Anyone ever add a Master Suite over garage or similar?

[Lincoln Myers]

It has always been our dream to add a master suite (bedroom/bath) over our garage. Wondering if anyone here has had experience with this. Either having it done for you or you actually doing the work. LOTS of questions to be answered of course, but thought I'd throw this out to start.

We have a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath house with an attic over the garage and family room. Essentially, we want to create livable space over the garage and family room. In this space will be a bedroom and bath. We will need to raise the roof up to be even with the existing upstairs that currently holds the 3 bedrooms and full bath.

Thanks for any thoughts and information.

I could do a lot of the interior work (drywall, basic electrical, finish plumbing and trim). Would need architects/builders to do structural/roofing/siding and major HVAC, plumbing and electrical.

-Linc

[Matthew Voss]

I'm doing this right now. Actually, I'm adding the garage and the 2nd story addition over it. I'm sub-ing out the concrete/foundation work, framing, and electric and I'm doing the rest.

Did you have specific questions?

[Brian Effinger]

I'm an architect and have designed several of these. From your description, I can almost picture the house's layout in my mind. I would strongly suggest that you have an architect or engineer draw some plans up for you, even if you don't need stamped plans for your local building department. You will be adding a significant amount of weight above an existing structure, and this needs to be designed. If you have never tackled a project of this size, I would also recommend getting a good contractor to run things and get some of the subcontractors (like HVAC & plumbing) lined up.
If you have any more specific questions, I would be more than happy to help. Also, if you do have questions, it would benefit me or anyone else looking at the problem to see some pictures of the house, and/or sketches of the layout.

Brian

[Loren Hedahl]

My wife and I did this on our first house, back in the early 70's.

Actually what happened was after a storm came through and dropped a large fir tree on the bedroom the previous owner quickly moved out to a recreational/retirement home in another locality since he had just retired.

In planning to ready the house for sale he had already bought material to re-build an old detached garage that was in very sad shape. We were college students and made him an offer on the salvage of the house, which was accepted.

Instead of rebuilding the detached garage, I built a double garage where the original crunched down bedroom was with a large master bedroom and bath above. This worked quite well because the original house was on pier blocks which made the slab floor for the garage several steps lower. This allowed the roof line of bedroom to not tower extensively over the rest of the house. Also the kitchen and original bath was on the wall adjacent to the new garage/master bedroom. This made it possible to tie in to the original plumbing.

Overall the remodel came out quite well. The biggest problem was getting the original structure level and square after many years of settling with a foundation that was below standard of any type.

[Ed Bamba]

I've haven't done one and probably never will. But, our house is built with our master suite over the garage. The entire master bath is above the garage. The bathroom floor is ceramic tiled. Make absolutely sure that you insulate the garage celing. It doesn't get near as cold here Vegas as it does in your area. Our floor gets damn cold during winter and the bedroom is alot cooler than the hallway (where the t-stat is) because of it. If our local building code doesn't require insulation between the garage and the living space above, it definetly should.

Just thought I'd pass that along just in case your building code doesn't require it either.


Ed

[Lincoln Myers]

I'm doing this right now. Actually, I'm adding the garage and the 2nd story addition over it. I'm sub-ing out the concrete/foundation work, framing, and electric and I'm doing the rest.

Did you have specific questions?

Thanks so much for all the replies.

Matthew, if you have any suggestions on contractor selection, cost savings etc. I'd be glad to hear them. I'm thinking that some builders may not want the job if it's just to be a shell and I'll do the rest, not sure though. Got any pictures of your progress?

Brian,
I certainly will get up some picutres and will be working on the drawings soon. Your experience in designing these from an architectural and structural standpoint will be helpful if I may tap these with some questions in the future.

Ed,
Thanks for the tip, we wouldn't want cold feet for the Mrs. that's for sure.

-Linc

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

I had a master bedroom suite added over my garage and work shop on a house in ND years ago. I kept the workshop heated, but not the garage and could tell the differance as I walked around the bedroom. I know the new insulations are a lot better today, or I think they are, so that should not be a big deal anymore as long as you know about it.
One thing I really liked is I had a private stairway to the workshop so I could sneak down there anytime I wanted to. This was really nice and I miss that on every house I have had after that one.
As to the construction, I hired it out at that time, did not know any better. I learned and later bought fix-me-uppers to do and even finished one house myself.
If I could do over, I would get it inclosed and take over from there.

[Joe Pelonio]

My shop is over the garage, in what is a "bonus room." As Ed suggested, insulate. Mine is not too bad with drywall on the garage ceiling. Consider also the garage doors opening. One day you may have a teenager that borrows the car and comes home at 2am and it will definitely wake you up. Hmm, maybe that's an advantage? :D

Contractors may be slow these days and happy to work with you on a job where you do some of the work so this could be a good time to get started.
In the past what you said was true, I know people that couldn't find anyone to do small remodels because they were all doing bigger jobs at new developments and remodeling mansions. Not any more. I have some contractor customers that have no work into the next few months.

[Brian Effinger]

Thanks so much for all the replies.

Brian,
I certainly will get up some picutres and will be working on the drawings soon. Your experience in designing these from an architectural and structural standpoint will be helpful if I may tap these with some questions in the future.

Not a problem. Just let me know and I'll help as much as I can.


Matthew, if you have any suggestions on contractor selection, cost savings etc. I'd be glad to hear them. I'm thinking that some builders may not want the job if it's just to be a shell and I'll do the rest, not sure though. Got any pictures of your progress?

