mistakes/regrets/things you hate that you did to your garage

muibubbles · Nov 22, 2011

This was my first garage build and I learned a lot of things. I definitely hate some of the decisions ive made. What have you done to your garage that you hate or wish you never did?

Me:
storage bins on the wall
open shelf under workbench
open shelves.
^^^ I CANT stand how much dust and dirt all of them collect. My next garage will definitely have everything covered.

work bench construction- I did the most common 2x4 design with the 4" vertically. I hate how much room it wastes. thats 4" of height i cannot use for my shelves

My expoxy floor- rustoleums- stains and is not very durable.

end rant.

Al Bundy · Nov 22, 2011

The one thing that I hate is that I built it 30 x 40. It should be 60 x 80.

rickairmedic · Nov 22, 2011

I started my rebuild in 2007 and am on my third reconfiguration and most likely not my last as I still see things I want to change .

Rick

Grayguy · Nov 22, 2011

I'd say lack of organization, and an affliction for hoarding worthless car parts have been my nemesis

Daniel Dudley · Nov 22, 2011

I would never go less than 9' ceilings now, with 8' doors. And if you want a lift...

82_454_shorty · Nov 22, 2011

Not enough electrical outlets. I'd put one every 5 feet or so if I had it to do over.

CaptainRay · Nov 22, 2011

I'm still building my shop but have regrets already... Wish I didn't put epoxy paint on my floor... it *****! Wish I had put more thought into where to put my shop, ended up having a wet weather underground spring coming off the hill that never showed up before the ground was cut. Wish I had got a 16 ft ceiling instead of the 14 I got. Wish I had used the industrial connectors instead of the channel.

financer83rs · Nov 22, 2011

I put my foundation a couple inches below grade instead of above. Now every spring i battle the water run off. I am dealing but for six weeks a year it *****!!!

onething · Nov 22, 2011

Wish I'd done what I wanted to do and built a neat lean to on the back of the shop instead of compromising on a portable shed. A thread is coming...

Jim Johnstone · Nov 22, 2011

I haven't built my own (did help a buddy build his), my house came with a garage already built, but if I were to move and start over, I would do at least 9 foot ceilings, maybe more, with 2x6 framing for LOTS of insulation in our cold winters.

Steevo · Nov 22, 2011

The worst thing I did was to buy a house on a lot that restricted me in how big a garage/shop I could fit, and where I had to locate it relative to the house.
I would have liked to have more room for a larger shop, and some additional parking pad around it.

Putting my bathroom centered on one of the long walls was a mistake, too. Should have been in a corner, but I wanted all the plumbing on interior walls so I ended up with what I have.

koditten · Nov 22, 2011

Totally forgot to put anchor points in the floor. Was concentrating so hard on the floor heat system that it completely went out my mind. I was not happy when I realized that.

RonBou · Nov 22, 2011

Two big regrets...

1 - higher ceilings so I could put a lift in. Didn't think I wanted one...but....

2 - Just 4 feet longer would have given me more work space and the cabinets further from the vehicles.

Maybe in my next life I will build bigger and better!

AndysMBgarage · Nov 22, 2011

I wish I'd made my garage another metre wider so I could have fitted a 2 post hoist next to my 4 post hoist.

KCarGuy · Nov 22, 2011

If I did it all over again, I would have gone with 2x6 walls instead of 2x4's.
Lots more outlets, but at a higher level.
Deeper would have been nice too.

But I am always changing the layout, for a better flow and work.

I really dont hate anything that I did...but I with I would have found Garage Journal before I built it, instead of after!!!

TWX · Nov 22, 2011

I kinda wish that I hadn't bolted down the horizontal compressor inside where I did. A friend of a friend was selling an 80gal upright model that I'd have had to put outside, pouring a pad and building an enclosure to prevent it from annoying the neighbors, but with my current one bolted down it's difficult to justify the bigger one.

Gary S · Nov 22, 2011

My current garage was built in 2004. I'm still satisfied with the way I did it. I probably wouldn't change much of anything if I did it again.
I previously built a garage in 1992, and learned from that one what I wanted for the second one.

JC23 · Nov 22, 2011

Bringing all the **** from refurbishing the house into the garage. No room left. I want my garage back!

z28snksknr · Nov 22, 2011

- I hung cabinets before painting / repairing the wall. I painted and repaired the other walls, but now that the cabinets are up, I don't have the motivation to do much there.

-Should have bought a damn shed vs. spending money on a plywood wall and wall hangers for all the lawn equipment. Now this year when I actually do get a shed and move it all out there, I'll have 200 screw holes in the walls.

- Should have had the house inspector look under the 4' x 8' plywood in garage that was covering the huge chunk of concrete that was missing and showing how the slab was washed out underneath causing it to sag 4" in that corner.

