Garage Buildlog

[Shawy]

Hi folks.

Having purchased my first house around a year ago, I've finally gotten around to sorting out the garage. A few people over in motors seemed to like it, so here's a sort of 'build log' of what I've done.

Here's the before pictures, from the house advert. It's a 1890's 2 story coach house, complete with stable divider and hay feeding troughs.

Outside:

Front garage:

Rear stables:

Above the stables:

Above the front:

Floor plan:

The upstairs is quite spacious. I'm 6'2" and can stand up in the middle of the room quite easily, I just have to duck to get there.

Everything in the photos came with the house. Quite nice to not have to buy things like ladders, lawnmowers, garden chairs etc when moving into my first house.

 

[Shawy]

That's an impressive amount of room.

I would go with garage downstairs and man cave/office upstairs. Stable for storing lawnmower and other bits.

Man cave & office have to be in the house, unless I fit a bedroom in there too; I wouldn’t want to have to lock up and walk back to the house to go to bed after a late night session.

 

[Shawy]

Are you going to try and keep the character? I'd find it hard to decide what to do with that. It looks great!

Im going to keep as much as I can, while still having a usable space. Obviously the floor is terrible for working on, but at the same time really suits the building.

Anyway, first thing to be done is a good old fashioned clear out & clean.
There’s a lot of stuff left by the previous owners, some really useful, some useful to someone else, other bits for the tip:

I found 2 dead rats, a few hundred thousand spiders, and more dirt/dust than I thought possible.

 

[Shawy]

subscribed!

I wish I had something this size to play with. I have a garage which is 9 meters by 3 but it's old and damp and cold and will get knocked down once the world gets back on its feet again.

Mine is about 10x3m. It’s 130 years old, it’s damp and it’s cold. Why knock yours down?

 

[Shawy]

I would look at sealing the floor with liquid acrylic or clear epoxy so walking on a level surface rather than the cobbles, but still keeping the look and feel of the cobbles.

Other wise it's a fantastic space and something I wish I had.

Hadn't thought of that, definitely worth looking into. Like Marv said though, the floor is very uneven and I'd either end up with 1-2" thick acrylic in places or would have to remove bricks, level off the ground and relay then acrylic. I've done a few jobs on my car/wood working in there as it is, and other than being a right pain to clean afterwards, it's not too bad.

 

[Shawy]

Throughout this project, I'm not just going to be working on the inside of the garage, but overhauling the outside/drive/part of the back garden with it. Here's why:

This concrete wall is hideous. I don't want to have to see this whenever I park my car or go to the garage.


It's also hiding a bunch of spikey foliage, which will also have to go.



Removing the bushes, I noticed what looks like a former attached building, possibly an old outdoor toilet.


A little bit of curious digging, and the outside toilet was confirmed, with some old pottery pipes.

Doesn't look like they'd still be connected to anything, so I won't be reinstalling a toilet in the garden...

A few hours later, and everything has been dug out, most of the roots have also been removed.


I also moved the edging tiles to leave 12" or so of soil to plant some rose bushes up the side of the garage eventually.



That's it until next time.

 

[Shawy]

Looks like your have made a sizeable dent in the start of this project, good work!

Making the most of good weather.

 

[Shawy]

Finished with clearing the outside.

Ugly, old, concrete wall has gone:


Covered the soil with slate to match the rest of the garden (for now).


Cleared away all the rubbish too, so here’s the front view from the driveway:


And a view from the garden out to the driveway:


Just need something to replace the wall with...

 

[Shawy]

Are you going to buy a horse to keep the historical significance?

The girlfriend would prefer a cow in there, but I don’t fancy cleaning up after one..!

@randomshenans is pretty spot on with what I’m planning!

 

[Shawy]

Today's update...



As much as I love the old stable divider, it makes the whole room unusable for anything other than storage so, unfortunately, it has to go..

 

[Shawy]

Given the look and possible age of the property have you checked it's listed status? You may not be able to remove things depending on this.

It's not listed, but it is in a conservation area. We can't build anything or touch a tree that has a tree protection order, other than that we're allowed to make cosmetic changes and any internal changes we see fit.

Also how easy was it to pull up the block flooring? Might be worth pulling it all up and relaying it without the dips?

Quite easy, it's just sat on top of dirt. Might be worth trying to lift them all and level things off. Though I imagine it not being too easy to get them all seated again without movement. Worth looking into though for sure.

Tidy up the stable door once removed - then use it as part of a replacement for that wall that's now gone

That's the plan.

 

[Shawy]

Once the bottom was cut out, I had to drill out some rusted old bolts that were holding the end pole on place. Once cut away, the end pole slid out and weighs around 100kg!

then came the tricky bit. Most of the day was spent figuring out how to lift the top off. In the end, we used some gate posts as support upstairs, reenforced part of the floor the posts were sat on and attached an old block and tackle. We then cut a hole in the floor, that was pretty rotten anyway and we’re ready to lift.



My dad took the weight on the block and tackle, while I lifted the other end until we could tilt it and get the boards from underneath. Once the wood was out of the way we then lowered the top, which probably weighs another 100kg or so. It’s some serious kit.

 

[Shawy]

Removing the rust took some time, but the results are well worth it, coming up like new:

 

[Shawy]

Are you using a wire brush on a drill?

Knotted wore brush on an angle grinder for the bulk, and a crimped wire brush on a drill to get to the harder to reach parts.

 

[Shawy]

Every man needs at least 1 angle grinder. Such a great tool. I was using this very same setup yesterday.

Yeah, although I find 2-3 a needed so you’re not changing attachments all the time, same with drills. That might just be me being lazy though..

 

[Shawy]

Trying to keep some history attached to the house, using the old stable divider as a fence where the old concrete wall was:



We used a similar method of getting it up as we got it down, block and tackle, this time attached to a pair of ladders tied together. No health and safety precautions whatsoever.


Just as before, one person lifting, the other operating the block and tackle:


And it’s in place:


And from the other side:

 

[Shawy]

You could EASY fit a double bet upstairs!

Could fit one up there easily, not sure how to get one up there though..

 

[Shawy]

Your old man looks proper oldskool, totally at home using a block and tackle or maybe fixing a watch.

That's a pretty accurate description! I didn't even know what a block and tackle was when he was explaining how to take down the divider, I just nodded and agreed with him.

The fence is now properly secured. Bricks were removed on the garage end and then the post cemented in place. At the other end, I dug a 12" hole and put in a 2" box section length of steel. The end post was then placed over the steel, and some post-crete was used to fix the steel in place and the post was welded to the top and bottom of the fence.



All in all it makes a nice little BBQ area, sheltered from the wind.

 

[Shawy]

Love that you reused that. Really nice touch.

A lot of the original features to the house were removed by previous owners, so we're trying to keep as much history as we can, and even bring some back in from salvage yards.

Update on the rest of the fence: we manged to find some old floorboards that were the same width as the stable divider panels. My partner stripped the paint off of them and sanded them down.


Once sanded, we built a fence:


And a gate. Also finished off the brick work around the steel support.


The hinges were tiny so they got replaced quickly. There was also a gap from the stable divider post not being vertical, so I stuck a triangle wedge to the gate:


Gave the metal work a couple of coats of black paint to protect it, the rest should look good once sanded and stained.

 

[Shawy]

Quick update:


20 3x2' laid for easier access to the garage.


Doesn't seem like much, but that's 1.6 tonnes of concrete slabs..