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Are you doing the pine boards b/c they're aesthetically pleasing, cheap/ on hand, or ??? Plywood really stiffens up against twisting; I presume you'd rather not use it as a layer either inside or out of the studs? What kind of metal bracing were you thinking, diagonal rods & turnbuckles?

It would be hard to scale any insurance you get to "part time" as, obviously, a full timer would claim part-time status to save money then coincidentally he cut his finger off during the 8 hours a week he declares he works. It's a sticky wicket as you'd need both business liability and worker's...

More than likely, there's ledge, so lowering the floor would take a lot of dynamite/ jackhammering. I'd do something like this (image credit: BigMike-BiTOG) except obviously as long as your car. Have the end of the ramp's angle kinda mirror and intersect with the driveway's angle. The...

As I understand it (perhaps poorly) the cheaper switches don't have much of a "horsepower rating". For example a leviton 2651-21 is only good for 1/2 hp or 373 watts. A little knowledge being dangerous :shocking: the inrush of all those flourescent ballasts might kinda compare to a motor...

Put them all on a few switches, at least. Some switches only handle about 500 watts and besides it's cool to have control. Consider stuff like natural light getting in, working on one side of the car, having light over any work benches, etc when you divvy up.

Follow the wire back to the breaker (s) and see what's going on in the main box. I wonder if someone wired up "redneck 240" to "instantly double the power in the garage." Do you or did you ever have any hot water heaters, dryers etc in the garage as an excuse to have 240?

What if you were able to run an extra long overhead horizontal track so you could shove the door in an extra foot or two? Then put lights on the door header that would miss the bottom of the door when it's up and well away. What brand door is it, if it's common like Clopay you can pick up a...

They look like they bring the fun and reliabilty of "back-stab outlets" to wire nut land. I've been finding them inside 8 foot flourescent ceiling lights. For some reason presumably related to ease of assembly the far tombstone's wire is spliced in the middle with these gizmos. Naturally if...

Noone else noticed the cars parked around the corner, probably HF's main entrance, and Sears looking oh so lonely?

So is there an attic area? Is this an all steel building? Got pictures? I'm not following precisely. I'd find a way to mount the fixtures long ways and perpindicular to the trusses, involving the trusses somehow.

Do you need to get permits or inspection? Direct burial romex on a ground fault breaker in a trench is the obvious answer. Once you have multiple circuits you need ground rods, subpanels, and more $$$. You can use a tamper (straight hoe thing) to "unzip" the ground; newest code (if your town...

The old cord, is it polarized? One prong bigger than the other? Ungrounded stuff is "double insulated", a good thing. I'd look into it further before blindly grounding.

Right. If he's buying 25 feet of 12/3 he's going to pay a lot more and be inconvenienced compared to if he just has a coil of 250 feet of 12/2. Also if the wire is visible it might be considered unsightly... though naked romex laid parallel and stapled with care is an art form to me. Though I...

The only wire you'll waste is between the two lights. An equals sign is 2 plus ground, eg normal romex. Black is unswitched, pink is switched. Pardon the non-standardness of my arbitrary colors. SOURCE=====OUTLET======LIGHT1======LIGHT2======SWITCH ==============...

Do you have an electric range? If so get gas, get a cheap used gas stove and free up its breaker, er, fuse for what you're going to do. Got a dryer you don't use? Put up a clothesline. You can use a laundromat if it's rainy all week. Don't put in writing between you and your landlord that...

I would hardwire a T8 then run a short (surface mount) conduit over to the garage door opener. You could hide some of the "conduit length" in the length of the flourescent fixture "box" if you so desire. It would look clean and industrial. I assume you have sheetrock ceiling you don't want to...

Get one of these, fill it, and leave it in the attic or somewhere warm. By a window over a baseboard heat. Hang it off your regular shower nozzle and just be speedy about it. A generator/ transfer switch is the obvious choice but after you shower you have to go shut the generator off, get...

Looks pretty good. Run a bunch of seperate switches for the lights-- you'll have to with their own breakers-- it's fun to have complete control and also to be able to flip just one light on if you're running out for something. Consider hanging a cord reel between the two bays so you can plug a...

Just get an overhead projector and lock it down a few feet from your wall. Trace the boxes with a vis a vis marker then it'll be projected on your plywood. The only flaw there is the repetitive motion of raising the wood, tracing the lines, then lowering it for cutting. If you really want to...

Is the switched light right in the middle so it's between the two cars? Do you want a light here? I'd mount a fixture flush here then use its huge internal space as a splice box/ raceway for all your other stuff to branch out from. I'll +2 the "traditional T8" recommendation: they all have a...