Garage 2.0

[Evan]

We bought a new place a few months ago so its time to get to work on it. I don't have as much time as I used to to do full write-ups like my first garage thread so this will be mostly pics.

Garage is a tad bigger than old garage with no attic above. This is good and bad, lots of ceiling space but no storage above and hard to run wiring.
House is only 2 years old so slab and garage is in great shape (stains in pic are just water.


Notice just 2 bare Edison sockets for lighting and just 1 outlet in the whole thing.
First order of biz is getting an electrician in to wire and light it. I did all that myself in my last place but with no attic for easy wire fishing, I decided to bring in a pro. Ended up with 3 4 bay lights and 3 2 bay lights for workbench lighting. Its like a hospital in there. For outlets I had a new 20 amp circuit ran from the box. LOTS of dual gang (quad) outlets all around.
The electrician had a great idea to put in a fan box too.


The 3rd 4bay wasn't supposed to be rotated like that but it works for now. Can easily rotate back it if needed. That light is kept in the middle so I can put rack storage above each garage door. had that in the old garage and it really adds a lot of storage

Next up is paint. 2 coats of exterior semi gloss

Paint paint etc

Flooring. New racedeck

Makeshift workbench


Trimming and install

My daughter hijacked my garage for a dance floor



Fan install



Garage fan is amazing. Even when the garage door is open the air is stagnant. Putting a big industrial fan in really makes a huge difference in temp and comfort.

Speakers. Last place I did ceiling speakers which look great but don't sound the best, even high end ones (can't beat physics) plus since there is no attic install would be a pain.
Went with some corner mounted Boston speakers which sound terrific. I'll probably also install some outdoor Polks that I've had sitting around later in the back or sides.


With corner molding covering wire


That's it for now. more to come.

[Jake]

Looks great, Evan!

[ScottyB]

awww yiissss. been waiting for this, expect idea pillaging for my own garage.

that fan is tits mcgee. i'm dealing with 2 dinky 20" floor fans to keep the air going in mine and in this southern heat its uninhabitable in the summer.

high ceiling = lift, amirite?!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Hrmm, fan is a good idea. Might do that for next year since I have spare fan laying around.

[WRXtranceformed]

Looks great so far dude!! Love the fan, that is so monstrous and awesome.

What area did you guys relocate to?

[navin]

Nice ceiling height...! Time for a lift!

Any thoughts of converting to a side-jack garage door opener -- could free up some space for some overhead storage.

[Evan]

high ceiling = lift, amirite?!

hahah, well I left out mention of that on purpose. Fact of the matter is I dont wrench enough anymore to really warrant it. Will be nice to have the option someday in case things change.

What area did you guys relocate to?

Still in Falls Church! little north of where we used to live, closer to the metro

Any thoughts of converting to a side-jack garage door opener -- could free up some space for some overhead storage.

interesting. i do want a new opener, its the crappy builder grade one in there now. I do use my walls though for rack storage so it might get in the way of that?. they sure do look better though.

[Kaan]

:thumbsup: I love the fan idea but we need more lighting in our garage (I guess windows will have to do).

I see someone has Dads DDR skillz!

[Evan]

Any thoughts of converting to a side-jack garage door opener -- could free up some space for some overhead storage.

looked into these and Im definitely getting one. i wish i had done so before putting the fan box in, i could have moved the fan a little closer to the middle of the room

I see someone has Dads DDR skillz!

lol!
for her sake I hope she has better dance skillz than her dad

[navin]

Moving the fan shouldn't be too hard to do, right? I'm guessing your going to have to get that electrican back over to add an outlet for the new opener.

ps. phuck those torsion springs, I'm on my 2nd set. :finger:

[xvxax]

Why not recess the lights? No room up there?

[BLINGMW]

...side-jack garage door opener...

I had to look that up, never seen one of those

Looking good Evan :thumbup:

[Evan]

Why not recess the lights? No room up there?

There is room, but IMO very little benefit in exchange for less flexibility, less light, and more work.
For example I will probably rotate and move the 4bay towards the back of the garage, and maybe add another 4bay. Cant do that (easily) if youre cutting big holes in the ceiling.

[Maengelito]

Looks awesome Evan! Just curious on the ballpark cost of getting an electrician to do all that work to your garage. I know it'll vary by the electrician but are we talking $hundreds or $thousands? Ummm, asking for a friend...

[Evan]

PMed you

[xvxax]

What are the chances that flooring will let fluid through the tiles?

