first time garaa....home owner

[blitzdemon]

intro-
names brad, 23, and bought my first house last month. mainly bought the place because of the garage size. house is like ~960sq ft and garage is like 912sq ft (24x38).

house - 2bd, 1ba, half finished basement, very new kitchen appliances.

garage
lighting - 2 8ft florencents and 2 300watt bulbs
walkthrough door can only open 90degrees cuz it hits the hanging heater
one garage door opener - broken
20amp service - breaker inside the house
4ft rafters
whole garage leans to the north and west

southwall leaning to the west

first order was to get everything straightened up...or as close to straight as possible.

south wall - windows were put in leveled in the leaning wall

after pulling on everything...it all came dam close to level. i was very surprised considering how far off it was. unfortunately i forgot to get pix of it with a level after we were done pulling.

materials

put in more rafters

subbox

60amp service coming from house (other conduit for coax and cat5)

insulated

hanging osb

1x4's used inbetween rafters to help support the seams

going with 12 -2x4 recessed troffers. going to box them in since im blowing insulation in the attic.

gasline moved to west wall. 10/2 is for compressor (will be put in conduit).

that's where it stands currently.
theres a new steal walkthrough door hung, oddly also dont have a pic of that yet.
got new windows sitting in my basement for the garage. those wont go in until spring however.
the heater i mentions earlier is broke. should be fixable since it looks decently taken care of. need to get it hung and hooked back up to troubleshoot.
i got some cabinets sitting at my parents house we picked up for cheap.

edit - forgot to mention ALL of the old electrical was stripped. the 2 8fters were wired together with lamp cord, thats how bad it all was.

questions/comments/suggestions are welcome. sorry for the disorganization.

 

[A_Pmech]

23 with a garag.... Err.. House. Not bad!

I just flipped though the thread as it's late, but you've done an enormous amount of work there. I see you chose OSB for the walls, presumably to add a shear diaphragm to help stabilize the walls from racking?

Looks like you have a nice space underway regardless. I'll be watching for updates!

Kinda partial to E-36's myself...

 

[g9m3c]

Nice! Glad to see you found, diagnosed, and repaired the structural issues first. It'll be interesting to see before and after pics!



Are you going to reframe the windows?

 

[cletus66]

The garage is as large as the house. It is good to see that you have your priorities in order. Keep up the good work !!!

 

[Big N8]

What state are you in???

Looks great.

 

[HAMAR]

Congrats on the new garage/house (garage no1.) good job you're doing there

 

[rinker1]

Your doing good at 23, it's always neat to watch a older garage turned into a working shop. Great job!

 

[z28snksknr]

I bet you aren't married . I had to pass up about 3-4 houses with incredible garages (4+ car) because "the house was ugly".

Now I have a 4BR house and a 2 car garage. It's only me and my wife.....

I'll be following this so I can live vicariously through your efforts. Nice garage and nice work so far. Keep us updated

 

[Ripcurl]

I bet you aren't married . I had to pass up about 3-4 houses with incredible garages (4+ car) because "the house was ugly".

x2. If it were just me, I'd sacrifice a 5 minute drive to work and a newly built home for a place with a garage outside the city. But then again if we weren’t together I wouldn’t be able to afford living on my own...

Have you done anything to ensure the structure doesnt keep leaning? or do you think the added rafters and OSB will hold it tight? Do you know why its sagging in the first place? failed foundation?
Regardless, keep up the progress and keep the pictures coming!

 

[blitzdemon]

Are you going to reframe the windows?

yes. picked up the windows already cuz they were on sale for like 20% off at the time. theyre same width but 1inch taller.

I bet you aren't married .

nope.

Have you done anything to ensure the structure doesnt keep leaning? or do you think the added rafters and OSB will hold it tight? Do you know why its sagging in the first place? failed foundation?
Regardless, keep up the progress and keep the pictures coming!

originally it was only a 2stall garage and then they added the 3rd stall on the north side. when they did that they took the north end wall and roof section and moved it out to the edge of the new 3rd stall. the cement work on the original 2stall ***** (footings? mainly).

ill get some better pix of the cement. maybe some1 has a suggestion on how to ensure it doesnt sag again.

im hoping the added rafters and using osb will keep it straight.

thanks for the comments guys. i cant take all the credit for the work done so far though. my dad, uncle, and couple friends have helped me out quite a bit.

