If you want to build a garage addition that wont break the bank, dont go overboard on creating a showcase car barn. With a little planning, you can add smart, useful details that maximize the benefit youll get from a basic garage addition without adding too much to the price tag. Here are some great ideas for low-cost garages:

Layout and Design

Roof: Most garage roofs are held up by standard trusses. Theyre economical about $88 each in a length that spans a two-car garage but their design blocks the storage space youd otherwise have in the attic. For just $25 more per truss, a total upgrade of about $350, you can switch to storage trusses, which are open in the middle. Or, for an upgrade of about $1,000, you can get attic trusses, which allow for a boxed-in upstairs thats easy to outfit with shelves or even use as a bonus room.

Doors: Some garage plans provide for only the main car door and, in attached garages, a door into the house. Youll be happier if you put in a standard door to your yard as well, so you can retrieve a rake without opening the overhead door. A basic pre-hung steel door costs around $140; add $40 for one with a window.

Windows: Try to include windows, which make the exterior more appealing and bring in natural light. Thats something youll appreciate, especially if youre planning to use part of the garage as a workshop. Generously sized vinyl windows with insulated glass start at around $120.

Floor space: If you have room, build the garage wide enough to allow 4 or 5 feet of space between the car and the walls, which gives you clearance to open the doors plus plenty of easily accessed storage. Adding 2 feet to the width significantly increases usable space but may not add dramatically to the cost.

Storage Solutions

If you want to keep costs in line, keep storage solutions simple. Inexpensive ($50 to $150) metal or plastic storage shelves have adjustable shelving and come in a variety of sizes so you can fit them where you have the room. Or, if your garage has walls 12 or 13 feet high, you can use a few two-by-fours and sheets of 3/4-inch plywood to build a platform about 6 feet high over part of your parking area to store sports gear, holiday decorations, and other bulky things.

Workspace

If you want a small home workshop on the back wall, a simple 2-foot-deep countertop (standard kitchen depth) makes a good workbench, especially if you add a vise. For storage, recycle used kitchen cabinets, found through online listings or stores that sell used building materials. Or you can simply use the under-counter space to roll in boxes or bins on casters. You can also mount heavy tools on rollout stands.

Power and Lighting

Youll need to run electricity to your new garage. If the garage is detached, that probably means adding a 100-amp breaker on the houses main panel, a trench to carry conduit to the garage, and a new sub-panel there. Youll need circuits for outlets, interior and exterior lights, and an automatic door opener. You might want motion or daylight sensors for outside lights and a three-way switch for overhead fixtures so you can turn them on and off at different doors.

For general lighting, use energy-efficient fluorescent tubes; fixtures with 4-foot bulbs and plastic covers cost about $55 each. You need at least one over each car bay. For bright light throughout a two-car garage, use nine fixtures spaced evenly in three rows.

Walls and Floors

To meet fire code with an attached garage, youll need to install 5/8-inch-thick drywall on the wall shared with the house, and a fire-rated door. Installing drywall in the rest of the garage is optional.

Figure about $1.20 per square foot to install drywall, including taping and finishing; double that if you also want the walls primed and painted. If you want a finished look on the concrete floor, options include an epoxy coating (about $150 per car bay if you do the job yourself) or garage floor tiles. Those made of a rubber-polypropylene mix, such as Diamondtrax (about $4 per square foot), ease strain on your legs and feet, while tiles with small perforations, like the ones made by Tylon (about $2.50 per square foot), allow mud and water to drain through.

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Garage Addition: Top Features - HouseLogic

Do you need a larger home, yet you love your neighborhood? You dont have to move out of your existing home! New Jersey modular home builder Southview Homes can add a modular addition onto your home quickly, efficiently and cost effectively without displacing your family for the many months typically required for an addition when completed the conventional method.

In a relatively shorter period of time, your existing home can be spaciously expanded with a modular home addition. Southview can custom design your modular home addition, coordinate your engineering and municipal approvals, remove your existing roof and integrate the modular addition.

So, whether you need the space to provide bedrooms for a growing family or simply want to expand your living areas, New Jersey modular home builder Southview Homes can design the modular home addition to suit your familys needs.

