garage remodel

[v7guy]

recently bought a place and it came with a small garage, 15x23, 7 1/2 ft ceilings, and a single line from the house to the garage to run the single interior light and the garage door opener. It was sheetrocked with no insulation and had a paint on the floor that was starting to peel up.

Given that I have typically spent more time in the garage than the house I wanted to do this right and make it a fairly comfortable hangout/workplace for myself. I'm going to keep a build log here so that I can get some input and keep motivation to keep moving forward.

here we go.



this is a bit into it, but this is what I started with, some painted drywall, textured ceilings and a couple shelves. I had just replaced the door and framing and part of the wall (due to water damage). The drywall quickly came down. And I started getting the electrical and subpanel done.









I then consulted a structural engineer and he gave me the go ahead to raise the ceiling up to 24 inches. I ended up going up 22" so a few trips to the home depot and I had this



then began the work of ripping down the sheetrock and cutting and putting up the new joists.





yes, those are drywall nails every 3-4 inches...




since I new I was going to be climbing up and down a lot I removed them




then got to work installing the joists, this took me and a buddy about 12 hrs of a bit of trial and error and a lot of general work.




this is about where I'm at now. I have this garage door opener and it's mounted at the current ceiling height, not sure if I should just leave it alone and build extensions down to the current mounting points or if I should cut some extra length of track and raise the whole thing up to the new ceiling height.





Still have to run a couple 220 50A lines, airlines, insulation, sheetrock and get the wolverine floor coating down that fred at alpha garage is in the process of sending out. looking forward to comments, criticism, help etc.

[v7guy]

so I'm still struggling with raising the garage door opener. Currently I'm trying to find some track to get the unit higher. The current cross beam prevents me from sheetrocking the top half without cutting holes for it. looking for a place that sells just the track, no luck at the local home depot. Exploring other options.


I got this in the other day. There were delays due to the holiday weekend and I got skittish with Fred @ Alpha Garage, but everything worked out and as per all of the testimonials on this forum he has been a pleasure to work with. No one should hesitate to buy any wolverine products from him.


After that I went and picked up this for the walls and then installed it right after I ran my 2 50A 220 lines, this forum was a lot of help.




I then started throwing up the greenboard/ sheet rock/ drywall, whatever you want to call it. I plan on the welder being pretty active and I suppose there willbe some decent moisture so I figured it to be necessary to keep from doing the job over . I spaced the greenboard up 1.5 inches to keep moisture from wicking up from the floor. I'll use some PVC trim from home depot to trim the floor and to serve as a bump stop for my engine hoist, engine stand, jacks etc.





All thoughts, suggestions and criticism is welcome. I'll spend a substantial amount of time out here so I'm looking to get it right.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Years ago, I had a garage in similar condition to what you descibe, but no drywall. All it had was a signle duplx outlet and a giant 8" long light bulb located on the back wall about 7' up. Since the garage was so small I was looking to maximize storage space so I did the following:

I installed a overhead floor for storage of bulky, but lightweight things like Christmas decorations, extra auto rims I had, camping equipment, etc. This may sound lame but it worked like a charm. In order to reinforce the span up there, I tied the "floor" joists to the rafters at about 1/3 the span length using plumbers tape and self tapping screws. I preloaded the joists by jacking them up just a little (about 1/2"), then drilled 2x self tapping screws with the flange heads into the rafters with the plumbers tape, wrapped under the new ceiling/floor joists, then up again to the rafter. When I released the floor jack the tape was taut but not overly so. I used 3/8" plywood for the floor (yes it deflects slightly but how much will you really be going up there?). I also installed a drop down ladder off to the side so I could use it even if I had tools or a car in the middle of the garage. When I was installing my lighting, I put one 8 ft long fluorescent up there with a pull chain for the occasional times I would go up to store/remove stuff.

Looks like you're doing a great job. Keep the pictures coming.

[v7guy]

thanks dan, I've considered putting some light flooring up top.not sure if I'll do it or not yet though.

I was going to raise the garage door track, but I'm getting anxious to move forward and I'm working on the house at the same time. Time is getting scarce. I've built new brackets for the opener and the tracks and for now they are going to hang down from the ceiling about32 inches.

