Garage conversion and build over !

[RobH71]

Good morning everyone I have had planning permission to convert and build over my double garage for sometime now and the lockdown finally kicked me in to gear to make a start.

So my current property is a small 3 bedroom cottage that has layout issues and the only bathroom is downstairs. We actually moved from much better house but this one is in a far better area and where I have wanted to live for ages.

There is an attached garage to the side and I was pleased to see who ever built the garage was considering the future and had laid substantial footings that would allow me to build above.

We obtained architect drawings and planning was authorised to covert the garage to a Kitchen diner and build above to create two buildings (one en-suite) and a family bathroom.

I am a qualified bricklayer but I haven't picked up a trowel in around 20 years as I took up a completely different career path.

I intend to do as much of the work as I can and project manage anything I cant or just don't have the time for. I have been lurking on these forums for a while and thought this would be a great place to journal my exploits.

The above is before and as you will see there is a conservatory at the front which is leaking and a dumping ground so it had to come down.

Last weekend we and when I say "we" I mean my wife and I started to strip the roof tiles working off a small tower scaffold. Some 12 hours later they were off and stacked up !




Over the following couple of days we took down the conservatory, the roof rafters and the big garage doors. I had sold the conservatory unfortunately the roof was totally useless and I managed to break a couple of the sealed glazing units by just touching the corners on the floor.

Frustrating but I did manage to sell some of the items separately.

The next challenge was removing the big beams that spanned the garage roof. These were clearly timber beams and ply.

There were so many nails in the ply it was ridiculous and I could not prise even a little off. This left me no option other than to remove them and take a chain saw to them !

I had totally ender estimated how much work there was to do in removing the roof and windows etc and with mess building up it was time for a skip and a clear up.

So this is where I am at around 8 days in ! There is a little more demolition work and then I will be considering block work and steels. Weekends have been full on with the rest of the work being done after the day job is completed.

Unfortunately due to Covid my building regs application is taking a while and I don't want to risk doing too much until I get a site visit.

 

[Bonni]

I would dig down on the inside and outside of the garage wall to expose the width and depth of the garage foundation for building regs to advise what they want etc..

 

[RobH71]

I have done all that ages ago. Building control came out and Ok'd it footings are more than a meter deep.

 

[domdee]

You're very luck having those foundations to sart from! I'm going to be undertaking similar works at my house and have been told i will have to dig everything up and start again! All the best with this, look forward to seeing more.

 

[RobH71]

I am lucky although when I moved in I was told on good authority that the foundations had been laid with the future in mind. That said it was still a nervous time digging the test holes.

My building regs application has now gone through and I can progress. Interestingly due to the social distancing rules no site visits will be made but I will have to take pictures of all I do to make sure they conform to regs.

I am just waiting for my mortgage to be properly authorised before I can start for real.

 

[RobH71]

Ok back again for an update.

So I am having some mortgage issues which are complicated by the fact they are not completing physical valuations at the moment and and there is incomplete information on my house to complete a desktop valuation. Its becoming frustrating but I am sure it will be sorted out one way or another.

Whilst waiting I have continued with stripping and clearing and I have filled every inch available of two skips !

I have managed to borrow a Bosch electric breaker which I have used for knocking through block work and concrete. As it is borrowed I have tried to concentrate on finishing all these types of jobs so I can return it asap.

When they built this garage I don't know what mix the builder used but its far stronger than the dense concrete blocks and the blocks always break before the mortar. Everything I take down is really hard going and there have been expletives flying about on a daily basis !



The above picture shows a doorway I have cut from my to be kitchen dinner to my hallway and what will be french doors in the back ground. I ended up purchasing an Evolution electric disc for £189 which includes a diamond blade. Probably not the best piece of kit but it is doing a job for me and I would of easily spent that money and more if I hired one.

Whilst having the borrowed breaker available I have been starting on the ground works and had to cut and smash through concrete to expose a foul pipe that I can connect my new drains too. I found the pipe and although fixing on to this existing run would save some trench digging it meant I would have to break through my old conservatory floor and my 9" solid house wall.


I was disappointed to go through the existing pipe with the breaker but I soon found a collar which I could work around.





Once smashed through I needed a reducing collar so I could attach my new pvc pipe to my old clay pipe and then on to a resting bend in which my new soil stack will eventually meet.



Once this was complete and I was awaiting sign off from BCO I started to look at another trench. I am off the Gas grid and despite consider GSHP and ASHP I have decided to opt for a buried LPG tank and a mixture of UFH and rads running off an LPG combi boiler.

The gas company offered to fit the thank and relevant pipework for around £2500 ! 2.5 g is a lot of money for work that is not technical and just graft so its another job I am taking on !

More concrete to break through to allow me to dig a trench of 600mm deep that will eventually run to a 4m x 2m hole that will be 1.55m deep. I can dig the trench with my breaker a pick and a shovel but I may need to consider a machine for the main hole.

It took a full day to break the concrete up and get down to what I will be able to pick and dig out over an approximate 7m run. Basically I have tarmac over what appears to be two concrete slaps and hardcore. Hard graft but I have been able to return my borrowed breaker and digging can start later.



This morning my drainage work was passed by by BCO so I now need to back fill and do another site clearance as it looks like a bombsite !

