Wretched Excess
At some point the original owner of the house I’m working on decided to convert the garage into a master bedroom. That is a picture of the method he used to avoid having a concrete floor. Those are 16-foot 2-inch by 12-inch slabs of pine. They are not cheap, and they are normally used as joists or support beams. The ‘normal way’ would have been to use treated 1 by 2s and ¾”plywood achieve the current height. I would have raised the height to the same level as the rest of house, so you didn’t need to step down into the room. Of course, I would have also put in a door that was wider than 24 inches so you could move things in and out without pulling out the stove.
This house is really messed up.
3 comments
Garage conversions are a heresy to begin with. I just don’t get it — if you need a house with more space, just buy one, don’t try to use a space that has a perfectly good use (storing your tools and lawnmower 🙂 ) for another purpose!
As I’ve found out over the past 4 years, 24-inch doors are a nightmare for people in wheelchairs or on walkers. My advice: build ’em wider in the first place. I have to transition (yes, transition is the verb; it’s been verbed) from one mode to the other just to get from the living area of the house to the halls, bedrooms and bathrooms. Great thinking, eh?
If you are going to do it, Badtux, you may as well do it right because it will be cheaper in long run.
Steve, I don’t think any doorway or hall should be less than 36 inches. It would make it wheelchair, walker, refrigerator, stove, bed, couch, and laundry basket accessible. Having to take a door off its hinges just to get your bed into the room is not the world’s best situation.