If you read the last post, you're probably expecting to see some gutter installation....well, um...I haven't done that yet. Instead, I've been working below the deck/inside the garage. As mentioned back in February, we didn't get the deck finished before the monsoon season, and so the deck/garage ceiling leaked water all winter. The ceiling first went moldy, and then partially collapsed. About six months on it has properly dried out, and, with the deck finished (except gutters, railings, etc.) I can do something about it.
Step 1. Make some more space at the rear of the garage. This was achieved by taking down the lower couple of shelves at the rear wall and punting their contents into the table saw room:
Moved the refrigerator in there as well, and pushed the '68 all the way forward....
.... which leaves plenty of space to work in:
Pulled down the ceiling from the first four (4) feet at the front of the garage:
The old insulation and assorted debris came down with the ceiling:
Debris transferred into trash bags:
It is work noting that the structure of the garage roof/deck has been severely weakened at this point. Before we started, the structure consisted of LVL joists spaced at twelve inches on center, plus at least three (3) layers of 3/4" plywood, several layers of roofing material and a layer of deck boards. Now it's just joists and deck boards, and even the limited shear strength of the ceiling has been removed.
I knew this was going to be an issue, which is why I only took down the first little bit of the ceiling. Before I can take down the rest, I need to add some strength, which means....blocking! I'm using sections of 2" x 8" doug fir, which are about 10.5" long. Each block is secured with 3.5" nails fired from the cordless Dewalt gun:
I'm installing blocking every 36" across the garage, which looks like this:
To give myself a three (3) wide nailing surface for the ceiling drywall, I'm adding 2" x 4" scabs to the sides of the blocks:
Which looks like this when complete:
Pulled off (!) the next bit of ceiling as far as the first pair of strip lights:
Cut out the sections between the lights:
The drywall at the front left of the garage was stained, so I ripped that off too:
More bags of trash to get rid of later:
I set up the laser level to help me keep the blocking straight:
Time to remove the automatic door opener - it doesn't work, and I'll be replacing it with a different style.
I was working on my own, so I had to support the heavy end with the step ladder and a box of trash bags during the lowering process:
Finished up installing all the blocking:
Then I removed all four antiquated strip lights. I'm replacing them with 10' long LED lights which are clip-mounted and easy to move around. The strips can be coupled together or connected with cables. To start with I have four lights at the remaining section of ceiling....
And another five where I just removed the ceiling...this is a temporary arrangement since the lights will have to come down when the ceiling is replaced.....but that is a few months away at the moment, and in the interim I have plans that need decent lighting in the garage.
The wiring for the new lights is super simple. Previously each of the four strip lights had an incoming cable:
I just put an outlet at the end of the cable which the new lights can plug into. Power is controlled by the same wall switch as before.
The lighting in the garage is much improved:
Back wall:
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