Cottage Garage Repairs and Trying to Make it Level

Working on cottage garage repairs and trying to make it level took some diy engineering to figure out how to accomplish the task.

man in fixer upper attached cottage garage with surprised look

CONTINUING GARAGE REPAIRS

We continued to work on building up the footer foundation around the garage. The last section was the side facing west. We already completed the back (or north) and the side facing east.

Nate would once again have to support the sides of the garage while cutting the old studs off at the bottom in order to build up the footer foundation in this area. This is similar to what he did around the other sides of the garage.

He put this metal tin like material at the base of where the garage footer foundation is on the outside of the garage next to the cottage siding. This would prevent water from going inside the garage. At the time it was a bit of a band aid repair. He thought he would eventually have to hire someone to rebuild the footers or to tear the entire garage down and rebuild it.

man kneeling down beside attached cottage garage siding

But, here we are today where he actually just tackles the task himself. This whole attached garage renovation project keeps getting more and more involved. Nate was glad to finally get this taken care of as it had been a thorn in his side for a long time. Especially since the garage was sinking into the ground all around the structure. That’s Texas for you~ constantly moving soil and ground.

REPAIRING GARAGE FOOTER TO MAKE IT LEVEL

He follows the same steps as before. Clean up and prepare the original footer to apply concrete bonding adhesive. Then he screwed in Tapcon concrete anchor screws and rebar to give the concrete something grab onto. And finally he screwed in wooden boards on the outside of the original footer so he could pour concrete in those diy molds.

garage footer foundation with screws and rebar and wooden mold

You should wait about 24 to 48 hours to let the concrete dry before removing the wooden boards. Nate usually doesn’t have the patience to wait that long and removes it a bit before that timeframe. He would let it harden though for a few days before putting any weight on it. We were very happy with the results!~

garage footer foundation with new concrete poured on it

TRYING TO MAKE THE GARAGE LEVEL

Nate worked on removing the stud in the front corner of the garage. It’s an old piece of pine wood from possibly the 1940’s. It was in need of replacement. We have done so much to salvage where we can and replace only when we need to. It takes a bit of time, but in the end, adds less waste to the landfill and more money in our pockets.

The labor can be tedious, but you end up doing it better yourself than hiring someone else to if you have basic diy skills to do so.

Nate wanted to pull the whole back wall of the garage a few inches to level it out. It was crooked and looked like it was sagging from the outside. He hooked up straps to the back of the wall with a winch to the back of our car and was hopeful it didn’t pull the car into the garage! He also used a laser level to keep an eye on the leveling progress that would hopefully be made.

man in garage using a winch to make it more level

The winch he was using was not powerful enough so he purchased a new 8,000 pound winch at Harbor Freight. It worked a lot better. The wall moved about a half inch after tightening it a few times. There was progress actually being made. Nate was so happy as the level of the garage was almost even at this point. He worked on a few more clicks on the winch and then backed up the car to release a bit of the tension from the straps.

Nate was really excited with the progress that was made. The back of the garage wall appeared to be leaning to the right and east side of the wall appeared to be leaning to the left. The winch helped to pull back the east side wall and make it more level. What a great diy learning experience and good results.

man's hand with a level on garage siding

MORE REPAIRS AHEAD

There is still much more work to come on the little attached garage, but we were very pleased with the direction it was going.

Nate learned a lot throughout this whole process. It was like every day of renovations brought some new challenge, idea, or success. It was like he was an engineer, architect, contractor, and homeowner all in one. Trying to figure things out and make it work within his knowledge constraints and our budget.

Looking back now, I can see how much work went into this whole project. Even though the attached cottage garage is also a fixer upper, I have an appreciation for what we’ve done to fix this little gem up on our own, with much care and consideration. Stay tuned as we have a lot more to share about these garage renovations. Not to mention the inside of our cute little pine cottage.

Materials & Tools We Used

Shovel: This was used to dig a trench around the original footer foundation to begin repairing it. It was also used to shovel dirt back toward the foundation to cover up the new concrete footer foundation.
Pry Bar: This was used to remove the old rotted sill plate on top of the footer foundation.
Paint Roller: This was used to apply concrete bonding adhesive to the footer.
Hammer: This is used for many things. To remove the rotted sill plate and wooden planks to reveal the completed concrete mold.

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man kneeling down beside attached cottage garage siding and man in fixer upper attached cottage garage with surprised look

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.