Broox's Dead End Garage

broox · Jan 30, 2020

Broox's Dead End Garage Transformation

I've been poking around this forum for a while, but I finally dove in on my own garage remodel, so here's my journey!

I've always wanted a 3-car garage, but my wife and I settled on a house that had an oversized 2-car.

Our lawn tools live in a garden shed and all of my woodworking/tinkering tools live in a 300sqft shop in my walkout basement. So, the purpose of the garage is largely for vehicle, bicycle, skateboard, and homebrew related stuff.

I still wish I had that 3rd stall (we have 3 vehicles), but I live on a cul-de-sac and there's no room for expansion :sad:

. Either way, I wanted to clean it up and make it feel like another room of the house.

Specs upon starting:

552sqft (24' wide x 23' deep)
9' ceiling
16' x 7' 2-car garage door
32" Man door
Gas furnace
Blocked floor drain

Goals:

Improved use of space
Better lighting
Fans for hot summer days
A sink for homebrewing, cleaning, etc
More outlets
A working floor drain
Walls and ceiling to match the interior of our house
A refinished concrete floor
Workbench
Minimal firewood storage

The garage had obviously been well-used over the years and came with some nice features like a gas furnace and a floor drain as well as a ton of built-in cabinets, peg board and storage racks.

Here's what it looked like when we bought the house...

And here's what it looks like now...

broox · Jan 30, 2020

The cabinets along one side were spacious, but very awkward in the way some of them opened and they also left the garage feeling tight.

We didn't need the additional storage, so I decided to rip em out in favor of more space.

I then repurposed the plywood to make a bunch of wood storage crates.

bdbecker · Jan 30, 2020

Looking forward to following along! I'm in DSM as well.

broox · Jan 31, 2020

The front wall of the garage seemed like the best place for easy access to my rolling toolbox and a low profile workbench.

A friend had a bunch of extra bowling alley... so, he was rad enough to cut me out a piece. The 2x4 supports are temporary until I get the floor cleaned up... after that, I'll be putting on some matching, black steel legs.

He also helped me build a small firewood rack to fit alongside of it.

dubber · Jan 31, 2020

Congrats on the new space. Looks like although you didn't get the exact size that space is a solid compromise. Very cool its already heated as well. Best of luck making it your own.

Hivolts · Jan 31, 2020

Subscribed.. Make it how you want.

Refuse1 · Jan 31, 2020

That sure is some pretty firewood you got there !

TLC Fan · Feb 1, 2020

Great project.

I love existing garage remodels and seeing how you can make the most out of the space no matter how big or small it is.

iced98lx · Feb 1, 2020

Looks great and you've got the requirements covered (heated!) for the midwest. Tagging along for the upgrades

broox · Feb 1, 2020

Thanks, guys!

Next was the drain. Garage floor drains aren't to code in Iowa anymore, but if you have an existing one, then you're in the clear. The one in my garage obviously hadn't been used in years, and the previous owner told me they sealed it up after a fireman told them it wasn't allowed.

So, when I moved in, the drain was bone dry and wouldn't take any water.

It took 2 plumbers to get a snake through it, but I was able to get it working again!

I really debated cutting a larger, trench style drain into the concrete, but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth...

I'm just happy that it's functional.

iced98lx · Feb 1, 2020

broox said:
I really debated cutting a larger, trench style drain into the concrete, but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth...

I'm just happy that it's functional.

You can always cut one in later, and couldn't agree more, WORTH EVERY EFFORT to have a floor drain in the midwest with a heated garage.

broox · Feb 1, 2020

Next, I decided to wire the garage with a 50-amp service to accommodate guests with electric vehicles... and just in case we ever get an EV. I luckily had a pretty easy run from the electrical box to the front wall of the garage... Many thanks to my father-in-law who is much more comfortable working in the electrical box than I am.

broox · Feb 1, 2020

After removing the cabinets, I learned that even though the garage was heated, the walls weren't insulated... so, since the cabinet drywall was all torn up anyway, I decided to insulate and completely redo it.

The blown in ceiling insulation over the garage is probably around R-15. I really should increase that at some point as well.

