Historic Garage Conversion and Addition, San Diego

Stripped back, the garage was an old wood frame with let-in diagonal bracing and horizontal boards sheathing the walls. One side carried corrugated metal. The floor was a bare concrete slab, and white windows sat in two of the walls. Overhead was plank decking with roofing laid over it.

The roofing and the plank decking came off together from above. Taking a deck off from above puts the rafters in plain sight before anything new gets framed to them. Inside, the walls came down to the frame. Check what the old bracing is actually carrying before you frame over it.

The new walls were built taller than the ones that came down. The finished ceiling sits at that new height, well above the head of the door. A long horizontal opening was framed high in the end wall for a clerestory. Glass set that high lights a room from above instead of through the wall at eye level.

New roof framing followed, with a parapet around the edge, and the deck was sheathed in large panels cut on long diagonals. After that the work moved inside. The walls and the high ceiling were drywalled and painted. Recessed cans dropped into the ceiling and wood flooring was laid with a white base around it. Outside, the addition is finished in smooth white stucco. The clerestory sits high in that wall, above a full-glass door with a narrower glazed panel beside it.

Blocking runs around the top of the parapet before any roofing goes on. It gives the roofing something solid to turn up onto and terminate against at the wall. Leave it out and the roofing stops short, and water collects at the base of the parapet instead of running off the deck. Standing water at a wall junction is what gets through a low-slope roof.