Date: January 5 - March 10, 2026
We selected and ordered garage doors in the first week of December and our vendor Overhead Doors of Asheville said to expect a 5 to 6 week time frame for delivery. As I showed in the post on the siding, I had re-framed the door opening to be as wide and tall as I could fit because after I drove a vehicle into the garage I realized that my 8' width based on measuring the truck is an absolute minimum which requires skilled and careful navigation. By minimizing the width of the opening uprights I was able to order a very custom size - 8'2" wide and 9'3" tall. It turns out that isn't really a problem. Getting that wierd size didn't take any more time or money than if I had ordered 8'x9' doors.
With the coming of the new year, I was feeling the pressure to finish the framing required on the inside of the doors. I had received instructions from Rusty at Overhead Door that I needed to have a "goal post" pattern of 2x6's on the inside with the opening corresponding to the door size I'd ordered, and that any error should be on the side of a smaller opening, not a larger. I was still unclear about how the outside finished edge would be next to the door, since I wanted it to match the siding; i.e. I didn't want any 2x6 lumber to show from the outside. One can spend a whole lot of time searching the web for an answer to a question like that and find that in every instance they don't show that particular detail. Rusty said he would come by January 8 to take a look at what I had done and answer my questions.
As described in the siding post, the posts and beam forming the garage door were not straight and square. And just as I had to fuss and shim on the outside to provide a single plane for the outside siding, I needed to do the same on the inside so the doors could be mounted correctly. I started extending the jam at the top of the frame to the full 13+ inch depth to match the ICF block on either end of the building.
I packed out the top beam to be flush with the jam:
and used the planer to shave hemlock planks for the thin covering of the ICF. And discovered that my locust slat at the bottom was too short so need to make another one of those. Having stuff screwed on certainly helps with rework.
As the woodshop-in-the-barn photo included in the siding post documented, I repeated the planing of Hemlock 2x6's to box in the posts which took multiple hours. To shorten the effort I cut the 16' boards down to have a couple of extra inches so I wasn't planing a lot of material that I would cut off later. Unfortunately it wasn't until brought the planed board back up from the barn that I realized I had I mistook the measurement I'd written in the phone's Notes app which was 6 inches shorter than the length I needed! So even though I'd left on some extra, I was still 3 inches short! Damn! And there were no more hemlock 2x6's on hand. No such thing as a board stretcher. I was really kicking myself.
I made an SOS call to Tom G my hemlock sawyer and supplier. I offered to help with milling the wood if I could get it in time for my doors. He was in the middle of building a garage himself and was just preparing to poor it's slab. But after that was done (i.e. the next week) he said he would mill me the boards I needed and he thought it would be fun to have me help out. That also meant that I could get boards milled that were closer to the size I actually needed instead of making do with pre-cut 2x6's, so maybe it would have been a good idea to go this route in the first place.
Meanwhile I finished getting straight framing all round except for those missing boards. When Rusty came out on Thursday he thought the measurements looked fine and told me how to install the 2x6 "goal posts" and mentioned I didn't need to buy treated lumber for them as they were considered interior. He made it clear that the seal that comes with the door would cover those 2x6's so the way I made the hemlock as wide as the ICF would not leave any non-hemlock wood showing.
The following Tuesday after getting the sheet rock guys set up for the bathroom walls (previous post) I ran out to Spruce Pine with the truck sporting a so called "rack" made from scrap lumber. I figured I could also pick up the 12' 2x6 for the "goal posts" at Summit Lumber on my way back. I needed 10' boards, and Tom's logs are normally cut at 16', but he had two that were 12' and just big enough around for the 1.5" by 8" size I wanted. When we made the first cut to square up the second log, Tom threw out a mild oath because it was pine, not hemlock. "Let's just mill it to one inch lumber" I said. "I'll take it - I'm sure I'll have a use for it sometime because I don't have any one-by pine wood at home." So we ended up milling one of the bigger 16' hemlock logs, which I bought all of, meaning I added some siding lumber to my long-term inventory.
Tom's son-in-law swung by as he had nothing better to do and helped get the wood up on my "rack". He grabbed the rack to pull himself up and just about tore it off the truck. Tom quipped that he was glad for me to have that equipment (instead of him). I had brought my DeWalt driver and some screws so we scrounged around the millyard to find some scraps to beef up the rack. Before I left Tom treated me to a tour of his hog pen on the back forty while treating me to anecdotes about growing up raising a lot of pigs. Here's the rig after successfully making it back from Spruce Pine:
Meanwhile Overhead Door said the soonest they could schedule my install was January 28th, so the time pressure wasn't quite so high. The following weekend I started installing the new post uprights. "Measure twice" blah blah blah this time for sure. As shown in the pics below, I used the biscuit joiner to align the new board with the one I'd already installed and glue it so it (hopefully) will stay together presenting a single facade even with the high sun exposure it will get.
