Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Garage Project Phase III

This is a continuation of my project involving the restoration of my old 1920's garage. This post describes the concrete work.
(Earlier post: Garage Project Phase II)

It took a couple Saturdays to get the concrete forms ready. My father-in-law, a professional builder, warned me about the need for a release agent to prevent the forms from sticking. I decided to try biodiesel. I have yet to try to remove the forms, so we’ll see how that goes.

Last week was a bit nerve-wracking because I’ve only ever worked with small batches of concrete. I really didn’t want to mess up the $675.00 worth of concrete and gravel I’d ordered for this project. Also, the only opening they had to deliver on Saturday was at 8:00 AM! Thankfully, I had the day before that off, but the list of things to get done was long.

The concrete company told me their truck needed a stable road at least a 10 feet wide, with no overhang under 14 feet. If the driver didn’t think the road was good enough, we’d have to use wheelbarrows to carry the concrete from the street – a nightmare scenario! Unfortunately, the back alley to my garage was choked with blackberries, overgrown brush, and muddy potholes!


The critical 300 foot path from the street (top) to my garage (red square) had to be cleared for the concrete truck.


After checking with my neighbors that I could chop down whatever was growing behind their property into the alleyway, I started in early Friday chopping, mowing, and trimming – with the most work being on my own overgrown hedge. The whole time, my mind was running through everything I had to prep on the garage, and here I was clearing brush! But it had to be done.

With the alleyway (hopefully) clear enough for the truck, I turned my attention to the open pit of loose, fluffy, and rotten log-filled dirt that made up one third of my garage floor. Before I could pour a new slab on top of it, I needed to compact the soil. But first, I had to dig out the bad stuff. I ducked between all the wooden braces and started to shovel. Every time I thought I’d gotten down low enough, I’d turn up another rotten log. In the end, I shoveled out 6 wheelbarrows full of dirt.

Meanwhile, a load of gravel had arrived in a big pile in the alley. It was to go in the cavity I was digging out, allowing me to get a good compact foundation on which to pour the concrete. With my wheelbarrow and shovel, I started moving gravel into the void. By this point I was exhausted and running out of daylight. There would be no time in the morning to prepare, so I had to get it ready at whatever the cost. But I hadn’t yet starting digging out the slab I intended to pour behind the garage! I didn’t even have a pick-axe and didn’t know how long it would take me. I was almost ready to forego the new slab altogether.


My neighbor Dan comes out to see concrete poured in the slab he helped excavate the night before.



That is when a hero stepped in. My neighbor Dan knew about my project, and he volunteered both his labor and tools just when I needed them. In the fading daylight, he swung his pick-axe into the boulder-filled earth outside the shop, and together we dug until we could no longer see what we were doing. I hastily laid out some wooden forms for the slab sides. With light and space for removed soil running out, we scaled back the length of the slab from 10 feet to 8 feet. Dan left his tools for me. It was late. I closed up the garage for the night, took a shower, and didn’t sleep a wink.


Dad floats the new slab.


The second hero, as always, is my dad. He arrived at 7:30 the next morning and we frantically started preparing the site. The concrete truck arrived 10 minutes early! The thing about concrete is that you have x minutes to unload the truck and they charge you y dollars for every minute beyond that as stand-bye time. When that truck is ready, your wallet is on the clock.

The driver came out to look at the alley, hemmed and hawed about branches and the stability of the surface, but thankfully decided to give it a go. His truck squeezed down the alley with inches to spare on either side, and we now had concrete right next to the project! My alley trimming the day before had been worth it.

The next hour and a half was a sweaty frantic rush of action as we moved the concrete from the truck to the forms a wheelbarrow at a time (we blew out one wheelbarrow tire). Finally, it was in! Dad and I spent another 3 hours floating and smoothing things into shape. The concrete started to get firm. We took a lunch break and came out to see that the cat had walked across the area. We smoothed over that, but later, when it was just soft enough, the cat did it again. And those prints are now permanent.

Wet concrete fills the pit that once held 80 years worth of rotten wood. A proper floor at last!


Anchor bolts in the foundation forms.

Next: Removing the forms, replacing the sills, and maybe lowering the structure into place!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!

The weather was rainy today, but Oliver had a great time. Jenny hid eggs around the living room with some toddler gummy treats in them. We had to point a few of them out, but he ate the treats as he went, so pretty soon he was searching for them himself.











Oliver was standing around, hugging Abbie. I took a few pictures because she usually isn't that patient with him. I was kind of kidding when I suggested that he give her a kiss, but to my surprise, as soon as he got close, she leaned over to give him the kiss first!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Steppin Outside


Now that we're having a bit more daylight, Oliver insists on going outside and walking up and down the sidewalk as often as possible. In this video, I hand him his coat so he can try to put it on himself. What happens next cracks me up.

-Keith

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Spring! and Garage Project Phase II

Oliver is 16 months old. We need to start writing down his ever growing vocabulary! He recently impressed us with "apple," "eye" (including finger jab into dad's said object), and "mouth." Generally, he gets more talkative the closer he is to the ground. Drop him down to run in the grocery store and you'll soon be hearing about everything he can point at.

He likes to walk around the block, where he can point out birds or an ever-present FedEx airplane passing overhead (we live directly under their landing zone to the airport -- not that they're scraping our roofs or anything).

Here are a few classic toddler negatives: He's suddenly not enjoying his bath. His mastery of the fork and spoon also needs work. And when denied something, we get a real show of stomping and crying. Fun!
But we love the little guy.


Here is my garage. It was built with the house in 1928, and was clearly cobbled together with scrap lumber left over from the main house. After rainwater leaked in and ruined a bunch of stuff and some thefts from the less-than-secure structure, I decided to start restoring it.

Phase I was last fall, when my dad and brothers (what would I do without them?) helped me put a new roof on the building. That took care of the water problem. The next big issue was the foundation. When it was built, the builders stacked a wall of bricks 3 high and laid the wood on top. They built up from there. Over the years, the bricks sank, the soil rose (under a big cedar tree), and the bottom sill thoroughly rotted out. The whole structure was leaning. I didn't even know there was a brick foundation until I'd done a lot of digging!

Rotten 4 X 6 sill

Phase II started over the winter, as I reinforced the roof structure, adding metal brackets anywhere I could. Yesterday, my dad, brothers and I did a LOT more reinforcement, then set up jacks and posts under giant beams I'd affixed to the ceiling truss structure. Using 4 jacks, we slowly lifted the whole structure off the ground about 10 inches. It was stop and go. There was a constant discussion about how to proceed, and we always erred on the side of safety, deciding that we needed more support and insurance for our points of failure. We were soon ducking under a network of cross-ties, but we got the job done. The rotten sill was knocked off and we were able to get some of the foundation forms in place.

NEXT!

Phase III: Concrete poured in for a new floor on one side and fill in the concrete forms.

Phase IV: Lower the structure onto the new foundation.

Phase V: Rebuild the doors, replace the window, etc.

That should do it. After that, I'll just work away as time allows, building workbenches and a ladder to the loft. More home projects are waiting, and this will be the construction base.