"Astronaut House" Garage Build

[mastiff0]

A few months ago I took advantage of the bad real estate market and bought a new house. My new (and first) wife thought I had selected the house because it was a perfect place to raise a family. While this was true, I had other motives.

First of all, the house had a very cool history. Located in the area of Houston near NASA, the house was originally built for an astronaut, and its second owner was also an astronaut. The third owner was a F-16 fighter pilot in a local Air Force Squadron. Alas, I am the most uninteresting owner, but being a NASA engineer, I really liked the history. To this day I still refer to the house as Pilot House or Astronaut House, not "MY" house.

The other reason why I bought the house is because of its huge garage.



The garage was ~32ft x ~30ft- almost 1000ft2, and arranged like a 3 car garage with an additional 12ft in front of the bays. It was detached and therefore unfinished. To me this was great, because it allowed me to properly wire the garage for power-hungry equipment and insulate/ air condition it so it would be usable in the Texas heat.

So here was my goal: a garage that could house my classic cars, provide areas for automotive work, woodworking, and miscellaneous hobbies, and house my two dogs when company is over. My plan involved:
Beefing up the electrical wiring
Finishing the walls and ceiling, and adding air conditioning
Adding a floored attic for storage
Add a room for the dogs and smaller projects
Add appropriate fluorescent lighting
Apply epoxy garage floor coating

A problem arose when I started looking at how to add a ceiling/attic area so I could properly insulate the area and have a place to store the house's hurricane boards.



Uh, this thing didn't meet any kind of code. The ceiling joists were spaced as much at 48 inches apart with 2x12s, and code specifies spacing around 16-24 inches. At 48 inches apart, the joists could not support enough weight for an attic to be built, and the joists would not be able to support a ceiling without the ceiling material bowing. I had several carpenters look at the joists with shock and say they had never seen anything like it. One area of the roof sagged where the previous owner had stored some boards on the joists- not a good sign.

This site helped a lot in figuring out what to do with this problem. I had to have a ceiling if I wanted to properly vent and insulate the area, and any ceiling would add weight that the current structure couldn't hold. And all ceiling materials (plywood, sheetrock, foam board) need more support than the current ceiling joists had in order to prevent sagging. GJ member wbrian63, who has an awesome shop build thread, helped me figure out a few ways of dealing with my joist issue. But then my father jumped in and gave me a house warming gift- two carpenters to add the necessary ceiling joists and to build a ceiling. They would also add a 9x12 room in the garage, cut holes for my A/C, and finish the walls.



Say hello to the carpenters.



Heres the 9x12 room with an A/C and a new doggie door for my pups. About the A/C- I spent a lot of time researching window units, portable units, and the mini-split systems. My idea was to use some system to dehumidify the main 800ft area of the garage and knock the temps down to the mid 85s during the day when I'm at work. I then wanted an second a/c for the small room to keep the dogs nice and cool. Try as I might to justify the mini-split systems, I just couldn't. Many don't meet the SEER ratings needed to qualify for the tax rebates, and when you really get into the details of EER and SEER ratings, window unit is almost as efficient as a mini split. Yet mini splits were twice the cost and require professional installation. So I went with a 18000BTU Kenmore AC/heater and a 5200BTU Kenmore AC from Sears. Added warranties so I don't have to worry about their reliability. Work fine so far. Heres the 240V 18000BTU unit:



Heres the ceiling after the carpenters installed the additional ceiling joists (lighter colored wood) and the 1x4 strips to support the ceiling.



Plywood was installed to the 1x4's. In retrospect, it would have been a lot faster to have installed sheetrock, but at the time I was thinking about how much easier it would be to hang lights and other things from the ceiling not having to worry about finding my joists to screw into.

