Finally Focusing on the Garage

[dwlachowicz]

Figure after lurking for a year and reading up on everyone's various builds I'd start my own.

Brief backstory on the house and garage. My wife inherited the house back in Dec 2009 after her father passed away suddenly. I never met him, but have only heard stories. Unfortunately, he would have been someone I would have love to met. Definitely a DIY guy, HVAC by trade but his hobby was motorcycles, British ones at that. At the time of his passing he had 13 motorcycles in various stages, many complete but others just frames. His pride and joy were Vincent's.

When he passed he instructed in his will that his entire collection of motorcycles and parts be auctioned, below is the list of complete motorcycles sent to Bonham's:

1948 Vincent HRD Rapide B
1949 Vincent HRD Rapide B
1949 Vincent HRD Rapide B
1952 Vincent Black Shadow C
A Vincent Café Racer Hybrid
1953 Ariel Square Four
1963 BSA Rocket Gold Star
1961 BSA Gold Star
1965 Royal Enfield Interceptor
1964 Velocette Venom

I will have to find some pictures of these bikes as they were truly stunning. He built, rebuilt, and enjoyed all of these.

Truly wish I had a chance to meet him and hear the stories behind each and every single one of his motorcycles.

For the past 10 years I've known my now wife the garage has been around, we've cleaned up here and there over the years, but still a long way to go. It's served as a massive
storage unit for a few house projects, but always at the end of the day I've made sure our cars could fit.

So lets get to the actual details of the garage:

Built in 2007

Oversized Detached 2 Car Garage
Internal Dimensions:
21' 3" Wide
27' 3" Deep
9' 2" Tall (To the bottom of the trusses; Cathedral Ceiling)

Walls are fully insulated, dry walled and patched. There are three windows, two facing North and one face East. Also, two doors, one to the house walkway, the second to the backyard. In addition there are three South facing skylights.

In the southeast corner there is a full furnance to heat the garage. Electrical outlets are every 4-6 feet on the North, East and South walls.

There are 20 total can lights in the ceiling along with an array of 4 4' flourescent fixures over the table wall.

Currently we have a standard garage door opener, will be replaced by a jack shaft opener to clean up the ceiling.

Below are some pictures in it's current state. I will also post up a quick CAD drawing of what I'd like to do space wise:

Garage Front by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Garage Southeast by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Garage Northeast by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Garage East by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr


Also I'll throw in a couple of one of the inhabitants:

Front Quarter by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

 

[dwlachowicz]

Current Plans/Ideas:

Weekend dumpster party
Paint Walls & Ceiling
Paint/Seal concrete footing
RaceDeck Free Flow Tile Flooring
NewAge Pro 3.0 11 Piece Kit
Liftmaster/Chamberlain Jack Shaft Opener

 

[squashman702]

Nice touring!

 

[Purist]

Always nice to see more BMW's on these forums. That E91 is clean!!

And man, your FIL sounds like he was quite the fellow. Those bikes are beautiful! Looking forward to seeing what you do with your garage. Good luck!

 

[dwlachowicz]

So I've been slacking, been tougher than I imagined trying to keep everything in order during this quarantine. So here are a slew of updates in various posts to keep it broken up vs one large post.

Figure I would start by showing a quick dirty 3D drawing I put together of the space and how I want it to look eventually.

Garage Ariel V1 by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Garage Ariel V2 by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Garage Ariel V3 by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I am not the savviest with 3D sketching software, but figure it would help me layout the space. Any feedback is welcome

 

[dwlachowicz]

In continuing with my updates I spent a week nights purging things that I knew were not worth keeping. Stuff that I have always wanted to get rid of but never put in the effort or really had an end goal in mind. I started by tossing out the old rubber mats.

I have to say for being rubber mats these were quite heavy, they added up too!

by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I did a quick sweep of the space and I also scraped off any leftover mud on the concrete. There was quite a bit of mud droppings all over the floor.

Next having the floor cleaned up, it gave me the motivation to clean off the table tops and condense anything and everything. I ended up tossing a lot of stuff which was a great help!

