The Garage: Weekend 1

Background:

With a ¾ mile long driveway, Iowa winters, dusty summers and muddy springs can make getting in and out difficult, or at the very least, a dirty affair. One could gravel the entire run (a multi-year commitment at this point), but this is still no guarantee for winter access, and car washing would still be pointless. For roughly the same price, a building could be constructed up near the blacktop to act as a winter depot, to provide year round storage, and to provide summer parking for the cars I’d rather not see destroyed by sinkholes, mud, and other suspension-battering obstacles.

Initial Design:

A post-frame building of size 30x45 was ultimately decided upon to allow for 4 cars to be parked side by side, plus 2 across the rear. Or substitute a long truck with plow and some rear storage, or even a utility tractor. With 9’ truss spacing vs. 8’, the only cost-up from going to 45’ from 40’ is the price of some sheet steel and 2x4 lengths. No additional posts were needed; seemed like a no-brainer.

After running the estimate on several variations, I settled on a full 2’ overhang (not cheap, but aesthetics is important given the location), a solid color side wall and contrasting trim. Four 9’ wide doors span the front, and a 9’ wide, high clearance door, will be mounted on the west side. I upgraded for laminated posts to take some of the difficulty out of plumbing twisted 4x6's, and a no-rot composite gradeboard which provides a ledge for the side steel which should make sheathing the building easier. The trigger was then pulled and the whole BOM went out on order with a 2-3 week expected delivery date.

Pre-Work:

Meanwhile, the site would need to be prepared. The farmer harvested a couple acres of corn in the general vicinity, Cara and I pulled the old steel fence posts and wire, then set locating stakes for the corners. A week later a local construction firm had leveled the area and brought in rock to build up a firm base. 48 hours later we were putting up posts.

Here we go:

Friday after work, I picked up the rental skidloader with a 20” auger. 14” diameter concrete discs drop into the 48” deep holes and I wasn’t sure if this would be the right size. Any smaller and the enevitable cave-in would be a big problem. Any larger and you have a lot more material to clear out…and to shovel back.  In retrospect, this was the perfect size. Got it home and unloaded, hauled the cherry picker to the site, and talked to Menards on the phone. “Could the delivery be postponed until 7:30AM Saturday?,” asked the driver. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Saturday, 7:30AM. Kickoff. I loaded the truck up with 2x4 braces, steel pins, ladders, tools, etc. It was 20-some degrees but the wind wasn’t bad and the sun was just coming up. Ben pulled up in his ’61 DeVille and he, Cara and I set about positioning flags for the holes into the jagged gravel. I had interpolated the plans’ locations into ‘post-centers’ the night before to make things go faster since the plans measured distances based off girt boards that didn’t yet exist. It wasn’t long before all was set, and copious cross-checking for squareness was complete using the 3-4-5 rule. Ben ran the auger while Cara and I shoveled away the black soil and thick clay the blade brought up. About this time the delivery semi had arrived, and it was Keystone Kops as they tried to unload the trailer. Poor planning on our part, we assumed they would stage the material where we could access the posts first, rather than stacking the last-needed items on top. But we were too busy making progress with the skidloader to notice. After a couple holes, and after hitting my head twice on the steel support boom and nearly knocking myself out, we had got our rhythm. Cara and Ben then took over as my parents arrived and did a cracker-jack job of drilling all 18 holes. 

Now, the plan specified 21 posts, with 2 between each overhead door…this put the spacing of the siamesed  posts on the order of less than 2’ center-to-center. How the heck would we drill that? Ultimately, we abandoned this approach for the intermediate supports between the doors, drilled a single hole with single post between each, and I’ll frame out the area between the doors with conventional lumber. For stability, we attempted the siamese operation on the front corners, but this required some ‘cleaning up’ by hand.

After breaking for lunch, we had all our holes ready, poles being prepped with uplift blocks and going into position and all our cement discs in place, despite taking on some water and backfilling with gravel. By the time we stopped for the day, we had every post in a hole and our corners set and plumbed. This included an hour for returning the skidloader by 4PM. Aching from the heavy lifting, we called it a day and hit the Wild Hare for dinner and pitchers of cold beer.

Sunday:

One side activity on Saturday was trying to figure out the connection of the composite grade board pieces. We couldn’t install them because we couldn’t find the connectors. This would prove to be a blessing in disguise later.

Suffering at the hand of Daylight Saving Time the night before, we started the day at 8, but knew it’d be dark just after 4PM. Sunday would be a lot less labor and a lot more measuring, marking and hammering. The next move was getting the perimeter posts plumb and sited. Ben and I used a mason’s string and 1.5” standoff blocks for alignment and after bracing each post, Cara and my parents would follow behind, filling each hole. By lunch we had the posts plumb, straight and backfilled.

The next order of business was determining ‘level’ around the building. A 50 clear hose served as our water level and made quick work of marking the corners. Ben and I then snapped chalk lines around the perimeter to mark the posts. Measuring from this point, we could determine girt locations and spacing. Cara and my Mom ran off to Menards to try to find the whereabouts of the missing skirt board connectors while the men cut and installed the girts. Towards the end of the afternoon the girls showed up empty handed, but a Menards pickup truck was close behind. Video had showed the box of parts had left on the semi, but it sure wasn’t here, and the parts were special order- not something they had on hand that day. Not that we cared at that point…but we’d need them soon. The cement slab could be poured anytime after skirt board installation, and the forecast for the following week was none-too promising.

With sun going down, and girts complete, but headers too short due to the decision to eliminate 3 posts, Ben and I put up 2x4 spacers to pull the front columns into plumb and make header install later much easier. We were about 95% ready for truss install.