Concrete ceiling or wooden beam ceiling on garages?

Hello dear forum community,

I was not quite sure in which subforum our question is best placed and hope to have chosen the right one :-)

As described in another topic, my wife and I are currently planning a bungalow with two residential units together with her parents. Besides the question regarding the heating, we are also concerned about which ceiling to use over the garages. For the living area itself, a concrete ceiling is planned in each case. But what do you use over the garages? We have received advice from several people to make a timber beam ceiling there for cost reasons. However, since a technical room will also be built behind the garage, others say that we should definitely use a concrete ceiling there as well. With a concrete ceiling, sufficient empty conduits could be laid right away to retrofit electrical items later. This is difficult with a timber beam ceiling. And besides, you must not forget the ring beam required for the timber beam ceiling. In the end, the savings would not be that big after all...

Now good advice is expensive...

But what do you use on the garages?

In the end, it doesn't matter at all. And the fact that you can always do without a ring beam for a garage is factually incorrect. Likewise, you can of course also install sufficient empty conduits in a wooden ceiling (but for what purpose?). In the walls or the floor. Or even in the ceiling structure.

In the end, your garage (size, use, use of the ceiling, insulation, etc.) determines whether wood or concrete makes sense.

In the end it doesn't matter at all. And that you can always do without a ring beam in a garage is factually wrong. Likewise, you can of course also lay enough empty conduits in a wooden ceiling (for what, actually?). In the walls or the floor. Or even in the ceiling structure. In the end, your garage (size, use, use of the ceiling, insulation, etc.) determines whether wood or concrete makes sense.

Thank you very much for the quick reply.

I think I expressed myself a bit ambiguously. Of course we do not want to do without a ring beam in the garage. What I actually wanted to say: For cost reasons, people advised us to go with a wooden ceiling. Others, however, said that this option is not much cheaper if you consider the cost of the wooden ceiling and the required ring beam as a complete package. Therefore, we were / are somewhat confused as to whether the cost advantage is really an argument.

I believe first you should answer the question for yourself and us how the garage roof should be made rainproof. So flat roof or pitched roof? If flat roof, should it be walkable or even used as a terrace? Furthermore, it is also important to know whether the garage stands free or has to withstand earth pressure on one or more sides.

If it is a flat roof, never wood. Yes, it is a bit cheaper, but if you ever have water ingress, it is a major damage. Especially when insulation is used. For a garage, one might still hesitate – although that might be about a €1000 difference – but for a residential house, never ever a wooden flat roof. One should have learned from the sins of the last millennium

There should be a concrete ceiling on each living space itself.
But what do you use on the garages?

Cars "live" in garages, they are purely functional buildings. Roofs go on them, but no ceilings – why would you need them?
In the bungalow, if I understood correctly, it’s about single-story living for both living units, so the second is not in the roof either, so again the question: what is this nonsense supposed to be?
In the attic, you will probably store Christmas decorations and clothes for the other season, possibly balcony chair cushions or paint cans. None of which produce impact sound. Concrete ceilings here only bring you the disadvantage of needing load-bearing interior walls (and do not compensate for that with any advantages).
Ring beams serve to stabilize the exterior walls against the load of the roof, not against the additional weight of a heavier-than-necessary ceiling.

Therefore, as already said in the main thread: #1 get advice instead of being distracted; #2 look at the project as a whole. And #3, also make use of the forum search function – you face many questions that have already been answered hundreds of times. We have several bungalow threads here, as well as several about living with the (in-laws) parents and so on. For example or