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Last year I decided it was finally time to remodel my garage, and I managed to transform it from a cobweb-infested dank storage pit into a combination bike shop, woodshop, office, and lounge. I love the result and since I got a lot of tips from garagejournal I thought I’d share some of the accomplishments. I learned a LOT during this process and have endless opinions on techniques, ideas, and experiences, but I’ll try to keep it to an overview and then answer any specific questions if it would be helpful.
- Layout: Mezzanine:
The garage is a modest 26x21, but it has 14’ ceilings. That always stood out and I wanted to do something to take advantage of the wasted space. Originally there was a deep (18”) laminate beam spanning the room with a single steel column supporting the center (poorly). I chose to build a mezzanine to maximize the space. That begat adding high-lift door to maximize the utility.
- Design: 3D virtual and scale model
To mock up some ideas I used the free 5dplanner.com software suite, which is pretty easy to work with. That let me do some walkthroughs and sanity check my ideas. Then at some point I decided to build a perfect 1:16 scale model with clear lexan walls and ABS i-beams. Who knew plastruct offered perfect scale beams? I added a 1:16 6’-tall batman to triple check dimensions. This was very helpful, as I redesigned 3 times to change (eliminate) my approach to stairs.
- Material: Aluminum:
At some point early in my Amazon/google surfing I spotted the image of a 6061-T6 aluminum I-beam. I never considered aluminum for structural applications but, frankly, it looked really cool. That got me thinking, and soon I realized/learned that I could work it pretty reasonablty with higher-end woodworking equipment safely and it would be light enough for me to tackle on my own (versus steel). I loved the cleaner minimal look versus wood and the anti-corrosive property versus steel. With copious research I determined I could go 100% (stainless) bolts and avoid welding. I’d love to weld one day but rushing in on aluminum on a live project sounded unwise. Also worth noting I put a brushed finish on all the aluminum and then treated it 2-3 times with Alumetron protectant to minimize oxidation down the road (I hope). Also- I did the flooring with aluminum “litebar” bar grate that was very difficult to track down and finally get produced to order. In every possible instance I kept single spans as long as I can, so the wall channels, I-beams, and bar grate have 20’+ sections wherever it was possible.
- Feature: Hoist:
Somewhere along the way I got the idea of a having a hoist and started seeing cast iron “beam trolleys” online that looked awesome. Those thoughts coalesced into replacing the laminate beam with a 27’ steel 1500lb I-Beam and mounting a 2000# capacity hoist via a couple 1-ton cast iron trolleys so it could roll across the span. I did not put up the steel beam myself - I had a great local shop do that, which included 5x5 steel columns in the walls on either end. I also got an engineering firm for (only) this part and had them spec the beam options to all be good for 2 tons of downward force in addition to their primary duty of holding up the house. I did drill the block walls under the supporting columns and fill them with about 700lb of concrete via a funnel. The hoist has turned out to be a massive win and was extremely helpful in fabricating the mezzanine and subsequently loading it. The kids love it too.
- Floor: Polished Concrete:
I debated epoxies and then a neighbor contracted a local firm to do polished concrete for him, which looked fantastic. I canceled the epoxy quotes and switched over and it has been a fantastic decision. It is a “black” finish (dye in the final coat) but just comes across as dark grey. I did this very early in the project, which was key to minimize dust for the ongoing work.
- Power: 100A sub-panel:
The house happens to have a 400A main panel, and I got a great electrician company to run a subpanel and tons of 220 and 120 outlets top and bottom. I made my 220s red receptacles to set them off, and added two cable reels overhead - one in each voltage. Those have proven extremely useful during and after the project. I also added a mini-split wall-mount HVAC unit as part of this build and it has been working perfectly to heat and cool.
- Tools: Woodworking/Metal
Not everything you read will be clear about differences in aluminum, and it can get confusing as to when you should follow instructions for “metal” versus “wood. My observations on conclusion - which I welcome correction on - is that aluminum can be cut at relatively high speeds versus steel. Heat dissipates very quickly, so cuttings flying into your dust collector (on top of wood chips even) are much less of a concern. Sparks are non-existent, and that stench that ensues with steel cutting isn’t there. In general it is a joy to work with.
Drill Press:
I got a nice hefty drill press early on and researched bits painstakingly to ultimately land on bright parabolic 120deg. The steep angle was recommended to clear the debris quickly and avoid gumming. That said, I think it would be more relevant if I were drilling deep block. Drilling depths of closer to 1/4” I bet I could have gotten away with more traditional/boring bits. I also worked at fairly low speed on the press with a lot of cutting fluid. I think the latter was important but toward the end of the project I upped the speeds and that was fine.
