Garage / workshop project

[Daox]

The few times I have needed lumber I've found the same thing. You've gotta go through a pile of bad ones to find acceptable lumber. This is the lumber at the local big box stores.

[gasstingy]

Picked up some more lumber last night and started laying out the wall studs so I can nail another wall section together. It's easy in theory, but a bit more tedious when it comes to execution. At any rate, I didn't start nailing it together last night. I did go back over some of my pencil marking with a Sharpie and took a couple of pictures. If I try to speed up much, I start missing out on the details. I keep my guide book handy so I can look up how to do some of this work, too.

I made it a point to get a closeup of the way I am marking the wall plates so you could see how I'm doing it. When I actually start nailing it together, it goes quickly.

FWIW, if you're planning much of a woodworking job, Quick Grip style clamps are great! As soon as you start using them, one handed operation is a cinch. When you're doing most of your work alone, that can be very beneficial.

[gasstingy]

Last night I felt like I made a bit more progress. I started with a mostly laid out top and bottom plate and turned it into a 12' section. This makes the fourth section I've completed. The first two go on the overhead door end of the garage, numer three is a 6' section on the north wall that joins one on the garage door end. This one extends down the same (north) side. This makes halfway down that side. Tonight I am going to try to get three more sill plates measured and marked off so I can continue for the next several days while we have rain forecasted.

While it looks like this section might not make it out the door, I have measured and there is almost 8" to spare.

[Daox]

Its looking very nice. What guidebook are you using? Just the one you mentioned earlier?

[gasstingy]

The name of the book is the "Ultimate Guide to House Framing" 3rd Ed by John Wagner. I got it at Lowes, but just found it online for less money of course. Lots of illustrations in case I forget how to read.

[gasstingy]

We had company over Friday night, so the part where I get three sill plates marked didn't happen. The nasty weather that was supposed to pummel us on Saturday went around us to the North and raised cain in Tennessee. {I've gotten some of those folks in my prayers as they say at least five died.} Anyway, it only misted rain off and on, so I loaded up all the defective lumber Saturday morning and took it back to the lumberyard. 34 of the 8' and 14 of the 12' 2x6's went back. It took nearly an hour rummaging through their stack of wood to get a like number of replacement boards. I don't think I'll have to take any of the remaining boards back. One of my elderly neighbors sons came over for to visit with his mother all weekend and was nice enough to help me move that last wall section out of the garage and onto the wall rack. I laid out and made another 12' section that is exactly the same as wall section number four. My BIL and nephew helped move that section out to the wall rack just as it started sprinkling rain. Now, when I install it, I just need to install it reversed from the one next to it and my window spacing will be even. It works out that it is 10' from the front, 10' between the two windows and 10' to the back wall. It wasn't too hard to work out with only two windows on that wall. The south wall will have five of those 3'x5' windows and it has a walk-in door opening. That's going to take a little more ciphering, as Jethro would say, to get it right. Sunday the weather was ugly again, so nothing was accomplished. My work area was packed full of my wifes car. Tonight I'll be figuring out the spacing on the windows and door on the south wall. At least I'm getting used to framing window openings. Just king stud, trimmer and cripple, and then cripple, trimmer and king stud for the other side. This is actually kind of a fun challenge.

[gasstingy]

The weather turned out nice last night, so I took the opportunity to work outside. I carried out the sill plates that I'd already fitted to the foundation and put them in place. Then I dragged out more of the pressure treated 2x8's, my compound miter saw, saw horses, drill, etc and worked on fitting more sill plates. I now have the sill plates fitted for the front, the north wall and the back of the garage. I mark all of them with reference points for my wall framing later. It felt fairly productive last night.

Back when it was getting cold last fall, I bought a coil of aluminum like they use for covering the overhang trim on houses. My boss has a 10' metal brake, so I made caps for the blocks to keep them from filling up with water. My reasoning was that if it rained too hard and the blocks trapped a couple inches of rainwater and then froze, it could weaken and/or crack the blocks. I also figured that the aluminum could act like a termite shield. So here's the question: Will the pressure treated lumber react poorly to the aluminum sheeting that I capped the blocks with? And if it does, what will the result likely be? It wouldn't be much effort to remove it if it is a problem waiting to happen.

(I ask because the people who put a metal roof on my house made it a point to tell me to not use pressure treated wood on the roof if I planned to make a grid to fasten the metal to. Some folks just put metal strips on the roof, others deck the roof with OSB or plywood. But the roof is "galvalume", whatever that actually is.)

[Daox]

I wouldn't think that painted aluminum would have any problems with anything...

[gasstingy]

Tuesday night brought more distractions. My riding lawnmowers blade drive belt kept jumping off the pulley when disengaged, so I had to fix that, and then of course mow some of my yard. It appeases the neighbors for me not to wait until the weeds stand above the hood of the mower to begin mowing.

Then it was back to wall building. Before I started trying to cut and assemble another wall section, I went back out to my wall rack and untarped the built walls and remeasured all of them. I don't want to make too many mistakes whilst building this. That done, I managed to get the sixth wall section done.

Now I have the two wall sections done that make up most of the east wall (with a walk-in door and the overhead door openings). I say most because I built short walls for either side of the overhead door opening and built the header to span the gap, but I have not built the wall section for over that header. It should work out to be about 14 1/2" tall by 12' long. Soon. As for the north wall that I just finished, Starting at the east end, I built a 6' section, then a 12', another 12' and finally this last 6' section to complete it.

The west (rear) wall has no window or door openings, so it should go a bit easier. I have to rearrange the work area again before I do that and I have to take my last wall section out to the rack. I can tell you that for a desk jockey, this can get tiring after a while. I look forward to more progress so I can look back at all this work and say, look what God has allowed me and a few friends to build.

[Daox]

I'm confused, need more (and larger ) pictures.