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If your car needs an inexpensive parking space, you can make a garage from corrugated board. It is mounted quickly, it is not very expensive, but most importantly, perhaps a non-professional builder can do it with his own hands. It is desirable, however, to have welding skills, but you can do without them.
Advantages and disadvantages
The most important advantage is that you can make a garage from corrugated board with your own hands, and for a relatively small amount and a short period of time. If the foundation is already ready, it may take up to a week to independently build a medium-sized building. Another plus is the light weight of the material. It is easy to work with him, and the foundation can be made lightweight, saving on this.
There are also disadvantages. First of all, it is worth considering that the metal profile is not the most durable material. It is easy to cut, misses even from a strong blow. For this reason, a corrugated garage is built mainly in the courtyard of a private house. The second point – the metal has a high thermal conductivity and without insulation in the garage in winter it is very cold, in summer it is hot.
Dimensions, location on the site
When you are just thinking about building a garage, you need to decide on a place. Most often it is built near the entrance. Sometimes the gate swings open directly onto the street, sometimes a few meters recede from the entrance gate, preferring to put the car further away, under the protection of the fence.
The dimensions of the garage are chosen based on the availability of free space and the work that you plan to carry out. If you don’t plan to do anything, add a meter to the dimensions of the car (to the length and width), This will be the minimum size of the dwelling for your car. If you put some equipment, you will need to add at least another meter to the length.
The comfortable height of the garage is 2,6 m, the minimum is 2,2 m. If there are two cars, the depth is considered larger in size, and a distance of at least 0,6-0,8 m must be left between two cars.
Foundation for a garage made of corrugated board
When building garages, two types of foundations are popular: tape shallow or monolithic slab. Tape can be done on soils that drain water well and are not prone to heaving. In the rest, it is more reliable to make a stove. The slab costs more at the manufacturing stage, but the good thing is that along with a reliable foundation, you immediately get a finished floor in the garage, which remains only to be leveled and covered with something.
Since the garage and corrugated board implies the presence of a frame, then when constructing a foundation, for a better bond, it is necessary to make reinforcement outlets or to monolithic studs, to which the frame is then attached.
There is also an economical option – not to make a foundation at all, but to dig the racks into the ground. In this case, the frame is made of thick-walled pipes. A hole is made under each rack, crushed stone is poured into it, a rack is placed (be sure to treat it with anti-corrosion compounds), crushed stone is tamped around the pipe, poured with concrete. Next, strapping is welded to the racks, assembling a full-fledged frame. A small groove is dug between the posts. It is about 20 cm wide, and in depth – it is necessary to remove the fertile soil. Crushed stone is poured into the resulting ditch, rammed. The level of the crushed stone cushion should be slightly below the ground level. During installation, the profiled sheet is lowered to crushed stone, leaning on it (it must be leveled). After erecting the walls of the garage from corrugated board, strips of concrete are laid on both sides of the corrugated board, which should cover the groove. From the side of the street, you can immediately form something like a blind area – to divert water from the walls of the garage. This is not to say that this method is “correct”, but they do it. Especially often – in summer cottages, where the garage is only a temporary shelter.
How to make a frame
The frame is best welded from a profiled pipe. For racks, a section of 80 * 40 mm with a wall thickness of 3 mm or more is recommended, for strapping it can be smaller. Another option is a steel corner with a shelf width of at least 50 mm and a metal thickness of 3 mm or more.
If welding is not among your skills, you can use a galvanized U-shaped profile for mounting corrugated board. Shelf width not less than 50*50 mm. This material is cut into pieces of the required length and assembled with bolts.
Sometimes they make a frame for a garage from corrugated board from a bar. Not the best option in terms of fire safety, but in some regions timber is the cheapest option. The cross section of the beam for racks and strapping is at least 80 * 80 mm.
Having decided on the material for the frame, you need to decide how you will attach the lower trim to the foundation. There are two possibilities. One has already been discussed – to brick the studs into the foundation, and the second – to fasten the harness to the foundation with the help of anchors. In this case, the strapping is welded, laying out the metal on the foundation and checking the corners and diagonals. Then, the finished frame is fixed with anchor bolts.
When mounting the frame, the racks are placed so that the joint of the sheets falls on them. Since a profiled sheet is mounted with an overlap in one wave, the useful width will be needed in the calculations (there is such a parameter in the technical specifications. This is exactly what the step of installing the racks will be.
