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Skunk and Groundhog's Mansion

madstat

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
98
Location
Southeast Michigan
I thought I might share with the GJ my garage (more like shed) that I inherited when my wife and I bought our house.

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It once was a single bay 1920's structure but sometime later the left lean-to was added. Despite my mom's pleading to save one of our home's "orginal structures" I can't see any possible way of saving it as I'm sure some of the pics here will attest.

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I've been pleading my case to my wife that we need to tear it down and spend some huge coin to build a shiny new garage like so many of you have shared on the GJ. Last year I noticed a groundhog had taken up residence in the garage, but this spring it has turned into a duplex with a groundhog living in the left bay while a skunk has moved into the right bay. (They are separated by a wall, though not fire rated :)). I told my wife about the skunk and she said "rebuild it END OF STORY!"

So here I'll chronicle the last of our garage's life.

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The photo above is as wide as I can get the doors open. In the winter due to frost heave I can't open the doors at all. Much of the sill is completely gone and the SW corner of the garage has sunken over a foot.

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Above you can see one of the holes that the groundhog has burrowed out, in fact he's turned the whole area under the garage into swiss cheese, it's like the easiest thing to dig by hand, so much so that I once had the thought of underpinning the structure instead of demolishing it.

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The current plan is to dismantle it and reuse some of the materials to build two smaller sheds. One to keep garden tools and equipment that don't belong in a proper garage. Another to hide our large trash, compost and recycle bins.

Once that is done, we will build a new 20x24, which I plan to document here on a new thread. I'm not a wrencher like most of you guys on the forum although I wish I had a lot more knowledge when it comes to cars. I'd eventually like to tinker a bit, I definitely have a thing for 50's era pickups.

My father and I will be doing almost all the building, we successfully built his garage and another outbuilding on my parents property. Back in 2002 we were able to build his 36x24 stick frame with attic for just under 20k! He's worked in construction all his life and myself in an earlier time was a cabinet maker. I had my own business making custom retail displays for small to medium size stores. Nowadays I mostly woodwork as a hobby and my current shop is in the basement which bugs the **** out of my wife cause she has to go down there on a regular basis to do laundry. It's only a shadow of a shop since I have gotten rid of most of my tools. (I'm a statistician now).

I plan to start demolition last week of May so if this kind of stuff interests you feel free to follow along as I document.
 
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JMURiz

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Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
1,483
Location
NoVA
Bummer you couldn't save it (jack it up, build/pour a new foundation etc).
Those old garages are so funny how they were added on over the years. The original, the lean-to, the 'extension' in the back to fit the larger 50-60-70's cars...

Hopefully the new one will have some period character to go along with the house.
 

JC23

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Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
11,718
Location
Northcoast
Good luck on that. You might want to look at increasing the grade for the garage. I added an extra course of cinderblocks to my foundation to keep it up outta the low spots. It's not that hard to grade the driveway than all around it...
 
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madstat

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
98
Location
Southeast Michigan
Bummer you couldn't save it (jack it up, build/pour a new foundation etc).
Those old garages are so funny how they were added on over the years. The original, the lean-to, the 'extension' in the back to fit the larger 50-60-70's cars...

Hopefully the new one will have some period character to go along with the house.

I know what you mean, I've mulled over all kinds of crazy ways to save her but I just couldn't come up with a viable one. The new one will be roughly the same size, just a few feet deeper to accommodate most cars and It will match the period style of our house.

--Bobby
 

AustinMiniMan

Active member
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
34
It actually looks extremely salvageable. The studs look solid, so just jack each wall in turn up and put in a new pressure treated bottom plate. Tie it in and it should be good to go. You could do the same with concrete block as long as you're careful to keep it level. Hell, the roof in the lean-to looks new! The one I just finished didn't look much better than that and I'm guessing was in worse structural shape(Albeit it had a better floor in spots). There's no reason to tear that down; re-doing it would be an 8th the work, a 30th the cost, and 100 times the satisfaction. You'll regret tearing it down if you do. -Ted

(If you need inspiration at my expense: Here's mine)
 
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JMURiz

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Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
1,483
Location
NoVA
AustinMiniMan: At least he's going to salvage the materials and build some cool sheds. Kudos for not tossing out materials to the landfill!
 
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madstat

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
98
Location
Southeast Michigan
It actually looks extremely salvageable. The studs look solid, so just jack each wall in turn up and put in a new pressure treated bottom plate. Tie it in and it should be good to go. You could do the same with concrete block as long as you're careful to keep it level. Hell, the roof in the lean-to looks new! The one I just finished didn't look much better than that and I'm guessing was in worse structural shape(Albeit it had a better floor in spots). There's no reason to tear that down; re-doing it would be an 8th the work, a 30th the cost, and 100 times the satisfaction. You'll regret tearing it down if you do. -Ted

(If you need inspiration at my expense: Here's mine)

Ted, I actually thought of the "Lapidated" garage when I was posting this, I love what you did and the story of your place being handed down through the family.

I have certainly given this a lot of head scratching, while I'm not sure it would be an 8th of the work or 30th the cost, I could do a resto but there are a multitude of other factors I didn't include. Probably the biggest issue is the current dimensions (20x16) make it a glorified shed since you can't really pull a car in (well maybe a mini). If all I ever wanted to use it for was to store my lawn mower and a wheel barrel then it's fine the way it is but doing what you did to you're place (while suiting your needs) is going to be work and $$ and for little benefit to me since I'm looking for a nice clean place to woodwork that I can easily keep the rodents out of. If you notice in my OP I said I'll be reusing most of the lumber to build two sheds, kind of like splitting it in half and reusing each half but just relocating them. So in a way the whole thing won't be lost.
 

fergus

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Joined
Oct 4, 2009
Messages
1,620
Location
Yolo County CA
Well, it looks like you got your heart set. But if you did want to save it...it won't be that hard.

It looks like its a little short...I'll improve on an earlier suggestion and say jack it up, pour footers, then two rows of block...it'll gain some height. Sister all the existing studs, drop it on a new sill plate and BAM! Usable garage. Mine was in way worse shape...cost me $700 to right it, sheathe one side new studs all the way around and beef up joists/rafters. And there's lots of guys around here who will help you...they certainly helped me... and I knew nothing when I started. Now I feel like I could build a new garage on my own!

Nothing against new structures...I'm happy for anyone to put up a new building. But you'll be amazed what you can fix if you put your mind to it. And be able to save something old... and a few bucks at the same time.

Well never mind...I was a little slow...you've already replied. Good luck, whatever you decide
 
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