Chopsaw:
I got a Festool Kapex pretty early on (from my wife for my birthday, actually!). I bought an aluminum cutting blade straight away and the festool instructions and unit have a labeled sitting specifically for aluminum (which, interestingly, is a higher speed setting up to 6000rpm IIRC). The Kapex blasted right through the aluminum with no issue. My biggest beams/channels were 6” wide/tall, which I was able to span with the saw JUST BARELY with some acrobatics. I made a lot of jigs using MDF and scrap bars. On a related note, I highly recommend buying 6061 aluminum bars in various dimensions as jigs, straightedges, right angles, and measurement devices. Unlike wood, the factory cuts are serup precise. Having, for example, a 4x2x12” perfectly crafted hefty aluminum bar is awesome for pinning down work on the mitre saw bed, propping things up, and much more.
Band saw:
I got a nice wood/metal bandsaw fairly early on, and I didn’t use it even once. I didn’t even try it out until I was just about done. I had to cut a few thick “(~1.5”) steel and stainless tubes early on to fabricate the wide-spanned beam trolleys, and I would use the bandsaw immediately if I had to do it again, but that was before I bought it and I made due with a dremel sawmax and a lot of ICE, cursing, fire, and drama.
Dust collector:
I picked up my dust collector early in the project and that was super valuable. I kept it on the ground level and used it all over - but especially during all the sanding. SO MUCH SANDING. I wanted a brushed finished on everything and everything came with a “mill finish” which basically means “light patina of greyish oxidization”.
Sanding:
I spent hours thinking about how I could brush sand the inside channel of an i-beam. I finally came up with a dewalt car buffer when I saw the motor specs were identical to grinders that cost 3-4x the price. I even bought the expensive grinders (“burnishers, technically”) but nothing fit right. I finally found a way to use giant sanding drumes on the buffer, and I fabricated some cool shrouds out of big PVC draining caps and shop-vac attachments to limit dust (somewhat). I feel like I bought every sanding attachment on the market but the big drums were the main players.
- Safety:
In addition to the usual gloves and occasionally remembering to actually wear long sleeves while cutting metal, I bought a battery backed active full face mask that was absolutely essential for the sanding work. The sanding was grueling and I spent hours on that slaving over metal with tons of dust despite even my shround concoctions.
I also used a festool MFT table with various jigs and dogs to hold larger aluminum while sanding and cutting, and got a mobile jack horse to support 20+’ beams while feeding them along the drill press etc.
- Cool stuff I learned:
How to drill square 1/2” holes in aluminum for carriage bolts! (Hint: it’s called a “broach”).
Oxidization challenges with unlike metals. Here I settled on stainless +Aluminum being fine for my non-coastal environment. Steel would have been a no-no, and while I planned nylon washers and bushing and experimented with them, it was too much of a PITA and not worth it for this application.
Pilot bits didn’t really work for me before using the press. Just using a very small (1/16ish) bit on a hand drill worked a lot better.
Drop-in concrete anchors are very tough to locate with precision. At first I wandered so much I had to just accomodate the location by drilling my floor plates to match afterwards. With time I learned to make a jig from aluminum plating affixed with double sided tape, drill a smaller masonry pilot hole, and then try to stick to it with the full-size (5/8) bit. Drama.
For lighting I used bigassed lights and 40k lumens. I thought more was better, and I definitely need and want the bright light a lot. That said, it is so sharp it casts some hard shadows and I’ll need to supplement with some in-mezzanine work surface-targeted small LED bars, at which point I hope I can lower the voltage on the primary lights and have a softer look.
Husky has gotten good: When I grew up Husky was akin to “Huffy” and I’d never consider buying tools/storage there. I learned that recently they’ve slipped in some super high end stuff. The tool cabinets pictured in here and superior to anything from snap-on etc (blasphemy?) I’ve ever seen. Outstanding equipment.
I added some stainless eye-nuts in key places to help with cabling/hoisting/tethering. Very useful.
Beam flanges and bar grate offer countless awesome spots to clamp, caribeener, or hang things. Limitless overhead handing oppotunities.
Oh and I sandwiched some hard (80A I think) neoprene into the top of the columns to deaden things a bit - good idea so far.
