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susancc_gw

reasonable price for detached garage??

Susancc
16 years ago

We are meeting with our builder tomorrow to go over the bid for our house and garage, but he threw out some numbers on the phone to my husband yesterday. I have been stewing over them. We are having a two car attached and a two car detached garage. The detached garage is 25 by 30, all brick with four windows, cement floor, two garage doors and asphalt roof and is non-heated with a regular door out also. The number he gave us is $65,000. I can't get my brain around that number, it seems high to me. He has been pushing us to consolidate garages even though I don't want to and I think he might have raised the price to "encourage" us to do it. Does this seem high to anyone else?? How do I know if I am being jacked around? How do I know he is giving us builders price on things like lumber etc?

Comments (18)

  • lorraineal
    16 years ago

    Sounds like a fair price to me. Here in So Cal, a garage of that type and finish would cost even more to build.

    You might want to have someone else give you a bid on just the detached garage to see if it is in line with your area of the country.

  • worthy
    16 years ago

    As a stand-alone job, including contractor's managmeent, that would be about right here in Toronto. But if you're in the US south, probably high.

    All you're saving by consolidating the garages is one wall. And I presume you don't want to look like you're running a garage.

  • jgirl_2007
    16 years ago

    We are doing a semi-detached 4 car garage (30x40) with 14' ceiling and it's only attached via the breezeway between it and the attached 3 car garage and attic space overhead. I would have to say ours cost roughly about the same as what you've been quoted, but it was never broken out separately from the build. It's concrete block & slab so that increases costs.

  • sue36
    16 years ago

    Sounds reasonable. You wouldn't get it for that price around here, primarily due to the brick.

  • jackson2348
    16 years ago

    We did a seperate single garage. It is 15x30, on slab, brick, 2 windows, door, single (oversized) garage door, with stairs and bonus space above. Totally unfinished inside, but electricians did run power to it, for the garage door and overhead lights, that we later can pull from for outlets and such. It was about $30K as part of our whole house build. We are in Mississippi.

  • allison0704
    16 years ago

    Since I"ve seen your house plans and know your finishes, I'd have to say it's about right. We didn't build a guest house right away due to it costing more than we thought it should and being more than we wanted to invest in a guest house at the time.

  • galore2112
    16 years ago

    At $65k, it doesn't matter if he gives you builder's prices on lumber etc.

    This is such a small structure that material cost is low, even if you shop at home depot.

    A 30ft long wall uses about 25 studs. You are looking at less than 90 studs for the walls of your garage. This costs your builder maybe $200 in lumber. Add another $200 for the roof lumber and maybe $500 in plywood and you are talking less than $1k in wood for your garage.

    Foundation is about $5/sf, if you build from scratch. Probably less, if it is poured together with the house.

    Brick is cheap, too. I paid about $3k for nine thousand bricks (USBrick) for my DIY brick fence.

    Your whole garage costs probably

  • chelone
    16 years ago

    We are doing a detached, 2 car garage, full second floor (28'w x 36'l); 75-80K. This is framed, sided, roofed, "tight to the weather".

    At that point we'll take over and address insulation and heat on our own, and as we feel we'd like to spend the money and as our need for the space is more clearly defined. We are doing the bulk of the general constracting ourselves, and will turn the construction phase over to a GC. The deal is, "stock and time".

    We're right on the snapper so far and the guys we've hired have been terrific. If I understood the garbled cell phone message this afternoon, they plan to start framing next week.

  • Susancc
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I spoke to another builder in the area and he said it should cost no more than $30,000. I think I am being screwed and tattooed. The cost of the house was high also, I think he is not passing on any builder's prices even though I did research them and he knows that. We are having a meeting today at 5. I told my husband he might have to leave the rom cause I was going to get very serious. Nothing snotty or ugly, just down to brass tacks. This same builder told us originally we could build a four car detached for the same price but now it is for two car garage. Too fishy!!!

  • amtaustin
    16 years ago

    A friend has a detached garage built, about 20' x 20', 10' celings, typical gable roof. They did the slab, 2x6 walls, cement-fiber siding, 3 windows, one door, and one garage door, roof singles. It was basically a weather tight structure. It did not include the electircal, any plumbing, insulation, or drywall. Cost was $19,000. He got several bids which were -much- higher! You really have to look around, and even when you do find a good deal, you have to make sure they will not cut corners.

  • buzzsaw
    16 years ago

    I just put up a 28 x 24 detached garage. Material costs on it were about $12k. Labor was 'free' (aka me). This included pretty much the whole garage; fiber cement siding, 2 x 6 framing, 8 x 18 overhead door, 2 service doors, rafters, wall & roof sheathing, concrete slab, 40 yr asphalt shingles, frost footings, and delivery of materials.

    IMO a detached garage is simpler/faster to build and less expensive than an attached one in spite of the one common wall.

    Full brick siding is going to be a huge chunk of your price tag.

  • worthy
    16 years ago

    Now that I look more carefully, I think jrldh is right.

    My lumber costs would be about C$1,250, including 14% tax.
    Even accounting for designer quality bricks and a quality composite garage door and opener, I figure my costs would be about $22K. As a stand-alone project I would want at least $8,000 markup.

    But I see OP has already figured it out.

  • Susancc
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    OK we had the meeting, I told him the detached garage was too much and that I had done some research on it. He started spouting figures but they didn't add up to 65k. He then said it was an estimate but that I had made him paranoid and he was going to get absolute figures not estimates. He also added at the very end that he had factored in 20% for mistakes. HA, we will se what he comes back as. Anyway, I feel better, but I would like to see some numbers.

  • sierraeast
    16 years ago

    Sounds like the folks who got many estimates for an extensive deck project where most bids came in around 50k with most explaining labor,materials,mark-up,etc. One builder came in at over 100k. I guess he figured 50% labor,materials,markup, the other 50% for that brand new ford f-450!

    65k sounds like you are getting rooked!

  • dumaspup
    16 years ago

    It sounds that you should just find another builder. This one will get that 65K out of you one way or another.

  • charliedawg
    16 years ago

    I would seriously question the integrity of a builder who would drop the price of a garage by thousands and thousands simply because you were smart enough to question him about the cost. Around here (KY) a garage like you mentioned would cost about 30 grand at the most.

    IMO this is a horrible way to start off the building process. Trusting your builder is just too important.

  • gking91_cox_net
    12 years ago

    look at tuff shed will cost 8000.00 to 10000.00 dollars