How to Calculate Garage Costs
A garage adds additional storage space to your home. Building a garage is not as complex as building additional living space in your home, but calculating costs is still a factor. If you underestimate the costs, you may not have enough money to build the garage. If you overestimate, you may think you do not have enough money to build the garage. Accurately determining how much a garage is going to cost you helps you to determine if a new garage is in your future. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Measure the land space you have available for building a garage. Choose the location where you want to build the garage. Use the tape measure to measure the width and length of the space where you want to build the garage. If you are building an attached garage to your home, you may also want to use the ladder to measure the height of the garage.
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Shop for garage plans. Numerous online websites and home improvement stores sell plans for building a garage. Research and find plans that fit your specifications, including the number of cars you want to fit in the garage, the dimensions of the garage, internal specifications like electrical outlets and more. Note the price estimates for at least two to three garage plans so you have a price range.
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Contact a builder. You have two options when building a garage: prefabricated garages or custom-built garages. Some companies sell prefabricated garages that you can install on your own or pay an additional fee to have a professional put the garage together for you. The prefabricated garage kits tend to be standalone garages rather than a garage attached to your home. For custom-built garages, you need to hire a builder, or if you know about construction, you can build the garage on your own. Discuss with the prefabricated garage company or the builder the size and type of garage you are building to find out how much it will cost to construct the garage. Remember that this is just the labor cost for a custom-built garage. For the prefabricated garage, find out the cost for the garage kit and how much the company charges to build it.
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Contact an electrician. Once you have chosen the garage you want to build and have the plans, take the plans to an electrician so you can review the places in the garage that need to be wired for electricity. Have the electrician provide you with an estimate on the materials and labor for electricity.
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Call a concrete company. You also need to have a foundation poured for the floor of the garage. Provide a concrete company with the dimensions of the garage plans. Have it provide you with a written estimate of the concrete material and labor for pouring the garage floor.
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Contact a roofing contractor or company to get an estimate on installing the roof of a garage.
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Add all of the costs for materials and labor together to get a total cost of building a garage.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are able to do any or all of the work yourself, you can exclude the cost for labor. Simply add up the cost of materials.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit red garage door image by green308 from Fotolia.com
