Concrete Cancer at its finest.

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ozziedog

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Some of you guys know, that I’ve been toying with the idea of raising my bus back to stock height perhaps even a tad more :shock: The main reasons for doing this are the very poor condition of my reversed ballljoints, one would’ve fallen out if I’d had my fifteen inch wheels on, but it stayed put and caused an unusual grating sound as it was molested back into place by the inner edge of my wheel rim. I thought it was a one off and replaced the joint but six months later the other side did the same, I’m guessing at about twenty to thirty thousand miles on them. So begins the epic of doing this little job :mrgreen: Now what’s this got to do with concrete cancer then ??? Well I can’t quite get my van in and out of the garage at stock height even without the roof rack unless I move it out a foot at a time and force and prop my door open a little more as I get the roof air vents out and the front of the pop top and of course the roof rack, so it was a time consuming and laborious process every time the van went in or out of the garage plus frought with disaster that a little mis time would produce a little miss hap, so it was only a matter of time before something went wrong and damage would have been inevitable :roll: :msn4: :roll: Now the issue is simple because there is fitted to my garage a rather large concrete boot lintel that was cast in situ some time in medieval times :lol: This boot lintel has got a serious dose of concrete cancer thus needs some love and attention so I’ve prepared a scaffolding and supported it with scaffold planks and acrow props then took a small Kango style breaker too it and gradually broke it onto a zillion small chunks then scrapped the hulk of the steel re-bar construction. It had to be done like this because a boot lintel at just under six metres that had been thoroughly vibrated, must have weighed a couple of tons and any attempts at removal as one piece would have needed a good crane or ten Arnolds and possibly a couple of Jeff Capes to boot or it would have dragged the walls and pillars down with it :msn4: and that ain’t a good look for sure. :shock: So here is the offending lintel.






And this is where I started. The concrete cancer is the steel reinforcing in the lintel rusting and expanding then cracking and shaling the structure so the concrete gradually sheds more and more and gradually weakens. This has been going on for at least a decade or maybe two but it would have been strong enough to last another twenty years but for the ball joint issue and the dodging the falling chunks every time you open or close the door :lol:
Here it is supported.




And starting demolition. The whole thing here is about demolishing the cancerous lintel and raising the new lintel so I can raise the garage door, so I can raise the van :mrgreen: Just to put a twist on it, I’m trying to recycle some old junk to make the rebuilding a little more eco friendly (cheaper) :lol: And to tax my brains :roll:
I’ve got some nine mill ply, some plastic covered steel sheets, some old ladders and one is quite hefty, some scaffold tubes about two or three eight footers, a pair of acrow props and three full scaffold boards and two or three half boards, mostly scavenged out of my storage rack so there is stuff everywhere in the garage. ;)






And just to add a little spice, this lintel is holding up this end of the roof so here you can see the props holding up the various purlins that are supporting the ‘Big Six’ cement based roofing sheets. So the door can’t be opened once I’ve started and the van is locked down due to COVID and concrete cancer. :mrgreen: This is all retrospective and the main reason it’s rained every Friday and Saturday for the past six weeks or so because those are my days off.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,it’ll be nice now it’s watertight again :mrgreen: ;) :mrgreen:
 
So this lintel is called a boot lintel because if you cut through it or had a look at a cross section, it would resemble a boot. It showed only two or three inches of concrete lintel at the front making it look rather slim even though it’s supporting a brick wall above it. The trick is or the strength is in the back part of the lintel that was ten inches high but cast in one piece so it don’t look too chunky from the front and the rear would normally be hidden by plaster in a house or in this case, lost in the roof void and decorated with cobwebs :lol:





Here you can see the bulk of the strength and the start of the demolition :? :? :? There was about ten or so courses of brickwork above this too, and this was also in poor condition. :roll:
Mrs Ozziedog said, get someone in to do it for you, you’re tooooo old you’re toooo fat, you can afford it :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,now where’s the fun in that :lol: 8) :lol:
 
Ozzie, you are either very brave or completely mad to take that on - or possibly both :) Think I would have taken the van out of the garage first though! I've heard concrete dust inhalation causes a sore throat that is only soothed by Stella ?
 
So I’ve made the new lintel and I’ve got a very heavy duty just over six metres double extension ally ladder. I’ve checked checked it out and with a lot of weight on it, the deflection was minimal even with three five gallons of water plus my weight, the bow in the centre was less than five mil. Before I fitted it , I lined one side with some nine mill ply painted inside and out with pva.





