Planning Stages: DarkDep's Fish Room II

[beowulf]

For fun here is the fish house http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Tanks/fishouse.htm

[jetstream]

Technically, if your addition is under 80 sq ft. you don't really need a building permit! 

[fishycanuck]

Your wife could buy a new husband 

[hamstercaster]

What are your thoughts on extending the garage back Bruce?  It would be coming back about, say, 10feet or so.  Only about half the width of the garage is attached to the house, the other half sticks out (probably makes no sense to explain).  I'm sure if I got permits and drawings, and offered beer and pizza to some people we could pull it off.  I just don't know what you do for a floor extension (as the area extended over is grass now).  Do you just pour an additional slab?

I would most definitly pour another slab

[babblefish1960]

Your wife could buy a new husband 

I like this one for some reason, I too was wondering just how many dogs you had to agree to in order to even begin thinking about this one out loud.

I really think you should give a certain lady a telephone call whose fish you babysat during her customary romp in the fields of Tuscany. She is living something similar, mind you on a much larger scale, and as we speak, the connections you are concerned about are in the process of creation right now. Go and have a look, a good look, take a look at the plans she has, and look it over carefully as it is all there right now. This process is short lived, so don't delay, or it will be all covered up and you'll miss it. There is much to be learned by simply observing the process on someone else's dime. Besides, I'm sure she could use some good company right about now during the chaos of having her kitchen ripped out again.

What you are talking about doing is not to be handled in a mickey mouse fashion, go and see what the professionals do at a time like this, you may find something you like.

[bitterman]

What are your thoughts on extending the garage back Bruce?  It would be coming back about, say, 10feet or so.  Only about half the width of the garage is attached to the house, the other half sticks out (probably makes no sense to explain).  I'm sure if I got permits and drawings, and offered beer and pizza to some people we could pull it off.  I just don't know what you do for a floor extension (as the area extended over is grass now).  Do you just pour an additional slab?

APW extenting the garage back might be possible, but it depends on how the roof runs. I can remeber what code is, but I like at least a 4/12 pitch for a roof 5/12 is better for keeping the snow load down.

For the floor look into the radiant floor heating. Its very cost effective to run, and not that hard to install. All you do is run a bunch of tubes over stryrafoan insulation and then poor congreet over it. The expensive part is the boiler and valving for control. They are small wall mountable units that are Natural gass and work very effiecently, the main drawback is the cost of the units I'm sure are anythign effiecent and small the price goes up.

Converting your garage into a fish room is not smalle just and I will do what I can to give you a hand, but my wife is quickly bvooking all the weekends up between now and Christmass to hurry up and make you plans LOL.

You woudl definitely need a cement pad, addtionalling it would most likely requit footings etc to support it and match the existing foundation to avoid problems later on. You garage found dation it attached to your house and it has footing witha  block/poured wall the the walls of the garage attach to. Then gravel is filled in and a concreete floor is poored of the tamped crushed stone to giv ethe garage floor. You woudl have to do the same thing for the addition.

For siding or sothing on the outside of the addion will be next to impossible to match so you will have to be carfull what you choose here. 

Your garage will need increased insultation in the walls, roof and floor etc in order to be effiecient enough to heat for the winter.

You will depinately need a Air exchanger system to help keep humidity in check, and to save some $ you can use a 12-15000 BTU window airconditioner and fram the wall to hold it properly. You only want the room at a the same temp as the coolest tank in the room so abotu 76-78 F.

Instead of windows, you can ofter get patio doors much cheaper and they will provid ALOT of natural light into the addition.

Bruce

[BigDaddy]

Well.. as I was saying in chat yesterday... my uncle's woodshop is in his garage.  His side door is fully insulated and sealed, and his garage door is insulated as well.

In the winter, it is still damn nippy in there.  I think a seperated, isolated room is the better bet.

[groan]

the previous owner of my current home hadd a woodshop in this garage. he just had the home heat pumped into the garage. had a vent over the hole so when he wanst using it he could block it.
walls and garage door were insulated.
i use it as a garage now so i had to plug the heat vent but it is doable.

gluk!

(bruce, loved reading your post, especailly "addtionalling", "congreet", "found dation",
and my favorite of all..."Your garage will need increased insultation"
You lazy, no good for nothing garage!, your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberry!

[darkdep]

Oh no, don't you start quoting Python too...

So, I'm getting the impression that even with a well insulated garage door, the garage is still going to leak a lot of air.  So, if this is going to happen it really will need to be an isolated room.  Talked with the wife about pulling the garage back, and I had to pay for this with a main floor laundry room.  Hmm.  This is getting expensive.

I guess I'll need to get ahold of a contractor to come give me some quotes or ideas.  Bruce, maybe when you're here on Monday you can have a look and give me your thoughts as well.

[artw]

Just a warning Chris, Bruce likes to overbuild everything

[darkdep]

So do I, but that's Ok, I'll keep him in check.

It just so happens that I've picked up a second job on the side, so I'm expecting to have some extra cash this summer for this project.  I'm thinking at this point that if I get plans made, I'll probably have to have someone come in to do the slab expansion, but as for the walls I can probably do an "unofficial" OVAS event   "Come help build DarkDep's new fish room!  Get free beer!"

Maybe our OVAS sponsors will donate some prizes to the event!

Ok, I really have lost it.

[hamstercaster]

Oh no, don't you start quoting Python too...

So, I'm getting the impression that even with a well insulated garage door, the garage is still going to leak a lot of air.  So, if this is going to happen it really will need to be an isolated room.  Talked with the wife about pulling the garage back, and I had to pay for this with a main floor laundry room.  Hmm.  This is getting expensive.

I guess I'll need to get ahold of a contractor to come give me some quotes or ideas.  Bruce, maybe when you're here on Monday you can have a look and give me your thoughts as well.

Here's your solution right there!!!  Build her a laundry room on the main floor and take over the laundry room in the basement to expand!!  I'm sure she won't mind you expanding that laundry room a bit so you have more space for your tanks.  I think this may be cheaper than expanding your garage and all the rest of the work that will need to be done in there to make it room for your fishies..

[darkdep]

...That's...not a terrible idea at all!    The plumbing and electrical is already there...I'd just have to move one wall (to make it bigger, of course)...