I am starting to plan a project, part of which is converting the standard 2 car garage into a family room and mud room. We will construct a new framed floor in the garage to match the finished floor of the house. We will be replacing the existing overhead garage doors with new fenestration and framing in the existing rough openings as necessary
My question is: what happens at the grade where the garage door opening “used to” be? the foundation wall is depressed at this location and the grade matches the concrete floor of the garage. if we were to simply build a small knee wall, the exterior siding would touch the ground in these locations. thanks for any input.
Garch
Replies
You should probably jack-hammer it out and pour a proper footing and stem wall. There is probably no footing across the opening.
It is fairly new construction (1995) and I have the construction drawings. there is a foundation wall and footing, just the stem wall is depressed at the doors.
Would you be able to epoxy rebar into the existing footing and form stem wall on top to match?
>> There is probably no footing across the opening. <<Why would there be no footing at the garage door?I've never seen that before. There's always a footing and block wall there. The last course of block is 4" lower than the top of the slab on every garage I've seen.Joe Carola
Let me first say that I am a DIYr not an expert. But, the way I did my garage (plans drawn by an architect) was to pour a footing and stem wall that ended on either side of the door opening and then in a separate pour I put the slab in. with expansion joint around the perimeter. The edges of the slab were thicker (ie across the door opening) but there was no footing per se. I asked the architect about it and he said it only has to support the weight of a vehicle without cracking. I didn't realize that was not "the norm". I live in a warm climate if that makes a difference.
Also, after I built the new garage I demo'd the attached garage to convert to a family room and the plans called for a new footing and stem wall across the door opening. When I jack hammered through the floor at the opening there was about 5" of concrete across the opening and that was it. House was built in 1953.
Brian.
I'm shocked to here that.Joe Carola
I thought it was odd at first too. But my neighbor did his the same way -different architect also. On either side of the garage door there are usually Simpson strong walls that are bolted into the footing with 18-24" bolts embedded along with side shear walls on the corners. There is a lot of earthquake-specific code here (San Diego). So I guess the structure is sound without the slab and footing across the door opening. I've even seen them framed, sheathed and roofed first before the slab is poured. I grew up in a climate with below freezing winters and have learned a lot of different things building here.
Brian
Evrey garage that I framed into a room , there's always a layer of block put on top of the slab to bring it up above grade and match the last course of block. Then it gets plasteredd and the sidng is all the same level and it looks like it was always there and never a gargare.
i was hoping that was the way to go.
how is the block attached to the slab in the existing door openings?