Evan's Garage Project

[Evan]

So I started this thread originally about a year ago, but looks like it got lost in the forum hiccup (or my search skills are very n00b-ish)
The tile thread in the lounge got me thinking of it, so I copy and pasted it all from another forum and here it is, risen from the ashes of shitty opensource database and phpBB induced death.

Old posts will be quoted in the first post, and I have some new updates that Ill add in subsequent posts like normal. For some reason the quotes blocks arent working but whatever

So, my garage, circa about 2 weeks ago.





For shame, for shame.

no car guy should have a garage in this condition


So, walking out into my garage and seeing that, combined with thinking about a future Factory Five project, combined with a really friggin good sale at Sears on garage stuff got me motivated to make my garage suck less.

Further analysis would give light to the following requirements

-Flooring
-Paint
-Wall Bike Mounts
-new outlets
-more lights
-workbench
-cabinets
-shelving
-misc storage and organization
-in ceiling speakers
-better/more air reels and electric reels

not necessarily in that order

stay tuned

Step 1: Flooring.
What flooring to use? The previous owner of my house took leftover interior wall paint and painted the garage floor with it. ( :finger: ) This would make epoxy or VCT a bigger pain in the ass than they are already since it would require the work stripping the old paint off. So that leaves me with floating tile as my best option.
Racedeck is a pretty good floating tile, but its a little rich for my blood so I went down a notch on their product line and picked up some motofloor on sale

Flooring is a pain of a job, since as seen in the above pic, I have a LOT of crap in the garage, and its all got to come out. So I took advantage of my motivation and decided to tackle it this weekend.
Spent thursday and friday evening and most of the day saturday boxing up most everything and making it easy to move around. Since everything has to be back in the garage by nightfall the whole thing has to be done in one day.

in progress


once its out, its pushbroom, pushbroom, pushbroom some more. then vacuum (shhhh dont tell the wife using nice house vacuum in garage) and finally a little water and mop/push it out.

all clear- ready for racedeck



no 'in progress' shots of the racedeck because holy damn does it go in fast.

all done




all done with my old workbench



I went with a 4x4 tile checkerboard pattern over 1x1 because
1. It looks better
2. It comes 4x4 already attached
3. Its so much faster
4. See 1.

then I spent the next 3 hours cluttering it back up moving all my crap back in there (depressing)

Some impressions of racedeck.
1. Its looks soooo damn good. Pics look nice and all, but when its *your* garage and it used to look like complete ass it really puts a smile on your face at the difference.
2. Some guys complain about a "clack clack" sound while walking. For this reason I contemplating using an underlayment or switching to VCT altogether. I have to report that Some Guys must be whiny little women, because there is no clack clack. there is a subtle muted hollow plastic sound - the tiles are open to allow circulation, but its not bad at all.
3. No problems with installation, I thought I might have to cut 2 entire rows, but some creative moving around of the floor means that I will only have to cut 5 tiles total (which I still need to do, anyone got a mitre saw I can borrow?)
4. Its easy to broom out. I had concerns that the raised diamonds would impede pushing dirt out with a broom.
5. I can play chess with real people in my garage.

Time will be the true test of course, my concerns going forward are dirt getting down in the tiles. There is a bigger seam between the tiles than I had thought there would be thats going to catch some dirt down in it.
white tiles are of course not ideal for showing wear and stains, but racedeck sells some great tile cleaner that is as easy as mopping it on.

hrm, I figured garage = tools, but anyway.

matt: you are a prophet! paint was done next and Im just getting around to writing it up. btw, love the black and titanium tiles.


Progress Update

Step 2 : Paint.
painting is kind of boring so TL;DR: painting sucks and is more expensive than you think. Walls are shiny white now.

