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I'm not really sure where to start with this one, but in short I'm a bit lacking in motivation to work on any sort of vehicle project, so I'm trying to chip away at improving my garage to get things going again. My collection of shonky Fords is actually kept on a farm around 35miles away, and a couple of 'why not scrap them, you'll never finish them' comments have hit home a bit, so here goes:- A few years back I bought a house that was in need of gutting and rewiring, plumbing, plastering etc. One of my hopes when looking was to find somewhere with a garage or enough space to build a garage. This was the result, a single concrete sectional garage adjacent to a greenhouse.   The garage was awkwardly positioned, there was a wasted area behind it that didnt get any sunlight, so I decided the best thing to do was extend it backwards to match my neighbours garage, and also out to the side to include the area where the greenhouse stood. So I set about digging out an enlarged area for a concrete base, and back filling it with rubble from the house renovation.  I'd turned up some massive road curbs that had been dumped in the garden, so they helped to make a handy perimiter to save on shuttering.   I also laid some plastic pipes with a view to adding utilities later, previously the garage was powered by a bit of standard twin and earth stretched above head height from the house, taped to a bit of washing line with electrical tape.  Fast forward a couple of months and my brother-in-law kindly concreted the base for me as a surprise whilst I was away.  Unfortunately the finish is very rough, but I was very grateful to have some progress made   I then scoured ebay and facebook to find another concrete garage that looked similar in finish to my own. I managed to turn up one not too far away, so went over with some friends and demolished it, bringing back enough panels to extend my own. I then spent a few days setting out the panels to create a new perimiter, trying to avoid disturbing the existing garage in the meantime which was partially full of house building stuff.   I built a couple of brick pillars to support an old telegraph pole, which I used as a centre beam  At this point I had to remove some of the panels from the existing garage to make room. My dad kindly gave up a bunch of his time to help out here as well.  Finally it was time to pull down the old garage, as the panels were needed to finish the enlarged perimeter  The door was the last part to go, as you can see, it sat forward of the rest of the garage, I had to move it back to keep the square footage within the planning (or lack of) rules.  Eventually I ended up with this, roof trusses from the two garages were welded together to span the width, and feet were made to brace them down onto the telegraph pole. Mk2 Fiesta for scale.  I reused the boarding I'd rescued from the garages to finish around the edges. Not the best job, but a watertight space was urgently needed so i could get on with the rest of the house project.  The roof was finished with a layer of bubble foil to reduce condensation, and then covered over with galvanised sheets I added a few strip lights to make the space usable.  I also repurposed a bit of slatwall from the skip at the back of a clothes shop (I did ask)  This gave me a semi finished garage which remained like this for a couple of years:  |
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Fast forward to this year, and not a huge amount had changed, the plants had grown in a bit and I'd built a shed nicknamed the Tardis, using old windows and the front door from the house. The garage had remained a dumping ground and still had no automotive residents.  I decided that the first thing I wanted to do was replace the door. I came up with the solution of adding a steel framed security door that doubled up as storage, so I popped down to my local metal recyclers and bought some posts which were promptly concreted into the ground to act as doorposts, and enough box section to make the frames of some doors. I then clad the inside skin with the metal bin racking panels, to give a layer of strength to the door, and some storage on the rear.  I struggled to find hinges strong enough for my purpose, but eventually turned up some fire hinges at toolstation that had a decent weight/cost balance. I think I ended up fitting 6 hinges to each door in total, all welded to the door and door frame posts. I then started to use up some reclaimed bricks to build something a bit less pebbledashed. I clad the outside of the door in timber, to make it look a little more traditional.     Eventually I ended up with this, the shower curtain hides the old up and over door, which I've temporarily repurposed as a porch roof.  The inside of the doors now holds a load of storage bins for assorted junk, and some racks filled with empty jars full of nuts and bolts etc.  I even managed to get a car in there, though this picture is misleading because the rest of the space is filled with clutter:  My solution was to build myself a super slim shed, again framed with steel. It will house the overflow of rubbish, and I can then sort through it,a bit at a time.   This now meant that I could squeeze a second car into the garage, oh and I also built some driveway gates at some point in this long journey too, to give a bit of privacy from nosy neighbours when working with the garge doors open.  I decided that my shed should have a green roof, and some road sign decoration thanks to my friend who has a construction company.  I've stuck with the steel box construction for the shed doors.  Then overclad with water resistant OSB and then started to panel it with thein vertical lats and feathered ege fence board. Eventually I hope it will look like a fence at first glance.   This has freed up a bit of space in the garage so I'm turning my attention back to that. The single pitch roof isnt very good, it doesnt shed water very well and I;ve had some problems with damp. I've decided to replace it with a low height (planning constraint) dual pitch roof which incorporates some overhangs. This is my roof frame truss prototype:  And this week I've knocked together some more. Two of the trusses will rest on the wall tops, and three more will span the middle (hence the differing designs)  The outer two have been clad in perspex (again. another skip find) to let in some natural light  I;ve welded on some offcuts to give overhangs of 20cm to these  Today I managed to get the first truss in situ, it was pretty difficult by myself, but I managed it with the aid of some props  That leaves the garage looking like this at the moment:  |
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bazzateer
Posted a lot
Imping along sans Vogue
Posts: 3,653
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Dec 10, 2019 15:10:35 GMT
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Good skills and lots of re-purposing, good to see.
