Construction Started in 2001
I closed our full service garage organization business and now sell our Saber Brand Steel Cabinets. These are really good cabinets and you can link to Saber Cabinets from the Garage Journal homepage or visit Garages101.com. With our showroom, we had a laboratory to test different types of garage flooring, overhead storage, slot wall and garage cabinets. Here is our almost finished garage with a little explanation of why I chose one product over another.
Garage footprint is 1200 sq feet 24' x 50'
2 Double Overhead Garage Doors - Doors are insulated and highly recommend overhead doors with windows. Lets in lot of natural diffused light.
I installed six Saber 48" wide tall storage cabinets and a workbench with 2 uppers. Workbench units were wall mounted with the back of the cabinet resting on the protruding foundation wall. Tall storage cabinets were set directly on the raised slab. The raised slab was a contractor work order mistake, so instead of tearing it out, we traded the contractor for some free upgrades.
I use the 3 large cabinets at the far end for storing Saber spare parts, shipping supplies, and cabinet installation tools. The other 3 large cabinets are used for extra storage of household items.
The ceiling height is about 11.5 Feet. We want to maximize usage of wall space and are going to stack six matching 31" high Saber Cabinets on top of the 48" tall storage cabinets. The total cabinet height will be a little over 9.5 Feet. The matching stacking cabinets will be available late 2010.
Another view of Cabinets. The 2 cabinets at the end are wall mounted and hold mostly outdoor recreation and kid things.
The workbench cabinets hold the hand tool overflow, power tools, and specialty tools. Everyday hand tools are kept in a rolling tool cart (not pictured). I prefer stainless steel worktop as it looks teriffic and the finish is not affected by oil, paints, or other solvents.
Sound System will eventually be located in a storage cabinet. Will need to cut a hole in the cabinet panel and install a thermostat controlled fan that plugs into one of the switched outlets on the reciever. Still pondering the best location for the stereo. Also plan on having electrician install track lighting on ceiling above work bench and additional overhead lighting in the garage. Will run wires for ceiling speakers at the same time.
In retrospect, I wish we had planned for more garage lighting during the constrution phase. The crawl space above the garage is pretty tight and claustrophopic.
We have about 30" clearance above the overhead door chain and coil spring so we installed Tufffax brand overhead racking. We opted for 2 foot deep racking. The racks hold seasonal decorations, sports equipment, and camping gear. I keep all my fishing tackle in lower easy to access cabinets.
We used to install and retail Tuffrax overhead storage racks and they are in 4,6,8 Ft lengths and in depths ranging of 2,3, and 4 feet. We chose to carry the Tuffrax brand because they offered the largest size selection. Onrax and Monster Racks are also good brands. We felt that Hyloft Racks were too light weight and as installers, we did not want the potential liability of an overhead rack failure.
All overhead racking should be installed adjacent to load walls. Stuctured Trusses are designed to hold roof load, not ceiling load. If you have 8 Foot ceilings keep the depth of your racks to a maximum of 3 feet. When you install large 4 x 8 racks on an 8 ft ceiling it makes the garage feel cramped and small. Even when you have sufficient head clearance, you instinctively want to duck your head.
I now keep my salt water boat rods on a special holder between the two overhead garage doors. Used to just pile them in the corner and besides a few broken tips, had to watch for the black widow spiders.
Epoxy floor has a beige base with a full 1/4" chip coverage (desert tan mix). After scraping and screening floor, we applied 3 clear top coats of solvent based urethane. It can get a little slippery when wet, but with our average rainfall of 7", it is not that much of an issue. We used Key Resin products for all of our professional installations and for this garage. At wholesale, there is about $2.25 per square foot in materials.
In our showroom, we had plastic floor tiles, metallic epoxy flooring, U Coat It flooring, and 3 different chip color floors. I didn't much care for the snap together tiles as they required more maintenance, and the good quality tiles cost about the same as an epoxy floor. The floor tiles had to be mopped EVERY DAY.
I liked our tan chip mix the best as it really hid dust and dirt and it increased the light diffusion much more than the darker chip mixes. We preferred to use a 1/8 inch to 1/4" chip mix on the floors we installed. The chips hide all of the floor imperfections. Chips were sprinkled on the base coat while it was still wet and the surface was then scraped and screened with a floor machine. Floor was finished with two clear urethane top coats.
Word of Warning for the Do-It-Yourself crowd. Concrete and concrete floor coatings is much more complicated and difficult than drywall painting. There are some really cheap and crappy garage floor coatings on the market. Here are some general rules:
1) Plan on spending $ 1.50 to $ 1.75 per square foot for good industrial grade materials.
2) Floor Preparation must be done correctly either by acid wash or diamond grinding.
3) If you go cheap on materials or do not properly prep the concrete, it will cost a minimum of $1.00 per sq ft to have bad coatings removed with a bead blaster.
I am open to comments and questions.
