Garage Build Spring/Summer 2022-update Oct2023

[coachJC]

I was able to get 3 sides of the Facia completed along with the Gabel cap that goes over the edge and on top of the roof metal to protect the edge from getting caught in any wind storm. I did get a couple of ripples in two 10ft sections of facia trim along the front of the garage that I will go back and try and adjust to remove them as best I can. Sorry some of the pics are dark I usually take them when I am done for the night.

Edited August 25, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

This will be my last post for a week as I am going on a weeks holiday. When I get back I need to get the top all enclosed in and the windows in so I can work towards getting the concrete floor in.

[coachJC]

I had a good week of holidays with my wife and some friends at a cottage up north, but before we left I needed to change the oil in my wife's car, and I sure hope this is the last time where I have to do this on the ground crawling under a car. I need my 4 post lift so I better get moving on with my garage.

[coachJC]

Instead of working on the garage when we got home I took a day to go to a local car show with my parents and my 2 boys. It's always a fun time when we get to go to this pre 1950 car show and to be able to have 3 generations of the Carter family drive into a show together. Friday when we got home I spent the afternoon getting my 2 Ts from my dads place where they have been sitting since last Oct. and in the evening we went and got the model A for my oldest to drive. It was neat to finally see the cars sitting in the garage. It sure made the garage look big to me for the first time.

[coachJC]

Sunday starting bright and early as the plan was to get the last gable end done and the roof cap and vents installed. It turned into a really long day and my legs were jello from going up and down the ladders a 100 times. The roof seemed to have more grip on it this time when I was up there working, the first time I was up just after the panels were installed I found it really slippery but after a month of being in the weather it was alot easier to get around. Holiday Monday turned into a bust as it rained all day, so I just got some cleaning done from the day before in the garage, and happily I did not come across any leaks...yet.

[coachJC]

With the roof all closed in and the last thing I still need to to with the roof is to add the snow stop but I will get to that later before the snow flies. The next job is to start the bottom drip edge which will set all my heights for my metal siding. 

As I stated in an earlier post I did not give myself quite enough clearance on my metal siding as I should have so the bottom drip edge is about 1 1/4in lower than originally planned for but I still had enough room on the bottom strapping to give me room for nailing. From the soffit down on all 4 corners I marked where the panels should locate then ran a string line around the building for the top of the drip edge.

 

I temporarily installed my first pc then added my wainscot and full side panel to make sure all my numbers worked out and I had enough clearance for them to be installed and everything looked good. I forgot to grab a pic of that.

Next thing to do was to install all the drip edge. One thing I learned from watching guys do metal on YouTube is how they join the seams. They cut the corner off on the piece that goes under and then they open up the fold on the adjoining part and slide them together, and it makes for a much cleaner joint. I have seen where guys just overlap and it looks like a mess.

 

I got it all installed in one night after work. It sucks with the fall coming on and it getting dark at 8pm, as I losing 1 hr of work time from earlier in the summer.

 

[coachJC]

With the bottom drip edge on the next part to install is the corner trim. The style of corner trim I purchased is the style where the panels sit inside a U channel and not the style that sits on top of the panel after they are installed. After doing it with the style I bought I can see the pros and cons of both styles. The hardest part with the ones I used is that they come in 10ft lengths and needed 11'6" so I needed to overlap 2 together and that took a lot of cuts with the sniped to get them to fit together and look ok at the same time.

 

You can see in the below pic how the panels fit into the corner trim. The advantage with this is a flat part of the panel or the ribbed part can fit inside as a start for your panelling. The disadvantage is you can visually see your cut if you have one, where the other style hides it and all you see is the factory edge on the corner panel on top of the your side panel.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

Next is to add the wainscot. It was nice to get to this point as after a couple hrs of work you can really see some progress. Sometimes working on trims and small details can take hrs and when you are done it is hard to see progress.

 

First panel up and measured and marked so the panels are close to symmetrical from end to end. 

 

Back side all installed

 

main panel colour drip edge installed

 

Wainscot on west side of garage. I did not go right to the corner as I need to get the porch built first.

 

Wainscot east side up to the man door.

