Garage Sill Plate Time!

By the time we got to the Wee house with our load of wood it was early evening. Not exactly the start time we'd originally envisioned, but running late is usually our MO. Especially when we try to squeeze a billion things into one little Saturday.

Take a close look at our wood pile, notice the darker greenish boards at the way bottom? Those would be our pressure treated lumber that is needed for the very first step of garage construction. Mental head slap. Now we had to move around the whole pile of wood in order to get to the boards we needed.

Pete squaring off the first plank of the sill plate. The blue underlay is a barrier to help protect the wood from direct contact with the cement. This offers protection from water, the leaching acidic nature of the settlement cement and insects from penetrating into our hard work! Well worth the $5 a roll price tag for all that protection. Super easy to install as well, just unroll and attach. Cut to size.

Trying to match up the right bit size for the holes in the wood. We marked the holes in the wood by me holding the board level over the screw pins and Pete smashing it with a hammer to leave an impression on the broad side of the wood. Worked pretty well for us and we thought we were so SMRT for figuring out how to do it, the next day my Dad filled us in on a little secret. We could have just measured the board and marked out where to put the holes. Whatever. Smashing worked just fine and was way more fun.




Spanning the door frame opening in the back. To help save yourself some headaches and to make sure everything perfectly lines up- always span the openings. You can attach first and then cut away the opening second. Much easier to lay down one large board and square it than to do two smaller boards.

Bound and determined to get this sill plate done we pushed on past sundown and into the night. There was a little bit of guilt for breaking the neighborhood quiet drilling and hammering, but we packed up around 9pm. Which I suppose isn't that late and disruptive. It was so much nicer working once the sun went down, while it never got "cool" having some relief from the beaming 98 degree sun was wonderful.


Oh, and this is a little after the fact- but I just came across this great Bob Villa How-To article about garage foundations. Well worth a read if you're planning a project like this yourself. Even if you plan on hiring out for the whole or part of the garage. Familiarizing yourself with the work that should be getting done is very important.