 

[andersen24]

I wish when I was 23 I was smart enough to have saved money and purchased my first house! Beautiful place, and it is a mans mecca - having a garage damn near the same size as your home

The only thing I could recommend to help strengthen it is finish the rafters into trusses by making a web with some continuous lateral bracing, I had the exact same problem in my old garage (built in 1929). Made my rafters into trusses and that building wouldn't budge! Obviously if it has foundation issues, it will still creep over time, but it will delay the aging process I'll post a pic describing the lateral bracing. Awesome work!

 

[andersen24]

Here is a pic. Just a basic web design will work.

 

[JMURiz]

Good work, smart move squaring up the structure and using OSB to keep it all square. Can't wait to see the place all finished and painted up. A 3+ car garage would be awesome...you'll have fun filling it for sure.

 

[Mr. Jean]

You've been busy. Keep at it, I'll enjoy following along.

 

[Falcon67]

That is a sweet old building. Nice job on the squaring up.

When I built my new part on the old part I used 1x4 to cross brace everything - angled across the rafters, angled across the corners under the joists. Before I put the wall sections up, I inset 1x4 cross braces to keep them square. The old part of my shop had diagonal braces running across the rafters at an angle - those kept the roof pretty square even when the building had sunk almost 18" on once side. See one in the back ground here:

You can see some of the dip in my old building in this pic - by the time you got the 20' to the right in the photo, the plate was down nearly 18".

If you didn't have the OSB up already, I would have suggested 12~14' long 1x4s notched into the studs angled floor to ceiling to give diagonal stability. But lots of screws or nails in the OSB should do a similar job of keeping things in place.

 

[bazzateer]

What state are you in???

Aged 23, single, with a nice house and a superb garage? What state do you expect him to be in? A very, very happy one I reckon!

 

[blitzdemon]

fixing a hole in roof and removing the exhaust vent

heres the vent

and heres the hole right down from the vent

just a little hole, how bad can it be?

.......oh

help support rotted end of rafters and give us something to nail into

...put in a new piece of 3/4in plywood (didnt snap a pic of it)...

done

garage and house will need new shingles in few yrs so the mismatching isnt going to bother me.

 

[jwhcars]

Fantastic job you are doing bring the garage back to life. Good luck with your new home and garage....looking forward to seeing the finished project.

 

[michakaveli]

Great Thread!

 

[KMR Construction]

To solve your racking problem nail the osb every 4" with ring shank nails this will prevent further racking. nice job on the roof patch and work so far.

The old lady told me I couldn't build the garage till she got a new bathroom. I gutted the bathroom last tuesday. Now its go time for the garage

 

[jktruck150]

Great job on the repair work! You are definately able to move faster on your repairs than me. Makes me kind-of jealous! I look forward to see how your garage turns out. I am impressed already!!

 

[uniongoon]

You tied in the shingles correctly too. Do you work in construction? You appear to be pretty well learned.

 

[Hardware]

Nice Garage and Nice Job !

 

[blitzdemon]

thanks every1 for the compliments

To solve your racking problem nail the osb every 4" with ring shank nails this will prevent further racking. nice job on the roof patch and work so far.

all the osb has 1-3/8'' screws every ~6inches. figured screws would hold better and i can take pieces off if i need to fix/add/replace stuff (i.e when my new windows go in come spring).

You tied in the shingles correctly too. Do you work in construction? You appear to be pretty well learned.

dad and i learned from my uncle thats done roofing for long time.

 

[blitzdemon]

----UPDATE----

put exhaust vent for heater on other side (west) of garage
note the awesome circle maker

done. dont think we did it right but it shouldnt leak.

ladder to attic

cupboards

attic storage
put r-19 insulation under the flooring. going to blow in the rest

ceiling is all done. yayyyy

since all my pix seem to usually be looking towards the south wall....heres two looking towards the north wall.

 

[tcianci]

Super super!!!

I was 24 when I bought my land and built my home with an attached garage, 22x25...what was I thinking!!!! Great save, great work and keep it up!

 

[blitzdemon]

I HAVE LIGHT!!!!
soooooo glad i went with 12 and not 8 (like originally planned).

heats....its temporarily jimmy-rigged to work. thats my project for tomorrow. properly wire power for it and get thermostat wired.

shot of the tops of the lights.
http://www.icixsound.com/vb/icixnation/images/163_659.jpg

working on getting to the point where i can paint in 2 wkends.

