Can You Build A Garage On A Concrete Slab

The process involves building a form to hold the concrete in place installing reinforcing rods and then pouring the concrete.

Can you build a garage on a concrete slab.

Prepare a level concrete slab at least 4 thick and to the exact outside dimensions of your garage. You may want to consider a 6 thick slab for larger vehicles such as trucks or rvs. Building the concrete slab building a detached garage usually doesn t require deep footings as in the case of attached constructions. In addition you need to tie the slab to the footings with wire mesh.

Depending on the region and the garage plans this slab can be poured on a. Just scrape off the sod and topsoil and add gravel fill if needed. You can build up the low side or dig the high side into the slope and add a low retaining wall to hold back the soil. Your concrete slab will last longer with less cracking and movement if it s built on solid well drained soil.

For example in atlanta for example the labor cost for the installation of a 400 square foot slab ranges from 1 57 to 1 64 per square foot. Once cured the concrete provides a secure and stable foundation for the home that will be built above. For a garage without a floor built on site. Therefore you need to use shallow footings that have 1 2 rebars at the edges.

Once the footings and foundation walls are in place a concrete slab is poured and formed inside the foundation frame. For a 400 square foot slab the man hours required to finish a two car concrete garage slab is about 13 hours. While no snow may fall where your building will be located one must still consider provisions for code minimum loadings on the roof and the members below which carry them including the concrete slab. Poured concrete foundations are an alternative to block or treated wood foundations.

Assuming a fairly standard roof overhang of say a foot this leaves the perimeter of the slab being required to carry a load of over 13 tons. Today s residential building code does not include this requirement presumably cars are less likely to leak these days which means that an entire house garage included can be set on a concrete slab poured at one height.