RaysnCayne
Well-known member
Hi y'all.
I'm Zach, long-time lurker, first time Garage Journal Garage Gallery poster.
After much "waiting for things to get better", I finally broke ground on my little garage last April. It certainly won't be a Garage Mahal or loaded to the gills with sensational storage ideas. But it'll be much nicer than the average suburban garage and will have a few nice bits inside when done.
We moved out of our first home - a quaint but tiny 1935 Dutch Colonial - into our current home - a boring but big 1985 2 story traditional - in June 2007. It had everything we wanted: big bedrooms, our own bathroom, upstairs laundry, a kitchen island… BUT no garage! My wife and I struck a deal that I'd get to break ground in a year or so once we were fully settled in. Then the economy tanked. I lost my job in mid-2008. I was fortunate to quickly land on my feet with a full-time freelance gig. But we felt it'd be prudent to wait til things got better.
2009 came and went and things still weren't better. But to keep my hope alive, I cut down two small trees, moved the shed, and dug a ditch for the power line. To get my Biscayne out of the way, I poured a 10' x 20' gravel bed off the end of the driveway.
It had to get worse before things got better. I had erected a wimpy 10x20 canopy over my 1968 Biscayne in late 2009. (It was on sale and I was desperate to get my ailing car out of direct rain and sunlight.) Thanks to a spectacular, record-setting snowfall, I was greeted to this grim sight early one winter morning:
Things needed to get better! I managed to get my wife to agree (dirty car parts in the dinning room helped) and I made haste on plans and estimates in early 2011. I went with a 28' x 28' size. Anything larger (I was strongly considering 32' wide) would've just penetrated too far into the usable yard space. I went with an 8/12 pitch room truss for overhead storage. I was hoping I could get 10' out of the ceiling height for a four-post/storage lift, but ended up with only 9'6"- 9'8" after all was said and done. Guess that's what a MaxJax system is for.
I'm no mason, carpenter or electrician by any stretch – but rather a sedentary, computer-wielding graphic designer. But I know the basics of construction. Still, the foundation wasn't something I was comfortable doing myself so I farmed out the footing & concrete to one contractor and the block to another. We broke ground in late March, 2011.
Now things were beginning to look better!
I took it from here on out. I made much use of my neighbor's F250 to fetch building supplies in a "J.I.T." fashion in an effort to keep the work area as clear as possible and to be able to pick the straightest lumber. I'm sure guys at Lowes resented me messing up their pretty lumber stacks every other week.
For the front garage door wall, the county said I had to do a large, laminated wood header to cover both doors b/c the stem wall was too narrow. They also said I didn't have to run it from corner to corner b/c my corners were 4' in width. Any narrower, and I would've had to run a full-width LVL! Yikes. With a heavy 18" tall 22' wide LVL and wimpy 2x4 "legs" on either side, I figured this wall was going to be a challenge to erect, but many (neighbors') hands made light work of it.
The trusses were a test of strength, balance and focus to be sure. It was a very, hot steamy Southern day. But several dedicated friends and neighbors pitched in to help set them all in one day by hand!
Not wanting to pester neighbors/friends for more help the very next weekend, I lifted, slid and pulled all the sheathing up through the trusses on my own. Not fun on an 8x12 pitch.
I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with flimsy, flappy tar paper. A friend told me about this "Tri-Flex" roof wrap which worked out real nice. Easy to nail down and easy to walk on. Best of all, it didn't blow away if you looked at it wrong.
I'm Zach, long-time lurker, first time Garage Journal Garage Gallery poster.
After much "waiting for things to get better", I finally broke ground on my little garage last April. It certainly won't be a Garage Mahal or loaded to the gills with sensational storage ideas. But it'll be much nicer than the average suburban garage and will have a few nice bits inside when done.
We moved out of our first home - a quaint but tiny 1935 Dutch Colonial - into our current home - a boring but big 1985 2 story traditional - in June 2007. It had everything we wanted: big bedrooms, our own bathroom, upstairs laundry, a kitchen island… BUT no garage! My wife and I struck a deal that I'd get to break ground in a year or so once we were fully settled in. Then the economy tanked. I lost my job in mid-2008. I was fortunate to quickly land on my feet with a full-time freelance gig. But we felt it'd be prudent to wait til things got better.
2009 came and went and things still weren't better. But to keep my hope alive, I cut down two small trees, moved the shed, and dug a ditch for the power line. To get my Biscayne out of the way, I poured a 10' x 20' gravel bed off the end of the driveway.
It had to get worse before things got better. I had erected a wimpy 10x20 canopy over my 1968 Biscayne in late 2009. (It was on sale and I was desperate to get my ailing car out of direct rain and sunlight.) Thanks to a spectacular, record-setting snowfall, I was greeted to this grim sight early one winter morning:
Things needed to get better! I managed to get my wife to agree (dirty car parts in the dinning room helped) and I made haste on plans and estimates in early 2011. I went with a 28' x 28' size. Anything larger (I was strongly considering 32' wide) would've just penetrated too far into the usable yard space. I went with an 8/12 pitch room truss for overhead storage. I was hoping I could get 10' out of the ceiling height for a four-post/storage lift, but ended up with only 9'6"- 9'8" after all was said and done. Guess that's what a MaxJax system is for.
I'm no mason, carpenter or electrician by any stretch – but rather a sedentary, computer-wielding graphic designer. But I know the basics of construction. Still, the foundation wasn't something I was comfortable doing myself so I farmed out the footing & concrete to one contractor and the block to another. We broke ground in late March, 2011.
Now things were beginning to look better!
I took it from here on out. I made much use of my neighbor's F250 to fetch building supplies in a "J.I.T." fashion in an effort to keep the work area as clear as possible and to be able to pick the straightest lumber. I'm sure guys at Lowes resented me messing up their pretty lumber stacks every other week.
For the front garage door wall, the county said I had to do a large, laminated wood header to cover both doors b/c the stem wall was too narrow. They also said I didn't have to run it from corner to corner b/c my corners were 4' in width. Any narrower, and I would've had to run a full-width LVL! Yikes. With a heavy 18" tall 22' wide LVL and wimpy 2x4 "legs" on either side, I figured this wall was going to be a challenge to erect, but many (neighbors') hands made light work of it.
The trusses were a test of strength, balance and focus to be sure. It was a very, hot steamy Southern day. But several dedicated friends and neighbors pitched in to help set them all in one day by hand!
Not wanting to pester neighbors/friends for more help the very next weekend, I lifted, slid and pulled all the sheathing up through the trusses on my own. Not fun on an 8x12 pitch.
I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with flimsy, flappy tar paper. A friend told me about this "Tri-Flex" roof wrap which worked out real nice. Easy to nail down and easy to walk on. Best of all, it didn't blow away if you looked at it wrong.