And a few days after that I installed the "goal posts".
This involved moving some of the wiring out to the new surface level, but that was easy because Erik had used conduit for these runs:
You can see the exposed edge of the goal post wood inside the hemlock, which I expect will be covered:
The final prep step was to de-clutter the garage so the door installers would have free range. The clean-up challenge was the leftover hemlock siding. I was thinking of stacking it under the art studio but there isn't that much room up there for long boards. Charla was of the opinion that it should go into the barn where my other lumber is stored. Good idea but not easy to get that wood up into the barn rafters. Using the long-time procrastinator's strategy, I figured I could move it from the garage to the truck and worry about getting it from the truck into the barn later.
You can see the completed goal posts in this shot I took to document the garage cleanup activity, finished just in time for the scheduled installation:
I get a message that evening that the door people are running behind and will be delayed a day. Same story next day - short staffed. But before the new target day, January closes out with a storm:
(That extra wood is more massive than it looks - check out how low the truck is riding above the rear wheel.)
After that it was "radio silence" on the door scheduling but finally on February 9th it all happened. The Overhead Door guys complimented me on the excellent framing.
The truck attests that the previous Saturday I got that siding put away in the barn with labor help from David who was Ryan's helper with the rock wall.
As I've never had an automatic garage door, the experience was very much like having a new toy. And finally I'm able to use the built-in remotes that came with both our Subaru vehicles which handily have three buttons for three doors!
In the video above you can see that the vertical seal did indeed cover the exposed goal post edge.
Backing up the timeline, at the end of January after the backfill was finished I'd texted Brandon (siding guy) to let him know I was ready for the deck to be built. I didn't get an immediate reply but then on Wednesday morning he texted back that they could start on Friday! When I said I was ready I was speaking theoretically --- I didn't have any of the materials on hand yet. I told Brandon I'd order the support wood and hopefully Summit would be able to deliver the following day (from the original framing I learned it's a bad idea to expect Summit to deliver on the same day that the material is needed).
This deadline forced the decision about what type of decking material to use. I've been a fan of the plastic boards since they don't rot and don't get as slippery. However up at the north-side deck of the art studio we've put the lie to the non-slip aspect - it will get really slippery if it never dries out. And the cost is simply outrageous - about $55 for each 6" wide 16' stick. So I decided to go traditional with treated lumber. Calling around I found that you really can't get treated two inch thick lumber in Grade A. The grade is called "Premium" which means lots of knots and roughness. The only treated Grade A wood is the 5/4 decking. (5/4 means the wood actually exactly an inch thick. It is milled at 1.25" thick then planed down to 1".) Those cost about $16 per 16' length.
The second design choice was how to build the railings. After Halloween we'd gone to cyclist Roger's throw-your-pumpkin-from-his-deck party and noticed his cable railings. A couple of people at the party raved about using cables instead of pickets. Having just helped paint a wood picket railing for the Marshall Helene recovery, I was an easy sell on the simplicity and easy maintenance of using cables instead of wood. And having the view through the railing is nice too.
I drove out to Summit in Burnsville but made two stops on the way to check price and availability of treated lumber from Mars Hill Hardware and Parker's Farm Supply. All three stores carried both support boards and deck boards. The first was really pricey, the second was a bit cheaper than Summit but didn't deliver. Summit offered Grade A and Grade B deck boards so I looked at both piles before deciding that Grade A was definitely what you want. I placed my order at the desk for delivery on Thursday, paid the previous month's bill and was back home before noon.
I'd hardly got home before the driver from Summit said they'd bring my order over that afternoon!
I texted Brandon to let him know we were a GO for Friday. Law conformably, Thursday night I hear from Brandon that they are running late and won't be able to get out until Monday February 9. That's the same day as the garage door guys, of course. The more the merrier, eh?
It was just as well I suppose because that weekend it occurred to me that I also needed some way to bolt that treated lumber to the locust 3x6 beams. These beams have been sitting under the art studio for a couple years - I had them milled as eventual replacement inventory for the pergola on the house. But I had enough so I figured I could use some for uprights and railing posts. So it was off to Home Depot for another gofer run. I bought enough 8" and 6" carriage bolts to do the entire job with either one as I wasn't sure quite how it'd go together.
