down towards you, you’ll have to remove dirt and degrade to keep water away. Siting the garage needs that information, as well as required setbacks, utility paths and easements, etc. Even a simple rectangular garage can end up pretty complicated to build unless your on a large dead flat lot, with no utilities interfering with anything. Which brings us to how you plan to get electrical service, or any other service, to the garage. You have to figure that out too. Find a good local contractor, and talk to them about what you hope to achieve. The more time and money you spend with a pencil in hand rather than a hammer, the better the job will be....See MoreRelated Professionals
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@kendrah it actually appears the two arent exactly at the same grade, but are indeed butted together. The original house foundation is stone, about 20" thick at a higher grade then the detached garage. The detached garage wall is roughly 8" inches thick. There is a copper water line and some electrical conduit that run out to the garage from the basement. As you can see from the photos (first 3), the conduit and copper exit into the garage near the ceiling, but the photo from the basement (next 2) shows those pipes existing in the lower 1/3 of the basement, so clearly the basement is a bit higher elevation. This may require some stairs/landing of some sort i imagine. space underneath the portch is free. No sewage or gas pipes in the way here. No water issues in the basement have been observed.
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