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Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

Workspaces between 705 and 1200 squarefeet.

AZpilot

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Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
413
Location
Mesa, AZ
I am just going to throw this out there. I think a firemans pole would be awesome in that garage.
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
@ SteveL - Yep that was my wife. We were trying to get a last few items done before the evening event.

@AZpilot - I'm sure the county code Nazis would love that!
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
It took a couple days and multiple trips home for a tool or to the store for different hardware but the TVs are up. It is very ironic to not have a tool in your garage but I'm waiting to pull in the heavy stuff on the main floor until the floors are done. I downloaded the installation instructions for the mount ahead of time so I would have what I needed but they still missed on one hex driver size in their instructions. I also had some issues with the TV to mount interface and had to get longer bolts and used some fender washers as spacers. The best part was that I hit every wall lag screw into the blocking behind the drywall that was put in 1.5+ years ago!!

This first pic is the wall frame horizontal rails part of the mount getting put together on the floor.

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Next was tying the vertical rails to a pair of TVs at a time. There are actually three pieces there. You take the long piece and put it on the horizontal rails first and then lift each TV one at a time into place.

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I think the final result is pretty nice.

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I still need to bring in a blu-ray player and my multi-plexer box that will allow the the 4 TVs to act as one big TV. I was playing U Tube 4k videos over the built in Roku player. I'm not positive I was really getting 4 full 4k streams at once but it looked pretty good.
 

55cadillacking

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
1,959
Location
Calgary
I do not remember signing a permission form for this feels trip. That is just awesome.

Sidenote: it would be great if you and Tomco could just amalgamate your threads because it is getting tiring just going back and forth between the two of them multiple times each day!

LOL

Just awesome, man. Awesome.
 

jay8s

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
653
Location
St. Louis
How are things going? I hope that the silence means that you have been working hard and enjoying your space.
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
@jay8s - Things are happening but there has not been much to show until today. Thursday (8 days ago) we did a walk through with the contractor to create a final punchlist. It was all small cosmetic things. The biggest item was I asked them to tuck the electrical box that was tied to the in floor mezzanine outlet up between the mezzanine floor joists. They finished up today and I went down and verified everything was done. I forgot to take a picture of the re-worked box - I'll try to get one tomorrow.

My daughters were off school today for some unknown holiday or teacher work day. We went down to IKEA and picked up a table and an entertainment center. The table is powered to raise and lower. IKEA has been nice because we can bring the furniture up in pieces to the mezzanine and not have to carry big stuff up the stairs. We just got done assembling the furniture. I still do not have a Blu-Ray player or my multiplexer box hooked up to the TVs. I think that is tomorrows job.

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We also ordered a nice picture for the wall on above the fire place. I was originally going to do a canvas print but I found out they could print on a 0.063 sheet of aluminum. I believe it is a photograph that the artist then digitally painted over to create this modern print. Hanging will probably be a job for Sunday.

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Finally, we have made contact with the flooring folks. We are going to meet next Monday (Nov 6th) to try to get a contract started to do the full broadcast epoxy floor.
 
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Stuart in MN

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
22,997
Location
Minneapolis
We also ordered a nice picture for the wall on above the fire place. I was originally going to do a canvas print but I found out they could print on a 0.063 sheet of aluminum. I believe it is a photograph that the artist then digitally painted over to create this modern print.

That's pretty cool - where did you order it from?
 

jay8s

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
653
Location
St. Louis
I too had the day off from school on Friday and spent much of it following the family around IKEA. Glad to see that things are still coming together.
 
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Greg_STL

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
So here is a picture of the box hanging down between the floor beams from much earlier in the build.

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And here it is now...

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It it a little thing. But that box was going set height limit for any future lift and I figured it was good to just get it taken care of now.

As far as the TVs; I got the multiplexer box put in today. I need to hook up to it with my PC to work the bezel correction. It looks pretty cool anyway.

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I had an old set of rabbit ears and tried to hook them up to one TV. I got 30.1 (.2,.3 &.4) and 5.1 (.2,.3&.4) at a very low signal level. I think these old rabbit ears are VHF and all the new channels are on UHF. I'll have to get one of those "Leaf" antennas and see If I pick up more.
 
