madison069
Well-known member
The Texas Barn, why such a name? Well, it all has to do with me being born and raised in Texas. Everyone in the neighborhood knows I’m from Texas and I talk about Texas all the time. Yet, I have no plans to move back to Texas. So, if I can’t move back to Texas then I’ll bring a little bit of Texas to Pa.
Now I’ve been in Pa for 15 years now and I’m no stranger here on the site. I’ve got another thread where I talk about my current garage which is a 62’x32’ size building. But, I knew deep down I wasn’t going to be staying in this current home.
Instead we decided we needed to move back to the home we previously lived in and go ahead and sell the current home. Only problem is, there’s no garage at the other home. So after planning, talking it out, laying out possible ideas, and talking to our contractor we finally pulled the trigger to start building a 32’x32’ garage with a ceiling height of 12’.
This project actually started back in April 2024. So, until I get caught up to current time, I’ll start telling the journey of building this garage.
In order to start the garage project, I had to get permits to build a garage in my yard. I knew I wouldn’t get any variation due to one of my neighbors. So it was critical to follow the ordinance to a T. So this started the first headache, having to build the garage 40ft back from the curb due to a setback rule. Due to the location, the new garage was going to be built on a hill basically. This will result in the back of the building floor being 5ft above the ground elevation. So, let’s start at the beginning and talk about that part of the journey.
Here is the site of the future garage. It’s hard to tell that there’s such a big elevation change here, but I assure you, there is enough to create an interesting situation.
From the street looking at where the future garage front will be located.
Here is a view from the corner of the property with the house in the background.
After discussing the plans with the contractor, his son arrived to begin the digging of the foundation of the garage. Luckily I took the morning off for the first day of digging. The one neighbor I talk about that would cause me to not get a variance for the setback rule, came out of his house and started exactly what I knew he would do. He began telling me and the contractor I was not allowed to build anything in my front yard and he was going to write and call to the municipality to stop the work. I basically told him to do what he had to do, but I’m following all of the rules of the municipality and so the work will continue.
In the end, I’ve been reassured that the municipality has no issues with me building the garage and I can continue the work. Just ignore the neighbor and stay out of his way.
So, here we are with the trenches dug for the footer.
A kin eye will notice a trench dug in the middle of that square hole. I will get to that trench later. But let’s talk more about the footer.
Some of these trenches were deep, one corner was 4ft deep to meet the depth requirements and some of it was due to the hill in the middle of the garage. But there was an elevation change from the right side to the left side of the garage and so that resulted in the corner closest to the house being 4ft deep.
Here we are with some poured footers in the trench.
You can see where we stepped the footer from the back to the front.
Now it was time to let the footer cure some and give the masonry some time to finish up another job he was on.
Now I’ve been in Pa for 15 years now and I’m no stranger here on the site. I’ve got another thread where I talk about my current garage which is a 62’x32’ size building. But, I knew deep down I wasn’t going to be staying in this current home.
Instead we decided we needed to move back to the home we previously lived in and go ahead and sell the current home. Only problem is, there’s no garage at the other home. So after planning, talking it out, laying out possible ideas, and talking to our contractor we finally pulled the trigger to start building a 32’x32’ garage with a ceiling height of 12’.
This project actually started back in April 2024. So, until I get caught up to current time, I’ll start telling the journey of building this garage.
In order to start the garage project, I had to get permits to build a garage in my yard. I knew I wouldn’t get any variation due to one of my neighbors. So it was critical to follow the ordinance to a T. So this started the first headache, having to build the garage 40ft back from the curb due to a setback rule. Due to the location, the new garage was going to be built on a hill basically. This will result in the back of the building floor being 5ft above the ground elevation. So, let’s start at the beginning and talk about that part of the journey.
Here is the site of the future garage. It’s hard to tell that there’s such a big elevation change here, but I assure you, there is enough to create an interesting situation.
From the street looking at where the future garage front will be located.
Here is a view from the corner of the property with the house in the background.
After discussing the plans with the contractor, his son arrived to begin the digging of the foundation of the garage. Luckily I took the morning off for the first day of digging. The one neighbor I talk about that would cause me to not get a variance for the setback rule, came out of his house and started exactly what I knew he would do. He began telling me and the contractor I was not allowed to build anything in my front yard and he was going to write and call to the municipality to stop the work. I basically told him to do what he had to do, but I’m following all of the rules of the municipality and so the work will continue.
In the end, I’ve been reassured that the municipality has no issues with me building the garage and I can continue the work. Just ignore the neighbor and stay out of his way.
So, here we are with the trenches dug for the footer.
A kin eye will notice a trench dug in the middle of that square hole. I will get to that trench later. But let’s talk more about the footer.
Some of these trenches were deep, one corner was 4ft deep to meet the depth requirements and some of it was due to the hill in the middle of the garage. But there was an elevation change from the right side to the left side of the garage and so that resulted in the corner closest to the house being 4ft deep.
Here we are with some poured footers in the trench.
You can see where we stepped the footer from the back to the front.
Now it was time to let the footer cure some and give the masonry some time to finish up another job he was on.
