About Garage Builders Augusta
Twenty-two years in the trades. The last fifteen on garages.
Garage Builders Augusta is run by Tom Linkens, who grew up in Windsor. He builds garages and nothing else, and he walks every lot himself.
Where Did Tom Learn to Build?
Tom Linkens grew up in Windsor, on a family woodlot east of Augusta. His first job was splitting and stacking firewood, and by his twenties he was running a saw at a small mill, cutting the same spruce and pine that ends up in a garage wall.
That is where he learned what lumber does. A green board shrinks as it dries. A crowned joist goes in crown up. A stud cut from the edge of a log can twist by spring.
In 2004 he went to work on a framing crew building houses around Augusta and Gardiner. He started where everybody starts, carrying plywood and cutting blocking.
Within a few years he was running layout and leading the crew on houses and additions. He learned to read a set of plans, set a sill on a foundation that was not quite square and frame a roof that carries a Kennebec Valley snow load.
Why Does Tom Build Only Garages?
On almost every house job, the garage came last. It went to the newest carpenter, got the least thought and got whatever money was left.
Tom saw what that cost the owners a few winters later: a concrete apron that heaved and tipped meltwater back under the door, a header that sagged over a wide opening, a slab poured dead flat with nowhere for water to go.
In 2011 he started building garages and nothing else. Fifteen years on, that is still the whole job.
One kind of building means every hour goes into getting that building right: footings below frost, a slab that sheds water, door openings framed square, and siding and trim that match the house.
What Will We Tell You Before We Build?
The most useful part of the first visit is not always what people hope to hear.
Sometimes it is "a 26-foot garage costs about what a 28 does, so build the 28." Sometimes it is "this corner floods in April, so the slab goes up a foot." Now and then it is "the garage you want will not fit the setback."
We will not tell you a number works when it does not. You would find out later, at a much worse time.
How Do We Price a Garage?
We price from drawings, not from a phone call. Tom walks the lot first and looks at the setbacks, the grade and where the water runs.
Then we draw the garage on the 4-foot grid, matched to the house, and put a written price beside the drawings, broken out by site work, foundation, frame, roof, siding, doors and any finish work.
You see the whole number before anyone digs. If something on site changes it, you hear it from Tom before the work happens, not on the final bill.
What Are We Not?
We are not a general remodeler. We do not do kitchens, decks or additions. We build garages, detached or attached, from the footings up, and we remodel the garages people already have.
We are not licensed by the state, and nobody else here is either. Maine does not license general contractors or builders. The state licenses trades such as plumbing and electrical work, not builders, and you can look those trades up through the Maine Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation. Anyone who offers to show you a Maine builder's license is showing you something that does not exist.
We do not work on a handshake. Every job runs on a written contract, as 10 MRS ยง1487 requires for any home construction job in Maine over $3,000.
What Does a Job With Tom Look Like?
It starts with Tom on your lot, looking at what is there before anything is drawn.
You get drawings and a written price, then we prepare the town building permit application. While the garage goes up, you hear from Tom every week: what got done, what is next and anything that needs your decision.
At the end you walk the finished garage together. You run every overhead door and check the trim against the house before we call the job done.
What Garage Are You Planning?
Tell Tom what you have in mind. The first visit is a conversation, not a sales pitch.