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Greg_STL

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
Every day, I get just a little bit more set up. I re-hooked up my internal wifi camera today. It is set up so I can see all the doors, all the light fixtures and and the ceiling fan. For me it is more piece of mind that I can see that I really have closed the door and turned off the lights after I've driven home.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I have the extra sensor hooked up on the ecobee thermostat. I put it on the stub wall behind the desk on the mezzanine level. It is only measuring about 2 degrees difference between the upper and lower sensor - but it is still warm out. It will be interesting to see if I get more stratification as the temps drop this winter (and if the fan helps de-stratify if I want it to).

I figured out that I could just use the remote on the multiplexer box to do the bezel correction. I just popped in a movie and played with the correction until things looked correct. It's not perfect but I think it is more versatile and certainly cheaper than a 98" TV...

We also put the artwork over the fireplace today. A photograph here tells the tale:

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Also stocked some wine and some glasses in the bar to go with the beer and sodas in the fridge.

I think the mezzanine is fully functional at this point. I'm sure more will get done but at this point I'm itching to get started on the lower level. However, I really need to wait for the floor to get finished first. If I move a bunch of stuff in now - I have no idea where it will go while they work on the floor. So there may be a pause here for a while.

I'll leave you with one more panorama of the whole garage from inside the unit standing at the top of the stairs.

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PhoenixRising

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
39
Location
St. Louis, MO
If your kids go to Rockwood schools, it was a teacher compensation day for working two parent-teacher conference nights. I teach at Marquette.
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
@Hugo L. - I had a good laugh about your post. I've moved on...


Got a cheap (<$30) unidirectional antenna to put on the wall. I ran it through a spliter so I could feed all four TVs. I got 2 (Fox), 5 (NBC) and 30 (ABC). I was kinda surprised I even got those channels considering I'm in a metal roofed building with metal reinforced concrete walls. It's not quite a faraday cage but it can't be good for reception. I check antennaweb.org and it said I would get only those three channels with a unidirectional antenna. I need a directional one to pick up 4 (CBS), 9 (PBS), and 11 (CW). Now that I know I can get reception, I might look for a slightly different antenna but it is low priority.

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It is good enough that I was able to tune into game 7 the other night. You can see the little rectangle antenna above the four TVs.

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We have our meeting with the floor contractor on Monday. I wish we were done already. I going to swap in my winter tires this weekend and alas it will be done in the old garage - one last time. I think I said that in the spring.... fingers crossed it is true this time.
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
@1949 caddyman - The plan is for a full broadcast epoxy but as I have not talked to the floor contractor - it is just a plan. The floor is pretty rough in spots due to the nature of construction and the utility hook ups. Some of the newer polyaspartics can go down in colder weather. Going to take the advice of the floor contractor wherever that leads....
 
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Greg_STL

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Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
The flooring meeting went well. We are scheduled to do floor install next Monday. It was next Monday or mid January. I snapped up the Monday slot right now!

Details: Epoxy base, 1/4" chip full broadcast, 60% black, 20% dark grey close to iron ore grey on walls, 20% off white close to first star off white on our walls. UV stable polyaspartic top coat.

The company has done 3 floors at The Place already and have 3 more on contract so they have a good idea of what the concrete is like there.

Excited that I may be in position to move stuff into the ground floor over the Thanksgiving break!!
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
There is a small local magazine for auto enthusiast content in STL called AutoUrge. Its one of those free magazines that you see in the entrance ways of local shops. The November issue is out and it has an article about the last Cars and Coffee at The Place.

Sorry to everyone of low bandwidth but I wanted to post a size big enough you might be able to read the print.

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The full digital issue can be found at:
https://www.autourge.com/
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
So, tomorrow the floors are going to be started. Today, I pulled everything off the first floor and moved it up onto the mezzanine - I even pulled the legs off the bottom of the utility sink. Below are some pictures documenting the sorry state of the floor ahead of the job tomorrow.

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I hope the pictures tomorrow will look much nicer.
 
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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
Main Floor - Day 1 - Prep

The day started out early getting the machines prepped to grind the floors.

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They started the grinding machine up and worked it around the floor.

