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5mall5nail5's Modest 2-car Clean-up and Setup

5mall5nail5

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May 23, 2010
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Location
Bucks County, PA
So my wife and I purchased our first home in July and we're finally getting semi situated enough such that I can start cleaning up the garage. I am moving out of my parents ~2002 3-car attached garage to my 1978 2-car(oversize) attached garage. Here are some images of where I was coming from:


A welcomed sight by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

It should be noted that my parents traditionally fill their garages up with junk. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I really cleaned out their garage to make enough room to pull one car in. One to two bays was my tools/work area, the third was their area for storage. Since I maintained all of our vehicles (and cleaned the garage routinely) no one cared that I slowly took over 2/3 of the garage.

My wife and I bought a house and settled just about 2 weeks before our wedding (we didn't intend it to be so close! long story..) and the first thing to move was my garage because I figured I couldn't do any home improvement projects without the majority of my tools. We rented a big boy truck because I really needed the lift gate.


Jon Moving by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

So, after my step dad and I made two runs with the truck, I was "moved" from their garage for the most part:


Garage After by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Garage After by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Unfortunately, whilst moving, a storm came down hard the last ~1 hr of unloading the truck. Not that we had a good system going, but it meant that the last 1/3 of the truck basically got "dumped" into my new garage. For this reason, the garage took the back burner to other house stuff. I just dealt with the fact that the majority of my stuff was scattered randomly in the garage and that I couldn't walk from one end to the other - it bugged me though. My wife and I got married, went on a 2 week honeymoon, and then got distracted with some other aspects of life and I had yet to really organize anything. So, today, I decided to put work and personal stuff aside and get something done in the garage. It was a refreshing change.

Here's the garage as the former owner had it (this was taken during our walk through when we put an offer in on the house):


Garage Before by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

As you can see it's your basic 2 car garage with a 48" bump out on the one side (where the fridge is). There's a pole in the middle of the garage, but its in a good spot for opening a car door. There's a beam overhead but it's still a reasonably tall ceiling for an older home. The previous owner loved sticking nails in everything to hang **** and using lame L brackets to put lame MDF shelves up as well. They had a Rubbermaid cabinet along with a junky cabinet, a fridge, etc. that I am removing/throwing away.

Today, I put the Racedeck flooring in that I had at my parents house. I am about 100 tiles short of wall to wall coverage. So, debating on picking that up. Because of the pole, I had to cut a circle in two tiles. Real quick and easy came out decent.


race deck close enough by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

I also found a good spot for my air compressor just need to figure out wiring it and plumbing it. I want to do a few drops around the perimeter once I get the walls setup. Oh, that reminds me, the previous owner stripped some sheet rock down (!?) in some places... or perhaps it was never up? Not sure. Either way, I need to sheet rock two walls (about 10' length floor to ceiling) and install some receptacles and such. Then I'll prime and paint, run air pipe, etc. Here is the compressor location:


awesome compressor spot by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Fortunately it fits in there perfectly. I am going to run an extension cord under the door and trigger it to see how loud it is. I do wonder about ventilation, though.

As an example of the kind of **** I am dealing with, here's a shot of a "shelf" the original owners had up. It was on two L-brackets screwed to the drywall with random types of screws. Ugh.


Buying nails should require a permit by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

The caption is perfect. I've probably removed about 100 nails so far with a couple dozen remaining. They liked to use 4 - 5" long, 1/8" diameter shank nails for hanging **** on. Ugh. Lot of filling to do!

And, finally for this post, I moved my turbo BMW into the garage and threw the cover on. I didn't get a good shot of wall that I stripped down of shelving/nails/cabinets, but I'll get it tomorrow. I am scheduling our local power company to come take that old yucky fridge too. I'll be removing the built-in workbench and placing my HF 44" with side cab over there along with some other stuff (welding table, etc.).


car inside by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Until next time! Lots of work to do! :lol_hitti
 
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Shelbyz4u2nv

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Congrats, I'm excited to see what becomes of your space. I'm a fan of your other projects :)
 
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5mall5nail5

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Bucks County, PA
Thanks :) I hope it's cool in the long run!

