BearDeXPS's Garage Reno

[BearDeXPS]

Howdy yall! Been a looker on here for a while... but haven't posted much. This forum has been a major help leading me up this this fun project - thanks to all that have contributed before me


When the wife and I were shopping around for a house my only stipulations were concerning the garage ~ the rest, whatever made her happy. While I didn't get the 'ideal' garage (most things in life are a compromise); I was still left with a usable space. Currently it's the last room of the house that really needs work and my wife has given me the green light to finally get on with the renovation


As you can see in these pictures the finish was in pretty rough shape. Tape/Joints cracking, half the drywall ceiling missing, the other half falling down, holes, rotted out old wooden overhead door, kicked-in not to code man door, etc etc











Also the wifey recently ‘accidentally’ ran her Jeep into the door jamb



^^^of course that was my fault for parking her car “kinda funky” in there the night before


So order of business to get this garage tip-top:
- Replace overhead door
- Replace man-door
- Demo drywall - re-drywall, tape, float, texture, paint
- Attic ladder
- Electrical - add outlets, lighting, switches, etc
- Fluid applied floor
- Purchase furniture – cabinets, lockers, storage, work bench, etc
- Purchase accessories - wall fans, high chair, working chair, creeper, folding chair storage rack system, retractable extension cord reel, etc


Below are some renderings I've come up with to get dimensionally stable:






The location of the workbench has been my main headache... with the location of the 3ea mandoors along the back wall there's no 'perfect' location. This corner looks a bit cramped in the rendering but the car can slide a good 2' towards the front of the garage allowing the left side of the workbench more easily usable space. My wives Jeep will almost always be parked in the left bay and with her recent history of running into things I'd like to give her the least amount of object to come in-contact with :thumbsup:

I’m trying to keep the least amount of objects on the left and right side of the bays – I want to be able to easily open doors, not hit my head on anything… and still allow myself space to get a jack at all four corners.


^^^ANY INPUT TO THE LAYOUT IS APPRECIATED!


Some discussion points regarding the upcoming scope:

FINISH-OUT
- Obvi going to remove all the damaged/non-existent drywall and replace with new. Scrap most of the texture, tape, float, sand, re-texture, and paint. I'm thinking for paint going with a flat finish light grey on both the walls and ceiling.
- adding a floor to ceiling peg board at the front of the garage for yard work essentials (edger, blower, broom, trimmer, etc)
- adding FRP panel in the other front corner at the water softner

OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR
- Clopay, traditional long panels, 2" insulation (R-10), long flush windows
- Liftmaster #8355 1/2hp belt drive (quite!!)
- I've got 10' ceiling in the space and the door is a std 8'... I requested some vertical track extensions to snug the motor and track up against the ceiling as tight as possible. This should give me another 8"-10" of clearance.

MAN DOOR
- Replacing door, frame, hardware... additional safety features include fire rated, insulated, proper thickness, dead bolt, hinge stiffeners, wide angle view port, etc.

ATTIC LADDER
- The current position of the attic access isn't ideal and pretty dangers and cumbersome to get the old foldable ladder out to lift myself and objects up there for storage... we're installing a proper insulated attic ladder relocated more to the center of the garage in the left bay. This will be a heavy duty unit and support up to 400lbs capacity.

ELECTRICAL
- Relocating water softner outlet (closer to the unit for additional usable wall space), adding additional wall outlets, and adding ceiling outlets at the wall fan locations. This will all be on a dedicated breaker at the elect panel
- Rewire electric panel, add a bus bar, and add a main ground/ground rod
- Adding 4ea 4' Perterson LED ceiling mounted lights (2ea per bay) - 3,750lum. If this isn't enough lighting I've selected fixtures that can easily be added to in series with a simple pigtail.
- Also with the added circuit we’re adding two std bulbs on a switch at the relocated attic ladder to provide lighting in the attic space above the garage.

