A(nother) Swedish garage

[ypzilon]

I've been hanging around here for a while and read about others garages, but now I think it's time to start a thread about my own garage.

It all started in 2006 when I had it with rented garage where I couldn't do as I wanted, so my wife and I bought a plot. Late in 2007 we started building our house (bad timing as our first son was about six month old at the time).
I built the house by my self with help from friends and my father, we did everything exept the foundation and tiles in the bathrooms.

The summer of 2008 we built the outside of the garage (the house wasn't nearly finished at this time) but it was first a couple of month ago I started with the inside of the garage.

The garage is about 12m long and 4.5m wide (~39x15').

 

[ypzilon]

Here it starts:

Sadly I always seems to forget to take pictures, so here is next picture of the garage:

It's about four years between the pictures, the one above is about right before I started with the inside.

Here's the most of the first layer of insulation in the roof and on the walls in place, this was huge step. Now I could have some heat in the garage:

It's not fun to work in a garage when the temperature is just some degrees above the outside temperature. I remember one winter when I changed piston ring on a engine and it was -15C (~5F) in the garage!

 

[ypzilon]

Time for drywall in the roof:

Most of the OSB and drywall are up on the walls:

This is how it looks right now, the first round with filler is up:

All OSB and drywall are up, exept from the gable. I'll wait a bit with that wall because I'm gonna put up another garage door.
(The two long pipes sticking out of the wall are for a waterpump to boost the water pressure in the house.)

 

[pals444]

This will be nice
I see it is a relatively long and narrow space. What is the height in there? Any layout sketches / plans for the finished garage?

 

[ypzilon]

The height is about 2.8m to 3.2m.
I would love to have a bigger garage, but I can't get permit to put neither garage or house closer to my boundary than 4.5m and that's exactly what I have in all four directions.
But I shouldn't be unsatisfied, I live on an island and I think maybe only about 20-25% of all houses here has a garage. And most of them are so small you can't work on a car in them.

I had some 3D-renderings and plans, but they aren't up to date because I have changed my mind so many times.
On the high-side I will put a shelf along the whole wall (for storage, air compressor and the waterpump), it will be about 80cm from the roof and about 70cm deep.
In the back end I plan to build an L-shaped workbench along the whole gable and about 4m on one of the long sides. Where will also be overhead cabinets above the workbench.

One day there will also be a scissor lift in the front end of the garage.

 

[pals444]

You have plenty of space It's bigger than mine, anyway.

It's not often one sees a layout like this, so I'm curious to see how You will make use of the space. A long overhead shelf sounds perfect, and keeping the long walls fairly clean in working height should provide more then enough width.

Just wondering: If You are planning to have a scissor lift in the front of the garage, will it not need to be an in-floor lift? Otherwise You wont be able to have a car in the back of the garage. You have a heated floor I see, so that can be an issue. Considering the limited height, I would go for a smaller moveable lift. But maybe that is Your plan?

Keep up the good work, and looking forward to updates

 

[ypzilon]

The lift will be lowered into the floor. I will skip the heated floor and install a air to air heat pump instead.

 

[ypzilon]

Haven't been much progress in the garage lately, work and family takes the most of the time.
I also bought a new boat, it ran about 10 miles before:

I'm not very pleased with the seller...

But something has happend in the garage, my father has put on the first layer of paint and I've started with the shelf. Soon I'll be able to put away some things so I can move around a little more freely in the garage.

 

[dubber]

Looking forward to seeing this. As the last swedish garage was spectacular Also love the dub content (cabrio, a mk3 variant and not the mention the sweet mk1 in your avatar)

 

[ypzilon]

It's about time for a update, it's been a while but I haven't done so much with the garage.
The top shelf is almost done and I have got up some wall cabinets.

I have put the air compressor on the shelf and it is wired through the motion sensor and a timer (I don't wanna wake the family or the neighbours).
Previously, I always had to plug it in when I needed it, but it's nice to always have compressed air available.
In the future I will replace the plastic wheels with soft rubber pads and build a box around the compressor to bring down the volume.