Then I doubled up the ply inside wherever the purlins were gonna connect and wanged a few three and four inch screws into the ends to hold it until I got some hangers on there.
Then re bricked up the ends and banged some four inch screws in between the courses to tie it into the blockwork.






That’s how it’s looking from the inside so far.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,I’ve covered it outside, I’ll get some pics tomozzo :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
I never ever think, ‘Oh that’s a big job’ especially when it’s for myself and there’s no money to be made. This lintel needed sorting years ago but I was always toooo busy messing about with me van or fancying around in the garden and growing trees :roll: . An experienced builders mate would have been invaluable because I couldn’t get to anything like tools or fixings etc without walking all around the garage to get then all around to get back. The scaffolding is pallets screwed to the pillars and planks screwed to the pallets, might have made a bit more sense to do it in the summer. But rest assured that the rain will now stop because it’s all watertight now and I can open the door and work from inside if needed, until I take the garage door off to raise it :lol: I’d best have a real good look at them thumping great springs because they’d give you a nasty nudge when they gets disconnected, bet they’ll go tttttwwwangggg :mrgreen:
Let’s have a good look tomozzo and see how to raise this damned door six inches or so. Right now I’m de dusting my little throat with a smashing Sauvignon Blanc from NewZealand called squealing pig and it’s got a very tiny hint of passion fruit in it :p :mrgreen: :p

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, Stella is on ice for the grande finale :mrgreen:
 
Have you thought about a side hinged door rather than an up and over? Might get you the extra clearance without raising too much. even a roller gets you a few extra inches

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67westy said:
Have you thought about a side hinged door rather than an up and over? Might get you the extra clearance without raising too much. even a roller gets you a few extra inches

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Those were my other options, spend a couple of grand :shock: :shock: :shock: on a roller shutter which would have been nice and might still be on the cards if I can’t get this door raised and the gap filled nicely. I don’t want it so it looks like it’s made out of Lego but using just bits of crap which in reality is what I am doing. Security long term is also a concern so it’ll be reasonable looking and good and strong or I may have to resort to a roller shutter :roll:<<< see what I did there :lol: roll eyes, roller shutter :lol: , but we’ll see how this goes as at best I’ve raised the lintel about seven inches which should let me raise the door eight to nine inches which is more than enough, six inches would do the trick. If I went roller shutter , then I would have still had to sort this lintel issue. As to side swinging doors, I don’t think I could get away with that and again, I’d still have to sort that lintel. The side opening doors needed a gap under the right hand side one because of the lane raising in height as the door swung open. I thought about it but couldn’t guarantee that the doors wouldn’t pull over the brick pillars with the weight on there, or supported with jockey wheels because of how uneven the rough lane is. Also thought about two thirds opening down hill and one third opening up hill or three quarter and one quarter but without the weight of the concrete lintel, I reckon the pillars would have been pulled over. I think I worked it out that the biggest the right hand door could be was one third which is almost two metres, and would I be able to track the door back against next doors garage to still drive my van out.
This is also the reason that I’ve done nothing but cogitate for these past few years until my hand was virtually forced by the ball joint issue. So it’s not like I’ve become the brains of Britain :mrgreen: overnight, I’ve been getting my head around this for a fair while. I will be gutted though if I can’t do it nicely enough or strong enough and end up forking out for a roller door, but I doubt if I’d get a realistic price on one until the lintel is properly finished anyway..

Ozziedog,,,,,,,, it’ll be good I reckon :mrgreen:
 
Sounds like plenty of thought has gone in to it :) the roller doors I got for our garage were £469 each so of you are fitting it yourself it should be way cheaper than a couple of grand..I went with the mini roller due to clearance above the door

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67westy said:
Sounds like plenty of thought has gone in to it :) the roller doors I got for our garage were £469 each so of you are fitting it yourself it should be way cheaper than a couple of grand..I went with the mini roller due to clearance above the door

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Yes indeed, lots of thought and a bit of collecting like the plastic covered steel sheets that a neighbour was launching, and this mahoosive double six metre extension ladder that I’ve even trying to give away for years has finally come up trumps and I only used one part too :mrgreen: and some ply that was left over from another partially finished project :roll: I can get another sheet of that easy enough when I needs it ;) plus I’ve used up copious amounts of odd screws that I’ve collected over the years.
I’ve managed to now cover it all with a little lead flashing over the roof covered be vertical cladding back and front, then I made a ridge / coping metal top for it too. I’ll get some pics later.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,ding ding, round five :mrgreen:
 
Be brutal and honest, does it look like shantytown??? Or reasonably industrial/ garagey?






