So my hopes of simply reskinning/siding my stand alone garage have taken a grim turn....
The structure is a 24'x24' detatched 2 car garage. It's moderately old (built in the 70's) and the siding they used was Masonite and was decaying on the bottom layer badly. I figured I would strip it, and replace. Along with this the garage door was having issues closing (it was an old school one big ass panel style door on hinge) with wood rot around the bottom of the frame for it, and water damage around the door on the rear , which was a non-exterior rated door they slapped on before I bought the house.
It's a lot, but nothing I can't handle. Then I put a level up against the garage door frame and discover the reason the door wouldn't shut right was that the door frame was leaning 2.5 degrees to the right. And it looks like the whole building is as such. I do some research and it looks like this is something that is both correctable and inside my skillset to accomplish (with hiring myself a helper or two for a day)....
So I begin some basic demo work, I look at the old water damaged rear door. I am angry at it for being bad so figure I will give it a good tug and bet that it rips off in fear of my obvious might. Not only does it rip off, half the frame comes with it. I inspect a little and lo and behold... termites/carpenter ants or somesuch damage to the stud and frame. I spend some time therapeutically cursing at the universe and threatening God....
So now I am pulling the bad 70's paneling off the interior of the back wall to get at the inside of the wall and get a better look. I find where the insulation had apparently been also long co-opted into a rat condo. So now I am pulling insulation, yay fiberglass!.
Good news/Bad news time. Bad news, around 1/3 of the studs in the wall have the consistency of those bad wafer cookies you get at convenience stores due to the aforementioned bug damage. Good news, it looks like the bugs in question are no longer around, and the damaged studs are not all next to one another. So I quickly grab some lumber and throw in some additional supports to at least hopefully keep the garage from falling in on me.
At this point i'm ALMOST feeling accomplished, after completely sweat drenching my third shirt for the day (yay, outdoor construction in Texas in July!) Getting ready to start framing in where the new door is going to go (I'm moving it over a foot or so, plus widening it from a 30" to a 36" door. Crawl up and take a better look at the double stud top of the frame for the wall... And it's also good news/bad news... Bad news = It was also a food/hosing solution for the bugs. Good news = They're gone, and it only seems to be the bottom of the two studs going horizontal.
It's late enough that I am done for the day. Calling a load bearing wall company I've heard reasonably good things about tomorrow about possibly replacing that beam, maybe even doing some changes to the building. Time to call in people who do this shit for a living.
Photos spoiler-ed for size...
I'm going to go yell at God some more now...
