Recommendations for a garage/workshop contractor/builder

[jamie]

Is there anyone in the Matthews (or expand to charlotte) area that knows of anyone that specializes in garages/outbuildings?

I am trying to explore options, one of which is getting a shop built-- but I don't even know where to begin.

I would probably be thinking the 2-car range, but perhaps a little extra deep.

TIA,

-jamie

 

[WoodWrangler]

I don't know where to send you ... but let me know what you find out. I'd like to hear of a good deal on building a dedicated shop!

 

[sawduster]

I will be following this thread closely as well . The Shoppe Widow is in total agreement that I need a bigger shop and I , like you , do not know where to even start ........well start at the bank , but after that :dontknow:

I have seen some pretty good deals at Builders Discount Center on shop " kits " . That is to say all of the lumber , fasteners, shingles etc and you build it yourself
....well yourself plus 18 or so experienced friends :gar-La;

 

[ScottM]

I will be following this thread closely as well . The Shoppe Widow is in total agreement that I need a bigger shop and I , like you , do not know where to even start ........well start at the bank , but after that :dontknow:

I have seen some pretty good deals at Builders Discount Center on shop " kits " . That is to say all of the lumber , fasteners, shingles etc and you build it yourself
....well yourself plus 18 or so experienced friends :gar-La;

I don't have much experience but this friend will come help. Just don't plan this for July with a heat index day of 110. :eusa_hand

 

[bluthart]

I design and sell buildings for Lester Buildings on the side. You can see their main website at www.lesterbuildings.com. PM me with any questions, and I can get you some literature. Thanks!

Brian

 

[jamie]

Thanks all--

I have a call out to the town hall here, to find out exactly what I can and can't do.

One issue that I have would be with site preparation. We live on a partially wooded lot, and some of that would have to go. Given that, it would be likely that we would need a slab poured as well.

I might just be getting myself in waaayyyy over my head...

 

[Ken Massingale]

I'm not in your area, but I'll throw out my experience with our shop that we had built last Fall/Winter. The builder is local to us but since construction is down he is taking his crew to other areas to find work.
He priced a 24 by 36, 4" concrete slab, 9 foot ceiling, 16 foot garage door, 5 windows, 2 standard metal 36" doors, with a 12 foot wide 'lean-to' down one 36 foot side with 4" concrete slab floor. All studs are PT and the bottom 4' of exterior plywood is PT. Shingle roof and vinyl siding with house wrap.
Termite treatment was included.
The price for this was $17,500.

Separate from this I paid ~$450 for the drywall and ~$850 to have it installed taped and sanded ready for painting. I rented a sprayer and bought 5 gallons of primer and White gloss paint and sprayed it myself.
I had the walls insulated with good quality roll insulation and the ceiling blown with 12" of insulation, cost was ~$800.
I did the electrical. 4 GFI protected branches with 5 20 amp receptacles on each for wall outlets. 3 GFI protected branches with 6 15 amp receptacles each in the ceiling for lighting. 3 dedicated 220 volt 20 amp outlets. 2 dedicated GFI 110 volt 20 amp outlets.
With the 200 amp panel/breakers and service entrance, Romex etc., IIRC the electrical was ~$1000 for material.

Sooo, that got us inside for:
$17,500
$1300
$800
$1000
-------
$20,600 plus the paint/sprayer and other incidentals

We had a wall mount propane heater in the old shop that we moved to the new shop and a 16k BTU AC unit.
We added a wood heater and SS chimney kit that we installed, ~$800 total.
I'm still adding window/door facing and other details so it's still not finished, and it seems it never will be!:confused_

I suggest anyone considering building try to do so pretty soon, the builders are looking for work and material costs are down, but that is quickly starting to change, in this area anyway.

HTH
ken

 

[jamie]

I'm not in your area, but I'll throw out my experience with our shop that we had built last Fall/Winter. The builder is local to us but since construction is down he is taking his crew to other areas to find work.
He priced a 24 by 36, 4" concrete slab, 9 foot ceiling, 16 foot garage door, 5 windows, 2 standard metal 36" doors, with a 12 foot wide 'lean-to' down one 36 foot side with 4" concrete slab floor. All studs are PT and the bottom 4' of exterior plywood is PT. Shingle roof and vinyl siding with house wrap.
Termite treatment was included.
The price for this was $17,500.

Separate from this I paid ~$450 for the drywall and ~$850 to have it installed taped and sanded ready for painting. I rented a sprayer and bought 5 gallons of primer and White gloss paint and sprayed it myself.
I had the walls insulated with good quality roll insulation and the ceiling blown with 12" of insulation, cost was ~$800.
I did the electrical. 4 GFI protected branches with 5 20 amp receptacles on each for wall outlets. 3 GFI protected branches with 6 15 amp receptacles each in the ceiling for lighting. 3 dedicated 220 volt 20 amp outlets. 2 dedicated GFI 110 volt 20 amp outlets.
With the 200 amp panel/breakers and service entrance, Romex etc., IIRC the electrical was ~$1000 for material.

Sooo, that got us inside for:
$17,500
$1300
$800
$1000
-------
$20,600 plus the paint/sprayer and other incidentals

We had a wall mount propane heater in the old shop that we moved to the new shop and a 16k BTU AC unit.
We added a wood heater and SS chimney kit that we installed, ~$800 total.
I'm still adding window/door facing and other details so it's still not finished, and it seems it never will be!:confused_

I suggest anyone considering building try to do so pretty soon, the builders are looking for work and material costs are down, but that is quickly starting to change, in this area anyway.