FLOORING
- Ideally I'd like to have RaceDeck flooring but the extra $1.5k min. just seems un-necessary at this time (that's with the GarageJournel discount).
- I'm likely going to go with the Sherwin-Williams Armorseal fluid applied flooring in a light beige solid color. I'm not a fan of the granular sprinkles; while it looks kinda cool I know from experience that stuff can make finding a dropped bolt or washer an extra choir LOL
- As most people are, I'm a bit worried about the product lifting... it's all in the floor prep. There's a seal currently on the flooring so I'm going to have to chemically etch or mechanically grind the surface. This is a project I'm not looking forward to but really hope this will be the finishing touch for the space!

GARAGE CABINETS, STORAGE AND WORKSTATION
- This topic is still up for debate. I'm either going to go with Craftsman Premium Heavy Duty or Saber Magnum series for the cabinets and storage. Saber will cost over $1k premium after s/h. They also don't go on sale while Sears has massive discounts around the holidays. I think Saber (even if they're bolt assembled) will be nicer quality... but the Craftsman Premium Heavy Duty are still way above my current need and use... and they'll still likely last me a 'lifetime' (if I win the lotto I'll buy LISTA's for $30k ).
- Side note, I've got a craftsman tool chest (seen in pics above) and funny enough I think the Saber products would match that better then the Craftsman Premium Heavy Duty.

Craftsman Premium Heavy Duty




Saber



- For the workbench I've pretty much decided on the Gladiator 8' adjustable work bench with butchers block top (rated weight capacity of 3,000lbs) with power strip and tool caddy. The finish on the bench legs will match the Craftsman Cabinets pretty well too (I think) and the power strip is a nice convenient bonus that stops things from rolling off the back!






ACCESSORIES
- High Chair
- Rolling Working Chair
- Creeper
- Monkey Bar folding chair rack (along the wall between the workbench and water softener
- Ceiling mounted retractable extension cord reel (installed next to the garage motor)
- LED under-cabinet task light at workbench
- and 2ea 24" Global Industries wall mounted oscillating fans. I'd like to buy the "quite" Air King fans but at over twice(!) the cost of the GL’s – they just don’t pass my “so-what” test.



The Finish-out and MEP work will be completed rather quickly but the furniture and accessories I'm willing to wait for them to go on-sale... the space should be fully sorted by the end of the year - I hope you enjoy going through the process with me :goodluck:

 

[Rorin67]

Nice post and nice project. I think you're on the right track, but I'm going to challenge you on a basic design element. You should consider moving the workbench to the back wall and put the tall cabinets along the right side wall.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time in the garage (and with this build-out you will), then being in the middle of the garage for hours on end, as opposed to being cramped into a corner, will really help with your enjoyment of the space and decrease fatigue. Further, your lighting plan will work better with the workbench on the back wall.

On another note, I see that you have an electrical panel along that back wall, which you should not block with tall cabinets. You'll need access to the panel and it may be against code, and just generally unsafe, to block it with anything, especially a fully-loaded heavy metal cabinet.

Also, don't forget to add a space for the wall-hung flat screen TV and in-ceiling speakers. You're gonna want those!

Cheers!

 

[BearDeXPS]

WOW!

Really surprised there's been only one comment so far come on GarageJournal pick it up

Regardless I appreciate the input to date

Nice post and nice project. I think you're on the right track, but I'm going to challenge you on a basic design element. You should consider moving the workbench to the back wall and put the tall cabinets along the right side wall.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time in the garage (and with this build-out you will), then being in the middle of the garage for hours on end, as opposed to being cramped into a corner, will really help with your enjoyment of the space and decrease fatigue. Further, your lighting plan will work better with the workbench on the back wall.

On another note, I see that you have an electrical panel along that back wall, which you should not block with tall cabinets. You'll need access to the panel and it may be against code, and just generally unsafe, to block it with anything, especially a fully-loaded heavy metal cabinet.

Also, don't forget to add a space for the wall-hung flat screen TV and in-ceiling speakers. You're gonna want those!

Cheers!

