Interior Garage Walls - What's best?

[sideways]

Looking for something that is inexpensive, easy to work with (cutting recepticles and switches) and looks good for my new garage walls. Drywall seems to be the standard, but it's messy and hard to work with if you have little experience like me and expensive if you have to pay someone. Suggestions?

 

[tarmy]

One way to get good at something…drywall is not that hard…just labor intensive. I smooth walled my garage a couple years ago. Bought a 200 buck lift for the 5/8” ceiling boards…sold it for 100 after I was done. Saves your back.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, Drywall is very probably the most practical solution.
My two garages are both covered with drywall.

 

[Steve from Socal]

I agree with Tarmy,

I did my garage with drywall and it was not hard to get the hang of it. I like drywall for the look and fire resistance. Steel or wood panels are going to as much work in the end. Drywall is actually easy to fix if you damage it unlike wood or steel.

 

[Shiftless]

Do you have the option of living with it open for a while until you settle on the best spots to put you tools needing electrical hook ups. Do you have a big compressor, drill press, lathe or mill?
Where will your workbench be and how long? Even in this day of cordless tools, you’ll want lots of receptacles on the back wall of your bench for a bench grinder or bench sander. Where to plug in your Dremel? How about plugging in all your chargers?
I rewired my garage with 100% exposed EMT. If you hide all your wires behind drywall, you’d be wise to have a good idea where you want your 120 and 240 volt receptacles.
I put a 120 receptacle near the ceiling over the main workbench so I could plug in my vintage electric wall clock.
How about ceiling light fixtures? Do you know where those will go?

Better get that all in a detailed drawing and wire strung before you cover it up.

 

[BillK]

What are you planning to do in the garage ? Attached or detached ? I did the attached on on our house with inexpensive wood paneling over 40 years ago and it still looks great but it is not used as a workshop. We park 2 cars in it and I have my Amateur Radio setup and electronics bench on one wall.

 

[Ztim]

Both of my garages are drywall walls and ceiling. I prefer the look and especially the fire resistance.

Ztim

 

[tarmy]

Do you have the option of living with it open for a while until you settle on the best spots to put you tools needing electrical hook ups. Do you have a big compressor, drill press, lathe or mill?
Where will your workbench be and how long? Even in this day of cordless tools, you’ll want lots of receptacles on the back wall of your bench for a bench grinder or bench sander. Where to plug in your Dremel? How about plugging in all your chargers?
I rewired my garage with 100% exposed EMT. If you hide all your wires behind drywall, you’d be wise to have a good idea where you want your 120 and 240 volt receptacles.
I put a 120 receptacle near the ceiling over the main workbench so I could plug in my vintage electric wall clock.
How about ceiling light fixtures? Do you know where those will go?

Better get that all in a detailed drawing and wire strung before you cover it up.

This is very important…
You can see I ran a hose reel up high and hide the hose from the compressor in the wall in a conduit so I can service it. Also, those pull boxes are for tree lights and other power outside. I put in extra one as well. Plan all plugs and 30 amp plugs for compressor and welder as well. Don’t forget the opener and lights too.

 

[finn]

House in Illinois had drywall in the garage. I eventually had to replace the lower sheets along one wall because of moisture damage fron snowmelt that dropped off the car. I ran surface mount emt when I needed more outlets.

Az louse has drywall, and, again, surface mount conduit to avoid tearing up the walls when more outlets were deemed necessary ry.

Mi garage is drywall, but I’m covering the lower portion with galvanized barn steel because I like the look. power I’d behind the drywall, which is inappropriate for a shop or garage. Too hard to move outlets.

Shop is painted osb for the first 8 feet, then white steel to the ceiling. Works ok, but hard to keep the rough osb clean. I’ve heard of people doing a flash coat or skim coat of mud to smooth it out. Surface mount electric, except the office and bathroom.

if it’s a parking garage attached to your house, drywall is ok, but think through the power situation, and future proof for electric car chargers.

for a shop, steel upper walls and ceilings, and either drywall with pre installed blocking for mounting things on the wall, or osb. Surface mount power for certain

 

[kngelv]

I think drywall looks like **** in a garage. I don’t want my garage to look like the inside of my house. Tongue in groove sanded pine for me.

James

 

[strength_and_power]

I did steel R panel in my detached shop. Covers and protects the spray foam. I did OSB behind it from 48”-96” for hanging stuff.

 

[johnre]

I recommend you use drywall. You can learn how to do it in the garage, and not worry much about the appearance. You'll get better from this learning experience, and will soon be good enough to do it inside the home.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I think drywall looks like **** in a garage. I don’t want my garage to look like the inside of my house. Tongue in groove sanded pine for me.

James

Same. I have drywall in my attached garage. But for my detached "wrench barn" I went with rough-sawn 1x10 shiplap pine 8' up, and painted OSB for the final 4'.

 

[MushCreek]

I went metal for the first 4', white pegboard for the next 4', and white hardboard for the last 4' for 12' total. No taping, mudding, or painting. That's in a detached shop, though. Our attached garage is poorly finished drywall. I haven't gotten any better at drywall.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Both of my garbages are drywall walls and ceiling. I prefer the look and especially the fire resistance.

Ztim

Man, you got some fancy level garbages!

 

[Crowbarman55]

Most are going to disagree with me but here I go.
In my last garage I had white pegboard on every wall floor to ceiling. You can hang anything anywhere you just have to buy the hooks of cours. Is it for everyone? no, did I love it? yes.
When we moved in July the house has a smaller garage with drywall and I am scrambling to figure out how to hang stuff on the walls.
Second Picture is of the garage on move out day.

