The first day we worked on it, we tore down (most of) the paneling off the ceiling, and got 2 sheets of 1-inch plywood up in the rafters.
The next time we worked on it, which was one day last week, IIRC, J cut out a bunch of randomly nailed up boards, and we got the other two sheets of plywood up in the rafters.
So now there's an 8-foot by 16-foot floor area we can get up in there and be able to walk (if very scrunched over) and be able to store things.
Mostly I'd planned to store our camping/outdoor stuff and my excess glass/canning jars up there. Things we use, but not all the time.
Before I can start hauling stuff up there, though, we still have to brace up the ceiling/roof.
We've been needing to do that even before I decided to make an attic in the rafters.
It's a pretty large 2-car carport, with probably 20 feet between the house and the storage room on the other side, and the original builders never put any kind of support post(s) in the middle of the spanse.
There is no center support from the ceiling to the floor, nor from the rafters to the roof.
Therefore, we have a dip in the roof up top, and the carport ceiling has a sag.
Therefore, we have to jack the sags back up and put in support posts.
J wanted to put in 6x6 wood posts, but due to the age of the house/carport addition, steel poles felt more right to me.
You know, the steel poles like you find in most basements-garages?
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Apparently it's not steel poles, because everyone I asked about them yesterday looked at me like (1) they didn't have a clue, (2) I was crazy and/or making such a thing up.
I know Home Depot used to have these - right along with the porch columns they also apparently no longer carry - because I've looked, because I've known for awhile we were going to be having to do some work on both the carport and front porch.
It didn't occur to me to buy ahead everything we'd need because who would have ever thought they would stop selling the things!?
When HD didn't have them, we called a local Building Supply place, who also didn't have them. Then we tried a vintage old Hardware/Dry Goods place (they still carry Mobile Home parts), but no basement support poles. Then we tried an Ace Hardware, just for the heck of it.
That guy sent us to a Metal Roofing place, who just happened to have some scrap steel tubing they'd had left over from an old lean-to shed addition job. It's rusted so we have to sand and paint it, but we got 18-feet for $30.00, so I'm not complaining (too much).
They also sold us the plates that go at the top and bottom of the pole for $5.00 each, but we have to find someone to weld them on.
The guy offered to weld them but J didn't know the length he's going to end up having to cut the poles after we get the roof/ceiling jacked back up.
So what I thought would be a simple, go buy a pole and jam it up under there job, has turned into a lot more involved project, that's going to end up taking us who-knows-how-long to ever get done.
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