Hello. I am not a builder, just a homeowner who is starting to seek information and do preliminary research on an outbuilding that will be sort of like a home addition but only to the foundation of the house. I would like to excavate the backside of my bilevel house and pour a foundation that will securely attach to the back wall (concrete) of my house. I would want to make a woodworking shop in the new basement and have a door cut through the existing solid concrete wall that leads into my garage. Doing this will allow me to freely move my tablesaw, and large wood lathe along with all items for woodworking and mechanical work that currently occupy the garage.
I would like to design then build the foundation first and get started paying for that part, then put some kind of temporary roofing above it.
Phase two would be to build a barn/cottage type wooden building on top of the foundation.
I live in the Dayton OH area and am not sure if I can teach myself how to be my own designer, then subcontract out what I want done or should I seek an architect/structural engineer to get this thing out of the fantasy stage?
Thanks for any assistance you can give.
Replies
Greetings masi61,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
masi61
Have you considered ICF's? (insulated concrete forms).. basically they are like foam leggos that you put together and then pour concrete into..
They go together insanely easy. A real do-it-yourself type item.
I did two additions to my house with them.. they saved me more than $10,000 what the least expensive contractor wanted to do the same job on the first part and I'm willing to bet more than $20,000 over what would have been required for the second part..
All the engineering is done for you, basically all you need to do is assemble and pour..
Thanks REZ for bumping up my question.And Thank you FRENCHY for the idea about the Insulated Concrete Forms. This is the kind of thing I was thinking about.
A few follow up questions: 1) Can any concrete contractor use these forms if I specify them? Or, do I need to contact the manufacturer of the forms themselves for a referral to a contractor in my area that is certified to use these?2) Are you able to buy the forms directly from the manufacturer if you choose a do it yourself route?3) I read somewhere that there is a "tall" type of ICF's that are more "green" for extra energy savings or ease of installation or something like that. Any leads on this?4) Could someone give a few hyperlinks to reliable companies that manufacture and sell some of the different ICF designs?Thanks a bunch.
masi61
I did it myself with no experiance.. actaully that's not the whole truth!
I started itm laid the first layer and maybe a few blocks of the second, went on a trip and came back home with a bad back that had me bedridden for more than a month.. My sister-in-law with absolutely no prior construction experiance finished it for me. I gave her a 20 minute drug slurred instruction and she went out and finished the rest of the addition within 4 hours.. (she would have been faster if she was more confident)
As I said this is insanely easy stuff..
Yes you can get a contractor to do it,, but why? This is fun! Not at all hard work or any heavy lifting. They might weigh about two pounds each! You put a piece of rebar in each level so you might have to lift maybe 8 pounds? Rebar is cheap so I put two piece in each level as over kill..
I bought my forms from the local concrete company Reward brand forms they've got a good reputation plus they will hold your hand thru the process as well.. The first time I used their brace/ scaffold system, (free with deposit) the second time I was terribly brave and built in the round with my own system in place.
When it comes to selecting forms I saw many brands that were a few dollars cheaper but I didn't like the connection or some other detail about them.. If this was my first attempt I'd like someone to hold my hand thru it. While I will talk you thru the whole procees if you want. Nothing beats having an experianced person come out and check your project over before you pour.. a blow out can ruin your day so don't have one.. follow the process and get it checked and you won't have one
Energy efficency is great.. Not quite as good as SIP's but close enough and massively better than other foundation systems..
You can continue on up with these and do the walls as well. They are extremely energy efficent, capable of withstanding 200 mph winds and have a 2 hour fire rating..
Much easier to attach sheetrock to than a typical stick built wall.. they have a screw surface every six inches rather than 16 inches.. (you will need 2 inch sheetrock screws rather than the typical 1 1/4 inch) .. for the exterior you can spec out brick ledges or stucco it (EFIS) or screw wood into it to do all sorts of siding etc..
Windows/ doors pretty much can be put wherever you want..Only a little effort is need because the load carrying capacity of the forms usually won't require headers etc.. plan on water, electrical connections, etc. and you won't need to rent hammer drills to put them in place. If you forget it's not hard to deal with later..
Depending on the size of building you could do this all in a week without much experiance.. it's not hard.. I'm fat, 59 years old, and had never done it before.. If you'd like look at 85891.1 for pictures of my place..
<I gave her a 20 minute drug slurred instruction . . .>
Just liked the way that sounded!
Forrest
McDesign.
I just disposed of the last of those original pain pills. They make the vicodin I have now seem like candy. They were two years out of date but I'd kept them around for the next time I had to pass a kidney stone.. the last stone I passed I took one but instead of pain relief I got sick and threw up. I don't really know if it was the expired pain medication or the normal green bile throw up that accompanies kidney stones.
In this application I had a foundation contractor come in a pour a curved footing and foundation wall, including cutouts for a door and fireplace.
I suppose I could have fooled with doing it myself (I would have had to use ICF's that could curve), but how fast they did it for maybe $1,000 in savings wasn't worth it. Plus the likeyhood of my errors.
I got a decent software program (Chief 10) and drew up my own pictures. Found that in itself made me credible to everyone from the BI to subs so that I got contractors discounts on everything from everybody. But make damn sure those pictures are right!
I found far enough places to spend my time on the project without having to do everything.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=91581.1
peteschalgor.
Then your contractor must have worked extremely cheap.. My ICF addition cost me about $4200. the cheapest quote I got was $14,000.
I didn't bother with the one for the front.. that only cost me $3100.00 (I'm taking out the extra concrete I ordered for the drain pipestands, pumphouse footings, and driveway curbing)
I'd guess that I used a little over three yards of concrete for those projects and concrete costs about $140.00 I'll ignore the cost of the pump truck because if I'd been young and ambitious I could have wheelbarrowed it in for free. Actaul total costs were $1060 higher.. The reason I figure I saved the extra $10,000 is because the few contractors I've chatted with on the subject all had serious objections to working in the round like I designed.. They all wanted to make it a segemented circle from concrete block.