 

[mastiff0]

While the carpenters were working, I hired a family friend to do the electrical work. He was . . . not so reliable. Ended up not showing up with stuff half way done, and I desperately searched for someone to finish installing a subpanel and running the additional cable runs before the carpenters finished the walls. I would then wire all of the outlets and lights. Heres my subpanel:




The subpanel is on a 60A main breaker. Dedicated breakers for the fridge, A/C, welder, compressor, and lift (in the future I hope). Then I have multiple lines for the lights, wall outlets, and ceiling outlets. It was pretty easy filling up my subpanel. Currently most of my tools (compressor, welder) run on 120V, but we used thicker gauge wire so these lines can easily be converted to 240V later on when I get more robust equipment.

While the ceiling and electrical work was being done on the weekend, I worked on smaller projects during the week like the garage door insulation. Did some research on this (I'm an engineer, so I do research on everything), and came to the conclusion that the old school 3M fiberglass insulation kit would work better than a radiant better kit for a garage door. In fact, I called a company that sold all three types of kits (fiberglass, radiant barrier, and foam insulation), and they said that the fiberglass kit is the way to go. Easy install, looks decent, and definitely made a difference.



I don't have pictures of the wall installation, but I used R-13 batting with OSB over it. Again, sheetrock would have been faster, but now I don't have to worry about knocking holes in my wall accidentally. Installing the batting was time consuming because my studs were not consistently spaced, so I had to do a lot of custom cutting. I was also pretty **** about not leaving air pockets around electrical sockets or behind electrical wiring. After the sockets were wired up, I went back and sprayed expanding foam around the socket boxes as well.

After the ceiling was completed, I used some leftover plywood to add a partial attic flooring in the new attic. Heres the attic entrance - positioned so I don't have to move my cars to get into the attic:



I used R30 fiberglass batting for the areas of the attic that I floored. For the remaining sections, I used the Atticat blown in insulation system that you can rent from Home Depot. With the help of a friend I was able to blow in 12 bags of insulation in about 90 minutes. Really easy system to use.



The garage only had 1 whirly bird for ventillation, and no sofit vents for inlet ventilation. From some websites, I calculated that I would need 8 soffit vents, but the 1 whirly bird would probably be enough for my outlet ventilation. I installed the soffit vents and then soffit vent baffles so my new insulation would not blocks the vents. This garage has a hip roof, and getting to the soffits from the attic to add the soffit vent baffles was a much bigger challenge than the actual insulation install.

 

[mrb]

are you going to decorate it with a nasa theme? (60s nasa look would be awesome)

 

[Bib Overalls]

Nice. I like what you are doing. Please keep the pictures coming. We like pictures.

 

[mastiff0]

All of this work was done in a lead up to doing the garage floor. I heard that for an epoxy coating, it needed to be applied and allowed to cure at temps under 85-90 degrees, which eliminates many months in Texas. So I needed both my electrical finished so I had 240V for my A/C, and the ceiling/insulation completed so I could keep the garage cool.

Everyone on this site freaked me out about doing proper prep work to get good results with the epoxy coating. Everyone who had previously owned the house were handymen, and the garage floor showed. There was glue/lacquer/paint spotting the entire surface. The concrete was also not consistent on texture- some areas were very smooth and almost polished while others were wavy as if they had been troweled haphazardly. This, along with the many differing opinions on various brands of epoxy coating had me very confused.

I decided I would use Quickrete Bondlok to clean/degrease the concrete, and would then use one of the epoxy kits that I could get locally from Lowes, HD, or Costco. I set a deadline for myself on when I would get the floor done- I still hadn't gotten my garage in my old house cleaned out, and this could not happen until I finished the flooring. I bought a pressure washer, Bondlock, and Muratic acid, and went to work on the floor. What I thought would take one day ended up taking days and days. I was determined to not have an epoxy floor that would peel up in 2 years, so I made sure that I removed every oil spot and paint spec. What stains resisted the bondlock and degreasers were hit with my angle grinder and my HF diamond cup grinder wheel. You could only use that for about 20 seconds before you were blinded by the dust. This all took some time.

After all that work, I didn't think the bondlock had etched the concrete enough, so I did all 1000ft again with acid. At this point my wife informed me that she didn't want to spend a few successive afternoons with me and my temper applying the actual epoxy coatings, and I realized that our marriage would probably last longer if I didn't force her to do so. So I found a local company that did epoxy coatings for garages and used a nice 3-coat primer/base epoxy/clear coat product. I inquired about the price, and because I had done all of the prep work, they quoted me $500 plus the cost of the epoxy for a warrantied installation. $500 for a happy marriage- sold!