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1968 Singer Chamois Sport
1972 Sunbeam Imp Sport
1976 Datsun 260Z 2+2
1998 Peugeot Boxer Pilote motorhome
2003 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE (daily)
2006 MG ZT 190+ (another daily)
2007 BMW 530d Touring M Sport (tow car)
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Dec 10, 2019 16:29:43 GMT
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Good skills and lots of re-purposing, good to see. Thanks! Yep, it's pretty firmly in the wombled items category. |
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Dec 10, 2019 22:00:10 GMT
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did much the same started with a single , that bought another for £1 used that to extend on the side to make not quite a double, Then another double turned up for 99p so added that on the front, but only half the depth as otherwise it came to far forward. Often thought I'd like one of the large steel framed barns, biggest problem with doing it piecemeal for me has been the roofing .  |
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retired with too many projects!
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Dec 10, 2019 23:29:04 GMT
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I like it!
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did much the same started with a single , that bought another for £1 used that to extend on the side to make not quite a double, Then another double turned up for 99p so added that on the front, but only half the depth as otherwise it came to far forward. Often thought I'd like one of the large steel framed barns, biggest problem with doing it piecemeal for me has You cant beat them on price can you, i think they are pretty undesirable due to the finish and I see quite a few being given away online. I paid £130 for mine on ebay, and recouped £30 of that by selling some of the panels. Looks like you've got a big space to show for your efforts. Thanks! Hopefully it'll look a bit better when complete than it does now. |
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Dec 11, 2019 16:43:54 GMT
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I managed to get work out of the way by around 2pm today, so used the time to do a bit more. I still had two trusses that needed some work. The first was missing some diagonal bracing, and the second needed some 200mm pieces welding on to support the roof overhang on the furthest away side of the garage. I started off with this:  Added some bracing  Then had a short break to cut away part of my new Aldi welding mask so that it would clear my breathing mask  I then went back and finished the truss, and managed to pivot it up onto the roof out of the way. Then i can jump up onto the roof and drag it the rest of the way.  I finished off with adding some of the overhang supports to the final truss. Unfortunately I ran out of light and only got 5 of the 8 added.  |
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Dec 30, 2019 19:18:51 GMT
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I've grabbed the odd hour here and there on the garage project over the Christmas period. All trusses are now complete. The main job of replacing the roof is going to be done in two halves when I get all my ducks in a row. For the time being I'm storing them on top of the existing roof.  I've crossed off a couple of other small jobs, first up was reinforcing my 'welding cart', a cheap flimsy tool cabinet that I picked up years ago for just over a £1. Dragging it around with a welder on top was too much for it and the poor thing had started to collapse. I reinforced it with a couple of bits of small box section from a bed frame that a neighbour had left out for scrap. The gas bottle is secured with some metal loops welded to the unit and an old seatbelt from a Peugeot 205.  I've also made a shelving unit from some offcuts, it's to store small, lightweight car parts in old margarine tubs (switches, small trim bits etc). I used a router to cut some 5mm grooves in the two upright pieces, and some strips of 9mm osb make up the shelves. I've yet to add some vertical dividers but didn't get as far as that.  I've loaded up my daily driver with stuff to take upto my storage unit tomorrow, so currently the garage looks like this, messy but with enough room to walk around the cars.  |
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top work! love a project like this, great to have the additional space  |
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Thank you! I'm struggling to stay motivated at the moment so trying to force myself to do small bits regularly.
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lovely read! this will bne my plan for my next house
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,546
Club RR Member Number: 11
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Jan 10, 2020 21:39:25 GMT
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Good work re-purposing material. I'd never thought about extending my concrete sectional garage. It's a double with an added brick extension. I did look at re roofing it in the summer but was too expensive and wouldn't get past the fact it's structurally tired.
I have seen them often offered for free or pennies on eBay, definitely not a popular choice these days, wooden seems the way most go, but then most people don't use them for cars!
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Jan 13, 2020 16:22:57 GMT
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I've managed to get most of the roof on.
All the trusses sit on the wall tops at both ends with the exception of one that sits on the top center of the garage door frame. Inevitably I found I'd made a mistake, I was convinced that I'd made the garage door frame at 201cm height, I was so sure that i didnt give it a second thought. It turns out that the garage door frame is slightly higher, so my truss ended up hanging below the height of the door frame, right where the door closes. I had no choice but to chop part of it off and support it with an Acro-Prop. I've welded in a fix of sorts, an angled piece of steel and a reinforcing piece below it, but my concern is that it will have now transferred the load incorrectly. Does anybody have any thoughts?  I think for peace of mind I might add some extra bracing like this  |
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Jan 13, 2020 16:27:26 GMT
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Good work re-purposing material. I'd never thought about extending my concrete sectional garage. It's a double with an added brick extension. I did look at re roofing it in the summer but was too expensive and wouldn't get past the fact it's structurally tired. I have seen them often offered for free or pennies on eBay, definitely not a popular choice these days, wooden seems the way most go, but then most people don't use them for cars! Thanks, yeah, I think pebbledashed panels are firmly out of fashion but you cant beat them on price. As it's so close to the boundary, wood wasn't an option for me but the main reason was the low cost. I hope to end up with something that looks half decent at the end of it. |
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Jan 13, 2020 16:42:23 GMT
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A good use of existing space! How are the roof panels fixed? Looks like you might benefit from some J-bolts, especially with storms setting in. |
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2020 16:45:43 GMT by MkX
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Jan 13, 2020 16:47:54 GMT
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A good use of existing space! How are the roof panels fixed? Looks like you might benefit from some J-bolts, especially with storms setting in. I've used self drilling screws with rubber washers and put them in with the impact driver. The sheets above my bodged truss in the image are only there until I get chance to sheet that part properly with the pantile effect sheets. i just ran out of time. At the moment the unfinished section is screwed down with at least four screws per panel, then oversheeted with tarpaulins and ratchet straps over that.  |
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Ax GTi Turbo
