Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT My First Garage™ Playset

kTHREE · Feb 23, 2017

After renting many places for 15 years, I am going to finally have a home of my own. I've always made due garage wise but now it's finally going to be time to make one my own.

We close on the house March 30th!
The wife agreed the garage is first before we tear into other projects around the house, lucky me!

Here is what we are working with:
~620 sq ft "3 stall" garage if you can call it that.

Can't wait to see this empty of the PO stuff and be my blank canvas.

Long and Short term goals in no particular order:
Lighting: 3 8' HOT5 ballasts across the middle of the garage
Heating: Superior Radiant Tube Heater GR series 45,000 btu/h
Insulation: Garage doors and bat insulation in ceiling, walls are already insulated
Floor: New garage floor slab and foundation (but I'll live for a while)
Sound: 4 in wall speakers and sub with in wall touchpad control for distributed audio
Paint: Sand, mud any imperfections, semigloss white paint, mainly on the ceiling
Storage: Lots of shelving and hung racks above garage doors, cabinets in front.
Misc: Attic ladder and finish crawl space above, new garage door opener, add window to single stall side

Our previous garage, 18x24, we managed to stuff 2 SUV's and a motorcycle in here. Was super tight but we made it work for many years. The extra 200 sq ft will be a nice change, maybe we can acutally open our car doors in the garage!

Madhatter10-6 · Feb 23, 2017

Congrats! Thats a really cool space you have to work with and when its all done should look awesome.

MG30 · Feb 23, 2017

Congratulations. I'll subscribe and wait for pictures of the works.
Good Luck.

Purist · Feb 23, 2017

Lots of potential there. In for updates and progress. Good luck!

chrisBTSC · Feb 23, 2017

A blank slate! Sounds like you are in the same position I was in 3 years ago. Going from a 2 car to a 3 car is such a great feeling.

The Mighty Mav · Feb 23, 2017

That's a nice space to work with. We close on our house March 31st, so I'm excited to revamp my garage also. Mine is smaller at 484sqft, but its better than nothing. Looking forward to your progress!

kTHREE · Apr 5, 2017

Finally moved into the new place this past weekend.

I told myself I was going to wait till all the boxes were packed away but I just couldn't help myself.

Starting in on the interior woodpecker damage:

Such a mess.

Also found out that all the walls of the garage are insulated! So I don't have to do that, just fill in the attic with blown in.

53PontiacSD · Apr 5, 2017

Nice garage. It's good to start with a clean slate so you can do what you want. A little hole filling, some paint, more lights,and a good organizing should get you on your way to a fun place. Keep up the progress and pictures. Billy

Richard Cranium · Apr 5, 2017

Paint the walls while you don't have much in it.

kTHREE · Apr 6, 2017

Richard Cranium said:
Paint the walls while you don't have much in it.

That's the plan, most of that junk will reside in the basement when we finish cleaning down there.

I think we will be painting everything white with a light grey bottom. I don't really know, the wife is the painter. She can do whatever she wants for paint as long as I don't have to do it.

I just need time, yet somehow my next two weekends I'm out of town not of my accord.

kTHREE · Apr 14, 2017

More mudding going on.
Got enough boxes moved to the basement I can see my work bench.

We finally figured out all the dents in the wall are from a hockey puck.
Here you can see the extent of the cracked floor.
Its not enough to replace right away but enough to bother me.

So many cracks in the joints, such a poor tape job in the garage I end up pulling most of it off and doing it over.
Really dreading the ceiling, we'll see how much of it has to be re-done.

Sometimes the unpaid help comes out to sand or mud just to say she did.

I should be starting in on the wiring for the lights this weekend, I hope.

ddawg16 · Apr 14, 2017

Costco has a pretty good deal on the LED 4' lights.

After you paint the ceiling...put some of those up.

Start watching CL for someone getting rid of kitchen cabinets....

And it looks like you have a lot of space above the garage doors....that makes for some great storage.....especially the seasonal items

kTHREE · Apr 14, 2017

ddawg16 said:
Costco has a pretty good deal on the LED 4' lights.

Already have 3 8' T5's :thumbup:

ddawg16 said:
Start watching CL for someone getting rid of kitchen cabinets....

Like a hawk, nothing quick and easy yet.

ddawg16 said:
And it looks like you have a lot of space above the garage doors....that makes for some great storage.....especially the seasonal items

We are torn on this.
The original idea was to blow in insulation above, but dang if there isn't a ton of space up there. It's something like 7ft tall, 9 ft wide...ect. So we might insulate the top of the rafters and use the above as storage.

kTHREE · Apr 17, 2017

Slower progress then we were expecting.
I don't know if our walls are just that ****** or this is par for the course but we've been going through a lot of mud.

One wall almost fully painted with the first coat of exterior latex semigloss.
I think two coats is all it should take. :thumbup:

Looks like someone punched through from the attic at some point. Love the previous owners fix.

More cracks, almost every crack has one side of the sheet rock not even screwed down. Just amazingly bad.

Replaced every corner strip in the garage.

kTHREE · Apr 27, 2017

Keeping on truckin:
So tired of sheetrock, next time I'll hire someone.

First coat back wall.

Left wall and corner first skim.

Cleaning up an old AV rack.

3 cat5, oddly enough there were holes already drilled in this cavity top and bottom.
I'm sure I could have just fished this through but I'll end up tacking everything down nice and replacing the insulation.