Todd

 

[OccupantRJ]

My shop is done in 1/2” BC plywood screwed in place and painted and have never regretted it for one instant, but at the time in 2010 it was $20 a sheet. Now it is $42.25. The added on 8x 20 compressor and hardware/tool storage room is painted drywall, but joint cracks
have appeared I assume due to being non conditioned space and the heat/cool cycles from the compressor summer and winter. The plywood is awesome for hanging heavy items in a workshop environment. The ceiling is 7/16” OSB.

 

[Notgrownup]

I used OSB painted and screwed. I have air lines in the wall and I imagined a busted air line and me cutting out Drywall. lol.

 

[NostraThpmas]

My old house had an attached garage with bedrooms above. Fire code required Drywall and fire doors. Flammable wall covering like plywood or OSB was forbidden. YMMV

 

[firebirdparts]

"Best" to me would be plywood, but it's even harder to work with than sheetrock, and it's combustible. To me that's the best, though. Most useful. Installation is but a day and useful is forever.

 

[Briansshop]

I drywalled the ceiling,but wanted more durability on the walls. 3/8" T-111 was easy.

 

[Lumpy102]

It's my (detached) wood shop, not my house. I did 1/2 inch plywood on walls and ceiling, wood filler in all the knotholes, and painted, primer and 2 coats of latex, white ceiling, 2 tone grey walls, black accent stripe at the electrical, surface mounted all electrical. My thoughts were, its a lot tougher than drywall, a bit of moisture isn't going to affect it, will hold screws, nails, etc. there are very few holes in the vapour barrier, its all screwed on so its easy to remove and replace a sheet for access if required, although I haven't had to in 3 -1/2 years. If I was going to weld in there, I would absolutely cover up 8 feet with steel where I was going to weld, but its my wood shop, and its full of wood, and dust, and shavings, so if its going to burn, its going to burn, drywall is not going to save it.

 

[Jackfre]

I did 1/2” plywood on my walls, 5/8 rock on the ceiling. I set the plywood vertically and screwed it to the studs. I used 4x8 sheets with a 2’er on top. 10‘ were to costly and I like the look of the band at the seam. This worked out well for me when I added the solar. It was simple to unscrew the plywood at the panel, add the appropriate wire and button it back up again. I opened another area when I decided to add a gas drop as well. If you have everything lined out and don’t need to get into the wall then rock is fine, I will ask. Forget anything?

 

[CraigStu]

I did drywall in a 16x22 add-on bay in our previous house. A couple of things that really helped were;
- lay out the sheets to maximise joints where a beveled edge meets another beveled edge
- get the proper sponge for drywall to avoid as much sanding as possible. I tried that after I was so covered w/ dust that my wife said strip to your undies in the garage and brought me a damp towel to clean off my hands and arms. A sponge is a life changer.
- rent a lift for doing the ceiling
- this is personal taste dependent. I tried and tried on some corners and some not beveled edge joints but was not satisfied. So I bought a sheet of 1/4" plywood w/ one nice sanded side and cut a bunch of 8' by 2" or 3" strips. That 22' joint along the ceiling (where the two 8' long drywalls joined to get me my 16ft width) got covered w/ the 3" wide strips. The wall to ceiling joints got covered w/ a 2" on the ceiling and a 3" on the wall. Hey, I had a thin crown molding. I used a fast grab construction adhesive w/ just a few brads to hold in case it wasn't quite fast enough. Painted wall and ceiling a just slightly off white and the strips were hardly noticeable.
- Rent a sprayer. Make sure the sprayer can **** paint right out of a 5gal bucket. Buy a good mask. I started in one corner and worked around doing the ceiling as I went (same color so NO effing edging w/ a brush). By the time I got back to the start point the paint was dry enough to do the second coat. Nice to completely paint a 16x22 room in 2.5 hours.

 

[Ztim]

Man, you got some fancy level garbages!

Ha! Only the best garbage for me!

 

[Ztim]

The working wall

 

[PoorUB]

My garage is dry wall and would do it again with out question. I taped it and sprayed a light texture over it. I did have one wall where my truck was parked against it and eventually the dry wall turned to mush from snow melting and dripping. I cut it up three feet and put in sheets of cement board, mudded the seams with thinset and then glued reinforced fiberglass panels just up to the outlets. That wall will out last me!

My buddy bought a place that the previous owner dry walled the walls only and I helped him do the ceiling when he moved in. He just caulked the seams and painted it. I don't even notice it.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Attached garage, hands down, I would use drywall for the wall between the house and garage....other than that, I would prefer OSB or plywood, preferably the later.

 

[Steve from Socal]

I prefer drywall as mentioned but, I do wonder WHY OSB or plywood are the choice of so many. The idea that you can screw anyting to the wall anywhere is the attraction? Mounting heavy items on plywood is not without issues. Wood gets damaged it is not as easy to repair and refinish. Locating and mounting utilities is nearly the same for either wood or drywall. I do like the planked wall treatments but a bit over done for my use. I never liked hanging stuff on the walls. Free standing cabinets/shelving is my default. I did mount a 100+ pound motor drive cabinet on the wall of the garage for space saving.

One thing I did when I did my garage was to include a removable chase above the breaker panel. I could run flex into the attic and down anywhere needed. I had 240 circuits for a lathe, mill, drill press, band saw, compressor and welder. The shop I have now has a mix of drywall and steel R panels some of the R panels will be replaced with drywall when I move an overhead door.

You folks that prefer wood, is it all come down to hanging stuff anywhere?

 

[stingry]

I had a 50x50 barn when I was on the farm. One 15x50 section was my shop. It was sheeted in plywood and Osb. A fire started in one corner and the shop portion was fully engulfed in a matter of minutes. Had it been drywalled, I believe the barn could have been saved, instead it burned to the ground. Just sayin!!!!!