Converting our Garage - Part 2

This weekend saw Phase 2 of the garage conversion. The target for this weekend was to finish the partition wall, and also install the electrical sockets.

Day 1

Good progress was made on Saturday, putting up one skin of the plasterboard before lunch-time. It was a little tricky in places, having to cut out small areas to get around obstacles. But all in all, it went on without too much bother. There were a couple of expletives shouted as hammers collided with fingers, but no lasting damage.

Once lunch had been consumed, we set about putting the final skin on the partition wall. Initially we measured up all the boards, cut them to size and checked that they all fitted together, before fixing them to the stud work. This was to allow us to fill in the cavities in the stud work with fibre-glass insulation that we had left over from when we fitted out our loft (details can be found in Part1 and Part2). With all of the insulation filling the cavities, the remaining plasterboard was nailed to the wall creating a completed partition wall.

With the wall now completed we decided to fit the door frame to the wall. The trickiest part of this was making sure that all of the pieces were square to each other and that they were also straight. Once completed we decided to call it a day.

Day 2

With the partition wall completed the previous day, our next target was to install some extra electrical sockets.

This would involve running a wire from the the current electrical supply around the newly created room stopping off along the way to wire in the sockets. In all we needed to install four sockets, three inside the room, and one outside.

Initially the wall sockets were fixed to the wall with the notches cut out to feed the wires through, then the cable was run between the sockets. My Dad then wired in all the sockets. I probably could have done this, but I was not confident that it would be done correctly, so it was left in my Dad’s capable hands.

Whilst Dad wired up the sockets, I set about making the cabling tidy by clipping the cable to the wall. This was not the easiest thing to do, trying to hammer the nails in the clips into the wall, whilst avoiding your fingers. Some of the clips would behave themselves and go in first time, but others would not be so forgiving. Some would fall out because of the texture of the mortar, some would not even go into the mortar so would have to be repositioned. I think I only actually clouted myself on 2 or 3 occasions, which led to a few choice words escaping my lips!

Once all the sockets had been wired in it was time for the critical part. We needed to actually connect them to the main power supply. We turned off the power to the fuse box and connected the new sockets via a junction box, and a fused switch, making sure that all the wires were located in the correct places. After double checking the wiring, the sockets were secured into their housings.

Next came the moment when we would know for sure if all the sockets were wired up correctly.

My Dad flicked the switch on the fuse box. Thankfully there was no loud bang that you’d get if something shorted out. Everything seemed OK. So just to make sure I checked every socket with mains checker.

Everything was OK.

With all the sockets fitted and working we had a quick tidy-up and called it a day. A job well done.

Thanks for all your help Dad.

Next phase will be painting the room to make it a little more liveable, that will be in a couple of weeks. Next week my Dad’s taking Mum away for her birthday.