Above 1200 Sq/FT 30x40 + Garage Rebuild

[davey_darling]

Over the last few years I have torn down an old 30x40 shed and rebuilt it as a slightly larger garage.

Here are a few pics of the dismantling process. It was all shiplap and full dimension lumber. Likely built in the 1940's.

There were about 6 layers of shingles on the roof, that was not fun to strip.

 

[davey_darling]

Here you can see I finally got the roof off and numbered the wall sections in order to re-use them later.

If you're wondering why I had to tear down rather than repair, the original structure had a wood floor sitting on loose concrete block piers. Not suitable for what I wanted to end up with.

 

[davey_darling]

Finally the site is clear and ready for excavation.

 

[davey_darling]

Now time to get digging. I am blessed with extremely well drained sandy soil here. Excavation was a piece of cake. Had a gas line to work around but that will get relocated (eventually)

This stage was a bit of a nightmare as we kept getting rain and I was experiencing delays with the concrete provider.

 

[davey_darling]

Footings poured, Putting the ICF step wall together, bracing and adding rebar.

 

[davey_darling]

Finally walls are poured and foundation is backfilled. The process from start of excavation to walls complete was so anxiety inducing I swear it took a few years off my life.

Now you can finally see the shape of the garage - sort of a stretched "plus sign". 30x40 main area with a 5x15 bump-out on the front (thought that would look nicer from the street) and a 10x15 bump-out on the back (more room for stuff)

 

[davey_darling]

Now let's put those recycled walls back up and get the trusses in place. I'm a self-taught amateur so we'll call the walls "squarish" overall.

Truss package was designed and built locally.

By this point we are into the fall so anxiety about getting closed in for winter was starting to ramp up.

I wisely decided to have a local contractor stand up the trusses and put the roof on for me.

 

[davey_darling]

IN just a couple days the roof was up and shingled. Huge sigh of relief.

 

[davey_darling]

Time to start insulating and running wires. I had initially thought that I wanted to run everything on the surface in conduits but it started to make sense to run some wiring inside the walls and then bump out to conduit when needed.

 

[davey_darling]

Another big milestone - starting to put the reclaimed shiplap up on the ceiling. This was actually the floor from the building I tore down. Went up relatively easily using scaffolding and my trusty paslode nailer. Ran a few strings here and there to try to keep things straight with some success.

 

[davey_darling]

By now you've noticed the big hole in the middle of the ceiling. I had the trusses built with a coffer, the outside part of the ceiling is 10' and the inner raised part is 13' to accommodate a lift that I'd like to have in the future. I used 1/2" plywood pre-painted and then applied 1x4 in a grid pattern to cover the seams. Turned out pretty sharp, I think, You can see I've started to add the LED lighting in here as well. Man are they nice and bright.

 

[davey_darling]

An assortment of photos - wiring and installing the panel. I drilled new holes in the back of the panel to avoid having the wires pop out of the wall and then into the side of the panel. Makes for a nice clean look and leaves plenty of room for future EMT installation. Now I've started adding shiplap to the walls. So nice to be down off the scaffolding.

 

[davey_darling]

More shiplap installation and some overall views of the space so far.

 

[davey_darling]

Zoning regs required me to attach the garage to the house on the property, so that's what I'm doing here. Will become a new entryway for the small apartment back there.

 

[davey_darling]

Ok, this first pic is of some formwork I did to create a new utility room. Over the course of the build I decided that I didn't want my heating system taking up space in the garage so I squared off one of the corners of the + sign shape and made what ended up being a 7x10 utility room. It's wired for possibly future compressor and dust collector and that's where the boiler lives.

The rest of the pics show plumbing rough-in,styrofoam, vapour barrier, rebar and pex installed in anticipation of the slab being poured.

 

[davey_darling]

More anxiety - it felt like I waited for weeks after it was ready to get the slab poured. It's very hard to find contractors where I am.

But the day finally came! I admit I almost got a little emotional walking in there for the first time.

I quickly framed up my utility room and got a roof over it - it was getting cold and I wanted that boiler in ASAP! (notice the snow on the ground on the second to last pic)

 

[davey_darling]

Ok, the heat is now on - time to install the garage doors and start moving all of my junk in there! I had some random benches and shelving in my other garage, it'll have to do for now.

 

[davey_darling]

Well I'm having a Christmas party for the guys in here so I better get the bathroom done.

Last pic shows the view from the best seat in the house.

 

[davey_darling]

I guess that's it for now. I've got years of organizing and finishing ahead of me, I think, but for now it's very functional and I'm out there every day.

This is definitely something that's been missing from my life since I left my parents farm 30 years ago!

Having a warm place to work all winter has been absolutely heavenly.

Oh, and that lift showed up much sooner than anticipated in the form of a used Rotary.

Thanks for reading and please, sincerely, if you have any comments, questions, or "why the heck did you do it that way's", please chime in as I love to learn and discuss these things.

This forum was a tremendous resource during the planning and building stages. Hopefully I can give some of that back to the community here.

 

[Chrisb62]

Looks great.
Wonderful rebirth of a old building , love the ship lapping.
What vehicle is in hidden away in the garage?

 

[davey_darling]

Looks great.
Wonderful rebirth of a old building , love the ship lapping.
What vehicle is in hidden away in the garage?

Thanks, that's my '48 International KB-1. Another work in progress.

 

[losdudes]

Turning out nice.

 

[Jayman17]

Great looking project, way to build in character using recycled materials. Enjoy your new shop!

 

[captain14]

Looks good. How did you store all the reclaimed lumber from the old garage? I saw one trailer full in one of the pics.

Are you installing a shower and laundry sink someplace for cleanups?

 

[CombatNinja]

Love it. Very few people would've taken the time and care to dismantle that and rebuild it like that. It is all the better for it.

 

[davey_darling]

Looks good. How did you store all the reclaimed lumber from the old garage? I saw one trailer full in one of the pics.

Are you installing a shower and laundry sink someplace for cleanups?

I have another property that I stored a bunch of the lumber on, once the roof was on I also brought a bunch of it inside the building so I could work on it over the winter. I still have more lumber stacked up than I know what to do with.. Some real nice fir 2x10's 15 feet long.

I roughed in a shower, yes but haven't installed yet. Still experiencing some sticker shock on the shower units.

I have been on the lookout for a stainless steel basin sink, for now this old plastic laundry tub that I had kicking around will do. Salvaged an old road sign for a backsplash.

 

[ng8264723]

Beautiful work!
Most people would of thrown the walls and wood away!
I love how you saved it!

 

[68400BIRD]

The inside of the garage looks awesome. It has so much character. What did you end finishing the outside of the garage in??

 

[davey_darling]

The inside of the garage looks awesome. It has so much character. What did you end finishing the outside of the garage in??

Tyvek, so far

The plan is to do the back and sides in steel and the front with hardi-siding to match the exterior of the house.

At the moment this is fairly low on my priority list.

 

[Stuntmonkey]

What an awesome "rebuild". Found it as I was looking for ICF info! Building a new home and garage in BC and was looking for experiences. Love the design of the shop and that coffer in the ceiling!