 

After lots of measuring and thinking about panel placement around the garage doors I installed just this small section. I think I have to do the red and the charcoal at the same time to insure proper panel alignment with the ribs all along the front.

[coachJC]

Woke up Sunday morning to it raining outside, the plan was to put the red metal up on the back of the garage. It turned to a drizzle so I thought I would go out and try not to get to muddy and see if I can get it done. It took a couple of hrs but I got the back complete, the rain stopped when i was 1/3 of the way thru which made it it a more pleasant task. some of the panels are alittle dirty, the back side could use power wash now that it is all installed.

Edited September 14, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

Up next was to get the windows installed so we could continue to work on getting the metal up on the sides of the garage. This was pretty basic as I bought the flanged windows, they sit up against the strapping around the windows and they need to be level and you nail it in-place. I also added a water proofing tape around them.

Edited September 16, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

Before I can add the panelling on the side I need to trim out the windows. The first pic shows the cuts required on the "J" trim prior to installation. You will notice only 3 pcs as the top piece will be installed after the side panels are up. 

[coachJC]

The next day I started adding the metal panels up to the windows. Something that I realized earlier and compensated for as much as I could, was that my window openings start at the same height I stopped the wainscot. The issues is how small a section of tin goes between the drip edge and the "J" trim around the bottom of the window, it ended up being 1 3/8". That makes for a tough pc to cut and a really flimsy pc to get into place, but with some help we got it done. In one picture you will also see the top trim over the window installed.

Edited September 21, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

I have changed my focus from getting metal on the building to needing to get going on the work required to get my concrete floor in. We got a skid steer and a plate tamper showing up to get the 6" of Gan A stone base down before insulation and tubing for the in-floor heating. My muscles are already hurting just thinking about it.

[coachJC]

Friday night I spent about 3 hrs taking stone from the piles in the driveway and starting filling up the required 6in in the garage and did some raking and leveling.

 

Saturday morning I thought I would run the tamper around just to see how much it packed the stone and in some places it seemed to drop the level about 1in.

 

 

My oldest son and I spent the rest of the day moving stone and shoveling,raking, scraping, tamping  and leveling as best we could. What a laborious job this was and every muscle in my body ached when we were done.

 

 

 

[Gary_Ash]

If you are planning on a lift, now would be a good time to dig out some holes in the stone for large, deep piers under the floor.

[coachJC]

3 hours ago, Gary_Ash said:

If you are planning on a lift, now would be a good time to dig out some holes in the stone for large, deep piers under the floor.

I plan on adding a 4 post lift, requirements from 2 different manufactures suggest a 4 to 4 1/2in min thickness for a 4 post lift. I am doing in-floor heating so my plan is to remove the foam in a 3'x3' section where the 4 post legs are going to be and in those locations I will have approx. 8" of concrete. 

[dship]

Just curious but why so thick (8") of a concrete floor?  BTY, I'm very impressed with your garage build...your experience is top notch! 

[Andy J]

Not being a wise guy,but why didn't you pour the floor before you built the building?Unless you use a pump truck,it will be tough to pull all that concrete to the rear of your building.

[coachJC]

On 9/24/2022 at 8:05 AM, dship said:

Just curious but why so thick (8") of a concrete floor?  BTY, I'm very impressed with your garage build...your experience is top notch! 

The floor will be 5" thick. Just a 3ft square area where the legs of the 4post lift will sit will the thickness be 8".

And thanks for the compliment on the build..have done small house renovations but never something as extensive as a garage build.

Edited September 25, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

14 hours ago, Andy J said:

Not being a wise guy,but why didn't you pour the floor before you built the building?Unless you use a pump truck,it will be tough to pull all that concrete to the rear of your building.

No problem with asking questions..the floor is being done at this time due to the timing that works with the company that my son works for and when they can do it...they are in the area so this is the time that works...only have to pay for concrete and no labor.

[coachJC]

With the stone done the next thing was to put down the styrofoam. We went with the sheets that are made for ease of adding the pex for in-floor heating with like lego block round tops on the top of them. The foam is 2" think and the puck top is 1" thick so where they are the foam is 3" thick. The foam also has locking edges on them so they fit together when assembling. The first and last run go slow as you need to cut the fitting edge off each sheet that goes up against the wall but the rest of it goes really fast. One night my boys came out and helped and it look a little over and hr to finish laying over half of the floor , I could hardly keep up cutting the ends for them. 

