Repairing Attached Cottage Garage Footer Foundation to Make it Level

Repairing our attached cottage garage footer foundation to make it level improved the whole look of our sinking garage.

man walking into attached cottage garage

The attached garage was built after our house around the 1930’s or 40’s. It appeared to be sinking and looked slanted or crooked when you saw it from the street. So we decided to make repairs to it and that started with the foundation first.

PREPARING FOR GARAGE REPAIRS

Nate cleared the garage first by organizing our old reclaimed wood in there. Then he went around the perimeter and located the original concrete footer. It sunk down so low that the ground around it in the yard was higher. This caused rain water to come in the garage and puddle up in there. Not a good thing!

man in garage organizing it with wood all around

He decided to build up the footer higher to prevent water from coming inside the garage. The structure all around will be more stable and level the way.

REPAIRS TO GARAGE FOOTER FOUNDATION

Nate dug a trench around the perimeter of the garage next to the original concrete foundation footer. He placed screws on top of the footer several inches apart. Then he used a paint roller to apply concrete bonding adhesive to the footer. The new concrete he applied on top would then stick to it properly.

garage original concrete footer foundation

He added rebar across the screws the next morning when the adhesive was dry. Then he tied them with metal wire and wrapped them around the screws.

original footer foundation with screws and rebar

Nate added wood planks to both sides of the original footer that were higher than the footer. This created a space to pour the concrete into so that we could build on top of the original footer and make it higher. Again, this would also help to keep the rain water out of the garage.

Then he pushed the soil on the outside of the garage up against the new concrete footer. That would be the final step. This hid some of the imperfections. We wouldn’t consider this a thorough or professional repair, but instead a simple diy project that turned out to not be so simple after all.

new concrete poured on garage footer foundation

MAKING THE GARAGE LEVEL

There was work to be done to make the garage more level as it was sinking and slanting. Nate installed a sill plate. He used expansion anchors to keep the sill plate tightly in place with the new concrete footer. This is where he would drill through the wood sill plate and through the concrete.

man with screws and cordless drill with wood around him

He also used a jack to raise up the entire garage wall throughout the process. That way he could work on the footer, sill plate, and garage siding. I feel like I’m married to an engineer who figures out most things when Nate works on projects like this. And when he accomplishes them diy style. We learn something new around here all the time.

man using jack in garage to raise up garage wall

PARKING CAR IN SMALL GARAGE

The forecast called for hail so it was the perfect time to get our car in the garage for the night. Nate was not done with the repairs to the garage. We will be sharing more of our work in there coming up.

We end up installing a side door to the garage and building handmade diy old style garage doors in the front as well. Stay tuned for those projects soon.

Nate was able to fit our sedan, which is not really a small car in our very small attached cottage garage. It’s awesome to have this option when we are concerned the weather might damage our car.

man standing next to white car with cottage in the background

He has to park the car just right otherwise it would be really hard to get out of it since the garage is so small. It’s like knows exactly how to pull in to make it happen. Genius really! I’m really so blessed to have such a handy and intuitive hubby. Now we could rest easy for the evening knowing that our car was protected from the elements outside.

We are really just putting “lipstick on the pig” when it comes to a lot of our renovations because we have an old and really small cottage. Yet, it’s so hard sometimes to not do things right or the best we can in some ways. We learned the balance of just getting things done and also making sure we do quality work to some degree as well.

Repairing our attached cottage garage footer foundation to make it level was a lot of work, but worth the effort in appearance. Our little pine cottage looked so much better with an attached garage not sinking and slanted!

It’s these small details that require more work than anticipated to make such a difference. We still have a ways to go, but the progress we’ve made is giving us confidence to just keep going. I’m impressed with how far we’ve come! We have built a unique diy handmade home with our very own hands.

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 in the back to cover up the new concrete footer foundation.
Hammer: This was used to hammer in screws to the concrete footer foundation and various other projects in the garage.
Paint Roller: This was used to apply concrete bonding adhesive to the footer.
Cordless Drill: This was used for various projects throughout the garage repairs.

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man walking into attached cottage garage and digging trench around footer in garage

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.