The 10-Cylinder Garage - 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Hey fellow GJers, I am a long time reader, finally getting around to posting a log for my garage. I have followed dozens of your projects and have been inspired my many, and sympathized with many more over the trials of garaging, and endless projects.

About me: I live in Phoenix, AZ, and I am a younger fellow with a fiancee and a dog, a love for tools, cars, welding, metalworking, computers, and anything that falls in between. I am an engineer and a college professor(part of a program where you teach and work in industry to provide a more relevant, real world education to students)

About the house: We bought a house two years ago in fall 2012, got a great deal on a house that was built in 1951, but has had many additions, shoddy work, Homeowner Joe stuff done to it over the years. The house is a midcentury modern design, believed to be an early Haver design, mass produced by a homebuilder. The neighborhood was built as housing for Motorola employees in the middle of nowhere at the time, but today we are in the middle of a busy city! The house and garage are separate, the garage building is 775 square feet, with a laundry room, bedroom/workroom, and bathroom in addition to the car-garage area.

Current state: 1/18/15: Flooring in the garage is nearly finished, paint is almost done, repairs to the structure are complete and new roof is done!

Here is a floorplan:

And an overall view of the layout:

Here is the house when we first bought it:

Here is the side of the garage, with the man-door and the window into the workroom, in 2012 when we bought the house:

View of the garage door, 2012, notice the sagging fasica board on the roof:

View inside the workroom, looking at the bathroom door, and out the window previously pictured:

I am writing more posts as we speak, much more to come, looking forward to sharing this project with everyone!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Ok, so the first things we got started on were unrelated to the garage, but had to happen first: Landscaping, plumbing for the irrigation system front and back yard.

Trenching for irrigation lines. Lots of help from my Dad (he owns a landscaping company)

I built a backflow system with brand new hose spigot. Backflow preventers create a vacuum on the irrigation side so that no water could ever flow back into the house water system.

Visible in the background behind the garage is a large mesquite tree that poses a hazard to the garage:

Gone!

Great firewood/smoking wood:

Also visible in this picture are my repairs to the garage to temporarily prevent water from seeping under the wall. The garage is not very well built...

Meanwhile, in the backyard, the wood fence is coming down to expose a nice block wall:

More to come!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

The backyard is taking shape...
I know the dog was thinking: "Someday, I will have grass to run on and poop on"

Removed the unhealthy date palm, lots of bugs and birds called it home:

This is the transition between the patio cover in the back, and the garage structure:

Serious issues with water entering the wall cavity here, and some possible structural sagging.

My temporary fix, window flashing, plus elastomeric and fibermesh, this method is seriously indestructible and great for emergency repairs.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So this was kind of a nice freebie, there was already a 6 AWG run to a double gang box in the garage, so I just had to add a breaker and wire up a NEMA 6-50R for my Miller 211 welder.

Also, I removed the bonding screw, as that is a no-no on a subpanel like this. The 20A breaker on the right was removed and replaced with a 40A 2-pole breaker for the welder outlet.

Woo:

rixtrix1 · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Hi, fellow Arizonian. Welcome to GJ. Looks like you've gotten off to a good start. Thanks for sharing you new project.

Mach5 · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Hello from another Phoenician. Welcome!

upndown · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Welcome from the far north valley. Looking forward to watching your progress. :thumbup:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Thanks! Here is another update:

I started building these steel planters:

As you can see, supervisor Dog is always on duty:

November 2012, backyard looked like this:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Ok, so remember the closet that is between the house and the garage? Well, it was built so terribly that I decided to rip it out and build a new, smaller closet, and make a 'breezeway' to get to the backyard. There wasn't a way to get to the backyard before....

That is a window that was embedded inside a wall...
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=277613

Screwy water lines going every which way...

Just for reference, you can see the closet up under the patio.

From inside the closet:

Foreground: New sill plate for the new, smaller closet. I built the smaller closet inside the larger one, and then removed the larger one. The background shows the old closet wall still in place.

From outside, you can see my wall taking shape inside:

In front of the garage, I started cutting away at the old closet, after the new one was finished:

Also dug a trench for a new conduit to feed the 100A subpanel.

Much of the framing was rotten and had to be removed and replaced piece by piece, and reconfigured to prevent future damage of the same type...