[coachJC]

@Gary_Ash asked a question about a lift for my garage,  I have added a pic of the cutouts in the foam for where the 4post lift is going to go. That will give me 8" of concrete depth in those 4 locations.

Edited September 26, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

Next operation is to lay down the pex tubing for the radiant heat. The pex that you put down for Radiant heat is not the same pex that you would use for running water lines in your house, the radiant heating pex has an oxygen barrier that prevents the diffusion of oxygen thru the pex to prevent corrosion in your heating system, There are programs online that you can buy that will do a pex layout for you but I did not want to spend the money on that so instead I took some graph paper to scale out the size of the interior of my garage and did a few layouts that I thought would work. 

 

I am using 1/2in pex so the max length they suggest is 300ft runs, the amount of runs I need for my floor worked out to 7. When my order came in I got 2 1000ft rolls and 1 300ft roll. You are suppose to keep the length of the runs as close to possible to the same length as to not create hot spots so I had 6 runs of 310ft and 1 run of 300ft which was the full length of the one roll. The pex is laid out at a distance of 1ft between runs and the foam is all set up for that so it is quick and easy for knowing your distances. At the corner where the pex goes up the wall there are pvc 90deg. corners to slide over the pex to keep them from pinching at the corner and to protect them when the concrete goes in.

 

I found it easier to cut the 1000ft rolls into 3 310 ft rolls for laying it down and made it easier for me to ensure I kept the lines to the same length. I had read that there are usually marks on the pex so you know what length you have run but I could not figure it out so it was easier to just pre cut them, it was less confusion for me. In total it took about 4hrs for my helper (wife) and me to finish the entire floor. which I thought was ok for the first time doing it.

 

pictures in next post.

Edited September 28, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

[Jim Bollman]

I had under floor heat in our previous house. What the installer did to balance the loops was to put a valve and a temperature gauge on the return on each loop to adjust the flow so you could balance the temperature or make certain areas warmer by changing the flow rate. Loved the heat but now we live where heat pumps are practical so no under floor heat. 

 

Been enjoying your progress reports.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Jim Bollman (see edit history)

[coachJC]

13 hours ago, Jim Bollman said:

I had under floor heat in our previous house. What the installer did to balance the loops was to put a valve and a temperature gauge on the return on each loop to adjust the flow so you could balance the temperature or make certain areas warmer by changing the flow rate. Loved the heat but now we live where heat pumps are practical so no under floor heat. 

 

Been enjoying your progress reports.

Thanks Jim....I was just doing some reading about that style of manifold yesterday. I think that is the way I am going to go. I have also found the cheapest way to purchase one is thru Amazon. To buy thru a brick and mortar store would cost me over $100cad more.

 

[coachJC]

With the pex down the next operation is to do a pressure test of the lines. I looked up online to buy what I needed for the test and the price of stuff was more than I wanted to pay. So i decided to build my own. I doing so I saved over $200,  I have done pex in the house with a basement bathroom reno so I already had some of what I needed.

 

I had to think a little outside the box to find threaded in schrader valves, every place I tried it was only bicycle repair stuff so I ended up looking at compressor repair parts and found a package of 2 for $9 and a pressure gauge for $14. This was at Princess Auto which is our equivalent to Harbour Freight in the US. Also bought a black pipe T and 2 different style caps for the different NPT thread sizes. Added up it was $30. The NPT taps I grabbed from work.

 

 

Here is my make shift work bench, a flea market table and thru my old vise on from where I have it stored.

 

here are the finished drilled and tapped end mounts for the Schrader valve and the pressure gauge.

 

The assembled parts.

 

This is my homemade temporary manifold. I just used some of the left over pex and I had to buy some pex Ts as I did not have enough at home.

this is everything attached

I put 50 pounds of air in the line and brought out the soap to check for leaks at my connections and I had 3. Not with my tapped holes but with the factory threads...lol.

