Cheap and practical garage ideas?

[pseudometrix]

Ive been bit by the garage upgrade bug.
I’ve looked at Racedeck freeflow flooring, Gladiator slat walls, behr gray paint, rubber cove molding, and New Age Costco Storage.

This led me to consider the price of each item and they all add up to more than $8K for my 400sq feet garage.

Is there a cheaper and practical alternative for similar setup?

 

[sberry]

Does it all need to be fancy and new? I got 6000 ft and probably don't have 800 in furniture.

 

[pseudometrix]

I went down a rabbit hole. What are possible options for someone who does not want to spend that much money?

 

[joey1320]

Racedeck freeflow flooring -- NONE = free.

Gladiator slat walls -- Peg boards, hooks, nails.

Behr gray paint -- Sure why not. Or get whatever is on sale...

Rubber cove molding -- WHY? NONE = free.

New Age Costco Storage -- Sure why not.


There, I saved you $5k+.

 

[DIY_Guy79]

Get creative. Find file cabinets, tool boxes, or other sets of drawers that you like on facebook and craigslist. paint them all to match. Then place them along the wall and get the tops of them all level with each other then place a nice top across them(wood, metal, maybe a nice modern counter top?). Replace drawer pull handles to match as best you can.. And you've got a really nice work surface area with tons of drawer space. As far as the walls, whats wrong with a regular old pegboard and paint the walls whatever color you want. You can find metal wall mounted cabinets on craigslist and facebook that you could paint to match as well. Bargain shop and you could have one heck of nice set up for well below $1000. Probably below $500 if you really bargain shop.

 

[TractorJeff]

Paint?
Sometimes you can get the "Returns" at a bargain price.
Couple of colors mixed together will get you Gray or Black if you go the wrong way. LOL!

 

[kaymccampbell]

I like used office furniture for storage. Got really nice cabinets for 20% of the fancy Gladiator stuff. Much tougher, too.

 

[daddyd]

Not much help but I think mine fits your line up pretty well (except for the cheap part - sorry).

 

[pseudometrix]

Not much help but I think mine fits your line up pretty well (except for the cheap part - sorry).

Gorgeous! What tile are those?

 

[mechanix311]

All sounds good but Behr paint *****. Get some Dunn Edwards and be done with it.

 

[rayra]

Build your own cabinetry / storage.

 

[bad_idea]

Time or money. Which do you want to spend more of? What is your goal for the space? It is very quick to write a check for high quality storage solutions and surface finishes. It takes a lot of time to build them yourself or to scour the used market for them and refurb them. I tend to do the latter. I do not have much time, but I have less money that I am willing to dedicate to a home shop.

Old kitchen cabinets can be had very cheap (if not free) and make excellent storage until better can be sourced.

I like to scrounge around for older industrial storage cabinets and give them a quick refurb. Deals can be had if you are diligent and patient. I find more satisfaction in that too. My shop is mismatched and isn't very pretty. But I don't have much money into it and it is functional. One day I will finish painting everything to match and the shop will be nice looking.

I do not bother with the fancy surface finishes. Sealed concrete is easy to maintain and makes an excellent work surface. Base molding?! Nah.

 

[MushCreek]

Commercial vinyl tile makes a nice floor, and you can DIY for $1 a square foot. Vinyl trim is cheap. Paint is cheap. Slatwall and cabinets can run into serious $$$. I have good ol' pegboard, and industrial metal cabinets and shelves bought second-hand from auctions and craigslist, FB Marketplace, etc. Not all matchy-matchy, but sturdy and effective. I guess I could paint them all to match, but I'd rather spend my time working IN the garage as opposed to working ON it. Take two metal shop cabinets, throw a used Formica counter top on it, and you have a good work bench with storage underneath.

 

[pseudometrix]

Commercial vinyl tile makes a nice floor, and you can DIY for $1 a square foot. Vinyl trim is cheap. Paint is cheap. Slatwall and cabinets can run into serious $$$. I have good ol' pegboard, and industrial metal cabinets and shelves bought second-hand from auctions and craigslist, FB Marketplace, etc. Not all matchy-matchy, but sturdy and effective. I guess I could paint them all to match, but I'd rather spend my time working IN the garage as opposed to working ON it. Take two metal shop cabinets, throw a used Formica counter top on it, and you have a good work bench with storage underneath.

I read somewhere on this forum that many bought commercial slats on Craigslist. I live in Houston, and can’t find any slats on Craigslist.

Would vinyl tile get slippery, the humidity of this place is atrocious, sometimes 90+ %....

