Justintiime's Garage/Loft build thread!

[justintiime]

pretty soon in a few days (11-26-12) I have The Overhead Door Company coming out to install my Liftmaster operator!

Then on 11-29-12 I have the contractor coming out to start the insulation and sheetrocking. Definitely excited! I've always wanted a garage

 

[justintiime]

Garage door operator is in, and working great!

Heres the old unit

Here are the pusher springs needed to keep tension on the door so it will close

My contractor flaked out. He seriously misquoted me. He said $3800 for sheetrock and insulation upstairs and downstairs. 4 days before he was to start he said the price was $1600 extra for labor. I told him to take a hike. I got quotes from about 8 other contractors...I think I've found someone to start the week of December 10th.

 

[justintiime]

So the insulators were supposed to come yesterday. No call/no show. Pretty irritating especially since I took a day off of work to be home. I raised a little hell, and they promised to be at the house by 9:30am today. They were here at 7:30!! Plus they took a little off the bill for me.

First things first....the insulator pointed out that there was some sheetrock on the ceiling upstairs, and also on the end walls that needed to be removed so they could get behind it. DOH! I forgot about that! Well, we ripped it all out by hand in maybe 3-4 minutes. It was all NAILED in. Shouldn't it be held in with screws???

Heres the mess.

They unloaded about half of the insulation. The guy stood in the back of the truck and his smoking hot girlfriend caught it in the window upstairs. This is what was left for downstairs

They insulated the ceiling and rafters of the upstairs

And insulated the "knee wall" as they called it (from the downstairs level)

They then unloaded the rest of the insulation

The guy then put on the coolest set of stilts I'd ever seen. They had a suspension system! LOL!

The end result was insulation the ceiling

And all the walls

 

[justintiime]

Im super happy with my first garage

 

[zrides]

Looks like it is really coming along, the decks are pretty sweet, you will notice a huge difference with insulation, temperature maintaining is very easy.

 

[justintiime]

They stuffed insulation around the vent pipe for the heater. When I asked if that was safe, he stated he removed the paper, so its fine. What do you guys think?

 

[CNGsaves]

Great transformation on the garage and bonus attic room. You've now set standard that every garage you'll ever have is fully insulated and heated/cooled . . . NICE!

Looks like your fix-up work on small storage may have been better than the licensed contractor. It's looking good with the retaining wall and improvements in the foundation. If you still have access underneath the shed, I'd lay down a vapor barrier like heavy plastic which will extend the life of shed. Bunch of gravel in front of shed door after putting down landscape fabric will keep water from damaging shed again.

For the deck, I don't think you'll get full life you might if all those structural footings have dirt all around the concrete since now the wooden 4x4's are covered in dirt (everything I've read about decks says those supports should be out of the dirt). If it were mine, I'd dig all that dirt back out and put a bunch of gravel down there so water can drain away and wood stays dry with no dirt around them.

Bunch of pictures also are gone (Photobucket?) for this thread. Can that be fixed.

Overall, you've got very nice garage! Keep pics a coming.

 

[justintiime]

just fixed all the broken links. thanks for pointing it out!

 

[justintiime]

Drywall, mud, screws all delivered today. My neighbor works for a building supply compan. I bought all the materials, and had free delivery. My total was $700.

57 sheets of 4x12 1/2" thick drywall
3 5 gallon buckets of mud
2 5 pound boxes of screws

this thing is a life (and back) saver

 

[justintiime]

Drywall started going up today. I should have some progress pictures tomorrow

 

[CNGsaves]

Just was noticing how close your hanging heater is to the wall. I thought there was supposed to be something like 12 to 18 inches behind the heater so it could draw in air for the fan??

Regarding insulation around heater ... you have horizontal or vertical flue? Use double-wall flue pipe? I'm planning my heater install and was told by plumber to have ring around flue (ie separation from insulation) once it went above the drywall ceiling. Was that clarified on your install?

 

[nw2571]

It looks like you insulated the downstairs ceiling below the loft. Just curious why you went this route rather than relying on the downstairs heat to heat the loft? Trying to decide how I want to insulate my ceiling and loft.

 

[justintiime]

Just was noticing how close your hanging heater is to the wall. I thought there was supposed to be something like 12 to 18 inches behind the heater so it could draw in air for the fan??

Regarding insulation around heater ... you have horizontal or vertical flue? Use double-wall flue pipe? I'm planning my heater install and was told by plumber to have ring around flue (ie separation from insulation) once it went above the drywall ceiling. Was that clarified on your install?