Some really good points above

I hear ya on the placement of the bench... but yh there's just no ideal spot for it. Like you said against the back wall would be perfect... but the 2nd bay will almost always house my wives Jeep (and with her history of running into things I need to give here the most amount of room possible... and not give here any ideas of running me over in the process LOL)... and that middle mandoor (houses our water heater) this just isn't the right spot. I modified the rendering by pushing 6" from the OH door... you can see the workbench will be much more usable.




You are defiantly correct regarding the electrical panel... it's right there on the back wall. It's likely against "code" but there's no real safety hazard that I know of... maybe educate me regarding this? I plan on replacing the cabinet/locker legs with locking casters. This will ensure easy mobility of fully loaded units for access to the panel as needed.

Without much research on this topic to date (and no final selection on what route I plan on going with the storage units - Craftsman or Saber) I haven't located exactly what casters I plan on utilizing... any suggestions regarding this will be appreciated as well!

 

[BearDeXPS]

Reno's well underway at this point:

Overhead door should be procured, delivered, and installed within 2wks.

Electrical outlets, plugs, boxes, rewired panel, new ground/rod, etc roughed in.









Relocated and installed new attic ladder.






New up-to-code insulated mandoor/frame hardware installed as well.

Not sure if anyone noticed but I had a little water intrusion issue off to the left side of the garage where the foundation elevation changes. It was tracked back to a roof leak (a really terrible engineering detail) that will be addressed during my roof replacement... but for good measure on the exterior side I decided to pull back my zeroscape, waterpoof the foundation, grade/slope/tamp the dirt, add some geo fabric... then replace the rock.

Do it RIGHT - do it ONCE














Drywall patch work completed and all rock hung. Started scrapping, tapping, and floating today. She's moving right along

 

[BearDeXPS]

First layer of tape/float completed... starting to look like a garage again... well at least it's starting to look like a garage with a complete ceiling lol













New man door installed and all trim completed... installed a 180degree peephole there as well

 

[Rorin67]

Coming along nicely!

 

[rburke65]

Great progress! It's amazing the time it takes to do all the little jobs on a project like this.

 

[BearDeXPS]

Coming along nicely!

TY

Great progress! It's amazing the time it takes to do all the little jobs on a project like this.

Absolutely

 

[BearDeXPS]

I've since wrapped the reno up... well as far as I'm going to go for now. I'll try and sum it up below copying and pasting from another thread documenting my progress on my car forum:

Got the 2nd layer of mud down, sanded, textured and painted 2 coats. Also stained and poly'd the new man door and attic ladder panel (surprisingly this was a nice piece of wood and I'd feel bad about painting over it). Sanded down the poly and added a 2nd coat. Also repainted the front doors to match the upcoming overhead door... we went with a chocolate from the manf std color choices... should give some "interest" to the curb appeal of the house :thumbsup2:
































After we painted, this project has kinda turned into a bit of a headache. As with most thing when trying to reno a space in an older house... you run into unforeseen conditions. I knew there was water damage previously (why much of the drywall ceiling was removed) as well as the water intrusion issue I noted above... with it being ridiculously humid outside it's not helping my situation.

I started noticing some horizontal **** joint cracking in the old drywall. This isn't too big of a deal... just rub in some elastomeric caulk and chalk it up as a yearly maintenance thing... the proper thing would be to add some behind wall blocking in these locations to keep the joint from flexing but the effort really isn't worth it in my opinion as most locations will be hidden via storage anyways. We did add blocking where we butted the new drywall to the old and so far this hasn't been an issue in these locations.






Going back to moisture... this is where my headache is happening. There's a handful of locations where the texture/paint is completely lifting/bubbling off the drywall now these locations, so far, appear to be located at the water intrusion area, masonry vents and overhead door (all locations where there's a transfer of interior/exterior air. You have to start scrapping these failing spots until the finish isn't freely coming off anymore...












These spots grow like cancer






The hopeful solutions is to prime these areas with an oil based primer (this should provide a moisture barrier and promote better adhesion), 2day cure, float it out completely, sand, re-texture, and paint once again.





