Powderm0nkey's single and a half

Hi fellas. The wife and I bought our first house about a year and a half ago when we moved out West for new jobs. I have to say, it's been awesome so far. It's an old 1949 cottage, close to work, plenty of room for us and the dogs, close to work, multiple parks (900 acres in town) and all the stores we need. My only real requirement was close enough to bike to work and to have some sort of garage. I ended up with a 14.5x24' man cave just behind the house. It would have been awesome to have 5-50 acres and a 30x50' shop, but it just wasn't in the cards at the time.

Anyways, it's been put to use pretty ******** already. I've rebuilt our VW Eurovan from auto/v6 to 5 speed and tdi with a syncro and it's currently housing the last few bits of our kitchen/bathroom/laundry room as we're remodeling and updating.

Here's a few pictures of the outside:

From the front. Don't mind/judge the doors. The old clamshell door was falling down and these got tossed up in its place over a day or so. It was before the fence was moved and the idea was a dutch door to keep the dogs in but still ventilate the place as needed. They were built with dimensional lumber and they were my first go at doors. I should have use 1x stuff instead of 2x, and I haven't been happy with them since they went up, but they get the job done. I can't decide if I want to rebuild them or to just get a rollup from smartgarage.ca. Opinions welcome.



You can see the property line is pretty close on the left side here. I'd like to toss up a lean-to/shed roof on this side to keep the rain/weather off of our bikes and lumber/firewood. This will be coming up in a few months with the roof redo.



Here's the yard side, had plans for the long skinny arbor and the wisteria, but not enough sun for them to grow. So the arbor is coming down and the wisteria is getting transplanted when it warms up some. I'd like to do a 4-5' bump out from just behind the man door to the back of the garage at the level of the concrete footing. It would be a perfect space for the workbench, the drill press, and most of the cabinets/etc. It would free up heaps of floor space for me. Roughly 16x4-5'. I'd probably do concrete piers in sonotubes and tie into the footing with a ledger board, but I still have to discuss it with the building inspector folks around here. Our frost line in the Willamette Valley where I am is between 5-10", so 2-3' piers should be more than adequate. I figure one in each corner and at least one in the middle of the span. Unless I'd be better off digging a footer and building up a block foundation to the same height as what we've got now. Open to options/opinions.



The back isn't very exciting, possibly will add a lean-to shed/enclosure back here for our garden tools and for a potting bench for the wife's planting/gardening.




The biggest frustration I have is that the garage is offset from the driveway, but I'm sure that was because of the property setbacks when it was built. It sits about 11' behind the house and is about midline with the corner of the house. I've tried to talk to the city about moving the garage over to become part of the fence, it would give me an extra 3-4 feet for the door, but I haven't been able to convince them to let me do that just yet. And honestly, that's probably more than I'm willing to get into at this point. Here's from the driveway back.



I've got some pictures of the inside all cleaned out, but its a mess in there right now with all the remodeling scrap, the washer/dryer, the old fridge, the sheetrock and plywood pieces. I've got some pictures on my old phone if I can find it. Here are some messy shots of some of the inside at the moment.





I never got to fully clean up after the van build because we found the appliances and cabinets we wanted on sale so I was kind of pushed in to the kitchen reno a little earlier than anticipated. But just a few finishing pieces there and we'll be back to business.

I'm hoping to get the bumpout done this spring as well as a new roofline I'll talk about in the next post. Thoughts, comments and opinions always welcome!

-Ryan

Besides the bumpout addition to the right side of the garage, I'd also like to gain some height in the interior for a few different reasons. The biggest is so I can open up the van and let it air out/dry out after we've been out camping. We live in Oregon, and well, it rains a little here West of the mountains. I'd also like to get a maxjax or similar type lift to work on the cars, the van will definitely be the biggest of the vehicles we own in there.

Thanks to the footer, there's about 8.5' between the floor and the bottom of the rafters. That left me about two feet between the top of the van and the rafters with the top down, but it's about 9.5' high with the top up. With the rafters on 2' centers, there's not enough room between them to fully open the top. I've come up with a few different options.

