Garage to living space


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Hey guys, I am trying to wrap my head around this going from existing to new flooring. The garage steps down 36" and has 11' ceiling. The door coming into the garage is from the kitchen. They want to add two beds and a bath to the 24X24 garage which is enough space to do so. They want the floor of the garage raised to be flush with the main home which will still leave 8' ceiling height. This will basically be a false floor, kind of like a wood framed stage in a church I am thinking. What is the best way to tackle this with floor height settings in CA while leaving the garage slab where it is. I am waiting for a measurement of the existing door as we speak. The home is 2 hours away and the owner is assisting with measurements along with the plans that were drawn in pen from the 80's.

 

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Might caution you to check Subdivision Restrictions. Many of our local Restriction say garage must remain a garage. Easy enough for the homeowner not to know or care.

 

kw

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14 minutes ago, KevinWaldron said:

Might caution you to check Subdivision Restrictions. Many of our local Restriction say garage must remain a garage. Easy enough for the homeowner not to know or care.

 

kw

This is in rural Alabama, no one cares haha. No engineering stamp required and they could have drawn these on a napkin for permits.

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Just now, HumbleChief said:

Rob, you could set up the foundation slab floor with multi layers using an air gap with framing above but always best to let the smart guys answer...:)

Air Gap.png

I have the builder's contact info and I can picture how it will be built BUT making it work in chief is what I am stuck on. Your method may be what I need.

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Excellent suggestion by Larry. 


OPTION B & C...

 

Use a flat roof with wood flooring as the roof surface OR manual ceiling planes. 

 

Both will appear as new wood framing in cross section views (which is how the real world condition will ultimately look). 

 

Altering the structure tabs would have boosted the foundation wall height, and that's not going to be how it's constructed. 

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Rob,

 

For the typical house/garage scenario, where the garage floor is 1' below the stem wall, unchecking on the foundation room's structure tab "Room Supplies Floor for the Room Above"  leaves the foundation garage floor where it was and creates another slab for the room above (because it is named garage).  If you then change that room above to be named study, for example, and set its floor height to 0, you have a framed floor drawn flush with the existing house and you can still see the slab at 1' below. 

image.thumb.png.13e206b6e3e14e3ec6bec64d2586ee1d.png

For this "Garage to Living Space" question, it is a bit trickier because the top of stem wall for the garage area is ~2' below the house (your 3' is due to the additional distance of the house subfloor.)  Best way to show this building on the example above would be to make the foundation walls pony walls.  First I changed the Foundation garage floor to -2' and then I dropped the upper pony walls another -1'8" so that the garage foundation is about 4" above the existing concrete floor (this looks like your example picture above.)  I then selected the "Study" exterior walls and on the structure tab selected "Balloon Through Floor Below".  Turn on framing layers and Chief even draws the interior rim board for the balloon framing automatically.

 

image.thumb.png.92034ead773cddbb40d8711ec4b4cb8a.png

 

All done with auto-framing on.

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9 hours ago, JiAngelo said:

Rob,

 

For the typical house/garage scenario, where the garage floor is 1' below the stem wall, unchecking on the foundation room's structure tab "Room Supplies Floor for the Room Above"  leaves the foundation garage floor where it was and creates another slab for the room above (because it is named garage).  If you then change that room above to be named study, for example, and set its floor height to 0, you have a framed floor drawn flush with the existing house and you can still see the slab at 1' below. 

image.thumb.png.13e206b6e3e14e3ec6bec64d2586ee1d.png

For this "Garage to Living Space" question, it is a bit trickier because the top of stem wall for the garage area is ~2' below the house (your 3' is due to the additional distance of the house subfloor.)  Best way to show this building on the example above would be to make the foundation walls pony walls.  First I changed the Foundation garage floor to -2' and then I dropped the upper pony walls another -1'8" so that the garage foundation is about 4" above the existing concrete floor (this looks like your example picture above.)  I then selected the "Study" exterior walls and on the structure tab selected "Balloon Through Floor Below".  Turn on framing layers and Chief even draws the interior rim board for the balloon framing automatically.

 

image.thumb.png.92034ead773cddbb40d8711ec4b4cb8a.png

 

All done with auto-framing on.

Nice!

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Curious on how you will tie into the existing walls though.  Your model view shows block at the kitchen door, are you just going to put a ledger board there and bolt thru that block like a deck?  How about the other three walls, looks like that's wood framed?   

 

Is that a crawl space on the other side of that block?  Thinking ahead for you on the waste piping that will have to connect to existing.    

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11 hours ago, mtldesigns said:

Curious on how you will tie into the existing walls though.  Your model view shows block at the kitchen door, are you just going to put a ledger board there and bolt thru that block like a deck?  How about the other three walls, looks like that's wood framed?   

 

Is that a crawl space on the other side of that block?  Thinking ahead for you on the waste piping that will have to connect to existing.    

Ledger boards for sure.

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8" of concrete block or an 8" thick  PC wall may offer some semblance of load bearing in addition to the ledger. 

 

Existing garage walls might be 2 x 6 or even better yet, 2 x 4... and that'll provide room for a small knee wall or at the very least, vertical 2x's on the flat to add reinforcement to the ledger.

 

For what it's worth, clear spanning that room w/ TJI's is still going to involve some bouncy floors despite manufacturer's recommendations. A small knee wall down the middle should be a must have even if the slab has a crack. 

 

Option 2... On at least (2) sides of that garage, they could always cut the sheetrock off, and use the foundation for load bearing. (see link). That method provides better ceiling height if they don't mind the floor being lower from the main house elevation. Even if you still had to keep two treads. 

 

In looking at the door height, the ceiling is low. Based on the model... the current windows already look lower.

 

A raised floor may result in the sills being right at the base board. Perhaps there's a happy medium. 

 

image.thumb.png.cee4c94f72ca96c97975c1421a436567.png

 

https://www.contractortalk.com/threads/garage-to-living-room-conversion.117918/#lg=thread-117918&slide=1

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