You'd be supprised what a contractor is willing to do with the economy the way it is. One of my good contractor friends (actually two of them) will do as much or as little as a customer wants. Just ask them. And you'll probably want to start looking for contractors & architects soon. The good weather is coming (hopefully soon) and if you want to get this started right away, it's best to look now.

[dennis thompson]

I have my office over my unheated garage & the office is always colder than the rest of the house. The office floor is always very cold. I had a heating guy make the office its own zone & it made very little difference. (well that's not quite true, it did reduce my bank account by about $2,000) I'd suggest you put some kind of radiant heating in the floor of the room over the garage.
Dennis

[Larry Conely]

I did not do the work, but one of our former houses had the master suite over the garage. We live in Michigan. The garage was unheated and I think uninsulated. Twice in 11 years, the water supply to the bathroom froze. When the temperature dropped below 0º, we would open the faucets to a slow drip to prevent freezing.

Larry

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

this is a thread that I'll definitely be keeping an eye on......we have a basic colonial with attached 2 car garage, and we've toyed with the idea of putting a master suite above the garage.....

[Alex Sebright]

I did not do the work, but one of our former houses had the master suite over the garage. We live in Michigan. The garage was unheated and I think uninsulated. Twice in 11 years, the water supply to the bathroom froze. When the temperature dropped below 0º, we would open the faucets to a slow drip to prevent freezing.

Larry

Hey Larry are you willing to share some photos of how you did yours. Or how yours looks? We are in Michigan as well and are adding a 2nd story when we build our garage. It will be connected with existing house.

[Jim Becker]

I have not personally done this, but my general contractor friend (who did our addition at the old property) has done this many, many times. It's a very popular upgrade in many areas, especially where the original homes were more modest and with changing demographics came a demand for more living space including features like "master suites".

Plumbing is generally the most challenging part of putting the en-suite above the garage, but designs that have the bath facilities closer to the original house can make that a little easier. Engineering wise, the contractor and designer need to insure that the structure can actually support a second floor. That's less of a challenge with more modern structures, but can be a real issue for something older. Mitigation could be as simple as adding more support within the existing walls as long as the foundation is appropriate for the load. But if the foundation is inadequate...a whole lot more work is involved.

[Bill Dufour]

Make sure the design reinforces the garage door opening for sesimic /huricane. A garage is a soft story and a good design will have over $1,500 of "unneeded" shear wall/strong wall hardware and tie downs within two feet of the opening. Look into a retrofit portal of welded steel.
Look at the header beam above the main door. is it more then 6 inches longer at each end then the opening? Is it tied down with steel? If not you will have to spend some money there.
Bill D

[Roger Feeley]

I opened up about 300 sq feet over garage by putting a door in the back of a closet. What I found were 6” joists that held up the garage ceiling. I could walk on them but I wouldn't have used the space for living. I beefed up the insulation, laid flooring and covered the rafters with osb to protect my head from the roofing nails. I ran a couple of lights and it was a dandy storage area. I was very careful not to put anything heavy in there.

when we sold the house, I had that space excluded from the inspection. I’m sure it wasn’t up to code. I put a note in the disclosures that the area wasn’t suitable for living and to only store light things in there.

[Rick Potter]

I don't know what the building codes are in your area, but where I live, I suspect the building department would tell me the garage footings were not designed for two story structures, and they need to be reinforced.

My first step would be to ask the local Building Department for their requirements.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I opened up about 300 sq feet over garage by putting a door in the back of a closet. What I found were 6” joists that held up the garage ceiling. I could walk on them but I wouldn't have used the space for living. I beefed up the insulation, laid flooring and covered the rafters with osb to protect my head from the roofing nails. I ran a couple of lights and it was a dandy storage area. I was very careful not to put anything heavy in there.
We have a bazillion Cape Cod style houses around us. They went up like weeds in the post WWII building boom.
They were originally two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and an unfinished attic upstairs.
The joists on the 2nd floor are also 2X6.
About 7/8ths of them have had the attic finished off. Plywood over the joists & carpet on top - drywall right over the wall studs & on the ceiling - with little to no insulation - heating was cheap in the 40s/50s and 60s.

You bounce as you walk in the upstairs....

[Roger Feeley]

We have a bazillion Cape Cod style houses around us. They went up like weeds in the post WWII building boom.
They were originally two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and an unfinished attic upstairs.
The joists on the 2nd floor are also 2X6.
About 7/8ths of them have had the attic finished off. Plywood over the joists & carpet on top - drywall right over the wall studs & on the ceiling - with little to no insulation - heating was cheap in the 40s/50s and 60s.

You bounce as you walk in the upstairs....

well, I’ll be,
Rich, you may have hit on why my great uncles bedroom upstairs in his house bounced like a trampoline. He did all sorts of things that weren’t to code. Even after they installed indoor plumbing, he wouldn’t give up his outhouse. I don’t know exactly when but he moved the outhouse to sit over a rain sewer manhole. The electrical looked like that scene from A Christmas Story.

He had this old refrigerator that predated frost free. To defrost it, he would empty it and put an old space heater in there. I can still hear the water sizzling on the exposed nichrome wire. My mom nagged him for years to get rid of that thing. One day he called her and said he’d called the furniture store and told them to bring out their best new fridge. My mom asked him why and he replied, “Light went out.”