1. install a ridge beam under the ridge board, kind of like in Woody's build here and take out most of the lower rafter ties. I'd ideally like to use I beams as the cross beams that run perpendicular to the ridge beam to set up some sort of trolley for a hoist. this is probably the simplest way to gain some height, but with a 3/12 roof I probably only gain about a foot keeping the collar/rafter ties in the bottom third of the pitch.

2. Make a new roofline. I wouldn't mind to redo what we've got and to turn it into a skillion or monopitch roof. I've already talked to some of the truss companies here in town and I can get trusses made for about $600 on 4 foot centers. This would be a 1' rise at the heel end and 3' at the top end. It would look something like this.



I'd use 2x6 purlins on 24" centers for bracing of the roof sheathing and also use standing seam metal roofing.

Note that this is with the door opening moved over about a foot towards the left side of the building and a foot taller, so a 9' wide x 8' tall door. Engineered and stamped, shouldn't be that hard of a sell to the local inspector.

3. Same as number two but to basically build a knee wall (or LVL bolted to top plate and use simpson shear plates) on top of the existing walls and use rafters on 2' center. 1' high on the left side and 3' high on the right side, the 'gable' ends will be blocked in accordingly. Using the AWC span calculator here, northern SPF, 2x10, 24" spacing, L/360 for deflection (I think L/180 is typical for roofs?) and a 30psf live load, 20psf dead load (our snow load is typically 10 where we live, my engineer buddy says he designs his structures with a 20psf live load), I get a 15' maxium span which is perfect as I'm at 14.5'. And that's with a little factor of safety on the design specs. I would have to pull down the sheathing and tie that into the lower walls to help prevent a hinge joint at junction, and that's the only part I'm worried about. This is where trusses would be much neater/nicer solution, but with less headroom.

4. a combination of the previous two. Sister 9.5-10' 4x4s to every other stud (since they are 2' on center) under where the trusses would be. Or taller 2x4s to each stud. Double top plate, frame in the new height. This would give me the height I'm looking for, the roof I'm looking for and would get rid of the hinge effect/joint of building a knee wall on top of the existing walls.


I honestly like the shed roof option better, I like the look of the shed roofs. Option number 3 or 4 would give me the most head room, option 2 is likely the safest/easiest and they will be able to design in for the future solar panels we want to put up. I like the shed roof because I'd be able to have a wall of windows on the high side to help brighten up the garage as well. The trusses would still allow me about 8'6" of clearance on the inside and some storage of longer/bulky items as well, 9'6" with the sistering option and extending the height. Thoughts? I'd be using hurricane ties for each of the rafters to the top plate connection,

Next up will be the electrical, I may tackle that early if I get to the back patio rebuild early since I'll have to dig up some concrete to make that job work right and bury the line.

Goals for electrical:

-90-100A subpanel from main panel. I'd like to stick with 90A as it should be plenty for me for a compressor and my hobby welding, drill press, bench grinder, lathe, etc. Plus I can stick with MHF 2-2-2-4 line to bury. Two grounds 6' apart.
-20A outlets around the perimeter spaced probably every 4' at least, if not more. 2 circuits.
-LED lighting. I've got 4 or 5 LED T4 size fixtures that put out an impressive amount of light for their price from Lowe's/HD. More of these and some task lighting on specific areas/work benches.
-set up a welding corner, I'll need a 40-50A circuit. I got a hell of a deal on a Lincoln TIG that I couldn't pass up so it's sitting in the corner waiting on 220 to start running.


More to come I'm sure, I'll update when needed.

Future plans:

-siding. likely will redo when I tackle the roof/bumpout addition and have to tie into the sheathing/original building. Its got 1x diagonal fir for sheathing under the siding at this point I think.

-insulation. it doesn't get that cold in the PNW where we are, but it would be nice to have a shop that's able to be in in the winter. I wouldn't mind a little wood stove in the corner or even a gas furnace since we have gas to the house already, but I've got a few things to take care of first.

- redo floor. The original concrete floor is cracked pretty badly, a big plus basically down the center. I'd like to remove the floor since it seems to be poured separate from the rat walls on the side and insulate the floor, throw down some rebar and key it into the footing/rat walls so it doesn't every move/crack again. I'll be able to put down the high strength concrete so a lift can be used as well.

