Garage in a disused factory in Norway

[s123]

After prowling around for a long time here on the forum I've finally got my own garage. It is in a disused factory, where areas are subletted for various purposes.

We are some people who have joined forces to rent a part of this disused factory. Our garage spaces are seperated, but we have a common entrance and corridor.

My part of the garage is in the end of the corridor shown in the picture. This corridor was formerly used for transporting goods with trucks (forklifts).

My part of this starts at the MDF boards and go through the green gate in the end of the corridor. This area is about 4.3 meters wide x 13 and meters deep (14 by 42 feet). As you can see from the picture it is very high ceilings, probably more than 6 meters (20 feet)

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The previous tenants have made some very artistic grafitti paintings on the walls. The area is also very dusty and dirty, so a good cleaning is needed.

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The flooring is very even and i will be able to have two cars (in a row). I'm thinking of building a mezzanine or some kind of loft, to utilize some of the height.

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[Bib Overalls]

I can not see the photos. Sounds interesting.

 

[s123]

hmm.. I'm hosting the images at imgur, they are ok in preview, but appearently not visible when posted....

 

[Sunbimmer]

Open the images in a new window and then lose the i. in the url adress, then press enter

 

[s123]

Thanks for the tip, but same problem after loosing the i. in the URL. I have now uploaded them to photobucket instead, hopefully visible for you now....

 

[Sunbimmer]

Perfect, nice "artwork" good space, enjoy and thanks for sharing!

 

[hewey]

Looks like an interesting space. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

 

[Crown]

Nice! I would keep the graffiti.

 

[Ol'WhiteCap]

I agree, keep the artwork. I is better than white walls.
The wife and I have been talking about visiting Norway. The pictures of your country are beautiful.

 

[gbh]

Nice! I would keep the graffiti.

X2

 

[Gotcha640]

Where in Norway? My uncle is in Stavanger, cousin in Oslo.

 

[s123]

Perfect, nice "artwork" good space, enjoy and thanks for sharing!

Thanks Sunbimmer - I think it will be a good space, needs some planning and work though

Looks like an interesting space. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

Thanks Hewey - Yes, it is an intresting space. Have to find out how to get the best of it.

Nice! I would keep the graffiti.

Thanks Crown - yes some of the grafitti is really cool

I agree, keep the artwork. I is better than white walls.
The wife and I have been talking about visiting Norway. The pictures of your country are beautiful.

Thanks Ol'WhiteCap - I'think I will keep some of the grafitti, but have to see how it turns out to have that below a mezzanine. If you have the possibility I would recommend you to visit Norway soon. The currency is in your favour, so Norway have the last year become much cheaper for americans to visit. Some years ago I drove from the south all the way up north, which is about 2500 km (1550 miles) a lot of dramatic and nice nature to see. Spend 5 minutes to watch the limelapse video

X2

Thanks gbh - One more vote in favour of the graffiti

Where in Norway? My uncle is in Stavanger, cousin in Oslo.

I live 60 kilometers south of Oslo (37 miles), halfway to the swedish border.

 

[s123]

Spent some hours there today. Needed a gate to be able to be able to restrict access to my domain. The gate is made up of MDF boards glued to structural timber. I needed to increase the height to make enough room for bringing my camper car there if needed.

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From the inside

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Some more pictures from my garage

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This door is closed permanently. On the other side there are some other tenants. Since I'm planning to do some welding I have to insulate around the door to avoid sparks from the welder or angle grinder to pass into my neighbors space.

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Whoa - it opens!

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Pretty filthy and dusty

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Since the only windows I have is on the roof, It will become quite dark if i build a mezzanine. Need some thoughts of how to do it. It would be nice to have a mezzanine to put up parts from the cars I'm going to work on. It is convenient to have the interior and glass tucked away when welding, but it is going to be quite dark when covering up for the natural light.

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Notice the metal plate hanging from the ceiling to remind the truck (forklift) drivers to lower their fork before smashing into the frame around the gate. I think my mezzanine will be approximately right above the door. The pipe coming from the ceiling is not in use and needs to be cut down.

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The green graffiti painted door here will also be permanently closed. On the other side of this door three of my friends are sharing a quite large area where they are creating their garage space. Quite artistic graffiti there. Some of the colors really make you happy

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The brown door is installed to make an emergency exit in case of fire. This will give me access to my friends garage and also a emergency exit to the outdoor area.

Please bear with me for typos and poor English.

 

[wasfast]

A partial mezzanine would work though. Just don't build it directly under the skylights but between them.

 

[Short Round]

Your English is better than most American residents.

