My New Digs

[Vegas69]

They are pouring the foundation on my new house next week and I need to make a decision on my garage floor. Would you go level or pitched to the garage door? I've also heard you can go level and pitch the last portion before the door.

Total garage space is just over 1,300sqft. It has 2 18' wide doors with my shop side having a 10' tall door and 12' ceiling. It's 27.5' deep so I can pull in a fishing boat, lifted truck, install a lift. In fact, we are making the slab deeper where I plan to install a lift one day.

We have an acre and this house is super wide at 110", but I'll still have 30' on the garage side. I plan to install a cover at some point for a camper, etc...

We are in the rural preservation and only a few hundred yards from city limits. We designed the house around the mountain range views. I plan to buy a UTV and go right from my garage! I call it my little slice of paradise. This city has grown so fast, but I'm protected by the preservation in all directions. We are only 15 minutes from the airport.

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

this house is super wide at 110"

Wow, that is wide
Todd, someone had to catch you on that.
Anyway, that is a beautiful view, way better than this crappy snow right now.

[wiedemab]

My $.02 - - - I'd go with a level floor in order to be able to weigh, align, etc.. If you put a lift in you won't have to shim it as much.

You probably won't need floor drains - I put them in since I pull my truck inside in the winter to thaw it out. I asked for mine to be level when I built my shop and they F'ed it up... I think I had a thread on here about it a few years back.

Oh yeah - place looks like it will be awesome!

[GregWeld]

Each of the 5 garage spaces we have at the current house are sloped to the middle with an oil water separator in each bay.... I love being able to take a hose in there and wash the dust down the drain and keep the floors clean.... They're also epoxied and clear coated with glass beads in the clear coat so they're non-skid.

Nice house by the way!!

[WILWAXU]

Great layout! Love the 3 basically "Master" bedrooms (personal bath). Garage space is awesome!

[SSLance]

I'd go flat on the floors for sure, but I can't see them letting you do it unless you get basically free reign from codes. Seems they all think we have to have sloped garage floors to save ourselves from flooding our garages with the wet cars we park in them.

Glad you are finally getting started, I know you've been working on this for a while. Plans look great...

[Vegas69]

Originally Posted by Tinker

Wow, that is wide
Todd, someone had to catch you on that.
Anyway, that is a beautiful view, way better than this crappy snow right now.

We really like the nature views over the city view. It's peaceful and quiet out there.

Originally Posted by wiedemab

My $.02 - - - I'd go with a level floor in order to be able to weigh, align, etc.. If you put a lift in you won't have to shim it as much.

You probably won't need floor drains - I put them in since I pull my truck inside in the winter to thaw it out. I asked for mine to be level when I built my shop and they F'ed it up... I think I had a thread on here about it a few years back.

Oh yeah - place looks like it will be awesome!

Thanks, it rains about 5 times a year so I'm not that concerned out run off from the cars.

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Each of the 5 garage spaces we have at the current house are sloped to the middle with an oil water separator in each bay.... I love being able to take a hose in there and wash the dust down the drain and keep the floors clean.... They're also epoxied and clear coated with glass beads in the clear coat so they're non-skid.

Nice house by the way!!

Show off!

Originally Posted by WILWAXU

Great layout! Love the 3 basically "Master" bedrooms (personal bath). Garage space is awesome!

It's a 4 bed, computer area, 4 bath, 4 car. It's more than we need.

Originally Posted by SSLance

I'd go flat on the floors for sure, but I can't see them letting you do it unless you get basically free reign from codes. Seems they all think we have to have sloped garage floors to save ourselves from flooding our garages with the wet cars we park in them.

Glad you are finally getting started, I know you've been working on this for a while. Plans look great...

It's been a long road. I never dreamed it would be this much work. Between the architect, contractors, engineers, and the city.. It's fun to see some progress and see the vision come to life.

My contractor is giving me the option to go flat, but I want to make sure I'm not breaking code. I don't want any chance of having it back fire on me with a do over.

I'm leaning towards flat with a slight slope at the garage door to keep the rain water out.

Here is the rear elevation and the site plan. The great room has a 15' ceiling and the slider is 8' tall by 16' wide with 4 windows above it. We also have a nice slider off the dining room. We left the last .25 acre natural as I don't want to have to maintain it or pay to landscape it. 3/4 acre is PLENTY in the desert. I still have the flexibility to use it later as I'm installing a view fence. Who knows, I may end up putting a casita or shop back there someday. It's zoned for horses, but I have no desire. We set the house well back from the street to give it a nice deep set back and width from the street. The finished floor is higher than I thought so the house is built up pretty high to help or view and curb appeal. The negative is I now need to bring in over 20 loads of dirt to level out the front and back. I wanted to use my native soil for the foundation. We hope to get some free dirt from pool contractors, etc..

It's really been fun as I like a good project and it's really beyond a dream house for us. It's only 3137 sqft so I figure I can die here. HA We originally had it up to almost 4000 feet which is ridiculous for my wife, son, and a dog. It would've been too much house. I'm glad I came to my senses.

[MtotheIKEo]

I'm jealous of the garage square footage, looks like it will be a nice place to work. I don't know what you have planned for the space behind the garage but I would think about putting a garage door out the back as well. I love opening my front and back doors on a summer day and getting all the natural light and a little breeze going through the garage.

[Flash68]

Been waiting for you to post this up!

So 1 kid is all you're doing I take it? Hope that surgery went well....

The game room doubles as the 4th bedroom I take it?

And the kid's room right by the front door while parents are in the back? (That'll go well as he gets older.... )

Let it rip!

[SSLance]

Todd, your plan is very similar to ours....we are right at 3100 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath, with lots of open areas facing back of house and no steps...all on 8/10s of an acre. We had the option of going 4 bedroom but 2 would have had to share a bath. This way each bedroom has their own bath which works better for out of town guests (no kids here).

I see you also put 1 bathtub in...we did that as well but considered none at all.

They trimmed ours Monday, inside and out is ready for paint now. We are picking out slabs for countertops today.