So I took it apart and went with pipe dope and tape and that seemed to solve my problem, I also made sure the connections were tighter this time. I added my air back up to 50psi.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

After 24hrs I checked to see if the pressure had changed and it was still holding at 50psi. No issues with the lines I laid down.

[dship]

Very innovative approach in producing a pressure tester and with great results!...fine work.  

[coachJC]

14 hours ago, dship said:

Very innovative approach in producing a pressure tester and with great results!...fine work.  

Thanks Dave......When I am really only going to be doing this one time you need to find ways to save money.To buy the premade manifolds and pressure equipment that I was looking at online, that stuff got really expensive really fast, between $300 to $400 dollars.

[Andy J]

I see now. No labor costs for the concrete finishing will be a huge cost savings. That heating system is really sweet. A concrete floor and the air a foot or two above it gets mighty cold in the winter.For years I worked in a heated shop with concrete floors and my feet were cold all day. 

[coachJC]

The date I have confirmed for concrete is Saturday Oct 15th, that is why I switched from working on my metal siding to getting the inside all prepped for concrete. I wanted all the prep work done before I headed for Hershey as I did not want to come back and be rushing to get things done last minute. Last night I finished with putting down all the wire mesh and got it all wired together. The only thing I have left is to put blocking in front of the doors. I am excited for the concrete to be done, then we can get the garage doors and man doors in and it will really start to look like a finished building.

Edited September 30, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[coachJC]

This will be my last post for a week to 10 days. My wife and I will be heading to Hershey on Sunday for the week and we have our Canadian Thanksgiving when we get home.

 

I just want to say thanks to everyone who checks in on my build thread and gives and thumbs up or has a comment or a question, that what keeps me posting this stuff on here. I would never of imagined that I would be approaching 3000 views, that seems kind of crazy, so a big sincere thank you to everyone who checks in and is following along.

 

Jeff

Edited September 30, 2022 by coachJC (see edit history)

[dship]

I believe most of us are experiencing the "building stuff" passion through your thread.  At 73 years old, I would not be able to do what you're doing without dire physical soreness!  

[Skvitt]

Good job! Makes me feel jealous 😁.

BTW. Seen your cars at Marshville Fair.

[Jim Bollman]

I don't know it is standard but when I had the floor poured in my last shop the mason suggested I get pieces of angle iron, I think it was 2" and drill a few holes to anchor it with carriage bolts. He then pressed it into the wet concrete at the edges of the door openings and pushed the carriage bolts into the hole. it held up well and didn't have any chipping over the years. Used the building for over 30 years and it was still tight when we moved.

[coachJC]

After a great trip to Hershey for the first time since we had a 2yr hiatus from being able to cross the border, it was back to working on my garage. I am going to back track a bit here to my window install. When I went to the basement to bring my 4 windows up to install, (2 on the east wall and 2 on the west wall), I immediately noticed I had 5 windows in my basement and then realized we forgot one during the framing process. After a few swear words I just let it be as it did not affect anything at that time. I decide my first project when I got home from Hershey was to frame out and install the window. This window is to go on the front of the building between my man door and the garage door. It took about 2 1/2 hrs to complete and have done what we(I) should of not missed.

[coachJC]

I got a text this morning to let me know my concrete has been pushed back 1 week. Apparently the pump truck has been double booked for Saturday and I guess I drew the short straw. I guess I better call the garage door guy and the spray foam guy to push those dates back also.☹️

[coachJC]

Sunday i spent building my porch. Not having it done has kind of held me up in getting the metal work done on the west side of my building. My oldest helped me put the beams up, we just did it by lifting the beams up and putting them on our shoulders and climbing the latters, the long was sure was heavy. I have not gotten any further with it as I ran out of lumber and have not gone to buy the rest of what I need yet. I will get back at it on the weekend.

[coachJC]

While we wait another week for concrete, I went back to working on adding metal to the outside.

 

I made a template for the angle of cutting the metal for the gabel, this made it easier to be consistent with my cuts and helped insure my angle was good.

 

 

I thought it came out pretty good, over one window there is a bit of a mismatch as it looks like the panel got a little out of square going around the window but it came back to alignment by the middle and the rest lined up pretty good. Can't wait to get the concrete so I can add doors and get the side panelling all complete. Looks like we are on track for Saturday concrete.