I've been talking and thinking about doing this for 3-4 years now. Two days ago we finally took the first "ground breaking" step toward making it a reality.
The garage on my house started out as a flat-roof, open-sided carport when the the house was built 40 years ago. Some previous owner put sides on it, but no garage doors. When I bought the place 15 years ago, the flat roof was leaking badly, and the front wall where the two openings are was rotted badly enough that I had to rebuild it before having garage doors installed.
While the house foundation is sound, the garage foundation has had numerous problems from cracking and movement. I've always planned to one day tear it down to the ground and start over. My original plan was to just rebuild a two-bay garage of the same size, but with a peaked roof. Eventually, I realized that by making use of the slope, a tall RV bay could be added without ending up with a roof-line taller than the rest of the house.
Discussing the project with the DW resulted in further "scope creep", such that we'll also be adding a fair amount of square footage to the living area of the house as well. My garage/RV bay/man-cave has ballooned considerably since I first started dreaming, but this is what we've settled on. The old garage is about 28' deep, and 24' wide. The new garage will be 30' deep and 60' wide. The RV bay will have one wide door, rather than the two narrow doors shown. I was planning to allow 14' of vertical clearance, but I'm not sure I really need to go that high. Twelve feet would be plenty for my camper, the garage depth and driveway approach will never accommodate an RV much longer than mine.
About 10 years ago I had an asphalt driveway paved down behind the house, and then had a Jamar RV shed constructed over it where I'm currently parking my truck and camper. It's sitting right where my new garage RV bay will be, so it'll have to be moved. That's what we've started, which doesn't sound too difficult. Except.........
My property is on the side of a hill. There's no naturally level ground anywhere, so a pad will have to be constructed. Also, about a year ago (anticipating the loss of my garage and the storage space inside it) I constructed a 12'x20' storage building right next to the house to hold all of my man-stuff while the garage is being built. Once the garage is built, the storage building will be taken apart and moved farther away from the house. So that's two level pads to construct.
I also have a ton of trees on my property, mostly white oak, some of them pretty big, and pretty close to the house. Of course, there are trees in the way of everything I want to do.
So, Wednesday morning, bright and early, the tree cutting pro's got started. The weather was gray and gloomy that day. This is where my metal RV shed will be moved. I'm going to reduce it's height a little and use it to park other equipment under.
Getting the boom truck setup for another tree.
They were having fun maneuvering that 2WD boom truck around on my slope.
This tree was hanging over my RV shed.
My storage building. They dropped a big limb on it's roof, but it doesn't appear to have suffered any damage.
My truck and camper out of harms way in the front yard.
Wish I had one of those trucks to play with.
Pulling one down close to the power lines.
I'm saving these for another project.
I'll add more as we make progress.
:):)
The garage on my house started out as a flat-roof, open-sided carport when the the house was built 40 years ago. Some previous owner put sides on it, but no garage doors. When I bought the place 15 years ago, the flat roof was leaking badly, and the front wall where the two openings are was rotted badly enough that I had to rebuild it before having garage doors installed.
While the house foundation is sound, the garage foundation has had numerous problems from cracking and movement. I've always planned to one day tear it down to the ground and start over. My original plan was to just rebuild a two-bay garage of the same size, but with a peaked roof. Eventually, I realized that by making use of the slope, a tall RV bay could be added without ending up with a roof-line taller than the rest of the house.
Discussing the project with the DW resulted in further "scope creep", such that we'll also be adding a fair amount of square footage to the living area of the house as well. My garage/RV bay/man-cave has ballooned considerably since I first started dreaming, but this is what we've settled on. The old garage is about 28' deep, and 24' wide. The new garage will be 30' deep and 60' wide. The RV bay will have one wide door, rather than the two narrow doors shown. I was planning to allow 14' of vertical clearance, but I'm not sure I really need to go that high. Twelve feet would be plenty for my camper, the garage depth and driveway approach will never accommodate an RV much longer than mine.
About 10 years ago I had an asphalt driveway paved down behind the house, and then had a Jamar RV shed constructed over it where I'm currently parking my truck and camper. It's sitting right where my new garage RV bay will be, so it'll have to be moved. That's what we've started, which doesn't sound too difficult. Except.........
