MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: How to build a garage, a picture book...

A few more key rules...

1. When planning for your footings/foundation, immediatly smack anyone uttering the words "monolithic", "single pour", or "all at once". Anone passing out advice with a beer in hand, no matter how professional, should not be listened to and possibly smacked as well.

2. If a frost wall is called for, do it traditionally. Dig a wide ditch, pour a footing, form the stem wall, pour again. Trust me, you won't save any money doing it ANY other way. Anyone uttering the words "Tapered footing" should also be smacked.

3. Concrete trucks are heavy, metal, and big. They generally don't play well with asphalt driveways, soft ground, and/or power lines. You may ask, "Just how heavy/big are they?". The answer, no matter your situation, is "way to heavy/big for whatever you are thinking of doing". Plan accordingly.

4. Clay is also heavy. It's so heavy in fact that you shouldn't ever_ever_ever think about touching it with anything that lacks hydraulics. And no matter how much beer they've had recently, your buddies are NOT to be considered hydraulic.

5. Last, but most importantly not least, pay someone to do the excavating and foundation work. I failed to heed this advice even though it was shouted through a bullhorn aimed directly at my face. I now aim the bullhorn at you, hoping that you will pay more attention than I did. It's worth every penny. It's worth sparing every muscle in your back weeks of agonizing strain. It's worth not having a metric assload of dirt to deal with post-excavation. It's worth not falling 2 weeks behind schedule on your pour when your slave labor revolts, and no amount of pizza and beer gets them back. It's worth not having to do lots of math, more math that you'd expect for dumping concrete into dirt.

(6. If you didn't heed the warning above, there is ~one~ bonus. You can re-use the form boards you had to build and make a real nice ice rink for the winter months. You are going to be in too much pain to skate yourself, but your family will enjoy it....)