Turns out those bolts weren't needed on Monday anyway as Brandon found that what they could get done without his long walk plank was limited to doing some layout and initial scaffold construction.
Brandon explained that they way he does decks is to frame out the deck itself on temporary supports so it would be square and level. Then fit the support beams in under it. That approach rules means the idea I had entertained (from McCurry) of having the upright posts continue all the way up to the railing wasn't practical. I'd poured the southern most peer tall to specifically to accommodate the through-post idea. But it's certainly more straightforward, compared to bolting the uprights (which BTW being Locust are not perfectly straight) to the cement piers at just the right location to stay square with the edge of the house 10' above you. Brandon assured me the railing posts would still be solid. Another argument in its favor was then the railing posts could be exactly spaced since they would not depend on the cement piers.
Tuesday morning pictured below before we took off to Charlotte for a head-banging NIN concert. Brandon and his son Marley:
Viewing the following not recommended for those who are inclined toward epilepsy.
Wednesday it rained, but by end of Thursday the basic deck structure was looking done:
Brandon informed that the outer stringers needed to be doubled, so I was short on wood. I also hadn't purchased the boards for the top of the railings. Brandon pointed out that Mars Hill Hardware charges more for their treated lumber because it is kiln dried. So now I know why they keep it in a shed while the other yards have it sitting out in the rain and snow. So I made a gofer run to Mars Hill Hardware and paid the higher price and spent my time selecting nicer 2x6 boards for the railings.
After some discussion we figured out how to route the bridge from the rock wall at right angles to the wall (instead of square with the deck). This provided the shortest stoutest span. The supports for that got done on Friday:
Progress the following Monday dragged a bit. At lunchtime it became clear I hadn't purchased enough vinyl flashing to cover tops of the 2x support beams. John L shared this tip with me back on Vashon - cover the supports with flashing so they don't rot when the inevitable detritus collects on them between the decking planks.
Can't put down the decking planks without it so it was another gofer run to Mars Hill Hardware. They didn't have the 25' rolls of vinyl flashing but they did carry a 2" 10 mil tape made specifically for this purpose. Costs three times as much but it was quick to get and easier to use.
Tuesday saw most of the decking go down. They decided to pack it tight since gaps will appear when the decking wood shrinks over the course of the summer.
I placed an order for stainless steel cables with Home Depot. It took more than a week to be delivered as it was shipped UPS Ground from California. When it finally arrived the next week I promptly opened it to check contents and found that the 15 foot cables (for the short run closest to the camera in the photo above) were not in the box. I immediately placed a call and was impressed with the responsiveness of the online support folks at Home Depot who answered the phone and then called me back with updates. After determining that there wasn't another box coming and giving me a credit, they placed a replacement order for the missing cables and gave me a 20% discount on the reorder. I was hoping that they'd get the vendor to send it regular UPS but they didn't, so I had another week-plus delay before those showed up. Meanwhile I got to work installing the 40 foot cables I had received.
The cabling process was pretty easy, just like the demonstration YouTube vids. The end you start on has a threaded nut, then you thread the cable through the posts. At the end post a sleeve goes over the cable that only slides one way, so once you pull the cable tight it stays there.
A bit harder was to clean up the holes through the posts, first by drilling angled counter-sinks at each end, then sanding the remaining shards off with the sandpaper attachment of my "Fesstool" oscillator. I cinched up the cables medium tight and left the surplus length there so I could come back in a day or two after they'd been through heat and cold cycles.
When I got back to it and really torqued down on those loose ends I heard some cracking sounds. And then I noticed the last cable I'd pulled really tight was good but the ones I'd done before it were quite loose. A close inspection revealed that the post on the 90° corner was being wrenched in; the cracking sound was the four screws securing the railing to the locust post being sheared off with a snap! Brandon had asked me more than once if I was sure I didn't want bracket 2x4s under the railing, and now I learned that even with locust posts you still need more support for that cable tension.
A few days later I cleaned up the snapped screws, installed beefier screws but more importantly used leftover deck one-bys to run under the railing so the post would be pushing against the end of a board when the cable pulled it. This required de-tensioning the cables but (for once) I had wisely purchased the little tool that releases the one-way clamp at the end post.
When the shorter cables arrived I was ready to roll with beefed up railings.
I used a novel approach to getting the cables around the 90° corners. The cable instructions say to use two posts on the corners but I didn't want the visual chunkiness of that approach. Instead Brandon cut the corner post at a 45 so the cable could make the corner as shown below. I doubt this would work if the posts were treated pine because the cable would eat into the wood, but rock-hard locust is another story.
