17x17 garage update

[teich]

Moved into our 90 year old house 4 years ago. Garage has always been used as storage only - it's mid way back on the property, too small to really park usefully in, with a really narrow driveway that makes backing up and tandem parking annoying.

This is AFTER having the junk guys come and take 1/4 of a truck away.

Current plans:

• shelving along the back and right wall
• racedeck flooring
• mount TV on left wall where storage is now
• hopefully put french doors in the back where window is
• replace garage door. Current one has fist sized rot holes in it.

 

[Jay Sco]

Welcome to the GJ. 17x17 is pretty tight but there are plenty of people here that have made due with less. Have fun and keep pics coming.

 

[teich]

Shoved everything over to one side, and swept up to prep for the cabinet phase 1 install tomorrow.

Garage before I started anything:

Nasty floor and cruft after I shoved everything over:

Clean floor and walls ready for the cabinets:

View of the nasty asphalt floor. I hate this floor.

Current status:

 

[Beemer533]

Thats asphalt? It actually looks better than mine!! biggest mistake I made when I moved into my current house was being cheap and not tearing out the asphalt that was put in the garage...

Mine isn't smooth or level either, I can't even really sweep it...

Hard to tell from your pictures; how flat is it?

 

[teich]

Yeah, it's asphalt. 50+ year old asphalt. It's _mostly_ flat. It has a good 1" dip towards the center. The back left has been pushed up at least 2". There are a ton of cracks, half a dozen jack stand impressions, dips and swirls all over.

Local zoning makes it dubious to do any structural work. I'm afraid that if I tore up the asphalt, I'll find that there is foundation and or wall problems, and then I'm out of luck. The garage is built on the property line. Grandfathered in, as long as I don't do anything major. If I touch it in any way the city cares about, I need to move it 3' in, which... isn't possible. So I live with my crumbling small garage with 2x2 walls 24" on center and a scary asphalt floor. Will be fun to see what I can get done within those constraints.

 

[Cris B]

Man, people bury bodies in back yards and get away with it (not that I am condoning such reprobate behaviour), so when it comes to your garage do it by stealth and you're onto a winner...

 

[teich]

ha!

I have a very 'interested' neighbor. Any banging and the city is called. With my 7000' _LOT_ it's hard to hide anything.

 

[teich]

Yesterday I had cabinets installed.

The guys came and looking figure it was a 2 hour job. 4:30 later they were finally done. My floors and walls are so uneven getting everything to line up, doors to close, etc took hours. They look great, and I've already filled them up.

This morning early I started laying down the racedeck.

I'm putting a double layer if landscape fabric down for noise. Took about 90 minutes to get this part done.

Next step is to move the huge costco wire rack that holds all my nice black bins to this space and finish the flooring.

The floor is working out better than I expected on my terrible asphalt. There are a few spots where the dips are ao bad the floor really springs down bit overall it is firm and looks great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HSpencer]

Now that is an amazing update!! Everything is coming together and looking great. I like the storage compartments. The white paint and corner cabinets are awesome. Keep on posting your photos. Great job!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[teich]

Thanks Herb for the kind words and support. GJ is a great community, amazing to see what people do here!

 

[teich]

Phase 1 complete!

First step was moving the costco shelving over:

Here's my big pile of black boxes while moving the shelving. I love these things. Container Store, keep everything tidy and dust free.

And here's the bins back on the shelf in it's new home:

It's amazing how much crud gets into the garage.

Looks much better when it's all been swept clean

The crack is still ugly even when it's cleanish

The floor is almost finished! Garage looking much better (when empty of course)

I'm going to hang the bike on the wall where it's leaning up, and put a TV to the right of it for when I'm on the indoor trainer. The door there won't open, need to shave the bottom down. I have no idea how to do that - any feedback? I'm not a 'handy' kind of guy, don't have many tools, but do have access to friends. Take the door off, saw the bottom, and put it back on?

And here's the current state, with everything put back in

 

[dubber]

Nice to see your up to the challenge. With some solid space saving solutions you can make it functional and fun.

 

[CoopVA]

Wow! That looks really good! I love those black boxes!

 

[G McKay]

It does look really good!! You are doing a great job.

 

[mwbailey]

Yep, take door off. Several approaches to making it "shorter": could sand with a friends belt sander if you're talking about small fractions of inch, could use a hand plane from a friend which might be the old fashioned way, or -- as you say -- saw it off if it's over 1/2 inch of so. Good luck with garage AND indoor trainer, I just couldn't handle the latter -- no breeze when your're "riding"!!?! Garage is looking doggone good.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Wow! That looks really good! I love those black boxes!

 

[spoonsports86]

wow that's a huge difference already