I posted a thread HERE asking about a structural surveyor a bit ago, regarding altering the ceiling height in my little garage at home. It ended up with several responses, mostly encouraging, so thanks for those. I promised there that I would write a quick report on the build, though this ended up not quite as little as planned, so here you go: -
I was going to finish with a link to some pictures, but to save you all scrolling down, I've put them here instead, as there were an awful amount for this post.: PICTURES OF GARAGE
Tuesday 5 July:
Spoke with the surveyor who looked at the garage with the ceiling still in place and recommended that we get some steelwork in place before any of the trusses were cut to avoid any problems with slippage/sag of the main ridge. I spoke with the builder who potentially agreed, but decided to take a few ceiling boards off (interior ply) before committing to anything. After the boards were removed, what were supposed to be trusses turned out to be triangular frames with rafters. After speaking with the surveyor again, it was decided that steel was unnecessary as it's not a massive roof, basically 6 tiles high, and 7 x 3 timber would be fine, especially as half the ceiling was staying in situ, though the ridge would need one of these beams to strengthen it. Builder, who is very experienced and done lots of stuff like this, agreed and ordered the timber.
Wednesday 6 July:
Builder appeared at 0700 with a brew in his hand and spent the next hour explaining exactly what was going to happen, which impressed me though I do know him. He removed the all the lights and the rest of the boards to see what he was up against, and seemed to figure it was a straightforward job. A couple of props were installed and joists removed, mainly to measure up what sort of space was going to be gained. I wasn't to impressed here as it seemed an awful amount of work for not a great amount of lift, though he reckoned it would be OK. He was continuing with joist removal when the timber arrived, which meant he could get the strengthening beams in, mainly the ridge and the end supports. A massive day, but he left me worried about it all falling down overnight, though he assured me it was fine. Incidentally, the ends of the joist have been left in-situ as apparently the fascia boards are fixed to them.
Thursday 7 July:
Back again at 0700 with the customary brew, he spent another half hour chatting and explaining what he was going to be doing, which was mainly putting all the cross beams in and then panelling it out. What impressed me here was the speed and accuracy of the cutting of timber. This took the best part of the day as all the new wiring had to be put into place as well, including the Cat 5 cable for the back room.
Friday 8 July:
With all the woodwork now finished it was a day of electrical connections. I stayed out of the way for this, but the guy who did it has done all my electrical work in my last two houses, so I trust him implicitly. He moans and swears a lot, but he's good at what he does. It was decided without any consultation with me, that I needed more power sockets in the garage, also new strip lights even though the old ones were fine. I wasn't consulted on this, but just had to go along with it. The lights are now 5' LEDs (4 of them) and are unbelievably bright, so I'm impressed. Everything was wired into the new consumer unit and connected up, apart from the 16 amp socket for the ramp, as we had no idea where this wanted to be until it arrived. Everything was completed by around 3 o'clock so the next hour was spent tidying up and bagging stuff for the tip.
At just gone 4, the ramp arrived on a wagon. It was all on one pallet, so it was just a case of wheeling it off and getting it into the garage. We were lucky here as we got it set up the right way round, I really wouldn't have fancied having to swap ends around due to the weight of the bases. We stripped it off the pallet and manoeuvred it into something like the position it was going to live in and then decided that was enough for the day. Nothing happened over the weekend as I was going away to the Warrington meet, and he doesn't work them. I did a couple of little bits on Monday but Tuesday was the finishing off day.
Tuesday 12 July:
All the hydraulics were now plumbed in loosely, just to see how it would look, and when my mate arrived this was one job less to do. I'd also had time to do some more measuring and decided that the whole lot needed to go back a bit further. This was achieved with a big bar and a trolley jack. Once in place, all connections were checked, the electrics wired in and hydraulic oil put in to the tank. We then decided on a quick test to make sure it was running OK. Nothing. Turned out that the two limit switch plugs were in the wrong sockets. This was my job and I failed.
Pressed the button again when they were corrected and all was well, in that it started lifting, or at least one side did. Took it up and down a few times and it was still a bit uneven as the system was full of air, so read the instruction book and found out how to bleed it. After this all seemed well, so topped the oil up and checked again a couple of times with a level between the platforms. All was good, so it was now a case of bolting it to the floor. After another final measure it was just a case of drilling a few holes and using the anchor bolts supplied. Another quick up and down confirmed that everything was spot on and level.
It was now just a case of fitting the covers over the piping to tidy it up, though this proved to be a major problem as the ones which the supplier sent would not fit over the mass of pipework coming out of each platform. We couldn't see anyway round this, there were just too many joints for them to sit over, so I ended up phoning the supplier who admitted that these were a new addition to the kit and they hadn't used them before. Previous versions came without these ends, which seemed logocal as the ramp leading to the platform covers them. However, my mate decided to "customise" them, so attacked them with an angle grinder, paring them down until they were a snug fit. To me this was unnecessary, though I must admit they do look better in place. The control box was then sited in a corner out of the way and all pipework and electrics were tidied and also covered up to finish the job.
It's now up and running, and I've already used it on the Merc, just for cleaning it up, and the Jeep to swap the rear shocks out, though I need some bigger blocks for the Jeep as the supplied ones are a bit too low at only 40mm.
It was suggested on my original thread that the best way of doing this would be to remove the roof and raise the walls which I would have liked to have done but it just wouldn't look right in the area where the garage is situated. I've had to compromise slightly on height, though I can physically get under both cars now in relative comfort, and it's certainly better than messing with jacks and axle stands, and do any job which I'm capable of. This limits the usage considerably as I'm getting older and less agile.
