Well its been a long time coming........ When we built the addition onto the house several years back, the huge 2-car attached garage wad put aside and use as a "warehouse" of sorts, all the construction material and tools I was using for the interior remodel of the original portion of the house was kept inside there. And being I had to add 3 feet of backfill into the garage to bring it above grade a little (put almost 22 tri-axles of yellow slate in there and my driveway!), I wanted it to be able to settle for a couple years before I pure it anyway. I had intentions of pouring it this past month but just too much going on with trees and work, and with the holidays right around the corner, it's on hold til April. Sooooo.....I want my wife to be able to use the garage as is for the winter to get her car out of the snow, and to do that, I had to build a set of steps into the kitchen entry. So after seeing Stinny 's post on his Bilco bins, I began to concoct an idea of firewood storage in the garage that would be easy to fill and easy to get for both my wife and I as we get older. So instead of just steps, I built a landing and "deck" towards the man door at the back of the garage that will accommodate around a months worth of wood. I used some 2 x 8's that I had salvage a long time ago from some crates, but most of the wood I used was spruce and white pine that I cut down and milled myself around a year and a half ago. The decking was also white pine that I milled... Area that I built the deck..... The deck assembled and installed on the block ledge in the garage........ The steps and decking down.. I'll have enough room to store around a 2/3 cord on that ledge and it's plenty heavy-duty enough for the job. The joists are 16" on center, back of deck resting on the block wall. I still have.to make the hand railing and balusters, will work on that a little tonight and tomorrow.
I think thats a great solution for making use of space that you have that isn't quite finished yet. Having the wood stacked on the end portion of the deck will work perfectly, its out of the way and doesn't interrupt the flow of movement out the side door. Some treads, risers, rails and balusters and your good to go. The only thing I see in the future, when you do pour a floor, is that you would probably have to hang your small deck from the ceiling joists in order to get a floor underneath later on. You have a nice setup
Thanks Bret Hart. I'm going to make some sort of removeable "wall" that I can slide into place once I stack the firewood on the deck so it won't be able to fall out. Maybe a sheet of plywood and a "socket' where it can slide in/out.
I can unbolt the whole assembly and take it out of the garage when the time comes......forgot to mention I bolted it to the header beam..... The kitchen woodstove is literally right around the corner from that kitchen entry door so it'll make dealing with reloading the stove much easier! We usually store in the basement and it can be a pain.....
That was a good idea. In cases like yours when we are building small stairways in unfinished garages we finish them permanently and then come back and take the legs and stairs off and hang the platform. I like your idea better...
So... did you make the stringers or buy 'em? They take me forever to make, but I've done it so seldom that I forget the tricks, relearn, and curse quite often.
I also ended up "mortising" the posts into the outer header, gives a wee little bit more of space on the deck and also takes the outer load onto the posts better. Hard to see in the pics but you can see in the first pic they are just screwed in, and third pics they are mortised in.
I make my own stringers. Some people think they are a pain, it's only a couple equations. I like to make my stairs "on the fly", makes a better end product.
I'm sure you already planned for this but figured I'd ask since I've made the mistake before. Mind you, I'm not a carpenter. More of a wood butcher. Do you know where the top of the concrete is going to end up so you don't end up with a half a step or one that is an inch or so off and how does someone calculate for it? I'm hoping to put up a new deck next year and don't care to make that mistake again.
Scotty, if you ever sell your recliner I would like to buy it, it probably has never been used unlike mine.
I'll just whip up another set of stringers if needed......but I SHOULD be close to finished grade by removing the bottom step. ....time will tell. Most of the wood I used is from a big spruce and also a big white pine I harvested and milled so I didn't lose any money in boards....lol
Looks like a great idea Scotty Overkill. Good to see even a guy like you who's in great shape from bulling all day, can see the gooder in having a little less lifts, up & down stairs, etc. And making it part of the priority list in the design part too. I bet both you and your honey are gonna like that set-up a lot...