Its funny how improving one part of something makes you realize how the rest of it looks awful. I hadnt planned on painting the walls (and if I had, I would have done it before putting in the floor), but as seen here

it really pops out how awful the walls look.

no biggie, I thought, Ill slap a coat of paint down and all will be right in the world of evans garage. 2 or 3 gallons, $60, bam done.
now Ive only owned my house for 4 years and it came freshly painted, so Ive never done any real wall painting before. Surely a coat of paint is sufficient at making the walls white? everyone who has done any painting is saying "Lulz n000b" right now.
As recommended by garage guys on the internets, I went with a exterior semi gloss white. exterior paint should handle the temp differences in the garage better, and semi gloss wipes and cleans better and is also brighter.

prep.
I didnt do a ton of prep, because its a garage, and the drywall is actually in pretty good shape to begin with. with the exception of the near wall which looks like this

that picture doesnt even show all the grease and water stains on the wall. pretty rough shape.

one of the previous owners nailed some boards to the wall. not really sure what the purpose was, there are some pegs sticking out but they arent big enough to be shelves. the top one was relatively easy to get off with this

(which is awesome and everyone should have one)
but the bottom one (already off in the above pic), the nails were in recessed drilled holes about a half inch. let that sink in. i dont even know how you get a hammer in a recessed hole. lots of swearing, prying, and damaging of drywall and it came off.
I did prep this wall, covered the holes and large dents. should have done a skim coat but didnt have time for it to fully dry and after all, its a garage not a dining room.


So on to paint, started on the far wall and did in fact decide to do it right and start off with primer before color. went with some super cheap PVA drywall primer (theyre all the same right?), and as it turns out it might as well have been watered down milk and did absolutely nothing. After laying a coat of color down, it was clear it would take at least 2 coats. which ended up being 3 coats. my budget just went in the crapper.

Got some better primer for the rest of the garage, zinsser 123 as recommended by the internets, and that stuff was pretty spectacular. went on thick and white (no jokes!), and easly covered the grease stains.

yadda yadda, on with the paint, youve all seen people paint so no pics. bought a big 18" roller and recruited my dad to help. a full weekend and the walls looked darn good. ended up with 1 coat of primer, 2 coats of color. probably could have got away with 1 coat of color due to how awesome that primer is, but I had already bought a 5 gallon bucket of paint so might as well use it.

that busted wall from above turned out like this


i think you can use your imagination for the other walls. about $300 later they are white and shiny :p

next up: a little bit of electrical work before getting to the fun stuff

not done for the day!
a small update: electrical (part 1)

so all the outlets and switches in the garage looked something like this when i bought the house.

(plus an equally nasty coverplate)
or this



i mean wtf is that?

so a little bit of this


and they all look like this

and this


electrical isnt done though, need to put in a new outlet close to the floor for the compressor, and some new switched ceiling outlets for more lights, and eventually ceiling speakers with a terminal plate

another update. still catching up.

next up is cabinets and shelving on the far side (car side) of the garage.
I hate having things on the ground next to a car so that leaves elevated shelving or cabinets. Cabinets seem 'safer' to me next to a car since nothing can accidentally fall off. although in reality anything falling off is user error anyway. (not like we ever get earthquakes here right?) but cabinets look pimpy, so cabinets it is.

First up is to install geartrack rails



kind of apain in the dick to install by myself. they have to be a certain height to clear car doors but not too high, must be level, start and end on a stud, plus the rails have to be exactly 18" apart for the cabinet brackets to fit, and Im a perfectionist.

did i mention im doing this by myself.

once the rails are up, installing the cabinets isnt too hard. 1 fold out workstation and 1 30" cabinet


the one on the left is a fold-out workstation, and its why I went with the gladiator system.

its a cabinet/ shelf while folded, and when you need some workspace, its folds out and has a nice stainless steel worktop


Im always looking for more workspace so it was an easy sell for me

shelving.