IMO - small bubbles; no troubles. Either this solutions or the next; the space is coming together and I'm getting really excited about finally get a proper garage. This issue may have just force me to hold off on epoxying the floor... or I may end up just staining it for now - it's much cheaper, we'll see. I ordered most of the storage cabinets and workbench over the weekend with the Labor Day sales... all will be available for pick-up by the 22nd.

I decided against going with the Gladiator workbench and outlet... after reading reviews the outlet is designed with the power cord exiting out the back... this wouldn't allow me to **** the bench up flat against the wall... I knew this would drive me mental. So in the end I went with the Craftsman bench... has the same specs as the Gladiator but will will match the rest of the brand selection :thumbsup2:

 

[BearDeXPS]

At this time it appears all the bubbling/cracking has stopped. So we went fwd with oil priming the rest of the scrapped spots and floated the walls back out. Need to sand, re-texture and paint. Fingers crossed this works - I want my garage back :facepalm:

On a positive note I wrapped up installing the Peterson LED ceiling lights and WOW - I'm really happy with now they came out! We'll see how it looks when everything gets added back in there and I get to working under the hood... but at this time I'm really impressed and happy with my purchase! :dance:











Also wrapped up the attic lighting and switch... this is going to make things much nicer to access to storage storage space. Eventually I'll replace all the plywood flooring up there and sister the joists... but for now this will have to do

 

[BearDeXPS]

Garage is coming along nicely. Finished scraping off all pealing/bubbling… oil primed, full float, re-textured and painted - it appears to be holding up nicely!

Wrapped up all carpentry work – pegboard and frp installed. I’m having a hard time trying to find the right pegboard accessories to hang all my yard work tools… you’d think there’s a plethora of pegs at your local hardware store; unfortunately that has not been the case… I’ll likely need to order.

Got the garage door installed and motor replaced. Love how quite the belt drive is on the LiftMaster 8355. Minimized the sensor wiring buy running wire through attic (much cleaner install). Went with the 22” radius door track for extra height clearance. Unfortunately there was damage to door insulation, pending panel replacement. Disappointed out of the box the LM motor doesn’t work with the Car2U Lear factory buttons fitted to my F-150 (stupid why Ford just didn’t go with HomeLink for years ’11-’13)… ordered a repeater and will need to install that. HomeLink system on wife’s Jeep and the M3 programs no problem. I really appreciate the security lock feature and ability to link to my phone. Will also be installing the trim/weather stripping when installer comes back to replace damaged panel.

Installed the MonkeyBar system to studs for the foldable chair storage… really like how this came out and is a nice solution to get clutter off the floor.

Insulated water pipe along wall (additional protection to exposed pipe as well).

Received the Craftsman floor and wall cabinets… but there’s a backorder on the workbench. Should be available for pick up in the next few weeks – was able to get them to knock a few hundred off price so that was a solid resolution from Sears. Waiting to hang wall cabinets until bench is delivered for proper placement in space.


Progress Pics:

 

[BearDeXPS]

Work bench finally arrived... so I was able to sort out sort out the best spacing of the bench along the walls and hang the wall cabinets connecting the track to studs... also added some under cabinet LED puck lighting for tasking lighting at the bench... garage is pretty much done for now. In the near future I'll be adding the retractable extension cord reel from the ceiling and adding a 2 more lockers replacing the wire shelving unit... overall I'm super happy with how everything came out arrot:

 

[BearDeXPS]

I've also re-arranged the heights on my metal shelf to better utilize the storage, added two wall mounts for my ladders, added a shelf to my peg board to hold my chain saw, and added a retractable extension cord reel near the OH door motor.

 

[barks]

Is that wood door to the house fire rated?

 

[BearDeXPS]

Is that wood door to the house fire rated?

ref post #1

 

[anewman]

Love the garage. Nice work. Where did you get the rack for the folding chairs on the side of the garage? Would love to get my folding chairs off the ground.
Thanks

 

[Boosted1]

Nice work on the garage.
A thought, stacking some of the folding chairs together on the wall would free up some wall space.