 

[MushCreek]

Yeah, CVT does get slippery when wet.

 

[bczygan]

Ive been bit by the garage upgrade bug.
I’ve looked at Racedeck freeflow flooring, Gladiator slat walls, behr gray paint, rubber cove molding, and New Age Costco Storage.

This led me to consider the price of each item and they all add up to more than $8K for my 400sq feet garage.

Is there a cheaper and practical alternative for similar setup?

We need photos.

Bill

 

[Falcon67]

Kelly Moore industrial gray coating, part epoxy - probably 2 gallons to cover 400 sq/ft real good, plus a gallon of pool acid for etch - easy under $300.

IMHO, if your floor gets wet much skip the race deck. They use that in the lower floor of the tower at the drag strip. Since water seeps under the siding up the tower, the lower office reeks of mold.

 

[cdods]

You can get much of the same benefits of slatwall by put up a few rows of french cleats, which are easily cut from a sheet of plywood or 1x.

I'll try to get pictures of my setup. Cheap, not fancy, and not quite complete, but works pretty well for me.

 

[Gotcha640]

Totally agree on the time vs money. I spent a lot of time putting up French cleats, then making special shelves for screwdrivers and pliers and hammers and saws and chisels, and then making a stand for my drill press and putting drawers in it, and I still had 5 tool bags to hunt through for a specialty wrench or a third small screwdriver. I also couldn't easily take it with me when I moved, so I had to rebuild at the new house.

I saved up for 6 months and bought a harbor freight 56 inch tool box last month, and it's amazing having my tools available for anyone to use and for me to be able to just put everything away without having to design and build storage.

Even a few free or cheap beat up file cabinets would have been a better use of my time and money.

 

[udderlyoffroad]

Don’t know about the Lone Star State, but over here, most kitchen cabinet companies are open on a Saturday morning. This is usually a good time give them a call and enquire if they have any damaged or return cabinets they’d be willing to let you have for cheap. If the answer is yes, jump in the truck and get them hauled home. Do this over the course of a few months and you’d probably have all the storage you could ever need.

The problem I’ve found with dumpster diving old cabinets is that folks aren’t too careful taking them out, which can result in lots of breakage necessitating repairs. Not impossible, but takes time

Again, all depends on how much you value your time as to whether this approach is worth it.

I’ve got some mismatched but high quality industrial/office furniture from a former employer that got the lean/5S bug bad and were pretty ruthless tossing out gear. Great for me then as a 20-something with my first house and no cash, but I’ll probably passing most of that on to some of my younger colleagues and building/modding something more suited to my needs.

 

[matt_i]

I feel like the lateral file is one of the better bets in a cheap durable all-metal cabinet. That said I only have 2 of them.....for actual paper files....but the prices can't be beat from what I see.

 

[Indy_500]

I have a 4 car attached. The 3rd stall is 40 feet deep, when i moved in i spent $150 on kitchen cabinets, $50 for a countertop, $50 in cabinet paint, and got all the paint for the walls on clearance. Was $5 for each 5 gallon pail. No need to spend stupid amounts of cash.

 

[bdbecker]

If you haven't done so already, it would be worthwhile to spend some time reading through build threads in the Garage Gallery. There are many cost-efficient builds in there you could get ideas from.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7

 

[taumac]

Good paint and lighting go a long way. Repurposing file cabinets and cheap tool boxes is always a good idea.


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[Ray-CA]

Haunt craigslist for retail store going out of business etc. Lots of inexpensive material you can reuse. Slatwall with brackets, fixtures etc.

Ray

 

[sberry]

One of the nicest boxes I ever seen/used was a Singer pattern file box my Bud got at some sale. Big ball roller drawers , 2 bays and heavy duty. Most of my stuff was salvage or given, some I paint up a little.
Not as showy as some but no one EVER says WTF.

 

[Monza Harry]

I have a couple of legal size filing cabinets from a place I used to work at, price: "Get Them OUT of HERE!" Done Deal!!! I haven't painted them to match "yet" but, I plan to "someday" [I Know, I Know ] I have my Craftsman Tool boxes and some home built benches Costco 2' x 6' x 6' shelves, and the rest is a work in slow motion [ more like stopped/reverse] I have come to spend more time thinking about what I want to do to my shop, rather than in it, we are all different. Just remember that "Life" is a Journey not a destination. Pick away and have some fun, maybe find one of your kids/grandchildren/ neighbour kid and mentor them, [I should listen to myself here, Grandson is turning 6 soon a couple of more years fingers crossed] if you choose the right one, they will drive you when you aren't "feeling it" and you will end up feeling even better about the journey! Just a few "idea'rs" to kick around. As well as some of the excellent suggestions above. And make friends with on of the local "Scrappers" they will quickly find out what you like and will bring it to you, they will easily get more from you than the scrap yard, and will get to pick your left overs, a win win for them and you. Harry

 

[sberry]

My bud had a bunch of those tan lockers. 75$ for the big white steel shelves.

