Garage Project - The Plan

Here are some photos documenting our garage project.  We don't currently have any garage space - we have a small barn and a 12 x 20 "shed" (shown below).  Over the winter we decided that this year we would build a proper garage to provide more storage and an area for my workshop.

First, here's a 1999 (13 years ago now) photo of what the shed looked like when I bought the house.  What a beauty.

  

The junk cars were removed long ago, but I left the shed figuring that having an existing structure would help mitigate an property line setback issues in the future.  Fast forward to today, the shed, lacking a foundation, was not helpful in lessening the required property line setback.

The Plan

In Upper Salford Twp, we don't need a formal plan for outbuilding structures, but I decided to buy a garage plan just to give shape to what I was thinking and so that Jen and I could discuss what we wanted it to look like.  There are tons of garage sites, but Behm Design seemed to stand out as a bit more genuine.

The design we picked out is:

(http://www.behmdesign.com/garageplan816-235-2x24.aspx)

I paid $160 for the plans (4 paper copies).  They arrived in several days.  And I was very impressed with the level of detail and accuracy of the plans.  There was one question that I had about the truss design and I was able to call Behm and talk with the owner who answered my question in 1 minute.  Good outfit.

The Permit

Upper Salford Twp is pretty good to work with on permits.  Back in the day, I felt it was better to "limit government intrusion" and skip the permit.  But in Upper Salford at least, I've come to value the advice and oversight that I'm able to get with a permit.

For the permit I needed:

Plot plan - showing location of garage

Contruction plan - showing details of how the garage would be constructed. (from Behm Design)

Cut sheet showing acceptable spans for LVL headers - because these laminated headers for use over the garage door are "engineered" and vary by manufacturer, I need to show that the one I'm going to buy is rated for the span and load present in my design.

Stamped Truss Plan - a one-page, computer generated printout from the truss manufacturer showing how the trusses would be made.  Our garage design uses 19 trusses (incl. 2 end-trusses, and 2 two-ply trusses)

Stamped Electrical Plan - a one-page sketch showing the conduit from my house to the garage, the 60A sub-panel, and the garage circuits.

Permit application and about $165