No joint shall fall upon a stud!

[North Run Grader]

Or alternatively titled, Oh my brain hurts!

A forwarning, no pictures yet, maybe later tonight, if not, Saturday night. So let me start with some back story. We moved in September 2012, did a rent to own till September 2013, then bought the house. Some of the former owners **** was still in the garage till this afternoon when I loaded the truck for the dump from the rafters. Basically it was just storage till this summer although I did replace the transfer case of my truck in it last November.

By most accounts it was likely built in 1978 or 79. The drywall was installed on the walls after October 1989, date on the back of the drywall. I'm pretty sure free beer was involved cause every single drywall screw up was covered. Rumour has it that Imperial Oil supplied the modular houses on my block, and hired the lowest bidder to build all the garages on the street. I bought the house knowing up front that it's a 1978 modular.

Back to the garage. It's 18 x 24 x 8ft tall. Framed for the sheeting, sometimes built left to right, sometimes right to left. It's framed with 2x4's. Look at the wall, measure, install drywall. Not so. Look at the wall, drink beer, decide to stand the 4x8 sheets, drink beer, cut off an edge, start boarding. Oh, the first joint doesn' t fall on the stud? Drink more beer and carry on... Not 1 single drywall joint falls on a stud anywhere in my garage. It's alright cause I'm sure the same guy wired and insulated the garage.

Oh my brain hurts. I think I have a sketch on the other computer of my garage. I'll post it with the current wiring diagram and pictures.

We spent the day stacking everything in the center of the garage and removing the drywall. I don't personally like vertical drywall, I prefer horizontal so it's one easy reach seam around the room. Because they installed the board directly touching the concrete I had a lot of rotten crumbling drywall along the bottom edges. Also because of the inadequate electrical, with issues, I want to start fresh. No sill gasket or pressure treated sill, I now have some bad sills.

It's inadequately ramset nailed to the slab, so if I have to lift the garage a bit to replace some sills, how about lifting it 14" and add a 12" knee wall? 2×4 pressure treated or PWF with 1/2" PWF plywood exterior up an additional 6" to tie the outside. I'm thinking Hilti drill with a long bit through oversize sill plate holes and expanding anchor bolts to the slab. Then bolt the knee wall to the existing wall through the upper sill holes. Then run 16" of concrete board along the bottom after insulation and poly. I'm planning on lower gray walls anyway. So the knee wall will be tied outside, center, and inside. I'm going to call for PWF and concrete board prices in the morning. This would allow an 8' high garage door so I wouldn't have to remove the auxiliary warning lights off the Bobcat in the winter.

The 1 issue I can forsee is the power line to my house crosses over top of the garage. I have to talk to the local power guy, but it brings to mind, how about I have a mast installed on the back wall of the garage where it crosses above, install 200 amp service to the garage, and run power from the new mast back to my existing house mast, relocating the meter to the back of my garage? Thoughts, concerns, ideas?

I'll be back later, season 4 of Longmire is on Netflix .

Sorry, I'm still getting used to my new touch screen and the ubb code isn't recognizing my paragraph indents.


A spare paragraph break just for beakie.

 

[beakie]

read first sentence
scrolled down...
my brain hurts


paragraphs maybe?!

I'm not reading that ****.

 

[Bison4peat]

read first sentence
scrolled down...
my brain hurts


paragraphs maybe?!

I'm not reading that ****.

And you actually took the time to write that. How rude! If you don't have anything nice to say move on.

 

[Hounddog]

beakie... I think your 'inner monologue' may be broken. lol

North Run Grader: Carry on, I believe you've got some work ahead of you. You know sometimes you got to deconstruct before you construct. Good Luck.

 

[theoldwizard1]

No interior walls in my garage (circa mid 1950s), so I decide to place some 1x6s between the studs and screw them in with pocket screws. Studs are 16" O.C., right ? WRONG ! One stud was off by about an inch so I had to recut a bunch of the 1x6s and buy another board.