And all of this is possible without the hassle of packing, purchasing a new home, or uprooting your children from the neighborhood and schools theyve grown accustomed to love.

Southview Homes your best choice for modular homes NJ!

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Addition - Southview Homes | New Jersey Modular Home Builders

Maybe youre tired of getting drenched as you dash to your car on stormy days. Or you dream about having more space for storage, a workshop, a home gym, a kids play area, or even an office.

Before you can decide whether to go ahead with a garage addition project, youll need to make a few decisions.

Zoning and Code Restrictions

The first step is to determine whether its physically feasible to fit a garage on your lot. At your local planning department, find out how close you can build to the edges of your property. Also ask about any special restrictions that apply to garages; some communities require deeper setbacks on sides with doors, for example.

Local rules might also govern driveway design, wall or roof height, and the total amount or percentage of your lot you can cover with impervious surface (roofs and pavement). Local architects and builders usually keep on top of these requirements, as do lumberyards that sell packages that contain garage plans and materials.

Attached or Freestanding?

One big decision is whether to attach the garage to your house or build it as a separate structure. An attached garage usually costs less, and it wins on convenience. You stay dry, save footsteps, and its easier to use part of the space as a pantry, mudroom, laundry area, or other extension of your house. If youre concerned about security, an attached garage lets you tap an opener and drive right in without setting foot outside.

But a detached garage also offers advantages, especially if you add a breezeway connector to shelter against the weather. A separate structure keeps exhaust fumes and the dust and noise of a workshop out of your house.

Size Requirements

The humble garage in Palo Alto, Calif., where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard helped launch the electronics industry, is just 12 feet wide and 18 feet long. It was fine for a 1917 Ford Model T. But cars today are much bigger, so garages are, too. For a single car, figure on at least 14 feet by 20 feet. You can build a two-car garage as small as 20 feet by 24 feet, but youll be happier with an extra 6 or 8 feet in length and width.

Access and Traffic Flow

If youre adding a garage, you also need a driveway. In older neighborhoods, narrow side-yard driveways are sometimes just 8 feet wide. In newer areas, single-car driveways are at least 10 feet wide, and up to 14 feet when there are obstructions on either side that could scrape an opened car door.

Two-car driveways should be at least 20 feet wide, and up to 24 feet if the sides arent clear. If you plan to park in front of the garage, allow at least 20 feet between the sidewalk and the garage door. (Your city might let you reduce this distance if you use an automatic door opener.) Even if you arent required to include a turnaround area, working one into your plan may be a good idea, particularly if you have a long driveway or live on a busy street. At minimum, you need an area 10 feet wide by about 12 feet deep to back the car into for a turnaround.

Relationship to the House

A garage should look like an accessory to a house, not dwarf it or turn it into what some people call a snout house, where all you see on the front is the garage door. Its a lot easier to get the scale right if you build a detached garage. But if you have to tack a big garage onto a modest-size house, there are ways to minimize the visual impact. For instance, setting the front farther back from the street than the main entrance to the house makes the garage seem less dominant.

If possible, face the garage doors to the side and add windows and other house-like details to the front wall. If the doors must face the street, a roof overhang that matches the style of your house will help. Two one-car doors look less overwhelming and more interesting than a double door.

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Evaluate Your House for a Garage Addition - HouseLogic

Project: Remodel a Kitchen

Date: 06/01/2016

Floorplan: I am considering changes to kitchen floorplan

Cabinets: Yes - I plan to move or update the cabinets

Appliances: Yes - I plan to move or update some or all appliances

Countertops: Yes - I plan to update the countertops

Sinks: Yes - I plan to update the sinks

Flooring: Yes - I plan to update the flooring

Lighting: Yes - I plan to update the lighting

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: Less than 2 months

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Project: Remodel a Basement

Date: 05/2016

Basement Features: Laundry, Game Room, Home Theater

Design Preparation: None

Basement Area Description: Unfinished

Square Footage: More than 800 (large)

Request Stage: Planning & Budgeting

Desired Completion Date: Timing is flexible

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Property Owner: Yes

Historical Work: No

Covered by Insurance: No

Project: Add a Sunroom or Patio Enclosure

Date: 05/2016

Project Description: Build a new sunroom or enclosed patio or porch

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: Within 1 week

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Property Owner: Yes

Comment: I would like to build a brand new sun room in backyard.