I have installed some lights at an angle to better illuminate an engine compartment. They are lithonia lighting GESB T8 4 footers with 6500 bulbs i believe, they are residential rated and about $26 locally at the home depot. the lighting seems to be sufficient for my needs and I think will be even better when the walls are totally up and a light color is painted on the walls. I have also just began removing the old ceiling joists this evening, alot more work to commence tomorrow.




despite the boxes, model numbers, store item numbers etc, all being the same I got one with a different ballast in it and a different model number. first picture is what is in 5 of the 6 lights I have.




the smaller ballast doesn't seem to cause any RFI on an old alarm clock style radio on the FM whether it is 6 inches or a dozen feet away, I do get some on the AM and it gets more severe as I put the radio right up against the fixture. at about three ft it's a light background hum, I don't listen to AM, so no biggie.

[bowanna03]

Keep up the good work. It is nice to see a fellow cigar smoker gettin the job done.

[fotoflojoe]

That's some nice work there, keep it up!

I installed 16 of those same Lithonia fixtures in my 20x24 garage last year. When you walk in at night, it's brighter than the sun. Also, I don't get any radio interferrence.

[wreckercologist]

Nice work there, v7guy!

Are you planning on a midrise lift, or just wanting more room?

Keep up the good work!

[v7guy]

I was thinking about possibly doing a lift in a year or two. I mostly just wanted to make sure I had room to pull motors though.
Nothing major accomplished lately, maybe some more pics tomorrow.

[jdub63]

Nice job! What type of PVC trim are you using for your "bump stop" / base board.

[v7guy]

I was deterred by the winter and finishing up the house... the house still is not completely finished (not sure that ever happens lol) but work has resumed on the garage.


The PVC trim I stumbled upon at home depot in the same area as the crown molding/kick molding. it was relatively cheap and looked like it would do the job.

to get to where I'm at now...

I built some supports for the garage door opener. I really wanted a new one, but it's not in the budget and this will have to do for now. Of consideration is the orientation of the braces. If the angled metal is turned the wrong way it will buckle, I also installed some cable through the center of the springs so they will be captured should the springs ever break.




The sheetrock was completely installed on the walls and after it got warm enough I taped them up. almost looks like somethin now.



since part of the roof was going to be interior space I needed to have a vent to keep the cold roof cool and allow air circulation, so I picked up some durovent channels and threw them up.




Originally I had installed the lights to the side of the rafters. there was sufficient room to have them below the sheetrock so all was good, it was then suggested that I put some foam between the sheetrock and rafters to increase the R value, which seemed like a good idea... although it caused a lot more work since the foam is an inch thick. I had to take apart the lights, throw a brace behind them and mount them so they were flush with the rafters. There was then room for 1 inch of foam and 5/8 sheetrock. I also realized I hadn't installed clamps for the wiring where they went through the light housing, not sure why I didn't do it originally. It caused me to recheck the work I had done previously all over. Everything else looked good... I know better, i should have installed the clamps originally, it was more work to do it right. It may not have caused any problems down the road... but I'm glad I caught it, and I'm glad I spent the extra time to do it correctly.




it was pretty nifty to see the foam boards are tongue and groove... I have some aluminum "duct tape" for the seams.



that's roughly where I'm at now. doing the insulation has been quite time consuming. Largely due to having to redo stuff that was wrong, or I hadn't planned for. But I've been chipping along at it lately at a decent pace. I'll probably be updating this more frequently since the weather is nicer.

As always, any comments, suggestions, thoughts are appreciated.

[rburke65]

You don't need to find more garage door track, you already have it........ you can cut off 22" of track from the very end portion of the vertical piece and then add it to the upper part of your vertical to gain additional rise of the door. If your door is 7' high, your track will be..???15' total more or less. Your door won't be running out of track if you wack off 22" from the end and transplant it elsewhere. I hope this helps you. And you are doing a nice job!

[v7guy]

rburke65...
ha, oddly enough, I hadn't considered that. I did eventually find some cheap track. but the added time of messing with springs for the different load and the reality that I do want a nice insulated garage door in the near future (since I will heat the space) made it less of a priority. If I install the new door I will definitely take that thought into consideration.

thanks for the comment on doing a good job... mostly I feel like I'm just muddling along.

took the night off from the garage, look to spend the afternoon working on progress.