My property is on the side of a hill. There's no naturally level ground anywhere, so a pad will have to be constructed. Also, about a year ago (anticipating the loss of my garage and the storage space inside it) I constructed a 12'x20' storage building right next to the house to hold all of my man-stuff while the garage is being built. Once the garage is built, the storage building will be taken apart and moved farther away from the house. So that's two level pads to construct.
I also have a ton of trees on my property, mostly white oak, some of them pretty big, and pretty close to the house. Of course, there are trees in the way of everything I want to do.
So, Wednesday morning, bright and early, the tree cutting pro's got started. The weather was gray and gloomy that day. This is where my metal RV shed will be moved. I'm going to reduce it's height a little and use it to park other equipment under.
Getting the boom truck setup for another tree.
They were having fun maneuvering that 2WD boom truck around on my slope.
This tree was hanging over my RV shed.
My storage building. They dropped a big limb on it's roof, but it doesn't appear to have suffered any damage.
My truck and camper out of harms way in the front yard.
Wish I had one of those trucks to play with.
Pulling one down close to the power lines.
I'm saving these for another project.
I'll add more as we make progress.
:):)
I came home from work Wednesday and found these laying on the upper bay slab. They are 36 ft. long, 24 in. tall LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) beams.
These are all 1.75 in. thick. Three of them will be screwed together to make a beam, and two of these beams will be used in the upper bay ceiling that won't need a center support post. These should make the floor of the living area above the garage very rigid and stable.
One end sits on top of the garage door header where the gaps are in the top and bottom plates. One top plate still needs to be cut. It was left intact while the walls were plumbed and squared.
The other end sits on top of the 6x6 post in the back wall.
This is my first experience with them. I hope they work as well as the spec's sound. Any of you professionals care to comment?
This tripled LVL beam is 12 in. tall. It's directly over the poured concrete retaining wall, and WILL have a steel center post supporting it. The post will be integrated into the steel handrail that will sit on top of a 12 in. tall x 12 in. wide curb that will be poured on top of the upper bay slab. The curb will have a 5 ft. gap in it at the back wall for the top landing of a stairway to the lower bay. On top of this beam, directly over the center post, will sit four LVL beams that will span the width of the lower bay and sit on top of the header over the center window.
The broken block wall got fixed Thursday.
The top plate's been cut, and it's time to hoist the beams.
Heave-ho!
Squaring it up.
Now it's time to stand the stud wall up again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it goes well this time.
It's standing up, but the straps need a little adjustment so the wall hangs level.
Almost there, getting the anchor bolts through the holes.
This is the front face of the garage from in front of the upper bay.
And this is from in front of the lower bay.
The side wall from downhill below the garage.
The back wall. There'll be a little back fill against the blocks, but I'll be keeping at least two blocks above grade for the siding.
The back wall from inside the garage. Those beams are just awesome.
:):)
These are all 1.75 in. thick. Three of them will be screwed together to make a beam, and two of these beams will be used in the upper bay ceiling that won't need a center support post. These should make the floor of the living area above the garage very rigid and stable.
One end sits on top of the garage door header where the gaps are in the top and bottom plates. One top plate still needs to be cut. It was left intact while the walls were plumbed and squared.
The other end sits on top of the 6x6 post in the back wall.
This is my first experience with them. I hope they work as well as the spec's sound. Any of you professionals care to comment?
This tripled LVL beam is 12 in. tall. It's directly over the poured concrete retaining wall, and WILL have a steel center post supporting it. The post will be integrated into the steel handrail that will sit on top of a 12 in. tall x 12 in. wide curb that will be poured on top of the upper bay slab. The curb will have a 5 ft. gap in it at the back wall for the top landing of a stairway to the lower bay. On top of this beam, directly over the center post, will sit four LVL beams that will span the width of the lower bay and sit on top of the header over the center window.
The broken block wall got fixed Thursday.
The top plate's been cut, and it's time to hoist the beams.
Heave-ho!
Squaring it up.
Now it's time to stand the stud wall up again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it goes well this time.
