Collapsing Garage? Here’s What You Need To Do

If you use your garage it’s probably a fairly important structure on your property. You might use it for storage, even putting something as important as your car inside during the winter months, or you could use it as a workshop.

A garage has a large variety of uses, even going so far as to be a place to sit and relax, if you put a couch in it, with some of your friends while enjoying the general outdoorsy feel to it all. Needless to say the structure itself has some importance in your life, and its use is pertinent to your day to day.

Garage Problems Can Be Dangerous

So should something go wrong with your garage it could be potentially disastrous. Maybe in the winter too much snow piles up on top, as is quite common with structures that aren’t quite as reinforced like homes, and it began to buckle in the roof, or the wind in the area is blowing hard and putting a lot of strain against the walls. Weather and time are two nasty things that come together to do some real damage to structures such as a garage, and if they have their way and the garage starts to collapse you could be a whole host of trouble.

A collapsing garage means that the things inside are either damaged or at risk of being damaged. If you store your car in the garage for the winter, for example, and the snow brings the roof down then it’s all going to collapse in on your garage and do some huge damage.

It’s important to keep up on these things and make sure this doesn’t happen, by doing a regular, possibly weekly, inspection of the garage, if possible, and check the structure and supports to make sure they’re all holding out well.

Look for Weaknesses

If you notice a weakness in the garage’s structure, or if the roof starts to sag, or any number of signs that a collapse is imminent then you shouldn’t panic. If you can catch your garage at this level then it’s easily reparable.

There are a variety of solutions you could seek out in order to get it fixed, ranging from complicated long term rebuilds of sections of the garage to something as simple as raising up extra support to keep everything together. It vastly depends on what resources and means you have available and are willing to put into the job.

Try New Support Beam

First and foremost, depending on the area collapsing, you might be able to put up a new support beam. This is only a temporary solution for the most part, but it serves to keep the sagging or collapsing roof up for longer while you get your car out of there and find it somewhere else to store.

If you’re really handy you might be able to make it a long term solution by making sure the support beam is very secure and has proper support on all levels of the garage. It requires a bit more know-how, which is why it’s not always the best solution.

Seek Qualified Help for Permanent Solutions

If you have everything secured temporarily then you can take the time to seek out a better solution to a collapsing garage. Usually this means putting in a new roof, whether it is by yourself or through contractors, and new supports put down to hold it all up and prevent it from happening again.

A way onto the roof to regularly clean it, safely, of snow can also be a major help in preventing collapsing garages as well. Just make sure when dealing with any kind of collapsing structure that you take safety precautions, as it could be quite dangerous.

As a contractor who uses Quokka Doors often in his remodeling, Craig Richards, is also a freelance writer who contributes regularly to several different home improvement sites and blogs to help people save money on their own repairs.