I'll be buying my first home pretty soon. The areas that I'm looking are older home (Oak Forest, Timbergrove, etc) and alot either don't have a garage or only have a 1 car garage. One that I'm looking at now has a 1 car garage with a 2 car drive way. There is plenty of room next to the garage to add to it. Any idea how much it would cost to add an additional garage?
Depends on how decked out you want it to be. Calculate how many sq ft you need and multiply by $35 or $50 (estimates based off Housing Price Index, home building data) for either a basic or nicer garage. For adding a single garage to your existing one, let's 12 ft. wide by 24 ft. long = 288 sq ft. Cost = 288 x $50 (premium) = $14,400. For a basic garage, 288 x $35 = $10,080.
I am not sure if there are any zoning issues or other things to consider in that part of town, but in some parts of the Heights - a little closer in - you have to go through some permitting issues before you can do that type of work. You might want to check that out before you do anything else.
There are plenty of tear downs in Oak Forest so I don't think he'll have problems. I think dmc's numbers look good but I'm only basing off a nice (subjective but for that area) house costing about $100/sq ft to build. Being a garage it's not going to cost nearly that much unless you want marble tile.
A couple factors will make a difference. Do you plan on doing most of the work yourself? Is there already a pad available. If not, what do you plan on using? If you need to lay concrete, that will be a huge cost.
You also need to find a survey, or have a survey done on your lot to make sure there is enough room and that you do not encroach over the building line (not the same as where your lot ends).
