Starting prep for 12x20 Amish garage....again.

[Bill Jobe]

Last fall I ordered a 12x20 Amish garage with a garage door on each end just in case I need to get my truck in the back yard. Without those doors I will never be able to get back there.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
I had ordered double 3' doors on each end after first discussing 9x7 garage doors. That info did not make it down to the builders even though I talked directly to the top man. When it was brought to the attention of the sales lady that they used garage doors instead she encouraged me to consider the one built with 2 garage doors since they come pre-insulated and after she spoke with the company they offered to sell it to me with $200 off since it was their mistake. I said OK and put down $2500 to hold it till spring. I ran our of time getting a contracter to prep the area. I decided then I wanted a slab after some discussion here on the Creek. Ran out of warm weather last fall so had no choice.
So, about a week ago I talked to the building inspector to find out what was code for the slab. He told me a minimum of 4" sloping from 2' in down to 12" deep from 1' in from every side.
When I had him on the phone I had forgotten to tell him I had been to the tax accessor's office and waa told they would access it as a shed if when they came to look at it they could clearly see it was a workshop. Normally with a door big enough for a car to drive in they tax it as a garage but said in this case they would make an acception.
So I called the inspector again twice and he has not returned my calls. I need his approval of a less that 12" footer around the edges to get the permit and to get estimates so I can give the city a fairly accurate cost for the permit.
I'm stuck. The building accessor is ignoring my calls and I don't know what to do.
I'm looking for suggestions. Please help me out. I went through so much turmoil last fall trying to get a contractor out here to do the job. One by one they cancelled out on me until finally it was just too late to do anything.
Anyone know the aproximate costhe difference going from a 7" perimeter to a 12" perimeter?
I need all the advice I can get at this time.
Ih, and the Amish builders sold the one built for me even though I had paid half down. Then they tried to get out of the $200 off for installing the wrong doors. That was smoothed over by the sales lady who has buildings at her place of business and sells them for the Amish. Their facility is over 100 miles away and she is local.

What would you do? Go ahead with the 12" footer or continue trying to get a response from the inspector? I think he got fed up with my struggles last year and just wants to be left alone and me go 12" as required for a garage.

Sorry for the ramble. Got a lot of things on my mind distracting my focus from this project. Thanks for reading this even if you have no suggestions.

[Thomas Crawford]

I wouldn't skimp on anything related to the foundation, but where I live there are always issues. I'm doing 24" for 20x28 shop.

[Peter Christensen]

If I understand the difference is about half a cubic foot extra for each perimeter foot of wall. I’ll sit corrected if I’m wrong. That means a little over 1 yard of concrete, call it 2 yards to be safe. How much extra will that set you back? If you stress over little details and it po’s the inspector, you will pay more in reworking other things he’s going to find fault in later in the build.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Peter...do it like the inspector requested and be done with it. In the long-term scheme of things, that little bit of extra concrete and associated cost isn't going to matter much at all. When we were in process of putting on our addition in 2008, the local inspector was a proverbial "equine's posterior" and insisted on a bunch of things that were not required by national code or plain common sense to "beef" certain things up. It wasn't worth getting into a fight with him over it because it would have cost more to delay the project than to just add a little more material hear and there. And the end result was that we probably could park a (full) cement truck on the addition with no ill effects, too. LOL

[Peter Christensen]

It also means you can get going now instead of loosing a few weeks or months getting the okay.

[Bill Dufour]

Why not get a Catholic garage? They will build it the way you want.
Bill D.

[Bill Jobe]

Why not get a Catholic garage? They will build it the way you want.
Bill D.

Stone would be nice....

[Bill Jobe]

I have been working with this inspector since last summer on this thing. I mentioned many times that it was a prebuilt Amish garage built on skids and just placed on top the slab.
Today he came by with 3 diagrams of a proper slab. They were all for building a garage on the spot.
When I called him back about it he said, Oh, then all you need is a 4" slab.
I can kinda understand. He said he know many in this area who are struggling to find contractors. He must be putting in a lot of hours with his own construction business.