Detached Garages: How Much Does One Cost?

Sources: Barn Lights | Planters

A detached garage offers a lot of benefits over an attached garage and ours has been a lifesaver. If you’re ready to take the plunge and build a detached garage, it’s best that you understand what goes into building the garage and what factors affect the cost to build a garage. 

A few months ago we wrote an article talking about if a three-car garage is worth the cost. And of course, we think the answer is a resounding “yes”. We received a lot of questions from that post, one of which was “What was the cost to build your three-car detached garage?” 

I thought it would be nice to do a breakdown of how much our three-car detached garage costs. Keep in mind, with this build and garage we were our own contractor, so this will reflect within the cost. We did not pay an overhead of 15-20 percent for someone to oversee the project. Serving as our contractor, we hired our own subs and paid each one directly. Doing this, we also knew exactly how much we spent out.

Also, as you know we like to DIY parts of our own builds. With the garage portion, we did our own painting and plumbing which saved us several thousands of dollars.

Keep in mind before any foundation work or building is started, the garage was staked out by a surveyor to plot exactly where the garage would go. I am breaking down the cost by each phase of the build. The estimate is based on a 1,000 square foot garage. Our garage includes an unfinished area at the top which would also be around 1,000 square feet.

Garage Foundation

The first step of building a detached garage is the foundation. We hired this out to a local brick mason and concrete company. The concrete for the footers and slab ran $3,000 including labor and concrete. The block and brick were $3,000 including labor and material.

Framing

Framing is the next step. We also hired this part out to the same crew who framed the house. To frame the entire 1,000 square foot garage the total cost was $12,700. We did get quite a deal because the framers were already here framing the main house structure. They framed the garage for a low price of $8.50 for a total labor of $8,500. The remainder $4,200 is for materials. Again, keep in mind our garage is basically two stories which required much more material. It also has three dormers which are more labor-intensive. These two factors increased the cost of the detached garage.

Sources: Barn Lights | Planters

Wiring and Plumbing

The guy we hired to do the electrical for the detached garage also was very inexpensive because he was already here working on the main home. For the garage only, he charged us $2,000. This price was for material and labor which included wiring for 3 overhead lights, 10 electrical outlets inside and out, 2 floodlights, and 3 lights over each garage door.

Plumbing is not something that is typically included in a garage, but we added a small half bath for the pool area. We put in one small sink and toilet. Total material was around $700, and there was no labor cost since my Dad did the plumbing.

Drywall

Hanging drywall is not a fun job and is always another one we sub out. For sheetrock materials and labor, it was a total of $4,400. We only finished the downstairs area, the top area is still left unfinished. The breakdown here is $2,100 for the material leaving the remainder $2,300 for labor.

Garage Exterior (Hardie Plank)

For exterior material, we used Hardie plank. This had to be put up and painted. For installing the entire Hardie plank for the garage trim and all, the cost was $2,200 and the material was around $2,800. This was a total of $5,000.

Sources: Barn Lights | Planters

Roof

On our house porches and breezeway roofs, we used standing seam metal. Everywhere else we used architectural shingles. We used this same shingle on our detached garage. For both labor and material, this cost was around $3,400.

Windows

We ordered the garage windows on the same purchase of our entire home. We have six windows in our garage. We ordered our windows the same as the rest of our home, black on the outside and unfinished wood on the inside. The total for all five windows was $1,640. The labor for installing the windows was included in the framing labor.

Exterior Doors

We purchased two exterior doors, both going into the pool area. They were each around $200 for a total of $400.

Painting

As for painting the garage, the labor was no cost considering we painted both the exterior and interior on our own. This is a great way to save several thousands of dollars if you can tolerate a few days of hard work and don’t mind painting. We did purchase the interior and exterior paint for a total of around $360 dollars.

Lighting

The finishes of the garage are what really make it pretty and gives it the look you want. We used three black barn gooseneck lights above the garage. These were fairly inexpensive and gave the garage the look we wanted keeping with that same modern farmhouse style. We also used 2 floodlights, and three small flush mount interior lights for a lighting total of around $1,200. The price of installation was included in the electrical.

Guttering

The guttering was installed for the entire home at the same time, but the garage cost was around $900.

Garage Doors

We have three basic garage doors that we painted black. The garage doors, garage door opener systems, and all installation totaled $1,290. 

Below is a chart with the breakdown of the total cost of the garage.

Foundation	$6,000
Framing	$12,700
Wiring	$2,000
Plumbing	$700
Sheetrock	$4,400
Hardie Plank	$5,000
Roof	$3,400
Windows	$1,640
Exterior Doors	$400
Paint	$360
Lighting	$1200
Guttering	$900
Garage Doors	$1,290
Total	$39,990