Three strapping belts are attached to the racks – at the very bottom and at the top, and in the middle. To increase the rigidity of the structure, you can put corners (pictured above) or slopes – parts that go obliquely from one rack to another. Under the gate, the racks are made reinforced – two pipes or corners are welded. The upper beam is also made double – the span without support will be solid so that the beam does not sag, a second pipe is added.
With a small garage and a large cross section of the pipe, you can get by with only two strappings – upper and lower. But only in those regions where the winds are not strong or the garage is protected by the wall of the house, a fence, and other structures.
Roof
In garages, corrugated board usually makes a shed or gable roof. Both options showed themselves well, but a single-sided one is easier to implement – less material is required for trusses and rafters, and less consumption of corrugated board. The slope can be to one side (pictured below) or back. Chosen depending on the situation.
In regions with a lot of snow, shed roofs are rarely made – for the snow to melt, a large angle of inclination is required, and this eats up most of the savings (one of the walls has to be made much higher), and the wind load increases. Here, a corrugated garage is often made with gable roofs.
It is desirable to make the angle of inclination of the gable roof of the garage at least 20 °. With a larger slope, the roof turns out to be expensive, and with a smaller slope, the snow does not melt well.
The choice of profiled sheet for the garage
Decking is made of galvanized steel. Sheet thickness – from 0,4 to 1 mm. When building a garage from corrugated board, it makes sense for walls and roofs to choose material of different thicknesses. For a roof, the normal thickness is 0,45-0,5 mm, for walls it is better to take 0,6-0,7 mm.
The metal profile is produced for various purposes: for walls, roofs, load-bearing (does not require a frame). The material intended for walls is marked with the letter “C”, for the roof – with the letter “K”, the carrier is designated “H”. There is also a dual purpose – for bearing for walls, it is marked “NS”. Some manufacturers put “P” in front of these letters, which means “corrugated board”.
For the construction of a garage from corrugated board for walls, they take material marked “C”, for a roof with the letter “K”. Further in the marking, the letters are followed by numbers. They indicate the height of the wave. For example, the inscription C18 – can be deciphered as “wall metal profile with a wave height of 18 mm.” It is this material that is mainly taken on the walls of the garage. It has a sufficient degree of rigidity (the higher the wave, the greater the rigidity) and at the same time is not very expensive. If desired, you can take an even harder C21.
The width of the corrugated sheet depends on the height of the wave. The higher the wave, the smaller the width will be. In the marking, the full width of the sheet is indicated through a hyphen. For example, the profiled sheet HC44-1000 has a sheet width of 1000 mm, and H60-845 is 850 mm wide. But when purchasing, it must be taken into account that the metal profile sheets are stacked with overlaps – vertical and horizontal. Therefore, 10-15% more material is required than the area covered by it.
There is one more parameter that you should decide on – you will build a garage from galvanized corrugated board or with a polymer coating. Galvanized is cheaper, but more exposed to weather factors. And, although a normal galvanized material can last about 10 years, a non-ferrous material can last 30 years or more. Often the appearance of the garage is important, but galvanization looks much “simpler”.
Installation rules
In order for a garage made of corrugated board to serve for a long time, it is necessary to follow the installation rules. For fixing the metal profile, special self-tapping screws with an octagonal head and a sealing washer are used. They are made of high quality steel, then galvanized. To ensure tightness, there is a rubber washer under the metal washer.
When installing the profiled sheet, it is necessary to ensure that the rubber sealing gasket fits snugly against the material, but the metal should not be crushed. Screw the screws with a hand drill, at low speeds. For installation, you will need a special nozzle for an octagonal hat, better magnetized – it’s easier to work.
Sheet fastening rules
When mounting on walls, self-tapping screws are installed either in the groove or in the ridge of the oxen – it does not matter, but on the roof they are placed only in the ridge. When mounting in a groove, hardware with a diameter of 4,8 * 28 mm is used; when installed in a comb, the length of the self-tapping screw is selected depending on its height. 35 mm is added to the wave height and the minimum length is obtained. Longer fasteners can be used, shorter ones cannot.
Attach the sheets to the frame – to the strapping. The frequency with which the screws are placed – through the wave, one row relative to the other – in a checkerboard pattern. In order for the strength of the connection of two sheets to be higher, after the sheets have been fixed, screws are additionally screwed in or rivets are placed at the junction.
Now about how to arrange sheets of corrugated board on the frame. The wave can be launched vertically or horizontally – it doesn’t matter. If you buy a metal profile from a manufacturer, they can make sheets of the length you need (maximum length 12 m). In this case, there will be fewer seams, as well as slightly less consumption (less overlaps).
