Garage Project - Start To (Almost) Finish

[WinThePennant]

Hello,

I'd like to thank this group for inspiring me to create a great garage.

When I moved into the new house, I just knew that I wanted to upgrade the garage. I was lucky in that the garage already had walls, but other than that it looked like ****. I painted the walls and cement block. The floor is GarageDeck (a less expensive wholly owned subsidiary of RaceDeck). The walls are sporting Gladiator gear. You'll notice that I went with the more affordable gear tracks instead of the whole walls. Personally, I don't think the Gladiator walls are worth the money. The bench was made from a "2x4 Basics" kit I bought from Amazon.com. I decided to rock it out old school with pegboard that I painted the same color as the cement block.

Like any garage project, this one will continue to evolve and improve. But, it was an upgrade that I did myself for relatively little money. Totally worth it and very rewarding to see a DIY project come to fruition. Love my garage.

 

[JC23]

Looks great. Way to make a killer first post!

Welcome aboard!

 

[keithh2oskier]

Hey thats a really cool garage. My wife and I are looking to buy our first house so I came across this website in researching what can be done by the average DIY'er. This is along the lines of what I was thinking. Big limiting factor for me is $$$. If you dont mind me asking how much did you spend in supplies? Got a link to the 2x4 basics kit?

Thanks!

 

[WinThePennant]

Money was definitely a concern, so I pretty much did it all myself. Since I was starting from a base of zero, I had to buy some of the tools of the trade myself (ladders, etc.).

Paint was probably around $300. To get the corners and the ceiling, I went ahead and bought a "Little Giant" type of ladder (Werner) at Lowe's for around $170. My advice is to not scrimp on the ladder. The adjustments available to this type of ladder literally saved the day. I never would have reached the ceiling corners above the stairs without this ladder. My paint bill was a little higher because I bought paint & primer specifically for cement block.

The kit for the workbench was around $65 delivered. I LOVE this workbench. Very strong, and not very expensive. You could build your own workbench all from wood, but this kit made it very easy. http://www.amazon.com/2x4basics-90164-Workbench-Shelving-Storage/dp/B0030T1BRE/

You'll need additional lumber for the workbench kit, which will cost around $65 - $75 (Lowes). I spend another $20 on some discounted checkerboard floor tiling. This was a great buy since it made the surface of the workbench match the garage floor. I used "Sticky *** Glue" to make it adhere to the particle board workbench top. If you use Sticky *** Glue for anything, be careful since it likes to "foam up" as it dries.

The pegboard was cheap, and suited my purposes very well. Cost: Around $15.

The Gladiator tracks I bought were on sale at Lowe's buy one, get one free. I bought all they had left (and they were pretty much picked clean). The tracks are normally around $10 a board. Sears had a great sale on the cabinets, and I got those for around $270 (free delivery to a Sears store, which I then picked up). Keep in mind that Gladiator's track system is proprietary. So, once you buy Gladiator tracks, you pretty much have to buy Gladiator accessories. This is okay by me since Gladiator is pretty well stocked in the accessories department.

Now, the expensive part. I did a lot of research on which garage floor surface I'd go with. I decided against doing what 90% of homeowners do -- Use an epoxy floor paint. I went against this because everyone I know has buyer's remorse a few years later. The paint just doesn't hold up well, and it is a PITA to strip and redo later.

So, that left me with two options. Tiling or acid etch stain. I decided against the acid etch because I didn't want an earth-tone garage floor. After considerably more research, I went with GarageDeck because of price. GarageDeck looks to be VERY GOOD, and the price is hard to beat. I love it. The GarageDeck floor is warrantied for 12 years. If I ever get a stain in one spot, then I can fix it by just switching out the tile pieces. You can't do this, of course, with paint or acid etch stain.

GarageDeck cost: Around $850.

Total cost for this project: I'll ballpark it at between $1,700 - $2,000. About half that was the flooring. I don't think this is a bad price to pay at all since I was pretty much starting at a base of zero. I'll probably add some more Gladiator tracks on the bare wall and hang some more Gladiator shelves and small cabinets. So, another $500 - $600 in additional costs. Of course, I plan on putting some cosmetic touches to give it a personal touch (additional lighting, cool signs, etc.).

 

[WinThePennant]

And, by the way, it's totally possible to go with less expensive cabinets. Gladiator cabinets are pricey. I thought about (and still might) putting up school locker cabinets. Every now and then schools will change out their lockers and sell (or give away) their old lockers at fire sale prices. School lockers can give your garage a cool look, and add value in that they are typically very solid and have fairly solid locking mechanisms still intact.

Just a thought.

The wife gave me the green light to buy the Gladiator cabinets, so I didn't really look for ways to shave costs here.