I'm now debating leaving this wall clean or adding a super long french cleat for hanging low profile stuff. I do like having easy access to both sides of the car without the cabinets, so I'd hate to lose that again.

dubber · Feb 1, 2020

From my experience with my last two garages I would recommend only hanging items that are above the height of the vehicle allowing maximum width for opening doors.

broox · Feb 2, 2020

Yea. I'm currently liking the completely clean wall, but am still debating a french cleat for hanging the Jeep doors, scooters, skateboards, etc. Maybe I'll consider only installing them near the front/back of the garage so they don't interfere with the doors.

While I was cleaning stuff up, I pulled the 2x4 storage racks off the ceiling, filled a ton of holes, did a ton of masking and gave the lid a fresh coat of bright white paint.

It's nice to see the aged/yellow paint going away!

Also, painting ceilings is a very messy job, heh.

broox · Feb 2, 2020

I also built a new set of steps since the old ones had become pretty beat up over the years. Enjoy my poor labeling on the stringers :lol:

broox · Feb 3, 2020

Next: the floor.

My 38 year old concrete floor was pretty gnarly with an old, DIY epoxy job and plenty of pits, divots, and cracks throughout. It needed redone.

I went back and forth between race deck, rubber, and epoxy... but I settled on professionally applied epoxy. It seemed to be the easiest to clean up and would easily handle casters, skateboards, homebrew kettles, spills, etc. Here's a sample piece of the base colors I settled on.

I wound up hiring a local fireman who's been doing epoxy floors on the side for 15+ years.

First was the prep. They ground everything down to porous concrete and filled all of the imperfections.

broox · Feb 3, 2020

For the finish, I went with a dark gray epoxy and 1/4" grayscale flakes (along with some gold foil and gold glitter thrown in for a little sparkle).

It wound up costing me $4.25/sqft and I absolutely love the way it turned out.

JustinS · Feb 3, 2020

Good looking transformation, can’t wait to see the finished floor!

JustinS · Feb 3, 2020

Oh, you posted before I did, love the floor!

broox · Feb 4, 2020

Thanks! It sure felt good to pull the cars back into the garage after the floor was done.

QwikKotaTx · Feb 4, 2020

Looks great and nice job re-purposing those cabinets. Where are you going to store the boxes you made?

broox · Feb 4, 2020

QwikKotaTx said:
nice job re-purposing those cabinets. Where are you going to store the boxes you made?

Thanks! I've got most of the boxes in my basement storage room. A lot of them are being used to store Grolsch beer bottles for homebrewing.

QwikKotaTx · Feb 4, 2020

broox said:
Thanks! I've got most of the boxes in my basement storage room. A lot of them are being used to store Grolsch beer bottles for homebrewing.

Awesome. I wish we had basements here in Houston. The water table is much to high though. I had a friend in 8th grade who would bring apple juice to school in Grolsch bottles, lmao.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

wasfast · Feb 4, 2020

broox said:
I decided to insulate and completely redo it.

I'm really impressed with the work you're doing on the garage. Total transformation.

Side note but the taping job (contractor perhaps?) is just so in contrast to most guys that do mud and tape. Long, smooth seams plus nail rows. Done right, there's almost no sanding (BONUS!). Sanding is the thing that most hate.

broox · Feb 4, 2020

Yea, I did the demo, insulation, and vapor barrier, but hired the rock, mud, and tape. Those dudes just work so much faster with that stuff that I leave it to the pros. It turned out smooth when they were done!

broox · Feb 5, 2020

After the floor was done, I started multi-tasking and working on a bunch of projects at the same time... but I'll start with the paint. I filled a ton of cracks, holes, and gouges in the walls, trimmed everything out and re-painted the walls with some leftover paint from the interior remodel.

dubber · Feb 5, 2020

Great progress. How is the heater working? Curious if you know how many BTU's it puts out?

broox · Feb 5, 2020

dubber said:
Great progress. How is the heater working? Curious if you know how many BTU's it puts out?

Thanks! The heater works great. We keep the garage around 50F in the winter, which really doesn't take much. If I'm working out there, I bump it up to 65 or so and it's warm within a few minutes.

It's an old Reznor FT45... it doesn't have BTU listed on it, but I'm guessing the 45 means 45,000 BTU

rattle_snake · Feb 5, 2020

Nice work so far. How about some more info on the brewing equipment, beer styles and so on?

broox · Feb 5, 2020

rattle_snake said:
Nice work so far. How about some more info on the brewing equipment, beer styles and so on?

