Carport/boat shed

[hikingchrs]

I would like to build a carport onto the side of my detached garage... I belive that I need to have it designed in order to obtain a permit.(probable is for the best anyway don't want this thing falling on my head). Who do you think does this kind of work an engineer, or some sort of architech(sp?)
Thanks
Chris

[FG]

Go to the lumberyard and check with the desk for a package that includes trusses and supports. They design 60X80 pole barns and garages. I bet they can do this too. They should also be able to tell you about permitting requirements. Engineer/architect generally work on anything this small.

[essaunders]

Take a quick visit to the community development office (at least that's what they call it here in merrimack) and ask. They should be able to at least tell you where to start looking. They probably can't point you at any specific engineer or firm, but they'll be able to tell you the requirements for any addition.

[pipefitter]

That's a simple structure. Most of the times you can contact an engineer at your city hall.Alot of the times they will even draw you a rough draft to show you what it needs to be built like.Then you can get the permit while you are there. Call down there and find out.

[hikingchrs]

Thanks. I guess my real concern is the garage itself it seems to me there should should be more than 1 rafter besides the ones at front and the back the garage was built directly on the ground... of course there was a termite problem I removed the rotten footer poured concrete and replaced the footer and sistered all of the 2x4 studs. I would take some pictures but I have it packed with my bus and 4 boats in this one car garage.
thank you all
Chris

[essaunders]

Four boats?!! Sounds like you don't need a shed... you need to replace this garage with a proper (larger) boat barn!!!

[hikingchrs]

Three Kayaks and a CLC Skerry smile.gif

[ssor]

Here in Maryland "temporary" buildings may be placed without a building permit. One of the local hardware, lumber, heavy equipment suppliers needed an additional storage building but couldn't get appproval for new construction. So they prepared a level area about forty by forty feet and placed two forty foot shipping containers twenty feet apart on the pad and erected a truss built roof over the whole giving them two 8x8x40 ft. lockable storage boxes and a twenty ft. wide by fourteen ft.high by forty ft. long bay in between. All perfectly acceptable to the building inspectors and temporary buildings are not taxed here.

[ 03-25-2005, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: ssor ]

[Bruce Hooke]

A competant remodeling contractor should be able to figure out the structural details. When I was working for a remodeling company we routinely drew up stuff like this ourselves. Of course a contractor will likely also want to do the construction work so it may take some looking to find one who will just draw it up for you. So, some of the other solutions people have suggested may make sense as the first route.

A call to city hall should clarify what you need in the way of a permit.

[hikingchrs]

I have called the town hall they told me to draw up a site plan... I then have to get a variance because I don't have the min. clearance from the neibours and from the road and I am too close to a brook. I belive that it must meet BOCA codes also. I have contacted a couple of people to come over and give me an estimate to do the whole job
and they said they would come by but did not... It seems no one wants to do a small job all too busy with bigger jobs. :(
Chris

[Steve Miller]

Call your local Home Builders Association. They will likely have a remodelers group who will be a good bunch of small contractors. I belonged to both groups here in Portland for a number of years.

Also ask at the biggest lumber yard that specializes in contractors not homeowners. They will have a list of good small contractors.

[paladin]

another item...if it doesn't have central heat or air in md then it's an outbuilding and not subject to taxes...

[Ed Harrow]

If NOT connected to your garage (assuming the garage is attached to the house) you MIGHT be able to build much closer to the lot line. That's the skinny here in Mass, where all buildings are taxed, just like in NH, except, of course, for temporary structures, but I don't know about their tax situation in NH.

In Mass getting a variance is not, at least in our town, a walk in the park. Amongst other considerations, one must get a proper survey of the property bounds, and that ain't small change.

[Ron Williamson]

Is BOCA a conservation authority,as in watershed protection?I think they are the ones that will have concerns,especially for a 'carport'.
Bad runoff like oil,soap and anti-freeze causes them anxiety.
'Small boat storage' may be an easier sell.
R

[ssor]

BOCA is a basic building code association.

[PaulC]

Have you seen these:
http://www.cerc.colostate.edu/Blueprints/Farm/6345.pdf

just to give you an idea of whats around. You might want to poke around their web site, they have lots of other "out building" and pole barn type plans.

[Andreas Jordahl Rhude]

First off, check with your local zoning and planning folks. Codes vary from location to location. In the city of Minneapolis you don't need much of a plan to get approvals/permits. The building inspection division is very helpful. When I brought in plans for my workshop/garage/boathouse additon, the guy almost fell off his chair. He said it was the best plan he had ever seen by a home owner (other than those submitted by architects/engineers). I really took him for a loop with the glued laminated timber beam I was using in the roof framing. He just couldn't grasp the idea! He said most homeowners come in my a sketch drawn on a napkin or similar!