8 Steps To Build Footers and Concrete Pad

Do you need an extra building on your land? Are you thinking about building a garage, shop, or rental property? Don’t want to spend A Lot of Money? The best way to build a detached garage and shop is to hire a garage company that builds metal garages and shops.  Here are the 8 Steps to Build Footers and Concrete Pad for a Garage, Shop, or Rental Property.

8 Steps To Build Footers and Concrete Pad

1. Talk to your local city ordinance, to find out if you are allowed to build on your land.
a. Make sure they check for cables, wires, poles, etc, before you start Digging.
b. Also, we had to have our local electric company move the cables from the left side of our home to the right side of the home because, the roof of our garage would get in the way from the utility cables that hung from our home’s roof, to the utility pole that was located in our backyard.
c. Your city will tell you how far from your fence you can build from.  Ours city told us 10ft. from our fence.
2. Then you need a Permit, if you are doing any part of it yourself.  Since, we did the trenches, footers, and concrete ourselves, we had to get a permit, it cost about $20.  They make sure the concrete footers are poured to the correct width and depth.
3. Measure and mark 4 corner posts.  Make sure they are equal to each side, and the correct distance in between.  You will need a measuring tape, 4 wood or metal stakes, and a thin piece of rope, to tie to each stake for making sure it’s level.  Make sure your concrete pad is the correct width, or else the garage company will have to wait another day until you extend the concrete.  Ask me how I know.
4. Manually dig or rent a trencher from Sunbelt. My husband, did 1/3 of it manually, then stopped because his back was killing him.  We hired a trencher from Sunbelt, for about $170 for a day.
5. Build wood perimeters to make concrete molds for the footers. We bought plywood and made ours 16″ high.  The city required 12″ for concrete footer depth, plus we wanted an additional 4″ for the concrete pad on top.
6. Hire concrete truck company to pour your concrete footers.  You can choose the strength of concrete that you want.
7. A few days later after the footers dry, prep for the concrete pad.  Get chicken wire and spacers.
8. Hire concrete truck company to pour the concrete pad. Make sure it doesn’t rain, when they pour it, or else, your pad will not be smooth.  Ask me how I know.  Then you will have to rent a concrete grinder to make it smooth, which is more money ($500).

Call the garage company and have them start building.

We called about 5 companies and got quotes between $8k (without digging trenches and no concrete pad)-$15k (with digging trenches and pour concrete pad), for a two garage plus a shop.  Each company offered the Same product, but some offered, to dig the trenches for the footers, and pour the concrete pad.  My husband decided that he wanted to save $7k, and dig the trenches and pour the concrete pad himself.  It cost us under $2k. Then, we hired the $8k company to build our metal frame.  It took 4 workers 2 days (15 hours) to complete our 2 car garage plus shop.  Our shop does not have a garage door, but it has a separate wall and door from the 2 car garage.  Total Cost $10k, so we saved $5k, by doing half the work.

Mark 4 Corners and Start Digging

Have Your 2 year old help dig the trenches, if you get tired. 🙂

Tired of Digging? Rent a Trencher

Build Concrete Frames for Footers

Concrete Frames need to meet at each Corner Post

Build Concrete Frames All Around Perimeter

Hire Concrete Truck to Pour Concrete for Footers

1st Pour: Hire Some Neighbors to Spread and Level Concrete

2nd Pour: Because we didn’t calculate enough.

Make sure you calculate the right amount, or else the concrete truck has to come back a second day and you don’t want your first set of concrete to dry. Ask me how I know.  We had to board up the wet concrete, and then when the 2nd pour of concrete came, we had to add rhebar to hold the dry and wet concrete together.

Prep for Concrete Pad. Add chicken wire and lawn spacers. We got ours from Rural King.

 

Pour Concrete Pad. After Pad has Dried, Remove all the Wood Frames.

Hire Garage Company to Build Metal 2 Car Garage Plus Shop

Left Side is Our Shop, and Right Side is 2 Car Garage

Finished Product!  We added a door to the left side of the shop, for easy access from our home.

If you are looking to a build a garage, shop, or rental property,  look into a metal garage company.  They are good quality construction, won’t catch on fire, and you will pay a quarter of the price compared to the wood custom one.  Also, you get to pick your door, trim, and exterior color. And they Build it FAST, ours only took 2 days.  You don’t need to hire an expensive contractor or builder, who will take weeks or months.