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But my main concern is whether it's possible to build a garage in rural AK on permafrost. I rarely see houses with a garage in permafrost-infested regions...and for me, it's necessary to have a garage.
You could build a garage if you don't heat it, and put cooling towers around it. Check with a structural or geotechnical P.E. in Alaska who has Arctic design experience. These days I doubt that banks are going to lend to people building on permafrost without some P.E. signing off on the design.
My brother-in-law was a contractor and one of the houses he built was on stilts, but the garage wasn't. He had the furnace in the garage and you can imagine what happened over a 5-year period. The garage floor melted the underlying permafrost and it settled relative to the house, which did not melt the underlying permafrost.
Another house he put the garage down the hill close to a creek where the permafrost was absent. Along major rivers and streams the permafrost will not be present in the underlying gravel and sand. As someone pointed out above, fine-grained soils (which hold water tigher) tend to develop the permanently-frozen condition whereas sand and gravel pass water more quickly. It takes water in the soil to freeze, not the individual grains.
No you can't build a garage on permafrost if you want it to survive. If you are self financed and don't care about losing your investment, give it a try. Or keep reading answers until you get one that supports your idea.
But my main concern is whether it's possible to build a garage in rural AK on permafrost. I rarely see houses with a garage in permafrost-infested regions...and for me, it's necessary to have a garage.
You can build it certainly, the question is if it will be stable or not. If you are close to the edge of the permafrost region, it seems you'd be at high risk due to heat conduction and climate warming. But I'm no expert on the soil.
I am 100% clueless about permafrost and building, but why would building a garage on permafrost work differently than a house? I'm picturing a "garage" structure on pilings with a heavy wood floor and a ramp for access, not concrete on grade, though. Is that the primary distinction that would make a house possible but not a garage - having it sit flush on the ground?
No you can't build a garage on permafrost if you want it to survive. If you are self financed and don't care about losing your investment, give it a try. Or keep reading answers until you get one that supports your idea.
So that basically means that us rural Alaskans are pretty much screwed if we want a garage in or near our house? Because of not having a decent foundation to support it on permafrost?
You could do just what mousebandit said. I've seen one in Galena. A garage on stilts with a ramp up to the garage. You will still likely need to redevel it every so often so build that capability into the design.
There are a few garages out here in McG. Some are heated, some are not and do not have any foundation, the floor is the ground. Although there is very little permafrost here. But the general reason that most people do not have garages is it costs lots of money. Shipping in wood and supplies. And it takes time and knowledge. Many people in the bush don't have these luxuries. Better to have a shed for a snowmachine or 4 wheeler or woodshed. A lot of people in the bush don't even have a car, but have a boat, like me.
Can a gravel pad be built directly on the ground, rather than on stilts (I mean, directly on the ground like some sheds on gravel pads are built), and can that be used as a foundation on permafrost? As it is said that building on a gravel pad is a common foundation in permafrost regions.
No. We always put our gravel pads on stilts. Balancing all the little rocks is really tricky, though.
But would a foundation survive if a small layer was dug out below ground and the gravel was placed there instead? I'm not really a fan of having everything built on stilts after seeing that non-Alaska-bush structures are built on more traditional foundations (it just looks nicer and prettier that way)
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