Project: Build an Addition

Date: 05/2016

Project Description: Design and build

Request Stage: Planning & Budgeting

Comment: To Whom It May Concern: I hope this e-mail finds you well. My name is Alex xxxxx and I am currently working on a hi-rise luxury residential project, 222 E44th St, New York, NY. The project is a 42-story residential building with various amenities - one of which is a squash court. We do not have specifications as of yet, but have a general floor plan that I can send over to you. Please let me know at your earliest convenience if youd be able to provide a quote for us. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me directly.

Project: Remodel a Kitchen

Date: 05/2016

Floorplan: I plan to maintain existing kitchen floorplan

Cabinets: Yes - I plan to move or update the cabinets

Appliances: No - I do not plan to move or update the appliances

Countertops: Yes - I plan to update the countertops

Sinks: No - I do not plan to update the sinks

Flooring: No - I do not plan to update the flooring

Lighting: No - I do not plan to update the lighting

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: Less than 2 months

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Historical Work: No

Covered by Insurance: No

Property Owner: Yes

Comment: Add Cabinets

Project: Remodel a Bathroom

Date: 05/2016

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: Timing is flexible

Project: Remodel a Bathroom

Date: 04/2016

Extensiveness of Remodel: I plan to maintain existing bathroom floorplan

Shower / Bath: Yes - I want to move or install a new shower or bath

Toilet: No - I will keep the existing toilet as is

Cabinets / Vanity: No - I do not plan to update the cabinets / vanity

Countertops: No - I do not plan to update the countertops

Sinks: No - I do not plan to update the sinks

Flooring: Yes - I plan to update the flooring

Request Stage: Planning & Budgeting

Desired Completion Date: Timing is flexible

Project: Remodel a Kitchen

Date: 04/2016

Floorplan: I plan to maintain existing kitchen floorplan

Cabinets: Yes - I plan to move or update the cabinets

Appliances: Yes - I plan to move or update some or all appliances

Countertops: Yes - I plan to update the countertops

Sinks: Yes - I plan to update the sinks

Flooring: Yes - I plan to update the flooring

Lighting: Yes - I plan to update the lighting

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: Timing is flexible

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Historical Work: No

Covered by Insurance: No

Property Owner: Yes

Comment: Remodeling the kitchen. Adding dishwasher and updating the kitchen

Project: Add a Sunroom or Patio Enclosure

Date: 04/2016

Project Description: Enclose existing patio or porch with roof, walls or windows

Request Stage: Ready to Hire

Desired Completion Date: 1 - 2 weeks

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Project: Remodel or Renovate One or More Rooms

Date: 04/2016

Design Preparation: None

Project Description: Major renovation

Request Stage: Planning & Budgeting

Desired Completion Date: More than 2 months

What kind of location is this?: Home/Residence

Comment: Build on top of the roof two bedrooms and a full bathroom

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25 Best Remodeling Contractors - Secaucus NJ | Home Additions

If you're considering adding a garage to your home, take a look at the different costs associated with the different types of garages.

Garage Addition

A garage is an investment that can add considerable value to your home. Additionally, a garage can add many useful settings in addition to a shelter for your vehicle. This space can double as a work/hobby shop, a music/dance studio or even an extra storage facility.

Options When considering a garage, you have several options. Should my garage be attached to my home or detached? Should it be a single car garage or a double car garage? Other considerations, such as what type of siding to use (including brick, clap board, and vinyl) and whether the garage should be heated, are just a few of the questions to ask yourself.

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Carport

Carports are the simplest forms of vehicle shelters. These carports are wood framed using treated lumber set in reinforced 4" thick concrete slab with a gable roof.

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Garage Conversion

Converting your garage into living space adds value to your home. Depending on the size of your garage, it can function as anything from a guest bedroom to a full fledge family room. Of course, this is assuming that your current garage is attached to your home. Detached garage conversions present a different set of challenges due to the plumbing, air-conditioning and heating

Finished or Unfinished Garages are finished to different degrees. Some garages are built complete with electrical outlets and finished walls and ceilings while others are built to a garage shell. As with any construction project, check with your local building department about any permits and code requirements for your project.