 

[North Run Grader]

A few pictures.
View media item 53366
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Forgive the paint lines, but it starts at PPA, goes overhead to the rafters, goes down to WPA, backwards to WPB, comes back to WPC, goes back overhead above the rafters to CPD, then down to WPE. WPF is powered buy a single overhead circuit.

 

[gungatim]

you do know, that is why you run the drywall horizontal and not vertical right?

 

[North Run Grader]

It depends who is mudding and taping, a family I used to use actually preferred vertical joints, as 2 would work in tandem, the short cousin doing the lower half and the taller on stilts, all day long. Between the 2 uncles and 2 sons they had over 50 years of experience, and if they were closer I'd hire them in a heartbeat and install the drywall to their desires. Seeing as I'm likely going over budget with my electrical upgrades and a possible garage lift, I'll be mudding and taping, as much as I hate mudding and taping.

 

[Hounddog]

Running drywall horizontally allows me to flatten out a wavy wall.. to a point of course. Those that build know how crappey and unstable these studs are these days. 12 ft sheets are the way to go!!

With my recent addition..I used OSB. Love that for garage walls.!!!! There will be some imperfections that you will have to fill with a dab of caulf but after primed/painted... VERRY NIICEEE! A little texture to the walls are nice too.

 

[Notgrownup]

I hated to think of busting a hole in the drywall so I opted for OSB screwed on studs. This way if I have issues in the wall I can get in there easier.

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

I hated to think of busting a hole in the drywall so I opted for OSB screwed on studs. This way if I have issues in the wall I can get in there easier.

That was my line of thought. I like to put my garage together as if I'm building a car. If there's an issue or I want to modify, make it easier to get in there. I mainly deal with heavy metal objects that would decimate drywall. I think osb has more give to it, and cheaper/easier to replace if wrecked. Not to mention easier to modify and attach things on the wall itself.

 

[North Run Grader]

So the power company has no issue with moving my meter to the back of the garage. However, they no longer will install a mast, so now I have a tentative appointment with an electrician on Thurs or Fri while he's in town looking at another project. I can remove the existing ugly wiring and install the new wall boxes where I want them, and the ceiling octagons. I'll have the vapor barrier boxes tonight along with a fresh roll of 12/2 for my 20 amp circuits.

The current plan of attack is to have a wall receptacle every 4 feet approx., and 9 ceiling octagons evenly spread. I have to fine tune the ceiling locations a little to take the new electric door opener, door tracks, the overhead air hose reel, overhead furnace, and overhead light reel into account.

View media item 53463
View media item 53464
I don't know how well the colors show up, but orange is a 20 amp circuit, green and yellow are 2 separate 15 amp circuits. The single orange box up high on the rear wall is a separate 20 amp circuit to power the overhead gas furnace.

If it's economical enough, the new service/power will enter on the rear wall just right of center, I think I forgot to show the tentative panel location. Otherwise it'll be behind the man door after upgrading the underground power.

The bad news is, no to lifting the garage. When Imperial Oil paid for these garages to be built, they owned all the lots and property lines were moot in their minds. Basically it was inferred that if I move to garage even upwards, I'll have to move it to respect current setback standards. This is one dog that I am not going to fight, because after a cursory glance at my property survey my eaves may overhang the neighbors, so I'm just going to let sleeping dogs lie.

I forgot to add, I'll likely be adding a new 3 ply steel insulated 9x7 door, R18.4 and a new insulated man door as my driveway is oriented directly into the north winter wind. And a new insulated low E window is ordered as that faces directly into the west winds and has no shelter.

 

[North Run Grader]

Well no sign of the electrician yet, but I'm holding out hope for tomorrow morning. So I got more wire, boxes, switches, plugs, and plates yesterday, so today was more wiring fun.

First run of overhead lights is rough wired, sort of...

View media item 53545 Ignore the warm light in the upper right corner, it's the original light just inside the man door. It'll be removed when the fuse panel is placed.