- Should have installed all the lighting at once vs. piecemeal since now it looks like randomly placed and non-matching lights.

- Should have built cabinets vs. reusing the small, cheap kitchen cabinets that came in the kitchen. They were falling apart when we replaced them, and they haven't gotten any better since.

- Should have jsut saved for the nicer tools I bought after the HF stuff wasn't cutting it.

- Should have bought a bigger compressor

- Should have kept looking for a different house - one that I liked and didn't have to settle for because it was the 1st one we saw with a 2 car garage that my wife liked. Now I'm stuck polishing a turd to a brilliant shine.

Steves32 · Nov 22, 2011

A few but I can live with them.

Put the back door in the wrong location- right in front of my lift. Really hampered my lift choices but it worked out in the end.

Ran the coax for the TV but never thought to run a Cat5 with it.

Forgot the refer outlet for the under counter unit. Not a big deal- there's an outlet above it so I'll fish some romex & cut in a repair box.

I'm happy with everything else.

jam022316 · Nov 22, 2011

Should have done conduit on outside of walls for electrical expansion instead of inside walls.

Light layout

jeffmoss26 · Nov 22, 2011

I wish the basement had more electrical outlets (and a new breaker panel for the whole house) and the concrete floor was sealed/painted.
Oh well.

haugy · Nov 22, 2011

Happily most of the problems listed I've got covered.

But in a rush I didn't do the anchor pots I wanted because of lack of time. I should have pushed everything back, and put them in. But they are minor on my needs scale so I'll survive.

My only thing I wish I had fixed is I have two garage doors (12x12 and 16x10). I should have made the 10' door go all the way up to the ceiling for clearance. Now when I put the lift in I'll have to lift the door tracks. They could have done it right the first time, but I didn't think about it.

r6_cannibal · Nov 22, 2011

I wish I hadn't let my wife put all her **** in the garage. at this point only one car fits, barely...little by little trying to reclaim the space

Bronson · Nov 22, 2011

I would have gone with a 40 x 40, instead of 30 x 40, but there was a tree that I wanted to keep.
I wish I had installed a tornado shelter under the slab, time frame was a problem.
I WISH I had followed THE INSTRUCTIONS on the epoxy floor system....I thought I was smarter than the folks who made the epoxy......NOT.

Al Bundy · Nov 22, 2011

Thanks guys, this thread actually makes me feel pretty good about myself. I have plenty of outlets, 2 x 6 walls, an 11' ceiling....

Maybe I'm not as dumb as my wife keeps telling me. :thumbup:

MartyO · Nov 22, 2011

I iwsh I had set my shop closeer to the street side of the property. That would have let me have more storage behind the building. Then again it would have bliocked my view of the country.

Life, like marriage, is a series of compromises.

Rick98Z · Nov 22, 2011

Wish I had done trusses on 2' o/c and not 4' for ceiling options, wish I had a usable attic for storage...

Wish I had gone 14' ceilings instead of 12'...
Other than that it is still a work in progress.

Oh wish I had coated/treated the concrete before putting **** everywhere in the garage!

avnsteve · Nov 22, 2011

I was working on a fuel leak on a motorcycle and bumped the engine, did NOT disconnect the ignition coil, lit the leaking fuel on fire and nearly burned down my whole house (attached 2 car garage) tiny little kitchen fire extinguisher had ZERO pressure, I wish I had disconnected the ignition coils, I regret starting a fire, and I regret not being in the habit of checking the fire extinguisher prior to ANY work in the shop, i regret going cheap on the tiny extinguisher instead of the bigger extinguisher I have now! Fortunately, i was able to get the fire out with no damage to anything, but I have any assortment of flammable and dangerous items in my shop, a solvent tank, an oxy/acetylene rig, and various petroleum, oil and lubricants, not to mention paints, everything is eventually to be stored in a flammable materials cabinet with a leak basin.

pontifex4 · Nov 22, 2011

This is a good thread. It seems to be distilling a lot of information that took me months of reading on here to get. I'm happy that I did the reading before the building, though!

KermitFrog · Nov 22, 2011

I didn't lay down plastic when I poured my foundation of my garage. Now I have an efflorescence problem.

bacarl · Nov 22, 2011

This thread is full of good "ideas", so I guess it is itself a good idea, but damn you guys are depressing me!

larry_g · Nov 22, 2011

If you look at the door on the left in the picture you will see that it is to close to the end wall. If possible leave 3-4ft for storage and accumulation of 'good stuff' or just opening the door on t he rig parked there. Second mistake was to put stuff in the building before it was finished. If at all possible finish the building and floor before putting anything in.

lg
no neat sig line

SteelHorseHD · Nov 22, 2011

1) I wish I would have gone bigger. It's 36x45 but I wish I would have gone 40x50 but I didn't have the room because of my septic system.

