Lintels and Lentils

Progress on the garage has been, well, progressing well over the last few weekends. We are up to almost 11 courses, and have completed the main lintel (or lentil as Caroline calls it) going across the large garage door as well as the small lintel spanning the "people door".

One thing I would like to get straight is how this thing is built like a bomb shelter. If anyone wants a place to stay when disaster strikes, I'll be selling off squares in this garage. Caroline was worried that "it might fall over" if I did all the work myself, and I have to say that this just isn't possible. We have rebar and a fully filled core every 32", which means we essentially have 20 4x4" concrete beams holding the walls up. We figured out that every course was around 3300 lbs, which means the entire garage is going to weigh close to 70,000 lbs (not including the foundation). If you haven't put two and two together yet, this also means that we will be lifting 70,000 lbs. This is not a small number, especially as you get further from the ground.

We'll start off with pictures from three weeks ago, the 11th of September. If you recall, the last picture I posted  only had two rows of blocks. We actually completed four rows over the three day labor day weekend! This was good progress considering how much of the work was setup. Little things like setting up the cement mixers (I bought one for $25 and borrowed one from Caroline's grandfather), cutting the foundation where it was messed up, mixing our first batch of concrete or just figuring out what order we needed to do things in all took time. The good thing was that even after breaking once, my $25 cement mixer was going strong!

At the end of Labor Day weekend

Other than the foundation not being straight or level, the blocks went up pretty well. A friend from work, Matt Harwood helped out a lot over the weekend and made it possible for us to get this far.

Starting off with the weekend of the 11th with four rows, it was time to start "cranking away" even though we only had two days in the weekend. Dad and I managed to get another four rows complete! This was fantastic progress considering we were able to average two rows a day with only two of us laying bricks (of course mom and Caroline were there as well).

Dad filling the rebar. 

Yes, a level was used to make sure this is straight

After doing some thinking, we decided to change our window design. We had planned on having small awning style windows, but after using a suggestion from Dad about drawing what they would look like, we decided that short and wide windows made the garage REALLY look like a bunker. We changed to windows that are two blocks wide by six blocks tall, or a rough opening of 32x48". This looks good and will allow for a lot more light.

The garage is already "Caroline height"

This picture is actually the last that we have from the weekend of the 11th. It eventually got to be two rows higher than shown now, or 8 rows tall.

Now, drumroll please, it is time to build the Lintel! We laid the 9th and 10th rows on Saturday 9/17 and were ready to start the lintel on Sunday. I was pretty excited about building the lintel, as we were making it out of blocks, rebar, and concrete. Notice that NO steel beams are present! This lintel is made by cutting channels in to the concrete blocks, putting the rebar in, and then filling the whole thing with concrete. It looks like the garage magically holds itself up, and it is super cheap. It is also what my architects spec'd out, so it is going to be what we do. 

The lintel doesn't magically hold itself up while we are building it, so we made a temporary beam to hold it up and supported it with house jacks courtesy of Caroline's grandfather. This worked pretty well, though I can't say the lintel is 100% level. However, if you are the type of person who carries a level around and checks people's garage lintels, I think you need other hobbies.

I didn't get a good picture of filling the lintel with concrete, but it took quite a few bags (5 or so). We only finished one row during the weekend of the 17th, so Caroline and I finished off the second row after apple picking (see previous post). 

"Weatherproofing" 

Caroline filling the "Lentil"

Tomorrow will be exciting! We are going to remove the wooden support beam and see if the lintel holds!! For more pictures of the garage building process over the past few weekends, check here: https://picasaweb.google.com/slhp315/GaragePics9101191718?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCT_ObCvKGfBA&feat=email#