Long term garage 'modification' - Recent update...

[Mr S]

Quick update: The concrete is booked for Thursday (another bill of nearly £400, plus the couple of hundred for the mesh )! I've got the day off on Wednesday to finish preparing the floor, get the mesh down and shutter up the 'open' end and *hopefully* get the all clear from the buildings control officer.

Got to nip out on Wednesday and get a 5m long piece of wood to use for tamping too, so if you see a white Merc with a piece of wood taped to the top in the area on Wednesday, give us a wave! lol

[mickeytaker]

good luck for the inspection on Wednesday , this project has been a great inspiration , if only I had a bit of land big enough ,

think the council might get a bit arsey if I build a workshop on the parking bays of the flats next to my house

[alfazer]

Not sure if you use DPC on the T-beams but might be worth checking if you are in a high radon area. If so, you can use the thicker anti-radon plastic and then the building can one day be used as a dwelling if required (granny flat etc.) At least that's what they told me when I built mine. (I didn't bother because I thought, no way is my precious garage ever being used as a dwelling. )
Good luck with it, enjoy.
AL

[Mr S]

The building control officer, he says yes! Basically everything is good so far, everything is in the right sort of place and he's happy. I don't need a DPC on top of the floor as it's a garage - if it were a dwelling, then it would need it.

So today, I've been carrying on grouting the floor. Been at it for almost 4 hours now, and it's not too far off being done.

Next step (probably in an hour or so) is to go and get the wood for the tamping bar and the shuttering for across the front! Then I've got to lay the mesh and then I'm ready for tomorrow's concrete pour....

Ah well, back to it!

Happy days!

[Mr S]

Floor grouted and tamped now, and I've been out and scored 3 scaffolding planks for a fiver from the local scaffolding place down the industrial estate I'll be bolting them together (obviously sawn to the relevant lengths!) and using them for both tamping the concrete tomorrow and shuttering across the front...

Just having a quick break for some food now. Mmmm, chicken dippers!

EDIT: Quick 'progress so far today' pic

[Mr S]

Well, it's just gone 6 now and the mesh is down at last! All I've got to do now is make the shuttering and today is done! Damn shame it's persisting it down out there now. I'm sure it's just a passing shower! And besdies, when you're at a certain level of wetness, you just can't get any wetter (many years of riding motorbikes has taught me that one!)

I figure I'll make the tamping bar in the morning, although the concrete is getting here at 8 (allegedly!), so I guess I'll be getting up early!!

[Mr S]

Well, I'm done for the day now, shuttering is pretty much done and the mesh is all lifted up on it's little packing pieces. I just need to add a piece of 3x3 that I've got lying around to join the 2 pieces of scaffold board together (and I don't fancy using my 'retro' metal cased 240v power drill in the rain!) and it's about done.

I just hope the concrete turns up tomorrow now after all this hard work today - I had 2 full bags of sand this morning, I've only got 1 and a bit now... That floor has taken somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of a ton of sand (plus cement in a 4:1 mix) just to grout it!!

[dubwarrior2]

That is a thing of beauty!!!!!!!!!!!
Best thread by far on any forum. Been waiting ages to see how a garage is properly built.
Looks like you are gonna have loads of room in there. Are you just using it for storage of your many cars or is it gonna be a workshop?
What are you doing with the open bit at the front? Are you going to concrete up to the inner floor level? Do you need a ny sort of expansion gap in between these two floors?

[mrsbladerunner30]

When I left for work at 8am this morning I left my husband, 2002GIMP and a cement lorry at home so there'd better be some concrete down by the time I get home!

Which is a little unfair to be honest as I only work part time and will be home for 2.30! lol

Can I just say at this point how very proud I am of my husband, he's never done any building work in his life and although I'm no expert, he looks to be doing a beautiful job.

He was out yesterday in the pouring rain and got completely soaked through but he's no quitter!

[Tim]

Sept 4, 2008 10:47:14 GMT mrsbladerunner30 said:

When I left for work at 8am this morning I left my husband, gimp2002 and a cement lorry at home so there'd better be some concrete down by the time I get home!

Which is a little unfair to be honest as I only work part time and will be home for 2.30! lol

Can I just say at this point how very proud I am of my husband, he's never done any building work in his life and although I'm no expert he looks to be doing a beautiful job.

He was out yesterday in the pouring rain and got completely soaked through but he's no quitter!

I'm sure theres ways you can thank him ;D

[filmidget]

What, like let him concrete over more of hte garden?

[mrsbladerunner30]

[I'm sure theres ways you can thank him ;D[/quote]


Why would I want to thank him?

He's not building it for me, I'm not even going to be allowed in it!

Which is fine by me cos if his other garage is anything to go by it's gonna be a pigsty!

[Mr S]

Well, it's nearly time for the good lady to be home from work, and I hope she'll be happy....!

Started at 8 this morning when the concrete lorry arrived. I had to tell him to wait 5 minutes whilst I finished the shuttering, then the pour began. He showed us a bit of the mix and I told him I wanted it wetter as it was a bit dry, and I figured it was gonna take a while!



So then he pretty much dumped his load (fnarr) while we raked and brushed it down to the other end. Sweet jesus, it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, moving all that stuff about. Me and 2002gimp shifted around 8.5 tons (that's 3.5 cubic metres) of concrete, and spread it over an area of around 700 square feet with a rake and 2 brushes (the first one snapped!)









Once it was done, we tamped it and then floated it - the float is without doubt the best tool for concreting that I've ever used. Technically it's the *only* tool for concreting I've ever used, but it's great!





Sadly, it's now raining, so the surface of the concrete will all be 'pocked' and look a bit like the surface of the moon. But meh, I'll bung a self levelling screed over the lot when the roof is on.

I'm going to nip out again in a bit and give it a final float over to get rid of as many of the 'float marks' as I can....

Happy days! We're going to ache tomorrow....

[mrsbladerunner30]

The floor looks awesome babe, nice job!!

That shot of the floor where you can see our house makes the house look tiny!

[Mr S]

Well, it finally stopped raining and I re-floated the floor. Not sure if I made it better or worse to be honest though! lol



Took the float back to the hire place, and due to the increase in numbers of 'scrap merchant' types keep asking my sister if my 190e V8 project was for sale round at my other garage, I figured I'd better bring it to it's new home... Can't wait to get cracking on it!!



However, I don't think I'm going to be able to move tomorrow.... lol

[Lankytim]

I never knew a garage would be so much work! I think I'm just going to buy an old shipping container off ebay.

[Mr S]

Most garages aren't this much work! It's just 'cos I had to have building regs due to it's size (over 30 square metres) so I have to adhere to a squibillion regulations.... Ho hum, if nothing else it's interesting learning about all this stuff!

[Lankytim]

It is actually very educational, and shows you don't have to get builders round to do all the work!

[LowStandards]

You don't have to get them to do it, but i recommend you get them to do the base, its back braking work, but more importantly its quite hard to get it right!

We worked it out that to get to this level theres roughly 60 tons of material gone in! Thats notincluding all the clay/soil thats come out!

[mrsbladerunner30]

Sept 4, 2008 19:11:37 GMT LowStandards said:

You don't have to get them to do it, but I recommend you get them to do the base, its back braking work

You big girl's blouse! lol