Was hoping someone can chime in...

I'm in the process of doing up my garage, from a general dumping ground into someting I can work on my car on.

Be nice if you can put together a wish list of essentials (and suppliers in the GTA) you think I might need.

1> Floor, am going with bog standard acyrilic floor paint, not sure if now its too cold to do, any tips on this?

2> Cabinets, I wanna get some cabinets up to leave floor space, 2 of the walls look like dry wall, so I'd wanna put some wooden battens on

3> A smallish workbench, metal vs wood?

4> Some kinda strip lighting, do I need over head? or would a couple of long strips on the sides be ok. also thinking of ground as well as ceiling height?

5> Some heating would be good

6> Tools; any good ideas for jacks, ramps, etc

7> Need to stor 2 sets of rims so was looking at vertical mounting as opposed to horizontal

Not a lot of space, but thats what I got to work with

as always your advise is appreciated

 

Organizing the garage can be a rewarding experience. Optimizing space is the greatest challenge and it really comes down to your specific needs. But that said it looks like you have a standard single car garage and that means it's space challenged on all fronts. I'd suggest a workbench tall enough that the front of a car can tuck underneath and cabinets on either side and a tire rack on top. You could hang a 2 tube fluorescent fixture under that for workbench lighting. And yes its too cold for the paint to stick to the floor. As far as heating goes the most useful and practical is a gas fired space heater. The electric ones are compact but unless you wire it for 220V it won't deliver enough BTUs to warm the space quickly. I gave up heating up the garage in cold weather because unless you keep it warm all that metal will sweat condensation and that's really bad news.

 

Thanks on the advice Jim,

That garage was so full of crap, I actually took a load of "crap" from er-in doors, cos I put a lot of in on the sidewalk, and the garden stuff, I organised into a storage bin in the garden itself.

That was the biggest thing, slowy but surly throwing the rubbish away,
I feel better that its cleared and want to use it either for car storage/repair.

Thanks on the paint tip, I'll probably have to leave it till we get out of winter. And you maybe right on the heater aspect, I don't think I can work on a car comfortably with the door closed (due to space) and would I really work on the car when its that cold?

Given me some ideas to start off with thanks buddy

 

I am also in the process of finishing my garage too and am very interested in your points 1> and 5> above. I added an insulated door this year and have completed insulating wall & ceiling. Now in the process of hanging drywall.
Floor: I want to cover the floor and about 2' up the walls with a durable and attractive coating (now just bare concrete). Anyone have a good recommendation for an epoxy (or similar) coating?
Heat: I don't plan to heat to room temp but something to take the edge off while working out there in winter would be nice. No gas line or 220v hydro out there now (could add), and agree a 110v electric wont do much. Anyone have suggestions for a small and efficient unit to maintain about 10 deg C out there??
Lift: my ultimate goal is to install a 4 post lift; I have about 12.5 ft clear height and a high-lift door. Recommendations/advice welcome.

 

Epoxy is good, but not the crap at any of the big box stores. That's all water based crap.

A good epoxy floor will cost just as much as a fast floor or race deck.

Also with epoxy its best to mechanically prepare the floor, chemicals don't work as well.

In the end I left my floor bare, I did not want to be a slave to the cleaning of a garage floor. But I may do a fast floor some day.

I built solid wood carriage doors and insulated them, garage is much warmer now. I just plug in a little space heater to warm it up a bit when needed. It's not that cold to begin with so no issues at all.

 

I used the tan coloured epoxy flooring c/w flakes from Rustoleum. I had a new floor poured in my garage, waited about 6 months, chemically etched it with muriatic acid, waited one day for the water to completely dry and applied the paint.

It is now 4 years later and it still looks good and is holding up great! I was inittially going to do the professional polyurethane flooring, but the cost was astronomical. For $200 it was the best investment for me. I can't believe how well it is holding up.

The trick is not to cut any corners and follow the instructions to a 'T'.

I would not hesitate to do it again. Make sure that the temperature and the humidity levels are correct and that the floor is completely dry. Mind you, my cement floor doesnt push too much humidity through it since I put a layer of rigid insulation before pouring the cement. I'm glad i did that.

 

Yes, re the floor good idea also with the heat, just something to take the edge off

 

Yes this was the route I was going to go.

and I'd heard about the muratic acid, can I buy it in a big box or is it a special.

can you re-paint? becuase I could live with it, even if I had to reapply another coat on like in 3 years (assuming I'd still be there)

I think also a good little prof. garage should add some $$$ to a house when selling ?

 

i use a propane heater that gets the temp up fast then a 220v to maintain. If you dont have 220 a small 110 heater may work if its well insulated. If you go propane dont forget to crack the door so you dont die....

However as I suggested to another guy looking to heat his garage i would go to the garagejournal forum

Like Rennlist, its all about garages and they are as obsesive about them as we are about our cars. TONS of info/ideas/ etc. I have learned a lot from those guys

 

hey nice tip Vern

 

good luck with your project.

to give you a sense of what a single garage can look like when organized, here is my updated garage that received a do over this past summer. I'm not handy with this stuff, so I hired a company to do the floor, storage, painting, lighting, etc.

after 6 years, I can finally park my car in the garage again. I have reclaimed it from my kids.

 

Pleasure. Hope it helps. I have been updating an old garage for the past 2 seasons including insulation, heating, electricity and lighting (including installing a 220v circuit), shelving etc and all my info has come from that site. A lot of contractors/professionals on there and it has been very helpful

Good luck

 

Thanks, Very Nice,
I think mine is slightly wider

good to claim it back

 

looks good, I tried to sign up, but had a problem, so emailed the site admin

these guys look like the realdeal

 

I def. like your floor, especially how you've followed i up the sides. something I wanna do to