1956 Garage Clean Up!

[930dreamer]

Cleaning up around my mom's house(she passed in Oct). Whomever installed this door opener went the easy route to find the rafters. I don't see any way to patch without removing it from the ceiling. Trying not to overload myself here.
Should I keep this loft? Difficult to get into the attic and paint! This emt before the heastpump install was routed into the corner?

 

[larry4406]

That is an easy drywall patch to perform.

First, make the hole nice and rectangular. I assume the cutout piece is gone.

Cut a piece of drywall that fits the hole - make it a little loose, say a max of 1/4" inch both ways (ie - if hole is 8x16, cut the piece around 7.75x 15.75.

Attach two pieces of trim to the top side of the drywall piece in the short direction these pieces being around 2" longer than the short direction.

Slip the assembly up into the hole. Using a screw in the drywall plug as a handle, pull it back till it sets into the hole and the trim boards are on the top of the adjacent drywall. Drive screws up thru the surrounding drywall into the trim boards.

Patch and paint.

Poor paint drawing. Red is the drywall plug, green are trim boards laid on top of the plug and screwed tight from below thru the plug.

 

[d.swanson]

For the hole, I would go with a thin piece of material like metal flashing, paint it white, then loosen up the screws holding the door opener to the ceiling enough to slip it into place, then tighten up the door opener screws

 

[four.cycle]

what Larry said.

Last time I had to patch a hole like that, I:
broke a piece of lath strip into pieces about 6 inches long
applied a generous amount of wood glue to one half of each strip and glued it onto the inside edges around the hole.
waited overnight for glue to dry
cut a piece of drywall to fit the hole, and glued it to the wood lath strips, and secured it with a couple #6 x 3/4" drywall screws.
little bit of spackle to fill the gap, prime and paint.
easy peasy.

 

[Stuart in MN]

With the garage door up, you should be able to temporarily disconnect the drive head and bracket and let them rest on top of the door while you patch the hole.

 

[930dreamer]

Though my first choice would be to not remove the door opener. But the pile of rodent turds on top of the opener need to be removed/cleaned so down it goes.

More Kilz on the walls.

 

[Joe Reed]

I assume you're getting the house ready to sell...not to live in yourself? Your choices depend on how nice you want to make it. Sliding in a piece of white painted 1/4" plywood to cover the hole is quick and easy, and most people wouldn't even notice it in a 70 year old garage. Larry's option is best if you really want it to look nice. Depends on how nice/finished the rest of the garage is. As for the loft/shelf, do what is easiest. Taking it down might be easy, depending on how much patching you might need to do. Cutting it back just in the area near the attic access would be an option, but would almost certainly require some bracing to hold up the remainder of the shelf.
Shortening and/or rerouting the EMT is easy....or just tie some LED lights along it and call it garage art....

 

[930dreamer]

Yes, the house will be sold. Is this trim worth saving and re-installing back where it came from. I assume my mom removed it, when I have no idea. It has stuff on it, mineral spirits isn't removing the gunk. There's eight 10' ish pieces.
Correction: seven new pieces with varying gunk on them and one original piece with long staples in it.

 

[The Cobbler]

condolences on your Moms passing .
I would lower the drive, patch the drywall. put the opener back up
I wouldn't spend a lot of time on prepping for paining, especially in a garage . ,Most people just look at the whole picture and not focus on detail, and most people aren't as **** about garages as we on GJ are!

 

[930dreamer]

condolences on your Moms passing .
I would lower the drive, patch the drywall. put the opener back up
I wouldn't spend a lot of time on prepping for paining, especially in a garage . ,Most people just look at the whole picture and not focus on detail, and most people aren't as **** about garages as we on GJ are!

I've patched a bunch of spots on this wall, no idea what happened here?

 

[The Cobbler]

paint or something splattered. yes, kilz will be good there

 

[930dreamer]

Opener removed, tomorrow is another day.

 

[930dreamer]

Ceiling hole has drywall and first coat of mud. Not pretty but it's a start. I did cut the opening into a rectangle.

 

[930dreamer]

A two week break while the family was here. 8"x16" sheetrock hole is finished above garage door opener.

 

[930dreamer]

Electrician came out today.