The wall sections may be supplied with wood framed opening for doors or windows. The studs have internal holes for routing of electrical and plumbing lines. 1×2 wood strips are provided on the back of the studs for attachment of the interior wall material, typically sheetrock. There are 2″ x 6″ sill plates top and bottom. The walls are reinforced with concrete studs, which are pre-cast and then integrated into the face wall with metal ties. The inside face of the wall is backed by 1″ of Styrofoam insulation (blue board), visible in most of the photos. Very long forms can be set for 8′, 9′, or 10′ of width. The wall sections are produced in a quasi assembly line fashion. I visited their factory in Oxford, NC, I was very impressed with their operation. While I was researching the availability of concrete panels, I came across Superior Walls, who manufactures pre-cast concrete wall panels. As we will see, 2″ of cover was added, more for cosmetic reasons than structural. In my case, the span was 28′, which resulted in a 6″ slab thickness. They are very capable of taking the weight of cars over a large span. These are commonly used in commercial parking garage construction. The solution was pre-stressed concrete panels. One of my personal requirements was that the space be unobstructed by poles or support columns. Structurally, this was not impossible but introduced challenges. The solution was to go with a basement garage space under the main garage. But that left no room for restoration work. At 1 1/2 stories in height, the garage was not taller than the house. At 2 bays in width, the garage was not as wide as the house. Although I thought this was a reasonable thing, I was informed that I needed to go back to the drawing board. When I presented the proposed design configuration to the chief architect, she noted that the garage would be bigger than the house. The original design plan was for a traditional slab on grade construction featuring a 3 bay garage. Construction also became feasible due to a mortgage loan re-finance that resulted in some extra cash. The construction of the New Hill Garage was initiated by a strong negative spousal response with regard to restoration of the Volvo PV544 in the small garage workspace under the house.
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