 

[taumac]

Just a example. There tons of deals on FB market place. Just look under office cabinets. This work great for garage storage.





The file cabinets work great from paint cans to really anything. I have 2 and one I’m turning into fastener cabinet.



The other one is paint, oils, cleaners and bulk.

 

[CraigStu]

In my last garage I did the unfinished kitchen base cabs w/ a formica top. And the same on the other wall but all wall cabs. Painted all w/ solid color grey stain. The only negative was the drawers in the base cabs had super thin bottoms so anything heavy bowed them. Pieces of 1/4 inch better plywood dropped into place fixed it.

 

[siegsuwa]

My solution for garage cabinets is hunting down old 1950/60s era steel kitchen cabinets. Custom painting them to match can really make the garage look nice. They come in a ton of sizes and are usually 11-13" deep which works well for me as I wanted to keep the cabinets kind of low profile. This is pretty typical depths for garage cabinetry anyway. Cost me $300 for everything pictures instead of $1500. For larger items I found some Wright sliding door cabinets that are about 60x60x18" deep. I keep all my tools and fluids in there.

File cabinets are okay too but I wanted actual cabinets with doors instead of the pull out drawers. Depends on what you're looking for in a storage solution.

 

[Moosefire]

Have you debated making what you need? It's more work but could be much better than what you could buy


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[driftpin]

We just did a whole house remodel, including bumping forward to the front property setback, the 2 car attached garage. It's CBS/stucco, every 4 ft is a grout-filled column. The entire garage front is poured concrete and enough 1" rebar to make it resemble a bank vault, almost.

I have a vaulted ceiling, and a mezzanine for storage over the back-half of the floor area. It's not stand-up height, but it does allow me to store lots of parts, and was designed by a structural engineer for heavy floor loads. From below, it's about 7 ft to the mezzanine joist bottoms. I screwed some masonite to the bottoms of the joists, and I use HFT clear-plastic tubs in the joist bays resting on-top of the masonite. They're labelled, to allow quick I.D. & retrieval of whatever I need. Quick, easy, useful, and out-of-the way.

I also through-bolted some cast-iron brackets into another joist bay, and use it for storing longer items like pipe clamps.

I was going to look on CL for some cheap used cabinets, but my wife said, "oh, no, you're not-going to put rusty, old cabinets into our new garage!" I waited and looked, and I got mostly Craftsman and Whirlpool-Gladiator steel cabinets, new and on-sale, for < 30% of MSRP. They are plenty-strong enough for the use I put them-to. I have a couple Kobalt, and same thing, bought on-sale, and plenty-strong enough for what I use them for.

 

[gahrajmahal]

Hi Pseudometrix, welcome to the GJ. As you have noticed, me and many of the members are cheap and really enjoy building our own stuff. We all REALLY love scoring a great deal. As suggested by many, scour the “garage build” section of the GJ and do your own thing, then start your own build thread with lots of photos and updates. We will all clear you on.

Good luck!

 

[rsparks64]

I have Gladiator slat walls and like them, but they are not particularly cheap after you buy all of the hooks. However, they are cheaper than some on the market. I have a Kirkland double decker tool chest on casters, a 20 year old Craftsman work bench with a peg board back and lights, and a Gladiator adjustable height work bench, along with a few sets of shelves to hold storage containers, etc. The slat walls look good if that matters to you. I have considered a tile such as RaceDeck because I like the look, but that would be a big part of your expense. It is do it yourself and can be removed if you move. There is lots of information about it here, including some of the positives and negatives discussed above.

 

[pseudometrix]

What do you think about MDF slats vs Proslats/Gladiator/Husky slats?

MDF slats are available pretty cheap, but I read that they can swell in high humidity and I live in Houston.

 

[TXpintail]

Good to meet a fellow H-towner on here! I’m on the SW side.

I got started just by building my work bench and some 2x4 shelving. Getting good lighting in there is cheap and a game changer. Over time I restored a Matco box I got at a pawn shop. Years later another used tool box, etc.

Doing the work myself or with buddies and hunting down deals is the fun part for me.