View media item 53546
This is looking across towards the front left corner of the garage.
View media item 53547
This is along the back wall.
View media item 53548
This looking from the rear corner towards the front of the garage.
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So if you want to be itchy and grumpy searching for tools and supplies follow my lead, pile everything in the center, then place fiberglass insulation on top, I would not recommend it though. The 3rd picture just behind the welder you can kind of see a yellow box with red wiring, that is the end of the 20amp circuit, there will be a 20 amp plug every 12 linear feet, in between there will be 2 separate 15 amp circuits, so I'll basically end up with a wall plug every 4 feet on 3 separate circuits. Behind where that welder is currently, is where the compressor will live, no wiring yet until I know where my breaker panel will be. It'll be on a wall plug so I can set up my welders there for driveway work, or the compressor.

The fourth picture, where you see that white circuit hanging from the ceiling with a silver box, that's an existing line, that may become the power feed for the fan on my overhead NG heater, it'll be up quite a bit higher on the wall. That string line is actually hanging off the centerline of the back wall, for when I move enough **** to run the center row of lights. Where you see that right hand wall box, is where I'd ideally love to have the new service come into the garage, that's why no circuits continue around the corner to the right hand side.

 

[Vieux]

You did a great job!

 

[CNGsaves]

OP, did you remember to put electrical box high up on wall (but still within reach) that has wiring for on/off snapswitch to control your hanging NG heater ?? You planning to finish NG supply line (before insulation) of black pipe steel in the wall/ceiling to your hanging NG heater ??

Are you putting in the "baggy vapor barrier" around each outlet box (ie Canada style) that will be later taped to the vapor barrier once all the insulation is done ??

Also are you planning undereave overhang (ie soffit) vents and roof vents once you get garage closed up and insulated ??

Finally, I'd recommend you frame in opening in attic rafters for a pull-down attic door. That way you'll have access once ceiling is all closed up. A simple porcelin light fixture up there with pull string would be nice also.

P.S. Are you magician or HOW in that 2nd to last picture are you levitating that chalk line dispenser . . . or is it hanging from a nail up above ???

 

[North Run Grader]

Thank you. Three wall cavities left of the chalk line, that white wire dropped from the ceiling will power the NG heater. That was an original single circuit, unless the code has changed and a 20 amp circuit is required. The chalk line is suspended from a screw, I was up on a ladder and had a drill on my belt and was working alone at the time.

The boxes are airtight, I originally was going to use steel boxes and vapor barrier sleeves but after seeing me use the leftover airtight boxes in the " Remote Warm Storage " my dad picked up these ones for me. I'll get close up pictures later today.

Right now I'm trying to figure out where to store some fiberglass insulation. We are going to lift the garage 2" and replace some bad sills and install a pressure treated mud sill, and sill gasket. I had enough working room, but forgot about pulling insulation to add new wiring. I may just loosely wrap it in poly and kick it out behind the garage for now. I may end up reorganizing my wood shed again and remove more contents, either that, or tracking down some pallets and building some cheap shipping crates, thank goodness I have forks for the Bobcat.

 

[TractorJeff]

LOL! If I was going through the trouble to lift 2" to replace bad sills. I'd be lifting 14" to get it the way I desire! Use the excuse of needing to sister some vertical stud braces for some studs weakened along their bottoms.

 

[North Run Grader]

Oh believe me, I had hoped to raise it 12", but as I posted in reply #12 "The bad news is, no to lifting the garage. When Imperial Oil paid for these garages to be built, they owned all the lots and property lines were moot in their minds. Basically it was inferred that if I move to garage even upwards, I'll have to move it to respect current setback standards. This is one dog that I am not going to fight, because after a cursory glance at my property survey my eaves may overhang the neighbors, so I'm just going to let sleeping dogs lie."

Upon further study my garage and eaves are within my property lines, but still not quite far enough. The real issue is my neighbor's garage is so close that a 1 foot lift will be immediately noticeable and possibly objectionable. This isn't my forever house, I'll take the saved money and invest in a better insulated garage door.

The long term plan is my company will build or purchase a large shop within 3 years, for large equipment repairs. My dad and business partner really misses his 40x60x20 shop that he sold last fall, but it was just too far away to be of practical use for either of us, 80 miles away. If things go as hoped in the future I'll be building my log cabin dream home on an acerage and this place will become a crew house. Short term I'm still doing our company trucks maintenance and prefer to do it in warmth this winter. Our GMC 2500HDs will just fit with the doors closed, that is without a trailer hitch installed...