Garage door companies don’t do high-end stuff. The doors themselves are fine enough, but hardware comes in only one flavor: “mickey mouse rinkadink ****”. I got mind powder coated in matte black by a local shop and got the installed jazzed a few times through talking shop and giving them a tip, but they are definitely used to working with framing lumber cheap gappy rush jobs. I cut my own lumber for mounting the doors and convinced them to install it (2x6 hard maple instead of framing lumber) as I used it to anchor the mezzanine as well but they didn’t seem enthused about it.
- To do:
The main outstanding item is putting a railing in. I’m pretty exhausted with the big work - or more importantly the family can’t suffer that many more weekends with me slaving away all morning in the garage - so I might get that built or stumble on something prefab one day (no luck yet). I had a shop that has done good steel work for us inside the house come out and spec it all out, and we decided on 2” square 6061 “tubing” in a simple config with a few gates for access and a 2” kick-plate. Of course I’ve been waiting 2 months to see a quote, which is so common with contractors. So I may be forced to just do it myself for the sake of getting it done (so often the case). On a related note I’ll look to “professionalize” my ladder situation in the process. Right now I have a nice light cheap 8’ aluminum lean-to ladder; my top idea for now is actually to graft railings onto it along with a top hook to lock into the grating, and then I think i’ll leave it portable.
The second item is a car lift. I designed this perfectly to accomodate a directlift/weaver pro park 8 plus, which will raise up to 84” and sit flush with the mezzanine. Again, I can’t get any local shops to call me back or actually shop up to quote an install (I favor using a shop because not only do I not want to jack around a few thousands pounds of steel, but getting it delivered will mean a semi drops it in the front yard while a local installed could get it on a smaller truck). That said, I’m really enjoying the open space and fear the lift will ruin the feel. For now I’ll wait until I feel compelled to buy a toy/fun car one day, at which point I’ll get the lift.
I also hoisted the dust vac up onto the mezzanine as planned, and now I need to run some ductwork to deliver it to a few key points.
...and I need to buy a nice big air compressor for the opposite side of the mezzanine up high and to run one or two air reels to some key points.
Clean up: first I had to build storage, now I need to go through every little old toolbox and cabinet and put every littled damned extra screw into the right spot.
Last year I decided it was finally time to remodel my garage, and I managed to transform it from a cobweb-infested dank storage pit into a combination bike shop, woodshop, office, and lounge. I love the result and since I got a lot of tips from garagejournal I thought I’d share some of the accomplishments. I learned a LOT during this process and have endless opinions on techniques, ideas, and experiences, but I’ll try to keep it to an overview and then answer any specific questions if it would be helpful.
- Layout: Mezzanine:
The garage is a modest 26x21, but it has 14’ ceilings. That always stood out and I wanted to do something to take advantage of the wasted space. Originally there was a deep (18”) laminate beam spanning the room with a single steel column supporting the center (poorly). I chose to build a mezzanine to maximize the space. That begat adding high-lift door to maximize the utility.
- Design: 3D virtual and scale model
To mock up some ideas I used the free 5dplanner.com software suite, which is pretty easy to work with. That let me do some walkthroughs and sanity check my ideas. Then at some point I decided to build a perfect 1:16 scale model with clear lexan walls and ABS i-beams. Who knew plastruct offered perfect scale beams? I added a 1:16 6’-tall batman to triple check dimensions. This was very helpful, as I redesigned 3 times to change (eliminate) my approach to stairs.
- Material: Aluminum:
At some point early in my Amazon/google surfing I spotted the image of a 6061-T6 aluminum I-beam. I never considered aluminum for structural applications but, frankly, it looked really cool. That got me thinking, and soon I realized/learned that I could work it pretty reasonablty with higher-end woodworking equipment safely and it would be light enough for me to tackle on my own (versus steel). I loved the cleaner minimal look versus wood and the anti-corrosive property versus steel. With copious research I determined I could go 100% (stainless) bolts and avoid welding. I’d love to weld one day but rushing in on aluminum on a live project sounded unwise. Also worth noting I put a brushed finish on all the aluminum and then treated it 2-3 times with Alumetron protectant to minimize oxidation down the road (I hope). Also- I did the flooring with aluminum “litebar” bar grate that was very difficult to track down and finally get produced to order. In every possible instance I kept single spans as long as I can, so the wall channels, I-beams, and bar grate have 20’+ sections wherever it was possible.
