After a number of quotes, we bit the bullet and signed on to get the garage built. We made an initial deposit on Friday and they said they’d be in touch Monday to discuss scheduling. Instead, Monday they showed up with an excavator. Unfortunately, even though the concrete demo was done, we weren’t quite ready for them to start.
Primarily, we needed to get the fences along the sides of the yard removed. We also needed temporary fencing, a porta-john, and while they had asked if we had a survey and we said yes, we actually needed the physical survey markers at the corners of the property. So they wound up leaving and left us to get prepared. Sadly, we also had to take down the swing set I built for the kids during Covid.
We started with conversations with the neighbors to either side, getting permission to encroach temporarily on their yards during construction. On the one side, the fence was built during their renovation, but on our side of the property line. That made it our fence, so we just needed to make sure they were ok with closing off their access to the sidewalk along the garage while we removed it. They have a toddler and we want to make sure their yard is secure.
On the other side, there’s actually two fences, a chain link on our side and a wooden picket fence on the other. We got permission to relocate the wooden fence about a foot back from the property line as long as it was secure for their dog. We got the porta-john, the temporary fencing was delivered, we got an expedited survey done, and took out the fence.
The fence posts and the tree that had grown in between the two fences were the bigger challenge. We picked up a “farm jack” which was a tool I was previously unfamiliar with but will use anytime we have a post to remove in the future. It lets you ratchet the post straight out of the ground, with or without the concrete footer attached. Sarah and I took out about eight or ten wood and metal fence posts in fairly short order. I wasn’t as lucky with the tree stump. That required some extensive work with a reciprocating saw and long blade, but I managed to get that ripped out of the ground. Sarah and I moved a few sections of the wooden fence on the South side back a foot and made it secure for the dog next door.
With everything removed and prepped and all of the fence debris and landscaping stones cleared away, we let the contractors know they were good to proceed. They showed up the following week on Tuesday and had the footings completely excavated in just a couple of days. They actually cut back the sidewalk on the neighbors side where it was over the property line, so we’ll need to fix their side gate once the walls are up.
July 9, 2024 at 12:45 pm
Glad to see you back at it! That concrete removal you did on your own had to have been one of the nine levels of hell.
July 9, 2024 at 5:18 pm
Thanks! Parts of it were pretty bad, but not in the ways I expected. The electric jackhammer wasn’t as powerful as we would have wanted, but it has decent dampening. Mostly slow, and the remesh sucks. We used a 3 foot pry bar and bolt cutters to get it done.
October 9, 2024 at 12:43 pm
I was inspired by your garage build and decided to rehab my existing 100+ year old frame garage. After $10,000 for new shingles, new gutters, scraping old paint, putting on new paint, replacing the rotted sill plates along with new soffits and fascia, and lots of soreness and long days, I’m beginning to wonder if a new garage might have been a better idea. It was built before the alley was raised so that it actually sits below-grade which is weird. To remedy that, the prior owner poured another 8-10 inches of concrete to raise the floor to alley level, so the parking pad will now survive a nuclear bombing. Since all this, I have dreamed of jumping in an excavator to knock it all down and enjoy the sweet freedom of free street parking and a big back yard. Next time I guess!