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Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT British Garage planned

Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.

Lippyp

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Clean it off, jet wash it, let it dry and then get down to somewhere like Comet and see if you can get a load of washing machine/fridge freezer etc boxes, cut em up so they lie flat and tape the joins up. As long as you don't stick soaking wet cars in there it'll keep the concrete clean. Like ^ said, it's oil you really don't want on it.
 
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bazzateer

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Ordinary dirt is probably OK its oil on the floor you need to avoid. But I am sure you know that.
afew drips of WD40 from loosening off the clamps but not much.

Clean it off, jet wash it, let it dry and then get down to somewhere like Comet and see if you can get a load of washing machine/fridge freezer etc boxes, cut em up so they lie flat and tape the joins up. As long as you don't stick soaking wet cars in there it'll keep the concrete clean. Like ^ said, it's oil you really don't want on it.

That'll have to wait until the insulation is up as it's stacked all over the garage at the moment. Good call on the boxes though;)
 
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bazzateer

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The Passat passed it's MoT Test today! Total cost including purchase over last 3 years (18,000 miles) = £1,100 (not including normal running costs). So, less than £400/year.
 
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bazzateer

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The shed lights were working really well so I decided to run down the battery and see how quickly the little solar panel could charge it up enough to get them working.
time to run the battery down with the lights left on? 6 hours and they were still dim but not much use.
Left it 'on charge' for a day of British daylight, lights worked fine although probably not 6 hrs worth at that point! So, I'm pretty confident that starting with a fully charged battery I won't need to worry about it as the sun seems to be able to charge it enough for the few minutes at a time I'll need it.
 
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bazzateer

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Sparky spent most of the day here today. Waited until dark to take some pics:

Looking from house to garage, no lights:
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Lights on (neighbour's security light came on too!):

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Interior with no lights:

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With lights:

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I'll be fitting the rest of the lights myself tomorrow. All the sockets are wired up too so I now have the choice of 18 double sockets spread out around the garage. No more using an extension lead to get power in the garage.

Seriously strapped for cash now so probably won't be able to buy anything else for a month or two. At least I can start the insulation though.
 
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bazzateer

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Lighting looks great.

Will be interested on how you insulate it, are you plaster boarding the inside?
I'll be using those stacked piles of insulation board for the ceiling and walls leaving a small air gap between the wood and insulation. I also have quite a bit of rockwool for any gaps left over. Once the insulation is up I'll put up a vapour barrier followed by plasterboard and paint.

bazzateer,

That looks great with the lights, you can never have enough light.

BTW love the Bimmer too, looks nice :thumbup:

The three steel trusses create 4 'zones' which are each independantly controlled from their own switch. The sparky only fitted the first light for each zone, I will fit the others tomorrow. The lights you see above the Beemer are these first ones (there's a fourth above the camera out of view). Each zone will have three 5' lights.

The two end trusses each have an 8' light fitted along the truss, the middle one has 2 x 5' lights fitted across it. The truss lights are controolled by two way switches at either end of the garage.

I also have a switch controlling power to a double socket mounted at eaves height to power some illuminated signs I have planned. There are sixc switches in the light switch panel, 1 for the two way truss lights (all 3), 1 each for the four 'zones' and one for the illuminated signs.

Once all the lights are installed I'll take more pics. The lighting should be good and flexible with light wherever I want it.

I'll also have a couple of fittings above the work benches.

As you say, never too much light!

I like the Beemer so much I'm planning on getting an estate to replace my Passat in the summer.:thumbup:
 

Lippyp

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Looking good Baz, by next winter you should be nice and snug in there. Any plans for some heating? You shouldn't need much to make it workable with all that insulation.

I need to get out and wire up some more sockets as we only whacked a couple in on radial circuits when we did the initial wiring and I have none next to the workbench I bought after the wiring was done. I might convert the radials into a ring.
 
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bazzateer

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Looking good Baz, by next winter you should be nice and snug in there. Any plans for some heating? You shouldn't need much to make it workable with all that insulation.

As you say, shouldn't need much with the insulation but I have a small electric fan heater to use if the need arises.

