Help - Garage Floor/room Addition

drbrsjr

I am converting a 22x25 garage into a family room that I have to raise the floor about 20 inches in order to match the height of the existing interior floor. After I break up the garage floor and dig down to get the 36" depth requirement by code, what system would you recommend for the floor joists? Should I just dig holes and build it like a big deck with 4x4's supporting 10" beams and 8" floor joists. Any ledger boards would be attached to the garage wall studs. Would that be strong enough if I had a center carrier beam in the middle of the garage? Or, should I build a wall inside the garage wall on each side and one in the middle and set the 8" PT boards on the concrete walls? Any help would be appreciated.

mickeyco

Why would you break up the garage floor, if it's an attached garage chances are it already has footings all around it.


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woodchuck2

X2, Seems like a waste to hammer out the floor. The concrete will one hell of a base to start off of.

kip

it may be easier to remove the rest of your floor off and pour a slab to the height of the garage, then you would have ceilings that are 20" higher and wouldn't have to mess with all that digging and carrier beams and such

C.C.R.

Are you doing anything besides raising the floor? IE; raising the roof/ceiling? If not, I can't see the need for ripping out the existing floor(code might be differant in your state.) Are you refering to some kind of code for a crawl space? I think you should just be able to put a ledger on the walls (at the bottom of your proposed joists so they can sit on it) and then, if needed run a center beam on columns with cylindrical footings. Of course, there's one sure way to find out the only correct answer - call your local inspecter.

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drbrsjr

Thank you for the advice. I was going to hammer out the garage floor in order to have acess to all of the mechanicals. My plan for the new room is a kitchen. So I will have plumming and heat runs into the new room. So I will need a crawl space. Will the ledger be strong enough being attached to the walls? The walls are only 2x4's and I would question the strength of them. Will 3.5'' deck screws be long enough to secure it properly or is there a better way to attach it? Thanks again for the help.

neolitic

You are gonna spend a lot of $'s
inside that kitchen.
You should hire someone who
knows what they're doing to design
your floor system at the least.
If you start out wrong from there,
it ain't gonna get better down the road.

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genecarp

drb, you are asking some pretty basic questions, if your knowledge of building is this limited, you may want to hire someone to help, maybe a friend who is a carpenter.

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genecarp

neo and i are miles apart, thinking the same thing!!!

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neolitic

They say great minds think alike.








Guess it goes for the ones like ours too.

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rbsremodeling

DRB just by some 2x20's and lay them on the concrete floor. Home depot sells them, they are usually in lumber aisle on the second shelf

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