I've been meaning to post some pics of my garage in progress for some time, but since I broke my ankle on the ski slope last Friday, I now have the time.
I started this project this past April after doing alot of homework. I'm not in the construction business so this project has been a big challenge for me and alot of fun. Thanks to all for the great advice I've received from this site.
The garage is 24 X 26 with two bays, one has a cathedral ceiling for a future lift and the other bay has a loft. The only part I will contract out is the slab. I drew my own plans but they were rejected by the county because of the cathedral ceiling. The inspector said I needed an engineering stamp of approval because of a site built king truss to support the ceiling. A $150.00 later for the stamp and I was in business. He let me slide on fact that I drew my plans in metric.
Here's the site, the back corner of my property with only a 5' setback from the property line. My house was built in 1940, so the old setbacks still applied, although I gave myself a 6" buffer.
I must of measured my layout lines a hundred times before I was satisfied that it was square. The advantage of never having done this before is paranoia makes you very careful.
This little toy was fun. I live about a 15 minute walk from the rental place, so I convinced them that I could drive this mini excavator to my house instead of paying the $160.00 delivery charge. I didn't know that it only went like one mile per hour, so 1+45 later I finally made it home.
I got tired of my trenches filling with water.
My inspector didn't require rebar for the footers, but for another $100.00 in materials I figured it was cheap insurance.
Couldn't have done it without this tool. The laser level was just too expensive and renting one was out of the question because of how much I used it.
I don't have access to my backyard for a concrete truck, so I rented a Georgia Buggy for the footers. My friend John drove it while I raked the concrete.
My footers wound up bigger than my plans called for because I was not that precise with the mini excavator and after the walls caved in after a torrential rain I had to dig them out again by hand. I was not a happy camper. Notice the story poles I made for the concrete block.
These were delivered to my front yard and were all moved by hand/wheelbarrow to the backyard. PITA, but a good workout nevertheless.
Laying the block was fairly easy. Not to brag or anything, but when I was done I got it within 1/4" square and level. Again, paranoia makes you careful.
I parged and sealed the outside of the block, although my inspector said it wasn't required since I had no basement or crawl space. But I had to do something with the leftover mortar. By the way, next time I will use straps instead of bolts to tie the foundation to the framing. It was a PITA to lift the walls over top of these bolts by myself.
My lumber arrives, all $3800.00 worth and all bought from my local non big box lumber yard. Interestingly, all the lumber had product of Austria stamped on it.
I transferred the expensive pieces into my existing one car garage, which made it a little tight in there. Those are 2x10-16' for the rafters next to my old 535is.
The framing starts. Here I learned you shouldn't put a non galvanized nail through pressure treated lumber.
The second floor starts. Yes, I have a pole in the middle of my garage and due to a very long explanation it was a compromise I had to make.
Here is a built up beam made of 3 LVL's that I later had to disassemble to install because it was too heavy to lift on my own. You'd think I have no friends, but most of them work weekdays and I mostly work weekends. The reason this is bolted is because the load is primarly from the side (joist hangars) and nails are not strong enough according to the instructions that came with the LVL.
Here it is installed. Notice the strap ties on top because of the tension force created by the roof. The floor for my loft is 3/4" tongue and groove glued and nailed. I bought a great book called Residential Structure & Framing that explain in laymans terms all of these forces. It's only about $35.00 and a great read if you don't have much experience with this (like me).
This part made me nervous, cutting rafters. I read this article in Fine Homebuilding magazine that explained it very well, so it wasn't so bad. The jig they suggested made it almost easy. By the way, it's 9/12 pitch.
Here's the jig.
I decided to cut the rafter tails last just in case the wall wasn't straight. I had to cut the last part by hand because the wall got in the way of my circular saw. Forty some rafter tails later my arm was sore.
The roof sheathing goes up. Notice my house in the backround with its original roof from 1940 (slate). I priced slate for my garage - no way.
Here is part of the King Truss that holds up one end of the ridge beam. The tension force on this triangle is something like 2000# on each corner where the double rafter connects to the floor joist. Those are 1/2" bolts for the connections instead of nails. Because of these trusses (one on either end of the ridge beam) I don't need vertical posts holding up the ridge beam. By the way, I took this design right out of the book I mentioned earlier.
The other end of the ridge beam with its King Truss. No post required.
Here is the cathedral side LVL with ridge vent cutout.
