24x50 GA Garage Build

[Rusty Bumper]

I'm not sure how you insulate the ceiling. It does not look to have venting down the center and up from the eves. Maybe you could put gable and roof vents in after the fact. Or do the spray on foam and end up having what is called a hot roof. Your county inspector would be a good source of information as he sees this type of thin on a regular basis.

 

[M1N1ON]

I'm not sure how you insulate the ceiling. It does not look to have venting down the center and up from the eves. Maybe you could put gable and roof vents in after the fact. Or do the spray on foam and end up having what is called a hot roof. Your county inspector would be a good source of information as he sees this type of thin on a regular basis.

There is about a 3" gap between the two sides of the roof meeting at the center. Is this enough air circulation? I looked at insulating the garage but the company wanted a small fortune to do it. I figured I'd go the spray foam route if it gets bad enough. So far I haven't seen any visible moisture. Is there any reason I can't put a roof vent on?

I know most people are reading this thread thinking "this guy has no clue what he is doing". Which is 100% accurate. I am just learning as I go and having fun doing it. This is my first garage build and I am looking for a great workspace but not chasing perfection. Any advice is appreciated!


Tomorrow I am going to seal the floor with Behr wet look. I contemplated multiple epoxy and paint options but the cheap DIY kits never work and I don't have enough self confidence to do the expensive ones. I had two companies quote epoxy coating and wanted right around $5k. Seeing as how this is a budget build of sorts I figured the Behr sealer would help keep stains off and cosmetically looks OK. I won't get bent out of shape if it gets jacked up over time and can always throw another layer on.

 

[CombatNinja]

You have not seen visible moisture yet. Trust me, it will come.

 

[M1N1ON]

So today went from good to bad. Weather was cooperating so I took the cars out and pressure washed and cleaned the floor first thing in the AM.




I used the Behr Wet Look sealer and while people have mixed reviews, it served the purpose I was looking for without breaking the bank.



I thought it gave a pretty unique look to the floor but gave it some water wicking properties.

I did two good coats utilizing a lamb wool pad (which was way better than a roller). Then this is where the stuff hit the fan. I noticed the weather is going to turn and it’s going to rain the next 8 days. I had already unburied the Datsun from the attached garage and the t tops leak like Hilary’s emails. The floor was looking dry and I panicked and decided to put the car in the garage which got mud all up in there. I tried hosing it down which I feel like made it worse. I am just hoping that the stuff cured and it’ll be all good tomorrow when I get home. Fingers crossed!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[M1N1ON]

So its been a long time without an update. To be perfectly honest the wedding started sucking up all my available time. The wedding went off without a hitch and the honeymoon knocked off a bunch of my aviation-geek bucket list items.

Anyways, I ended up using the garage as a storage unit for the better part of two months while we sorted the rest of the house. I finally got time last week to start organizing. I was able to get a set of cabinets and lockers from HD while they were on sale. They aren't super high quality like some of the ones on here but I was able to add a military discount so they made sense.

Went from this

To this

Ill have more pictures here shortly. It feels good to get the garage headed in the right direction.

 

[M1N1ON]

I also had a friend of mine come out and run the conduit through the garage. He was a lot better at it than I was. I was able to start running wire before the day was over but still lots of work ahead. Whats everyones go-to for lights now days? I plan on running LED lights but there are a ton of suppliers out now.

I also was able to get the Miata out for the first time since it went into the garage. The ground has settled a bit so it made things difficult. I am in the process of getting quotes now to connect the garage to the drive.

 

[M1N1ON]

So where to begin? It’s been awhile since I was able to give an update. I went through a wedding, family loss, a deployment to the Middle East, and a recent knee surgery all within a year. Following the deployment I got my act together and put a lot of effort into getting the garage done. Or at least to the point I could start working on stuff.

I had the garage and driveway connected. It was a disaster and has since been asphalted again. Dramatically helped me getting cars in and out though.

 

[M1N1ON]

This is before and after

 

[M1N1ON]

I was able to rent a trench machine and run a 24” deep trench from the house to the garage. I ended up running conduit cause I’m weird like that. I ran 6 gauge wire in a single run and a 60A fuse off the house. Also grounded to two grounding rods outside of the garage per code.

Each side of the garage outlets and lights are on their own breaker with a GFCI outlet to start each run. I’m sure I f-Ed up somewhere but I don’t think I did anything unsafe.

 

[M1N1ON]

I also ran all the inside wire through conduit since it’s a metal building. I finished all the outlets and hung lights. A friend of mine recently got these lights from amazon and I was impressed with them. So far I have 20 of these LED lights in the garage and feel like I can get a tan at night. I didn’t feel like drilling each of these in place and didn’t want them hanging so I zip tied them to the metal structure. I’m sure someone will make fun of me for it but I actually think it’s a clean look.

I don’t have a picture of the last 3 that are missing next to the lift but they are in. It was the last thing I finished before my knee surgery and couldn’t get back on a ladder!

 

[DrinkMan]

20 lights. That is great. You can never have enough lights in a garage. We just keep adding them and with the new LED shop lights that can be daisy chained, it is easy to put them wherever we want them.

Your garage looks good. I'm thinking of building something similar at our north GA weekend home and am curious to see how it works out without insulation for you. I've always wanted to insulate and heat/cool our next space.