Amazing work, Captain. You and the Mrs. should be proud of yourselves.

I’ve been building houses for over 30 years. I doubt any of them will be around for 100s of years or more like yours.

Thank you!

You must feel an immense amount of pride driving past your pervious house projects knowing you've create a unique home for so many families

Not many people can say that! :cool:

blahahahahaha

I don't think we've seen temps below 100 since mid-May.

People (mainly men) have taken to wearing tech fabrics on a daily basis and those, what I call, fishing shirts with the vents in back and that are super light weight.

Our emergency is when we have snow.


Your house is beautiful BTW

Thanks Matthew!

Ok, now for the big reveal of the front as it's finally looking like a house instead of a derelict property :D

Taken over 4yrs of part/full time work by Mrs Ahab and myself to get this far

Couldn't have done it without the amazing help from Chris our builder, Gary the architect, Vera the structural engineer, my local hospital A&E department, Honda F1, Oxford Hernia Clinic, our tolerant neighbours and many local building supply companies

Taaa daaa and here it is,

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659303019.jpg

As a reminder, this is what we started with before the garage was demolished

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659303097.JPG

This part was built 270yrs ago

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659303135.jpg

This part was started 4yrs ago and still not finished

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659303191.jpg

View from the other direction

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659303270.jpg

Just realised there is a thread viewing counter, wow 100k views :eek: I really should start selling a line of merchandise like anti-ballistic shin protectors, safety glasses and hernia reinforcing mesh with a catchy slogan printed on them ;)

Next update should be garage only action and then updates will slow to a trickle as I've accepted an offer of a sit down job behind a comfy warm desk for autumn/winter :cool:

Reasons for the temporary career change are, working in the cold sucks, inflation has depleted my build funds, my aging body needs a rest, and I'm not done playing with racing cars :)

Looks great. I can’t believe how much work you and your wife have done on that, it’s been a huge undertaking, to say the least.

If you can share the details of your upcoming employment, you know we are all ears.

What he wrote:cool:

Thanks Javadog and Paul, since playing with Lego I've dreamt of build my own house, was much easier back then so luckily for me Mrs Ahab isn't afraid to help too :)

It's with a F1 team helping with the design of their new 2023 car

25yrs of F1 for me now or 374 races working on 35 race cars, 3 test cars and 1 land speed car :eek:

They've specifically asked that I don't fall off my roof :D

This thread was new to me three days ago but I’m now caught up and can only look in awe at the project you took on and what you and Mrs Ahab have accomplished. What a fantastic result thus far for all your hard work! I’ve remodeled kitchens, bathrooms, and basements but none of that took the time, effort and determination that you have put into your house. My wife and I watch Escape to the Country often and I’ve always wondered how construction practices differ or are similar over in England. Your thread has been an enjoyable education in that regard. Keep up the good work in all of your varied work endeavors and enjoy that garage when it’s done!

Thanks for the kind comments, jpfahrstar, it's been an education for both of us here too!

Always admired Jack Olsen's 12 Gauge Garage, especially his 'flush with the floor' hydraulic lift table

Never been shy of copying good ideas so my lift table is 59"/1.5m long x 47"/1.2m wide, with an air cooled 911 friendly 3300lbs/1500kg lift capacity

Don't have a huge amount of room to work with so I took my time in working out/measuring the best place for it :) marks the spot!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659974333.jpg

Got some heavy duty cutting and demolition equipment arriving tomorrow, feeling a little nervous which isn't a bad thing!

How high is the ceiling there Cap?

This could be a REALY stupid question with respect to your location, but is there any chance your garage slab has post-tensioned cables in it? If so, beware of cutting.
(In California, post-tensioned/cable slabs require a stamp, set into the wet mud on the leading edge of the garage floor, indicating post-tensioned cables are present.)

Rod, garage ceiling fully finished will be just around 7' 3" tall, tall enough for me not to hit the ceiling with a Porsche ;)

David, no pre-tensioned steel cables, concrete slab is 9" thick with 2 layers of steel reinforcing mesh so it would be the easiest thing to cut through

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659985755.jpg

Looking good there Captain.

The reason I ask is I'm going to be cutting a hole in concrete for my scissor lift too and wondering what your game plan is.

I just thought I'd hire a concrete saw and cut around the outline then cut/bust my way down with a demolition hammer / kango then smooth it out with a layer of concrete. But I don't know the best way.

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason why you are not putting it on the other side of the garage, where the ceiling is much higher? You never know, you might need to put something else on the lift, other than a 911.

I can see you doing some work on one of the 4runners down the road..

Thanks Bill,

I've got coming tomorrow a 16" concrete floor saw, should cut down to 7" deep and Kango hammer

Will post up photo's as I go along

Was going to waterproof tape in a new damp proof sheets and pour a new concrete with one layer of steel reinforcing mesh. The new base will overlap all round the underside of the original concrete slab

Also, just to be sure nothing moves I'll fit some M12 anchor bolts around the hole to join the new slab with old slab

I've gotta hand it to you Capt, you really pulled off the new build but looks old look on the house.
Congrats!

The space on the high side of the garage is being put to very good use, got a triple stacker 4 post lift coming, it's in transit, somewhere between China and my house ;)

I just can't bring myself to sell my white 4Runner, best car I've ever owned and deserves a full chassis/bodywork restoration

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659991549.jpg

Too many car projects queued up, something will need to go as I have a 964 and 930 to fix up too

Thanks Scott, t

This was the look I was trying to achieve, even had a builder and a few passing folk ask me if I was renovating the house which for me was the ultimate compliment

My plan for the garage is the complete opposite, as close to the inside of a F1 factory as I can afford :cool:

Awesome! Thanks for taking us on your renovation journey.
Looking forward to more of the finishing photos.