Since the conversion may involve adding additional electrical outlets to meet current codes, at the very least, an electrical permit may be required. The good news is that your conversion may only consist of adding partition walls, floor covering, heating and air conditioning.

First Class Standard If your project involves adding a ceiling, then you may need to make allowances for adequate ventilation to avoid a potential moisture problem. Since most garages are inherently adjacent to the kitchen where moisture is produced from cooking, inadequate ventilation could lead to a profuse sweating effect in your garage. This is especially true in colder climates. A couple suggestions are to add windows and an attic vent.

Some items to consider when converting your garage include:

To attempt to estimate garage conversion prices is especially difficult. Depending on the intended use and the degree of finishing required for your project, your project may range form a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.

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The rest is here:
Garage and Carport | Home Improvement Costs | Repair Home

Garage Photos

The first task in garage design is to identify what items need to fit in the garage. Obviously cars need to fit, but weve also designed garages for boats, RVs, and other larger vehicles that require special doors and large, column free interiors. Along with cars, people generally need a place to store gardening equipment, tools, and sporting equipment. With your list of vehicles and items to fit into the garage, you can then begin to figure out how large the garage should be.

If you have the space, you may decide to accommodate extra storage by adding another garage bay. So instead of a two-car garage, you may decide to construct a three-car garage. The advantage to this strategy is that when you sell your home, you can list it as having a three-car garage. However, this is not the most efficient way of creating more storage space, because nothing can be stored easily on the garage door wall. If you are interested in storage space rather than another parking space, it is often better to add additional space to the back of the garage, making the garage deeper to allow for storage in front of the vehicles, or to add space on the side of the garage that is dedicated to storing tools or other belongings without another garage door.

Often, garages are constructed with columns in the center or between each car. We try to avoid this when possible, because columns get in the way and reduce the flexibility of the use of the area. It is often worth either upsizing ceiling joists, using trusses, or adding beams in order to get rid of columns. A clear span garage will be a much more useful space.

For garage access, consider the doors that vehicles enter as well as the doors that people enter. If a person-size door is not necessary, we tend to recommend the installation of an electronic key pad near the exterior of the garage door to open the door for access. This generally makes the garage more secure, because the vast majority of break-ins are through person-sized doors, which are often left unlocked. If security is an issue, consider installing a steel door with no windows in the garage (if you want light, install skylights instead, which are much less likely to be broken to gain access).

When choosing garage doors, choose a size large enough to park a car easily. If you can enter your garage straight forward, the minimum width for a single car door is 8-0. However, if you have to turn into the garage door, a 9-0 wide door is much easier to confidently maneuver into. For materials, consider maintenance requirements and longevity. A steel or aluminum door will last a long time, is often insulated, and wont require painting, but the color choices can be limited. Some wood doors are beautiful, and often dont cost more than a well-made metal door, but require periodic refinishing to be sure they dont rot. If you want a wood door, consider deeper roof overhangs to shield the door from rain and sun, as well as using high quality exterior grade wood finish to protect the wood.

Read the original here:
Seattle Garage Additions - Seattle Architects ...

Garage Interior and Drywall. Getty / Phil Banko

By Lee Wallender

Updated December 16, 2014.

Garage insulation may seem like a strange concept. After all, garages in days of yore were detached structures that had little or no relation to indoor living spacesto the main house itself. And since these bare-bones boxes were enough to provide minimal coverage to vehicles, there was no need to load up on insulation.

But when garages attached themselves to houses, and people began spending more time in the garage itself, it became necessary to provide insulation if only to protect the house itself. Learn the basic concepts behind garage insulation and what you should do (or not do):

Newer, better garage doors are insulated; most are not. One way to fix this is to insulate the garage door, using a kit.

What you get are rolls of reflective insulation designed to fit between the garage door's support rails. I've looked at these kits and see nothing amazing about them; you can do the same thing by buying your own reflective insulation.

In any case, here is a kit: Buy Direct - Single-Sided Door Insulation

Wind positively whistles through the bottoms of most garage doors. This is because the seal at the bottom is inadequate. Also, garage and driveway slabs can tilt over time, creating gaps that the garage door bottom cannot cover. Use a garage door threshold kit to solve the problem. It's inexpensive and goes down quickly.