It's standing up, but the straps need a little adjustment so the wall hangs level.
Almost there, getting the anchor bolts through the holes.
This is the front face of the garage from in front of the upper bay.
And this is from in front of the lower bay.
The side wall from downhill below the garage.
The back wall. There'll be a little back fill against the blocks, but I'll be keeping at least two blocks above grade for the siding.
The back wall from inside the garage. Those beams are just awesome.
:):)
Time for another update!
I'm going to have to keep it brief, though. Work and this project is eating me up.
The next phase of the foundation was to get the upper bay footings formed up and poured. The concrete crew spends 4-5 days getting things ready, drilling rebar into the backside of the poured concrete wall and some of the old footings, compacting soil with a crazy gadget called a "Jumping Jack", and other tasks. That thing pounds the dirt so hard it can be felt inside the house.
We're ready to start pouring concrete again. This shows the vapor barier, the rebar grid, and the steel mesh on top of that. The upper bay also has the thickened section down the middle.
They start at the back of the slab, with the truck sitting partially inside the form.
Still the first truck. It was carrying 8 cubic yards.
The total volume of concrete for each slab is about 21-22 cubic yards. I think they're waiting on the next truck at t his point.
And we end up with this finished slab.
So the foundation is finished at this point, and building the structure can finally commence. Whoohooo! The two apron slabs will be poured later, along with a couple of small items inside the upper bay (steps outside the door into the house, and short wall at the edge where a hand railing will be set).
Now we need some lumber, so an order is made and a truck showed up last Friday evening with a huge load.
I try to clean off a space on the asphalt big enough to stash all this stuff.
One of the bundles is a stack of three 32' long LVL beams. The driver does a good job of twisting them past my trees until he gets to this spot.
We have to have a little driveway pow-wow.
That spider forklift can do a lot of amazing things, but this just ain't gonna work.
He lays it down on the driveway lengthways, and I take one end of it with my tractor.
He picks up the other end with one fork and we get it moved past the choke point......
And into my staging area next to the driveway where all the salvaged materials are stored.
Then he started bringing down the stacks of plywood. They went closer to the jobsite in the area I was sweeping off.
Some assembly required. :W
Before we can build the walls though, some cinder-blocks need to be laid around the perimeter of the slabs. I don't want the siding on the new garage to come down as close to the ground as it did on the old garage. All the materials for that are delivered, and the block masons get busy.
Most of the block wall will just be two block high, but this corner needs to be built up more than that because the grade will be higher over here. The wall will be reinforced wih rebar, and filled with concrete from bottom to top.
The block crew's schedule was busy, so they chose to do this last Saturday.
The weather was crazy that day. There was only about a 20% chance of rain, but we has 3 or 4 small showers pop up right over us throughout the day. We even had a little pea-sized hail!
They kept working though. We'd get wet....then dry off...then get wet.....then dry off....
There were things they could do even when it was raining.
They completed the job, and covered the walls with plastic in case we had a downpour overnight.
They start in the lower bay building the front wall where the 18' wide door will be. The door opening will be 14' tall.
And we finally have the first wall of the structure stood up!
I built a shelf on a nearby tree to take progress pictures as the structure is built. This is a couple of old shelf brackets, a scrap of plywood, and some scrap Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) to use as stops for our camera. The picture above was taken off this shelf.
Things start moving quickly now, and we have to firm up some details that were just "check with us when you get there" before. The three window rough openings were determined just the day before.
They will be high on the wall so they won't be totally blocked by the camper.
The header for this door is laying on the ground.
That's a heavy glue-lam beam. It's going to take a lift to get it up there.
I'm not lifting that up there! :W
The stud wall that sits on top of the stepped block wall is built.
And the door header is put in place.
Almost there.
OK, nail it.
Attempting to lift the back wall into place.
They made a mistake and set the bottom plate on the wall. That put too much pressure on the top of the cinder blocks, and the wall was damaged.
They know they messed up, and the builder is going to make it right. The block mason crew will be back this morning to fix it up.
The framers continue in the upper bay, and this is how it looks today.
I moved the machine to get a better view.
The header over the double garage doors is in place.
My new door out on to the back patio area has been moved down a few feet.