A little work has gone on. My wife and I went to sherwin williams today to get paint for the other portions of the house, so I've been redoing our walk in closet today. Hope to get more done on the garage this week.

There was a silly little built in workbench in the one area of the garage. Honestly, it wasn't poorly made considering the other trends I've found around the house - I was impressed with its construction over all. That said, it had to go to make room for real tools.


Workbench removal in process by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Workbench removal in process by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

I also want to set up my Bose speakers they're an old model but are nice 3-way loud speakers with a nice old quality sony receiver. I hooked them up temporarily to get me some tunes going while working and they sound great but the brown wood laminate needed to go.


Speaker painting by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Bose speaker painting by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Bose speaker before/after by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Looking better - now both are finished up and ready to go. Just need to make wall brackets - have something cool in store for that.

With the workbench removed I started spackling the wall. The wall there had an abundance of L-brackets with lame shelving and it looked like the person who hung it used 9 different screws on 20 different brackets and made 8 holes for 3 screws lol - tons and tons of damage in the wall. Thought about pulling it and replacing but figured I'd just spackle.


Garage wall spackle by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Not too bad - have to finish sanding yet and then prime.

Finally, with the wall spackled and the workbench removed I decided to make sure my tool boxes fit. They do!


Tool boxes moved by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

I have to remove the handle from the craftsman base so that the HF box and sit closer to it. I am going to re-insulate and hang drywall where it's missing but first I need to plan out some receptacle boxes. I want to install two or three two-gang boxes near the tool boxes and one 230v line on that wall just in case. I want to do the same on the opposite wall but with one or two 230v lines. For now, a little progress is good enough.
 

dh1

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LOL the shelves, nails and L brackets sounds like what I encountered when I bought my place.

And from the looks of it, now is the time to paint the walls.
 
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5mall5nail5

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LOL the shelves, nails and L brackets sounds like what I encountered when I bought my place.

And from the looks of it, now is the time to paint the walls.

Yeah I don't get why people think nails/L-brackets are the way to go. I removed, seriously, about 100 nails from the walls and theres probably a dozen or two more to go.

I want to paint the walls but I have to hang drywall yet and run electric. Getting there, though.
 
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5mall5nail5

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Nice yeah these 4.2 II's sound great. I looked them up on eBay tonight. I spray painted them without looking ant it looks like people still get $300 - $500 for these. Whoops. Oh well, no intention to sell them and now they're less ugly.
 

SiGmA_X

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Nice yeah these 4.2 II's sound great. I looked them up on eBay tonight. I spray painted them without looking ant it looks like people still get $300 - $500 for these. Whoops. Oh well, no intention to sell them and now they're less ugly.
They look FAR better now, I wouldn't worry about any 'loss of value', especially when you're keeping em! :evil:

Now where is that OCD of yours hiding :D
 
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5mall5nail5

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They look FAR better now, I wouldn't worry about any 'loss of value', especially when you're keeping em! :evil:

Now where is that OCD of yours hiding :D

Haha my OCD is only mildly hindered by time available. Painting our master bedroom closet and all right now.

5mall5nail5... well isn't that a familiar name... :shifty

Well well well... :shifty :D
 

crepr12

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Have fun setting up your new garage...ref the Bose speakers how close are your neighbors?
 
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5mall5nail5

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Have fun setting up your new garage...ref the Bose speakers how close are your neighbors?

Neighbors are not too close but I respect people, too. I didn't keep them around for their size or volume but the quality of sound. They have a full sound with a lot of mid and bass - much nicer than any boom box type setup would allow for. I was thrilled when I had them temporarily hooked up the other day.

I went over to the electric supply house here to grab 20' of 6/2 Romex (w/ gnd), an outlet, a box, faceplate, and breaker. They had everything but the breaker because I needed 50A - had 40A. They're getting that in tomorrow.


240v invoice by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

$47 + I think $8 for the breaker. So under $60 for everything to install a 240v 50A line. Fantastic.
 

Hugo L.