That looks awesome, especially lite up. Sounds like you're on a roll. Very cool!

Finished off the rest of the interior lights yesterday, just took some pics:

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Oh Oh Bimmer virus got you :lol:
Certainly has!
 
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bazzateer

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Pulled a 12 hr night shift tonight so during the day I started on the insulation. Now, the garage was built to an overall size before I bought the insulation. I have very little spare cash so bought what insulation I could, consequently the gaps between the studs are different sizes to each other and the insulation. I have a series of foam insulation boards and a some rolls of fibreglass 'rockwool' type insulation (seen in some of the pics above).

So, I started by fitting the boards to the ceiling above where the benches will go and also the walls in this area. I then went round with the rockwool filling all the many gaps left around the boards. Managed to get about 1/8th of the ceiling insulated before I had to stop to clean up and get ready for work.

Vapour barrier is on order so once the insulation is place I should be able to seal everything up.

Won't get much done before next week now as I finish this shift at 7am Friday morning and am back in at 2pm for a late shift so Friday will be work-sleep-work. Then Saturday morning I'm off to my home town on the South Coast to see my parents and go out on the piss with my three brothers to celebrate one brother's and my birthdays (me on Sunday, him a week Monday). The four of us get together twice yearly in April and again in November (the other two have birthdays 2 days apart).

I'm on lates all next week so can get a couple of hours in the garage each morning. Should have most of the garage insulated by the end of next week.

The insulation looks a real mess at the moment so no pics for now!
 
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bazzateer

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Right, been doing bits and bobs for most of the week in between work and sleep.

Currently I have 1/4 of the ceiling fully insulated. Another 1/4 almost fully insulated.
One 30' wall insulated. The other 30' wall about half done. The 10' end wall with the window fully insulated. Should be able to finish fully insulating the ceiling and walls this weekend. I'll add pics later.

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Still need to finish framing the two sets of carriage doors at one end and insulate them.

The mahogany carriage doors are solid so not sure what I'm going to do insulation-wise with them.

Vapour barrier arrived so can seal it all up when I'm ready. Looks like I'll have plenty of insulation left over too. Might build a 'sound-box' to put around the compressor to lessen the noise.

Won a nice stainless steel sink on eBay (£6.50/$10-ish) which I'm collecting tomorrow morning - also hoping to win an electrically heated water system for the sink so I can wash my hands before entering the house. Auction ends tonight so if I win I'll get that tomorrow as well.

When entering the garage from the cold outside it immediately feels warmer even with partial insulation - should be good when done.
 
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bazzateer

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Picked up the sink and water heater yesterday. Continued with the insulation and finally finished it today (except the doors but they'll be done later).

Tomorrow after work I'll start putting up the vapour barrier.
 

xtremek

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Dude, getting some serious work done on this. When you're done, do you want to come over and help me finish mine?
 

MG David

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I sometimes wonder about insulating my garage. Would make it more inviting on a winter evening but the cost of putting a few heaters on versus the cost of the insulation looks better on paper. However, the heaters take along time to do the job. By which time it is bed time. So I might copy you.
 
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xtremek

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I sometimes wonder about insulating my garage. Would make it more inviting on a winter evening but the cost of putting a few heaters on versus the cost of the insulation looks better on paper. However, the heaters take along time to do the job. By which time it is bed time. So I might copy you.

Not to jack his thread, but I've got 80% of my walls and 30% of my ceiling insulated. I've noticed a huge difference in the amount of time it takes my torpedo to warm up the barn. Insulate ceiling first, then heaters, then walls is my suggestion if money is tight.
 
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bazzateer

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Dude, getting some serious work done on this. When you're done, do you want to come over and help me finish mine?

You pay for the flights and keep me fed and watered and you're on!:D

I sometimes wonder about insulating my garage. Would make it more inviting on a winter evening but the cost of putting a few heaters on versus the cost of the insulation looks better on paper. However, the heaters take along time to do the job. By which time it is bed time. So I might copy you.