Backing up the timeline again, the last activity I want to document in this post is the ditching to connect the building to its services. As I mentioned in the Solar Electric System post, I'd used their ditch-witch to get a jump on this task back in November. It was better than nothing but not a great approach to leave the thin trench for months since the walls tend to collapse. The dirt pile in the center right of in this mid-January nature shot was the upper termination of one of the pre-dug trenches.
Once the garage doors were installed, I could take on the highly disruptive task of digging the trench the rest of the way through the driveway to the building. On Friday January 23 I reached out to Erik the electrician about when he could make it out to run the electrical conduit. After a week we touched base and planned for the week after that. The garage door delay pushed that back and anyway nature had other plans as repeated cold fronts moved in with snow and temperatures to keep it there at the end of January (as mentioned above):
So our plans got pushed back to Thursday Feb 12, with the idea being if we got the conduit & sewer in on Thursday then I could get it inspected Friday and cover it up/restore the driveway on the weekend.
Meanwhile I returned to Arvol Coates and got enough 20' lengths of half-price schedule 40 sewer pipe to run the distance:
When we were in Charlotte for the NIN concert (see above) the previous Tuesday I got a message from David saying he had an injury and couldn't help on Wednesday with getting the ditch done. So as soon as we got home I jumped on the tractor to try to get at least the electric ditch complete for Erik. But my optimal plan of inspection on Friday wasn't going to happen since I had to get the sewer in by myself. When Erik heard of the situation he said he would just come on Friday for his task so that took some pressure off since I'd have another day to get the electrical trench right.
I took the extra time to fulfill a vision I'd been entertaining for years of taping into the big culvert running under the driveway as a convenient drain. Since the electrical ditch was running right over it, I just had to dig down another foot or so to expose that culvert. I cut a 4" hole in it and mounted a drain stack to run the surface water, the west side of the foundation drain, and a vertical stub to tap later if I need to run another surface drain someday.
Drain pipe for surface water from a storm catchment I'll put next to the garage door:
Erik came as promised on Friday with a helper and ran the conduit. Although 2" would be big enough (and was what I planned on) he had got a good deal on 3" so he used that for most of the run:
They couldn't pull the wire because CES (the electrical supply place) was out of 2 gauge which was needed for the ground run. But that was OK because the inspector only needed to check the conduit, not the wire.
I called for a Monday inspection then spent the weekend getting the sewer ditch done and the pipe run.
You can see my ditches had to cross our buried Fiber Optic cable. I tried to be very careful to not cut through that!
Since I wasn't quite sure where the fill dirt would be on the pipe, and I don't want no stinkin' cleanout sticking up in my "lawn," I used duct tape on the cleanout fittings so that I could cut it precisely when I got around to burying the pipe.
By using boards to hold the pipe out of the ditch I could avoid stressing the joints until after the glue dried.
We had an unused sewer line which went partway toward the new shop which formerly served the original house (long gone now). Well - I should say - it served the one-room bathroom I built when we moved there. Prior to that the only "facilities" was an outhouse. The closest point in the line was a trap I'd installed to catch the straight-pipe coming out from the kitchen sink, so my plans have always been to tie in the shop sewer there.
Imagine my disappointment when I got around to connecting to that pipe to find that it was only 3" diameter. Unlike electrical, sewers can never go from bigger pipe to a littler one (and additionally 4" is what is required for sewer lines period). So I had to dig farther to find where that 3" came off the old 4", then cut it out leaving what you see below:
Erik came out the following Saturday and pulled the wire. I wasn't there to witness it but I think CES gave up on getting 2 gauge gave him 1 gauge (thicker) for the price of 2 gauge.
The weather then started teasing me by having a cycle of getting almost dry enough for the tractor to push that dirt into the trench before it rained again. It was the beginning of March before I got a couple of nice days. Here is where the electrical conduit goes under the sewer line:
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Still pretty wet though so I didn't have enough traction to do the steeper part of the hillside that day.
Another topic that I've had in mind for a while is getting better quality waterworks equipment. Looking online, it appeared that my best source would be Ferguson, a nationwide trades supplier that has places in Asheville. I headed down there and got some drain stuff I'll cover in a future post, but also an official cast-iron cover for the sewer cleanout that is just outside the garage door:
George and family came to visit and helped out by getting the turf back in place where the electrical trench had left a scar (Cypher playing the showroom model):
And the final view, after the last pass I left the dirt humped up a bit because it will be settling and I'd rather have a bit of a hump than a depression:
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