Perhaps an open grate for storage above instead of a mezzanine with a floor.

 

[TRS63]

Thats a place with a lot of potential, congrats on getting it!

I will follow it, which kind of car are you gonna build there?

Antoine

 

[s123]

A partial mezzanine would work though. Just don't build it directly under the skylights but between them.

I'm thinking the same, but if I'm to build it between the skylights, it will be rather small. I think I will go for building it in the inner half of the garage. Then one of the skylights will be uncovered, but I still have to put up a few lights.

Your English is better than most American residents.

Perhaps an open grate for storage above instead of a mezzanine with a floor.

Thank you for your kind words. I had to google "grate" ;-) to find out what it is. That would be a great solution, but I'm afraid it is out of the economical boundaries for this project.

Thats a place with a lot of potential, congrats on getting it!

I will follow it, which kind of car are you gonna build there?

Thanks Antoine - I'm very pleased by getting this opportunity, saw in your thrhead that you also got a nice place. The cars and project will be various, but first I think I will start up with my 1981 Mercedes 300 TDT, (hence my nickname S123), but I also have a Hymer camping car and a Moto Guzzi V50 which are in bits an pieces.

So, now I have to do some purchases and go up to my garage. Stay tuned, hopefully I will be able to do a short update a little later!

 

[machine_punk]

I would put pallet rack along one wall, all the way to the ceiling, and figure out a way to get up there (ideally, a small forklift or stock picker). That would give you plenty of storage. You could build your workbenches on the ground level, under the pallet racks, with lighting over the benches.

KDub

 

[s123]

So I decided to build the mezzanine in the far end of the garage. It will fill the whole width of the room and approximately half the length of my garage space, which is about 7.5 meters deep (24 feet).

I choose to use traditional chipboard flooring upon ordinary structural timber.

The walls in the garage are of different materials. On one side it is plasterboard screwed into some light metal beams (within the wall). The wall on the other side is built of Leca, which are building blocs created out of Clay - they are solid enough. Since the walls are of very different characteristics, I'm unsure of the capabilities to support the weight of my mezzanine and the stuff I'm putting up there. I will attach the structural bearing to the walls, mostly for sideways support. I will have beams from the mezzanine down to the floor supporting the construction.

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Anyway, as you can see I got good use of my trailer. There were also some muscular effort involved in the process.

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When having the trailer backed in the garage I was more than happy to lock up and leave it there and leave it there overnight.

 

[s123]

I would put pallet rack along one wall, all the way to the ceiling, and figure out a way to get up there (ideally, a small forklift or stock picker). That would give you plenty of storage. You could build your workbenches on the ground level, under the pallet racks, with lighting over the benches.

KDub

Yes, the idea of using a pallet rack did cross my mind, but after measuring I found the total width to be just over 4 meters (13.5 feet) - which will make it quite narrow when I put a car in there.

After discussing with my friends, I think it is a good solution to build the mezzanine with a solid floor also to make it more comfortable in the winter. If it gets cold it is easier to warm up the room if the ceiling is lower. I can even put up some tarpaulin as a curtain if necessary.

 

[s123]

So to start work on building the mezzanine I've decided for height and started to bolt the 2"x 8" framework to the walls on the side and the locked access door at the end. I've also set up lateral braces at the end to mark where it ends.

The garage floor is very solid, so I will use 2" x 4" as mainstay from the 2" x 8" frame. These will stay solid on the floor, but also be bolted into the walls. I will add another 2" x 4" on the outside, which also will cover the 2" x 8" to give some extra rigidity. The pillars to the floor will be at every 120 cm (4 feet).

This will give me the possibility to have car beneath the mezzanine. The height will be almost 3 meters (10 feet) so even my Hymer camper should be able to fit under.

Hopefully the construction will be solid enough to support whatever I will store up there.

I see my limitation to express my self in english regarding building technical terms, but I hope my description make sense. If not, hopefully the pictures will clarify my descriptive limitations.

 

[Ol'WhiteCap]

S123, thanks for the link to the video. Your country is beautiful. I'm thinking at the soonest, we may visit Norway in 2017. We are unable to agree on the time of year. I want to see the northern lights, but during winter, but it's cold. Summer the country is interesting. Maybe we will have to visit twice

 

[95riosnake]

Very cool space, I agree with the others that the artwork is pretty cool. I'm sure once you get tool boxes, cabinets, work benches, etc. in there it will break it up some also. Looking forward to seeing this one as it progresses.

 

[Radix2]

I will be the dissenter and say get rid of the graffiti as soon as possible.

