Garage - The tedious choice of building materials and companies

Okay, thank you very much for the response.

Since we still have time, we wanted to inquire about prices for a solid garage from various companies anyway. A hip roof would of course be necessary, as the house will have one and the garage should fit perfectly with it. However, we will not include that in the calculation, as it would not be comparable.

The construction company is taking care of the foundations, I also don't know who they work with. The 6000 also came from the construction company, which asked their partner. At least that is my understanding.

What do you mean by their prices and the insignificance? I don't quite understand that.

Thank you very much for your help and tips.

What do you mean by their prices and the insignificance? I don't quite understand that.

Constructing strip foundations for a garage is a mini-job. No one really needs that. Efforts such as site setup also have a greater impact on the overall calculation.

Basically, garages can be built from a wide variety of materials, but not in the same way: concrete is mainly used here when the garage is to be delivered as a finished room module. A double-wide door automatically excludes the modules standing next to each other like the cars; they must then be arranged one behind the other, with the joint transverse. Prefabricated garages can also be built from pumice, but then in the sense of system garages made from pumice panels assembled on site instead of being delivered finished. I would not put a hip roof on a concrete prefabricated garage—at least not if it is not made from trusses—but only on a garage with masonry wall thickness. Here, I would use pumice as vertical panels. I could recommend the Hoffmann pumice prefabricated construction in Neuwied-Heimbach. That is right in the pumice region, over 300 kilometers away from Nuremberg, hence my surprise. Qualitatively absolutely inexpensive, but not cheap. The system has the advantage of being able to build adjoining garages—thus, no dirt corner remains if the garage is best placed on a non-90° angle of the property.

Bimsfertigbau Hoffmann in Neuwied-Heimbach

That is exactly the manufacturer who sent us the offer. They are even the cheapest of all and have the advantage of an 18cm floor slab instead of just strip foundations.

Besides, the indoor climate in a pumice garage is supposed to be better, at least that's what you read.

A hip roof would only be considered if we really build a solid garage. Otherwise, it will be a normal flat roof.

The question is whether to choose pumice or concrete. What lasts longer, what has a better indoor climate, what is watertight. Where are there more disadvantages and where are the advantages.

For example, can you hang things on pumice structures, or is that not recommended due to the high air content?

As mentioned, this is not a pure comparison of building materials because it depends on the construction method: with concrete, you choose a precast room cell system that basically arrives fully finished with the pizza taxi and is, simply put, placed front and back on concrete beams prepared on site. Here we usually have 8 cm wall thickness; a concrete wall cast on site as a "masonry substitute" would be about 20 cm. You make holes there with a hammer drill. Bims planks are somewhat "masonry built" on site, only the "stones" are room-height planks. Your question about "air" suggests that you imagine the material similar to aerated concrete, but it is not that: pumice stone, simplified for laymen, is a cement-bonded volcanic ash aggregate.

Climatically, I am very satisfied with it; my current and several previous apartments are built from it. The tall cabinets are conventionally doweled. Furniture and files can be stored in bims garages without worry. From my own experience, I know several masonry-built bims garages – not those from Hoffmann from my own use, but dozens from acquaintances, all still like new after more than forty years.