 

[SBogaCH]

Your Garage is looks great! Is WV Golf mk3 Variant and Cabrio yours?

 

[crille_hallden]

Hej!

Välkommen!

Vad använde du för hårdhet på cellplast skivorna? Jag har S100.
Planerar att sänka plattan där jag skall ha en saxlyft (grop) och där gjuta direkt på makadam...

Jag lägger ut mina lager imorgon och armering innan helgens ****. Jag öppnar en tråd inom ett par veckor.

Må väl!

Hello!

Welcome!

What did you use for the hardness of the foam boards? I have S100.
Plans to cut the plate where I should have a scissor lift (pit) and where i will cast directly on macadam ...

I put out my foam bords tomorrow and reinforcement before the weekend's over. I open a thread in a few weeks.

Best regards

 

[ypzilon]

Your Garage is looks great! Is WV Golf mk3 Variant and Cabrio yours?

Thanks, they where mine. I sold the variant a couple of years ago and I sold the cabrio just a couple of month ago.
Now I just own a VW Passat 2,0TFSI -07 and a Golf LS -75, a Golf GTi -80 and a Golf GTi -82. =)

Hello!
Welcome!

What did you use for the hardness of the foam boards? I have S100.
Plans to cut the plate where I should have a scissor lift (pit) and where i will cast directly on macadam ...

I put out my foam bords tomorrow and reinforcement before the weekend's over. I open a thread in a few weeks.

Best regards

I also used S100. As you can see on my pictures I laid pipes for floorheating but I will not use them because I want a flush mounted scissor lift. But why do it the right way at once. =)
The garage don't need much heating, right now I'm using a 5kW electric heater, maybe I'll put in a air-to-air heatpump in the future.

I really think you should have some foam under the lift to avoid condensation. There will not be much air ciruculation down there and with no insulation it will be the coldest place in the garage.

 

[Bib Overalls]

You say "new" boat. Do you mean "new to you?" It looks like the head gasket had been leaking for a long time and the crack in the piston does not look fresh. You may have bought a boat but you got a bomb with a ten mile fuse.

 

[ypzilon]

Yes, the boat was new for me.
When I took the boat for a test drive, it made 31mph with me and the seller onboard.
The first ride at home it made 28mph with me alone. The next ride it just made 24mph with me and my family (they weight about was much a the seller).
The fourth ride I came just about a mile before I noticed something was wrong, after that it had no power and made about 5mph at WOT.
I drove home at idle and home I tested the compression which it was zero at the top cylinder.

 

[ypzilon]

It's about time for an update on the garage, but it's so messy right now so you have to wait a couple of days more.

I thought that I could show one of my toys instead:

It's a Crescent/Monark 1189, probably from mid 70's.
The original 1hp, 2-stroke 49cc, 3-speed engine has been replaced with a china-made 7.5hp, 4-stroke 107cc, 4-speed engine.
Top speed is about 65kmh/40mph and the roadability is about zero.

It needs some TLC, but it works perfect and is very handy for trips around the island. It's not street legal at all because of the engine, but the police visit our island very seldom.

Perfect to run timber with:

Fishing trip:

Or transporting a boat motor (my friends moped):

 

[ypzilon]

There's not much progress with the garage, to many customer cars in it.
But sometimes something happens. I finally ordered a scissor lift.
It was a pita to get it into the garage (it weighs 850kg) , but once in place I really love it.

As soon as I get some time, I will lower it into the floor.
As it is now, I stumble on it all the time.

 

[50fordbob]

I like these posts from other countries. The methods and styles are interesting to me. It is good to see there are car/shop guys all over the world. Thanks! Bob

 

[ypzilon]

I got a new garage door, a little bigger than the old one so I had to open up the wall a little. But when it was time mount the tracks I saw that they sent me tracks for torsion springs, but I must use extension springs. So for two weeks waiting for the right tracks I had to use a tarp as garage door. =(

But finally the right tracks showed up and the new garage door came up:

Old one:

The old door had an effective opening about 2,3 meters wide and 2 meters high, the new one is 2,7 by 2,7 meter. I really love the extra width.