[v7guy]

I've made a decent amount of progress working a couple hours a night. I've found a junction box that I didn't know existed sitting on the hip boards behind a 2x6. need to fasten that and create an acess panel.
The ceiling joist against the left wall has caused me problems. the last 4 ft doesn't want to but up against the 2x4 studs even when a 3/8 lag bolt was used for "motivation". still trying to "figure it out".

[v7guy]

been a month since the last update, installed alot of foam and had to pull it all down to correct one of the first joist I installed because it was a good 3/4" too low. everything is reinstalled and the lights have been lowered to accommodated an added 1" of foam board on the ceiling. Wish I knew a lot more before I started this so I could of planned appropriately. pics will follow tomorrow.

[v7guy]

lots of little details have gotten in the way of real progress... moving wiring, adding junction boxes, moving fixtures down to accommodate foam etc. But the last couple weeks, while working a couple hours hear and there have shown good visual results. I've framed in an attic opening, routed lots of wiring to go above the new ceiling height and gotten lots of foam up. I've been told that the foam should add some extra sound proofing... given that I'm a few yards from my neighbors I figure the extra $75-$100 is probably worth it.
I've install a 2x3 along the new ceiling height to hold the sheet rock on the ceiling and will have a trim piece to hold the sheetrock edge on the slant part of the roof where it meets the wall... if that makes any sense.

not a lot of pictures, but a ton of work to get to this point. I suspect things will move more quickly now. I'm under some pressure to get the sheet rock done so I can lay down the floor coating and get a heater installed before the winter. The house is mostly finished so I can spend some real time on the garage.

It's staggering how much time it takes to get this stuff done... or maybe I'm just a slow worker. lol

[Keep]

Looks good.

I have a question about the lights, why did you mount them the way you did? Why not run them across the joists instead of along the length of them? I seen that you wanted to shed more light on an angle for work inside the engine compartment but wouldn't just mounting one lower on the wall work the same?

[v7guy]

It probably would of worked to mount it on the wall, but I tend to be accident prone and was worried Id break them. It really never occured to me to run the lights across the joists probably would have been easier to do it that way now that you mention it. lol

[v7guy]

finally got around to some significant work.
Ground the floor with a 7" makita grinder and a dewalt grinding wheel... should have ordered a turbo style wheel online.
This floor was as wavy as an ocean during hurricane season. I tried to smooth it out the best I could but it was a loosing battle.

I ground the floor and removed all the previous epoxy and pressure washed extensively. ground powdered soap into the revealed oil stains, tried paint thinner, MEK, and some gunk remover. Ended up using some ZEP stuff in the power washer to get the floor to absorb water like the non oil stained stuff... It still looked bad though.
The grinding, power washing and the etching with wolverines organiprep reveal many voids in the slab. I filled them with a mixture of bondtite and some cleaned aquarium sand... per Freds advice... seems to be harder than the concrete.
Pressure washed 4 times, then flooded the garage with water from a hose. Squeegeed it all out, let it dry, laid the Bondtite. It took about 20 hrs to dry in these temps... Laid down the liquatile a few hours ago. The liquatile is some thick stuff... hard to mix, hard to roll out. I mixed the batch for 6 minutes to be extra sure it was mixed. With some care everything was filled... I can't even see the crack that was in the slab. I could have spent more time filling the 1/16" voids with some integraflex but the epoxy got into them and in the end this is going to be a working garage and I'm sure the floor is going to be scratched so I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm a bit annoyed that the wind blew in some pine needles while i was rolling out the liquatile, but as I said, I'm sure the floor will be buggered up in the next year and I won't even notice.

I lay the clear coat with some supergrip in it tomorrow night. next weekend i hope to move everything out of storage into the garage.

now the pics

[SteelArt]

Looks like it is coming along well. Why did you goto all the effort of raising the roof ? just for extra space or does it allow you to fit a lift etc in ?

[v7guy]

it should allow for a lift in the future and I couldn't have pulled a motor in the garage with the ceiling at the old height.

put on the clear coat with texture this evening. the floor is no where near perfect, but it reflects a lot of light and should make working in there a lot more pleasant.
I put in an electric heater hanging from the garage track to keep it warm.

[mball]

Nicely done, V7Guy! You can tell you do things right. I like the idea of running a cable through the garage spring. I never thought of that.