2)Standard stick framing would have been easier to finish than my post frame.

3)Taller ceilings, I have 10' but I wish I would have gone atlease 12'

4)I should have put a smaller overhead door at the back of the shop so that when all of my toys are parked in front of my overhead doors at the front of the building I wouldn't have to move them to just get the mower out.

5)If I had to do it over again I would have done in floor heat.

6) I wish I would have ran the water line through the floor instead of up the wall and over to the corner through the attic.

MichMan517 · Nov 22, 2011

I built my house in 2000. The attached garage is 24x24, 10.5' ceiling, storage trusses with pull down ladder. Insulated and drywalled at the time of the build. The things I wish I would have done different, is make it bigger. That size is just enought room for 2 minivans, can barely get my F-150 inside. Have 2 8x9 insulated doors. I would have liked to make it at least 30x40 or so, with ceiling area for full size lift. I did not wire it for 220v or pipe in nat gas for heat, but am doing that now. I would say that the size, ceiling config are things that are fixed and not easily changed once built. Most everything else you can add on later. Like someone said earlier, I wish I had seen GJ first prior building it.

Tony B · Nov 22, 2011

Bigger is always something I wish I did, but the fire extinguisher comment is a good one. No regrets in that department yet, but this thread reminds me to check my fire extinguishers, and other safety related equipment, so thank you garage journal ! Only other regret would be that I wish I had put my floor covering down when the place was empty. also I wish I would have placed my electrical outlets around my work bench instead of placing the work bench in after the outlets were installed. Planning ahead better basically. Also apray foam insualtion next time around.

Aberdale · Nov 22, 2011

I'm still pretty happy with my shop.
Glad I built it bigger than I thought I would need. (40x60).
Glad I built it 2x6 construction.
Glad I built 14' ceilings.
Glad I put in 12'x12' insulated doors.
Glad I put in receptacles every 4'.
Glad I poured the foundation with 4' walls.
Glad I poured 8" reinforced concrete floors.
Glad I had the whole space drywalled above the 4' poured walls.
Glad I divided the space in half (One side for dirty, greasy work, one side clean room). Glad I built in an exhaust fan for painting.
Glad I built a 10' mezzanine with walk up stairs.
Glad I included running water.
Glad I went with no floor drains. (Just sloped the floor slightly towards the doors.)

I can think of four improvements that would have made it perfect:

Building 16' ceilings instead of 14'. (Would have allowed stand up room on the mezzanine).

Waited to cut the joints in the concrete until after the 2-post lift was installed.

Building in a bathroom. (It's a long way to the house when nature calls.)

And installing more/better lighting. (I thought I had enough, but enough is never enough.)

I will probably end up building a bathroom and adding more lighting over time. Otherwise, I would do everything over again.

metalmagpie · Nov 22, 2011

Biggest regret was painting my floor with epoxy. After 5 years it looked bad so I immaculately vacuumed it, sanded it, went over every INCH by hand and recoated EXACTLY to the manufacturer's recommendations. Blister city! Now it looks like a friggin moonscape down there. If I ever paint a concrete floor again I'm going to use enamel floor paint.

Next biggest regret was lighting design. Somehow it just isn't bright enough. The older I get the more light I need!

Other than that I've been pretty happy. I have two pieces to my garage - the first one was the existing under-house 2-car garage 24x25', then we added on another 24' so now my shop is 25x48' which seemed enormous but which surely fills up. Gotta use it or lose it, place for everything & everything in its place, keep building storage, keep organizing .. at least I'm never at a loss for things to do!

metalmagpie

W650Mike · Nov 22, 2011

I regret getting in a hurry to move in and not painting the shop walls before adding stuff. 11 years later moving everything away from the walls is a big job – but it’s still on my list.

My shelving layout lacked a plan and it shows. After several re-arrangements it’s getting worse. I’m in the process of re-planning the entire West and North walls for better vertical storage utilization.

GJ has provided me with a wealth of ideas and a dose of motivation.

NUTTSGT · Nov 22, 2011

In the first fewe years of owning our house/garage, I started to put a celing in the garage/ I reattached 2x4s the were part of the ceiling and added a few more for a ceilin gin the rear of the garage. After I had them up, I started hanging foil backed insulation by myself. When I got to the 2x4s that were already there, I noticed they were sitting on top of the I beam and not along the side. So now the ceiling in the back corner of the garage slopes about 6 inches.

Lesson learned, pay more attention and occassionally step back and look at what you're doing.

Once I reroof the back of the garage, I will replace and fix the ceiling properly.

mistakes/regrets/things you hate that you did to your garage

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