Concrete garage Base Design

Concrete Bases

Your concrete garage base needs to be designed properly to be strong enough not to crack or sink over the lifetime of your garage.

Your prefab garage base should be designed to suit the soil on your site. If the soil is clay, with the likelihood of movement in the future, you will need to reinforce it, and probably make the concrete base thicker maybe 150mm instead of 100mm.
If your building is over 30sq mtrs you concrete garage base plan will need to be inspected and approved and you may need to gain approval from your local building control.

You garage base should be thicken at the edges to a depth to suit the ground conditions. The thickness of the concrete in the base will also depend on the soil conditions. The concrete mix design should be suitable for a garage base (we recommend a stronger C35 or stronger if you explain to your concrete suppliers what you are using the mix for they will normally advice you on what you need as this is what they do all the time.

We always recommend a minimum concrete base thickness of 100mm (4”) your base should be thicker at the edges to a depth to suit the ground conditions. The final thickness of the concrete in the base will also depend on the soil conditions laid over compacted clean hardcore. Steel reinforcement mesh will further strengthen your base if you choose to use this.

The concrete base must be Square and level with no sloping. When setting out your base, make sure that the shuttering is square and that the external dimensions are 100mm (3”) larger (each side and front and rear) than the size of the building you have chosen.
The concrete base should be Level. There must be no slope from side to side, back to front or front to back. If the base isn’t level, we will not be able to build your garage properly, and the 10 year guarantee may be invalid.

Please LOOK UP! Trees, buildings etc can overhang, branches and gutters can affect the positioning, just because it isn’t on the base, doesn’t mean it won’t be at eaves height!

Concrete Garage Positioning Close To Wall House Or Boundary

Be careful you don’t position a sectional garage building too close to other buildings or walls, as this can form a water trap, always specify gutters on your garage to minimise the potential for water leaking into your garage. Allow for guttering on your building if you order it – add in 150mm each side (Apex roof garage) or 125mm to the length (Knight pent roof garage) for guttering.

Front Garage Elevation

Finally, your concrete base should be positioned properly. Don’t forget that the up and over door can project up to 1220mm (4ft) in front of the building when it is being opened, so position the base so the door doesn’t foul a wall or other building when you open it. A standard garage door is  1981mm (6’6”) up and over door projects 910mm (3ft).

We hope this helps answer some of your questions please feel free to contact us if you require any help !