Next project is to mount a door next to the garage door is I don't have to use the garage door every I walk in and out.

 

[404]

ypzilon,

Very nice garage you have. I have some questions about the construction if you don't mind because it is so different from where I am.

The metal net mesh you put in the concrete seems very thick, is that normal or did you choose stronger material?

The drain pipes look brown or copper color, are these plastic?

What comes into your garage through the yellow pipe coming out of the ground?

The siding is what we call board and batten but yours is much nicer with the spacers behind it. Are your window frames normally so deep to fill the space between the inside of the house and the outside? In other words is this common construction or something special?

How deep did you dig down and fill with the stones, and what is your normal depth of frost or ice in the ground in the winter? I am wondering if the building floats on the stones in the winter.

Thank you,
404

 

[ypzilon]

The mesh is standard, think it was 150x150mm and 6mm diameter.

The drainpipe is made of PVC.

It's the houses mains cable that runs in the yellow pipe.
The meter box is inside the garage, it's not by the code. But the electric company doesn't come so often and I can blame that there wasn't a garage there when I put up the meter box. =)

 

[sean Buick 76]

It needs some TLC, but it works perfect and is very handy for trips around the island. It's not street legal at all because of the engine, but the police visit our island very seldom.

Or transporting a boat motor (my friends moped):

I love it!!! LOL

 

[ypzilon]

Long time since last post, but here's an update on the latest project.

I do a lot of things in the garage without a car on the scissor lift so I wanted the lift flushed to the floor. It was much more work than I thought but now I'm almost done.

 

[ypzilon]

 

[dubber]

That will be an awesome upgrade!

 

[ypzilon]

I really hope so, it wasn't funny and it's dust all over the garage from cutting the concrete. =)

I'm afraid I f*cked earlier today. I put on a thin layer of self leveling screed (correct word?). The first pit went just fine, but when I mixed the screed for the second one it seemed a little loose/thin. Now a couple of hours later, the first pit is matte, almost dry and start to show lighter spots. The second pit is still very wet and shiny.
Hope it will be ok tomorrow.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice work, the flush mounted lift will be great!

 

[JoniH]

Topp job, eller hur säger man?

Nice work, is that a Qishida scissor lift, the control unit looks like one?

I hope i can get one myself this summer, i'm just annoyed about the pricing on those here.. Overseas you can get one for maybe 1600-1700e and here the cheapest one with 2 meters lift capacity i found costs 2800e for the flush mounted version..

 

[ypzilon]

Thanks.

I bought mine from www.anabint.com (Swedish company), it cost some more, but I wanted Swedish warranty and a quick delivery.
It's made in China, I don't know which brand it is, but the model MFC-100.

 

[ypzilon]

The plan was to put the power pack on a shelf, for that I needed longer hoses so I went to a local hydraulic company and bought three new ones.
Back home it turned out that it was pretty tough to put the new ones and the old ones together and with the last coupling I damaged the threads.
At the company it turned out that they gave me hoses with wrong type of couplings and didn't had or where able the get the right ones. They gave me JIC (unf) but the old ones were JIS (bsp).

So I came up with a new idea:

So, now everything is working again and all that remains is to rebuild the wall and get a better finish on the floor around the lift.

 

[ypzilon]

After a painful visit to the dentist this morning, I felt that I needed a reward. So I bought me a new tool cart. =)
The old one is so weak that every part of it bends or falls apart.

The new one weighs in at 65 kg and takes 385 kg load. It feels really solid.

 

[Trey T]

In-floor lifts are very cool. I'm curious why you didn't modify the lift pad to remove the ends (ramps)?

 

[ypzilon]

I think the ramps are good for bigger cars, but if I get tired of them I can remove them and mount a steel plate there instead.


Today I added a pegboard to the tool cart.
Now I just need to buy some hooks and socket holders.