 

[RobH71]

So I have been busy on the extension and have not updated this post for a while. It sounds stupid but every time I think I have finished ripping stuff down I find something else that I need to take down.


I have been really looking forward to actually building something and not taking it down !


So 27th of May was an exciting day as I had been gathering my kit for block laying and my blocks, sand and cement etc was delivered.

So this was the first time I had laid any blocks in around 20 years and I started with blocking up the old garage door opening.

Wall starter kits bolted to the wall and I was off !

I was slow but I have not totally forgotten what to do.

This was all completed at the end of May when we were blessed with glorious weather. With in a few days I had blocked the opening with a 100mm cavity wall and also blocked up a couple of window openings that I was no longer using.

With the block work almost complete it was time to put a call in to my scaffolder who was round my place at 9 am on a Sunday and by mid day the scaffold was up.

Since the scaffold has been up I feel like I have achieved very little. In reality I had to take down the cut blocks in the gable end and set lintels etc. I am now building up the corners as I am waiting on my steels being delivered.

This has been a fairly stressful time as the SE's drawings don't give full height details and there has been lots of comparing measurements on drawings to the actual building. Steels on order and are due the 16th of June.

The main beam is almost 7 m long and 350 Kg so installing this will be fun !

 

[RobH71]

Ok so on Tuesday this week I was at my local hire shop at 8 am collecting a couple of been lifters in preparation for my steel delivery later that day.

The driver text me around 9.30 and said he would be with me between 12.30 and 1.00 so I spent the next half hour rounding up a gang of friends to assist !

Friends and steel arrived about one O'clock and with a combination or lifting and rolling on soil pipes we got the main steel through the window and on to the lifters. Once on the lifters they were just wound up to height and dropped on. Unfortunately the steel company drilled the holes in the wrong place so I had to spend an enjoyable couple of hours drilling 8 holes through the steel so I could bolt them up.

Quite a nervous day having to lift a 7 m 3.5 k beam in to place but by 5 pm it was up and the holes were drilled and it was all bolted up.

All in all a successful day and I avoided the rain ! BCO coming later today and touch wood he will give me the go ahead to continue with my block work.

 

[kingandy2nd]

That’s one hell of a steel...I’m in awe of you getting that up there without a crane!

 

[RobH71]

It may sound a little daft but it wasn’t that hard. Once through my window opening and on a support it was fairly easy to get it on the beam lifters. They were key and did all the real hard work. I wish I had taken more Photo’s really.

.

 

[RobH71]

Ok so the BCO came out and approved my steels so another weekend was spent block laying. I am now in need of another lift on my scaffold and I can start thinking about fitting joists for the floors. This will be an interesting task as its a job I have never completed.

 

[SithLordHood]

Looking really good! Great work

 

[WoOt]

Thanks for documenting this. Hoping to DIY an extension in the near future. IF I work up the confidence to do it.

 

[RobH71]

Right I am back again ! I really need to start updating this thread as I go as I am forgetting the problems I have faced. I ended up taking a much needed week away from DIY which was partly due to the weather and partly due to the pubs opening

I thought I had already documented the start of my joist laying some weeks ago but I clearly didn't.

Most of my pics make it look like a live in glorious sunshine, I don't so I have some including some wet and murky pics.

So last week the wife and I took Thursday and Friday off to complete the fitting of the joists and to get back to laying some blocks.

We had already started the joists a week or so ago by fixing timbers to the existing wall and RSJ. Fixings to the wall were via 12mm rods 300 mm in length that were anchored through the timber and in to the block work with resin. This was a relatively easy job but I needed my wife's help as I ran out of hands. I fixed the timber plate to the wall using self drilling masonry screws before drilling through the timber and walls for the 12 mm rods.

Once the wall plates were up I could then mark the levels and fix the hangers. Boring time consuming work hammering numerous nails in to every hole of the hangers.

Whilst I was doing the fiddly bits with the joists Karen persisted in loading out the second lift of scaffold with blocks. I think we worked out that she had taken over 200 blocks up the ladder and on to the scaffold. The ladder is currently very steep so this was no walk in the park.

So this side of the joists involved doubling up joists and trimming them fort the stairwell. I found this tricky and the amount of hammering and nails used in the joist hangers is unreal. I must of spent at least £50 in nails alone !! I definitely underestimated how long the joists would take and I think in total it must have been 4.5 full days.

Joists were 47x195mm C24.

A gloomy day for setting up the hangers !

The joists start

Joist trimming around the stairwell

At 12.00 hrs on the Saturday I had finally finished the joists ! No rest for the wicked it just meant lunch and then back to block laying.

Back on the trowel !

So last weekends work finished at around 1pm as I promised I would take my youngest son out on his bike. This was a much needed break as it involved a couple of watering holes.

 

[RobH71]

No further work this week until last night (Thursday 16th July) where I decided to install my goalpost arrangement for my ridge beam. This steel work will support the main ridge beam for the roof and is bolted together using 12 mm bolts but will eventually be welded.

I was a little silly trying this on my own as they are pretty heavy and lifting the horizontal in to place off a step ladder was interesting but not recommended !

Having this in place has allowed me to check the levels and plan how high my gable end needs to be. Once my real work has finished today I will be off out to lay some more blocks !