Buy Direct Garage Door Threshold Kit

If the above don't do the trick, then look at your door to the garage. Is it an exterior, fire-rated door (we hope)? If not, some previous homeowner may have put a highly non-insulated hollow core door there. Solid wood doors are better but not by much.

Now we're getting into the more work- and money-intensive projects. Is the wall between the house and garage insulated?

Go out in the garage, put a 1/8" auger bit on your cordless drill, and drive a hole into the wall at an out-of-the-way spot one or two feet off the ground. Don't drive into a stud. And be sure to flip off any circuit breaker that might even remotely have wires running through that wall. Because this is a key location (service panels are often located in garages), you may want to raise the garage door for light and turn off every circuit breaker.

If you have batt insulation, it will come up on your auger almost like cotton candy. If not, you may want to cut a larger hole so that you can look in there with a flashlight and see if you have blown-in insulation.

You can insulate the wall with blown-in insulation, or if you really want to go crazy, you can pull off drywall and insulate with batt fiberglass. Or, build a second wall just for the purpose of holding the batts.

Go here to read the rest:
Is Garage Insulation a Contradiction of Terms?

Call: 414.737.0101

Honest contractor servicing the greater Milwaukee area

A. Teska Construction, LLC "if you can dream it, we can build it

Addition Photo / Before and After

Garage Photo / Before and After

Kitchen Photo / Before and After

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My goal in business is to make you an informed customer, not just to come into your home and give you an estimate but to explain what we do and why we do it. I believe that a good homeowner is an informed one

I have been in the trades since 1984 and strive for excellence. It has never been enough for me to be just good, a philosophy I've shared with my son and one which he is using as he serves in our nation's military with pride and excellence. We are a small company but we are an excellent one. Our desire to put our customers first has resulted in nothing but satisfied customers. This pattern won't be changed with you

We serve most of your home construction needs from Garage builders ,Garage repairs ,kitchen remodeling , bath remodeling, rec room remodeling ,additions ,siding contractor and deck construction and carpentry contractor. if you have a dream of what's your home should look like we can make it a reality. We care about your home

We do most of the work in house and only use sub contractors when the need arises.

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A.Teska Construction, llc

Providing Home Additions in Greater Ottawa Area

Planning home additions to increase your living space is very common these days. Most of these home additions also increases the resale value of your house.

Upper Canada Building Services provides professional home addition construction in the Ottawa & Eastern Ontario area.

The most popular home additions are: kitchen and bathroom additions, sunroom additions, second storey additions and garage additions.

Note the foundation of older homes may need support before building another story.

By making additions to the garage you can add to the living space in your house.

A sunroom allows sunlight and air into the house. The construction of the sunroom will depend on the way you plan to use the room.

Here are a few options for a sunroom:

Only your imagination can limit the renovations that you can make to your existing house. We provide renovation and addition construction services for Ottawa & Eastern Ontario and the surrounding area.

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Home, bathroom, kitchen and garage additions | Ottawa

Convert Your Existing Two Car Garage Into Living Space In Less Than 1 Month!

A garage renovation can be your ticket to a whole lot of additional space without having to spend the money for large ticket items like a foundation or roof. Most home additions are built onto an exterior wall of your home and building codes require that it's resting on a foundation, whether it's a slab, crawl space, or full basement foundation. The cost to build a foundation alone is over $10,000 for a project of this size, that's why converting your garage can be a very affordable way to gain tons of living space on the cheap!

Check out the 3D interior floor plan photo to see just how big this space can really be. We outfitted this 2 car garage renovation into a single bedroom of monstrous proportions. Coming in at 24' x 24', this bedroom qualifies as a super suite. The cost below factors is all the work that must be performed to your existing garage in order to convert it into the bedroom seen in the floor plan photo. Demolition, framing, electrical, flooring, painting,and the extension of baseboard heatingis all factored into the estimated renovation cost below.

If you are interested in getting a custom quote for your garage renovation, simply fill out the form below to use our Automated Contractor Locating Service. Find out which contractors are capable and reputable in your local area!

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2 Car Garage Conversion - Simply Additions