Process Essay - Garage

The Process essay This essay is in essence a descriptive paper. It is designed for the purpose of teaching the reader how to do something or perform a certain task. The task that I chose was how to build a garage. Believe it or not, there is a lot of planning that is involved in building a garage. There are also a lot of different steps in this process. The first step in building a garage is to plan what you are going to do. If you live in town, one of the things that you need to consider is that you need a building permit. These usually run about fifty dollars. You will also want to try and make the garage match the design and color of the house. Here is a list of things to consider when planning to build a garage: -Underground/Existing Utilities(always have the area located for the digging) -Attached/Detached or future attachment to the house -Electrical/Heating/Plumbing -Window and Door location -Finished Storage Space The example garage that I am going to construct has the dimensions of 22’ x 22’ with a built-in attic storage space. I want to build the garage so that if I wanted to, I could attach it to my house in the future. If you want to build a garage like this, you will want to plan on making footings and foundations. The footing for this particular garage will be what you call a frost footing. That is a footing deep enough to resist frost upheaval. Once you have a thorough plan made up, you need to take it to your local building authorities to have it approved. The second step in building a garage is the excavating issues. You have to consider the overall slope and drainage of the garage area. Things like whether or not a retaining wall is needed to support a nearby hill are things to consider. Whereever you put the garage, make the location suitable for underground utilities. NOTE: The final grade should be back-filled to slope up slightly to the foundation. The third step in constructing a garage is the footings and foundation. The footings and foundation is made with concrete. It varies on how deep it should be because each area has its own building codes. Usually there are about 48” deep. The concrete footings are 8” thick by 16” wide. Once they are poured, they need to set for at least twenty-four hours. If a person is looking for additional strength, they can add re-bar. Re-bar is just metal rods added inside of the concrete for almost 40% more strength. NOTE: Detached garages are built on shallower footings,(sometimes 1’ x 1’) The fourth step in building a garage is pouring the slab. This is the main foundation of the garage. Before you pour the final slab, you want to add 4” of gravel and level it out. As soon as you finish this step, you will want to add a vapor barrier. This keeps moisture and gases from coming up through the concrete and ruining it. To help prevent cracks in your slab you can add expansion joints. This allows the slab to move a little without cracking the slab itself. A normal amount of concrete used on a two-car garage is one truckload of concrete. That equals out to eight yards of concrete. There are four basic steps to finishing the slab. -Screeding- this is when you spread the concrete out evenly -Floating- Use a wooden hand trowel to get the concrete even smother -Troweling- Use a metal hand trowel to get all edges smooth -Finishing- Use a metal hand trowel and buff surface for a shiny look The fifth step in building a garage is to frame the opening where the garage door will sit in. You will need appropriate header and trimmer boards. A typical single garage door is about 8’ or 9’ wide by 7’ high. The rough opening should be one and a half inches bigger on each side of the door. You want to install the header boards first. In some cases this takes 2x6s or larger. The two header boards should be mitered together instead of butted. A mitered joint is much stronger. NOTE: House-wrapping the headers together prevents air infiltration The fifth step in this process is roofing and cupola. I personally recommend 4x8 standard sheets as roof sheathing. As you install the sheathing, stagger them to add strength. You should also install eave flashing around the roof, and this acts as a drip edge. On top of the sheathing, a person should add vapor barrier to protect the sheathing from rotting. On top of the vapor barrier, you need to install rake flashing to prevent the wind from ripping the felt up. There are two recommended types of roofing materials you can use. You can either use cedar shakes, or asphalt shingles. You have to make sure that you space out the shingles or shakes so you have a good seal. The last and hardest task in building a garage is the garage door itself. Garage doors can be classified in two ways: -Sectional- multiple panels that roll open/closed on tracks, most popular -Trackles- one panel, tilt open/closed using hinges, opens outs and up Doors also come in insulated, and non-insulated types. The insulated doors cost about 10% more, but are recommended for attached garages. There are torsion springs that open/close the door by a twisting action. The torsion springs are installed under high tension and need to be handled by a professional. Extension springs open/close the door with a stretching action. Extension springs are located on each door side above the tracks. It is sometimes recommended to have a professional do this, because it takes very precise measurements. So this is my process essay, and hopefully it will give you a pretty informative view on how to install a normal double car garage door.