[53buick]

Hey all, newbie here.
I just purchased my first house back in October and I'm having a blast remodeling it. It's a 1972 3 bedroom brick ranch with a 2 car carport. Right now I'm in the middle of converting the carport to a full garage. I'd like to know how to finish the sides and overhead of the opening. Right now the opening is roughly 19 feet wide and 8 feet high. I want to install a 7 foot by 17 foot wide garage door. So my question is do I frame the sides with treated lumber directly to the concrete floor or do I need to make a small brick foundation and then frame? Does that make sense? See photos below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ininkus]

I've been watching this hoping some one responds because I'd be curious how to do it as well.

Couple things that go through my head...

1. If you want low-buck, you could just nail some pressure treated lumber to the slab and build a wall up from that. It obviously doesn't need to be a load bearing wall. My fear with though is that the slab doesn't have a footing below the front of it, and if you had some movement, maybe there would be some buckling, etc? I'm sure it's not exactly the proper way to do it, but I'm wondering if you would ever actually have any problems.

2. I'm thinking a more correct way of doing it would be to cut the cement pad and dig down to the frost line and pour a footing. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this called a rat footing - where you just dig down and fill with cement. From there you could build a little form to extend above ground level and build on top of that.

I guess if it were me, I'd try to duplicate what was done for the other 2 walls (side and back).

Good luck, hopefully this spurs on some more conversation.

 

[Gary in WA]

Because you are changing from an open air design to a closed garage, their are certain requirements to follow. Your local building department would supply these. It could involve cutting out the slabs to dig and pour new footings, pinned to the old ones, the stem wall being wide enough to accept a brick veneer (if you wished), and a wallboard firewall at the house, etc. Using the B.D. with paperwork, you will increase the value when selling! Don't forget to re-route the gutter's downspout away from the opening. Be safe, GBAR