 

[North Run Grader]

No pictures today. We went to 4 different stores yesterday looking for 40watt equivalent cool white LED light bulbs, we even drove to the next town. If I could stand the color of the warm white I would have found some good deals. Oh well, next time I'm in Edmonton, I'll stock up. I'm using the 6 watt bulbs because I still haven't decided on light fixtures, and after I do install the new fixtures I can recycle the LEDs to the basement. I figure 7x40= 280 watts will be a huge improvement versus the 2 working 60 watt lights I've lived with thus far.

So I spent the day reorganizing my wood shed, that contains no wood, thankfully. So I have 3 complete sets of GMC 2500 tires, that includes the winter tire assemblies and a set off our old spare truck. A complete set of summer tires off my 88 Comanche, spare for the car, spare for the bobcat trailer, so that's, ummm, 22 tires all neatly stacked and stored.

Then I started reinstalling all the upper insulation even though I will have to pull random pieces for the electrical inspection, all the extra lower stuff will be tucked up into the ceiling for now, I'm tired of moving it.

Then we put a huge dent into the central pile of chaos down the center of my garage. Sorted out what can't freeze, that is now stored temporarily in the basement. What is valuable and can't be safely stored in the back shed, also into the basement. So I just found out tonight that I work tomorrow, so I'll finish sorting and storing so I can run the central line of ceiling lights, without moving **** 3x. In hindsight, I should have done this before starting. I'll take pictures tomorrow after work.

While I think of it, I have a checklist of stuff. When we trench the gas line Tuesday morning, I'm thinking of dropping a 1/2" pvc conduit in the edge of the trench to run out a Cat5 line for future telephone, internet, security. Should I consider larger or a second 1/2" conduit for future considerations? I have enough left over from my dad's acreage for 1 run, I think.

I've tracked down the installation sheets for the new garage door I want, so I have the locations of reinforcement that I want in the ceiling prior to drywall.

I tracked down the pdf sheets for my overhead furnace, so I also have those spots mapped.

I have to open the box for the new garage door opener so I can get those install sheets. I do know that I want the door remote wiring under the drywall as well as the sensor wiring.

I plan on ceiling mounting either copper or black pipe for the air line. Every garage needs a little industrial look.

Am I missing anything that should go under the drywall?

 

[North Run Grader]

No pictures tonight cause I'm too darn exhausted. It was a very productive day though, more cleaning and sorting done. My woodshed is almost overflowing. The excess is in my basement and under my veranda.

We got the four walls lifted and new pressure treated 2x4 mudsills under 3 walls. Removed the man door and garage door. Rented a Bosch hammerdrill and have the garage bolted to the slab, instead of 2" ramset nails through an 1-1/2" sill plate.

Tomorrow morning we'll strip the siding on the door wall, and rebuild it. I have housewrap and 1/2" plywood ordered and I'll just have a temporary wall in place of my new back ordered garage door.

My step daughter is visiting for a week and she's considering a career as an electrician. So I'll have help to finish my wiring and she can discuss it with my electrician hopefully Wednesday morning. Hopefully the gas fitter with be here then too.

We trenched and buried the gas line, and a fresh run of 6/3 wire, and a 1/2" pic conduit. Ideally I still want the power meter on the back wall of the garage and a new 120 amp panel, but we had a long remnant of 6/3 cable as a left over from my dad's acreage anyway. So it just depends on budget and the electrician. ..

Progress pics Tuesday night.

 

[North Run Grader]

So I've been lazy in taking and posting pictures and progress. CNGsaves was wondering about my wall boxes, this is a sample of a double gang box, I love these things, a little care in inserting your wires and a little dab of acoustical seal prior to installing your vapor barrier they work pretty good.

Sept 22/15 my dad and a friend trenched for the gas line and an additional buried power line and 1/2 spare conduit for future phone/security. We buried everything the next day.

