Ballpark Garage/Shop Construction costs

I don't have any pictures of mine, but when we were shopping for property, I knew we would never find the shop I wanted.

I looked instead for a corner lot. That enabled me to build my shop at the back of the property, and add a second driveway off the side street.

It's 30x40 with 9' walls and a vaulted ceiling (which clears a lift). I made it look like a smaller version of the house, which pleased my wife. It's got garage doors at each end for flow-through ventilation, and 2 dormers through the roof which let in good sunlight.

It's also far enough from the house that I can make a mess or noise and not upset her.

You gotta figure $20- $30 per square foot, especially with the insulation and heat. That would be at a deep discount, or if you did a lot of the work yourself. Fully contracted would be a lot more.

FWIW, 2 post lifts can be installed on a 4" thick slab. I made mine a little thicker (6") only where the 2 posts sit.

SVreX wrote:

yamaha wrote: 10k would probably build a 3 car garage with normal construction... ...30x30x12 with finished insides for $20k.

These numbers are much too light. There's no way.

Thanks for the perspective. It's nice to hear from those who have already laid out the money (and care to recall what it actually hit their wallet for).

I shouldn't say I have "no" construction experience, I'm a fairly handy all around DIIY'er, but I don't have the time between job/family to do the heavy lifting so I'd rather contract getting it up and weatherproof/finished form an exterior standpoint.

I've done electrical, framed in and hung garage door at my current house, done wood siding, hung drywall/insulation, etc.

I figure if I can get the whole thing up and pretty on the outside, I can take my time on finishing the inside myself. I would like to pre-plan hoist location for concrete support/ceiling height.

You guys have some nice garages!

I built a 24 x 30, using metal trusses but wood framed walls and roof. I regretted the metal trusses - they look cool and made a super-super strong structure, but they take up space that could be used inside the garage. Anyway, just the foundation and slab was tough to get done for under $10k. I tried three contractors before I found one hungry enough to let me do the excavation work, pay cost for the materials, and cut me a deal on the labor, I ended up with - I think - closer to $8k just in the stones and concrete with labor. (And that was with my brother and I doing all the excavation.) I did do three truck loads of #2 stone and two truck loads of #304 crushed limestone - the ground was very soft underneath.

I think all in, including 220v power run underground to the garage, and a weatherproof shell, I ended up with close to $20k in it. That's with a mix of contractor labor and my own labor. I did most of the finish work, but had help with the concrete, framing, and roofing. I had an electrician friend do the power feed but put in all the outlets and lights myself. I had plans to insulate, drywall, etc, but ended up moving instead so I didn't want to spend the money on that since I would never get it back out of it.

Unless you're cutting major corners or getting concrete for free you would never get a decent sized garage built for $10k. At least not around here. Just the materials on the concrete was over $5k, cost, with a contractor discount.

In reply to SVreX:

You didn't notice my later post mentioning it'd be nearly free of labor?

yamaha wrote: In reply to SVreX: You didn't notice my later post mentioning it'd be nearly free of labor?

No, I didn't.

So, you meant $10K would probably buy the materials for a 3 car garage, rather than build a 3 car garage, right?

I might be more inclined to agree with that, except it won't do that either. The OP said he wanted a thicker floor, higher ceilings, fully insulated AND heated. I'm willing to bet you didn't include a price for a heating system for your shop.

$10K won't buy what he is asking for, even if it is just the materials, so it is not an answer to his question.

$20K is the starting point if you have a lot of free labor. $30K is a more reasonable starting point for a budget for this type of structure. It would be easy to spend a lot more if it is all contracted.