There are a lot of good reasons for building a garage and being your own contractor. It is a great outdoor project for the whole family but the weather and getting to your car is of course the most frequently thought of as the best reason. Another is renovating the previous garage into living space and then adding on a new garage.
Closing in an existing garage may be a good economic choice. Many times the garage is attached in a manner that will probably not be expensive to convert it into a family room, play room, or others. It may be less expensive to then build a free standing or attached garage for the car.
If you have experience and know-how of building you can save money on your building projects by acting as the general contractor on your own. This can be from merely purchasing the materials yourself or going all out and taking complete responsibility for the constructing and renovating.
The most critical part of being a contractor on your garage is having real good plans. You could decide to go to an architect but that would probably be very costly and counterproductive to doing this project on a tight financial plan. There are really some good plans available that will not only save you the money on architectural designs but have many other things like material lists that ought to help with material purchases and shopping for the best prices.
As the contractor you can do the hiring of the individual subcontractors. This can include carpenters or framers, electricians, plumbers, etc. Having a good and accurate set of building plans is vital particularly in the carpentry area.
There may be a benefit with local permits and requirement to acting as your own contractor in many counties and cities. Electricians and sometimes plumbers are required to have their own permits and inspections of their work but as your own contractor you may not be required to have a general permit and pay the normal percentage fee.
Good plans should get you off to the right start with your building project and allow you to save a great deal of your money. With the correct plans you can see the entire project and control your cost from the very beginning.
For more resources on home woodworking and construction projects go to: Garage Building Plans. There are some great, simple and even free ideas at the Garage Building Plans Online blog web site.