Hi folks,
I've finally made a start on the garage build at the new place and though I should start a thread on it. The idea is to build it well, but with as much free/low cost materials as I can and record the cost of each bit. I know prices are somewhat variable, but it might give people an idea of how much a self-build garage would cost.
I've got a couple of constraints that a lot of people won't have, namely that the house is listed and I'm unwilling to chop down the big ash as the end of the garden, but I'll try and point out the times that's influenced the decisions made.
The garage itself will go here:
The existing shed will get taken down, but luckily for me there's already water and electricity in place.
The initial plan was to have one big 90m2 garage. However, a garage that big requires building regs approval. Because I don't want to chop down the ash I'd need to account for the movement that causes in the ground, which required something like 1m of graded hardcore underneath the slab. Even the cost of the hardcore would blow the budget, but because the place is listed I'd also get archaeology involved (~£250 per day of observation, ~£400 for the initial report and then another ~£800 for the final report).
So. No digging it is!
If I keep the floor area to 30m2 I don't need building regs, which means I can plop it straight on the ground (with an appropriate strength of pad).
However, before any of that starts I need to get a driveway from the road to the back of the garden. The planning folks wanted a clear 6m of hardstanding outside the garage doors for manoeuvring, which you can see the start of in the picture above. From there, a drive needs to hug the outside border of our garden out towards the road:
Here comes the first bit of cost. If you're not listed and are allowed to dig without having someone watch you, you could just hire a digger, dig down and fill it with hardcore. Because I want to pop mine straight on top, and we're on soft clay anyway, I needed some ground strengthening gear. Because of the length of the driveway and the area of the hardstanding and garages, I needed about 300m2 of ground reinforcing geogrid stuff at a cost of £725, and some heavy duty weed membrane at £210. You won't need the ground reinforcing mesh if you can get a decent thickness of hardcore.
To try and recoup some cost, I got all the hardcore for free. There's tons of people on FB marketplace with general rubble going free, so a bit of effort can give quite a saving. 150m2 at 150mm depth of MoT Type 1 would be 45 bulk bags at ~£60 each for £2700. Not a small amount of work though...
The hardcore is lined with concrete blocks (again, collected for free) but supported with recycled plastic lawn edging stakes. I nearly got some plastic fencing stakes for £30 which would have saved a decent chunk of money, but alas they were sold and I haven't seen any since. The ones I got were £235, but if you don't mind redoing them in a while then some roofing batten soaked in creosote would do the job much cheaper.
That leads onto the entrance, which snakes around a lovely walnut and another mature, surprisingly healthy ash:
To avoid compacting the roots I've thrown some more money at people who know what they're doing for some tree root protection mesh. This stuff gets filled with graded MoT type 3 (hardcore with reduced fines so water can permeate it) and stops the ground compacting over the roots. That was £500
I'm not paying for MoT Type 3 at even more cost than Type 1, so I've made some myself by sorting the hardcore I've collected and mashing up the rest with a sledgehammer. The sledgehammering is a real slog so I'm considering hiring a mini concrete crusher for the remainder, but we'll see how bruised the wallet feels.
So, I'm £1670 into something I'd budgeted precisely zilch for, mainly because I didn't appreciate the implications of listed buildings, but I think I've minimised cost as much as I could while still getting something that should last.
A bit more hardcoring next, then I can think about top surfaces.
I've finally made a start on the garage build at the new place and though I should start a thread on it. The idea is to build it well, but with as much free/low cost materials as I can and record the cost of each bit. I know prices are somewhat variable, but it might give people an idea of how much a self-build garage would cost.
I've got a couple of constraints that a lot of people won't have, namely that the house is listed and I'm unwilling to chop down the big ash as the end of the garden, but I'll try and point out the times that's influenced the decisions made.
The garage itself will go here:
The existing shed will get taken down, but luckily for me there's already water and electricity in place.
The initial plan was to have one big 90m2 garage. However, a garage that big requires building regs approval. Because I don't want to chop down the ash I'd need to account for the movement that causes in the ground, which required something like 1m of graded hardcore underneath the slab. Even the cost of the hardcore would blow the budget, but because the place is listed I'd also get archaeology involved (~£250 per day of observation, ~£400 for the initial report and then another ~£800 for the final report).
So. No digging it is!
If I keep the floor area to 30m2 I don't need building regs, which means I can plop it straight on the ground (with an appropriate strength of pad).
However, before any of that starts I need to get a driveway from the road to the back of the garden. The planning folks wanted a clear 6m of hardstanding outside the garage doors for manoeuvring, which you can see the start of in the picture above. From there, a drive needs to hug the outside border of our garden out towards the road:
Here comes the first bit of cost. If you're not listed and are allowed to dig without having someone watch you, you could just hire a digger, dig down and fill it with hardcore. Because I want to pop mine straight on top, and we're on soft clay anyway, I needed some ground strengthening gear. Because of the length of the driveway and the area of the hardstanding and garages, I needed about 300m2 of ground reinforcing geogrid stuff at a cost of £725, and some heavy duty weed membrane at £210. You won't need the ground reinforcing mesh if you can get a decent thickness of hardcore.
To try and recoup some cost, I got all the hardcore for free. There's tons of people on FB marketplace with general rubble going free, so a bit of effort can give quite a saving. 150m2 at 150mm depth of MoT Type 1 would be 45 bulk bags at ~£60 each for £2700. Not a small amount of work though...
The hardcore is lined with concrete blocks (again, collected for free) but supported with recycled plastic lawn edging stakes. I nearly got some plastic fencing stakes for £30 which would have saved a decent chunk of money, but alas they were sold and I haven't seen any since. The ones I got were £235, but if you don't mind redoing them in a while then some roofing batten soaked in creosote would do the job much cheaper.
That leads onto the entrance, which snakes around a lovely walnut and another mature, surprisingly healthy ash:
To avoid compacting the roots I've thrown some more money at people who know what they're doing for some tree root protection mesh. This stuff gets filled with graded MoT type 3 (hardcore with reduced fines so water can permeate it) and stops the ground compacting over the roots. That was £500
I'm not paying for MoT Type 3 at even more cost than Type 1, so I've made some myself by sorting the hardcore I've collected and mashing up the rest with a sledgehammer. The sledgehammering is a real slog so I'm considering hiring a mini concrete crusher for the remainder, but we'll see how bruised the wallet feels.So, I'm £1670 into something I'd budgeted precisely zilch for, mainly because I didn't appreciate the implications of listed buildings, but I think I've minimised cost as much as I could while still getting something that should last.
A bit more hardcoring next, then I can think about top surfaces.