When the crew came over to lay down the epoxy, they commented that I had the cleanest concrete they had ever seen. Doh! I spent way too much time cleaning that concrete.

Heres the before shot:


And the after shots:




The color is a charcoal with a navy blue/gray/black flakes. The color actually looked very dark until the clear coating was applied. It looks very good, though the varying surface texture that my floor had prevented it from having that smooth as glass look. Nothing would have helped that besides sanding the entire thing.

 

[wtfovr]

Nice space. What do you plan to do in there (mechanic work, wood work, etc)? I have a 26x37 and would love it to be as well laid out as that is.

You need some misc. space shuttle parts laying around for decor.

 

[mastiff0]

Nice space. What do you plan to do in there (mechanic work, wood work, etc)?

I mostly do automotive stuff- have a 72 corvette and a 67 VW Beetle Convertible (wifes car) that constantly need attention. But I want to make sure I have the tools and space to do some woodworking too. I've started accumulating welders and other equipment so I can get into metalworking as well. I always have a lot of things I want to build, so I want to be able to build near anything in that garage.

I'll post pics of the complete garage and my cars tomorrows.

 

[jwillis]

Was Jack Nicholson one of the astronauts who lived there? I saw that movie!! I cried when Debra Winger died in the end. Only kidding of course. ....... But, it isn't that unusual to see older buildings that have 2x12s with wider space between ceiling rafters and joists. Even though four feet might be a bit far apart for them. You have to remember- they're 2x12s not 2x4s. Years ago when they did this- a lot of times they didn't have plywood for roofing either. They used 3/4' or 1" slats for the roofing. So 16 inches wasn't always the code until they started cheapening they measurements in wood. i.e. a 2x4 changed to 1 1/2" X 3 1/2", etc. My shooting club has 2x12s for the roof rafters and they are spaced a lot farther apart than the now day code of 16". It was built in 1947. But, good job with the house. You are really doing a super job.

 

[andersen24]

Awesome garage, and you had me rolling with the "I'm an engineer, so I do research on everything" line. But I will tell you what, it is amazing what a little time on the internet, blogs (such as this) and phone can do for you! Great job and looking forward to the rest of your build out!

 

[jwillis]

I just measured the "joists" in the garage where I live now. My parents had this house built in 1951. The garage has actual 2x4 rafters supporting the roof that has 3/4" slat boards for the roof. But there are only two 2x8s running the length of the garage and it is a single car garage. So they are probably four feet apart and about twenty some odd feet long. Their purpose was mainly to support the outside walls from separating iinstead of being used for ceiling or floor joists. But if you are going to put in a floor/ceiling, you are doing the right thing but closing in the space between them. Good job.

 

[Falcon67]

Nice work! Debra Winger was in space? I missed that movie. For reference, the outer shed here was built in who-knows-when. It's 16w x 22L. It uses 2x6s for joists spaced 4' OC with 2x4 rafters. It's in fine shape, code or no code. I added a couple of extra joists for support. Code is definitely better.

 

[mastiff0]

Now the lighting. I used one of the free software programs to calculate lighting requirements and was pretty shocked at how much lighting was "necessary." I created a layout that would put 2 dual-4ft fixtures in the dog room and 15 in the main room, positioned so they would illuminate engine bays and workbenches. I attempted to get some 4' T8 fixtures at a local electric supply store, but the cost for industrial quality lights with reflectors was just too high compared to what I could get at the big box stores. I ended up getting some Lithonia C232-120-GESBs from Home Depot. These are "residential" T8 4' long ceiling mount fixtures. I wanted to go with some hanging fixtures with reflectors, but I realized that the hanging fixtures would cause clearance issues with my garage door and would most likely be shattered from time to time by 2x4s or shop tools.

