GLTHFJ60's Garage Expansion, Phase 1

[GLTHFJ60]

all you need to do is put in a couple 2x12's perpendicular to the ones you already have in place to sort of make a box and the door is the top of it. I'm too old and a little to fat to crawl in under my trap door to take a picture so hope this description helps.

if you want to make the door from an edge of the room then you only need to add one 2x12 and i'm guessing your joists are 12 or 16 inch on center so there should be plenty of room to screw in or nail the new 2x12 in place from the sides.

I gotcha, a box cut in the joists and the subfloor cut back a bit so that the trap door just rests on the joists.

Will have to think about that some more. Not sure it'll be worth it if only because I won't fit in the space!

 

[drivesitfar]

i have about 12 inches in our crawl space from the joists to the concrete pad my previous owner poured under the entire house so i know what you mean. i can get from area to area and usually do any work in between the joists.

i just wanted to let you know about making access while you still had it open and also sine i see a gas pipe and some ducting that might need attention or some modifications later. or if the dryer ducting plugs up replacing it would be a pain, but doable with access.

good luck

 

[GLTHFJ60]

i have about 12 inches in our crawl space from the joists to the concrete pad my previous owner poured under the entire house so i know what you mean. i can get from area to area and usually do any work in between the joists.

i just wanted to let you know about making access while you still had it open and also sine i see a gas pipe and some ducting that might need attention or some modifications later. or if the dryer ducting plugs up replacing it would be a pain, but doable with access.

good luck

Totally understood, just thinking it through!! I'll have to give it a test later today to see if I'll fit in a space that small.

Thanks for the input!!

 

[drivesitfar]

also since you have over kill with the size of those beams for that little room you could even sawsall out maybe 3 or so inches off the bottom of a few of them just to get access to the duct work and pipe.

or come over to our GET HEALTHY thread and lose a few pounds with me and a few other members so you CAN squeeze into a hole and under those beams.

another way to maybe keep from tiling an access door is to not tile under the dryer and just screw another piece of plywood on top to match the depth of the tile you are installing. that way your subfloor would have a little more protection in case your washer had a spill or exploded and water went everywhere.

good luck

 

[GLTHFJ60]

It's not about being fat, it's about size. I'm 6'2" and although that's not that tall, 11" of clearance is wicked tight. Tried it out yesterday and decided I'd rather tear out the floor than do that again, so I floored it in, no access hatch. Worst case scenario, I can cut a hole in the floor and put one in later down the line.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Found motivation to do the subfloor yesterday. Middle sheet took a while as we had to cut in the dryer duct, dryer gas line and HVAC duct, but she got done.

Each inch of this insulation has an R value of ~6, so these two inch boards have an R value of ~12. Was contemplating putting another two inches of insulation in the floor but decided not to.

 

[drivesitfar]

you had me laughing out loud with the one about not wanting to try crawling under that floor again.

if you want to store stuff under there and use the open areas in your stud wall to push things in and pull them out of you might just buy some expanding foam and seal up the holes that lead under your house and then you don't have to worry as much about Critters getting in there. or close it up and forget it cause you can make that kind of storage from the ceiling if you really need some.

looking good and BTW just cause i wanted you to join the GET HEALTHY thread didn't mean i said you were FAT. it's all about quality of life and thought your sense of humor would be nice to hear in that thread. you are welcome to join if you have time. some of the members have posted on there and stopped drinking, smoking and some have even lost a 100 or so pounds. as yet not a one has asked how to stop any horizontal exercising.

cheers

 

[GLTHFJ60]

you had me laughing out loud with the one about not wanting to try crawling under that floor again.

if you want to store stuff under there and use the open areas in your stud wall to push things in and pull them out of you might just buy some expanding foam and seal up the holes that lead under your house and then you don't have to worry as much about Critters getting in there. or close it up and forget it cause you can make that kind of storage from the ceiling if you really need some.

looking good and BTW just cause i wanted you to join the GET HEALTHY thread didn't mean i said you were FAT. it's all about quality of life and thought your sense of humor would be nice to hear in that thread. you are welcome to join if you have time. some of the members have posted on there and stopped drinking, smoking and some have even lost a 100 or so pounds. as yet not a one has asked how to stop any horizontal exercising.

cheers

Hahaha! Yes sir. I need to go take a look at the GET HEALTHY thread for sure!

