My Garage Refurb

[IONH]

Thanks for the compliment. I wasn't too intimidated by the front wall seeing as I replaced the lower half of the back wall for the same reason about 4 years ago. Getting the doors square is a little added complexity but I think I got it close enough.

I hope to hear from the OHD company this week about scheduling door installation!

 

[IONH]

Finished installing the moulding around each of the front doors.





Also counter sunk the finish nails around these door openings, the side 30" door, rear 36" door and pair of mated 36" exterior doors on my wood shed in preparation for paint.

Poked a couple holes in the top plate of the "left" (facing in) door for the center wiring. May get to work on this tomorrow if my wife does the painting she said she wants to do.

 

[IONH]

Was raining outside today so I made the wife happy taking her out and then ran some electrical for the center of the front wall. It is a work in progress and nothing in the picture is "live" yet.

The triple space box will be all switches. From left to right: duplex switch with light for attic lights, middle is gable exterior light, right is 3 way switch for main lighting.

The double space box on the lower left is for another pair of 20A outlets.

 

[IONH]

Continued the front center wall electrical last night. I had picked up another 3 way switch to get another main light switch control by the front doors as I only had one by the front side door and rear door. Unfortunately, after wiring it numerous times and never having them shut off, I looked up some diagrams on the net and found that you need 4 way switches (placed in the center of the circuit) when you have more than two 3 way switches. I'll have to run two 14-2 romex to one of the other switches (easier than in the space I am currently working in) to get that done.

 

[IONH]

My wife has had some viral infection since the middle of last week and, being pregnant with twins, I had to tend to her quite a bit to make sure she was okay. Lots of high fever, but not high enough to be admitted.

Finally got to work on the garage for a couple hours tonight. Sheathed the front left wall reasonably well. I'll need to measure twice for the others because this is my first time cutting around a junction box and it's got more of a gap than I'd like.



Because of my delay, I'm going to call the garage door company who was going to install on Wednesday and ask them to reschedule.

 

[IONH]

Finished insulating the front wall today.


As it was dark already by the time the insulation work was done, started wiring up some outlets.

 

[IONH]

Wired up the other two double outlets on the front wall today.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The foundation, especially in the middle (as pictured) has a very large gap between it and the floor. I'm considering cleaning it out as best as I can and filling it with something. Does anyone think this is where some of my bugs (specifically spiders) are coming from?

The place is really looking nice. I used some Sikaflex to fill in the saw cuts of my floor. If those gaps were in my floor, I'd try the same thing. Depending how big they are, they might require some backer rod.

 

[IONH]

The place is really looking nice. I used some Sikaflex to fill in the saw cuts of my floor. If those gaps were in my floor, I'd try the same thing. Depending how big they are, they might require some backer rod.

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll see when I get back to that.

I am VERY happy to say that, since the front wall was replaced, my rat zapper has not had a single victim!

 

[NUTTSGT]

BTW, this is the product.

 

[IONH]

BTW, this is the product.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s156/nuttsgt/03142013expansionjoints014-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.jpg

You know, I think that might be exactly what the guy at the big box store suggested I get. I'll have to look and see but the tube looks similar I think.

 

[IONH]

Cut and installed the sheathing for the middle cavity of the front wall tonight. Sorry for the close pictures, the garage is a mess and I couldn't get further back with a clear shot right now.





This is my first experience cutting sheathing (or drywall) with outlet/switch holes. Needless to say, it is quite the learning experience and I'm not very good at it so far.

The first hole I cut was the double outlet box. It was tight, but good.

The second hole I cut was for the switch box, which I thought why not make it a little bigger by about 1/8" all the way around just to make it less tight. Well, you may be able to guess that the fact that I measured both sides from the "outside" (being the door opening) so that meant, because the overall width was about 1/4" narrower than the door openings (which I was OK with) ended up making the hole for the switch box about 3/4 to 1" too far to the left. DAMN!

I ghetto'd it to close it up for the night, but I need to fix it. I think the easiest thing I can do is pull the switch plate off, cut the hole even wider to the left, take another piece of sheathing put it in behind (like you would do when patching a drywall hole) and then cut a piece of sheathing to attach to the new piece hidden behind.



Also, I need to buy some wire blocking plates to put on the studs where I have wires going across the wall to be safe for future screws, but I don't know what those are officially called.

NUTTSGT, here's a picture of the concrete tube stuff I have.