Thanks! I almost always make beer with my father-in-law, who got me into homebrewing. He's into high ABV dark beers and I'm (currently) into lighter bodied, 5-7% ABV pale ales and IPAs. We split our batches up every time we brew and currently have a Dunkel and an Oatmeal Stout on tap.

Here's a photo of the setup from our last brew session. I use the propane powered stuff, and he's using the all-in-one, electric Grainfather setup... I'm really thinking about moving to the all-in-one electric kettle route. Having only 1 vessel with pumps and everything contained is so nice for cleaning and storage! The only drawback to the Grainfather (US version), is that it's 120v, so getting 5+ gallons of water to boil takes quite a bit longer than gas... and it's a bit harder to maintain boil at that scale.

broox · Feb 5, 2020

While we're on the subject of homebrewing, I decided that my garage needed a sink. The old storage chest next to the door had plumbing nearby (an old/unused drain under the steps and easy access to water from the basement on the other side of the wall)... so it was a perfect location.

I didn't want a cheap looking plastic laundry tub with all the other stuff I'd redone, so I was able to find a commercial SS tub sink that'd fit my space perfectly (John Boos E1S8-18-12).

This also gave me an opportunity to add some hot/cold hose spigots to the garage. The spigots are great for hooking up the pressure washer, but I also mounted them so they could be used to easily drain the lines if I ever need to.

broox · Feb 7, 2020

My garage had the typical "builder's special" lighting with only 2 fixtures mounted directly above the cars. I immediately put 1600 lumen LED bulbs in them, but that still only gave me about 6lm per square foot and everything was still very shadowy. So, I eventually hardwired in 6 - 5000K Hyperikon LED shop lights around the sides of the cars. This gave me about 50 lumens/sqft and really cut down on the shadows. I, then, converted the existing light fixtures to ceiling fans, which will be awesome when brewing beer in the summer.

I also converted an existing outlet above my workbench to surface mounted outlets. This let me put shorter plugs on my furnace and central vac and also allowed me to add another switched Hyperikon shop light above the workbench.

And I'm super into smart home stuff, so I installed some matching Lutron Caseta switches for the main lights and fans... We tend to accidentally leave the garage lights on quite a bit, so tis will help me ensure everything is turned off when we leave the house, go to bed, etc. My goal is to add motion sensors to activate the lights soon. Lutron just announced Caseta motion sensors, which I'm super excited about.

For everyday use I find the 50 lumens/sqft to be perfect... but I've already wished I had a bit more light when doing some detail work on the vehicles. I might just get some additional freestanding LEDs for projects like that at some point. If anyone has any recommendations, I would love em!

mayerryan · Feb 7, 2020

The garage is coming along very nicely! You've got a super rad home brew setup!

dubber · Feb 7, 2020

Man you lucked out with the random drain beside the stairs. Would love to add a sink in my space, but the expense of all the requirements make it something i don't want to take on at this point.

broox · Feb 8, 2020

I stole this idea from someone else on the forum, but to finish cleaning up the ceiling, I moved the low-voltage garage door wires into the ceiling and replaced the grungy old connections to the opener with cat-6, heh. I have no idea if this will last given the super low-gauge wires, but it certainly looks nicer.

And everyone that has seen this so far thinks that I am a crazy person, haha.

iced98lx · Feb 9, 2020

broox said:
I have no idea if this will last given the super low-gauge wires, but it certainly looks nicer.

It'll be just fine, look up the specs on what gets sent over them when using POE. Also, I'm going to steal that... verynice.

broox · Feb 9, 2020

iced98lx said:
It'll be just fine, look up the specs on what gets sent over them when using POE. Also, I'm going to steal that... verynice.

Yeah, I'm not worried about current or anything like that. I'm just curious about the integrity of the super thin strands with the pinch connectors and the vibration of the opener. If it ever fails, I may switch to speaker terminals. That'd be just as clean.

broox · Feb 9, 2020

I found a new spot to hang our snowboards. They fit perfectly over the garage door with these wall mount snowboard racks.

Kevin54 · Feb 9, 2020

WOW!!!! I Like It!!!

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