Garages & Additions
A garage builder in Watertown and a home addition contractor across Jefferson County: detached and attached garage construction, room additions, and the structural work where new meets old.
The Job
A garage builder in Watertown does the slab, frame, roof and siding matched to the house, and — for an attached garage or an addition, sunrooms included — the fire separation, the foundation tie and the roof tie-in that does not leak. Four to eight weeks for a detached two-car; permitted and inspected in every town we work in.
Building the box is the easy half. The rest of this page is about the other half.
What Matters
Building a box is straightforward. Tying a new roof into an existing one without creating a valley that leaks, matching a wall plane, and getting the foundation to behave the same way as the one next to it — that is where additions succeed or fail.
Being roofers first is genuinely useful here. The tie-in between old roof and new is the detail we have spent twenty years repairing on other people’s additions, and SPS 321.28(7) has the rule for the valley it creates: No. 28 gauge metal, 16 inches wide, over underlayment.
Scope
Slab, frame, roof and siding, matched to the house. Two-car and larger, with attic trusses where you want the storage.
Including the fire separation and door detailing the state code requires between a garage and living space, and a roof tie-in that does not leak.
Foundation, framing and a roof tie-in that does not create a future leak. Sized so the new roof carries the same loads the code sets for the old one.
Three-season and four-season, and an honest conversation about which one you actually want, because the price difference is the foundation and the insulation, not the glass.
Sequence
Setbacks and lot coverage checked against the zoning code, the permit pulled, and utilities located. The setback usually decides where the building goes.
Footings below frost, a compacted base and a reinforced slab poured when the temperature allows. Concrete is the part of the calendar we cannot argue with.
Walls up, trusses set, sheathed and roofed — ice barrier at the eaves under SPS 321.28(4) where the slope calls for it, and everywhere we build regardless.
Siding and trim matched to the house, overhead and service doors set and weatherstripped, electrical inspected. Four to eight weeks from breaking ground, weather depending.
Before The Drawings
A garage or an addition needs a building permit in every town we work in — Ixonia, for one, lists “Additions/remodels; Attached/Detached Structures” on its required list, and Wisconsin Dells requires one when a property owner “constructs, enlarges” a structure. Setbacks and lot coverage limits apply through zoning, and in the townships the zoning permit comes from the county before the building permit can issue. We check all of that before designing anything, because the setback is what usually decides where the building goes. The permit guide explains why the answer changes at the city limits, and the service-area hub has every town’s building department.
Straight Answers
As closely as available materials allow. Siding colors and shingle lines get discontinued, so an exact match on an older house is unlikely — we will show you the closest option before you commit, and on a house that is due a roof anyway, doing the house roof and the garage together makes them match by definition. Trim profiles, roof pitch and overhang depth matter more to the eye than an exact shingle color.
You will need a building permit, and setbacks and lot coverage limits apply through zoning — the section above has the detail and the towns. The practical point is that the setback usually decides where the building goes before the design does, so we check it first, and in the townships the county zoning permit comes before the building permit. The FAQ covers who should pull it.
Four to eight weeks from breaking ground for a typical detached two-car, weather depending. Concrete needs the right temperatures, which shortens the Wisconsin season at both ends; an addition with a foundation and a tie-in to the house runs longer, usually two to three months, because the tie-in is finished carefully rather than quickly. The construction hub explains how we book.
It is the detail we care most about. A new roof plane meeting an old one creates a valley, and SPS 321.28(7) requires it to be flashed with No. 28 gauge corrosion-resistant metal at least 16 inches wide, over underlayment, with sections lapped four inches. Where the addition meets a wall, step flashing and counter-flashing. We often re-roof the adjoining slope of the house at the same time so the two ages of shingle meet in a valley rather than mid-slope. The FAQ covers how that is priced.
Related
Garages, additions, pole barns and the occasional whole house, from drawings, one project at a time.
Cost, timing, permits, insurance and warranties, answered plainly on one page.
What a full roof includes, and why an addition is the moment to do the adjoining slope.
New openings in an addition are set, flashed and trimmed the same way as a replacement. What that involves.
Free Estimate
Setbacks and permit checked first, then a fixed written scope that separates the slab, the frame, the roof and the doors.