I hope you continue to keep us posted. I would like to know how the floor holds up over time. I know prep is everything and it sounds like you were thorough. Keep up the great work!

[v7guy]

it's been more than 24hrs since the final coat was laid down. the texture seemed to dull down with the textured finish, i expected this though.
I've given the floor a good look over now and I could have spent more time smoothing the floor with some integraflex and some trowelease. I also could have done a better job if I got one of the notched squeegees. I also should have split the coating into 3 sections on my 350 sq feet. I was having to work hard to get the epoxy spread towards the end. I ended up with pits showing from the floor.
I could have filled a lot of the pits and a few of the smaller cracks with some more work. I probably would have done the job better if I had more time and really understood what would happen... I had a lot of problems getting feedback from Fred through email. I understand he's running a buisness and has a life and family. but i couldn't get feedback after a couple days even.

Overall the floor should do what I want, I'll probably scratch it up and burn it with slag.

Currently a heater is heating the garage and I'm just waiting for the time to pass so i can move everything in. Overall I'm pretty happy.

[Kevin54]

Everything is looking good so far. Huge difference. For the future though, I would look at putting up a torsion bar spring set and get rid of the extension springs. I'm gald to see you have cables through them though. My x-FIL was up getting some stuff in his rafters (storage) one day, got down, walked out and heard what he thought was an explosion in the garage. Tension spring broke and took out a rafter close to where he would have been standing. They only give out when the door is shut

[v7guy]

Kevin, that's one of the first upgrades I will make, an insulated garage door with a better opener with tracks that conform to the ceiling. haven't picked the hardware yet though.
thanks for the compliments
tonight I went out to touch up some spackle and primer most of the walls. after sanding the joints last night i noticed a lot of areas that needed some more work, I'm trying not to be too anal, but a lot of areas needed love. it turned out I just laid down spackle everywhere.
with all the insulation my little space heater can keep the garage quite warm even with a wood uninsulated door... I'll assume my electric bill next month will suck. Here is where I'm at now...

[v7guy]

finished up painting the walls after primer. used a slightly off white and the only reason it's painted is because the misses picked up the paint... I'm a lucky man.
looking at moving things in during the next few days. going to sheetrock the ceiling afterwards.
storage is getting expensive and I need to eliminate it from the monthly bills.
Looking forward to mounting the pegboard from the previous garage and getting things in order.

[jktruck150]

Looking good Jason! Did you put any flake in your floor? I didn't notice any. Your progress may be slow, but at least its done right!

[v7guy]

jason- no, I ended up just using the epoxy and skipped the flakes, the thought being that it would be tougher to find those washers and bolts I dropped if the flakes were there.
The drawback being that you really do see every imperfection in the floor.

[v7guy]

took a quick cell phone shot while I was going through the boxes, this is the only shot that is fairly clean. metal shelves and more organization will follow

[v7guy]

found some shelves in lowes made in the usa and picked them up. in all honesty they don't seem better than "china made stuff"... but I like supporting american workers.
I've got about half of my supplies and tools in the garage... which is frightening because I'm already running out of room.

[bchee]

Looks great. All that white is BLINDING. Looks like an operating theater.
Makes a huge difference.

[pupster]

Subscribed to this thread. Excellent job raising the roof! All the insulation will pay off in the long run.

[v7guy]

To date i've used a small electric heater to keep the space warm... don't tell the misses!
The floor has held up fantastically. Gasoline, Acetone, and MEK has sat on the floor with no drama. I've also dropped some welding slag from about 3 ft and showered sparks without an issue. I'm very very happy.
I hope to insulate the ceiling and cut the eaves to allow proper ventilation in the next month.

[jeepjunky]

looks good. As for the garage door, call a door installer, they may have some old tracks they would sell you, and while you are on the phone get an estimate to have the tracks adjusted to follow the roof line and use torsion springs. OR make a large shelf over the top of the door (when open).
As for the floor it looks great, the only thing I would do diffrent is to have done all the texturing and painting pror to the floor...but I am a messy worker!
Good job

[v7guy]

thanks for all the kind words guys

the garage has served me well, getting ready to throw some R30 over the foam board I installed in the ceiling. I've burned the epoxy with some welding slag... fred warned me this would happen, and I was careless. I'm sure it's only the beginning of many more. The epoxy has held up great. I scratched the floor while driving a car over some shaving from drilling iron... but again, it's about what I expected. Everything mops up with little to no issue.
right now I'm trying to come up with more storage solutions as the shelves are cluttered and I have a lot more stuff to move in.

