Taking Back My Little Shop Space

[Roger M]

Long overdue even..

First off, Thanks for having me and thanks for all of the great threads and helpful information. This is my first thread here.

I have an 11'x10 1/2' shop space in the attached 2 car garage. Back when I moved here twenty years ago, there was just an old 5' long workbench occupying this room. I bought an air compressor, a Costco shelving unit, threw my toolbox on the bench, and called it done.

I let it slide over time, just leaving enough room to get at tools, piling up storage bins, and turning the bench into a junk pile. Fast forward to last fall(minus a bunch of stacked storage bins that were to the right)...



Yeah, I know it's a complete cluster. It's twenty years of neglect. I am not proud of it, but I am taking some action. Couple of things. It has to be cheap and it has to be done by me. Initially, I just wanted a longer workbench with space underneath for some totes.

I bought some 2x4s and screws and came up with this. The top is made up of some old 2x12 facia boards that I replaced last year.




Note: sheet rock is only on walls the back up to interior of house. In the future, I will drywall everything else, but not until we get a new roof.

More to come..

 

[Roger M]

The bench real estate was a big improvement, but I still had a shelf unit overflowing with ****. A couple of months back, I came across some free kitchen cabinets on offerup. They weren't perfect, but free is usually good. All said and done, I'm into the project about $150(lumber/hardware/paint/2x lights for cabinets)

 

[Lassen Forge]

Like what I'm seeing so far - keep up the good work!!

 

[Oldsmobile]

That desk area with lighting over it is a great idea.

 

[Snip's]

Nice improvement...

 

[58Yeoman]

It's all coming together nicely. Keep it up.

 

[Skyman]

Looking good!

 

[Garcky]

Nice transformation. Next, I'd put interlocking rubber floor mat tiles down to fill the space. Not essential, but you'll feel much better about the space and it will look more finished.

 

[dfiler2]

That is a really nice looking space, great job on the work bench.

 

[nadogail]

Free cabinets are wonderful. I first got it free cabinet sometime in the 1970’s and left it behind in Honolulu when I was reassigned to a San Diego ship.

Good luck on your reclamation project, nobody willingly surrenders space. You may have to fight competing uses for the space.

 

[captain14]

Great progress. It’s a constant battle fighting FSD. Maybe daily take a quick trip thru the shop area to keep it straight or after every project put everything away to where it should live full time.

Do you plan on any type of heat? I don’t see any insulation on part of the wall I can see.

 

[Jayman17]

Way to make the most of a smaller space. I need to do this too. I need to have a big purge and then get going on organizing everything. You are making great progress.

Jay

 

[Roger M]

That desk area with lighting over it is a great idea.

Thanks Oldsmobile. My teenage son does quite a bit of 3d printing. He paints some of the projects, so I thought this would be a good place for that(among other things).

Nice transformation. Next, I'd put interlocking rubber floor mat tiles down to fill the space. Not essential, but you'll feel much better about the space and it will look more finished.

Thanks Garcky. Yeah, I am putting that on the soon to do list. I hope to find something fairly thin..

Great progress. It’s a constant battle fighting FSD. Maybe daily take a quick trip thru the shop area to keep it straight or after every project put everything away to where it should live full time.

Do you plan on any type of heat? I don’t see any insulation on part of the wall I can see.

Thanks captain14. Yes, I really do need to stay on top of clutter. A daily 'sweep' is a great idea. As far as heat, the exterior walls don't have insulation or drywall yet. Whenever I get that done, I would like to hang a hydronic unit heater in there. The house has hydronic heating, and it wouldn't be difficult to run a couple of pex lines to the garage.



Again, I appreciate all the comments and kudos.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Thank YOU for posting your work so far... I have a roughly 12x21 foot (4x7 meter) workshop and a similar sized garage I'm in the planning stages on... and I'm getting a LOT of ideas from your "resto-mod" ( ) of your workspace.

One of the things stymie-ing me is heat - we have a hydronic system for our house, but it's been bastardated through the years, so I need to figure out how it's SUPPOSED to be set up (note - it sure don't look like yours!!), with the thought of either tying in the shop / garage into the existing system or building a stand alone system (radiators and hydronics are huge over here)... I just need to figure out how, as before it was always wood heat or gas heaters....

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Looks good.

For a space that size I think I would just go with electric space heaters unless you're having moisture issues.

Otherwise there's no need to heat it full time and a space heater will warm it up quick.

 

[John in OH]

That is really quite a transformation!! All looking really good!!

I'll add my double-up for the addition of insulation on that outer wall and suggest a couple more outlets above the desktop. No shop can EVER have too many outlets!! And heat adds a significant benefit with extended work time and opportunity.

 

[ZRX61]

What bike are those PM wheels from?

 

[Roger M]

What bike are those PM wheels from?

In the 90s I had a ZX11. I was following Superbike racing back then, and was a fan of Scott Russell.

 

[PoorUB]

The bench real estate was a big improvement, but I still had a shelf unit overflowing with ****. A couple of months back, I came across some free kitchen cabinets on offerup. They weren't perfect, but free is usually good. All said and done, I'm into the project about $150(lumber/hardware/paint/2x lights for cabinets)

Looks nice.
The only comment I can make is when you had that wall cleared away I would have insulated it and screwed some sheet rock on it. Once you hang cabinets and other stuff on the wall the chances get slimmer that is will ever get done!

 

[ZRX61]

In the 90s I had a ZX11. I was following Superbike racing back then, and was a fan of Scott Russell.

Oh really?

 

[alfadan]

Looking real good. Can you put up a shed for totes and "stuff"?

 

[Mainiac Mat]

Nice job reclaiming the space. I too benefited from "free" kitchen cabinets, though mine were super grungy. Like you, I painted them and have a wall of them in my basement woodshop.

Here's one of Matt's Maxims... shared with you for free, and worth just that.

Maxim: When shop space becomes storage space, it ceases to be useful as shop space.
Application: Store your junk somewhere else besides your shop.

 

[AldeanFan]

Great looking space, keep up the good work, looking forward to more posts.

 

[dfiler2]

I have used a few of these over the years, they make a 100,000 btu unit also but the fans get much louder. Most people hang them but I have also seen them mounted under the work bench so the heat is blowing on you before it heads to ceiling and out the roof. You can just use a line voltage thermostat to control the fan.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FBDYYH6/?tag=atomicindus08-20