Garage Excavation - Finally Finished

[shwag33]

Took me 6 months. It sucked, but happy I did it now. Underpinned the foundation, poured lots of concrete... and used a lot of tapcons haha. Using Uneekor and TGC.

[shwag33]

More pictures.

[shwag33]

Hmm, pictures in the album didn't upload in chronological order. Here's the before an after and the photo album link, with my dad hitting.

https://www.facebook.com/czwalga/media_set?set=a.10101925553921520&type=3

[Kmurray]

That is an awesome build and a true labour of love. It looks fantastic and I particularly like the wall coverings and balustrade . Hats off to you ...Well done........

[Wizard of Coz]

Wow looks amazing! Priceless

[BGCurtis2nd]

Very nice job, looks great.

[Gman17]

Well done Shwag! Looks fantastic. I like your architectural cable guardrail. ENJOY!!!

[JKCapeCod]

What a commitment to get this sim completed, looks great.

[Mxwoodman]

Wow great job

[bs531]

Very nice, where did you get the wall murals?

[shwag33]

Very nice, where did you get the wall murals?

I printed them myself. I have a 54" vinyl printer for a side business that I have. The hardest part was finding images with high enough resolution to print. If there were more images out there, I'd consider selling them, but it's really slim pickings finding images.

[andygg1986]

You should rent a camera and go play Pebble, Torrey Pines, St Andrews, etc and write it all off as a business expense 😁. But seriously the whole room looks awesome and you could probably sell murals with the images that you have already.

[brg1875]

shwag33 If you don't mind asking how much did the underpinning of the basement cost? What was the height of your ceiling before and after?

[shwag33]

shwag33 If you don't mind asking how much did the underpinning of the basement cost? What was the height of your ceiling before and after?

Well, the underpinning costs something like $700-1000 a lineal foot if you hire someone; crazy expensive. I did it all myself and it really sucked. You have to hand dig out under the foundation, there's really no other way to do it. Also the dirt isn't like digging top soil, it's compact with rock, you have to chip it out then remove it. I rented a mini excavator and concrete buggy to get the dirt out, but that only works inside the foundation.

I went through like 160 bags of 80lb concrete to do the underpinning, then i'm just guessing 6 bags of portland cement, and 18 bags of sand for the drypacking the last 3 inches between the underpninning and foundation. Getting a truck didn't make sense, since I was only doing 4ft at a time, which is what is recommended so you don't undercut the foundation.

The cost just to do the raw concrete work, go from 7ft to 9.5ft finished ceiling.... Including equipment rental, concrete truck, concrete, gravel, forms, etc. I probably spent about $3000. Probably another $500 in water remediation, piping, pumps, etc. Not sure you can tell but I get a lot of water down there. I already had a french drain running through there, but since this is now the lowest point anywhere in my house I had to add another sump and believe it or not one of my gutter drains rain under that concrete floor as well so I had to deal with that.

The amount of labor to do this was pretty staggering.

[3on3putt]

This is impressive on a whole other level. Not only is the finished product gorgeous but the amount of dedication it took to do all that is unreal. Before and after pics are almost comical to look at. Well done.

You mentioned selling some murals if there were more images available .... what about selling the ones you have? And how did you attach them to the wall and what sort of special skill is involved there to make them nice and flat with no air bubbles or anything?

[JKCapeCod]

Inspiring, looks amazing. Many years of enjoyment Steve.