The following day a buddy of mine stopped by and we got to work on the three shelving units. I wanted to get down to two units. I knew until I had my dad or other people in the trades looks through the boxes of HVAC, Electrical and other parts I could not dispose of any of it. Though anything that was used or looked broken was tossed. Sadly I did not take any pictures of the pared down shelving units.

 

[dwlachowicz]

I know that I have made progress in de-cluttering but it is still very daunting with how much is in the garage. At this point in time I know that a shed will be necessary, but trying to tackle one project at a time. Hate having multiple ongoing/unfinished projects at a time, feel that it creates a greater mess and headache than necessary.

So onto more exciting update worthy news. Over the winter I spent countless hours creating a floor design utilizing the Race Deck floor designer. In addition, I spent a lot of time looking at various garage layouts and builds utilizing the Free Flow flooring. Finally came to a design I liked and would be happy with in the space:

by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I may have borrowed a few design cues from @dubber on this one

As soon as we received shelter in place orders in Illinois figure start placing orders, as I have no where to go now. In less than a week from my order I received a call stating my delivery will be the following day. Below is a quick sample of what the floors will look like.

Garage Floor Update by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Garage Floor Update by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I am planning on scrubbing the concrete clean and then throwing a sealant on top for good measure. Waiting for the weather to pick up a little bit as I have a bunch of stuff to move out of the garage for all the scrubbing and sealing.

 

[dwlachowicz]

Upon receiving the tiles I focused my attention to the walls of the garage. Luckily a majority of the hard work (taping, mudding, sanding) was already done when the garage was initially built.

Only thing left to do was primer and paint. Now came the fun part of choosing colors. I had my heart set on a grey with an accent of green to match that of the floor. With the help of my wife's creative mind below are the colors we agreed would work best:



Spent this past weekend painting the entire garage interior. Thanks a bunch to my dad for helping out as well. Could not imagine getting the vaulted ceiling done without his help. Saturday we primered the entire space and also planned out next steps/updates.






We came back Sunday morning and began laying down the color. First coat in, my dad had an idea of adding an additional accent. Funny enough my wife had the same thought, like I said I'm not the most creative one. So we began measuring out the cabinet wall to have some fun.

Thankfully day two was a lot shorter in regards to painting, though we ran into some issues with the furnace.

We stumbled upon a minor leak, we put in a temporary fix, with hopes to solve the issue next weekend. Without further delay here are the finished pictures. Excuse all the mess:

 

[dwlachowicz]

Monday came with more exciting news as two large pallets were delivered




Costco had a killer deal on a 10 piece pro set that I could not pass up. Had my eye on them for a while and they just happen to have a sale along with free shipping.

At this time another day will have to come for these to be installed. Plans are to hang them on the wall, will need to decide where to put up two of the four wall cabinets. Will definitely need to call in some help to unpack and lift these into place.

Really excited to have all of this storage space and new table space. These have been a want of mine for quite sometime, been inspired by many of the builds on the site that have used NewAge Products!

 

[Purist]

Monday came with more exciting news as two large pallets were delivered




Costco had a killer deal on a 10 piece pro set that I could not pass up. Had my eye on them for a while and they just happen to have a sale along with free shipping.

At this time another day will have to come for these to be installed. Plans are to hang them on the wall, will need to decide where to put up two of the four wall cabinets. Will definitely need to call in some help to unpack and lift these into place.

Really excited to have all of this storage space and new table space. These have been a want of mine for quite sometime, been inspired by many of the builds on the site that have used NewAge Products!

I know Matt craps on NewAge, but for those of us weekend warriors who can't quite afford the Sonic products, I am MORE than satisfied with my NewAge setup. Can't wait to see these in place. Nice pickup!

 

[dwlachowicz]

I know Matt craps on NewAge, but for those of us weekend warriors who can't quite afford the Sonic products, I am MORE than satisfied with my NewAge setup. Can't wait to see these in place. Nice pickup!

I'll have a big update tonight, but will say this. When I unpacked everything I was impressed right away. From the packaging, to the cabinets themselves. There will always be better versions of everything out there, for me it comes down to this...is it really 2 or 3 times as better...?