The look of the house is going to change dramatically from this side.
That's it for now! Sorry I had to be so brief, but I'm staying pretty busy right now. I know most of you just want to see the pictures anyway. :B
:):)
I'm going to have to keep it brief, though. Work and this project is eating me up.
The next phase of the foundation was to get the upper bay footings formed up and poured. The concrete crew spends 4-5 days getting things ready, drilling rebar into the backside of the poured concrete wall and some of the old footings, compacting soil with a crazy gadget called a "Jumping Jack", and other tasks. That thing pounds the dirt so hard it can be felt inside the house.
We're ready to start pouring concrete again. This shows the vapor barier, the rebar grid, and the steel mesh on top of that. The upper bay also has the thickened section down the middle.
They start at the back of the slab, with the truck sitting partially inside the form.
Still the first truck. It was carrying 8 cubic yards.
The total volume of concrete for each slab is about 21-22 cubic yards. I think they're waiting on the next truck at t his point.
And we end up with this finished slab.
So the foundation is finished at this point, and building the structure can finally commence. Whoohooo! The two apron slabs will be poured later, along with a couple of small items inside the upper bay (steps outside the door into the house, and short wall at the edge where a hand railing will be set).
Now we need some lumber, so an order is made and a truck showed up last Friday evening with a huge load.
I try to clean off a space on the asphalt big enough to stash all this stuff.
One of the bundles is a stack of three 32' long LVL beams. The driver does a good job of twisting them past my trees until he gets to this spot.
We have to have a little driveway pow-wow.
That spider forklift can do a lot of amazing things, but this just ain't gonna work.
He lays it down on the driveway lengthways, and I take one end of it with my tractor.
He picks up the other end with one fork and we get it moved past the choke point......
And into my staging area next to the driveway where all the salvaged materials are stored.
Then he started bringing down the stacks of plywood. They went closer to the jobsite in the area I was sweeping off.
Some assembly required. :W
Before we can build the walls though, some cinder-blocks need to be laid around the perimeter of the slabs. I don't want the siding on the new garage to come down as close to the ground as it did on the old garage. All the materials for that are delivered, and the block masons get busy.
Most of the block wall will just be two block high, but this corner needs to be built up more than that because the grade will be higher over here. The wall will be reinforced wih rebar, and filled with concrete from bottom to top.
The block crew's schedule was busy, so they chose to do this last Saturday.
The weather was crazy that day. There was only about a 20% chance of rain, but we has 3 or 4 small showers pop up right over us throughout the day. We even had a little pea-sized hail!
They kept working though. We'd get wet....then dry off...then get wet.....then dry off....
There were things they could do even when it was raining.
They completed the job, and covered the walls with plastic in case we had a downpour overnight.
They start in the lower bay building the front wall where the 18' wide door will be. The door opening will be 14' tall.
And we finally have the first wall of the structure stood up!
I built a shelf on a nearby tree to take progress pictures as the structure is built. This is a couple of old shelf brackets, a scrap of plywood, and some scrap Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) to use as stops for our camera. The picture above was taken off this shelf.
Things start moving quickly now, and we have to firm up some details that were just "check with us when you get there" before. The three window rough openings were determined just the day before.
They will be high on the wall so they won't be totally blocked by the camper.
The header for this door is laying on the ground.
That's a heavy glue-lam beam. It's going to take a lift to get it up there.
I'm not lifting that up there! :W
The stud wall that sits on top of the stepped block wall is built.
And the door header is put in place.
Almost there.
OK, nail it.
Attempting to lift the back wall into place.
They made a mistake and set the bottom plate on the wall. That put too much pressure on the top of the cinder blocks, and the wall was damaged.
They know they messed up, and the builder is going to make it right. The block mason crew will be back this morning to fix it up.
The framers continue in the upper bay, and this is how it looks today.
I moved the machine to get a better view.
The header over the double garage doors is in place.
My new door out on to the back patio area has been moved down a few feet.
The look of the house is going to change dramatically from this side.
That's it for now! Sorry I had to be so brief, but I'm staying pretty busy right now. I know most of you just want to see the pictures anyway. :B
:):)