I have 8.5" from the wall. The propane company says its fine, and the county inspector said it was fine. I'll call Mr Heater tomorrow to verify. Maybe theres a heat reflective "something" I can put on there to help. I have a horizontal, double walled flue. Its directly from Mr. Heater for this application.

It looks like you insulated the downstairs ceiling below the loft. Just curious why you went this route rather than relying on the downstairs heat to heat the loft? Trying to decide how I want to insulate my ceiling and loft.

My ultimate plan is to put some old school style registers in the floor upstairs. This will allow the heat to rise to the second floor, with the help of the 3 ceiling fans I have in the garage.

 

[CNGsaves]

Glad to hear there's some room behind the hanging heater. Let us know if works well to heat the entire garage once it's going.

Good luck on sheetrock install . . . . and +1 on firing guy wanting to rip you off! 20 yrs ago when basement finished on my old house, labor was only $1,100 for around 1,200 sq ft of sheetrocking both walls and ceiling for entire basement!

Curious if you're putting in air lines in the wall (ie copper or black pipe) that will be done before the sheetrocking?

 

[justintiime]

I want to, but its too late now.

I dont think I've mentioned it, but upstairs I am going to put 1 access door on each wall so i can get to the trusses. The trusses will have OSB on them so I can access/use them all for storage. I'm going to put my compressor up there, and I will run a hard line to the center of the ceiling with a retractable hose reel. It will be all I need, really.

I'm getting super excited. The ceiling is done and the mud is being applied now. Let me go grab a picture.

Cell phone pictures:

 

[justintiime]

Progress:

 

[justintiime]

I've left the propane heater on the last couple days to help with the mud drying. They are pretty much finished and wont be back until after the holidays to sand the mud. I do have a question. They put the first coat on pretty thick, and I'm seeing some cracking. Is this normal? My father said that once they sand it all down and see where they need to apply a second coat, it should all be fine. Some spots may take 3 coats.

Oh, they installed my new 32" door upstairs too I'll get some pictures today. I hope to be painting during my new years break

 

[justintiime]

OK no harm, no foul. After sanding, and a second coat of mud, things are looking right!

I hauled all the construction **** off to the dump yesterday in my little 5x8 trailer. Somehow there was 1500 pounds of **** in there!

 

[M-technik-3]

Looks great I bet next year it will be a nice cool 75 degrees in there when it's 100 degrees outside.

Was there no place in your immediate area that does expanding closed cell insulation? This goes in fast and tends to be cheaper in new construction.

 

[mdkingsley]

Looking great, it should be a really nice place to work hang out and store the Poncho's. Is that a Super Duty Catalina? No pics of the smokin hot girlfriend were shown, disapointing.

 

[652plus2]

I might be able to save you a lot of heartache with your Pontiac sign. I had the same idea for the led tubes lights for a Sunoco sign I have. I absolutely jammed it full of led tube...like 25 feet of it, carefully laid out and zip tied in a pattern to cover every square inch of the interior of the sign. When I hung it up and turned it on, you couldn't even tell it was lighted. After all that, I went back to small fluorescents like you would use under cabinets and it worked like a charm...

 

[justintiime]

Looks great I bet next year it will be a nice cool 75 degrees in there when it's 100 degrees outside.

Was there no place in your immediate area that does expanding closed cell insulation? This goes in fast and tends to be cheaper in new construction.

No-one around here does that expanding foam. I did look into it. I'm hoping that tax cuts will be extended and I can use the insulation bill as a nice deduction

Looking great, it should be a really nice place to work hang out and store the Poncho's. Is that a Super Duty Catalina? No pics of the smokin hot girlfriend were shown, disapointing.

Thanks for the kind words And no, its not a super duty catalina. Its just a run of the mill catalina with an upgraded "ventura" option. Average 400ci with a 2 barrel carb and single exhaust. Its a family car. It cruises the highway at 75 with all the new cars just fine The girlfriend (now wife ) isn't very photogenic. I do have a crappy small pic but it shows how well she dresses up

I might be able to save you a lot of heartache with your Pontiac sign. I had the same idea for the led tubes lights for a Sunoco sign I have. I absolutely jammed it full of led tube...like 25 feet of it, carefully laid out and zip tied in a pattern to cover every square inch of the interior of the sign. When I hung it up and turned it on, you couldn't even tell it was lighted. After all that, I went back to small fluorescents like you would use under cabinets and it worked like a charm...

