Integrated garage extension

Abstract

A system for integrating a garage into the main unit of a manufactured building includes a removable shipping wall defining an first interior space; the removable shipping wall further comprises a removable left extension wall; a removable right extension wall; a removable left garage door wall; and, a removable right garage door wall. The removable left extension wall, the removable right extension wall, the removable left garage door wall, and the removable right garage door wall define a second interior space when the left and right removable extension walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the main unit and the left and right garage door walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the left and right extension walls, respectively. Thus, the first and second interior spaces define a space for the integrated garage.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent application relates to the field of factory-built housing, including manufactured housing such as mobile homes or homes transported to a building site and assembled there; in particular, to apparatus that allows a manufactured structure, such as a garage, to be integrated into a building and transported to a building site.

BACKGROUND

Homes and similar residential dwelling units have traditionally been constructed on-site. Moreover, residential dwelling units have typically been constructed on an individual unit basis, even in the case of construction projects wherein the individual homes are largely identical. These factors, plus delays caused by weather and unavailability of materials, have combined to dramatically increase the cost of homes constructed in the conventional manner.

By contrast, factory-built homes are constructed in factories. Automation, standardization, and other mass production techniques, have kept the costs of manufacturing factory-built homes relatively low. Thus, when compared on a per-square foot basis, homes constructed by conventional techniques can cost up to five times as much as factory-built homes.

Building homes under the roof of a factory combines the best features of traditional construction and factory-built housing to provide residential dwelling units that are economical to purchase and yet afford many of the amenities that have heretofore been unavailable at reasonable prices. Each home is constructed from one or more modules that are entirely constructed at a factory using mass production techniques. The completed modules are transported from the factory to the home site on either a permanent chassis (required for manufactured homes), or on a removable chassis or carrier for factory-built homes. At the site the modules are installed on a foundation. Walks and driveways, patios, decks, pools, hot tubs, and other amenities usually found only in expensive custom homes are then added to complete the construction of the factory-built home.

In the manufactured-home industry, it is still common to build an automobile garage for the home on the site to which the home is delivered, rather than incorporate the garage into the factory-built home itself; in the United States, this is partly because of limitations set forth by the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards. A garage must have a foundation floor to support automobiles, and this floor cannot be incorporated into the main building unit floor built of main beams and floor joists. The practice of building a garage on site has the disadvantage that the efficiencies of factory construction are partly lost when a garage (or any addition) to the home must be built on-site by traditional methods.

The prior art shows attempts to solve this problem by separately transporting a factory-built garage to the installation site, placing it on the garage slab and integrating it into the manufactured house. Prior-art solutions have required the transported garage to have flooring joists installed typically at 24-inch centers to insure structural integrity during transport, and these joists must then be removed when the garage is set over the floor slab. Also, prior-art solutions have required time-consuming removal of the I-beams and flooring joists used to support the walls of the garage during transport. Prior-art garages cannot be attached to the main building at a right angle (such as with a dormer roof), because they cannot be transported with the main unit of the building because of highway width restrictions.

What is needed is a way to integrate a manufactured garage with a manufactured home, transport it to a home site, and place it on the garage floor slab without requiring removal of substantial floor bracing or I-beams. Further, any solution should particularly include the case of garages attached at right angles to the main building.

The reader should note that the improvements described below are not limited to garages, but are applicable to the transport and installation of other rooms or structures to be integrated with a manufactured building.

SUMMARY

A system for integrating a garage into the main unit of a manufactured building includes a removable shipping wall defines a first interior space; the removable shipping wall further comprises a removable left extension wall; a removable right extension wall; a removable left garage door wall; and, a removable right garage door wall. The removable left extension wall, the removable right extension wall, the removable left garage door wall, and the removable right garage door wall define a second interior space when the left and right removable extension walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the main unit and the left and right garage door walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the left and right extension walls, respectively. Thus, the first and second interior spaces define a space for the integrated garage.

We also disclose a method of integrating a garage into the main unit of a manufactured building, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a shipping wall by removably connecting together a left extension wall, a right extension wall, a left garage door wall and a right garage door wall; removably connecting the shipping wall to the beams of the main unit; placing the main unit over a pre-prepared foundation; aligning the shipping wall at a right angle to the long axis of the intended garage space; disconnecting the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall from one another; placing the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall over the foundation, so that the left and right garage door walls are at right angles to the left and right extension walls, respectively; and, connecting the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall to one another.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the garage interior inside the main unit, with the shipping walls and floor framing installed.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the temporary floor framing on the garage interior inside the main unit.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the main unit, including the garage interior, positioned at the garage foundation.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of shipping walls removed and installed to define the outside walls of the garage.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the installed garage with roof framing added.

DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows the integrated garage in its shipping configuration A shipping wall (100) encloses the garage in its shipping state, and the shipping wall (100) and the main-unit wall beams (110) define a first interior space (115). A fixed rim rail (175) remains in place after final assembly. The shipping wall (100) rises to meet a ridge beam for the roof of the garage, and roof framing (130) for the main-unit is built over the first interior space (115). Preferably, exterior sheathing (140) is applied to at least the left and right extension walls (200, 210), included in the shipping wall (100), as they are depicted in FIG. 3. FIG. 1 shows the exterior sheathing (140) in partial view.

