Salvaging materials from existing garage

[steeldriver]

My detached garage has sunken in on one corner. A few of the rafters are cracked pretty bad and it is leaning to one side. The slab is still in pretty good condition, but cracked a bit in the front by the garage door. Pretty sure it is a standard size, 20 x 24, 20 x 20, or 24 x 24 but I haven't measured yet. It is a 2 car garage. I am wanting to rebuild but I just had this garage resided and re roofed.

Is there any way I can tear it down and save a lot of the material? There is no water damage anywhere. I was thinking I could save the roofing, siding, planking under the roofing material, plywood on the walls, and maybe a lot of the 2x4 framing. Worst case scenario, I would just rebuild the walls with new framing lumber, and build the trusses then re sheet/roof/side with existing materials. I figure this could cut down costs quite a it. Is this plausible? When I rebuild, I'd like to switch from rafters to trusses.

I work in the union construction trades, am friends with a lot of union carpenters, so experience and labor force is no problem.

I did some google research but no amount of keywords returned anything about salvaging materials from existing garages.

Thanks,
Jacob.

 

[steeldriver]

I forgot to mention. The gabled ends are currently on the sides of the garage, and I'd like to switch to the gabled ends being in front and back, one above the garage door and one above the rear wall. Not sure if this is totally necessary, but driving around my neighborhood I can't find any garages that have the gables on the side like mine does. They all seem to be on the front and back.

 

[Garage Dog]

Jacob,

Your garage has just been re-sided and re-roofed? Can you jack up the sunken corner and sister additional rafter material to strengthen existing rafters? Use a come-along to straighten up the walls?

Recycling and re-purposing is a nice idea if labor is free and you like beating your head against the wall. I have done it on some level many times over the years and unless it is something of significance, like a nice timber for a mantel, it is often a waste of time and money.

Why do you want to change the gable locations? Be unique, you don't have to be like everyone else in the neighborhood.

YMMV

GD

 

[Thumper68]

Yes it can be done. However it can be a lot more work, you have to be extra careful pulling it apart and then thee is fastener removel, doing 1 or 2 boards is easy doing 200 is a pita.

It took me a whole weekend to clean up the materials from a 12x32 screen porch...

 

[bczygan]

Do you want a bigger garage?

Before you make any big changes, like demolition, let's take a look at the whole property and your needs and desires.

Photos and lot layout and dimensions?

Garage layout, photos inside and out and dimensions?

Zoning and zoning rules?

What are your needed functions and uses?

Was the roof stripped down to the deck when the roofing was done? What kind of deck?

Same question with siding. What is the material under the new siding? What kind of siding?

Any foundation?

A gable end can be added to the front and rear.



Bill

 

[matt_i]

I don't think saving roofing is a good idea. I think it will be too hard to remove it gently with a wide flat cat's paw and avoid damage. All it takes is one bad tear or hole to cause you grief. You can of course seal them back with roofing cement but imo that's equivalent to double or triple the work plus significant extra cost of the sealant. Shingles falling off can get creases and tears.

One other thought, you can probably only save 90% of the total you attempt to save, of any category. I'm just wild-guessing that 10% will be scrapped due to forces out of your control. That's all good, but when it comes to replacing with same, new material, will there be a problem matching? 2x4s, no problem, but siding or other trim details could be hard to match if they are something more complex or a size that's no longer produced. Just something to check into before you go down a long road of labor to salvage stuff and then have troubles.

I would also look into buying premade trusses. They come out very well matched in size, as far as lumber they are generally cheaper than you could buy the lumber to build your own.

 

[rburke65]

Why certainly it can be done. You just have to reverse the sequence in which it was built. I have pulled a lot of nails from a lot of 2x4s just to save the lumber.

 

[Dr Stan]

Local zoning code needs to be taken into consideration. Some places forbid the reuse of building materials for structural components.

 

[LXCam]

Why don't you take some pictures of the damaged areas as well as standing back so we can get a good overview of it. You might be surprised what possibilities the guys around here could offer up.

 

[captain14]

There have been several threads here where members repaired/rebuilt existing garages.

Fergie is one member search for his name

Another one is the leaning tower of %#*%. by Talinsair(sp?)

The above name is written like cartoon cuss words or a variation of the above.

 

[steeldriver]

I went out and did some tinkering around. The front left corner of my garage is out of plumb by a few inches. The garage door faces south. So the southwest corner of the garage is out of plumb to the east and needs to be pulled west a few inches. My garage door does not sit flush with the ground. It is raised a few inches on the corner where my structure is out of plumb. I'm guessing this is related.

What's confusing me is the fact that all 3 of the other corners of the garage are perfectly plumb in both directions. How can one corner be out in one direction so noticeably but not be pulling any of the other corners out? If I pull this corner back into plumb, will I pull anything else out of plumb?

I have a come along, a high lift jack and plenty of chain and slings. It would either need pulled from the outside or pushed from the inside...which is my best plan of attack? I'm guessing pushed from the inside so as not to mess up my new siding.

Once I get it back into plumb, is putting up 1/2 inch plywood as paneling on all 3 interior walls and the sections of wall next to the garage door going to be enough to keep it rigid enough (I want to panel the inside with plywood regardless) or will I need some steel T bracing? It seems to me that if the front wall is leaning, the wall with the garage door, I'll need to somehow stiffen that up but there's not a lot of real estate on account of the huge hole where the garage door is.

I need to re run all my electrical as the previous owner did a real hack job with it. Only one outlet, wires spliced with only electrical tape, etc... I also want to insulate the whole garage including the ceiling. If I am stiffening it up with plywood, I assume I'll want to have all of this insulation and electrical work done before I straighten out the garage so I can sheet the inside while I have the winch/jack still on. Then I'm guessing you release the winch once all the paneling is up and fastened.

Last thing. My rafters are fine. One of my ceiling joists is cracked badly and the previous owner did a hack job of sistering in a new one in. He took a 4ft 2x6 and just nailed it in. I think I need to jack this joist up, remove the previous poor attempt at a fix, jack it slightly higher than level, sister a 6 foot 2x6 on both sides, drill some holes and use bolts washers and nuts and remove the jack so it settles back to level.

A lot of questions and thinking out loud but that's everything. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Jacob.

 

[matt_i]

Some pics would be really helpful to visualize this. East and west directions mean something to you but not as much to us on the internet Its also helpful if you put your location your profile.

Has the slab and/or foundation sunk in a corner? Or the entire slab is out of level? Keep in mind vertical plumb is great but if its not referenced against a 90 degree horizontal level surface, then its not as much good.

If you pull one part of the building against another, diagonally, you are definitely going to parallelogram it. And that doesn't sound like its going to fix your issue.

Regarding your sistering of the joists, the plan sounds good. I would include some polyurethane construction adhesive. I have had good luck with Loctite PL 3X and 8X adhesives. Heat the tubes up a little bit with a space heater to get the adhesive to flow more readily.