We have decided to clean up our property and empty our attached two car garage by building a large RV garage to the side of the house. We thought we had a contractor willing to build it but he changed his business emphasis and is no longer interested. I contacted a garage building company and I was supposed to have an onsite visit but they stood me up and did not call to reschedule.
On the advice of our first contractor, I had engineering plans drawn by a local certified engineer. It was a bit of a struggle to get completed plans from the vendor. I sent money and waited asking several times for the drawings. I understood there were to be drawings sufficient to get a building permit, however, that was not the case. He only did structural engineering.
The first set of plans seemed to be copied straight from a generic document, even stating that the garage was attached to the house. I was very disappointed. I pointed out the errors and the plans were redrawn, but I had to pay more money as the first arrangement was only for the foundation apparently and I wanted a plan for the entire building.
I waited again and eventually got plans that did not represent the sketches I had sent for the building measurements. Again I made corrections and waited and waited for the plans. When I got them the walls were limited to 10 ft tall. Of course that was incorrect since they needed to be tall enough to support a 12′ high garage door. That meant back to the drawing board and additional time to change the taller structure to engineered studs.
I didn’t hear anything for a month and then after some prodding and excuses that the original plans were lost in a software upgrade. Really? Then that pdf’s had to be created. Yes, print as pdf and save? I was a bit annoyed. In the end after five months of struggle I did receive a pdf of a structural plan for a garage and I still had to draw my own architectural plan.
However by this time lumber had quadruped in cost. It hit a peak in May, 2021 and although the wholesale cost has dropped, boards are still much more expensive than last year when I started this project. So for now I can’t find anyone to build it and it may be much more expensive than original estimates.
I decided to look into metal garages in the same general layout. First I contacted a local company in Denver but they don’t erect the buildings and they could not provide a shed design. I also drew up plans on another site that appears to both manufacture and put together these barns/garages. I have not pursued it by contacting the company. We are too busy right now.
Busy having fun anyway.