The shipping wall (100) is removably attached to the main unit beams (110) and ridge beam (120) by double-headed nails, screws, or similar removable connectors.

FIG. 2 shows the first interior space (115) in plan view. The integrated garage has one or more intermediate joists (150), typically of 2×10-inch beams, spanning its interior, for stability during transportation of the main unit to the building site. Temporary bracing (160) is preferably connected between the intermediate joists (150). A single or double rim joist (170) supports the shipping wall (100).

FIG. 3 shows the main unit with the integrated garage in place at the building site. The integrated garage is placed over a previously-built foundation (180). The shipping wall (100) is aligned at a right angle to the long axis of the foundation (180). FIG. 3 shows factory-built cap-framing (190) over the ridge beam (120), to weather-proof the integrated garage during shipping.

FIG. 3 also shows the four sub-walls that comprise the shipping wall. These are the left extension wall (200), the right extension wall (210), the left garage door wall (220) and the right garage door wall (230), all removably attached.

FIG. 4 shows the left and right extension walls (200, 210) and the left and right garage door walls (220, 230), after they have been disconnected from the ridge beam (120), the rim joist (170) and each other, and placed in position on the foundation (180). The factory-installed sheathing (140) on the left and right extension walls (200, 210) is installed facing the outside. The extended and repositioned walls (200-230) and the rim joist (170) define a second interior space. The intermediate joists (150), bracing (160), and rim joist (170) are now removed, and together, the first and second interior spaces now define the interior space of the entire integrated garage.

The left and right extension walls (200, 210) are placed at substantially right angles to the main unit, as shown in FIG. 4, and the left and right garage-door walls (220,230) are connected respectively, to the left and right extension walls at substantially right angles. The re-positioned walls (200-230) are fastened to the foundation by conventional means, such as by concrete anchors (not shown) and anchor straps (240). Each sub-wall is of course fastened to its neighbor and to the main-unit walls by nails or screws (not shown). The left and right garage-door walls now define the entrance (250) of the garage.

FIG. 5 shows the next step in the construction of the integrated garage. Factory-built roof trusses (260) are installed and connected to the garage walls (200-230) and roofed by conventional means. The completed garage now forms a dormer garage integrated into the main unit.

Since those skilled in the art can modify the specific embodiments described above, we intend that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.

Claims

1. A system for integrating a garage into the main unit of a manufactured building, the system comprising:

a removable shipping wall; the removable shipping wall defining an first interior space;

the removable shipping wall further comprising: a removable left extension wall; a removable right extension wall; a removable left garage door wall; and, a removable right garage door wall; the removable left extension wall, the removable right extension wall, the removable left garage door wall, and the removable right garage door wall defining a second interior space when the left and right removable extension walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the main unit, and the left and right garage door walls are connected at a substantially right angle to the left and right extension walls, respectively; and,

the first and second interior spaces defining a space for the integrated garage.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one removable intermediate joist spanning the first interior space.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising the connected left and right extension walls and the left and the connected left and right garage door walls supported by a foundation.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a roof; the roof spanning the connected left and right extension walls.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising exterior sheathing attached to the left and right extension walls comprised in the shipping wall.

6. A method of integrating a garage into the main unit of a manufactured building, the method comprising the steps of:

preparing a shipping wall by removably connecting together a left extension wall, a right extension wall, a left garage door wall and a right garage door wall;

removably connecting the shipping wall to the beams of the main unit;

placing the main unit over a pre-prepared foundation;

aligning the shipping wall at a right angle to the long axis of the intended garage space;

disconnecting the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall from one another;

placing the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall over the foundation, so that the left and right garage door walls are at right angles to the left and right extension walls, respectively; and,

connecting the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall to one another.

7. The method of claim 6, where the shipping wall rests on a rim joist, further comprising the step of connecting one or more intermediate joists between the rim joist and the main-unit beam.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of removing the one or more intermediate joists after the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall are placed over the foundation.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of removing the rim joist after the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall are placed over the foundation.

10. The method of claim 6, where the shipping wall is further removably connected to a ridge beam, further comprising the step of constructing cap framing over the ridge beam to weather-proof the integrated garage during shipping.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of attaching exterior sheathing over the left extension wall and the right extension wall comprised by the shipping wall.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of attaching the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall to the foundation.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of installing roof trusses over the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall.

14. A shipping wall for a garage integrated into the main unit of a manufactured building, the shipping wall comprising:

a removable left extension wall;

a removable right extension wall;

a removable left garage door wall; and,

a removable right garage door wall.

15. The shipping wall of claim 14 further comprising exterior sheathing attached to the removable left extension wall and the removable right extension wall.

16. The shipping wall of claim 14 where the left extension wall, the right extension wall, the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall define an interior space for a garage when the left extension wall and the right extension wall are connected at right angles to the long axis of a foundation, and the left garage door wall and the right garage door wall are connected at right angles to the left and right extension walls, respectively.