Building the garage was going to be a challenge from the start as the walls were taller
than normal eight foot walls (they are ten and a half feet total from floor to ceiling)
and the trusses were built out of 2x10's which made them very heavy. So when all else
fails, invite as many of your friends over as you can and use shear muscle to get
everything accomplished. The first weekend we attempted to build the garage, we were
rained out. The second weekend we had unseasonably warm weather and lots of sun and
we were able to set most of the walls and the trusses all in one day.
Here is the garage wall on the ground as the OSB is being applied
We started the week before we were going to build the garage by laying out the bottom
and top plates and making all of the headers for the garage doors and windows. Next we
obtained pre-cut studs from a truss company for the walls which were cheaper than buying
regular studs and cutting them to length. These studs were literally pieced together
from all of the truss company's scraps by cutting finger joints into the ends and gluing
them together.
By the time the day arrived to build the walls, the only thing we had to do was nail the
studs to the top and bottom plate and add the OSB to the outside. We were not concerned
about heating the garage once it was finished, so we used OSB instead of the 4x8
extruded styrofoam sheets that we used on the house. Once the walls were built, we
were ready to set them up onto the cement block walls. This was challenge number one.
When the walls of the house were built, the walls were built laying flat on the floor, a
couple of people would then lift up the wall and slide it into place.
Here is the other garage wall without the OSB
In the garage, we had two layers of cement block that we had to lift the wall up onto. The
bottom plate of the garage walls is also the sill plate for the garage, so the bottom plate
had to be drilled so that the anchor bolts could go through the bottom plate, this was
challenge number two. We also had to lift the wall high enough to get it onto the cement
blocks and then lift it higher to get it over the anchor bolts. It took about 11 people, but
we were able to get them up and into place. After they were in place, they needed to be
attached to the house and braced inside and out so that the roof trusses could be set on
them.