Great site, just dicovered it today!

[eeyore]

Hello,

I think I've wanted a decent garage for about 35 years, still don't have one. So with that I have a long story and a request for advice.

Anyway I do have a 22' X 22' attached that houses one of my toys, the wife's daily driver, lots of yard equipment, bikes, etc. Needless to say there isn't much room to work, but I do have a bench, tool chest, engine hoist, jacks, jackstands, and lots of parts of which I'm continuly tinning out. So I'm about to add a welder for which I need to add wiring, in a discussion with a friend he sugested while I'm at it it would be a good time to run extra circuits for outlets and lights. Well I said that I don't know how much I want to put into this garage because if I ever get the money I'd like to build a separate garage for my car projects. That led me to the thought that that might not happen for many years if ever. So I thought maybe I should just build a big shed and move everything except car stuff out to the shed, along with parts storeage. That lead to discussions on how I could fit a lift in my garage due to the trusses that start just 9' off the floor. So I did a Google search and found this site.

Now for the questions. Should I try and make something out of this garage or hold out for the separate toy garage? If I try to work with this garage what is the best way to go about modifing trusses so I can gain some height? I would also need to worry some about the door, but I suppose I could make sure it stays down when using the lift. I also would like to be able to heat it when working out there in the winter. I guess I heat it anyway with a propane torpedo heater, but never really thought that was the best and with no insulation it's not great. Just looking for ideas at this point. Thanks!

 

[akdiesel]

Let me start by saying welcome, although I too am new here, only 4 months old.
Back on to the subject.
I would get what you can into the garage you have now. I am not sure lifting the roof for a lift would be such a good idea. Others have done fine with the hight issue you have as well.
If you have the service panel in your garage and room for adding circuts, it should be fairly easy to add plugs through out. I would say 1 220 would be enough to get by with.
I built an 11' x 12' shed that I ran a 60 amp subpanel from my house panel. This was built in 2003 with a 5" concrete pad no insulation and the total cost was around $3000.
If you have anyother questions try to address them in the proper sections. This area does not get as many replies.

 

[eeyore]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I know this may not be the best section for my questions, I was just explaining my situation along with my introduction. When I get more serious I'll put my questions in the correct sections. Oh and I do not have a pannel in the garage, it's in the basement all the way across the house. Worse yet all the electric runs up from the pannel thru a wall to the attic and then runs to various parts of the house, and only portions of the attic are accessable due to the ceilings in the house. My wife works for an electrical contractor, if I end up doing more than the one circuit for the welder I will see if she can get someone to do it or at least advise me. Her company generally dosn't do residential, but they've made exceptions for employees.

 

[rickairmedic]

I will add a welcome to the group as well and also say build or buy a shed . I picked one up off of craigslist for $100.00 I had to take it apart and then reasemble it at my house it is 11X14 metal I then had a freind bring me one that was 8X10 fully assembled for $40.00 bucks his dad was getting rid of that took care of most of the yard type **** and kids **** . I am redoing my garage to better suit me although I am planning to do an addition to it someday in the future I still want to use what I have now. I dont have any daily drivers in the garage the other halfs minivan sits in the driveway next to my service truck . I will also add I have gotten all of my cabinets off of craigslist and other places like that for free so all I have invested in my cabinets is paint and time they are all old metal kitchen cabinets other than a 12 drawer wall unit that was a store display at some point and probably cost the store a couple grand when it was first made very sturdy the thing probably weighs 300 pounds.You can do alot for a little if you try and have a nice workshop to play in until you canafford to build your other garage . I started a new company a year ago so I have little money to play with and am still building a nice workshop.


Rick

 

[eeyore]

Thanks,

I'm still deciding but alot of ideas I've read about on this site could be done regardless what route I take. That is a shed or more waiting for the dream garage. I'm amased what I've read on this site that people have found on craigs. I usually only go there for cars and parts!

 

[akdiesel]

One persons junk is another persons treasure.