In reply to ProDarwin:
Two car with a 16' wide door, which is standard for a residential 2 car garage. I want a shop more than a garage, so an offset 8' wide door would be fine. Personally, I'll likely forgo an OH garage door and go with two 4' swing doors. They should seal better for heat/AC retention and would not eat into ceiling space. For a shop, I don't see opening the doors very often. I want bigger, but don't have the land.
Datsun1500 wrote: A buddy here in Baltimore just got an estimate on a 20x20 garage. I asked him to send it to me to post here. Construct a new 20' x20' attached garage: Included are frost footers, concrete wall block to 8" min. above grade with 4" slab for floor, 2x4 framed walls 9' high, 5/12 pitch truss roof shingled to match existing house, exterior siding to match existing house, 2 standard windows, 1 3'0" 6'8" 9 light man door, 1 16'x 8' insulated roll up garage door with opener, Interior electrical to code, insulated with finished drywall, trim, and paint. Price includes all materials, equipment, labor, permits, & inspections to complete the project. $28,800
Thanks! Would your buddy mind sharing the name + phone # of his contractor? Baltimore about a 50 min ride from me, but maybe we can work something out
Watching this too. Buying in the Balt. area and considering building a garage (but the easy button is to buy with).
Terrific! Will follow up. Thanks.
fifty wrote: Anyhoo, I've sent an email to an Amish contruction crew in PA. I'll give them a call if I don't hear back in 24 hours.
Just me maybe but I think it's funny as hell that you sent am email to Amish.
Stampie
Stampie wrote:fifty wrote: Anyhoo, I've sent an email to an Amish contruction crew in PA. I'll give them a call if I don't hear back in 24 hours.Just me maybe but I think it's funny as hell that you sent am email to Amish. Stampie
I like to imagine that some "english" prints out each email and snail-mails it to the intended recipient, delivered on horseback 
I live in the DistMarVa area too.
Home improvement prices here are a function of what you can hire a contractor to build it for, plain and simple. If you want a lower price, you have to keep bidding the job until you get a lower bid.
There's no such thing as a NoVa real estate market or a MoCo real estate market or a DC real estate market. Price levels and volatility vary wildly by neighborhood. In 2008, the Manassas area was the foreclosure capital of the country, while prices in my neighborhood only dropped a few percentage points and houses kept selling the weekend they were listed.
Worse, the same contractor will bid higher prices for work in higher priced neighborhoods than lower-priced neighborhoods. It's called the McLean Tax/Chevy Chase Tax etc.
Doesn't have much to do with the intrinsic value of the improvement, it's just contractor supply and demand.
Update: So the Amish fired up their mule powered typewriter and I've received their estimate : $26,500 to lock up stage (no electricity, insulation or sheetrcok if I am reading this correctly) for an attached 20 x 24 garage, 26 x 26 foot free standing is about $2k more.
Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.
Your carport is attached, right? That quote from the contractor probably was a finished job, which included electric, etc.
You have to have a fire separation from the main house, so no drywall is not acceptable.
My inlaws live in that area and my wife grew up there. With a few houses in North and South Arlington and DC. All seem like crazy money compared to how much house you get.
I'm in Richmond. I just paid a contractor $36k to build a 24x36 finished to "lock-up stage" as you described it. That's stick built, concrete slab, vinyl siding, dimensional shingles, and 1 16' door + 1 8' door.
Jamey_from_Legal wrote: Worse, the same contractor will bid higher prices for work in higher priced neighborhoods than lower-priced neighborhoods. It's called the McLean Tax/Chevy Chase Tax etc.
My ex- got similar bids for her addition project. Others joked it was the "Princeton Tax". It wasn't until she got a contractor from a more blue-collar area that she finally got a quote that didn't make her depressed.
In reply to fifty:
I live up in pa. Across the pa line chester county area. Had a 24x32 3dr pole barn built for 14k, no inside finish except concrete floor. No upgrades ( they add up quickly) done In 3 days. 2 yrs ago in dead of winter. also had a flat spot for the build all this helps the price. I was only about 10 miles from bldr so I'm sure that helped price wise. Look them up extreme pole Barns of Morgantown pa area. No complaints at all. When they did mine they mentioned they just finished a job in ny, so they will probably travel to dc area.
Ps I used in dc area in early 90's, yes it is expensive...... Take a look out in Annapolis area, I have a friend living pretty nice out there for a decent price. Good luck.
In reply to mbmsg: not Morgantown, they are actually in elverson, pa
fifty wrote:Flight Service wrote: Everything points to this being another bubble. I predict the day after the elections when people know they are fired.I don't think so. What's keeping prices so high? Household income is among the highest in the country, and military housing stipends (a big source of rental revenue) are also among the highest. As long as employment in the military and Federal government remains stable, the prices aren't going to change.
A wise quote from someone (not me) regarding how to know if it's a housing bubble: When people say "But this time, it's different" - then you know it's a housing price bubble.
Always build the biggest you can. An extra 2 feet may not sound like much, but it makes a big difference. Extra height too. An extra row or two of block on the slab adds 2 feet for height without having to handle 10' walls. If you can do it, build one bay with scissor trusses for maximum ceiling height and the other with attic trusses for storage room.
Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to edwardh80: But it's not different. The DC area has always been expensive, and always will be. There are plenty of government related jobs to keep people in the area, at good wages.
Actually, no. the cost of housing is outstripping even the government wages. Huge discussion about that earlier this year.
Bubble.
You'll need to log in to post.