It makes the space much smaller and much darker than it would be without it.

...and frankly it looks juvenile anyway..."mon-stars"..."bandits"...what drek.

Looks like a great project though! Thanks for sharing.

 

[matt_i]

I did not see any outlets on the walls but I assume you have access to electricity (?) It would seem quite OK to place lights underneath your mezzanine, it would also help for working there at night time. Nice space! I personally kinda like the graffiti

 

[madoc1]

will follow this. looks like a good place to start a shop.

jim

 

[dubjager]

love that it's in an old factory...looking forward to see what you do to the place and really dig the artwork!

 

[s123]

S123, thanks for the link to the video. Your country is beautiful. I'm thinking at the soonest, we may visit Norway in 2017. We are unable to agree on the time of year. I want to see the northern lights, but during winter, but it's cold. Summer the country is interesting. Maybe we will have to visit twice

The summer north of the artic circle is quite facinating with the midnight sun, it is quite possible to completely loose track of time.

Very cool space, I agree with the others that the artwork is pretty cool. I'm sure once you get tool boxes, cabinets, work benches, etc. in there it will break it up some also. Looking forward to seeing this one as it progresses.

The artwork is interesting, but I'm getting old of age and my eyesight needs a lot of light - I think it will become rather dark under there.....

I will be the dissenter and say get rid of the graffiti as soon as possible.

It makes the space much smaller and much darker than it would be without it.

...and frankly it looks juvenile anyway..."mon-stars"..."bandits"...what drek.

Looks like a great project though! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your opinion. It will become rather dark and also when putting up the support beams for bearing the mezzanine it will break up the grafitti and make it some kind of cluttering.....

I did not see any outlets on the walls but I assume you have access to electricity (?) It would seem quite OK to place lights underneath your mezzanine, it would also help for working there at night time. Nice space! I personally kinda like the graffiti

Yes, it is electricity there. At the moment it is just one outlet, but more outlets and lighting must be installed afterwards the carpenter work is finished.

will follow this. looks like a good place to start a shop.

jim

Thanks

love that it's in an old factory...looking forward to see what you do to the place and really dig the artwork!

I also like the facilities. Right now I also look forward to get the place up and running.

 

[s123]

Thanks you all for all your involvement. It is nice to get some feedback and some ideas of what to do. I had the weekend of doing other business, so I was not able to work in the garage. When I got back my neighbors had decided to embellish the area by using some leftover paint in the factory. They had painted the walls of the corridor and also the wall around my garage door. That was highly motivating and a nice gesture of them to do. Thanks a lot!!


Been working with the mezzanine, but progress is slow. I been setting up joist hangers for the structural timber. They are set with a distance of 60 cm center to center (23.6"). Beneath every second of these will have a supporting beam to the floor. These support beams are interfering with the grafitti on the walls and when I get more of them I think it will be some kind of messy (if you don't find them messy in the first place ;-) )

 

[AZ Pete]

Subscribed

 

[Farmall450]

Looks awesome! Subbed

 

[awdblazer]

pretty cool build man
subscribed

 

[s123]

Thanks a lot you guys for all your feedback - very much appreciated.

The grafitti on the walls have created some debate, but now I have made the desicion that it have to go!

I have concidered back and forth, I think it is juvenile, but decorative. From a practical point of view it is not becoming decorative when the pillars from the mezzanine will be braking up the pattern every 120cm (4 feet). And seriously, I need the walls to be bright to give me the best working conditions there.

So I started painting the wall before continuing with the mezzanine.

Immediately when I started to paint the wall I was regretting. Not because of the color, but the fact that the structure of the wall is so rough that it takes forever to paint it. So I will be busy for a while....

The 20 litres (5 gallons) of paint I bought will not get me far.

 

[55cadillacking]

Thanks a lot you guys for all your feedback - very much appreciated.

The grafitti on the walls have created some debate, but now I have made the desicion that it have to go!

I think you are making the right choice. The graffiti was unique, but having white walls will really add some brightness and freshness to the space. Keep up the great work!

 

[wasfast]

Paint should be one specifically for concrete block like DryLock (US Product)http://www.drylok.com/. Regular paint will get sucked up and look blotchy

 

[Mechanichforlife]

I also think You would be really dizzy in your head after a while.

 

[RaceDeck1]

Very cool space! Nice to see a cool garage in Norway, which I will be in next week

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice work on this it looks very good so far!

 

[1949 caddyman]

Subscribed, we are taking a Baltic sea cruise next year that stops in Norway. Looks beautiful there!

 

[iwantspeed]

nice work on that mezzanine