My 24'x30' attached garage addition progress

[gball]

Work is now underway. Plan is for a 24' x 30' attached garage on a 75' x 25' ranch with full basement. We also have a water issue in the basement so I am also doing what I can to address that at the same time. Figure I could show the progress on here being as how much time I have spent looking at all the other projects on this site.

I started about a month ago by stripping some top soil in the site. I used my own loader on my farm tractor. Then hired out to a buddy with a excavator to do the majority of the digging on 9-26-12.

I still had a lot of shovel work to do by hand.

Notice the wires down in the hole... yea, we cut em...alone with both buried PVC down spout pipes.

 

[gball]

I only dug this section for now. From the side of the porch to the other corner. I will eventually have to dig all the way around the house. One 25' side of the house is a walk out so basically I have about 1/3 of the foundation dug. I also decided to put in a "fruit cellar" under part of the garage. I did discover what is most likely causing us to get water coming through the basement wall. We weren't sure if there was even drain tile down there but there was... ridged PVC type with three rows of holes. the holes were pointed up and there was no stone or cover of any kind around it. The drain was doomed the day it went in. Completely packed with clay. Also there is a crack in the block wall down the whole length at about the height of the bottom and second coarse of block. The crack is only on the outside and does not show from the basement. Guessing it was from when they back filled.
The foundation was coated with Theroseal or similar then tarred. I used a air hammer to chip the Theroseal and tar off the area where the new blocks will tie in. The closest is the cellar leading in to the front garage wall. The second is the back cellar wall, and the far is the back garage wall.

Footing forms in place with rebar. I hammer drilled the existing footing and epoxied the rebar in to it. The crack is visible in the following picture. It wasn't that big, i used a grinder to open it up so i can fill it with something... (((any ideas of what to use would be great.))) Theroseal, hydraulic cement, epoxy...?

 

[gball]

Concrete for first stage of footings delivered 10-12-12. 1 yrd and had a bit extra. 1 yrd of footing concrete was $91. small batch fee was $60. ***** to pay the extra fee but i really couldn't see a way around it. First time doing any kind of concrete work and doing most of everything by my self. My wife is 6 months prego, so no help from her...

Filling pad for the step footing for back garage wall.

Concrete all screeded and rebar in place.

 

[gball]

Picked up enough block to check lay out and get me started.
THEN it rained and continued to rain for about three days. Forms were real fun to get off. They swelled from the water in the hole, but i got them off and used them for a slide to get the blocks down there.

I realized the importance of the rebar covers while i was sliding down the wet clay ramp. didn't fall, but it would have been pretty easy to really get hurt. i used some plastic bottles, better than nothing i guess.

 

[Falcon67]

That's a hell of a hole there. Quite a project!

 

[gball]

Got a little more done. Been slow going doing everything myself plus the wife and I are expecting our first baby next month so i had a baby room to do too.
Got "root cellar" blocked up to garage footing height.

Drain tile done from most of the front , around the corner and to the back corner of the house.

The rest of the excavating for the garage was done along with digging down to existing footing down the side of the house and a trench to daylight the drain tile.

 

[gball]

Side of house with drain tile started.

Daylight trench. Way bigger than needed but that was the size of the bucket.

Didn't really want to tie new drain in to old so this is what i came up with. The drain pipe on the back of the house seemed to be ok and working, unlike the front that had no drain stone or covering. Most of the pipe was filled with clay and tree roots.

 

[TitanTn]

What a massive project. Looking forward to seeing it come together. Everything looks great so far.

 

[gball]

Some back fill done and footing forms for garage done. rebar in place.

 

[amarlow]

Hello gball! I have just registered with the forum specifically because of your project. I am also in Michigan, though a bit further south (40 miles from Toledo), and am planning to build a barn this year, ~24x48, maybe a bit longer, with footings at a depth similar to your garage. I hope to see more description and photos of your project. They are very, very helpful. I found your posts by searching for info on footings. If you have time, I've got a couple of questions (and when I say "a couple," I usually mean 37).

