Should I repair or replace my garage?

expert EXPERT April 26, 2007

Many older brick garages more built without adequate foundations. For foundation to be successful (with respect to supporting a brick wall) the underground portion of the foundation wall must be at least four feet deep in your area, in order to be below the frost line. A shallow foundation wall will heave with the frost. Some movement can be tolerated by wall systems which are flexible, such as wood frame walls, but brick walls are rigid and not forgiving. Therefore, rebuilding with brick is not considered to be a cost effective solution. We would suggest temporarily supporting the roof, removing the brick walls, and investigating what type of foundation wall is present. If a decent foundation wall is not present (and it likely isn't), we would recommend one of the following three scenarios: If the floor slab is in good condition, we would build wood frame exterior walls on a pressure treated wooden grade beam, sitting on a gravel base. If the floor slab is in poor condition, we would replace the floor slab with a new floating slab, that is wide enough to support the new wood frame walls. Remove your portion of the garage completely, leaving the common wall for your neighbor's garage.