We got tired of working with 4 light bulbs so we've started in on the strip across the ceiling where the t5 lights will go. If all goes well the last coat of paint should be done by this weekend on this small strip and we can hang the lights and actually see to finish the rest.

Admittedly we are not going to take as much time making the ceiling smooth. Sort of flat and white is good enough for us.

racestatus · Apr 27, 2017

looks like a good start. sheetrock work always will ****. there is no way around it

kTHREE · Apr 27, 2017

racestatus said:
looks like a good start. sheetrock work always will ****. there is no way around it

I had no idea, thought it was just rumors. Huge mistake lol. I might actually be able to do a passable job by the time I'm done.

kTHREE · May 1, 2017

Lights are in, phone really ***** in low light but you get the idea.
Since I ran it's own dedicated circuit I could A-B test the lights.

Before:

After:

Feels sterile in the garage, and I like it a lot!
There will be a second strip between the current and the back wall but in much smaller capacity and with a ceiling fan as well but that's a ways down the road.

Was a nice break from mudding and paint. Should get even brighter when the rest of the ceiling is done.

Prokiller · May 1, 2017

might want to think about putting up another light above the work bench area. where you have them now, you'll always be overshadowing whatever you're working on as they are behind you. great work though on the walls!

kTHREE · May 1, 2017

Prokiller said:
might want to think about putting up another light above the work bench area. where you have them now, you'll always be overshadowing whatever you're working on as they are behind you. great work though on the walls!

My plan is to put cabinets above the work bench with under lights, I think. My brain hasn't got that far yet.

kTHREE · May 9, 2017

Not much new. Some trim and 1/4 of the ceiling done.
With one corner finished I can finally fit the work bench in the back corner and park both cars in the garage again.

kTHREE · May 30, 2017

2 RG6 / ground
3 Cat5e
2 (12/2) speaker
12/3 dedicated 20A outlets
14/3 dedicated 15A lights

Power was tacked to the right, everything else on the left.

Evolution

Only have a small section of the ceiling above the 3rd stall left for drywall/paint.

racestatus · May 30, 2017

looking good

Purist · May 31, 2017

Coming along nicely!

JCQuick · May 31, 2017

Looking real good

kTHREE · Jul 5, 2017

Finally done with drywall work and paint!

Just some misc trim to go up and we can start on the fun stuff...

Decided against ceiling mounted speakers for a multitude of reasons.
Going with a larger amp and some outdoor speakers instead.
Slowly amassing lots of gear of the garage.

And because GJ is stuck in the 90's and we can't embed video, here's a teaser link:

kTHREE · Jul 20, 2017

Speakers are up, no visible wires and it sounds beauty, well for a garage.
Running about 70 wrms through it. For a three way with an 8" driver they get decently low with the potential to annoy others so I might have to limit the volume.

I didn't even attempt to spell that correctly lol. Math yes, spelling no.

Ceiling fans and cabinets are now in progress. :thumbup:

Wileel · Jul 20, 2017

Can you tell us about that panel please

Blue Seducer · Jul 25, 2017

Yes, info on the panel. :beer:

kTHREE · Oct 4, 2017

^Just a home automation supplier local to my state.

Anyhow been busy with a few of the wife's projects to keep the garage fund flowing.

I have two 52" fans coming in this weekend and now that the attic isn't hell incarnate, it's time to finish up pulling wire and gas before I blow in insulation.
Also been pricing out insulated garage doors.
I'm sure the ceiling insulation will be a better ROI but those doors are pretty crappy from the outside.

Strouty · Oct 4, 2017

My take on the doors is as long as they are sealed well, you would be better off trying to keep the heat from going up through the ceiling. I know aesthetics are totally different, but for now I would spend more effort in other places than insulated garage doors. I look at those as the finishing touch, so to speak.

rubberrodder · Oct 9, 2017

That barrel table is cool.

kTHREE · Oct 9, 2017

Fan weekend in the garage.
What a pain the the ***, got these on clearance through home depot for 60 bucks and they are damp rated, but I had to chase every hole and connection with a tap. Just sloppy manufacturing.
That and one of the fans 4 way pull switch wasn't connected and was shorting out inside the fan! So that was fun.

Works great now though.
Cabinets and storage is next on the list along with 240 and gas line.

kTHREE · Oct 9, 2017

rubberrodder said:
That barrel table is cool.

I found out how much they cost when she wanted to buy one from a furniture store, I said "I bet I can build that for 400"...

Just a few more coats of poly to go.

FTWingRiders · Oct 9, 2017

coming along nice! What a huge improvement. Nice to see the Mrs. out there working the power tools, mine wouldn't even consider it...lol I like the ceiling fans, I should have added some myself, but just didn't think of it..

TomcoPDR · Oct 9, 2017

Good staining on the table, brings out the grains without over casting 'em.

kTHREE · Oct 24, 2017

All done and shiny, 7ish coats of oil poly.
Cabinets coming up next for the garage... after we finish the cabinets in the kitchen

.

55cadillacking · Oct 25, 2017

This is a great example of taking your average garage and turning it into something special. The previous owner(s) don't know what they were missing!

tdott · Oct 25, 2017

Great progress!
Any plans for the flooring or are you just going to replace the slab down the road and dont want to do anything with the current slab?

TonkaJoe · Oct 25, 2017

kTHREE said:
All done and shiny, 7ish coats of oil poly.
Cabinets coming up next for the garage... after we finish the cabinets in the kitchen .

Wow is that ever nice!!

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