I'm going to look into building a little box underneath to store long stuff like axle shafts. Maybe I can work out a way to build a drawer or set of drawers into the floor underneath after the fact, something real simple.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Wall drawings. Wasn't planning on doing anything special here unless someone has a brilliant idea

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: well you mentioned drawers in stud wall under the floor so i'll mention shelving in the stud walls if you might have a need. might be a good place to show off an old oil can collection or hold your paint cans? or just sheet rock and put up shelving on the outside and put insulation in the 3 inches of space.

make sure to maybe put a few electrical plugs in the room if you haven't already. i can't recall if you already did them and I need to run.

cheers

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I was planning on doing shelving over the drywall once that's up. Need to focus on getting this room walled and insulated because it's starting to get cold!! The studwall will be insulated for sure.

As for electrical plugs, there will be one for the washer/dryer, that's it. How many should I put on this 9' wall? Also, think it will be a problem having the door on the short wall right next to the corner?

 

[drivesitfar]

I was just thinking about maybe having some outlets on those walls for your shop, but you might need one for an iron unless you both do that inside the house.

Because you want to get the walls insulated and closed up you can even put in a couple boxes and run wires to the attic or open beams to hook up later.

i'd still put the door on the 9 foot wall, but you know how the space is going to be used so
your call

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I see what you're saying now, put outlets on the wall facing the garage. Hadn't thought of that, need to figure that out. Good call!!

 

[drivesitfar]

if you do you might put one inside for an ironing board or some other thing you might need it for.

good luck

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Didn't get the walls put together or put up. Pulled some more drywall to be able to install blocking for the new walls to nail to. In doing so I found more electrical *******.

Here's the blocking we put in, between the window and next stud on the stud wall and then the blocking between joists in the ceiling:

Zoomed out electrical *******:

So on that wall behind the ladder we find this specimen. The switch had a switch plate on it on the outside of the wall, but it was a single gang switch plate. The second half of this box was just drywalled over. In here you can see the single conductor coming down into this box for god knows what reason.

One of the wires coming out of this box fed this little guy, who was drywalled and insulated over. Super safe:

We've had a few switches in the house that seem to do nothing. No idea why they exist. Well, turns out one of the switches in the kitchen switches this open wire on, so that's good.

Today after work I'm hoping to have motivation to correct as much of this wiring as I can. At a minimum, I'll be removing an outlet and associated switch with that single conductor, then removing this open wire in the wall and terminating the run in a box. The wire that feeds this open wire runs to another room through the ceiling so I won't be able to pull the whole thing, but at least I'll be able to terminate it correctly within a box.

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: unfortunately that electrical issue is something that young homeowners were taught by their GET R DONE grandparents, relatives or friends of which some were DARWIN AWARD WINNERS.

i'm not an electrician but i'd try to correct as much of that as you can before sealing up the walls. first off buy a box of wire staples and metal plates. i'd turn the circuits off and maybe pull some of the wires apart and eight put in new junction boxes (might need to buy a couple) in the ceiling because that mess on the wall was not looking good at all. also do your best to either drill holes in the studs for wires and/or cover the wood over them with those metal plates i mentioned.

it's a great time to put in an extra circuit for some wall outlets in that new wall you are going to build.

best of luck and take pictures and ask if you have issues and i think there is an electrical section of GJ i've never posted on where some great members that are a lot handier than me post regularly if you have questions you might post over there too.