1. Who did the design of your footings? You personally? or did you hire an engineer?

2. I have always read the footings must be formed and poured on "undisturbed" soil, to avoid settling. But the last couple photos above show you have at least some amount of refilling, especially toward the fruit cellar and the black pillar. How have you handled this, to ensure no future cracking/settling of the footing? (I ask because I pulled a massive stump, then filled with my tractor the resulting 20ft diam x 5ft deep hole. Now I want the corner of the barn right where this hole was refilled.)

3. What is the purpose of the "black pillars?" I see two, one at lower left of the fruit cellar, a second further to the right up against the original house/basement wall. They two blocks per layer (16x16?) and are four blocks high, each layer rotated 90 degrees to the one below. I'm just curious. Will this support some... OK, after looking some more, I think I may have figured it out: it looks like the two garage foundation walls, parallel to each other and perpendicular to the house, actually end at these pillars. So now my guess is these transfer the load of the footings/wall/garage above at these two points down to the lower excavated ground.... Either way, I still am curious why this is necessary.

Gotta stop and take a breath. Thanks in advance for any help/time you might give. I really am trying to learn all I can about footings & foundation walls.

~Allen

 

[gball]

Hi Allen, sorry i haven't checked in for a while. Just got back to work on the project about a week ago. Got some block set before winter and i am picking up where i left it. Will post some pictures when i get some time. Lets see... #1 - i figured out a plan myself. when i talked to the building inspector up here he said it would be "over kill". #2 - you are correct, from all the reading and asking i did, footing ideally would be below frost and on solid undisturbed ground. which brings me to #3, and it sounds like you figured out why i set the pillars. The wall footings rest on the pillars and bridge the (compacted) sand backfill around the pillar. If you didn't see, those pillars sit on their own footing that is at original basement footing depth and pinned with rebar to the original footings. Feel pretty good that somebody noticed the thought i put in to the footings... had some friends make fun of me for setting my forms and making everything "so perfect". I also got it for tooling my mortar joints below grade on both sides of the walls.

 

[CNGsaves]

Curious also if all those black wires strung across work is CATV coax??

With the massive work done to fix basement wall, I'd sure also consolidate and re-route those to clean up exterior of house.

Good luck with finishing either way . . . more pics please !

 

[gball]

CNG, the wires hanging are power from box in basement to pole barn. My grandpa must have put them in before the house was back filled because they where down at the footing. They will be changed when the garage is done. The supply will be run threw the house into the garage wall to Breaker Box #2 that will have the breakers for the garage and then feed back out to the #3 box in the barn. hopefully this stop the running from barn to basement when i trip a breaker welding or whatever.

 

[gball]

The rest of the block delivered in the fall.

 

[gball]

Then Winter came.

 

[gball]

Picking up where i left off for the winter.

 

[gball]

Pretty sick of block at this point.


Setting angle iron for decking to sit on.




B-Decking cut and in place.


Finally.

 

[gball]

Cores filled and anchor bolts in place every 4', on corners, and ends.

 

[gball]

Door way cut into basement wall.

 

[gball]

Concrete floor done.


Wall framing started.

 

[gball]

Opened up house walls to put in nailers and discovered the only sheeting the house was built with was some beat up 1/2 foam. It's no wonder the drywall is all cracked and has nail pops everywhere.

 

[gball]

The plan now is to take down all the foam, put insulation in where the builder "forgot", put up OSB, wrap, then put the foam back up furring out around windows and where needed. The old alum. siding will be sold for scrap and new vinyl used. Not 100% on using the foam, but i figure i have it and the house could use all the insulation it can get. i made up a tool for removing the foam with out destroying it. Just a piece of tubing just big enough diameter for the nail head to fit in. Cuts a plug around each nail (not many luckily in this case) and it comes right off.

 

[gball]

Got walls stood up a couple weeks ago. Of coarse it rained the night i got them up and the day after. Got the house wrap on... and started setting trusses.

 

[gball]

Short video i made of putting up some trusses by myself.

 

[vette66bob]

You are doing a fantastic job. Every think looks great especially the block and concrete for a first time job. I will be following your progress I and am looking forward to watching you complete the job.