 

[Weber1]

Wow...lots of work. Nice renovation.

 

[E30bimmer]

Excellent work Brad. Damn, when I was 23 I was enjoyin' my Graphics bong and listening to my stereo...

 

[Brunsi]

thats Graffix my friend ; )

 

[Curt_pnw]

wow it's come a long way already. nice job man! keep it up.

 

[crewchief888]

looks like it's gonna be a nice space when it's done. we passed up a couple places with garages that i liked, mainly my descision i knew if she didnt like the house that i'd never get anything done in the garage anyway lol.
ended up with a "typical" mid 60's 2 car garage, and a single lane driveway, i may eventually build a larger ( 36X36 ) garage behind the existing one and demo the old one when it's done, and keep the old garage floor in place.
i'll definitely go with radiant floor heat, floor drains, and i'd like to have 100 amp service out there too, and be able to "soundproof" a small area for my air compressor. i HATE listening to a compressor!!
currently i rent a 36x 40 steel building thats about 5 minutes from the house to keep my off road truck,a friends jeep, tools, and my fab equipment. the building *****, no insulation, no running water and 60 amp service. but the rent is cheap and it gets me away from the house for a while. just ***** working down there when it's really cold.

 

[blitzdemon]

getting the garage doors insulated.

garage door opener. you can also see the top right corner of the door finished off in the vinyl paneling. should look sharp when the rest gets covered in that. (dads idea)

all the light boxes got wrapped up.

trailer with the blower and 2 pallets of cellulose.

garage attic done.

i didn't take any pictures of the house attic. what was already up there was very uneven. it varied from 6-14inches. i got it all leveled out and had it all about 18inches. i already noticed my furnace running less frequently.

edit - didnt use the full 2 pallets. think we took back like 16bails. think total ended up being ~$525 for the cellulose.

 

[e-tek]

AWESOME WORK my man! Love to see a plan come to fruition. I was gonna blow in my own insulation, but for $1000 I had "them" do it - I hate crawling in the attic!

 

[79BlackPearl]

Awesome job on fixin' up that garage. I do have one observation.........

I use to work at Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and noticed you completely wrapped your lights. Typically, now that's "typically", sealing up a light fixture is a very serious "no-no"; unless the light is labeled "IC" meaning in contact. The problem is heat build up and catching the place on fire.

You might want to check the mfg's instruction very carefully to see if this is safe. Just something I noticed.....

Great job and keep up the work.

 

[blitzdemon]

I use to work at Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and noticed you completely wrapped your lights. Typically, now that's "typically", sealing up a light fixture is a very serious "no-no"; unless the light is labeled "IC" meaning in contact. The problem is heat build up and catching the place on fire.

You might want to check the mfg's instruction very carefully to see if this is safe. Just something I noticed.....

i spent 30mins on wait with metalux trying to find out if the troffers needed to be boxed in or not. they said they need 8-12inches of clearance on top.
u can see in the other pix that i used 1x12's on the ends and then boxed them in. theres about ~8inches of clearance
...or do i need to still have a vent out the top of each?
metalux 2GR8-432A are what all the lights are.

 

[79BlackPearl]

i spent 30mins on wait with metalux trying to find out if the troffers needed to be boxed in or not. they said they need 8-12inches of clearance on top.
u can see in the other pix that i used 1x12's on the ends and then boxed them in. theres about ~8inches of clearance
...or do i need to still have a vent out the top of each?
metalux 2GR8-432A are what all the lights are.

Since you have 8" clearance between the light and insulation and they require 8" - 12", I'd say you are good!!! No need to vent.

 

[rocco]

Awesome job on fixin' up that garage. I do have one observation.........

I use to work at Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and noticed you completely wrapped your lights. Typically, now that's "typically", sealing up a light fixture is a very serious "no-no"; unless the light is labeled "IC" meaning in contact. The problem is heat build up and catching the place on fire.

You might want to check the mfg's instruction very carefully to see if this is safe. Just something I noticed.....

Great job and keep up the work.

good observation - Troffers are NOT IC btw, you'll want to use something like this product to fix this problem:

http://www.tenmatusa.com/ff130-2.html

 

[boostedgt]

great job so far!! i wish i had your motivation, i bought my first house over 3 years ago and havent accomplished 10% of what you have!

 

[jktruck150]

Anything new done on the inside lately? Any new updates?