Dream Garage - How Much?

Just read a blurb in Yahoo! about the 6 home improvements that returned the least when the house was sold. It said that garage improvements ran on average $90,053 with a return of 53% upon sale of the house.

Would anyone care to reveal how much they have in their HOME garage???

John

 

My garage came with the house, but I've thrown in probably $7K in new doors, windows, alarm, wiring from A-Z and storage stuff.

I just saw someone locally advertising 2.5 car garages for $24K (for a start). With a lift and better electrics, I could probably run it up to $50K with no effort.

Bob

 

I am in about 12K give or take on my 30x40 with 16' rafters. It came with a house and 3 city lots, it originally cost 20k to build.

 

Not anywhere near 90,000.

How can you spend 90,000 on a garage improvement? Maybe if you turn it into living quarters and at the same time eliminate the garage's intended purpose. That's how you spend 90 and regain 45.

I think yahoo is full of yahoo.

 

I can't think what they mean by "improvements" costing $90k, that has to be a whole new garage with a fair amount of site work, driveways, etc.

Mine:
24 x 72, detached, 2 @ 10' overhead doors, new 50-amp/220v electrical service (about 100' underground), frame & stucco with pitched steel roof; "average" electrical receptacles, incl. 3 220v for welders, overhead lighting, etc. NO water service, unfinished walls inside. gravel drive, minimal grading. $25k in 2005.

 

I would imagine those prices would be for "regular" people with no skills of any sort. Or a gold chainer with way too much money and someone else's imagination.

 

They are talking about the people that hire a "contractor" and have the ultimate in finishes on the insdie etc.

I was talking to a realestate person a couple of years ago and they said that a detached garage actually detracted from the value to most buyers. I think that in todays economy you build it and let the chips fall where they may.

When we purchased this place in '06 we were 20K to the good on value, after making payments for 6 years etc with the current market value we are 40k in the hole and it is steadily declining.

 

24x72 is nice size shop & can't qualify as a garage by normal people standards.
And that's only 25k.

Those numbers are wacked or pertain to something besides building a nice place to work, park, hangout and drink beer.

 

I have been building my own for 4 years now. 22 x 34 with a walk up stairs 10/12 pitch roof. I still need to finish the wiring, walls, and siding. I have done all the labor except the slab, $4500, and have about $20grand so far.

 

This is perhaps the dream garage: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/real-life-batcave-6-million-garage-features-rv-211916253.html

 

Someone has dyslexia, the building in the picture is 24 x 27

 

24 ft. deep

2 10 ft. doors = 20 ft.
Space (facing rt.) = 3 ft.
Space bwt. doors = 4 ft.
Space w/ window = 8 ft.

Total = 35 ft. width

24 x 35

Just eye ballin'. Am I close?

John

 

he sure has a boring taste of cars IMHO

 

my buddy put a $90,000.00 garage on the back of his attached 2 car garage. he went back another 40 feet, and out maybe 5 feet more than the original garage. 12 foot tall walls and a peaked ceiling. it had to be zoned as living space because the garage would have been too big for the lot size., not sure how he got away with that.

he says he spent too much getting the roof all redone so the addition fits the house better. he realized after the fact that that was a waste of money.

funny thing, it is so disorganised and full of junk he can only use a small part of it.

 

28x38 attached to house off one rear corner. 12' ceiling, 2- 8' doors one of which is 16' wide. LOTS of electrical, fully insulated, hot and cold water, not done and 32k deep right now. probably another 10k to finish drywall and exterior stuff.

 

Im currently building a 34x24,10 foot walls. Or should I say some friends and I. So far Im in it 3000 with labor for cement. Foundation frost walls and a smooth as glass floor. The second biggest expence is the doors I have 1 10x10 and 1 8x10.(yet to buy) Lumber and labor is cheap. A few friends a cooler of beverages, a coffie pot on the picnic table , radio, pizza deliveries, making memories. After vinal sideing and shingles garage doors. Im figureing around final cost around 12,$ I recycled some slideing doors and used them as windows(just flip them sideways). The 2x4s I get from work out of rail cars. For the avarage dumb home owner/gold chainer, to have something simular built my guess be 35,+$. When completed Im having a "ribbon cutting BBQ and car show event". Basicly for everyone that has helped me make this happen. Bring your hot rod, muscle car, mean 4x4,.Moon bounce for the kids. Memories are priceless. A garage a bad investment? NO. I think any 30,$ new car driven off the lot to be sold five years down the line for peanuts, now thats a bad investment!

