Bear Country Garage Reno

[eknoph]

This is my build-thread. I live in North Vancouver, BC and my project is to renovate our detached garage / workshop so it can be more comfortable and organized.

Imagining myself restoring cars in that garage was a key reason for buying this specific house 11 years ago. Sadly it has received limited attention over the years. It is not winterized, has single-pane windows and I don't think the electrical system has been upgraded for 50 years or more. The interior lighting is appalling. One of our local bears tried break into it last year to get at our garbage bin and almost broke my rear door open.

I want to resolve these issues over the next year and will post updates as I go along.

Here's a few photos of the garage as of Sep-13.

Comments and questions will be most welcome.

Erik

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

Why are the doors so skinny in the first pic, or is it the camera angel?

 

[Pat Brady]

Any place can end up looking great. It just takes patience. And it looks like you have a great place to start on. Good luck.

 

[eknoph]

RbrtAWhyt - That space was originally a car-port so I made those doors to close it off when I got the Jag a few years ago. I realize they're not very practical in our part of the world, but at the time it was the best I come up with. My previous employer's HQ was in Weybridge, UK on the site of the old Brooklands Race Track and I took a look around their museum and old workshops one day. All single-pane windows and no insulation there either! Anyways, that was my inspiration at the time (no pistons for Bugatti though). I believe I could glue some solid insulation and skin them on the back to help things out. At the same time I need to replace the clap-door (half) on the opposite side of the space.

 

[eknoph]

Thanks Pat!

 

[Hugo L.]

Why are the doors so skinny in the first pic, or is it the camera angel?

Canadians are thinner than americans.

 

[eknoph]

I realized that I have 2 main decisions to make before I can get really stuck into this project: 1) what's the overall 'look' I want to achieve and 2) should I, or should I not open up the wall dividing the car stall and the workshop?

I think 'The Look' can wait and perhaps it will take care of itself. What I'm torn about is that middle wall - which can be seen from the as-built floor-plan I made.

View attachment Garage Reno Plan.pdf

I'm guessing the garage was originally a double carport with two separate stalls and then at some point the east section was closed in, and extended slightly - to become a wood-working shop for the guy who owned (and had built) the house before us. (The gentleman had a pretty skookum shop actually, and I would have loved to take it over as-it-was, but we couldn't convince the estate to let us have it.)

The workshop area is a basic, nice space and those four walls provide a lot of storage possibilities. I can also see the benefits to having a separate space to take away parts to work on - but I need a way to move said parts as well as tools from/to vehicle. Today I have to go outside and then back inside using one of the four doors (floor jacks don't travel well on gravel). A big PITA.

Conclusion can only be that I have to create some kind of passageway, but do I remove the entire wall - or do I open up a door in the wall large enough to say, wheel an engine or carry a body-panel through it?

Apart from the access issue, there is not a lot of space in the car stall - it is just about wide enough to hold a good-size car, but I can't exactly fling the doors open. Another argument in favour of removing the wall.

The wall is a load bearing wall however, so to open it up I will have to come up with a support solution such as a steel beam. To boot, the wall is anchored to a shallow concrete foundation wall on top of the slab which will have to be removed.

I think on balance I'm leaning towards keeping the wall and opening up a door wide enough to be allow me to move stuff through. Am thinking about a sliding door to save space. I will stew over it for a few days though...

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

Canadians are thinner than americans.

Right. Every country has their fatties, even Canada...

 

[eknoph]

The garage has a small attic which has proven very useful as it adds about 400 sft of storage. PO had a jerry-rigged an access-ladder by nailing boards between two studs which was less-than-practical, particularly when carrying big stuff. Solution - install an attic ladder which now allows reasonably easy access.

 

[eknoph]

In the process of putting in the ladder I had to frame the opening which included cutting part of 1 joist out. As 'luck' would have it, I had to re-route existing wiring to the ceiling tube lights, a process that went a little too fast and was a bit stumped trying to reconnect the bits later. Discovered that the ballast was toast in two of the fixtures so replaced those as well as new daylight 6500 kelvin tubes. Amazing difference, now its high noon 24/7 in my shop.

Have picked up 2 tube lights for the car stall which I'll install this week, should be an improvement on the single 40w naked bulb that's been there to date.

Also started purging a bit of the **** in the shop so starting to see more of the floor now, have some organization bits & pieces which I'll install this week too.

PO built the massive work-bench - a little too great for putting stuff on, never see the surface. The cupboards below are great - the drawers not so much.