Ann Arbor Garage, Reborn

Challenge: As part of our complete gut renovation of an historic home on Ann Arbor’s Old West Side, we were tasked with restoring a badly deteriorated garage. Originally, the client told us they thought it was a complete rebuild situation. However, upon evaluating the garage’s existing conditions, we found that despite the building sagging and some of its framing and sheathing being rotted, enough of the structural elements were intact to allow a restoration.

Solution: We shored up the garage to remove and replace the rotted sill plates, installing a new sill plate with a protective gasket to prevent wood-to-concrete contact. From there, we framed the structure out with new studs, attaching the structure to the concrete slab with 6-inch bolts every 4 feet. Further, we raised and reinforced the lower side of the garage to correct the sagging that had resulted from uneven settling. From there, we got to work on revitalizing the exterior of the structure.