 

Depends on how big your dream is. I went 36' X 50' 1800 SQ FT. Fully finished, 3/4 bath, 10 foot side walls, scissor truss 16 foot interior peak, 2" X 6" walls, R31 walls, R18 doors, R50 ceiling, 80,000 BTU yearround heated shop. The floor is 6" thick with 3 courses of block for the walls with a 15 foot concrete approach. In 2003 I was just short of $40,000 in building materials alone with lighting,electrical and plumbing included. Myself and friends did all the labor so beer and pizza costs were sky high . If somebody built this for me i couldn't afford it, so it helps to have skilled friends in the trades and make sure the town or city will let you build what you what.

 

$90,000? I don't have that much in my whole house and garage.
I had a new 16x20 garage built about 7 years ago. Small,but it suits my needs,and I didn't have a lot or room to add on. The best part is,that it's all paid for.

 

True on the turning it into a living quarters.

I followed a thread somewhere on the finishing out project on one of those condo garages and the guy had a huge amount of money in the improvements in it. High end finish on the floor, upper area with everything except a bedroom and an oven in the galley area.

Right now a 24x24 two car garage would be a real luxury for me. I can't get the frame for the 48 in my one car garage without hauling a bunch of stuff out to other sheds to get it out of the way.

 

What's the going rate for a half-full 5 gallon bucket of white paint?


Oh, and a new door, with a lock that works.

And a .357 loaded with hollowpoints, should anyone care to test the lock.

 

That is one of the most sickening things I have ever seen. Plus, From what I could see of his "car collection", it most resembles a used car lot in the shady part of town.

 

A contractor I know just did a house (500,000K) when they were finishing up the architec said they wanted to add a garage- it was $100,000 before any change orders.
I would built a 24 x 24 it would run on average about 20K. Jim

 

Mine was 10,000. 30x30 turnkey, 2 8x10 overhead one walk thru, elec, insulation and lights,

 

2 story 24x32. 9 foot door up top and 8 foot french doors into a storage area that the wife has claimed. The lower section is block wall/retaining wall with 2 ten foot doors. Did a bunch my self and the plans were free from my brother in law architect. Still had over 55k into it. Building permit fees in SoCal suck. Also had to install fire sprinklers and tempered windows since I was in a "fire zone". Probably cost me an extra 10k do to the city's BS. Waited 30 years to build it but it was worth the wait.

 

I live in Annapolis, and its a real $$$ town. After renting garage space for decades, I finally bought an old (former) blacksmith`s shop on the Eastern Shore. It had been on the market for almost a year, but all the businesses that wanted to buy it were turned down by the city, as it was zoned residential. I approached the zoning board and told them that I wanted to use it as a private collectors "man-cave"...they said OK. Its 42x42 and I`m just about done adding a second floor for storage. Cement floors, block walls and 3-phase electric...I`m stoked ! The first project car to be moved in when I`m done with the work bench`s and lighting will be a 32 woody built as a altered drag car in the early fifties.

 

this thread proves the real estate articles point despite the numbers being off. car guys buying a house, the people that would appreciate the garage, feel it shouldn't add a lot of money to the price. i agree the money seams high, but i am always shocked over the cost of things.

 

I'm a contractor and I agree that you'll probably lose money on garage improvements. For most people a garage is just a place to park cars and store junk. About 20 years ago we built a garage addition for a doctor that's a sports car guy. In addition to his attached garage he had a two car detached garage that had an 2 car addition on the back. We added another two bays plus a dyno room. Don't remember what it cost back then but that addition would be in the $45K range today.

 

Average cost of $90,053?!? Yea right.

 

I have heard you do not recover your costs on garage however there are buyers who shop will not buy a house without a garage...I built mine,,did everything except slab $17K insulated,drywalled, 60 amp panel, HE wood stove, Building a garage is pretty simple provided you can coerce a few friends over to help you frame it and install the trusses..After that you can do the rest yourself,,

 

12 gauge with rock salt. If youwant someone to learn you don't kill 'em no one learns anything from that, now a good butt shootin' that will learn 'em somethin.