moving a garage

[bberry]

Can someone tell me what it may cost to have a garage moved back about

10 feet? We bought a new house last March and the builder at first assured us that it was code to build the garage 10 feet from the house but he was going to give us 12 feet. We felt really uncomfortable and had a lot of time to play around with his 12 feet and could see it was just too close to the house due to the way the house is situated. We talked him into 16 feet and he had it done that way for us. He was so very slow that we only finally had finalized everything buying the lot next door in 9 months after we first signed for the house. But that 16 feet was close enough that after the final inspection was done on the house my husband cut the corner off the back porch to give us more room to back the car out. It still feels too close and I only backed the car out one time, and didn't pull the car in until the corner of the porch was removed. We are happy with the house and getting the lot next door, but we sure wish we had more room to get the car out of the garage. Me especially. Can someone tell me what it may cost to have a job like this done? We figure adding 10 feet of concrete behind the garage, and having the garage moved back to that point would be helpful. We would also need to have the electrical moved to the new location. We have the wiring in the garage for a generator so that would require the proper wire for that. The generator isn't hooked up but my husband was going to do that part himself.

[bberry]

[Lawrence]

Gosh golly that's a tough one. Asssuming the garage has it's own pad that means demolishing that portion of the pad after the garage is moved. I once hired some guys to move a large shed for me. It was cheaper than I expected and when they showed up they were total pros who knew what to do. Look in the yellow pages under house movers. Hard to say what it will cost but it may be cheaper than you think.

A garage is usully very simply constructed. You should be able to demolish the front part of the garage and pad to make room. Then put an additon on the back to make up for it. It can't be much harder than moving the entire garage at least it's another idea.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I can't visualize what path you have that moving the garage back will give you more room. Do you have to turn coming out of the garage? Are you afraid to drive 16 feet along the house? Is there a pathway that you can turn the drive around and move the door to the other end of the garage instead of moving it? I'd bet the cost of moving it will be $10k or more. It is not a matter of just pouring a slab, but putting in some footers too.

[bberry]

I don't know if I can explain this, but I will try. The house is set on a 60 foot lot, th house is about 43 feet across that 60 feet. The garage was situated so it is not a direct shot out of the garage, you have to back it up with turning the back to the left and bring it back so the car is sitting on the 10 foot drive. We have a dog so there is a gate that my husband put about 10 feet off the corner of the house. So it is a question of clearing the garage on the left and the corner of the house on the right with the porch that has been cut. Yes we realize we would have to put in some footers and a rat wall to about

24 inches by our code. We would want to go back 10 feet behind the garage leaving the front of the garage in tact, not tearing anything out. I hope this explains what we are looking at.

[bberry]

After talking to my husband after rereading this you may have given us an idea that we can work on, if there is enough room. We own the lot next door to us, the builder just told us not to put any structure on it to keep our taxes down. But thinking of what you said we will look tomorrow to see if we have enough clearance to back the car out across that lot and pull it forward back to the drive. It may and may not work. We just put up a fence that is heavier than chicken wire, but not as heavy as cyclone, with a cyclone gate attached to the house. We have the dog, but someday we may not have one. The fence can easily be moved if this will work, thanks for helping us to figure it out. We moved back here from a rural area on the other side of Michigan and for 14 years we had a barn doors room to pull our cars in and out since we had a pole building with a turn around like you brought up.

We thought of moving the door to the side of the garage also, but that would take more pavement to be added, the ground here is heavy clay, fine if it is dry but a disaster if it is wet. But that is still an option we can work on.

[mm]

First, whatever trouble you all are having getting out of the garage will recede dramatically with practice. When I first drove to NYC, I took the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey, and it's elevated 30 or 40 feet and if you are in the left hand lane, there are cars and trucks coming at you with no median, no Jersey wall, nothing. And very little room on the right. I was a reckless youth, but still scared. I took it many times thereafter, and 5 years later, it occurred to me that they must have widened the road, because it seemed so wide. But it had the same cast cement pillars that were out of fashion by then and it would have cost a fortune to widen a skyway.

I realized that I was just a better driver.

It won't take you five years. It didn't take me 5 years, only 5 years to notice it. It will take you about 3 months.

16 feet is a lot. It just doesn't look like houses you all grew up in, I'll bet. After a while you'll be used to the look and think farther away is worse.

more below

Not necessarily. You can make use of it as a basketball court, an outdoor place to park the car when jacking it up, as a place to grill food, as an enlargement of the driveway, and other things.