I closed our full service garage organization business and now sell our Saber Brand Steel Cabinets. These are really good cabinets and you can link to Saber Cabinets from the Garage Journal homepage or visit Garages101.com. With our showroom, we had a laboratory to test different types of garage flooring, overhead storage, slot wall and garage cabinets. Here is our almost finished garage with a little explanation of why I chose one product over another.
Garage footprint is 1200 sq feet 24' x 50'
2 Double Overhead Garage Doors - Doors are insulated and highly recommend overhead doors with windows. Lets in lot of natural diffused light.
I installed six Saber 48" wide tall storage cabinets and a workbench with 2 uppers. Workbench units were wall mounted with the back of the cabinet resting on the protruding foundation wall. Tall storage cabinets were set directly on the raised slab. The raised slab was a contractor work order mistake, so instead of tearing it out, we traded the contractor for some free upgrades.
I use the 3 large cabinets at the far end for storing Saber spare parts, shipping supplies, and cabinet installation tools. The other 3 large cabinets are used for extra storage of household items.
The ceiling height is about 11.5 Feet. We want to maximize usage of wall space and are going to stack six matching 31" high Saber Cabinets on top of the 48" tall storage cabinets. The total cabinet height will be a little over 9.5 Feet. The matching stacking cabinets will be available late 2010.
Another view of Cabinets. The 2 cabinets at the end are wall mounted and hold mostly outdoor recreation and kid things.
The workbench cabinets hold the hand tool overflow, power tools, and specialty tools. Everyday hand tools are kept in a rolling tool cart (not pictured). I prefer stainless steel worktop as it looks teriffic and the finish is not affected by oil, paints, or other solvents.
Sound System will eventually be located in a storage cabinet. Will need to cut a hole in the cabinet panel and install a thermostat controlled fan that plugs into one of the switched outlets on the reciever. Still pondering the best location for the stereo. Also plan on having electrician install track lighting on ceiling above work bench and additional overhead lighting in the garage. Will run wires for ceiling speakers at the same time.
In retrospect, I wish we had planned for more garage lighting during the constrution phase. The crawl space above the garage is pretty tight and claustrophopic.
We have about 30" clearance above the overhead door chain and coil spring so we installed Tufffax brand overhead racking. We opted for 2 foot deep racking. The racks hold seasonal decorations, sports equipment, and camping gear. I keep all my fishing tackle in lower easy to access cabinets.
We used to install and retail Tuffrax overhead storage racks and they are in 4,6,8 Ft lengths and in depths ranging of 2,3, and 4 feet. We chose to carry the Tuffrax brand because they offered the largest size selection. Onrax and Monster Racks are also good brands. We felt that Hyloft Racks were too light weight and as installers, we did not want the potential liability of an overhead rack failure.
All overhead racking should be installed adjacent to load walls. Stuctured Trusses are designed to hold roof load, not ceiling load. If you have 8 Foot ceilings keep the depth of your racks to a maximum of 3 feet. When you install large 4 x 8 racks on an 8 ft ceiling it makes the garage feel cramped and small. Even when you have sufficient head clearance, you instinctively want to duck your head.
I now keep my salt water boat rods on a special holder between the two overhead garage doors. Used to just pile them in the corner and besides a few broken tips, had to watch for the black widow spiders.
Epoxy floor has a beige base with a full 1/4" chip coverage (desert tan mix). After scraping and screening floor, we applied 3 clear top coats of solvent based urethane. It can get a little slippery when wet, but with our average rainfall of 7", it is not that much of an issue. We used Key Resin products for all of our professional installations and for this garage. At wholesale, there is about $2.25 per square foot in materials.
In our showroom, we had plastic floor tiles, metallic epoxy flooring, U Coat It flooring, and 3 different chip color floors. I didn't much care for the snap together tiles as they required more maintenance, and the good quality tiles cost about the same as an epoxy floor. The floor tiles had to be mopped EVERY DAY.
I liked our tan chip mix the best as it really hid dust and dirt and it increased the light diffusion much more than the darker chip mixes. We preferred to use a 1/8 inch to 1/4" chip mix on the floors we installed. The chips hide all of the floor imperfections. Chips were sprinkled on the base coat while it was still wet and the surface was then scraped and screened with a floor machine. Floor was finished with two clear urethane top coats.
Word of Warning for the Do-It-Yourself crowd. Concrete and concrete floor coatings is much more complicated and difficult than drywall painting. There are some really cheap and crappy garage floor coatings on the market. Here are some general rules:
1) Plan on spending $ 1.50 to $ 1.75 per square foot for good industrial grade materials.
2) Floor Preparation must be done correctly either by acid wash or diamond grinding.
3) If you go cheap on materials or do not properly prep the concrete, it will cost a minimum of $1.00 per sq ft to have bad coatings removed with a bead blaster.
I am open to comments and questions.
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