26 August 2012
Dude, Somebody Stole My Garage
26/08/12 18:19
A very traumatic week for the cats.
You see, we have this project going. We’re converting the rather soggy garage into a warm and dry laundry room and family room. I know I know. “You always move into a house, change it, and then sell it off again”. Yes we’ve heard that before, but this time it’s different. We moved twice last year, and I’m VERY sick of moving. I’ve been calling this house our “pine box house” because that’s what we’re moving into next. (I should mention that Marsha REALLY doesn’t like that term.) We are staying here for the duration. So why not make a change that makes the place more comfortable, adds lots of storage, and an in-a-pinch fourth bedroom not to mention adds ~300 sq-ft. Seems like a smart move.
But before they can build they have to destroy. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the absurd degrees the previous owners went to to attach boards to the walls of the garage and lattice to the outside. The reason I noticed this was that I was pulling all of this down. Once I got the inside stripped down to the studs and joists we got a designer to look at the structure and come up with a plan. Next I removed and preserved the exterior siding so when they put up the new walls the outside will match the rest of the house. Then the contractor was here for a day ripping down the garage door, the front wall and the back wall. (One note: The garage door was only a couple of years old so we donated it plus a couple of other things like some doors to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They came and picked them up for free and everything. If you have one in your area drop in. They have good, often new, stuff at great prices. Plus the money goes to support Habitat for Humanity. Check it out.)
Then on Thursday (or as the cats likely think of it Armageddon Day) the guy arrived to remove the old garage floor. He had a tiny one person backhoe with a 5x sized jackhammer on the front and proceeded to begin breaking up the floor into manageable pieces. When I got home the cats were curled up under furniture and wouldn’t come out. Not surprising because outside the roar of the Bobcats engine was punctuated by periodic WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM as the jackhammer broke off yet another breadbox sized chunk from the slab. Each event rattled the floors and raised a little cloud of dust throughout the house. Let’s just say that I’m glad I pulled things down from shelves and ledges. Nothing that I’ve noticed has fallen or gotten broken. The garage floor slab ranged from 4” to 6” thick. This was because they hand’t prepared a proper base for it, or for that matter even levelled it very well. They just kept pouring concrete onto the dirt until it was flat. Not a very good job.
The next step once they get all the rubble out of the garage will be to excavate down to solid soil, install the drains for the laundry room, then backfill with gravel, and compact it so it’s solid, flat, and stable. They’re also going to wrap a layer of vapour barrier under the floor and up the walls as an extra level of protection against moisture. Lastly they will pour new walls for the front and back, that’s right the bottom three feet on both sides will be one piece poured concrete bulkhead walls, with a water seal on the outside. Then they will pour a new slab floor in the space. Only once this is all done will they be able to build the stud walls, install the windows, back door, siding, and such. After that’s done they will fill in and complete the landscaping in front which includes 2 (two!) new drain tiles leading away from the house. Then as one last precaution, just because I do NOT want to deal with water in here any more, we’re going to pause the project. We won’t be putting up Gyprock and installing flooring until we make it through a winter dry.
But that shouldn’t be a problem.
The question has come up as to what they are doing with the rubble from the garage floor? Some will be used as fill on the front. Most of it though is going into the back yard where we are expanding the driveway so people can park without blocking others in. The driveway ranges from 6” to three feet above the lawn and the rubble will fill this in nicely at no cost to us. We’ll just have to put a couple yards of gravel on the top and it will look fine. Well, it’ll look fine after we build the wall to keep the rubble from sliding down hill that is. That’s a project for 2013 or 2014 though.
Doug & No Marsha
PIX: Nothing pretty this week I’m afraid. Before and after shots of the house. You may remember the first one from a letter last March. Oddly enough it's the only shot of the front of the house I could find. Oh and there's one picture of the cute little Bobcat backhoe
You see, we have this project going. We’re converting the rather soggy garage into a warm and dry laundry room and family room. I know I know. “You always move into a house, change it, and then sell it off again”. Yes we’ve heard that before, but this time it’s different. We moved twice last year, and I’m VERY sick of moving. I’ve been calling this house our “pine box house” because that’s what we’re moving into next. (I should mention that Marsha REALLY doesn’t like that term.) We are staying here for the duration. So why not make a change that makes the place more comfortable, adds lots of storage, and an in-a-pinch fourth bedroom not to mention adds ~300 sq-ft. Seems like a smart move.
But before they can build they have to destroy. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the absurd degrees the previous owners went to to attach boards to the walls of the garage and lattice to the outside. The reason I noticed this was that I was pulling all of this down. Once I got the inside stripped down to the studs and joists we got a designer to look at the structure and come up with a plan. Next I removed and preserved the exterior siding so when they put up the new walls the outside will match the rest of the house. Then the contractor was here for a day ripping down the garage door, the front wall and the back wall. (One note: The garage door was only a couple of years old so we donated it plus a couple of other things like some doors to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They came and picked them up for free and everything. If you have one in your area drop in. They have good, often new, stuff at great prices. Plus the money goes to support Habitat for Humanity. Check it out.)
Then on Thursday (or as the cats likely think of it Armageddon Day) the guy arrived to remove the old garage floor. He had a tiny one person backhoe with a 5x sized jackhammer on the front and proceeded to begin breaking up the floor into manageable pieces. When I got home the cats were curled up under furniture and wouldn’t come out. Not surprising because outside the roar of the Bobcats engine was punctuated by periodic WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM as the jackhammer broke off yet another breadbox sized chunk from the slab. Each event rattled the floors and raised a little cloud of dust throughout the house. Let’s just say that I’m glad I pulled things down from shelves and ledges. Nothing that I’ve noticed has fallen or gotten broken. The garage floor slab ranged from 4” to 6” thick. This was because they hand’t prepared a proper base for it, or for that matter even levelled it very well. They just kept pouring concrete onto the dirt until it was flat. Not a very good job.
The next step once they get all the rubble out of the garage will be to excavate down to solid soil, install the drains for the laundry room, then backfill with gravel, and compact it so it’s solid, flat, and stable. They’re also going to wrap a layer of vapour barrier under the floor and up the walls as an extra level of protection against moisture. Lastly they will pour new walls for the front and back, that’s right the bottom three feet on both sides will be one piece poured concrete bulkhead walls, with a water seal on the outside. Then they will pour a new slab floor in the space. Only once this is all done will they be able to build the stud walls, install the windows, back door, siding, and such. After that’s done they will fill in and complete the landscaping in front which includes 2 (two!) new drain tiles leading away from the house. Then as one last precaution, just because I do NOT want to deal with water in here any more, we’re going to pause the project. We won’t be putting up Gyprock and installing flooring until we make it through a winter dry.
But that shouldn’t be a problem.
The question has come up as to what they are doing with the rubble from the garage floor? Some will be used as fill on the front. Most of it though is going into the back yard where we are expanding the driveway so people can park without blocking others in. The driveway ranges from 6” to three feet above the lawn and the rubble will fill this in nicely at no cost to us. We’ll just have to put a couple yards of gravel on the top and it will look fine. Well, it’ll look fine after we build the wall to keep the rubble from sliding down hill that is. That’s a project for 2013 or 2014 though.
Doug & No Marsha
PIX: Nothing pretty this week I’m afraid. Before and after shots of the house. You may remember the first one from a letter last March. Oddly enough it's the only shot of the front of the house I could find. Oh and there's one picture of the cute little Bobcat backhoe