- I'd like to redo the slab area in front of the garage. It's a hodgepodge of three or four different pours and pieces, the slope is all wrong and it ends up letting water pool back towards the house foundation. Thankfully there doesn't appear to be any issues from this yet, but I'd like to pull up the concrete in front of the big door, regrade and put in some drainage to keep it away from the house. I think we could make this a nice patio area and put down paver stones in front and on the left side of the garage to help with moisture as well as keep the things clean/dry/off of the mud.

- as mentioned above, I'd like to add in some solar panels to help with both the garage and house daily needs. This is probably a few years down the road, but I'll keep this in mind with our designs.

Hmm, as this will probably be my build thread, I wonder if the mods could move me to the appropriate forum?

Looks good to me. Suggestion, no, Recommendation; Don't get wisteria, it's like Kudzu with bigger blossoms.

KEH

Powderm0nkey said:

Hmm, as this will probably be my build thread, I wonder if the mods could move me to the appropriate forum?

Click to expand...

Put a post in the Q&A section with a link to this thread. The mods are fairly quick to help you out.


I’ll follow along since the smaller Builds are much more reasonable and budget conscience.

KEH said:

Looks good to me. Suggestion, no, Recommendation; Don't get wisteria, it's like Kudzu with bigger blossoms.

KEH

Click to expand...

Very true. Back home in TN we got some for my mom and it's taken over the 10x18' pergola my brother and I built for her two summers ago. Out here in the PNW it's not really growing. I think it doesn't get hot enough. But point taken.

captain14 said:

Put a post in the Q&A section with a link to this thread. The mods are fairly quick to help you out.


I’ll follow along since the smaller Builds are much more reasonable and budget conscience.

Click to expand...

Ah, noted. I'll give that a try. Yeah, as much as I (and I think most of us) would love to have a 60x100' shop, it's just not really feasible. And I think I can make do with what I have right now. If it was a little taller. And had a bit more room. It will keep me from hoarding as much junk I think.

After some more research I think I have a plan for the walls and roof insulation. It's not heated/cooled at this time, only because it doesn't need to be, but it would be nice. But I think I'm going to put two layers (2") of XPS foam on the walls and roof before finishing it. This combined with the rock wool insulation in between the studs and purlins should suffice for a workshop. Definitely better than the nothing it has now.

So the roof would be:
1. trusses/purlins at 2 in 14 pitch.
2. 1/2" sheathing.
3. ice/water shield and/or 30# asphalt felt
4. 2" of rigid xps foam
5. tape joints between all seams of foam
6. ?repeat underlayment?
7. 1x4 nailer strips screwed/nailed to purlins (24 or 48 o.c. better?)
8. flashing/drip edges (eave edge goes underneath, rake edges go on top, high/top edge goes on top of it all.)

Then on the inside I can use 2x6 rockwool insulation in between the purlins and put up 4' metal roofing sheets in between the rafters to make it look finished. Would it be worthwhile to put any of the foil backed rigid insulation or xps on the inside as well? Then just screw through the metal, foam and into the bottom of the purlins? Just the outer foam and the inner insulation batts will be about R33, another sheet of foam board on the inside would be R38. I live in Western Oregon about 50 miles from the coast, is all this overkill? We are in zone 4 for insulation I believe. Since it's detached and not heated/cooled or occupied permanently will it have to hit the same code requirements?


Similar for the walls, but use house wrap instead of roof underlayment, then the siding goes on top. This gives it room to breath and shed water. Seems like a lot of extra work when the old way of nailing the siding to the diagonal 1x6 sheathing has lasted until now, almost 70 years. With lots and lots of paint.

GJ member naf305 posted a build thread here last summer and fall about a small bump out On his garage for his workshop. It was a tight fit on the property. Just for
An idea.

I’m sure other memebers will Add more specific thoughts to your questions above.

captain14 said:

GJ member naf305 posted a build thread here last summer and fall about a small bump out On his garage for his workshop. It was a tight fit on the property. Just for
An idea.

I’m sure other memebers will Add more specific thoughts to your questions above.

Click to expand...

Just read his thread. Neat build, and it was nice to see his progression and learning during the build. Thanks!