Do I want to build a garage right now?

I have been slowly working on figuring out building my garage. I am fairly confident that I can get the tear down of the old garage, earthworks shell, electrical, insulation done with money I have saved plus money out from refinance. If everything actual stays on budget, maybe the drywall too. If not I'd probably do some small loan to cover drywall. Then finish off the rest as I can afford to and do a lot of the finishing labor myself. However I am bit hesitant as I am not totally confident in where the economy is going right now. I have no debt other then the house and we have a basically guaranteed income in the house (my wife is a tenured teacher) plus an engineering salary. I will be still have a fairly healthy emergency fund. Am I over thinking this and just do it?

In reply to 93EXCivic :

A famous quote; "We have nothing to fear but fear itself". 
Price out the materials. You can do that by going to your big box store tell them the size and any special features.  Menards is very good about that. 
A garage is something you should be able to erect easily yourself. Much Easier with a helper, but easily in the DIY range. Get a contractor to pour the floor because working with that much concrete is pretty tough work. 
Then you have all the costs involved listed. If you have to hold off on something once the building is up like wiring and heat/AC they can easily be added as you go. 

frenchyd said:

In reply to 93EXCivic :

A famous quote; "We have nothing to fear but fear itself". 
Price out the materials. You can do that by going to your big box store tell them the size and any special features.  Menards is very good about that. 
A garage is something you should be able to erect easily yourself. Much Easier with a helper, but easily in the DIY range. Get a contractor to pour the floor because working with that much concrete is pretty tough work. 
Then you have all the costs involved listed. If you have to hold off on something once the building is up like wiring and heat/AC they can easily be added as you go. 

That is assuming I have the time to build it myself. If I have to do it myself it is never getting done. Having done a major redo on an 8x10 room that probably took me 2.5 months and that was before I had a kid.

There's a shortage on lumber in my area, pressure treated being the worst. Prices are going up daily - and some days it's just not available. 
Around here I'd be tempted to wait a year to see if costs come down. 

Seriously what's up with the lumber shortage in 2020?  I tore down a rotten storage shed and now I'm stuck with half the building supplies for a new one but can't obtain the rest.  Big box stores were out of most of the treated lumber.  I thought I found a loophole: the Lowe's website let me order it for an $80 delivery fee.  A day later my order was cancelled without explanation and the money refunded.

If you have cash and a budget and some over budget cash I would do it.  I wouldn't borrow any money.  
 

Time? I built a garage at my first house and I started in August, 1987 and finished the first weekend into December.   This was a project I worked on most every weekend I could.  It is consuming and I never thought it would take so long.  
 

I miss my garage.  I squeezed 3 cars inside in the winter.  

DennisDoesEverything said:

Seriously what's up with the lumber shortage in 2020?  I tore down a rotten storage shed and now I'm stuck with half the building supplies for a new one but can't obtain the rest.  Big box stores were out of most of the treated lumber.  I thought I found a loophole: the Lowe's website let me order it for an $80 delivery fee.  A day later my order was cancelled without explanation and the money refunded.

Everybody is staying home and working on the house or whatever. 

frenchyd said:

DennisDoesEverything said:

Seriously what's up with the lumber shortage in 2020?  I tore down a rotten storage shed and now I'm stuck with half the building supplies for a new one but can't obtain the rest.  Big box stores were out of most of the treated lumber.  I thought I found a loophole: the Lowe's website let me order it for an $80 delivery fee.  A day later my order was cancelled without explanation and the money refunded.

Everybody is staying home and working on the house or whatever. 

And shipping was massively screwed up for the first several months, to the point where we'd basically maxed out semis thanks to COVID. 

I suspect a lot of the sawmills shut down for some time as well. So at a time when demand has gone through the roof, supply stopped for a while..

Build a new garage next to the old garage.  That way you can have two garages until the old one falls down.

In reply to DennisDoesEverything :

Three word answer with no comments: Softwood Lumber Tariffs.

Rons said:

In reply to DennisDoesEverything :

Three word answer with no comments: Softwood Lumber Tariffs.

That's not going to be an issue starting Monday right? The tariffs are lower [b]today[/b] than they had been in awhile.

In reply to chandler :

RushCanuck might know more of what's happening around mills being in PG, it can be a major local topic there. I've mostly heard of mill closures and layoffs. Interestingly I hear Western Forest Products radio ads asking for job applicants which could be a sign of increased supply and lower prices, but you must remember my analysis is worth exactly what you paid for it.

If you can get your hands on materials, i would do it now.  I had to check around for any treated 2x12's today(need 67') and menards had 4 20' in stock and nobody had anything else.  They're limiting sheets of osb and plywood there and home depot.  I split my orders today between them because i was beyond both of their limits on osb.  For a garage you're ok for now, but who knows.  Between threats of materials shortages (seeing this now) and threatening inflation (also seeing this, i paid $2 more a sheet for 7/16 osb today than in march), get it while you can or wait till who knows when.   Because it seemed like the best thing to do, rather than risk being unavailable buying as needed, i ordered $7000 in lumber and sheathing today.  

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

If you can get your hands on materials, i would do it now.  I had to check around for any treated 2x12's today(need 67') and menards had 4 20' in stock and nobody had anything else.  They're limiting sheets of osb and plywood there and home depot.  I split my orders today between them because i was beyond both of their limits on osb.  For a garage you're ok for now, but who knows.  Between threats of materials shortages (seeing this now) and threatening inflation (also seeing this, i paid $2 more a sheet for 7/16 osb today than in march), get it while you can or wait till who knows when.   Because it seemed like the best thing to do, rather than risk being unavailable buying as needed, i ordered $7000 in lumber and sheathing today.  

That is good point I hadn't thought about...

My thoughts from experience. If you can swing it now then do it. If you put it off it may never get done. Priorities and life interferes. Don't you have a little one on the way? Although they're great and life changing for the better, it will interfere and shift priorities to where things for you will be on the back burner.

Even if it's just a shell and wiring, drywall can be done at your leisure and no hurry. A panel or two when you can get to it. Like what's said here, 30 minutes a day will get it done. And as mentioned, it won't get any cheaper.

wlkelley3 said:

My thoughts from experience. If you can swing it now then do it. If you put it off it may never get done. Priorities and life interferes. Don't you have a little one on the way? Although they're great and life changing for the better, it will interfere and shift priorities to where things for you will be on the back burner.

Even if it's just a shell and wiring, drywall can be done at your leisure and no hurry. A panel or two when you can get to it. Like what's said here, 30 minutes a day will get it done. And as mentioned, it won't get any cheaper.

He is already here which is a big part of the reason I don't have time to do a ton of work myself.

If the job situation looks pretty secure, and you'll be staying in this house for awhile I wouldn't be too worried.

Every trades person that I've spoken with in the last 6 months has been swamped. And materials are hit or miss. So be prepared to pay a little more, and be a little patient. As mentioned, once the shell is up, you can do anything extra as time and money allow.

You may find out down the line that if you'd waited a bit you could've done it cheaper, but you probably won't really care at that point because you'll be using your new garage. Or, prices may increase a bunch and building now might look pretty good in a couple of years. I'm not seeing a ton of downsides to building now either way if the money's already budgeted and the income stream appears ot be steady.

STM317 said:

If the job situation looks pretty secure, and you'll be staying in this house for awhile I wouldn't be too worried.

I think it is but that is doubt part. I mean I am the only one that takes care of the mechanical engineering for a half of our product line so it would be hard to get rid of me and when we went through furloughs, I was part of the group that had two weeks instead of two months. So my gut says the way it isn't safe is if the whole company shuts down.