I also fell in love with Jack Olsen’s garage but haven’t looked too hard for that kind of lift. Looks like it will work very well in your garage. Can’t wait to see it installed!

I can’t say it enough, fantastic job, captain!🙌🏽💪🏽👊🏽

Sounds good. One of us, may have been Glen, has his scissor lift in the floor such as your plan. His has got a "lip" around the edge so a floor board can drop in and be level with the rest of the floor. Guessing it's something like a 20mm by 20mm edge.

Congrats on the new employment Captain!

I’m also glad to see you get to add a significant toy to the build.

How do the neighbors like the beautiful “new” addition?

Thanks Bill, this thread has a long way to go before I'm done

Thanks A930 Rocket!

Thanks Paul, I'm looking forward to going back to work, especially as this time I'll be in the same building as manufacturing so get to see my work being made into race car parts

Neighbours seem to like what we've done, hope so as since fitting the windows we've increased the value of the neighbour hood :D

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is feet up drinking a beer, admiring our work and 10 is my body just can't take anymore punishment, Today was tough, close to a 9! Started late morning and finished early evening, Mrs Ahab helped a bit with shovelling, without this and the 30min lie down I had, I'm not sure I'd have finished this today.

First job was using this mighty beast, a petrol engined, water cooled 18"/450mm diamond blade floor saw, wasn't too frightening to use

Had a neat adjustable guide for following the edge of my painted lines, I added a 2"/50mm offset to make the hole slightly over sized

Top tip, make a light cut on all sides as the painted lines are quickly obscured by the cement slurry :rolleyes:

Took 4 passes on each side, cutting down 1.5"/40mm at a time and taking things slowly. Listening to the engine note was a good indicator to check I wasn't moving too fast

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1660078686.jpg

That was the easy part, next job was breaking up the concrete, the electric breaker weighed a ton and got heavier with each impact. We didn't cut costs on the concrete slab as at the time I was unsure about car lift choice

The concrete came out in lots of itsy bitsy bits which made it difficult to break up, this was the 1st layer of steel reinforcing mesh

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1660079379.jpg

Getting down to the 2nd of layer mesh wasn't as hard as the 1st layer

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1660079447.jpg

Last bit of concrete was the easiest and came out easily, slab measured 6-7" thick, next job is to dig out enough space to pour another slab but that will have to wait for a while

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1660079601.jpg

It’s too late to mention this and for it to be useful but when we remove concrete like that, we saw it into chunks and then just lift it out.

I did think of that but decided it was just to easy :D

Not really, I was concerned cutting through all the steel mesh might cost me a replacement diamond blade on top of the rental so took the slow, steady and cheap approach

Cutting was so much easier/quicker than the demolition so can see why you use this approach

Removing some thing that size would be about a 15 minute operation, in my world.

And electric jackhammers are just never used. 90 pound, pneumatic jackhammer, minimum. Not that we ever do that, anymore.

You live out in the boondocks, so you probably don’t have access to the concrete demolition contractors that I do. That are endless companies here that do just concrete sawing and/or removal and nothing else

This Sat. Mrs Ahab accompanied me for a 'stressful' drive through the beautiful Cotswold countryside to pick up my car lift

She was my navigator and more importantly along for emotional support as normally I drive a desk instead of driving a 7 ton truck down narrow lanes and through villages built for horse and carts :(

Much to my relief we made it back safely and started the hard work of unloading it all. Even with 10 people we struggled, heaviest single piece was the ramp with the hydraulic cylinder weighing in at a hefty 530lbs/240kgs :eek:

How my garage looks now, 4400lbs/2000kgs of steel and I've no idea how it all goes together or how I'm going to do it :confused:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1662932831.jpg

First impression is it's well made but proof will be if it all fits together easily and works, should look like this when done

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1662932939.jpg

It's big, hope I've measured everything correctly or I'm going to have to get my angle grinder out and do some chopping ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1662933002.jpg

A triple decker? Never seen one of those yet…

Very impressive. No wonder it's heavy!

Just another challenge for ya Captain.

Perhaps pulley systems will help carry the load.

Doesn’t look like an addition…looks like it was always like that. Nice job!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1662980602.jpg

Agreed, thats why I put new in quotes.

Javadog, this is the lift I originally planned to buy, basically just two 4 post lifts or an 8 post lift combo, was all too chunky for my limited garage working space

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1663106853.jpg

My 4 post lift is a neater/more compact design, lower platform is used to move the upper platform and when both platforms are on the floor the ramp height is only 6"/150mm high

Bill, I hope it is, fingers crossed it all bolts together easily and works out of the box

Paul, got a bigger challenge going on, started work last week with a new F1 team, busy getting up to speed with a new CAD system/operating systems and finding my way around the place :confused:

Everyone is so young :eek: many weren't even born when I started F1, hoping this old dog will learn a few new tricks ;)

porsche tech, thanks, it's taking so long it's had a few years to weather in :( and exactly the look we were trying to achieve

Looking great Cap'n. And I, too have never seen a three tier lift before.

Too bad you didn't built a 12 foot deep pit before you poured your garage slab. That way you could access any car on the lift without disturbing the others' slumber...

Any chance of naming that new F1 team?

Or any chance of getting me a job in F1. Heck, I'll even just sweep the floors

dude. rotation is the key.
have a twelve car garage with a shovel and some sweat

Hi javadog, sorry, I'd prefer not to say which team but will say I'm really enjoying watching my previous design work at Honda perform on track in the Red Bull and Alpha Tauri cars without the stress of worrying about causing a DNF :D

Matthew, send me your resume ;)

Chris, good idea, during a moment of madness I thought of adding a 2 post lift, along with a bolted frame on the top ramp so I could then stack 4 cars :cool:

Yes, at a certain point it is considered madness. I think the triple car one will be just fine.