In this garage redo im all about using all the space in the most efficient way possible, and that empty space in the corner between shelving units and my workbench has been slackin off doing nothing for far too long.

so i come across a corner shelf unit at sears custom made for underperforming corners such as mine. its a little spendy, and the reviews vary between "the instructions are horrible and this shelf is all but impossible to put together" to "THIS IS THE DEVILS SHELF DO NOT BUY IT" but i say LOL n00bs! and order it up.

the reviews, as they often are, were 100% right.

it was the most awful engineered peice of furniture I have ever encountered (and I regularly buy from ikea so thats saying something)

the instructions were basically just a picture of a guy pointing at you and laughing. actually i would have preferred that, because at least then i would have known before unpacking it completely that it should be either returned to sears or cast into the fiery pits of hell back to its original owner.

it doesnt just bolt together, it uses these odd clips to hold peices together with a bolt to tighten the clip. since the instructions are worthless, you start putting it together, get about halfway done, then you realize the clips are upside down, or in the wrong holes, or some such **** so you tear the whole thing down and start over. repeat about 4 times until its probably put together correctly. maybe.

then after all that you still have to "square" it, as its pretty wobbly at this stage of completion. But remember the part about the clips? you can tighten the everloving crap out of the clip but they are still just clamp. so i got it close enough, and gently put it in the corner. please dont blow too hard on my shelf. its a shame because i havent found any other good alternatives to corner shelving (maybe i didnt look hard enough)

all in all it took over 8 hours to get it put together, and hopefully it has not brought any demons into my house.


nevermind the clutter, its a work in progress!

ive had those rubbermaid shelves for years, they are great, cheap,and will be staying.

up next is the rear wall cabinets and workspace

Lots of work but Im slackin off with the updates!

Back wall. where most of the work gets done

Next up on the work list was redoing the back wall, which consisted of a new workbench, cabinets, shelving, tool hooks, and a couple new outlets.
as a refersher, it used to look like this. awful

First thing is to plan it out


In go the geartrack and up goes the first cabinet


(and yes, perfectionist again)


Track and cabinets up, and you can see the new gladiator workbench and tool cabinet

added a couple outlets. 1 up top for a music streamer/player and amp, 1 below for air compressor and bench mount power strip



Accessorized with hooks, gladiator shelf, wire baskets, bins, etc

Still messy of course, organizing is the last step.

The other side with the old workbench (will be replaced in phase 2)
Added a shelf, and some hooks for power tools.


if you were wondering why the 2 cabinets are not centered or symmetrical (Im kind of OCD for symmetry) this is why

have to leave room for the stairs

A closer shot of the new workbench and tool drawer

The wood on the workbench is unfortunately pretty soft.
I had this ikea drawer liner laying around and as it turns out is a great topper for the workbench. Its pretty tough, not spongy and flimsy like most drawer liner, give some nice traction to the work surface too

next time Im at Ikea Im going to check to see if they have a wider version.

storage and hooks

and the other side


this is a rough cut, Im sure I will reconfigure things as my needs change.

next up - the bike wall

The bike wall.

Cars and bikes make up the 2 largest landowners in my garage, so to keep from getting a pedal into a car door or a chainring tattoo on my hood, My garage is segregated into a bike side, and a car side.
Separate car and bike drinking fountains, no bikes at the lunch counter, bikes at the back of the bus, its a 1960s civil rights tragedy.

This is how it looked before (notice the bronze bike about to get a firehose opened and the dogs set on him)


so after ripping those nasty boards off

and painting,

its time to get to work.

First up is storage.

The metal wall shelving that was supposed to go over my metal workbench turned out to be too deep, so I put it in next to the door instead. Its only half height now, so next time Im at ikea Ill grab longer uprights and a couple extra shelves to finish it down to the floor.