 

[MNSam]

I had no idea that the previous owners of my house owned yours too! I ran into those exact same electrical issues in more than one spot.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

GLTH: unfortunately that electrical issue is something that young homeowners were taught by their GET R DONE grandparents, relatives or friends of which some were DARWIN AWARD WINNERS.

i'm not an electrician but i'd try to correct as much of that as you can before sealing up the walls. first off buy a box of wire staples and metal plates. i'd turn the circuits off and maybe pull some of the wires apart and eight put in new junction boxes (might need to buy a couple) in the ceiling because that mess on the wall was not looking good at all. also do your best to either drill holes in the studs for wires and/or cover the wood over them with those metal plates i mentioned.

it's a great time to put in an extra circuit for some wall outlets in that new wall you are going to build.

best of luck and take pictures and ask if you have issues and i think there is an electrical section of GJ i've never posted on where some great members that are a lot handier than me post regularly if you have questions you might post over there too.

Yes sir, we're on the same page there!! Planning to tackle the electrical tonight. Picked up a bunch of boxes another switchbox and am planning on making another trip (or two) to Lowes before it's all over

My plan is to take that one switch on the wall and have it switch just one overhead light in the mudroom. Everything else will be removed. Wires from that location that feed other draws in the garage will be removed if possible.

Some things I won't be able to correct at this time. There are two wires I can see that go into the ceiling in the adjacent room (kitchen) and I'm not about to pull down cabinets and ceiling to do something with those. That's scope creep I can't handle at this time.

I had no idea that the previous owners of my house owned yours too! I ran into those exact same electrical issues in more than one spot.

Don't you love it? Makes me want to tear all of the drywall out of the whole house to start over and re-wire the entire thing.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Got one wall made and put up last night. Tonight will be electrical and the other wall if I can get the electrical sorted before it's too late.

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: for those wires that end in the cabinets are they live? for the time being you might make a couple junction boxes up in the attic and deal with that later.

one thing i see and not sure how many little critters you have in your area, but you might want to screw up some temp boards over the holes on your stud wall that gives access to under your home. especially with it getting cooler all kinds of things wander in the garage and look for warm places. even if you are able to poison them when they die in the insulation it don't smell good.

one of the members posted a cool 5 gallon bucket trap where he has caught 31 mice so far this month i think in his garage in Maine. i'll try to find that thread again and post pictures of it which is pretty effective sounds like. also a mouse can get in a hole no bigger than a dime so be ready to caulk or use that expansion foam to seal everything up when you finish your work.

good luck re wiring the mess and ask if you have questions and maybe an electrician will see your question will help if i can't.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Looking good!

 

[drivesitfar]

i think this is peanut butter on a pop or beer can. paint sticks with access from both sides and as i mentioned it works. not sure you have a mouse or rat issue, but i see you have a lot of trees so you probably have something around that you don't want to live with. yes?

one other thing if you put waferboard or plywood on the garage side it might be easier to put up shelving, signs or whatever than if it is sheetrock.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

GLTH: for those wires that end in the cabinets are they live? for the time being you might make a couple junction boxes up in the attic and deal with that later.

one thing i see and not sure how many little critters you have in your area, but you might want to screw up some temp boards over the holes on your stud wall that gives access to under your home. especially with it getting cooler all kinds of things wander in the garage and look for warm places. even if you are able to poison them when they die in the insulation it don't smell good.

one of the members posted a cool 5 gallon bucket trap where he has caught 31 mice so far this month i think in his garage in Maine. i'll try to find that thread again and post pictures of it which is pretty effective sounds like. also a mouse can get in a hole no bigger than a dime so be ready to caulk or use that expansion foam to seal everything up when you finish your work.

good luck re wiring the mess and ask if you have questions and maybe an electrician will see your question will help if i can't.

Thanks for the offer!! The plan is to have this drywalled in by next week, so the critters shouldn't be much of a concern. Garage door is closed 95% of the time while at work and working on this project at home.

EDIT: The wires that go into the adjacent room are live and I suspect that they're powering lights in the kitchen.

Looking good!

