Garage Walls Are Up

Since my last garage extension update the garage walls are up and the new garage is really taking shape

Once we removed the neighbors fence, a trench was dug and wooden supports ready for 2m3 of concrete footings to be poured

Once the concrete footing had set for a few days we were ready for the brick work. We bought 8 packs of 132 limestone look bricks to match our existing bricks, a load of brickies sand and hired a scaffold. Our superstar brickie then got to work and every day of the 5 day Easter break he lived off strong coffees and tim tams and started to build the brick walls to the garage.

The old fireplace in the living room which had been covered and plastered over was removed because it was taking up wasted space in the garage. The brickie knocked all the bricks out of the fireplace and knocked down the chimney from the roof. The movement of the bricks cracked the living room wall so we'll need to repaint it but I guess it can't really be avoided when your knocking out bricks.

Pete and I had to lay another new concrete footing for the new brick wall to be built where the fireplace was removed. We couldn't start until after 6pm and by then the sun had gone down so we were mixing 5 wheelbarrows of concrete and pouring it into the footing by torchlight ... aren't we romantic. The hole in the wall from the old air conditioner we removed was also bricked in so it looks like one straight wall.

The ceiling panels of the carport had to be removed as well and unfortunately this was asbestos so we had to be careful - Pete wore a full suit, mask, gloves, etc hosed it down with water to stop the fibres from getting airborne and then wrapped it up in plastic, labelled it and took it to the asbestos disposal centre where we were charged a rate of $105 a tonne - our load cost $65. I think the local council should offer a free service to dispose of asbestos, to make sure people do the right thing and dispose of it properly if people have to pay you'll probably end up with people that don't want to and just dump it.

So that part of the extension is done - the walls are up and you can make out the shape of the store room that will be at the back of the garage

The next stage is the roof which will be extended across to the brick wall

You can read more about the garage extension to do list here

[All images my own]