Concrete walled garage... ideas?

[the]

Hi all-

Long time reader, first time poster.
We've recently moved out to the burbs from an apartment, and the only requirements I had when we were house shopping was that our new home had to have a fireplace, and at least a 2-car garage. So we found a great house, with what seemed to be decent garage. And funny enough, I never actually got to see the inside of the garage until after we bought the house during the inspection. And when the inspector and I opened up the door, turns out the garage walls are made of poured concrete! I've never seen one built like this... Anyway, here I am. With a concrete walled garage.

I've been searching the site looking for ideas, and this is my loosely formed plan.

The garage is a little on the small side at 20' x 20', but thats what I'm working with.

I had a 60 amp sub-panel put in as we were having some yardwork done, and it was the right time to bury the utilities as we eventually had the yard sodded.

So at least I should have enough electric capacity to do whatever I would like. But this neighborhood is too residentail to really do any sort of fab-work in. And I have no plans at the moment to start any projects, although I have built 2 rock-crawlers from the ground up in the past.

I'm thinking of patching the cracks in the floor, and installing some racedeck tiling.

Then, running some additional receptacles to the walls. Maybe every 6'? So there would be 3 receptacles per wall?

For the walls, I was kicking around the idea of furring strips to the concrete (via a powder nail gun?), and then covering with mostly slat-wall.

There are some decent sized shelves in the rear of the garage, built to allow the nose of a car to park underneath them. I was thinking of keeping one shelf in place, and taking the other shelf out.
That way I could potentially use one shelf still as storage, and the reclaimed space from removing the existing shelf would be a good spot for a workbench.

I'd also like to build a loft area for storage, as you can see by how much **** is in the garage already, I'm going to need it! I havent done any load calc's yet, but I presume that for a 20' span, I'm going to end up needing a center support as I wont be able to retrofit the appropriate sized joists into place.

Here are some pics... It's not much now, but I'm going to spend some time on it this summer.

Any ideas/comments?

 

[Milton Shaw]

Looks like a solid place. I would be concerned about that window so low to the ground for security reasons. Those walls would be something you would need to run conduit to wire and drop from the ceiling in each recess you wanted outlet. Didn't see what area you are in so don't know if you need to insulate before you can use that space. But those would be solid walls with no chance of fire when welding and fabricating a rock crawler in there.

 

[wssix99]

I'm thinking of patching the cracks in the floor, and installing some racedeck tiling.

I assume you are talking about the contraction joints. Those are there for the concrete to crack along planned lines when it shrinks during curing. If you aren't going to heat the space, you'll get some heat expansion and contraction, so if you want to fill them up - you'll want to get special caulk/sealer for the purpose. They make stuff you can even epoxy right over.

Then, running some additional receptacles to the walls. Maybe every 6'? So there would be 3 receptacles per wall?

This is overkill for a garage. You'll only need outlets where you'll be doing work. Living spaces need every 12' (so they can be reached by 6' cords) and you need much less in a working space. I think you'll find that a quad outlet in fewer locations will be more useful to you. (and much less expensive!) Plus, for any special jobs you do that require more power in different places, you can always use an extension cord. (You can probably buy the better part of a new lift for the cost of wiring outlets every 6'.)

For the walls, I was kicking around the idea of furring strips to the concrete (via a powder nail gun?), and then covering with mostly slat-wall.

I think you will miss the extra space. Being able to open a car door, etc. in between the ribs of that wall is a big deal and the minute you wall over it, I think you'll be surprised at how much smaller and less useful the space will be for you. I would suggest running outlets (where you need them) in conduit between the ribs and then painting the wall as it is.

If you still want to put up wall, you shouldn't need to fur at all. You can just use tapcons, or something like that, to attach your wall material directly to the ribs, just like they are studs. (Firing up the space will take even more area away from you.)

 

[the]

Thanks for the ideas...

As far as the floor is concerned, not so much the contraction joints... But there are some areas where there are medium sized chunks of concrete missing. I bought a handful of race deck tiles to see which color/top I like, and they don't seem to sit well over the areas with missing concrete. With no support, they flex and don't seem like they would last too long.

Thanks for the advice on the outlets. Maybe some strategicly placed 4 receptacle boxes are a better idea. I don't really think I could make a lift work in there, and honestly my neighbors would flip when the first delivery of DOM sticks would show up! My wife probably would too. So I'm not sure that's in the cards. But going to have at least one 240 outlet put in just, as I have a Miller 175 that I'd like to use on occasion.

And point taken on the slat wall... With a smaller garage to begin with, I am concerned about losing any additional space. Part of the issue is that it's very painful to even put some hooks or shelves up with the walls being concrete. I've had mixed luck with the tapcons I've tried so far, but they might have been too small. So although I would lose space with the slat wall, I would gain so much flexibility on the storage front.

I guess it could t hurt to paint a couple of sections and see how that looks. It would certainly brighten up the space, which is something I'm looking to do too.

If I did do the slat wall, that's part of the reason id like to do a loft storage area. So I could gain some floor space by moving some seasonal items up high.

 

[Kevin54]

I assume you are talking about the contraction joints. Those are there for the concrete to crack along planned lines when it shrinks during curing. If you aren't going to heat the space, you'll get some heat expansion and contraction, so if you want to fill them up - you'll want to get special caulk/sealer for the purpose. They make stuff you can even epoxy right over.




This is overkill for a garage. You'll only need outlets where you'll be doing work. Living spaces need every 12' (so they can be reached by 6' cords) and you need much less in a working space. I think you'll find that a quad outlet in fewer locations will be more useful to you. (and much less expensive!) Plus, for any special jobs you do that require more power in different places, you can always use an extension cord. (You can probably buy the better part of a new lift for the cost of wiring outlets every 6'.)




I think you will miss the extra space. Being able to open a car door, etc. in between the ribs of that wall is a big deal and the minute you wall over it, I think you'll be surprised at how much smaller and less useful the space will be for you. I would suggest running outlets (where you need them) in conduit between the ribs and then painting the wall as it is.

If you still want to put up wall, you shouldn't need to fur at all. You can just use tapcons, or something like that, to attach your wall material directly to the ribs, just like they are studs. (Firing up the space will take even more area away from you.)

Outlets are one of the cheapest things to do that there is. Boxes aren't much money, outlets aren't much money, and if the wire is already running in that direction, you may as well split it and run an outlet. I run outlets every six feet as I HATE extension cords. I have outlets in the ceilings in the corners to run a light, neon light or whatever. I have a few outlets up high on the wall for my traffic light, clock, TV.

If it were mine, I would fir it up between the ribs with 2x4's and fasten them floor and ceiling solid. Maybe a tapcon or two into the side of the rib just for a little added support. Then when you run your wall covering, just straddle fastening to the ribs and fasten to the 2x's.

 

[the]

"Fir the side of the rib..." Great idea.

As for the outlets, I was first thinking every 4 feet as well. I thought e every 6 was a reasonable compromise.

Right now I have a shelving rack running down the middle to divide the space. Kids stuff on one side, which lets me keep the other side clean.

The shelves in the middle don't seem too efficient though. Is the consensus to keep shelving units against the wall?

 

[wssix99]

Outlets are one of the cheapest things to do that there is. Boxes aren't much money, outlets aren't much money, and if the wire is already running in that direction, you may as well split it and run an outlet.

You called it - the price of copper wire is the killer. If the OP doesn't have electrical in the garage today, they will probably need a lot of wire.