Thanks for the input! All is appreciated. What lights did you use exactly? I'm looking on the Lowes website and the prices are like $40 per light I've been looking into LED strip lights which seem TONS brighter than a rope light.

 

[justintiime]

I have an idea for the huge Pontiac sign.....

I can't find any easy or cheap way to light this sign effectively. I got to thinking, when I'm in the garage, the lights will probably be on. The sign will probably not stand out very much while illuminated.

SO, I was thinking...where the sign will be mounted, just paint that part of the wall black. That way the white/red sign will contrast with the black it will absolutely "pop" out at you! I mean, its a huge sign, theres no way you CAN'T see it.

What do you think?

 

[BlindViper]

Your contractor who installed the a/c in the wall is a idiot. He did not install a header in that load bearing wall.

 

[Cobra4B]

Nice progress... you post on VaDriven right?

 

[canam]

Its looking awesome!

 

[justintiime]

Cobra, I used to, a LONG time ago. Probably went by Racer001.

Sheetrock and mud is done now. Trim is 90% done. Should be finished tomorrow!! Then I get to paint

 

[justintiime]

Sheetrock/Mud/Trim are all DONE!!
Old

New

New trim. Nothing fancy, it is a garage after all

Even trimmed out the AC unit

Before

After

heres the loft!!

Far wall
Before

After

Old crappy door that wouldnt shut

New door!

I have the propane heater downstairs and the space heater upstairs going to help cure any leftover wet mud. Tomorrow I'm going to mix up a ton of leftover paint I have to use for Primer. I have to decide how I want to paint everything. Probably get the paint tomorrow and paint it this weekend.

HAPPY!!

 

[M-technik-3]

Amazing what a structure looks like after enclosed. Makes it feel so much warmer.

 

[justintiime]

Not to mention with all the insulation, after the heater runs about 5 minutes, it is TOASTY in there!

 

[justintiime]

Ceiling is all primed

Walls are all primed

I used Olympic primer ($32 for 5 gallons from Lowes) on the ceiling and top of the walls. On the bottom of the walls I used a bunch of leftover paint I had since it was free, and I'm painting the bottom a dark grey it should cover just fine

The ceiling will be done in a bright white, with "sand paint" texture added to it. The top half of the walls will be bright white. As per "mauls" on this forum, I'm going to copy him a little and paint the bottom of the walls in Olympic "Knights Armor". I'm also going to add strips like his but with a twist I will share later.

tomorrow I'm going to paint the walls white and grey and let it dry real good. After that I'm going to tape off the walls at the top and do all the sand paint. never worked with it before so I hope its not too hard to use.

 

[justintiime]

More progress today but it doesn't show very well in the pictures.

This crappy Olympic paint requires 2 coats...even the dark stuff!

I've done one coat of white with sand texture on the ceiling. Second coat will be white paint only.

Started to trim around the garage door

Started painting the grey which surprisingly will need 2 coats as well.

Back at it again tomorrow. I figure I will paint the second coat of grey in the AM, and then prime the ceiling in the loft to let it dry. Once its dry I will mix my last gallon of sand/white and finish the downstairs ceiling (small spot left) and use the rest on the ceiling upstairs. If I'm lucky i will start taping off stripes.

Looks like I'll need 2 or 3 more days to finish this job!

 

[justintiime]

more progress today. put my second coat of knights armor grey on, and it looks awesome! Finished sand paiting the ceiling, and also started taping my stripes off.

Also primed the entire upstairs.

 

[CNGsaves]

Looks great. You'll really enjoy that extra space in loft.

Curious if you did any "pattern" on ceiling except for the added sand . . . ie sponge pattern or anything? Use roller paint on all of that?

I'm committed to never let any ceiling again with those popcorn nasties. Got to redo the living room someday in older house I bought where there is one room with the popcorn ceiling.

 

[justintiime]

I just used a regular roller. More to hide any imperfections, than for looks. I'm going to do the loft in just flat white. Thanks for the compliments

 

[justintiime]

Not a whole lot of progress today. Taping takes a lot of time! Started my black stripe...

 

[justintiime]

Whole 'lotta taping today. Did my red stripe and white stripe.

Should be able to remove the tape tomorrow. Then I can trim out the windows/doors etc

 

[justintiime]

they are

 

[55cadillacking]

Sure is coming along nicely. I respect your patience with the tape. I am unable to wait until I should before pulling it off.

 

[justintiime]

after working long days at work, its about all I have energy for at the end of the day.

My wife showed some interest tonight and helped me tape the walls