- Feature: Hoist:
Somewhere along the way I got the idea of a having a hoist and started seeing cast iron “beam trolleys” online that looked awesome. Those thoughts coalesced into replacing the laminate beam with a 27’ steel 1500lb I-Beam and mounting a 2000# capacity hoist via a couple 1-ton cast iron trolleys so it could roll across the span. I did not put up the steel beam myself - I had a great local shop do that, which included 5x5 steel columns in the walls on either end. I also got an engineering firm for (only) this part and had them spec the beam options to all be good for 2 tons of downward force in addition to their primary duty of holding up the house. I did drill the block walls under the supporting columns and fill them with about 700lb of concrete via a funnel. The hoist has turned out to be a massive win and was extremely helpful in fabricating the mezzanine and subsequently loading it. The kids love it too.
- Floor: Polished Concrete:
I debated epoxies and then a neighbor contracted a local firm to do polished concrete for him, which looked fantastic. I canceled the epoxy quotes and switched over and it has been a fantastic decision. It is a “black” finish (dye in the final coat) but just comes across as dark grey. I did this very early in the project, which was key to minimize dust for the ongoing work.
- Power: 100A sub-panel:
The house happens to have a 400A main panel, and I got a great electrician company to run a subpanel and tons of 220 and 120 outlets top and bottom. I made my 220s red receptacles to set them off, and added two cable reels overhead - one in each voltage. Those have proven extremely useful during and after the project. I also added a mini-split wall-mount HVAC unit as part of this build and it has been working perfectly to heat and cool.
- Tools: Woodworking/Metal
Not everything you read will be clear about differences in aluminum, and it can get confusing as to when you should follow instructions for “metal” versus “wood. My observations on conclusion - which I welcome correction on - is that aluminum can be cut at relatively high speeds versus steel. Heat dissipates very quickly, so cuttings flying into your dust collector (on top of wood chips even) are much less of a concern. Sparks are non-existent, and that stench that ensues with steel cutting isn’t there. In general it is a joy to work with.
Drill Press:
I got a nice hefty drill press early on and researched bits painstakingly to ultimately land on bright parabolic 120deg. The steep angle was recommended to clear the debris quickly and avoid gumming. That said, I think it would be more relevant if I were drilling deep block. Drilling depths of closer to 1/4” I bet I could have gotten away with more traditional/boring bits. I also worked at fairly low speed on the press with a lot of cutting fluid. I think the latter was important but toward the end of the project I upped the speeds and that was fine.
Chopsaw:
I got a Festool Kapex pretty early on (from my wife for my birthday, actually!). I bought an aluminum cutting blade straight away and the festool instructions and unit have a labeled sitting specifically for aluminum (which, interestingly, is a higher speed setting up to 6000rpm IIRC). The Kapex blasted right through the aluminum with no issue. My biggest beams/channels were 6” wide/tall, which I was able to span with the saw JUST BARELY with some acrobatics. I made a lot of jigs using MDF and scrap bars. On a related note, I highly recommend buying 6061 aluminum bars in various dimensions as jigs, straightedges, right angles, and measurement devices. Unlike wood, the factory cuts are serup precise. Having, for example, a 4x2x12” perfectly crafted hefty aluminum bar is awesome for pinning down work on the mitre saw bed, propping things up, and much more.
Band saw:
I got a nice wood/metal bandsaw fairly early on, and I didn’t use it even once. I didn’t even try it out until I was just about done. I had to cut a few thick “(~1.5”) steel and stainless tubes early on to fabricate the wide-spanned beam trolleys, and I would use the bandsaw immediately if I had to do it again, but that was before I bought it and I made due with a dremel sawmax and a lot of ICE, cursing, fire, and drama.
Dust collector:
I picked up my dust collector early in the project and that was super valuable. I kept it on the ground level and used it all over - but especially during all the sanding. SO MUCH SANDING. I wanted a brushed finished on everything and everything came with a “mill finish” which basically means “light patina of greyish oxidization”.
Sanding:
I spent hours thinking about how I could brush sand the inside channel of an i-beam. I finally came up with a dewalt car buffer when I saw the motor specs were identical to grinders that cost 3-4x the price. I even bought the expensive grinders (“burnishers, technically”) but nothing fit right. I finally found a way to use giant sanding drumes on the buffer, and I fabricated some cool shrouds out of big PVC draining caps and shop-vac attachments to limit dust (somewhat). I feel like I bought every sanding attachment on the market but the big drums were the main players.