Copy away, the difference is really noticeable. My little fan heater should be enough to get it warm enough in the winter.:bounce:

Not to jack his thread, but I've got 80% of my walls and 30% of my ceiling insulated. I've noticed a huge difference in the amount of time it takes my torpedo to warm up the barn. Insulate ceiling first, then heaters, then walls is my suggestion if money is tight.

Wise words!:thumbup:
 
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bazzateer

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Got the vapour barrier up on most of the walls after work yesterday. Hopefully get the rest of the walls sorted after work tomorrow.

Payday looms so hopefully while my brother is staying with me we can get the ceiling vapour barrier up and also plasterboard it. I can do the walls myself but two pairs of hands will make the ceiling easier.

Might also get the gutters and downpipes done as well.
 
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bazzateer

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Oh yeah, a friend and his wife popped over on Sunday to have a look. They both said it was much bigger than they thought it would be. This got me thinking so I dug out the tape measure. My garage is 30'x20', my house? 24'x19'. So my garage is bigger (footprint) than my house!:thumbup::bounce::D
 
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bazzateer

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My brother managed to rescue 16 8'x4' sheets of plasterboard from the skip at work today. I had already vapour barriered all the walls and 1/4 of the ceiling so this evening we boarded 1/8th of the ceiling. Should get a lot more of the ceiling done after work over the next few days.
 

xtremek

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Only two words will work in this situation, and let me be the first to us them, YOU ****!!!!! Just goes to show, it's better to be lucky than good. Congrats.
 
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bazzateer

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Got the first bay (1/4 of the total) ceiling boarded last night. Going to tape the joints and paint it today. Hope to get some OSB for the walls later when my brother finishes work. Then we'll get the second bay (1/2 total) boarded before he goes home for the weekend. I'll then tape and paint the second bay and fit the OSB to the walls of the first two bays.

I can then move everything from bays 3 and 4 into 1 and 2 so we can continue with the work next week.

By the end of next week I hope to have the ceiling finished and maybe half the OSB done.

Looks a bit of a mess at the moment so will post pics later.
 
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bazzateer

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Today we finished plasterboarding the second bay and I painted the ceiling on the first bay. We also got some of the OSB up around where the bench will go.

Tomorrow I'll tape the ceiling joints on the second bay and paint it and the OSB. When the paint is dry I'll fix the workbench bases to the walls and re-fit the strip lights in bays 1 & 2.

Probabaly take some pics then to show the progress.
 
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bazzateer

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First two bays are pretty much complete. OSB up on the walls and two coats of paint (will probabaly do a third coat as that OSB just ***** up the paint!).

Tomorrow I'll move the BMW to the complete half of the garge and get the ceiling on the second half vapour barriered. Then when my brother gets back we should get the rest of the ceiling boarded.

The rest of the OSB will have to wait until the next payday (May) as my overtime was submitted too late for this month's pay. Either that or I'll whack it on the credit card and pay it off on payday.
 
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bazzateer

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Beemer moved and second half of the gaarge vapour barriered ready for plasterboarding.

Also decided to put the garage clock up:

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Grimly

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I sometimes wonder about insulating my garage. Would make it more inviting on a winter evening but the cost of putting a few heaters on versus the cost of the insulation looks better on paper. However, the heaters take along time to do the job. By which time it is bed time. So I might copy you.

It's definitely worthwhile. Good lighting and insulation turns a dark miserable hole into a place that's a pleasure to work in, and consequently you get a lot more done.
 
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bazzateer

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WOW bazzateer you're gettin' there, nice progress :thumbup:

Thanks mate!

It's definitely worthwhile. Good lighting and insulation turns a dark miserable hole into a place that's a pleasure to work in, and consequently you get a lot more done.

Absolutely. Another benefit I hadn't thought of became clear yesterday. Before the insulation went in I could hear rain falling on the roof. Yesterday I was only aware it was raining when the natural light suddenly reduced, I looked out the window and it was ******* down!
 
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bazzateer

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Managed to score this off a near neighbour today - ****** heavy! Lock doesn't work but I know a man who can! The price? "Do me a favour and just take it away". That's my kind of price!

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