I was sold on the Pro cabinets for the space, 18 gauge steel, and finally the color option.

 

[ddawg16]

too bad the MC's had to be sold......

Are you going to paint those exposed rafters? Doing so will improve the light reflection....

 

[dwlachowicz]

too bad the MC's had to be sold......

Are you going to paint those exposed rafters? Doing so will improve the light reflection....

Honestly I am leaving them as is currently. Have tossed around the idea of sanding them and staining them to leave the wood exposed, but we'll see. That would be a massive project to undertake. May come at a later time.

Plus with 3 massive south facing skylights and 15 LED can lights, it gets pretty bright. Plus still considering more lighting.

 

[HPRifleman]

That's the first time I've seen the rafters drywalled with the joists being exposed. Probably easier to do that instead of boxing out underneath the skylights.

That's an impressive list of bikes that were housed in that garage. The Black Shadow and the Square Four would have been especially cool to have.

 

[dwlachowicz]

So I get a call on Tuesday from my dad stating his recent work project was put on hold due to unscheduled work being done at the house. He asked if I can plan to take Wednesday off as he'll be free till Thursday.

I immediately message my boss, TAKING WEDNESDAY OFF! Since the beginning of the month is always slow for us, I was good. I decided during lunch to start unpacking the two pallets and breaking down all of the cardboard, and there is a LOT of cardboard haha.

NewAge Pro by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
NewAge Pro by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
NewAge Pro by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Seeing the cabinets in person for the first time, I was blown away and impressed . I knew the White/Platinum color looked awesome in photos, but in person was so much better. Especially against the colors on the wall and the floor tile colors.

After unpacking all of the cabinets, I had to decide what else we could button up the following day. A quick run to Menards for a sheet of ply and some trim for doors and windows was done. We also previously measured and planned out the new ductwork for the furnace.

Needless to say I could not sleep Tuesday night knowing I'll finally be installing the cabinets and one step closer with the garage!

 

[dwlachowicz]

Well Wednesday finally came and here was our To-Do list for the day. Thankfully it was a nice 60 degrees outside so we could keep the garage door open all day:
1. Furnace ductwork
2. Install NewAge cabinets
3. Install plywood for tire racks
I was a bit hesitant that would accomplish all of the tasks as the first two were quite intensive. Luckily my dad is trained HVAC and has tons of knowledge with the other trades.

8:30AM came with a delivery of ductwork necessary to complete the project. Currently the furnace was blowing air without any real direction, pretty much into the middle of the garage. My dad said we could close off the original opening and then duct it around the garage. That way we have air blowing into the garage from three walls towards the center.

Old Furnace by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

So we closed off the top and then drilled two holes, one on each side to where the ductwork would come out from:

Furnace by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Sadly, I did not take any pictures of the work during, both of us had our hands ******* with ducting. Below are the finished products, you can now see the ducting surrounds the garage with 5 vents directing air:

New ductwork by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
New ductwork by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
New ductwork by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

We only ran into one small is, supply company sent was one 8" to 6" reducer and then an 8" to 7" reducer :

But they sent out another within an hour and we were all good. We got the ductwork done by lunch time so we took a break.

 

[dwlachowicz]

So after lunch we began to tackle the cabinet install. We began by deciding the height of the full set against the wall; threw a laser on the wall and hung a string of yarn to match the laser line. First we mounted the hanging brakets on the studs for the two locker cabinets and the two wall cabinets. Next we hung the left hand locker followed by the wall cabinet next to it:

NewAge Hung by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Then we decided to hang the right most locker cabinet and the other wall cabinet:

NewAge Hung by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
NewAge Hung by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

We then started mounting up the lower cabinets (5 drawer and 2 door). In order to make sure the worktop was level between the two locker cabinets we hung each cabinet off the locker and then drilled them into the studs. That way we could make sure the lower cabinets were level across the span. We unpacked the worktops and placed them on top of the cabinets. Had to do a little finessing with the worktops to fit within the space. We were less than 1/8" off, so it was a tight fit

Final Product by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Once again sorry for the mess, once I clean it up I will update the pictures with a better view.