HTH
ken

Wow, Ken, thanks for the info! Yes, it does help a great deal. For some reason or other, I am sure that it would end up costing me twice that (heck, we had a screened in porch put in last fall and it was more than that )

How did you FIND the builder?

 

[Ken Massingale]

Wow, Ken, thanks for the info! Yes, it does help a great deal. For some reason or other, I am sure that it would end up costing me twice that (heck, we had a screened in porch put in last fall and it was more than that )

How did you FIND the builder?

He lives in the area, but we got prices from 3 builders and all 3 were within $300 of each other.
Oh, If I would change anything it would be the 16' garage door. We would nor prefer a 10 or 12 foot one. The 36 by 24 is a 'standard' 3 car garage and the 16 foot is normal.

 

[timf67]

Now is definitely the time to hire contractors. I live in Charlotte, and we are currently doing a 2 story addition, and the contractor we picked cut his markup/margin to 7.5% to get the job. We first were considering a separate garage shop but then my wife got the crazy idea to add on to the house... the good news is that by moving the laundry room from the basement to the 2nd floor will double my current shop size!

Also, my next door neighbor also just hired someone to enclose his carport into a garage and further up the street another of my neighbors just added on a master suite to their house. they are both telling me the same thing that I found. Contractors are desperate for work right now.

 

[buildintechie]

I work for a commercial general contractor, and there are alot of them out there that are desperate. That would be to your benefit, but can also be bad...don't necessarily go with the cheapest price you get...check references...talk to people that GC has done work with before. If he/she isnt willing to share them with you run in the opposite direction. Make sure that person is truely LICENSED to perform work (Alot of yahoos have lost their licenses and are still working).

 

[timf67]

I work for a commercial general contractor, and there are alot of them out there that are desperate. That would be to your benefit, but can also be bad...don't necessarily go with the cheapest price you get...check references...talk to people that GC has done work with before. If he/she isnt willing to share them with you run in the opposite direction. Make sure that person is truely LICENSED to perform work (Alot of yahoos have lost their licenses and are still working).

I agree 100%. Our contractor came recommended from 2 people we trust, and we checked his license and insurance status before signing the contract.

 

[Ken Massingale]

I work for a commercial general contractor, and there are alot of them out there that are desperate. That would be to your benefit, but can also be bad...don't necessarily go with the cheapest price you get...check references...talk to people that GC has done work with before. If he/she isnt willing to share them with you run in the opposite direction. Make sure that person is truely LICENSED to perform work (Alot of yahoos have lost their licenses and are still working).

True Jeff. we actually contacted 4 builders for quotes, the forth never got that far. One of the first things I brought up was that we would be verifying licenses and insurance thru the County and State.
That one guy suddenly remembered he had a prior commitment and couldn't build for us.

 

[jamie]

True Jeff. we actually contacted 4 builders for quotes, the forth never got that far. One of the first things I brought up was that we would be verifying licenses and insurance thru the County and State.
That one guy suddenly remembered he had a prior commitment and couldn't build for us.

How do you go about verification? is there a place to look it up?

 

[Ken Massingale]

For the County here it is the Building and Codes dept. for the license. The insurance can be checked in SC at the state capital, I'll need to look in our records for what that dept is named here. I did find out later that the County could have done the insurance verification for us.

 

[Glennbear]

I will be following this thread closely as well . The Shoppe Widow is in total agreement that I need a bigger shop and I , like you , do not know where to even start ........well start at the bank , but after that :dontknow:

I have seen some pretty good deals at Builders Discount Center on shop " kits " . That is to say all of the lumber , fasteners, shingles etc and you build it yourself
....well yourself plus 18 or so experienced friends :gar-La;

Just a word of caution, a while back I looked at BDC kit prices also and noted that some of the lumber was listed as #3. #3 lumber usually resembles a Bavarian Pretzel :nah:

 

[Don Sorensen]

My 2 car + deep garage was built by one of those people you hear on the radio talking about how cheap it is to add a garage, or a sun room....I hear the commercials so often I block them and can't think of the name.

Hardware they used for the garage doors is cheap crap. The general construction is pretty good, but they didn't bother to properly caulk the hardiplank siding.

I agree with the opinion about "kits" - though the only kits I've helped put together were "garden sheds". Even so - I priced buying all the stuff myself and putting a proper 7 ft door in rather than the 5' 9" forehead catcher they usually come with - and my total was much less expensive - enough to feed myself and my help steaks and beer during the construction phase.

 

[dave "dhi"]

well, id love to some on out and help u get ur shop up and running, but 3 plus hour drive for me and some of my subs a bite far. good luck and if u have any questions that i can help via computer, fire away! dave

 

[PeteQuad]

When I was looking to build a shop out back I looked very seriously at Tuff Shed. Their stuff is decent, not too expensive, and it's up quick. I put off the building but if I don't end up doing it myself someday, I might go back to them.

 

[JimmyC]

Here are a few sites to check out for everybody, I don't know where they travel to though.

http://carolinacustombuilders.com/

http://carolinacustombuilders.com/

http://www.dutchwaypolebarns.com/about-us.htm

Good Luck.