Garage and Shop Construction Services in Gallatin County
Eight buildings that get confused with each other and should not be. Each one raises a different structural problem, a different permit question and a different set of decisions you make before framing starts.
No obligation. Every estimate starts with a walkthrough of the lot, the access and where the building can actually sit.
Gallatin Valley, MTChoosing
The differences that actually change the build
Every building on this page is a detached accessory structure, and to a search engine they look almost identical. On a site they are not. A two-car garage and an RV garage differ by about six feet of wall height, which changes the wind load, the door header, the bracing and the price per square foot. A shop and a garage differ by heat, which changes the slab, the insulation and whether the concrete gets an in-floor loop.
A garage with a loft and a garage with an apartment look the same from the street and are separated by a legal line: one is storage, the other is a dwelling unit, and the second one is regulated as housing.
The pages below are written from those differences. If you already know which building you want, go straight to it. If you are not sure, the site walkthrough is where that usually gets settled, and it is easier once someone has stood on the ground.
Services
What we build
Detached Garages
Two, three and four-car detached garages built on their own footings, sized to the lot and the setbacks rather than to a catalogue.
What is involved →Shops & Workshops
Heated, insulated working buildings with the ceiling height, power and floor drainage that real work needs.
What is involved →RV Garages
Tall-door buildings sized around the vehicle you actually own, with the door height and approach worked out before framing.
What is involved →Garage With Loft
Storage or bonus space over the bays. A different roof, a different stair and a different structure from a single-storey build.
What is involved →Garage Apartment (ADU)
A dwelling above the garage. Different permit path, different code, and the one build here where the rules changed recently.
What is involved →Pole Barn Garages
Post-frame buildings for larger clear spans on acreage, where a stick-framed garage costs more than it needs to.
What is involved →Garage Slabs & Concrete
Footings, frost walls, slabs and aprons. The part of the build that is impossible to fix later.
What is involved →Garage Demolition & Rebuild
Taking down a failing garage and rebuilding on the same footprint, including what to do about the old slab.
What is involved →How it runs
The same six stages whichever building you pick
Site walkthrough
Grade, access, drainage, septic, and where the building can legally sit.
Jurisdiction check
City limits, county zoning district, or unincorporated and unzoned. Each has a different path.
Range and scope
A written range with finish level, door sizes and slab spec named.
Design and engineering
Plans, truss engineering, and the geotechnical report Bozeman requires at application.
Permits and approvals
Building permit, land use permit, or a Certificate of Appropriateness in the overlay.
Build and inspections
Excavate, pour, frame, roof, envelope, doors, final.
Questions
Choosing between them
Detached garage or post-frame shop: which one do I want?
It depends on span and finish. Under about 30 feet of clear span with a finished, heated interior, stick framing on a frost wall is usually the better building and often the cheaper one once you account for insulation detailing. Past that, or on acreage where the building is a working shop rather than an extension of the house, post-frame gets more efficient with every foot of span.
The other input is the neighbours. A post-frame building on a city lot in an older Bozeman neighbourhood is a harder approval than the same building on ten acres near Amsterdam.
Can I add living space above later instead of now?
Only if the building was designed for it from the start. A loft or apartment above changes the footing depth from 36 to 48 inches in Bozeman, changes the floor structure, and changes the stair, none of which can be retrofitted cheaply.
If there is any chance you will want space above, say so at the walkthrough. Designing for it and not building it is inexpensive. Building for it later is not.
Do you do the concrete, or is that a separate trade?
Footings, frost walls, slab and apron are part of the build. We treat the concrete as the part of the project you cannot fix afterwards, which is why it has its own page rather than being a line item.
What if my existing garage is failing?
Sometimes the slab is worth keeping and sometimes it is the reason the building failed. A slab poured on inadequate footings, or one that has heaved, is not a foundation for a new building no matter how sound the surface looks. Demolition and rebuild covers how we assess that.
Next step
Not sure which building you need?
Describe what you want to put in it and what the lot looks like. That is usually enough for us to tell you which of these eight it actually is.