These ***-GESB fixtures are supposed to have better ballasts than those normal shoplights, and should allow you to use a radio without interference. Well, just like a lot of others on this forum, that wasn't the case. I didn't even think of testing out the lights with a radio on until I had installed the 15th one. Crazy static. Fortunately, the ballast company Accupro has great customer service. What I think happens is that, even though these are "residential" fixtures, Lithonia is installing "commercial ballasts" (read high noise ballasts that work at 0 degrees) in them. If you call Accupro and complain, they will gladly send you different ballast that have less noise but only work at temps above 32F. Despite the inconvenience, I think this is still the cheapest way of getting good florescent lights.

 

[mastiff0]

Here are some general shots of the entire garage.




You can see I have my 72 vette in there, as well as a pretty rare 67 VW beetle convertible that I have to my wife as a gift. Its a manual, which means she's never driven it, but its really fun to drive. Actually, I get more waves and thumbs-up and pictures taken when I'm driving around the bug than when I'm driving around the vette.



You can see that I'm a fan of pegboard. I think their are two types of people when it comes to organization. Some like the sterile clean look where everything is hidden behind cabinets. Others are only effective organizing stuff if everything is visible and not hidden. Thats me. While it may look like clutter to some, this is a shop, not a hospital or clean room, and I need to be able to see my tools to remember where I put them. I used the durahooks for the pegboards- they contain a screw so the pegboard hooks don't fall off, and they work really well.



I'm also a big fan of putting things on casters so you can move them out of the way. I added casters to the harbor freight woodworking bench I got on sale, as well as the scrap wood bin that the previous owner left me.


Heres the corner where I'm housing the air compressor, air tools, welder, and clamps. I got this welder and welding table, complete with vise, bench grinder, and sheet metal brake for $300 bucks off of craigslist. I got some ideas from this site to create my air tool holder, which is a lot better than stuffing them in a drawer somewhere.

 

[mastiff0]

The thing I'm currently working on is workbenches for the garage. The previous owner left me with a few, but nothing really worth keeping. The first one I built was for the dog room. This is where I plan to do small, clean projects like soldering and such. So I didn't need a heavy workbench, but I needed something that could fit over my dogs large kennels. I needed something 38" tall with no front bracing so I could slide their kennels underneath. Heres what I ended up with:



I made this out of scrap 2x4's with a top made from two sheets of 1/2" OSB and a layer of white board on top because its water resistant. Its actually very sturday. And the dogs don't mind the room, so I'm satisfied.

This is what I've completed so far. Near-term I plan on building a few more workbenches and upgrading my toolchest to something nicer. I also have a large storage cabinet coming next week where I can store paint cans and chemicals that need to be out of the way. After that I need to run air compressor lines to various parts of the garage. Long-term I would like to add a sink, a lift, and move the compressor outside. I'll post back to this thread when I make changes. Thanks for the views guys!

 

[mastiff0]

I just measured the "joists" in the garage where I live now. My parents had this house built in 1951. The garage has actual 2x4 rafters supporting the roof that has 3/4" slat boards for the roof. But there are only two 2x8s running the length of the garage and it is a single car garage. So they are probably four feet apart and about twenty some odd feet long. Their purpose was mainly to support the outside walls from separating iinstead of being used for ceiling or floor joists. But if you are going to put in a floor/ceiling, you are doing the right thing but closing in the space between them. Good job.

There is definitely different requirements for joint spacing depending on span, board size, and whether it is designed for support an attic (dead load) or just support the walls (live load only). From the info I found on current codes, even ceiling joists that are designed to only support the walls and no ability to support dead load are supposed to be spaced closer than 48". I'm sure with older houses this was not the case, but my house isn't that old.

 

[mastiff0]

are you going to decorate it with a nasa theme? (60s nasa look would be awesome)

Hah, I have actually been following the NASA government auctions to see if I can snag some of there lab equipment- they use a lot of Vidmar cabinets in that machine shop/lab blue that I would love. No luck so far.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Very nice!

My personal dog-with-a-bone issue is paint. Any plans to cover up that OSB?

