Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Oct 20, 2011 4:22 pm Hi, I am planning to build a stand-alone brick double garage at the right boundary of my block. It will be 5.5 wide and 8 meters long. 5.5m is the smallest width by council regulations. I am planning it as a single brick with piers every 1.8m. I can't move it to the left because there is a concrete path there. At the right boundary we have a timber retaining wall which is 0.7m high and 0.5m from the fence. The problem is that the garage does not fit entirely into the space at the top right corner. What are my options here ? I was thinking to remove 4 meters of the timber wall at the right top and some soil behind. Then build the brick wall which would replace the missing part of the retaining wall. Would it be good enough ? Our neighbor has the garage just right at the other side of the fence ( 0.15m between his brick wall and the fence ). Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Garage slab advice 2Oct 20, 2011 4:50 pm There are problems due to: Damp coming through the wall Loads on the wall -you will need a properly engineered wall the single skin with brick piers won't be enough. I think unless you want to change the garage you need to talk with an engineer. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Garage slab advice 3Oct 20, 2011 7:26 pm Thanks, I see your point. I was thinking about double bricks there, but I guess it's not good. I agree damp will be a problem. How about relocating the retaining wall closer to the fence as shown below ? It's doable in principle. Do I need a gap between the garage and the retaining wall ? I'll definitely talk with an engineer but just wanted to get someone's opinion here. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Garage slab advice 4Oct 20, 2011 9:01 pm Like to say there is an easy answer but it hard to come up with a good option. For instance with the garage being so close to the retainng wall there is a chance the wall may start to move when you dig the foundations for the slab as it will reduce the support on the sleeper wall posts. It strike sme you may be better off digging up the path and moving the garage and replacing the path on the right side of the garage. or Building a long 3m wide garage, not as convenient, but most people only put one car in the garage and use the remaining area for storage. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Garage slab advice 5Oct 20, 2011 9:01 pm Like to say there is an easy answer but it hard to come up with a good option. For instance with the garage being so close to the retainng wall there is a chance the wall may start to move when you dig the foundations for the slab as it will reduce the support on the sleeper wall posts. It strike sme you may be better off digging up the path and moving the garage and replacing the path on the right side of the garage. or Building a long 3m wide garage, not as convenient, but most people only put one car in the garage and use the remaining area for storage. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Garage slab advice 6Oct 20, 2011 10:54 pm Thanks, I can't lift up the path because it leads to the main entry which is located at the right side of the house next to the red brick wall. Actually the retaining wall at the right corner is only 30cm high (there is a front-to-back slope), not much load on it. A possible option could be to dig up and concrete the footings for the side walls first according to engineering specifications. Then do the walls and lay the slab down at the final stage. I really want a double garage there and missing some 20cm at the back line. From the street it all looks good since the block is getting wider towards the street and the garage front is 12m from the road. I can't move it forward because it must be lined up with the house front. Ideally I could try to negotiate down the width of the garage, say 5.2m instead of 5.5m, but not sure if that's possible. A development code for our suburb says that 5.5m is the minimum. Re: Garage slab advice 8Jan 21, 2012 1:11 am I think you should take your sketch to your Council and see what they require, and I bet they wont let you do a lot of what you are describing here. Arfur Re: Garage slab advice 9Jan 23, 2012 10:26 am Thanks for replies, I've taken the sketch to the council and they said that I need to submit plans and then they consider and decide if it is ok, it can be. The double garage must be 5.5m internally. I can put an oversized single garage but it will reduce its value with the same cost to build it. We have many houses in the suburb with two double garages at the both sides of the boundary. I looked at the development code for our suburb and it says that a permanent structure should be either less than 0.15m or more than 0.9m from the boundary. So it maybe ok if the council allows to build at the right boundary. I have another two questions: 1. I am going to see soon a structural engineer about this. My understanding is that it is better to replace a treated pine retaining wall with concrete sleepers and steel posts. More reliable in a long term and I can save some space, my current retaining wall is 17cm wide (10cm posts + 7.5 cm sleepers) and concrete would be just 7 cm sleepers+1cm steel posts. How close can I move it to the fence ? There is a garage on the other side 0.15cm from the boundary. 2. The concrete path on the left side has a slight slope to the right, so rain water can run away from the house. If I put the wall next to the path, it will create some problem with damp for a planned garage wall. Should I leave a small gap and put some drainage pipe there ? Hi, Apologies - I know there is plenty out there on this but struggling to put together the puzzle. We're planning our garage/external laundry to master bedroom and… 0 11096 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. 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