One shot from my back bedroom window and one from further up the lane. Yes the door could do with painting and Mrs Ozziedog has suggested that because painting plastic covered steel sheets might be a bit of a trial so I may paint the door to match in drab green but I’m thinking day go orange to brighten up the back lane perhaps or will that possibly attract unwanted attention to the garage and van ?

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,taking those springs off right now :shock: :shock: :shock: ;)
 
Looks awesome and un....LOOK AT ME.....
Excellent job. Hope all are well. If this works .
Bloody SPAMHAUS.....

J & P
:D :D :D
 
67westy said:
Have you thought about a side hinged door rather than an up and over? Might get you the extra clearance without raising too much. even a roller gets you a few extra inches

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

Going back to this bit, :mrgreen: One of the things that a side hung door would have given, was an extra six to eight inches without even raising the lintel, an inch gap, then the thickness of the door held flat about two inches, then the triangulation bars, then the spreader which is almost five inches because it’s such a large door. If only I could have got the space in our lane.
Ozziedog,,,,,forgot that bit :mrgreen:
 
If you have 343mm from the bottom of the lintel to the roof you can fit a roller and have all the space [emoji6]

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67westy said:
If you have 343mm from the bottom of the lintel to the roof you can fit a roller and have all the space [emoji6]

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Brilliant, thanks for that :mrgreen: :mrgreen: That’ll save me from doing any research. I have nowhere near that , it’s maybe inches to the lowest of the purlins because of the roof pitch . So I have to make this work now, or I’ll be funding an externally fitted roller. I’ll slap a pic up so you can see where I am a bit later, to create height / space I’ve notched the door frame around two of the purlins already.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,love this forum :mrgreen:
 
I would try and get joist hangers in there - thats quite a failure point just on 3 or 4 screws

a ladder sandwich with coach bolts and a hanger would still be cost concious and be sturdier, also don't forget the 'lintel' as you have constructed might try and rotate as well as have the load pushing down. as you pointed it the lintel design is as such - wide'ish base
 
dubdubz said:
I would try and get joist hangers in there - thats quite a failure point just on 3 or 4 screws

a ladder sandwich with coach bolts and a hanger would still be cost concious and be sturdier, also don't forget the 'lintel' as you have constructed might try and rotate as well as have the load pushing down. as you pointed it the lintel design is as such - wide'ish base

Yes , yes, hhhmmm, and yes :mrgreen: you’ve followed my train of thought exactly. I’ve put a large wide extra piece of ply inside the lintel where the purlins are and ‘ just tacked it in’ with one inch screws, the idea behind this is that most of the ply is face fixed with PK type screws and this extra piece is actually resting on the inside of the ladder hence so is it’s load as soon as I fitted the joist hangers with inch and a quarter screws but from the other side so the load is resting on both. As soon as I fitted the joist hangers (pics to come) I’m hoping I’ve reduced the torsional and twisting effects as it’s braced / supporting the roof via purlins. The facia on the front of plasti coated steel sheets is well fixed with self drilling tapping threading roofing screws and that is really beefing up the whole shooting match. I’ve hung off the middle of this ‘beam’ and visually against a fixed surface could not see any movement or deflection, it is for the most part, self supporting and virtually non load bearing apart from a little bit of lightweight roof and of course a bit of wind load. :msn4:
New problem! :x :roll: :x
I’ve tidied everything up a bit and raised the frame after cutting off the rotten bits at the bottom, soon to be scarfed in with two pieces made of recycled plastic and they won’t go rotten that’s for sure. Right then , raised and fixed frame, re fixed hardware and running gear but can’t get the springs in to assist just yet because I’m hitting the lower purlin. :shock: :shock: :shock:
As the door starts to move in at the top, it also goes up by an inch or three :roll: :evil: :roll: so I’m now using my lecky plane to ‘ clearance’ this little faux par . So I’m gonna need to strengthen this up as well and possibly add a couple of smaller purlins to spread the load . I just knew this was going tooooo easy . Let’s have a look tonight :mrgreen:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,, Type 2s are easier I think :mrgreen:
 

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