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Québec City
Nice job on those 301s. I've always liked these speakers. I have a set of 1977 Series II at home. Powered by an old *** Marantz 2226B (1977 as well), they still sound crisp as hell and beat the **** out of so-called modern, more powerful systems.
 
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5mall5nail5

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Nice job on those 301s. I've always liked these speakers. I have a set of 1977 Series II at home. Powered by an old *** Marantz 2226B (1977 as well), they still sound crisp as hell and beat the **** out of so-called modern, more powerful systems.

They do sound really good. Much better than needed in a garage, but I've lived for so long with a little radio atop a fridge so at least now I'll have better than that. Makes me want to put a nice TV in there now lol.

I am working on a design for some nice welded aluminum speaker mounts.
 

Hugo L.

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They do sound really good. Much better than needed in a garage, but I've lived for so long with a little radio atop a fridge so at least now I'll have better than that. Makes me want to put a nice TV in there now lol.

I am working on a design for some nice welded aluminum speaker mounts.

Agreed on all counts. With TVs being so thin nowadays, putting one there, even if it's just to have Speed or some home improvement channel or whatever playing in the background, makes sense.

Plus, you can get one of those smart TVs and surf Garage Journal while you're in your garage.

 
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5mall5nail5

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Agreed on all counts. With TVs being so thin nowadays, putting one there, even if it's just to have Speed or some home improvement channel or whatever playing in the background, makes sense.

Plus, you can get one of those smart TVs and surf Garage Journal while you're in your garage.


Yeah I know - I recently bought two LG LA6900's (55 and 47) and the smart tvs are awesome. Trying to pretend I don't want to do it though - I need to buy more garage stuff first.
 
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5mall5nail5

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Some updates!

I've been working on other parts of the house and of course this weekend was Labor Day so we had a big bbq last night which was fun. I woke up this morning and started sanding the spackle and primed some of my garage walls and ceiling. When that became boring I started installing the 8' Lithonia fixture I got from Home Depot. I have (2) 8' units and (2) 4' units to install. So far I have the one over the closest area to the house.

I had (3) 60w porcelain bulb fixtures in place originally. I went up and wanted to try and simplify the mess in the central box for the lights since the person who wired them seemed to want to make a huge mess. I disconnected all of the wiring in the box and then realized I had no idea how it went. The master bedroom recessed lighting is hanging off of this circuit as well (fortunately its just the garage lights and master bedroom recessed lights on the same circuit) and that combined with the switches and such... I was confused. Here's what I started with:


Untitled by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Fortunately I discovered that my attic for the garage goes over the entire area of the garage and therefore, wiring the other lights and running various circuits is going to be a PLEASURE! Here I am up in the attic locating the wiring in the box below:


Garage attic wiring by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

It really helped being able to see where each wire (there's 5 romex coming into that one box!) went. I removed the two feeds to the other neighboring 60w lights. That put me down to 3 cables and I was able to then better understand what was going on.

After that, I fished some 14/2 over about 18":


Wiring fixture by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

It wasn't soon after that I had the 8' fixture up on the ceiling and the romex through, wired, and getting closer to firing it up:


Lithonia T5HO 8' by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

The end result is a MUCH cleaner center box (putting a plate on it) that makes (some) sense.

Here it is all button up but for the fixture cover on the old 60w box:


Lithonia T5HO 8' by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Maybe I'll get some more patience and finish priming the walls and ceiling later tonight... or... maybe not lol.
 

SiGmA_X

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I totally agree... but want to try and yield to code when possible lol.
Code doesn't specify how many outlets per circuit. You want to split up circuits based on use. Tho honestly, at my little shop with 3-4 guys running air (dedicated 50amp), welder (dedicated 60amp), and bandsaw/grinder (same circuit 20amp) we never ever have issues. Add in a buffer and drop lights on the same circuit as the grinder, no problem. I would never intent to wire a building with so few circuits, but we have zero problems with one 20amp circuit for all our main outlets! Overhead lighting is on another circuit of course, as it almost maxes a 15amp.

Post any Q's you have Jon! GJ is awesome for wiring help. I'd put double outlets in every 36-48".
 