My non slate shingles arrive and yes, I had to move them from the front yard to the back and then on to the roof. I lost ten pounds this summer.
I started this project this past April after doing alot of homework. I'm not in the construction business so this project has been a big challenge for me and alot of fun. Thanks to all for the great advice I've received from this site.
The garage is 24 X 26 with two bays, one has a cathedral ceiling for a future lift and the other bay has a loft. The only part I will contract out is the slab. I drew my own plans but they were rejected by the county because of the cathedral ceiling. The inspector said I needed an engineering stamp of approval because of a site built king truss to support the ceiling. A $150.00 later for the stamp and I was in business. He let me slide on fact that I drew my plans in metric.
Here's the site, the back corner of my property with only a 5' setback from the property line. My house was built in 1940, so the old setbacks still applied, although I gave myself a 6" buffer.
I must of measured my layout lines a hundred times before I was satisfied that it was square. The advantage of never having done this before is paranoia makes you very careful.
This little toy was fun. I live about a 15 minute walk from the rental place, so I convinced them that I could drive this mini excavator to my house instead of paying the $160.00 delivery charge. I didn't know that it only went like one mile per hour, so 1+45 later I finally made it home.
I got tired of my trenches filling with water.
My inspector didn't require rebar for the footers, but for another $100.00 in materials I figured it was cheap insurance.
Couldn't have done it without this tool. The laser level was just too expensive and renting one was out of the question because of how much I used it.
I don't have access to my backyard for a concrete truck, so I rented a Georgia Buggy for the footers. My friend John drove it while I raked the concrete.
My footers wound up bigger than my plans called for because I was not that precise with the mini excavator and after the walls caved in after a torrential rain I had to dig them out again by hand. I was not a happy camper. Notice the story poles I made for the concrete block.
These were delivered to my front yard and were all moved by hand/wheelbarrow to the backyard. PITA, but a good workout nevertheless.
Laying the block was fairly easy. Not to brag or anything, but when I was done I got it within 1/4" square and level. Again, paranoia makes you careful.
I parged and sealed the outside of the block, although my inspector said it wasn't required since I had no basement or crawl space. But I had to do something with the leftover mortar. By the way, next time I will use straps instead of bolts to tie the foundation to the framing. It was a PITA to lift the walls over top of these bolts by myself.
My lumber arrives, all $3800.00 worth and all bought from my local non big box lumber yard. Interestingly, all the lumber had product of Austria stamped on it.
I transferred the expensive pieces into my existing one car garage, which made it a little tight in there. Those are 2x10-16' for the rafters next to my old 535is.
The framing starts. Here I learned you shouldn't put a non galvanized nail through pressure treated lumber.
The second floor starts. Yes, I have a pole in the middle of my garage and due to a very long explanation it was a compromise I had to make.
Here is a built up beam made of 3 LVL's that I later had to disassemble to install because it was too heavy to lift on my own. You'd think I have no friends, but most of them work weekdays and I mostly work weekends. The reason this is bolted is because the load is primarly from the side (joist hangars) and nails are not strong enough according to the instructions that came with the LVL.
Here it is installed. Notice the strap ties on top because of the tension force created by the roof. The floor for my loft is 3/4" tongue and groove glued and nailed. I bought a great book called Residential Structure & Framing that explain in laymans terms all of these forces. It's only about $35.00 and a great read if you don't have much experience with this (like me).
This part made me nervous, cutting rafters. I read this article in Fine Homebuilding magazine that explained it very well, so it wasn't so bad. The jig they suggested made it almost easy. By the way, it's 9/12 pitch.
Here's the jig.
I decided to cut the rafter tails last just in case the wall wasn't straight. I had to cut the last part by hand because the wall got in the way of my circular saw. Forty some rafter tails later my arm was sore.
The roof sheathing goes up. Notice my house in the backround with its original roof from 1940 (slate). I priced slate for my garage - no way.
Here is part of the King Truss that holds up one end of the ridge beam. The tension force on this triangle is something like 2000# on each corner where the double rafter connects to the floor joist. Those are 1/2" bolts for the connections instead of nails. Because of these trusses (one on either end of the ridge beam) I don't need vertical posts holding up the ridge beam. By the way, I took this design right out of the book I mentioned earlier.
The other end of the ridge beam with its King Truss. No post required.
Here is the cathedral side LVL with ridge vent cutout.
My non slate shingles arrive and yes, I had to move them from the front yard to the back and then on to the roof. I lost ten pounds this summer.
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