 

[HoosierMark]

they make oversize plates that cover mistakes like that. (Unfortunately I know them well) Or you could consider adding another box with say a duplex outlet or another switch for an additional light

 

[NUTTSGT]

That Quickrete product should work. As far as thegap around the box is concerned, are you going to paint the walls in the future ? If so, why not just fill the gap with some painter's caulk ?

 

[IONH]

they make oversize plates that cover mistakes like that. (Unfortunately I know them well) Or you could consider adding another box with say a duplex outlet or another switch for an additional light

Thanks for the tip, but don't think I want an oddly large plate for that.

Adding another box would require my removing the board, which I'd rather avoid.

That Quickrete product should work. As far as thegap around the box is concerned, are you going to paint the walls in the future ? If so, why not just fill the gap with some painter's caulk ?

Yes, I do plan on painting the wall. I already plan on using some painter's caulk on the seams, have a tube sitting here already. However, the box itself is a little crooked, leaning inward away from the door opening (it is a new construction box) so I need something solid for the box to be pressed up against so it straightens out.

Maybe I should have put a spacer behind the box to keep it straight before I put the board up. Right now it's a piece of scrap OSB and a couple shims.

Also, remember the little gap you see is really about 3x wider to the point it hits the side of the box.

 

[IONH]

My wife was good enough to start painting the trim around the new garage door openings so we can put some J-Channel up soon.

Went to Home Depot and found a couple lights we really liked to straddle the sides of the garage front. This should look pretty classy when we're done. Unfortunately, I need to run some wire before I can finish closing up the back side of the wall on both sides (one of which I already did so I need to take it down to run the wire and put it back up again).

 

[IONH]

Wow, been a few days since I updated.

Saturday I finished the front wall interior sheathing and painted it all gray. Sunday I finished painting the other two colors.



This picture is with my same camera phone from a similar distance and same number of lights turned on. Both from left to right and panoramic. The paint definitely caused the camera to expose differently. Not sure if actually brighter inside but I think it is.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Hmmm, orange stripe, that's different. Is that a school color ?

 

[IONH]

Hmmm, orange stripe, that's different. Is that a school color ?

I thought I saw someone on here do the gray/orange/blue scheme, so I thought I was copying it.

I agree, the orange is definitely "different". Hindsight, I'd have done maybe a red and only 4" instead of 6". I do like it as a divider though.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Nothing wrong with being different, but if you're not happy with it, now is the time to change it.


I thought it might be a school color as there is a local HS team that uses blue/orange.

 

[IONH]

The new garage doors are scheduled to be installed tomorrow (price was the same for DIY from a big box store versus having Overhead Door install them for me).

I'm considering changing it. You're absolutely right, better to change one wall now, than change four later.. or be unhappy with four later.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The new garage doors are scheduled to be installed tomorrow (price was the same for DIY from a big box store versus having Overhead Door install them for me).

That my friend is a no brainer.

 

[IONH]

For sure. 1 year warranty on the installation and lifetime on the doors themselves.

I left the rear track brackets sticking out of the ceiling to save them some effort on the new install. I'll ask them if they can verify the location before starting and if they are not good, or in the way, I'll zip them off with the reciprocating saw.

 

[IONH]

Finished pushing things to the back of the garage for the door install tomorrow! Stay tuned for pictures!

 

[Mr. 360]

Man, termites look like a pretty nasty issue, glad to see you're keeping at it and making the best of it. I like the colour scheme you're going for.. kind of 'Kal-Tire' colours, nice and bright. Good progress, keep it up!

 

[IONH]

So the garage door guy is installing the doors this morning and.. where to begin.

Lets start with the positive... The first door looks great.

Now the not so positive... I have nail plates up where I had to go through the stud with wiring, the guy used a self tapping screw to secure the rail because he "hit something". Well, yeah, you hit my wiring. Nothing went out.

Then he had to adjust one of the bolts to move the track a little and blew out my main light circuit. Great.. That wonderful 3/4 way circuit.

I just went out and told him this was unacceptable and they're going to have to send out an electrician to fix it. I can fix it, though a large hassle to do, but it's not my fault. The lights were on and now they're not. He said they don't have any electricians and I said "well then you need to cal your office and let them know". I won't be signing anything when he's done.

By the way, the first door moves smooth and sounds awesome.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Was this from the self tapper he used ?