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5mall5nail5

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Thanks Roman GJ has been great for wiring info and help

So today I am doing some more garage wiring.

I am going to add my 4' lights but first I wanted to get started on some receptacles because I need to run a 10/2 in place of a 12/2 for my AC but I need to make some holes in studs to do so, so I figured lets tackle it all at the same time.

I have a two-gang box every 60" and my 50A 6-50R centered on the wall. Measured my plasma and TIG and they have good length cords so it will work fine.


Receptacles by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Little 6/2 vs 14/2 action lol


6/2 vs 14/2 by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

6-50R ready to go


50A by Jon Kensy, on Flickr
 
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5mall5nail5

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Made more progress.

Got the 240v receptacle up:


50A 6-50R receptacle by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Ran the 6/2 cable with nail plates to be careful


50A 240v wiring by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Here you can see the (3) 120v quad receptacles and single 240v receptacle. I ran 12/2 and a 20A breaker for the 120v circuit. The cable hanging from the right hand receptacle is hanging out because I am going to junction it in that outlet and run it up into the attic and over to the other side of the garage for 3 more receptacle sets. I wanted to use the 120v circuit today though so I didn't nut it up yet.

Here is the "man plug" for my welder!


New plug! by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

And finally, the money shot:


Money shot by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

180A is my machines maximum output. When on 120v, the machine only works up to 125A output. So, the extra output will do wonders!

And here is the main panel. I finally got the cover off to check out whats going on inside. Honestly surprised! No double-taps or other weirdness... just the annoying 12/2 circuit for the AC condenser that I need to replace with 10/2... but anyway, it's all hooked up with the 6/2 for the 50A circuit and 12/2 for the 20A 120v circuit. Woo!


Main panel by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Here's a final view from the garage door of all the work I did today. Looks like nothing happened lol, but it took me hours to do. All in all very happy with the out come so far.


Receptacles finished by Jon Kensy, on Flickr
 
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Hugo L.

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Québec City
Sweet! I'm redoing some wiring at home, and I noticed that wires running from the main panel to the light switches or outlets (whichever is closest to the main panel) is 12/2, even though I expected 14/2. Then, if the outlet runs power to the lights, or vice versa, that is wired with 14 gauge.

Anyway, I bought a 250' roll of 12/2, and I have another 100' handy.

The only thing running 10/2, so far, is the water heater.
 
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5mall5nail5

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Hugo - that sounds promising. I think though that it's most common to run the lights on a separate circuit so that if you do trip a breaker your lights don't shut off. Traditionally 14/2 on lighting and 12/2 on 20A receptacle wiring, though I think most newer homes they run 12/2 for every outlet and 14/2 for every light fixture, but I can't be sure. How old is your home?
 

WhiteLightning

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May 23, 2012
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Philadelphia, PA
Most residential homes are wired with 14/2 romex for lighting and receptacle circuits. Some engineers will design the home to have the lights and receptacles on the same circuit, with multiple rooms on one circuit. The kitchen and bathrooms are typically on dedicated circuits, as well as appliances/etc.

Commercial installations (apartments, office buildings, etc) will never see a wire size smaller than 12ga. unless its for control wiring of some sort. In apartment building renovations the lights are typically coupled with the room receptacle circuits much like the residential installation. In office environments, lighting circuits are dedicated since you are trying to feed as many lights as possible with one circuit- think of a large open office setup with hundreds of light fixtures.
 
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5mall5nail5

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WhiteLightning, its basically become the norm for houses to run 12ga for receptacle circuits, too.

Yep - new construction has started using 12/2 for lighting and receptacles.

I feel like I didn't get anything done today, but I guess I did. I hung and wired the remaining two 4' T5HO lights. Anxious to light them up after the sun goes down to see how it looks. I also started sweating pipes together for my air lines. I made 4 of these junctions as "drops". Just need to solder some straight between and then hook up to the main feed from over head.


Plumbing air piping by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Hoping to split it up in the attic and have two drops on the other side of the garage as well.
 

MotecM

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I like the abundance of photos, what are you using to take them? Any after processing?

Are you going to place a drain at each one of your air supply drops?
 
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