Thursday, March 12, 2009

Carport to Garage






I've been working pretty feverishly on converting my carport to a garage. In the past few weeks I've managed to frame out the exposed side, install sheathing, weather resistant barrier and 2 windows! It's been a very good learning experience and lot of fun. The only thing I'm not really happy with is the lack of "green" materials available in the area. I'm trying to be as eco-conscious as possible, but it's been a little tough. First I wanted to use FSC certified lumber. I could have sworn the Home Depot was one of the major proponents and carriers of FSC lumber. Well it must be region/store specific, because the Home Depot here as nada. Next I was trying to find "green" sheathing. I contacted a company called Berry Plastics that makes a great product called "Thermoply" However their regional sales person didn't really seem to know this area and said I could try 84 lumber. However, I called the local 84 lumber and they said they don't carry it. Then I'm trying to find eco friendly caulk and expanding foam. There's a low VOC caulk by Geocel and a soy based foam by Touch n Foam. Neither of which can be found in the area. Geocel's website lists a local Power Building Supply as a distributer. Says they are open on Saturdays, so I drove by and the place looks closed down and looks like a junk yard rather than a building supply. However I did manage to use a flashing that is made from recycled rubber! Yay! Sure I could order some of these things online, but how "green" would it be to have 2 cans of expanding foam shipped by a huge diesel rig? Or for me to drive all the way to Asheville and back for a couple of FSC certified boards? If anybody has any suggestions I am all ears. Enough of the soap box, below are some photos of the progress. I didn't get to take photos of the windows installed yet, as I just did this and finished at 10:00 p.m. so it's dark. I'll post tomorrow if I get a chance to take some photos. (The weird close photo is of my pliers stuck under the footer board. I inadvertently forgot they were there and couldn't for the life of me figure out why the board wouldn't tighten down. Luckily I figured it out before I cracked the brick foundation or split the board!) stay tuned...

1 comment:

Sara said...

This is the good blog with good images and good details. Please keep on posting the more stuff.
Portable Garage