Was the form for the concrete included in measurements for the garage? Was the form then removed before the garage was built?

In any event the gap will be a great place to look for lost items, lint, and other debris.

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Was the form for the concrete included in measurements for the garage? Was the form then removed before the garage was built?

I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but we don't have any information about what happened when the garage was being built.

We haven't made an offer on the house yet, so the only info we have is the standard seller's disclosure.

Can you talk to the builder of the house? How old is it?

I would consider hiring a soil engineer to inspect the place before making an offer.

You would NEVER pour a slab that you expected to settle. That's engineering malpractice.

You make sure you have good quality engineered fill (not crap cleared from the rest of the building site) before pouring any slab.

I have nothing substantive to add other than I'm excited to be a vicarious part of your househunting.

P*D I'll check but I don't think so, the house is just over 20 years old. My agent did say she'd ask around.

MA, thanks! :grin:

My guess would be that the floor was poured first, possibly in preparation for either a parking pad or a carport. When they decided to go with a garage they had to allow space for the footing and poured the footing on the outside of the floor slab. The idea was to cement in the void on the edges but they never got around to it.

Tilt up commercial buildings are built that way. The footings are poured, the floor is poured to within about 18” of the footing, the walls are poured on top of the floor. Once the walls cure they’re “tilted up” and set on the foundation with a crane.

The bottoms of the walls have re-bar sticking out of the bottom of them which are bent to fit in the void between the walls and the floor. The floor also has re-bar sticking out and all of the rebars are tied together for strength.

The open area between the walls and the floor is called the pour strip. We electricians would run miles of PVC conduit in the pour strip to run things like exterior lights, sub panels, exit signs, parking lot/landscape lighting feeds, sub panels, etc. once that work was complete the pour strip was filled with concrete and finished to match the floor.

If that garage is to be the artist studio you may be able to use that void to your advantage.

I can't imagine how that gap--which looks too uniform to be an accident--would be enough of a problem to keep you from buying the house. My first thought was that they built the garage first and put in a concrete pad later. But whatever the reason, if there's some reason it isn't a good idea to have that gap, how hard can it be to fill it in?

I'll be curious to know what the home inspector says. (Tip: do not use the inspector recommended by your real estate agent. Find someone independently--word of mouth, or yelp reviews. And the less the real estate agent likes whoever it is you hire, the better.)

My thinking: Even if there was a structural issue just in the garage, if the rest of the house is fine, and i loved the house, I wouldn't let the garage stop me from buying it.

(Hm, it seems what I just wrote is the truth. The concrete pad in our detached garage is cracked and heaved all over the place because spring runoff got under it and ruined it. The couple who lived here before us did mitigate the problem by excavating around the garage to redirect the water. They didn't bother with breaking up the concrete pad and redoing it, and neither have we. We use the garage as a woodworking shop, camping trip staging area, and storage for skis, bikes, and home maintenance equipment. I suppose if we wanted to park our cars in there we'd have to think about doing something about the concrete pad--it's heaved up like a mini mountain range. But the cars seem perfectly happy outside, so we likely never will do anything about it. I'd probably build a second garage before I'd bother with it.)

We got lots of concessions from the sellers when we bought this place, but our agent drew the line at asking them to fix the garage floor.

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We got lots of concessions from the sellers when we bought this place, but our agent drew the line at asking them to fix the garage floor.

Seems odd. Did s/he offer a rationale?

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:

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We got lots of concessions from the sellers when we bought this place, but our agent drew the line at asking them to fix the garage floor.

Seems odd. Did s/he offer a rationale?

i suspect (but don't know) that she had some empathy for the sellers who had already run a huge (and expensive) gauntlet fixing things for previous buyers who then backed out of the deal anyway--the house had been on the market, off and on, for a couple years. and we had already extracted quite a few concessions from them. IIRR the agent felt the sellers had hit a wall and couldn't or wouldn't do any more.

Steve, thanks for that explanation!

Piqué,

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I can't imagine how that gap--which looks too uniform to be an accident--would be enough of a problem to keep you from buying the house.

This is where we’re at right now.

So, today I’ll get more info about other details — particularly taxes. This house has higher taxes than the other house we’re looking at, and it’s at a higher listing price, so it may be that it’s going to come out as just a little bit too expensive… and we don’t want to be “house poor.” (And I’m trying not to think about the fact that if the interest rates were a little lower, that concern would go away -_-

We’ll see, there are lots of details swirling around.

Maybe that’s why I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep.

Well, we were about ready to make an offer on that house but someone beat us to it!


It's fine, it's a learning experience.

But

That's too bad. But who knows, the other deal might fall through. I'm sure your realtor will let you know if that happens.

sounds like a hot market. you may have to give up overthinking. i get it, i do the same thing.

buyers have loads of opportunities to back out of a deal if they change their minds. the first house i ever bought myself i was sure i hated it. but i made a full price offer and then after i was under contract had plenty of time to keep going back with friends, with the inspector, with my agent and get myself used to the idea of the house. which i came to love.

there is never enough time to make certain you want it. you just have to move fast and think about it later.

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I'm sure your realtor will let you know if that happens.

Yeah, I'm not counting on it, but I know she will.

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sounds like a hot market.

Yes and getting hotter!

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you may have to give up overthinking.

This will be difficult...

We're going back to the other house tomorrow morning. In the process of deciding on this house, we talked ourselves out of the other house, but we think it's probably worth another look...

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you may have to give up overthinking

Hmm. Myself, not a fan of the word "overthinking". Buying a house is a decision making process with a lot of variables. We all have different risk/reward profiles that are the result of our life experiences. Each major financial decision has its own factual data set that we apply our analytical skill set to. As with any such exercise, your experiences may influence your future decision making. Life is one big feedback loop. It really boils down to a lot of elements, and if you're the one making the decision and you are comfortable with the tradeoffs and the results, then that's a good outcome.

This thread was about the gap around the garage floor, but there are certainly a ton of other factors at play here that we are not necessarily aware of. I'm absolutely certain that the SKs have a good handle on this and will end up with a great house that they'll be delighted with.