As for cost, before anyone asks I've absolutely no idea. I've not got any bills yet, but it's worth it to me whatever it is as I now have a place to play on those long nights ahead.
ETA: It should all be getting painted next week, just not had time...
I was going to finish with a link to some pictures, but to save you all scrolling down, I've put them here instead, as there were an awful amount for this post.: PICTURES OF GARAGE
Tuesday 5 July:
Spoke with the surveyor who looked at the garage with the ceiling still in place and recommended that we get some steelwork in place before any of the trusses were cut to avoid any problems with slippage/sag of the main ridge. I spoke with the builder who potentially agreed, but decided to take a few ceiling boards off (interior ply) before committing to anything. After the boards were removed, what were supposed to be trusses turned out to be triangular frames with rafters. After speaking with the surveyor again, it was decided that steel was unnecessary as it's not a massive roof, basically 6 tiles high, and 7 x 3 timber would be fine, especially as half the ceiling was staying in situ, though the ridge would need one of these beams to strengthen it. Builder, who is very experienced and done lots of stuff like this, agreed and ordered the timber.
Wednesday 6 July:
Builder appeared at 0700 with a brew in his hand and spent the next hour explaining exactly what was going to happen, which impressed me though I do know him. He removed the all the lights and the rest of the boards to see what he was up against, and seemed to figure it was a straightforward job. A couple of props were installed and joists removed, mainly to measure up what sort of space was going to be gained. I wasn't to impressed here as it seemed an awful amount of work for not a great amount of lift, though he reckoned it would be OK. He was continuing with joist removal when the timber arrived, which meant he could get the strengthening beams in, mainly the ridge and the end supports. A massive day, but he left me worried about it all falling down overnight, though he assured me it was fine. Incidentally, the ends of the joist have been left in-situ as apparently the fascia boards are fixed to them.
Thursday 7 July:
Back again at 0700 with the customary brew, he spent another half hour chatting and explaining what he was going to be doing, which was mainly putting all the cross beams in and then panelling it out. What impressed me here was the speed and accuracy of the cutting of timber. This took the best part of the day as all the new wiring had to be put into place as well, including the Cat 5 cable for the back room.
Friday 8 July:
With all the woodwork now finished it was a day of electrical connections. I stayed out of the way for this, but the guy who did it has done all my electrical work in my last two houses, so I trust him implicitly. He moans and swears a lot, but he's good at what he does. It was decided without any consultation with me, that I needed more power sockets in the garage, also new strip lights even though the old ones were fine. I wasn't consulted on this, but just had to go along with it. The lights are now 5' LEDs (4 of them) and are unbelievably bright, so I'm impressed. Everything was wired into the new consumer unit and connected up, apart from the 16 amp socket for the ramp, as we had no idea where this wanted to be until it arrived. Everything was completed by around 3 o'clock so the next hour was spent tidying up and bagging stuff for the tip.
At just gone 4, the ramp arrived on a wagon. It was all on one pallet, so it was just a case of wheeling it off and getting it into the garage. We were lucky here as we got it set up the right way round, I really wouldn't have fancied having to swap ends around due to the weight of the bases. We stripped it off the pallet and manoeuvred it into something like the position it was going to live in and then decided that was enough for the day. Nothing happened over the weekend as I was going away to the Warrington meet, and he doesn't work them. I did a couple of little bits on Monday but Tuesday was the finishing off day.
Tuesday 12 July:
All the hydraulics were now plumbed in loosely, just to see how it would look, and when my mate arrived this was one job less to do. I'd also had time to do some more measuring and decided that the whole lot needed to go back a bit further. This was achieved with a big bar and a trolley jack. Once in place, all connections were checked, the electrics wired in and hydraulic oil put in to the tank. We then decided on a quick test to make sure it was running OK. Nothing. Turned out that the two limit switch plugs were in the wrong sockets. This was my job and I failed.
Pressed the button again when they were corrected and all was well, in that it started lifting, or at least one side did. Took it up and down a few times and it was still a bit uneven as the system was full of air, so read the instruction book and found out how to bleed it. After this all seemed well, so topped the oil up and checked again a couple of times with a level between the platforms. All was good, so it was now a case of bolting it to the floor. After another final measure it was just a case of drilling a few holes and using the anchor bolts supplied. Another quick up and down confirmed that everything was spot on and level.It was now just a case of fitting the covers over the piping to tidy it up, though this proved to be a major problem as the ones which the supplier sent would not fit over the mass of pipework coming out of each platform. We couldn't see anyway round this, there were just too many joints for them to sit over, so I ended up phoning the supplier who admitted that these were a new addition to the kit and they hadn't used them before. Previous versions came without these ends, which seemed logocal as the ramp leading to the platform covers them. However, my mate decided to "customise" them, so attacked them with an angle grinder, paring them down until they were a snug fit. To me this was unnecessary, though I must admit they do look better in place. The control box was then sited in a corner out of the way and all pipework and electrics were tidied and also covered up to finish the job.
It's now up and running, and I've already used it on the Merc, just for cleaning it up, and the Jeep to swap the rear shocks out, though I need some bigger blocks for the Jeep as the supplied ones are a bit too low at only 40mm.
It was suggested on my original thread that the best way of doing this would be to remove the roof and raise the walls which I would have liked to have done but it just wouldn't look right in the area where the garage is situated. I've had to compromise slightly on height, though I can physically get under both cars now in relative comfort, and it's certainly better than messing with jacks and axle stands, and do any job which I'm capable of. This limits the usage considerably as I'm getting older and less agile.
As for cost, before anyone asks I've absolutely no idea. I've not got any bills yet, but it's worth it to me whatever it is as I now have a place to play on those long nights ahead.
ETA: It should all be getting painted next week, just not had time...
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