Recent content by happy2rv

My building department required a site plan, building plan, and any engineering drawings. I drew up a site plan and building plan in 3D home architect and took that to the truss manufacturer, an extension of a local lumber yard. They took my drawings and created the engineered truss drawings...

What's the motivation? Neater appearance? Better organization? Safer installation? All of the above? I used to never give wall worts a second thought, but with all of the fires lately, I've started giving it some thought. I'm not paranoid or anything, but I used to charge my phones on my...

A quick google search turned up another site where someone was looking for the same thing. No one had an answer to where to get them, but some good discussions on alternatives...

Definitely not enough information for anyone to offer much useful perspective. Based on what's been provided so far, the best answer I can think of is Google "fold down workbench" or "fold down workbench plans." You will get lots of results from miniature prefab tables to massive steel work...

To me, it's a question of do you want to spend money on conduit or closing the walls. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. I decided early on that I was going to cover my walls with OSB so I didn't even consider conduit. The OSB is functional and I kind of like the way it looks. The...

It should work. Here's a link to the installation requirements. The minimum clearance is 8" between the sidewall and the end of the torsion bar. They are pretty compact units. You would have to re-route power to it though.

If you are using armored cable, did you use the plastic anti short bushings at every connection? They aren't necessarily required by NEC, but I've seen way too many connections where armored cable gets clamped in without one and the cladding nicks the insulation causing a short...

I think CFL bulbs are still cheaper than LED in higher lumen output. For instance, I think a 100W equivalent CFL at Lowe's is around $7 while the same thing in an LED is around double that. It looks like they also have 150W eq CFL for around $10. I don't know how they would do in extremely...

That's looks pretty impressive. Not necessarily cheap, but much brighter. You could put up the keyless fixtures with a mixture of cheaper 100W equivalent LED bulbs and a few of these mixed in and have really decent lighting. Then, as money permits add a few at a time as/where needed. The...

I've done the keyless fixtures with CFL's in my 26x32 detached and it has worked pretty well for me. You can see a picture in this thread. I did 21 ceiling boxes fairly evenly spaced. I have 6 4' fluorescent fixtures at one end, 2 LED floodlights and the rest are 100W equivalent CFL's. As...

I'm not sure if you would have to trench the concrete or if you could run conduit from the wall that's close by, assuming the gap is small enough that it would be a trip hazard. You might also be able to drop conduit from the ceiling. Not sure about gas though. Since this is going to be...

There's a lot left to the imagination here. I'm not sure there is a "best" way for all circumstances. Some of the answers depend on what's important to you and some depend on code. I believe there is a code requirement, at least in the latest building code, that living space be stepped up...

Yeah, definitely wouldn't buy you much for storage, unless you're storing a sports car. Google says average car height is right at 5'. So, You could only raise a 5' car 5' before it hits the ceiling, this assumes no obstructions (don't forget light bulbs/fixtures). That would leave around 4...

Pictures are working now. The only thing I can think of is, for me, wood shop and car shop don't really go together. Although I've done light wood work in my garage it makes a mess and gets all over everything. If you're going to do any significant wood working, I would consider dust...

Pictures still aren't working, so I can't say much about the layout. With regards to the lift, it won't help for using a lift for storage, but if you install a jack shaft opener instead of a traditional opener, you can use a lift for working on vehicles. Pull in on the lift, lower the door...