View from under the patio cover, where the closet used to be. Wall with metal studs is the laundry room, garage door visible in the background

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Ok bonus post of work stuff:
Control cabinet for a PMC system connected to a flexible manufacturing system, 3 horizontal CNC Mills and a load station with an AGV robot that loads and unloads them all

Just another day at the office:

Fanuc's largest robot on a line we were troubleshooting and writing programs for. She has an infrared vision system that recognizes and grabs simple shapes:

New car time:

Back to regularly scheduled programming now!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Closet almost all cleared out:

So much gross stuff, birds were all up in there crapping and laying eggs, argh

Framing going up inside

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Adding a window inside the closet:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So we rerouted the water lines as well, the garage now has a dedicated feed and the house has a straight shot from the meter now with a shut off.

Closet visible in the background:

ugh:

Scrap:

Reconfigured water lines:

Redid the entry to the house, after finding this mess of wirenuts without a box of any sort...ugh

Much better:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Finishing up the water lines:

Burying the conduit to feed the subpanel

CreteCoater · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Looks like a fun project.

Interesting bit of trivia.....Your Uncle lives in Clearfield Pa & my Aunt lives in Phoenix.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Storms started to come, and caused this:

Inside the garage:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

CreteCoater said:
Looks like a fun project.

Interesting bit of trivia.....Your Uncle lives in Clearfield Pa & my Aunt lives in Phoenix.

Small world eh?!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Making progress on the replacement closet:

Re-routed Gas line:

My apologies, my project is kind of ugly at this phase, especially compared to some of the gorgeous builds you folks post here. I'll get there I promise!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Aerial view of the backyard, from on top of the garage building.

Put in some grass:

Mixed some concrete:

Filled a gap between the concrete slab that the closet sits on, and the garage building slab. This will become an enclosed wall.

Built a kegerator for fun:

wasfast · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Aren't fixing previous owners work on older structures fun?

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

wasfast said:
Aren't fixing previous owners work on older structures fun?

Ohhhhhhhhh, you have no idea! I am in the process of posting 2 years or progress as we speak, there is all kinds of structural fun coming! Just wait! :willy_nil

It is pretty impressive how stupid people can be.

captain14 · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

You will get there, just takes time and money. Save the photos and look back Ina couple of years .

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Picked up a 7x12 Turn Pro bandsaw when Enco had a big sale. Love this thing. I absolutely HATE the wheels though, I'lll be making some caster brackets later on.

Right now we are at about June of 2013.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So in AZ we have very little weather, but when we do it can get pretty insane!

Here is a picture I caught of lighting out the front window:

Continuing to make progress on the closet. Have to cut the window out still.

Plants ready to go in:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Ok here it is, the post everyone has been waiting for! An ACTUAL photo of the garage. I realized I haven't actually taken any photos yet! Main reason being, my really close friend was living in the detached bedroom for a while, well, he was deployed overseas, so his stuff was basically living there, including the garage. Taking up LOTS of space...oh well. No biggie.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So we took a trip to Pennsylvania to visit family, here is a few pictures of their property:

Did a little range shooting on the property next door!

My uncle's little 2-car detached garage, one day I'm going to go back for two weeks and help him make it GJ Gallery worthy!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Made more planters today:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Garage looked like this in Nov 2013:

Finishing off the closet:

Love the sunsets here!

View from the rooftop:

Finished some more planter sections:

Closet interior:

Backyard growing and maturing fast!

Our dog is so pathetic:

Decided on galvanized corrugated sheet for the closet siding:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So after reading a lot about the adventures of Dakota00 and various others who have tiled their garages, I decided tile was the best option. My garage floor was absolutely a mess, and no other flooring product would really work. It was wavy, rough, porus, it was dusting, it had cracks, all kinds of problems. So I watched for tile to go on sale and I got this Portland Stone colored tile for $0.68 a square. I will be using a dark grout color.

Emergency repairs still holding on the roof. Will be fixing the roof in the coming months. This was around Feb 2014.

Old houses: :dunno:

If you look closely, you can see that the water actually runs up over the garage slab and into the garage under the door!!!!

The sunset after the storm:

Drywall is hard!

Closet painted, ready for wood flooring:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Started building a gate:

Also started digging up the driveway for a concrete slab to be poured:

Building forms:

Rented a tractor

He almost rolled the tractor about 3 seconds after this picture was taken!

My friends are awesome. You would think between three engineers we could figure out how to set up the drag bucket. :lol_hitti

Also picked up this sweet new piece of hardware:

hachi-roku_fan · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Can I ask how'd you build the kegerator? Looking good!!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

So we finished building the forms, got the concrete slab poured:

So nice to have a place to park!