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The grinding machine was hooked up to a large vacuum that sat outside the unit. There was still some dust that got in the air and settled up on the mezzanine but it really was not as bad as I feared.

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Once they were done with the big grinding unit, there were still corners and areas under the stairs that could not be reached. They went at those areas with a hand grinder.

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They vacuumed out the cut lines in the concrete and filled them in with some sore of grout concoction.

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Then it was vacuum, vacuum, vacuum to get rid of all the concrete dust that was left.

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The repair areas where the utilities were attached got some special attention.

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All in all, it was a full day of work for the crew. They were also working on two other units. I had two guys dedicated to my unit and there were a 1-2 guys on each of the other units too. One of the other units is around 1400 sq ft and the third is a massive 4000 sq ft (remember mine is only around 1000 sq. ft.) The 4000 sq ft unit was getting a special treatment. They are going to lay in a new thin (1-2 inches) of quick set concrete with glass beads in the concrete. It then gets ground down to expose the glass and I'm pretty sure there is a stain that gets put in or on it. It is supposed to look like marble when it is done. They are going to be working down at The Place all week. The chips for my unit will not arrive until late Wednesday so the epoxy and chips will not go down on the prepped floor until Thursday. A final picture to hold you over...

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jay8s

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
653
Location
St. Louis
I wish I had paid someone to do my floors. It looks like it was a lot less messy and a whole lot quicker. I can't wait to see the next step.
 

slik560

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Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
787
Location
Kansas, USA
Outstanding. This kind of floor covering demands a pro outfit. Prep is everything from what I'm told, which is why I'll never go the DIY route with a few 5 gallon buckets and a broom. :)
 
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Greg_STL

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
Apparently, I misunderstood. They were not done prepping. It looks like they went over the entire floor a second time. Sorry for the security camera pics but it was the best I could do. One is a screen snap from my phone - the second is a pic down loaded from the camera. It appears that the aspect ratios are a bit off between the two- I'm not positive either is exactly right. It looks like I forgot to update the time on the camera when I put it back up after the mezzanine install.

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Greg_STL

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Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
Epoxy Floor Install Part 1

So I got a call this morning that they were going to start earlier than planned and I headed down to the Place. They had done quite a bit more grinding on the floors yesterday and the final result was a very smooth floor. It was an awesome day with very blue skies and lots of sunshine. It made it hard to take pictures with my cellphone so you will see some overblown pics. I'll take the sun.

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The chips were opened and the epoxy was staged - they were ready to go!

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They used a black epoxy base since the chips were a dark color. The installers kept commenting how it was nice to do a darker color since they usually did some variation of tan. They cut in the black epoxy at the wall edges then poured out the epoxy in lines on the floor. One guy would squeegee it close and the second would roll it.

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They would work in 15'x20' sections and start throwing chips as soon as the epoxy was rolled smooth. The dark black was intoxicatingly dark. If it would only stay that wet black look it would be an awesome floor but there is no way I could maintain a floor like that.

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I'm going to stop this first post here because they took a lunch break here. You would *think* this is almost done but there was a ton of work that they did after this point to make a quality floor. After watching them today, I am just amazed at all the work that went into this floor.

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Greg_STL

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Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
675
Epoxy Floor Install Part 2

After the base coat dried for a couple hours they used not one but two leaf blowers to blow all the loose chips to the back corner of the garage to scoop up.

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They then scrapped every inch of the floor in a methodical pattern. They do this so that any paint chips that got adhered in a vertical orientation get knocked flat. It makes a smoother floor that is comfortable to walk on in bare feet.

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Then out came the vacuum again to vacuum up all the corners and every inch of the floor.

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Next (and finally) came the last step which was to lay down the polyaspartic top coat. Much like the base; they used a smaller roller around the edges, poured the liquid out in strips, squeegeed it close, then rollered it flat. They followed a pattern to the rollering to make sure that the surface finish looked correct.

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I think it turned out awesome. The color matches well to the rest of the unit. I need to clean and touch up the paint on the walls in a few places and get the vinyl baseboard installed - but otherwise it is done.

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920kip

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Messages
168
Location
Titletown USA
I have been following along off and on since the beginning. You have a very nice place.
Congratulations. I look forward to your continued posts.
Kip
 
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