I have to say Im pretty impressed with the metal ikea shelving. it isnt cheap like most ikea stuff (although cheaper than comparable products)
but its sturdy, very configurable, and it looks great.


next up is another one of the fold out workstations that I put in on the car side. A bike workstand will go in right next to it, so its perfect to be able to have some workspace available when im wrenching on bikes

The biggest problem to solve, is how to store the bikes in a minimal of space, while still remaining accessible.
A friend had good luck hanging them vertically, so that was my plan. There was just barely enough space to get the bike in under the garage door rails.

I own 6 bikes now, but there is a good chance Ill be thinning out the quiver in the near future, so I didnt want to have wasted space with unused mounts.
The plan would be 4 permanent bike mounts, with flex space on geartrack for 2 more mounts. (or shelving, or hook storage if I dont have a bike there)


2 12x5' pine boards make up the top section to attach the wheel mounts to. Sanded to give a nice finish.


Sasha is helping!


Priming. Bottom board made of thin plywood. this board is just to keep the bottom tire from scuffing up the wall.



As I mentioned before, Im no experienced painter and I learned (after priming and painting the top board of course) that the water based vinyl wall paint I used for the board was not ideal for a contact surface that needed some durability. After messing with some polycrilic I decided to start over and do it right so I sanded, reprimed and painted with a high gloss oil based enamel. And yeah, oil based paint sucks to clean up!




After spending some time with a grinder to modify the hooks so that they take bigger volume mountain bike tires (nothing can "just work" can it?), here are the hooks mounted and a couple bikes hung


Hooks are staggered 12" and hung 17" apart. Could have gone 15 or 16 apart to compact it a little bit and save some space, but this will make it easier to get the bikes in and out.

Wheel mounts. To store unused bike wheels, I mounted hooks to boards in the unused space right above the fold out workstation. In keeping with the flexible theme, there is geartrack right under it, so I can easily mount hooks if Im not hanging any wheels at the time.
2 hooks are for wheels only (no tires) and 2 hooks are for wheels with high volume mtb tires.




just the hooks and mounts installed



bikes mounted, using 1 of 2 flex mounts

as luck would have it, the crafstman brand track system hooks work great on gladiator geartrack. which is good because their bike mount is much much better.

zoom out view of everything


next up: lighting, overhead storage, and ceiling speakers if the temperature ever falls below 100.

[GregF]

Nice! I have the same cabinets and workbench. They make power strip for the workbench and its pretty nice.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.gladiatorgarageworks.com/skip/workbenches/gladiator__174__workbench_powerstrip_gaac68psxg.pro?scr=category&activeCategory=0&activeSubCategory=0">http://www.gladiatorgarageworks.com/ski ... Category=0</a><!-- m -->

[Kaan]

Nice! How are you liking the wall hanging cabinets? I'm assuming you like them since you use the track system throughout the garage.

[Evan]

Nice! How are you liking the wall hanging cabinets? I'm assuming you like them since you use the track system throughout the garage.

yeah I like them a lot, in fact i have 2 still sitting in the box waiting to get installed in the basement. Built like a tank and they look great. You can catch them on sale at sears for $100 each which is cheaper than most cheap wood cabinets. You can mount them directly to studs if you want but the track system makes it much much easier to install.

[D_Eclipse9916]

How heavy are they? I need new cabinets for my trailer.

[Evan]

How heavy are they? I need new cabinets for my trailer.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.sears.com/gladiator-30inch-wall-gear-box-reg/p-00959036000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1">http://www.sears.com/gladiator-30inch-w ... ockType=G1</a><!-- m -->

says 48lbs. Feels a little lighter than that so thats probably with packaging. Id say 40-45.

[WRXtranceformed]

Dude very nice transformation! It's amazing how fast a garage can get cluttered up with stuff.

[Evan]

PSA: 30" cabinets on sale at sears for $100
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.sears.com/gladiator-30inch-wall-gear-box-reg/p-00959036000P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3&sid=IAx20050830x000545&PID=4485850&AID=11042411&aff=Y">http://www.sears.com/gladiator-30inch-w ... 2411&aff=Y</a><!-- m -->