Thank you! Thanks for reading!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Spent 4.5 hours on Friday working out the electrical. Rewired the garage such that the overhead lights have a single switch and so that the mudroom has a single overhead light on a switch. Realized that there were 3 different 3-way switch pairs in the garage and pulled them all apart. Removed this much wire from the garage (orange was me, welder circuit, removed for a re-route):

Took this BS:

Turned it into this. Switch on the right is now for the overhead light in the laundry room:

Finished off yesterday with nail plates and an outlet for the washer/dryer:

Saturday we framed the short wall according to drawings and put it in:

Yesterday after some wrenching on a friend's truck we got 95% of the drywall up and hung the door:

Tonight I need to pick up one more sheet of drywall as well as insulation, then hopefully tonight we'll be able to get the taping and mudding started

We're getting there!!

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: i can't see or tell if the wiring it perfect or not, but it looks 1 million % better that is for certain. i like how you put the metal plates over the wood where you drilled holes in the wood to run them through the walls. WELL DONE!!

one thing i do (and i don't sheet rock myself often anymore) is if i'm making cuts i try to maybe use up a bit more sheet rock so i can use the shallow made areas for most of my seams. since it's your laundry room it should be ok. mudding and taping is an art so i wish you the best if you are not hiring a pro and doing it yourself.

I liked your ideas for drawers or doors for access to storage under the floor of the laundry room, but i would get it closed up cause even one of those furry critters inside your crawl space would be more than enough to upset me and especially my bride.

cheers and keep up the great work cause you are almost done with this project now.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Thank you sir!! We've still got a bit more drywall to do, some of the gaps are still too big. I'm realizing that I messed up in that I should have made it so that the walls consumed an even number of sheets of drywall, or at least arranged the sheets in a way that there weren't little gaps everywhere. Live and learn!

Will get the holes along the bottom filled up ASAP!

As for being almost done, I'm getting close with the laundry room, but then still have the rest of the garage to take care of It'll be a while before I'm done with this phase.

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: i know i was just being positive about you just being done. once you do a bit of drywall you'll learn to waste drywall to make seams nicer and make fewer of them if possible cause mudding and taping is the hardest part so not making it harder is nice.

it might be too late and you might not have enough room, but i put in an ironing board in bewteen the studs (inset) in our little laundry room that really works nicely instead of having to pull out the ironing board all the time and then put it away. i was looking to post just a picture of one so you'd see what i mean, but it came with an amazon ad so here's the link. i still don't have an oak door on mine and my wife and kids have never complained cause easier to get to work without the door.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0073D8FL8/?tag=atomicindus08-20

good luck

 

[pringa8]

Sweet cruiser and quite the project! Will be watching your progress.

Few of us in Durham on here now. We're over on the North side of town, just south of the Eno.

Talk about a small world GLTH, I just saw this thread and realized I live 3 houses down from you!

Me and the missus just had our garage built, the white house across the deputy's 'compound'.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Talk about a small world GLTH, I just saw this thread and realized I live 3 houses down from you!

Me and the missus just had our garage built, the white house across the deputy's 'compound'.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Across the street from Bryce? No way!! I've been drooling over your garage build Have a thread?

We need to share a beer at some point. It's funny (and kinda sad) that we're literally neighbors and met through a forum

 

[pringa8]

Across the street from Bryce? No way!! I've been drooling over your garage build Have a thread?

We need to share a beer at some point. It's funny (and kinda sad) that we're literally neighbors and met through a forum [emoji38]_hitti

That's the one!

With all the **** I've been going through with this build I wasn't going to jinx it by posting photos before the final sign-off, but it should be this week, should be...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[pringa8]

Across the street from Bryce? No way!! I've been drooling over your garage build Have a thread?

We need to share a beer at some point. It's funny (and kinda sad) that we're literally neighbors and met through a forum [emoji38]_hitti

And yes, beers are on the cards [emoji106]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[GLTHFJ60]

That's the one!

With all the **** I've been going through with this build I wasn't going to jinx it by posting photos before the final sign-off, but it should be this week, should be...

And yes, beers are on the cards [emoji106]

Good luck sir

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Put a wire run in the wall of 10/2 for future outlets. Not sure how I want to wire them yet, but the run is there for when I figure it out.