Now this came out 100X better than I initially expected. The look of them is just phenomenal!! I still have to buy some joining brackets for the table top. The setup is meant to have the lower cabinets in the middle and have an open space on each side. I really wanted to have the open space in the middle in front of the window so we made it work.

I still have two upper cabinets remaining, so I will find a spot in the garage and get those hung. But for now this part is done and I'm just over the moon with it!

 

[dwlachowicz]

The last project for the day was to hang the plywood to the left of the furnace so I can put the tire racks side by side. Without the plywood I could not get both tire racks mounted to the same 2x4 for structural support to withstand ~200lbs of wheels/tires. So went out and got a sanded 3/4"x2'x8' sheet of plywood the night before so we would be ready to go.

Made sure to find all the studs in the wall to bolt into, had to use the jigsaw to cut out a small section of electrical conduit and then we'd be ready to bolt up. We drove in some 3 inch wood screws in order to hold the plywood in place. Then we came back and secured the board with 4 3/8" x 2 1/2" lag bolts. The last bit of securing was one side of each tire rack would be mount directly into a stud through the plywood. For those mounts I reused my old hardware. Here is the finished product prior to prime and paint:

Tire Rack Mount by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Tire Rack Mount by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

We each hung off of the bars to make sure they're secured properly! Last thing I need is 4 or 8 wheels to come crashing down and hitting one or both of the cars.

I think if that were to happen, I'd be living in the garage for a while...

 

[Arclitgold]

This is looking fantastic!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pbon]

Looks great. I know the skylights were already there but they add a lot of light. You could trade the cans in one day for 4’ LEDs.

 

[dwlachowicz]

Looks great. I know the skylights were already there but they add a lot of light. You could trade the cans in one day for 4’ LEDs.

I've considered adding some more lighting ironically enough. I know the cans direct light in spot. I want to add some lighting towards the back of the garage by the work bench. We shall see. Need to finish cleaning and get the floor laid!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Unruh]

Great start so far! Looking forward to seeing that floor!

 

[dwlachowicz]

Great start so far! Looking forward to seeing that floor!

Thanks! I've been doing a good amount of prep work for the floor this week, sadly been slacking on providing updates here. Should have a good amount of updates today/tomorrow!

 

[dubber]

Looking forward to those updates! But for now.....get back to work hahaha!

 

[greyghost18t]

Looking great! I grew up in Prospect Hts and Arlington Hts.. Glad to see a NW burbs garage in progress!

 

[920kip]

You are going to have a very nicely organized garage. But I would get started on that shed. Start drawing that out tonight. ;-)

 

[dwlachowicz]

So next up was to prime and paint the plywood, not doing so would drive my OCD. One night was spent on primer, came back the following night and threw a coat of paint. Came out looking half decent for sanded ply:

Painted Tire Rack Wall by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Painted Tire Rack Wall by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

As soon as I threw up the second pair of wheels I realized I need wheel/tire totes. Those ragged bags were not going to cut it anymore.

 

[dwlachowicz]

Looking forward to those updates! But for now.....get back to work hahaha!

Trust me I want all of this done as quickly as the next person! Just ***** that I have drying times to wait and those cannot be rushed, which you know very well! Soon enough I'll show this off as a whole.

Looking great! I grew up in Prospect Hts and Arlington Hts.. Glad to see a NW burbs garage in progress!

Thanks! See you're in MKE, I'm up there quite often as my sister lives there. Fun little city with TONS of good beer! How long ago did you move?

You are going to have a very nicely organized garage. But I would get started on that shed. Start drawing that out tonight. ;-)

Don't remind me of the shed. With each day of work I realize more and more a shed is a necessity. I just need to figure out our house priorities. Wife really really wants a front porch, which I do too. Unfortunately the village only allows 50% lot coverage and I am currently at 48%...Hoping the porch doesn't take more than 2%

 

[dwlachowicz]

Now came the fun part of filling up the NewAge lockers. This allowed me to start clearing off the floor space in preparation for the RaceDeck. I dedicated one locker to my wife's gardening needs and the other to my random car stuff (degreasers, bottles of oil, spare parts, etc.) This allowed me to get rid of an old shelving unit that was taking up considerable space.