Backyard continues to explode! Its becoming a great escape.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Even MORE heavy rain this summer,

This roof is pretty much shot. Started leaking again:

The sag in the fascia board will be corrected soon!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

This is a big step. Adding dual 20A circuits to the garage. There was one 15A circuit for the lights, the garage door opener, and one dinky little outlet. How dumb is that? So I used 12/3 wire that allows me to have two separate 20A circuits in each double gang box. Left side is Circuit A, right side is Circuit B for every double gang box. It made sense to cut puzzle pieces of drywall and drill the studs, then just glue the puzzle pieces back in place, touch up the drywall and then paint the entire garage. For those that have interest in doing it this way, the benefit it less wiring, dual 20A circuits in every box, and the ability to change an outlet to a 240V 20A plug for other equipment anywhere along the wall. You will need to use a GFCI Double-pole breaker. The GFCI is built in to the breaker and has a tie bar between the two breakers that use the same 12/3 wire.

I also picked up some second-hand windows from the local habitat for humanity place, they sell construction materials that have been removed and recycled.

Great tool, rented at Home Depot:

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

This light is ok, but it is not enough to light the entire garage.

Coming soon, four more dual-bulb 4 ft fixtures.

Coming soon, the garage has NO eaves, so I will be extending the roof and repairing the roof, and then putting a new roof on.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Made some brackets for the bandsaw. Got some casters from harbor freight. It rolls like a dream now!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Windows in:

One set of lights are up, and another set of two will go on the other side.

1/2 Cup · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

Looks like you have some work ahead of you.

All the best with it, what you have done thus far has come up well. :thumbup:

Thanks for posting.

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

This marks the beginning of a very ambitious project. I will be repairing the roof structure and extending the roof so that the water will no longer run down the walls.
Date: Nov-Dec 2014

Some of the existing damage inside the garage, ceiling:

Wall:

Ceiling, this drywall will be replaced.

Peeled back the roofing to find sheathing is in various states of rot and decay.

Started cutting back:

Picked up this trick from my friend's dad who owns a large construction company, allows you to place the sheet from the ground, then pull it up from the roof.

When working by yourself, work smart, and work safe!

12" extension past the wall:

Love this saw. My 50 year old all metal one died so I had to replace it.

NOTHING surprises me anymore. Not even bathroom fans that exhaust directly into insulation. Not even an attic, the garage and house are low-slope roofs and have no attic.

Making progress on the eave extensions. I am using the method that involves cutting a 2x6 that is 36" long, 24" sistered to the existing 2x6, and 12" hanging out. Secured with 20d nails 4" spacing, staggered.

The gable end had no framing. Thats right. None. Weird right? So I added an end rafter after this photo was taken:

The gable ends were only extended 6", just enough to get the water dripping off the edge instead of running down the wall.

Corner framing, using lookouts for support of the gable end.

Some of the worst parts, OSB gets really sketchy once it gets wet.

Again, nothing surprises me anymore.

Paint colors I am considering. Electrical is done!!!

sanatarium · Jan 18, 2015

Re: 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

More roofing adventures!

So, in this picture you can see the overhang above the garage door, when we removed the sheathing, we observed there were NO lookouts, so the overhang was entirely supported by the sheathing! Awesome! We began by adding lookouts:

In this picture you can see the severe sagging in the front overhang. By using lookouts tied back to the second rafter, we give lots of support to the fascia board. The lookout is not secured in this photo yet, hence why it is at an angle:

With each lookout, the sag in the overhang became less and less:

Corner framing:

There is still a slight amount of sag visible here, but the roof line will straighten out after a day or two

Roofers coming the next morning, I was in a bit of a rush getting the new fascia board mounted:

The night before the roofers arrive:

The next day:

They did a fantastic job on the roof. 1" thick polyiso foam coated with elastomeric and ceramic granules. This is an ideal roofing system for the hot AZ climate as it reflects lots of heat, and provides insulation to the building, it is 100% waterproof and the lifespan can exceed 50 years when recoated properly and if it is well taken care of.

Roof up close

New vent for the bathroom exhaust fan.

This took about 5 weeks start to finish, and with the roof now out of the way and the structure safe from further water damage, I turned to the inside of the garage:

Patched up with new drywall and insulation:

Painting the ceiling first:

Drywall repaired after adding electrical outlets.

Almost done.

The 10-Cylinder Garage - 25x31 Overhaul in AZ

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