- Safety:
In addition to the usual gloves and occasionally remembering to actually wear long sleeves while cutting metal, I bought a battery backed active full face mask that was absolutely essential for the sanding work. The sanding was grueling and I spent hours on that slaving over metal with tons of dust despite even my shround concoctions.
I also used a festool MFT table with various jigs and dogs to hold larger aluminum while sanding and cutting, and got a mobile jack horse to support 20+’ beams while feeding them along the drill press etc.
- Cool stuff I learned:
How to drill square 1/2” holes in aluminum for carriage bolts! (Hint: it’s called a “broach”).
Oxidization challenges with unlike metals. Here I settled on stainless +Aluminum being fine for my non-coastal environment. Steel would have been a no-no, and while I planned nylon washers and bushing and experimented with them, it was too much of a PITA and not worth it for this application.
Pilot bits didn’t really work for me before using the press. Just using a very small (1/16ish) bit on a hand drill worked a lot better.
Drop-in concrete anchors are very tough to locate with precision. At first I wandered so much I had to just accomodate the location by drilling my floor plates to match afterwards. With time I learned to make a jig from aluminum plating affixed with double sided tape, drill a smaller masonry pilot hole, and then try to stick to it with the full-size (5/8) bit. Drama.
For lighting I used bigassed lights and 40k lumens. I thought more was better, and I definitely need and want the bright light a lot. That said, it is so sharp it casts some hard shadows and I’ll need to supplement with some in-mezzanine work surface-targeted small LED bars, at which point I hope I can lower the voltage on the primary lights and have a softer look.
Husky has gotten good: When I grew up Husky was akin to “Huffy” and I’d never consider buying tools/storage there. I learned that recently they’ve slipped in some super high end stuff. The tool cabinets pictured in here and superior to anything from snap-on etc (blasphemy?) I’ve ever seen. Outstanding equipment.
I added some stainless eye-nuts in key places to help with cabling/hoisting/tethering. Very useful.
Beam flanges and bar grate offer countless awesome spots to clamp, caribeener, or hang things. Limitless overhead handing oppotunities.
Oh and I sandwiched some hard (80A I think) neoprene into the top of the columns to deaden things a bit - good idea so far.
Garage door companies don’t do high-end stuff. The doors themselves are fine enough, but hardware comes in only one flavor: “mickey mouse rinkadink ****”. I got mind powder coated in matte black by a local shop and got the installed jazzed a few times through talking shop and giving them a tip, but they are definitely used to working with framing lumber cheap gappy rush jobs. I cut my own lumber for mounting the doors and convinced them to install it (2x6 hard maple instead of framing lumber) as I used it to anchor the mezzanine as well but they didn’t seem enthused about it.
- To do:
The main outstanding item is putting a railing in. I’m pretty exhausted with the big work - or more importantly the family can’t suffer that many more weekends with me slaving away all morning in the garage - so I might get that built or stumble on something prefab one day (no luck yet). I had a shop that has done good steel work for us inside the house come out and spec it all out, and we decided on 2” square 6061 “tubing” in a simple config with a few gates for access and a 2” kick-plate. Of course I’ve been waiting 2 months to see a quote, which is so common with contractors. So I may be forced to just do it myself for the sake of getting it done (so often the case). On a related note I’ll look to “professionalize” my ladder situation in the process. Right now I have a nice light cheap 8’ aluminum lean-to ladder; my top idea for now is actually to graft railings onto it along with a top hook to lock into the grating, and then I think i’ll leave it portable.
The second item is a car lift. I designed this perfectly to accomodate a directlift/weaver pro park 8 plus, which will raise up to 84” and sit flush with the mezzanine. Again, I can’t get any local shops to call me back or actually shop up to quote an install (I favor using a shop because not only do I not want to jack around a few thousands pounds of steel, but getting it delivered will mean a semi drops it in the front yard while a local installed could get it on a smaller truck). That said, I’m really enjoying the open space and fear the lift will ruin the feel. For now I’ll wait until I feel compelled to buy a toy/fun car one day, at which point I’ll get the lift.
I also hoisted the dust vac up onto the mezzanine as planned, and now I need to run some ductwork to deliver it to a few key points.
...and I need to buy a nice big air compressor for the opposite side of the mezzanine up high and to run one or two air reels to some key points.
Clean up: first I had to build storage, now I need to go through every little old toolbox and cabinet and put every littled damned extra screw into the right spot.