 

[IONH]

It was not the self tapper, it was his lower bolt which must have been just to the left of the stud which went to the ceiling (to the inside of the jack stud for the door opening).

Progress picture, when I still had lights.


The lower slot in this picture is where the power was hit. The upper box is the new splice box.


To minimize the damage to my nice inside wall, I decided to cut the outside because I didn't have siding up yet anyway.


Doors installed and up.


Drum roll............

Doors installed and down!

 

[NUTTSGT]

The left one is crooked.










Just kidding.

Isn't it amazing how nice it is to have new doors ?

 

[IONH]

Oh man, you had me for a second there! The 8" arbitrary angle (8" in, 8" down) for the corners worked out to be very close to the recess in the panels. I am very pleased with that.

The electrician was a good guy and I got to pick his brain while he fixed the problem the installer made.

He took a walk to my main feed and said that the lead is probably causing my meter to rust out from the inside because it is just two hots with the neutral wrapped around it (stranded) and there is nothing protecting it except some paint which has cracked probably in the 6 years I've been in the house. Time to start getting estimates from electricians for that now instead of waiting for it to fail.

That said, as I want to side the house in white vinyl (currently dark green cedar shake), I should coordinate and do that at the same time as it will also require the meter be pulled away.

 

[IONH]

Finally hooked up the 20A front outlets today. I had them all wired up and even sitting in a junction box with power but hadn't attached them until tonight. Worked without any issue, first shot.



Also started putting up the wiring for the exterior lights which will go on each side of the garage. I'm going to have to wait to actually power them because I need to poke a photocell through the siding and that's not up yet.

 

[IONH]

Got some Z flashing and J Channel up around the doors today. The picture is of the flashing because it was too dark once I finished the J Channel. Also did a lot of yard work (dethatching and sweeping).



I hope to be starting the siding tomorrow! Also more yard work, plug aerating, seeding and liming.

 

[IONH]

My wife helped out A LOT by running the tractor and dragging around the sweeper, dethatcher and plug aerator. Then she spread lime and grass seed. That gave me some time so I finally got to put up some siding.



The mount plates I bought for the side lighting is for 1/2" siding but my old siding that I am reusing is 5/8" so I need to get new blocks. That's ok, won't delay me.

 

[IONH]

A couple nights ago I did the right side. Strangely, both the right and left sides ended up about 1/2" higher than the middle. Here is my process...

I started with the middle because it has a starter strip while the sides do not (they just sit in J Channel with holes for drainage).

I used the tops of the doors as reference once I had the middle built up to the point you see in the last picture to mark the sides and then measured down, in 8" increments, to figure out where my first couple pieces had to line up at their top.

Well, like I said, both the right and left side are about 1/2" higher than the middle. I'm now trying to "stretch" the middle up that half inch so I can avoid tearing down both sides.. plus I've already put the top piece on the left which goes over the door so that would save me from having to cut it again.

This is probably the toughest part of the front siding job. After this, it should be a smooth sailing.

 

[IONH]

So I skipped out of work an hour early today to get some more daylight.

Come to find out, I had mixed in a piece of "new" siding in the middle set of siding and that new siding is actually 1/2" shorter than the old siding. I swapped that one out and the middle lined up nearly perfect with the sides!



I think I'll put up another full run, then de-side to the peak.

 

[IONH]

My dad ended up in the hospital late last week so that messed up my schedule a bit. However, I did manage to finish the front wall today! Progress and conclusion pictures below!

Outlined the window location.


Cut the window opening with a jigsaw.


Set the window in, level first shot!


New window secured, wife cleaning the remaining sticker bits from the inside.


And the final result!


I am extremely pleased with breaking up the blank gable end with the octagon window.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looks good. . . I mean the wife cleaning the windows.


Putting the siding around the doors can be frustrating and time consuming, glad yours came out looking great.

 

[IONH]

I think the toughest part was the octagon window.

I lucked out reusing a lot of the old siding so I only had to cut a handful of roof line angles. I also used the spare roof angle pieces as templates for the new ones which saved some time as well.

Used the four pieces of full length I had left over from my shed siding project to finish this or I'd have run out!

 

[IONH]

Hooked the side lights up tonight! I also love how the light shines into the door openings.

Now the gable is switched and normally off unless I'll be out there working at the time. The 60W equivalent LED bulbs in these new lights throw out a ton of light!



Attic lights on, thought it'd be a neat picture.

 

[Hugo L.]

Great work man.