Butte is legendary for it's harsh winters but this winter has been surprisingly mild. So mild that we are commencing outdoor work in March. Our garage is in dire need of repairs.
The structure is 59 years old and has not received much updating or even maintenance.
When we moved in in August you could see daylight through the roof
We made some repairs this fall, just enough to make it usable. We tried to keep the building dry but even the 6 mil plastic and huge tarp we put over the roof were not enough to keep all the water out. And all the ropes securing that back of the tarp did not help the curb appeal.
The garage has a flat roof, poor planning for northern Montana. The roof is built with parapet style walls on the front and sides. The front and side walls are all the same height. The roof sits between the side walls and slopes from front to back.
Weird, right? Our new roof trusses will sit atop the parapet walls but before we can up them up we have to remove the existing roof. We pulled up all the shiplap on Saturday
And for the first time ever the interior of the garage was adequately lit.
On Sunday my dad, Luke and I were ready to start work on the garage door header. The old header was cobbled together and had sagged more than two inches before we put in a support post. But we never guessed how badly it was water damaged.
Luke used his chainsaw to cut it into smaller sections for easy removal
How bad was the water damage? Here's a cross section, courtesy of the chain saw.
Because of the water damage we decided to rebuild the entire front wall. The garage is now being propped up by a series of braces until we can get everything tied together again.
This is where we left off on Sunday night. On Monday we should have some help putting up the new header and maybe even getting some trusses up.
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