The floor in my garage was painted with house paint for the purpose of making the garage look nicer for sale and it's already coming up.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Jacks and jack stands will put holes in that stuff FYI if you don't use a plate (I use them at VIR) since they will fine you if you put a divot in the new asphalt. Looks great Evan.

[Evan]

What are the chances that flooring will let fluid through the tiles?

The floor in my garage was painted with house paint for the purpose of making the garage look nicer for sale and it's already coming up.

there are expansion gaps between the tiles, so fluid definitely goes through. you put cardboard under if youre doing fluids. (RJ or Rex is coming with the detergent bottle pic....)
its easy enough to pull up one separate tile to clean under it so its not too big a deal if you do spill, but if I was wrenching more, Id get a vinyl mat to put under the car.

My last house the previous owner painted the floor with wall paint too and it was rage inducing. Flakes coming up all over the place. It was a big reason I went with racedeck over epoxy since I didnt want to deal with stripping it. As it turned out I really liked the racedeck for lots of other reasons too so I got it for my new garage even though it was virgin concrete.

Jacks and jack stands will put holes in that stuff FYI if you don't use a plate (I use them at VIR) since they will fine you if you put a divot in the new asphalt. Looks great Evan.

yeah I use these
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which everyone should have anyway because they are friggin awesome jackstands

[Evan]

so.

did some stuff

Does a shed count as garage? It will allow me to get yard tools,generator,pressure washer, etc out of the garage so I say it does.
Had some Amish guys show up and build a shed. They started at 5:30am and finished before noon. As a side note I learned that the Amish are fine with air tools. (and gasoline generators, and deisel duallies)

set up my gopro to do time lapse but never stitched it together coolstorybro




here it is finished. wife has flowers in the flower boxes and such. Next up is building stairs for the single door and lining the bottom with the cladding that you put around decks.




If youve ever seen an old shed you know how the plywood floor can get worn ,splintered and stained so I bought a home depot 2 gallon garage floor epoxy kit and went to work. Coated the floor and had enough left over to do the workbench in the shed, steps in my garage and a 2x4/MDF work table. Mixed in the silica no slip and sprinkled color chips. Turned out very well. Could have used the other gallon to do another coat to completely hide the wood grain and give it the glossy candy shell look, but its a shed and it already looks pretty darn good.


the 'work bench' option that i had put in at the back wall was made with left over floor plywood and was pitted and awful. I started to use filler to smooth it out but was taking way too much time so I said F-it. I had some leftover cabinet grade 3/4" maple plywood so I screwed that down overtop of the crappy stuff. Using that high quality wood is way overkill but I had no immediate plans for the wood so might was well use it.

you can see the difference in the woods

coated it all in epoxy and its a great work surface.


btw, epoxy is amazing used as paint. Even past the end of its pot life when I coated my old cheap 2x4 work table it turned out amazing and its hard as a rock. If it came in more colors Id paint everything with it.


back to the garage: gearwall.
when I moved out of my last house I took the gladiator tracks with me, but when they came off the wall they pulled big patches of paint off that I had to patch and repaint. I noticed that if I had left the painters tape I used to mark studs underneath the track there was no paint lift. So I got some frogtape low tack and took that idea forward.


start installing, 0.0 OCD for me. what made the 8 foot sections of gearwall much harder than 4 foot track was that they could bow under their own weight while mounting. made for some challenges and swear words but in the end they are dead level


the biggest issue was what to do with the electrical outlets. gladiator sez to cut holes in the gearwall oversize, then buy trim from them. It looks like crap, and the trim is hilariously expensive.
(looks like this, not my garage)


So I decided to flush mount the outlets like you would do if you were installing outlets in a tiled backsplash. The extension boxes didnt work properly so I bought longer screws for the electrical box ears and went at it.

and finished. IMO looks SO much better than the trim.

I still need to get back in there with some spray foam insulation and foam insulating box rings to insulate it up because it leaves an air gap in the side (and the outlets were already a little drafty before this)

back side, almost done (added regular track on top to get the cabinet higher)

other side


Ill take some more pics tonight

[Beej]

Gearwall looks good! I too have some Gladiator stuff and I really like it so far.

Hey, shed! Hell yes it counts. I've cleared out an area for one myself and I'm getting ready to build it (from scratch, don't really like any of the prebuilt stuff I've seen) - can't wait to get all that yard shit out of the garage. I really like yours and the whole match-the-house thing. How big is it (looks like 12-14x8ish?), and if you don't mind, what was the damage? Also, is the foundation just those cinderblocks that the 4x4's are sitting on or is it sunk deeper? Via the internet, I'm having a hard time telling what is actually overbuilt (zomg frost heave) or just how deep/solid the foundation for a shed has to go.