Hi folks,

I'm in the process of planning a major home renovation, of which I will do most of the work myself. I am looking to attach a garage with second floor onto my 1.5 story house. My house as it sits is 25'(w) x 30'(l) with a 12/12 roof. I want to attach a 25'(w) x 16'(l) garage, 16' for symmetry reasons as I will be adding 3 gable dormers to the finished roof structure on the front of the house and a full shed dormer across the back of the house; 16' seems to make everything balance.

Since I am doing most of this myself with some framing and finish carpentry experience I am looking for input on most cost efficient ways to do the job keeping hired services to a minimum.

Living in New Brunswick, Canada and since I want the garage to be attached I need a foundation that goes maybe 4 feet into the ground to keep the structure stable through the seasons. I have been racking my brain about ways to create the foundation for the addition and I've always liked the idea of ICF. What I like about ICF is I can take my time and put everything together on my own since its fairly repetitive and then hire somebody to do the pour.

Any information you guys can give me to help me along the process would be great. Also if I am way off and should just create a conventional foundation, let me know! I want to discuss my plan for a while so I get the best results. Also, maybe I should just go nuts and go right to the roof with ICF for my addition??

Thank you all for your time,

Don

If the garage will ever be heated, you should have it done, ICFs all the way to the roof. ICF construction is more forgiving when it comes to finishing the project compared to leaving wood framing, wood or composite sheathing exposed. But I recommend you hire professionals to get the structure up and dried in. There is still plenty for you to do.

Don - unless you can rent standard forms quite cheap, the ICF will give you the best bang for your buck. Find out which ICFs are available to you and see if the distributor will give you some hands on time. If he will and you feel comfortable with and understand the strength/weight of wet concrete, then I would say that is the way to go. Just remember when pouring against an existing structure you need to pour the areas away from the existing first so that they will give resistance to the push effect that the concrete will exert.

I am in southern NB and just had a complete house done with ICF. If you are in the area I can give you the name of the contractor who did the ICF.