When joining two sheets along the wave, one comes after the other for 1 wave. Please note that the side waves are different – one is a little wider, the second is a little narrower and has a drip groove. The one that is already going down, overlaps with a wider one.
If there are horizontal joints, the overlap should be at least 20 cm. For better tightness, the joint is coated with roofing sealants or bituminous mastic. It is necessary to arrange the sheets so that water does not flow into the joint (the top sheet closes the bottom one), for this, the installation starts from the bottom, moving up.
Joints and knots
When making a gable roof of a garage of their corrugated board, a ridge element is required. It is sold in two-meter pieces. Fragments of the ridge are installed with an overlap of 20 cm, it is better to coat the joints with bituminous mastic. Fasteners are placed in the comb in increments of 20 cm.
The joints at the corners of the garage are closed with special corners. They are fastened with small self-tapping screws 4,8 * 35 mm in increments of 25-30 cm.
There are holes at the junction of the roofing profiled sheet and the wall sheet. They are sealed with foam, then sewing up the overhangs with profiled sheets cut into strips or some other material. There are also sealing tapes made from polyethylene foam. They are special for certain profiles, repeat the shape of the wave, and there are universal ones – just a strip.
Warming
It is worth insulating a garage from a profiled sheet only if you will heat it. At the same time, it is worth knowing that with proper insulation, a decent area is “eaten up” for you – it will take 7-10 cm for the insulation itself, the ventilation gap and the inner lining. As a rule, two materials are used for insulation – basalt wool in rigid mats or polyurethane foam (polyurethane foam ).
How to insulate with mineral wool
For the installation of mineral wool, a crate is required – although the plates are rigid, they cannot stand on their own, they need support. A crate is assembled from boards with a width equal to the thickness of the insulation or from a galvanized profile with the same shelf. It is attached to the frame in increments of 2-3 cm less than the width of the mat. With this step, the insulation becomes a surprise, stands firmly and does not require additional fixation. But for reliability, it still needs to be fixed with special “self-tapping umbrellas”, which are screwed into the pipes / corners of the strapping.
After installing the insulation, a counter-crate is stuffed from the slats with a thickness of 3 cm. Its direction is perpendicular to the planks of the crate. These three centimeters are a ventilation gap, which is necessary to remove moisture that will accumulate in the insulation (condensate that occurs due to the temperature difference between the room and the street). Without a ventilation gap, mineral wool will not “live” even a season. If it is saturated with moisture, and then freezes, after defrosting it can simply crumble. And since the garage is usually heated from time to time, a few such frosts are more than enough. Therefore, either use a different material, or make a gap for ventilation.
To cover the mineral wool from the increased importance, which sometimes happens inside the garage, a vapor barrier membrane is laid on top of the counter-lattice. It should prevent moisture from entering the room, but not prevent it from leaving the insulation. When installing a vapor barrier, they try to make it airtight. To do this, one canvas overlaps another by at least 10 cm, the joints are glued with double-sided tape. The vapor barrier is attached to the crate with slats (on nails, screws or staples).
On top of all this cake, the inner lining is stuffed. This is very moisture resistant plywood or OSB, but other sheet materials can be used – GVL, GSP and others. The latter are even preferable, since they do not burn.
Use of Styrofoam
Styrofoam itself as a heater is not bad, but not in this case. A garage made of profiled sheet will heat up to solid temperatures in summer, and heated polystyrene emits substances harmful to health. This is one downside. The second – it is not clear how to fix it. Usually they are attached to the wall with self-tapping screws with large plastic hats – umbrellas, but this method does not work with corrugated board – you won’t make holes in it.
There is an option – to install on a sealant or mounting foam. Mounting foam fixes well, but is hygroscopic. Without the presence of a ventilation gap, having been saturated with moisture, it will become an excellent breeding ground for mold, fungi, and insects.
The sealant is non-hygroscopic, but expensive, because a composition with the ability to operate in a wide temperature range is required. It must be frost-resistant and endure heating to significant temperatures.
Another option is to make a crate from a galvanized profile. Its step is 1 meter, as this is the standard size of the foam block. In this case, they can be inserted and attached to the crate.
Insulation with the help of foamed polyurethane, applied from the apparatus in a continuous layer, is becoming increasingly popular. In this case, there are no problems with fastening, but these services are paid – special equipment is required. But no hassle with installation.
In general, this is all about how to make a garage from corrugated board with your own hands. There are many more moments and nuances, but for the most part they are individual. Read about how to make a floor in a garage here, and how to cover a concrete floor is described here.