My car hole is insufficiently fluffy. In particular, it lacks insulation. In the walls this isn't too big of a deal since the air space behind the drywall seems to do a pretty reasonable job of insulating in this mild climate (though I do still intend to insulate them too at some point). The real issue is the roof, since' the rafters are completely open. This leaks a lot of heat out during the winter, and during the peak of summer it turns into a giant solar-powered radiator.
Of course I can't just throw insulation up there; I need to do a bit of prep work first, because this car hole has seen some shit. It was also somewhat questionably constructed in the first place, since this house was slapped together during the peak of the baby boom in the early 1960s.
The first thing that needs to go is this excess wood up here.
The rafter tie is staying, of course, but the ill-advised bracing that was added afterwards is gonna go, along with the rejected rafter that was, for some reason, nailed in place here back when this house was built.
Now why, you ask, was this bracing added?
Because the previous owner(s) were using it as a makeshift hoist. It's honestly a miracle that they didn't cave the whole roof in.
Anyway, the mystery rafter also at some point got multi-purposed into holding up the door opener, so I'll need to figure out a substitute for that too.
Other curious things up there: a coat rack. 12 feet off the ground.
Because sure, why not.
Anyway, this board came out quite easily, because it was barely nailed in place, and also a shitty piece of garbage wood.
5 nails at the top, 3 at the bottom. Yeah, this board wasn't doing shit, and that's not even accounting for the giant sap pocket in the middle.
But it's one board down, five more to go. While we're up here, let's also remove this piece of damaged door jamb that was just laying across the rafter ties.
The latch mortise looked like it was chewed on by a beaver, and the bottom was cut short for some reason. No idea what the story behind this was.
The next board turned out to be curiously difficult to remove, and the top end actually broke off as I was hammering it loose.
Hmm, hang on a minute.
Ah yes, that would be one of the lag bolts from my solar panel mounts.
And yes, that is a boot print on the underside of that sheathing. A 60-ish year old boot print.
Meanwhile this brace was held up by a nail. One (1) nail.
And when I say this is garbage wood, I mean it.
But at least the pair of 2x4s on the other side should be sturdy and structurally sou-
-nd. Or not. Maybe not so much. This 2x4 was actually partially rotted, along with being split and knotted and having random shallow cuts in it.
As for the nails on these...
Well I guess construction is more of an art than a science.
Anyway, we won't need this eye-bolt anymore.
And there was enough wear and tear on the eye that its load capacity was probably down about 50% from new.
Now that all this crap is cleared out of the way, I can rummage through my scrap 2x4 pile for a 66 inch length of universal wood, to use as one half of the mounting for the door opener. This also means I get to use my new favourite tool, my framing nailer.
I don't know what I ever did without this.
The only downside is that, at least with the pressure I get out of my compressor, it doesn't do an amazing job of setting toe nails. Ah well, can't have everything I guess.
Now my 2x4 pile is remarkably lacking in boards with a decently usable 66 inch length of clear wood, so instead of making a run to the Home Despot, I figured it might be appropriate to rehabilitate that rejected roof rafter, since the twist isn't really going to be a big deal.
I really do wonder how this board got all the way to being cut into a rafter given the shape it was in. They even notched in the birdsmouth before suddenly realizing that it was not going to be useful as a roof rafter.
Well anyway, it does a good enough job of holding up the opener.
And being rid of all that crap above the rafter tie will make things much easier as things progress.
There's still another piece of mystery wood to remove that goes back to the back wall, as well as that diagonal piece, that I need to remove, but that can wait until tomorrow.
If you're wondering what that thing perched on top is: it's the optical safety sensor that's supposed to be installed across the bottom of the car hole, which prevents the door from closing on your car, small children, pets and so on. I'll probably install it properly at some point, as well as swapping out this metal strapping for some proper slotted angle iron so the opener isn't flopping around so much.
But that's a project for another day. For now, the great fluffening must go on!
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