Next came the fun part of moving everything to one side of the garage. Thanks again to Dubber for the recommendation of tackling the floor one half at a time.

I had a ton of recycling to do with all the cardboard and styrofoam that came with the NewAge cabinets, luckily a family owned electronics store was deemed essentail and they take cardboard and styrofoam for recycling! Huge help for me vs week by week breaking stuff down and tossing it.

Which left me with this:

Bare concrete by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Bare concrete by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I have a two step plan in place to clean and seal the concrete prior to laying the tiles:

Clean & Seal by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I wanted to scrub the floors clean of any dirt and oils before putting a waterproofing sealant to help with mold/mildew in the future. Though the thought did cross my mind to just start tiling as half of the garage floor was all cleaned off haha.

Below are the results after scrubbing the floor, really focused on the previous joints of the rubber mats as there was a significant amount of seepage:

Scrubbed & Cleaned by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Scrubbed & Cleaned by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

The following morning I came back with a quick vacuum of any remaining dust or debris I may have brought in.

That evening I tackled the sealant. Poured the bottle in to my hand sprayer and busted out a paint roller to make sure it penatrates the concrete. Actually took some photos during the process:

Sealed by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Sealed by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Sealed by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

I plan to follow up with a second coat as recommended, just a frustrating process as the sealant gums up the hand sprayer so I'll need to clean it out after each application.

The sealant goes on milky white, but as it dries it turns clear, which you can see at the top of the first two photos. Says to apply a second coat after 2 hours...HATE WAITING!!!

So stoked to finally get to this point, even if it is only half of the garage. Cannot wait to start laying down the tiles and see all of it come together!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Good job! this tile job is going to look great!

 

[greyghost18t]

Thanks! See you're in MKE, I'm up there quite often as my sister lives there. Fun little city with TONS of good beer! How long ago did you move?

I moved here in 2007. But I moved here from CT. I moved out of the NW Burbs in 1996. I still have my family down there though so I am down there quite a bit.

 

[dwlachowicz]

I moved here in 2007. But I moved here from CT. I moved out of the NW Burbs in 1996. I still have my family down there though so I am down there quite a bit.

Well if you're ever in the area again, let me know. I'll have a cold one in the garage for you or anyone wanting to visit!

Blazed Orange - Hop Butcher by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

 

[dwlachowicz]

FINALLY I have begun laying down the tiles! The moment that I have been waiting for since I began working on the garage. I was excited for the NewAge Cabinets and for the paint, but flooring was my number one focus!

I had to double check my layout and measurements. I decided to cut the first row of tiles in half, that way my design would be on center:

Hack Job by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

Not the most ideal setup for cutting tiles, but it got the job done. Though I was surprised by the mess, but the cuts came out clean.

Once I got the two outer edges laid down I began working the inside. Once I got the hang of the snaps, the tiles started going down pretty quick:

So Close Yet So Far by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

So before I knew it, the half that was prepped was done:

Halfway There by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Halfway There by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Halfway There by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

To say that it came out fantastic is an understatement! Seeing my design come to life has been awesome! Now to start working on the other half! Hoping this time next week, I'll have a full garage in RaceDeck Free Flow!!

 

[dwlachowicz]

Well I did not waste anytime in getting the rest of the garage prepped for the tile. Over the weekend and last night I spent time moving everything from the unfinished side to the finished side. During this process I had a bunch of stuff to toss which made life easier as it freed up considerable space. By Monday night I had the floor swept and vacuumed, ready to begin scrubbing today:

Clean Floor Rnd 2 by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr
Clean Floor Rnd 2 by Dawid Lachowicz, on Flickr

So the plan is to scrub the floor clean today, then come back tomorrow with two coats of sealant. And then on Thursday or maybe late Wednesday night begin tiling again!

 

[dubber]

Way to go! I know the waiting was hard between applications and steps but you will be very pleased to have taken it on at this point instead of waiting. Happy to see you took the suggestion

And yes man oh man do those tiles throw off debris when cutting them. I had it everywhere!