 

[jerseywild]

Very nice!

My personal dog-with-a-bone issue is paint. Any plans to cover up that OSB?

Let me guess, green would look nice.

 

[mastiff0]

Very nice!

My personal dog-with-a-bone issue is paint. Any plans to cover up that OSB?

I had thought about this, but haven't looked into details as to successful techniques (ie type of primer, roller or gun). I've seen some garages with that rustic woodshop look that look great with the exposed OSB, but at somepoint I think I will cover it with something.

Your garage is awesome BTW Jack. I used your shop and mtneer man's various Flickr shop picture collections as places to get ideas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtneer_man/sets/72157594474602738/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtneer_man/sets/72157594298589585/

His "organized clutter" shops are a 180 from your garage, but both of ya'lls setups employ very ingenious and cost-effective ways of storing and organizing things.

 

[ZRX61]

Is that one of the homes they gave away for free to the original astronauts?

 

[mastiff0]

Is that one of the homes they gave away for free to the original astronauts?

Naw, it was only built in 1996. There are a lot of astronauts, and many never get to fly a mission. The house was built for Don McMonagle, who was an astronaut on the STS-39, STS-54, and STS-66 (STS is a shuttle launch, standing for Space Transportation System). The second owner was Terry Hart, who flew on STS-41C.

 

[wbrian63]

Well done, sir - well done!

Lighting cannot be understated. Congrats on taking the time to do it right. I read somewhere that a 40 year old needs twice as much light as a 30 year old does, and being nearly 50 myself, I'd believe it.

There is no joy to be had in painting OSB. You'll remember the issues I had with mine and all the delamination problems. Possibly if I had used an oil-based primer, things might have gone better, but I'm not confident of that. Even the sheets once installed showed visible chip delamination - and that was before paint.

If you can - paint the ceiling. That will make a 2-fold improvement in the light dispersion, especially since you are using open-bulb fixtures. Paint it white, and no less than semi-gloss for sheen and you'll be surprised at the increase in "apparent" light.

I love the look of the floor. That's something I'd like to do in the residential garage some day.

I saw those garage door insulation kits at Home Depot on Black Friday. I won't sadden you by revealing how cheap they were on sale....

I've yet to finish the insulation of the door at the shop, despite having had the materials for nearly 6 months... I did finally get the rusty door frame painted a nice bright machine blue a few days ago, and now we can install the gaskets on the outside. Our doors face north, and the recent cold snap has really shown how badly we need those gaskets.

From how I first saw it to now - congratulations again. Double congrats on having a wife that understands how important it is to not have a husband constantly "under foot."

I look forward to future updates, and don't hesitate to call me for an on-site inspection in the heat of the summer or dead of winter now that you have A/C and Heat in the shop...

 

[Falcon67]

Nice space. I'm watching the NASA auctions too, it's only a 6 hour drive down to your area.

My wife would go nuts for a stick shift convertible bug. A very cool ride.

 

[mastiff0]

Nice space. I'm watching the NASA auctions too, it's only a 6 hour drive down to your area.

My wife would go nuts for a stick shift convertible bug. A very cool ride.

I just went to the NASA building that houses all the excess/surplus items to get an idea of what will come to auction in the future. Unfortunately, no vidmars. Most of it is pallets of stuff that is sold to people as scrap metal, especially electronic equipment that is stripped for various things. Even when there is something interesting like some strong cabinets, you are bidding on a lot of 6 of them, with couple pieces of scrap/junk thrown in as well. Hard to find a deal that is worth it, even if you live close.

 

[prone2xl]

Love your progress. Any updates !?

 

[driftpin]

"Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do"

 

[meathooker]

"Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do"

Haha

It would be cool to see if he’s still at it in this garage

 

[mastiff0]

I still have the house. Its been a long time, so the garage is very messy now. The big addition has been a 4ftx4ft CNC router table. Takes up a big chunk of space and creates an aweful lot of dust, even with dust collection.

Unfortunately, a growing family has prevented much work on the garage for many years now. What little garage time I have is spent building projects, not building a workspace to build projects.