Got the walls insulated. Regular R-13 pink owens corning:

Got the bottom 8" of drywall up as well around the outside. DRIVESITFAR, happy now that the crawlspace is sealed up?

Meanwhile my better half hung the last piece of drywall inside, taped the room and began mudding.

We're getting there!

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: insulation, sheet rock, wiring is making great progress. WELL DONE and keep it up.

maybe the best thing about this forum is getting to know the people and looks like you met one of your neighbors. also great that he's in the building process to maybe help guide you through the MUDDY WATERS of the permit process for the next Phase or two of the garage expansions.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Wide shot of the garage after hanging the drywall:

Got an outlet put in for the TV and TV stand hung. Built stairs for the laundry room and taped/mudded everything. Not going to paint the drywall facing the garage, no point IMHO.

Got the POD unloaded as well. Damn does this place fill up fast. Can you believe all of this stuff was stuffed into the small *** garage before?

Have started finding homes for most of this stuff, just need to spend a LOT of time organizing.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Wired and tested the welder circuit. Stuck a piece of drywall behind the TV to cover the insulation and finish out that area. Realized that my wire rack shelf fits perfectly inbetween the water heater and wall, so that's a win.

Kinda sorta getting there, but still feels cluttered as ****. I need to build a damn shed.

Finished sanding the laundry/mudroom

We picked out this nice wisteria tree color from lowes and painted the walls. Ceiling is flat white as is tradition.

Did a couple little things like switchplates and a new insulated light fixture, then called it done for the night.

Next week will be tile. Hoping to knock that and the door replacement out quickly so that the inside of the house is back to normal

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: you might find a 7x7 Rubbermaid shed on Craigslist like I did that i put 1/2 inch plywood on the floor and put in some heavy racks and it holds a ton if you don't have time to build a shed.

i like that you 45'd off the edge of the stairs. GOOD THINKING

you'll be done soon and you should be cramped otherwise you wouldn't need Phase 2 & 3.

keep up the good work.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

GLTH: you might find a 7x7 Rubbermaid shed on Craigslist like I did that i put 1/2 inch plywood on the floor and put in some heavy racks and it holds a ton if you don't have time to build a shed.

i like that you 45'd off the edge of the stairs. GOOD THINKING

you'll be done soon and you should be cramped otherwise you wouldn't need Phase 2 & 3.

keep up the good work.

That's a good idea. I've thought about it, but haven't found the right deal yet. Maybe I need to look harder!!



Starting to think about putting an in-floor scissor lift in the garage, then a proper two-post in during phase two. Thoughts?

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/FM9SL-In-Ground-Lift

 

[drivesitfar]

GLTH: i don't own a lift and don't even have my car in a garage, but i have seen a few and if you want a two post i'd probably say a Max Jax might be my first choice. here's one of my favorite threads and Woody is a great guy and he installed his after raising the roof in his garage maybe a couple years ago so check out the beginning of the thread

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=263351&highlight=woody

lots of threads about Max Jax on GJ and on lifts in general if you have time to research and read a bit. here's a few videos.

http://www.maxjaxusa.com/videos/

also IronGrave just bought a shed at a county fair i think and had instant 12 x 25 storage or workshop.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344146

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Past couple of days you've had me thinking hard about the maxjax. I realized that the in-floor lift wouldn't allow me to lift bodies off of my trucks, which would be a problem for me, especially when working on Ford Powerstrokes

Trying to work out buying a small mill now. I think I'd like having a mill a bit more than the maxjax at this point. Maybe even a mill and a lathe

Went on a trip this weekend to Portsmouth Island with my LC club this past weekend, so nothing got done on the garage, but we had a blast

Last night I got the cement backer down in thinset then screwed to the floor. Fought with the straight line tile cutter I got from Lowes and broke three tiles. Was quite frustrating. Will be picking up a rental tile saw tonight to hopefully finish up the tiling.

Looking forward to being able to do laundry again!