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Restoring a Garage

Much work to be done

Worth saving?	Shingled with roll roofing

The garage that remained after building the addition was, as luck would have it, the one in poor condition. It was built into the first terrace and, as I found out when working on it, made mostly of second hand materials fifty or more years ago.

I did not know how much of it could be saved when I started work on it the summer of 2005. It was obvious that the doors had to be replaced and at least the wall sheathing. The roof was sagging so it was likely that the walls themselves would need to be rebuilt.

The first step was to remove the doors and then start on the walls. As it turned out, the roof, part of the back end and the front frame were the only parts of the structure salvageable.

Stripping the roof

With an old but faithful 2-1/2" dia. screw jack and beams, I jacked up one side of the roof until it was again level. First, using long drywall screws and a screw gun, I attached a 4" x 6" x 8' beam to the roof rafters a few inches away and parallel to the front section of the left wall. A post, cut to length, was located plumb from the middle of the beam to the screw jack. Every few rotations of the screw, it was necessary to go outside and check the levelness of that section of the roof. Although the roof doesn't appear that heavy, I still wore a hard hat and, of course, safety glasses! As a further safety measure, I attached angle braces to the front frame to prevent it from shifting. The garage made plenty of noise during the process.

The wall framing also had to be removed including the sills, only the plates would remain. All new sills would be of pressure treated wood. As stated, the building backs into the terrace to the point where the rear roof eaves are only 2' above the ground. The foundation on this side was still in good condition. The sill went in a little ways horizontally, then up (vertical) a foot, then horizontal and then vertical and so on. The foundation didn't go straight up because of a set of stone steps leading to the top of the terrace. Actually, there were two sills. One followed the periphery of the concrete floor, fitting into the groove left after the old one was removed. The other followed the step-ups of the foundation wall. The 2 x 4's between the plate and the sills were then installed. They always went from the plate to the sill located in the floor but most had to have the width trimmed to fit in front of the concrete wall and still present a flat vertical surface for the future interior sheathing. A window was framed into that side, near the front to let natural light into the garage.

Well made trim takes time!

When the front right half was completed, the jack was lowered and the process completed towards the back and then the left side was started. Exterior plywood sheathing was used for the interior walls.

Again, the wall had to be removed but this time much of the foundation had to be repaired. This side has a stone framed ramp which continues all the way up to the final terrace. It likely predates the house and was to allow animals to reach the higher levels. The garage at this side is only the ramp's width away from the stone wall boundary of the property.

The rear wall (little that there is on the outside) did not need replacing but the thickness of that wall increased when I added 2 x 4's to make a complete vertical wall for the interior sheathing. Every 2 x 4 had to have it's width shaved to fit against the rear concrete wall and stay plumb in front.

The two front posts. needed to have long tapered pieces applied to form plumb surfaces for the trim. A horizontal 4 x 6 beam was added to reinforce the arch over the posts.

 

 

Original open cornice	Boxed cornice

 All new trim was applied in a similar style to that of the house. The garage originally had open cornices but I wanted to box them in. The process involves much more time and material but changes and finishes off the garage. When working with old construction. much trimming and adjusting has to be done to each board. If done well, few will notice the irregularities unless you point them out! With my wife's help, we filled and sanded all the nail holes and primed and painted all the trim before applying the cedar shingles.

Roof prepared for shingling	Rear view

Sanding holes after setting the nails

For siding, red cedar shingles placed with a 5" exposure as on the house made the two buildings complement each other for the first time. Before actually starting the shingling, I ran a temporary starter strip of wood all around the garage. The bottom side of the strip (3/4" thick) would be where the bottom edge of the shingles would start. I then went all around the sides and back of the building applying concrete from that bottom edge and sloping it out smoothly along the foundation. In that way, the water coming off the walls would flow away from the foundation rather than towards it. Once the concrete dried, the strips were discarded.The tapered shingles were the best quality red cedar, squared and rebutted. The widths vary from about 3" to over 12" and are about 18" long. To be sure that the bottom shingles are also three layers thick (3 x 5" = 15"), I cut the top 6" off of shingles and nailed them all along that molded concrete edge described above, always varying the widths. For the next layer, I cut the top 12" off of shingles and nailed them according to directions on the box, being certain that no vertical joints lined up. The next layer was a full shingle, again varying the widths and never lining up the sides of the previous two courses of shingles. I didn't discard the cut off bottoms of the shingles as they would be used when I reached the top freeze molding. To obtain the approximate 5" exposure, it is necessary to use a pair of dividers and mark off 5" units up to the frieze trim. The last measurement will probably not be 5" so I adjust the dividers a little wider and try again. Eventually, I find the measurement (5-1/16", 5-1/8", 5-3/16" etc.), which comes out evenly. It is easier to do the dividing on a measuring stick cut to the distance from the bottom of the frieze to the top of the concrete edge. Now I can transfer the measurements to the wall. For the second and future courses, a long straight board is temporally nailed horizontally at each set of course marks, making it so much easier to arrange the differing widths on before nailing.

The triangular areas formed by the roof pitch in front and back simply take a lot of patience. Not only must all the previous steps be followed, but also the proper angles need to be cut to fit well against the angled fascia boards. A t-bevel for copying the angles is required. Before nailing into the acute angles, holes must be drilled first to avoid splitting.

Finished side view

After removing the layers of roll roofing, I found that the roof sheathing was in pretty good shape only requiring the replacement of a few boards. The pitch on the roof presented a problem. In order to match the house, I wanted to use the same fiberglass composition shingles as I had installed on the rest of the house two summers before. The garage roof pitch was in the iffy range for shingles, some books said yes, some said no. My solution was to use the rubberized roll roofing on the whole roof not just along the eaves. Each strip sticks to the sheathing and to the adjacent strip creating a water proof membrane even with the shingle nails passing through. This material is not cheap but worth the price for the desired result - being able to match the house. The last project was the doors. I purchased two sheets of the best quality 3/4" plywood, spending much time searching for the flattest sheets. Accurate measurements and planning were needed so that the finished doors would close well and allow for seasonal expansion and contraction. The plan was to cut the plywood, apply a band of wood 3/4" x 1" around the outside edges using countersunk screws and exterior glue and apply trim on the outside creating areas to be filled in with the red cedar shingles. The trim was applied in such a way as to allow 5/8" x 3/4" rabbit joints where the two doors come together. I decided to clean up the original hinges as they were well made and could take the weight of these doors. As the saying goes: "Best made plans ...." When the doors were installed, in spite of all my planning, they were a bit too wide and the rabbit joints had to be trimmed.With a finished house and a finished driveway, the old garage was an eyesore from the street, but not anymore.

Before	After

 

Home Driveway Fireplaces Addition Garage Style Woodworking Landscaping Beekeeping Poultry Lucinda

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