 

[gball]

Thank you, The block seamed to take forever but I'm pretty happy with it. The concrete on the other hand... That was the only thing so far that i had to hire some one to do. It was done in two pours about a week apart. About 5 days after it was finished we got a lot of rain. That is when i realized problem #1. All the water puddled up on the outside corners and it was dry around the center floor drain. I mentioned it to the concrete guy and showed him pictures. His response was "I don't know how that happened. They (his guys) must have troweled it too hard". I have never done a large concrete job but that just doesn't make sense to me. I let that all go cuz i figure there will never be that amount of water in there so it shouldn't be a issue. Problem #2 started right around Christmas. I was sweeping saw dust off the floor and seen a crack. i now have cracks all over the place. Some of the cracks cross right over saw cuts and along the face of the step-up. I even paid more to have the fiber stuff mixed in. He came and looked at it, agreed that there is something wrong and said he was going to talk to the concrete place... i haven't heard back yet and that was a month ago. It *****, i really lost momentum with the project because of it. I'll see if i can get some pictures of the cracks if they can be seen i'll post them.

 

[gball]

Working on the roof in November, trying to beat the snow. Got a friend and my uncle to help.

 

[gball]

This is how i felt about laying shingle in the cold.


Roof finished. Had to sweep some snow out of the way a few days.


Back side of garage.

 

[gball]

Doors and Widows in.

 

[gball]

Had to put up some lights. Our babies first Christmas, plus it helped me to figure out where to put plugs in the soffit.

 

[rixtrix1]

Looking good. Can't believe how people do construction in the winter. I grew up in NE, but never really saw much construction in the cold. One reason why I moved to AZ 30 years ago! Keep us informed on your progress.

 

[Colonial Cobra]

Nice work.

 

[gball]

Soffit bracing and rafter vents.


Vinyl brick mold and some soffit on.


Inside view of truss cut out and braced for opening in ceiling for window.


Sub-panel just about done.


Pull down ladder to storage above.

 

[theoldwizard1]

How far north in MI ?

Those shingles won't "seal down" until you get some hot weather this summer. Hope you don't get any big wind storms !

What did you do for the valley between the between and the old roof ?

 

[gball]

I'm in Hillman, about 30 miles west of Alpena. Yea, i was concerned about wind and the shingles not laying. So far they have stayed on. if i can remember right in the valleys we had the ice and water running into the corners at the bottom, ice and water running up the valley, roof felt from each roof running into that, then torch down rolled in the valleys, then the shingles. My friend that helped with the roof does it for a living so he was a big help. i didn't get any pictures of detail while doing the roof. was in to much of a hurry to beat the snow.

 

[Gentle_Ben]

Nice build. I too know your pain about a concrete pour "gone wrong".

My brand new concrete floor cracked almost immediately, it was very disheartening, and it happened bc we poured on too hot of a day. I wanted to do the saw cut lines, but my contractor said he doesn't do them bc they don't work in his opinion.

What we ended up doing was a lot of floor patching using a product from Mapei called Planiprep FF.

Planiprep FF Product Info

I was skeptical at first but I was very pleased with the results once it dried completely and then sanded using a belt sander.

 

[gball]

Ben, "Disheartening" is a perfect word for the feeling... i have been moving stuff over the cracks just so i don't see them. Rep from the cement company came out Friday to look at it. He agreed it is pretty bad and is sending out a guy to do some density test with some sort of spring machine.
Here are some pictures of the floor.

 

[Xporter]

Impressive amount of work! Hopefully they correct the concrete for you.

 

[vette66bob]

I am impressed with your work and planning, the results look fantastic.
The cement problem is discouraging ,Good luck....

 

[gball]

Picked up most of the insulation i will need. Got a Home Depot coupon in the mail so figured i would use it.



Got the fascia wrapped around the "bird houses"




Soffit in the gable




Started getting some siding up yesterday. This is how far i got today when i realized the supplier gave me the wrong J channel for the shakes. The piece of shake siding is just temped up there to see how it looks.