[Kevin54]

Huge difference from the "befores" to the "afters". Great job on the redo.

[Thruxton]

Originally Posted by v7guy

it should allow for a lift in the future and I couldn't have pulled a motor in the garage with the ceiling at the old height.

Glad this got bumped, your ceiling solution is about ready to become my ceiling solution, for exactly the same reasons. Thanks!

[v7guy]

It's always great to see these replies to a thread I posted!

To date I've found that the R5 foam in the ceiling has given a good bit of insulation as has the insulation/sheetrock on the walls. Even down in the 20s I've found the garage comfortable to be in with nothing more than a cheap space heater... I do run it 24/7 (don't tell the misses)... but it does keep everything comfortable enough even if I do have to put on a jacket.
I've got a lowes coupon for 10% off that's good till the 27th and I plan to use it to put some R30 glass in the ceiling to hopefully keep things even warmer.
I hope to throw some sheetrock on the ceiling by spring to finish it all off.

[v7guy]

for a reference in this thread... I messed up installing my 220 lines. nothing that would prevent them from working, but finishing them out properly with the right products was beyond my knowledge. Here's the thread that got it all done right.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=84481

[v7guy]

Got some peg board and put above my workbench... Still trying to find a "best" way to hang stuff.


I also picked up some R30 and started insulating the attic area of the garage. I thought it would go pretty quick but the 3 rolls only covered about half the area and I forgot how cramped it is up there. I'm not sure it would have gone any better if I did it before the foam board. Insulating between joists is just a pain if you have no real head room. It should make a petty big difference when done though.

[v7guy]

I'm still working on the garage here and there but the fact that I can work in it now has made progress slow to "when I feel like it". I've also just been moving stuff around trying to figure out what works best for me in the space. I have started to finally sheetrock the ceiling area and I started working on getting a small amount of airline built. It's finally starting to move forward again. Here's some pics... cause who doesn't like pics?

[jktruck150]

We all like pics! Looks like you are moving in and getting comfortable!

[CrashTestDummy]

Originally Posted by v7guy

found some shelves in lowes made in the usa and picked them up. in all honesty they don't seem better than "china made stuff"... but I like supporting american workers.
I've got about half of my supplies and tools in the garage... which is frightening because I'm already running out of room.

Jason,

Get some 3/8" plywood (I used the OSB stuff to save some on cost) and replace that crap particle board that they 'give' you with those shelves, and it will make a huge difference. The shelves are pretty sturdy if you get rid of the cheap particle board.

I used the existing particle board crap as a template for cutting, and painted both sides of the plywood with white gloss house paint. That adds a lot of light in the shelves, and makes clean up a little easier, should you want to. If you're concerned about dirt, spend the extra cash on regular plywood and skip the OSB. Give the particle board stuff to someone else who has those shelves. When the particle board gets wet, it warps/swells/sags and looks like crap pretty quickly. You'll be glad you did.

Running out of room is easy. I got about 10 of the 24X36 units, and need more. I packed a lot of stuff in Rubbermaid 70 Qt storage boxes and stack them. That allows me to get rid of cardboard boxes, which seems to attract cockroaches and silverfish. Ewww!

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

[v7guy]

I ran into the same issue, ended up getting some 3/4“ and tossing on the shelves. It's held up pretty good so far. The particle board only lasted a couple months. I'll have to look into those plastic tubs. I have one I used for electrolysis but it's unusable at this point.
Also picked up a free fridge and picked up an old cabinet that was being discarded for all the a pray paint and waxes/polishes.

Still working on the sheetrock on the ceiling but it's been rough without a sheetrock lift. I can only do a couple sheets before I have to move on to something a lot less strenous.

[v7guy]

finally finished the airline for the garage. gave all the tube a quick rub with some steel wool and threw some poly on it, not sure it was really worth the extra work. I also picked a Kobalt air filter to plumb in. The lines have held pressure and it looks like everything is good to go. Pretty excited to finally have air for the air tools.

As always, a few pictures...

[jktruck150]

Does that Kobalt filter pull moisture out too? Or is it just a simple particle filter?