 

[North Run Grader]

Sept 28/15 we lifted the walls 2" with 3 highlift jacks. My step daughter slid the new pressure treated 2x4s underneath then the sill gasket underneath that, then we lowered the wall back down. In hindsight, I should have stapled the sill gasket to the PT 2x4s beforehand, would have saved a lot of hassle. We cut out some bad sills and replaced as needed. 1 wall at a time slow and easy. The white paint you see is just marking paint, as I knew my walls were straight before we lifted, it was great for nudging everything back into line as we lowered.

The next day I cut out the north driveway wall, and reframed it. I moved the overhead door to the right 18" and the man door left by 4". I removed the garage door previous to lifting the garage as it was so rotten I could drive my finger through sections. The new door is still back ordered, so I just framed in a temporary 2x4 wall to fill in. Sheeted the new wall with 1/2" plywood and used the old 1/4" plywood sheeting to overlay the gable to make it 1/2".

NE corner

East wall

ES corner

Yes that is an old SnapOn box, for the life of me I can't recall the model, maybe by spring it'll be restored.
SE Corner, the green is Roxul R14 Comfortbatt, I had 4 pieces left over from the North and West walls, and that is where the overhead heater will be.

SW corner, the whole south wall is sheeted in 5/8" fireboard, still waiting on a gas fitter to get back to me to run lines and whether I can side vent or roof vent that Lenox Hotshot heater. I had some nice weather, so I got some mud and tape on the walls.

West wall, will pick up the new window same time as the overhead door and new man door. The bottom 1' is concrete board, which puts the upper drywall joint at a very workable 5'.
View media item 54489

 

[North Run Grader]

NW corner, as you can see, still no electrician that's the original 15 amp circuit running my ceiling lights and a single plug in. I have new 6/3 cable coiled up outside I was tired of moving it out of my way trying to get some mud on the walls.

Man door, I'll have to install a door stop to keep the door from hitting the panel, at least now the switches aren't hidden behind the door.

The temporary wall. just used some of the old fiberglass to keep the wind at bay.

I inset the 3 lights closest to the doors into the ceiling. Not quick done the drywall.

How to store drywall in the center of a room.

It's now been in my garage for a year, standing there, taunting me...

I'm thinking about 2 of these along the east wall, spaced 1 unit apart with the welding cart underneath the section closest to the air compressor. Whalen Industrial Racks from Costco, about $230 Cdn.

 

[CNGsaves]

Wow, great progress and transformation on the garage !!

Gotta feel great getting to point of insulation and drywall.

Are you going to get plumber there to finish ends of Natural Gas line before winter comes ?? Do I spy yellow plastic PE pipe you buried for NG supply ??

While plumber is there, see if he's got some "bone pile" black pipe steel fittings and pipe that you can put together small airline system to jumpstart getting your air compressor going !!

 

[North Run Grader]

Well, I sure hope to have heat soon, I may have to get a plumber from Barrhead or Whitecourt seeing as none of the local guys will get back to me. Which will add 2 hrs of truck time to the bill . For now I have the last 2 feet of open trench insulated and covered. I'm not sure what the pipe is, Bartle & Gibson, sold it as being legal for direct bury in Alberta. I'll check later tonight. I'm still undecided whether I want black pipe or copper, I do know I want the mud and paint finished first. I've had good luck in the past painting both. 1/2" will be plenty for either as I'm keeping the system simple. A drop in the corner beside the compressor for driveway work, I have enough hose to reach the street, a reel in the center of the ceiling, and a drop in the south west corner where the benches will be. I'll have a piece of hydraulic hose off the compressor and a filter on the wall. From my days in the tow yard, the tank will be drained each night and the power switched off. My old boss ran a body shop for 21 years and moisture and wasted electricity would drive him bat **** crazy.
When I finally get an electrician he may freak that I've drywalled already and I may regret taping and mudding the panel wall, but I had the weather for it. I'm short about 6 sheets to finish the ceiling so If I have to cut walls to prove my work, so be it. Drywall is still relatively cheap. Worst case scenario, I have a 40 amp gfci breaker running the hot tub that I have never used in the last 3 years that I can use to power everything except the compressor that will stand and mock me for another winter...