Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Greatest Generation Garage

[2Rocky]

In 2014 I bought my Grandparents home on the ranch built in 1941 and did a great deal of remodelling to modernize the old farmhouse.

The Garage is concrete tipup walls on 3 sides. It measures 20x20 on the outer edge with clearspan rafters made with true 2x6 lumber. The date scrawled on the South wall in the concrete is 1947. My grandfather parked their 1984 Suburban on the South half, and built a partition down the middle where he put a 16 foot x 21 inch wide workbench on the North half of the Garage. Twin track rolling doors overlap on the West gable end.

I'm now in the process of organizing and updating the garage as well as the 10x 12 ft wood shed attached to the North side.
My projects include

1. improving the organization with cabinets and shelves
2. smoothing out the concrete floor
3. moving the workbench to the North wall
4. replacing the rolling doors with a framed man door and a rollup overhead garage door.

My ultimate goal is to have all of my storage off the floor and have a wide open floor space with room to work on projects have a workout area, and maybe even park a compact car occasionally.

My biggest complaint about this garage is the dust and moisture that gets in making it hard to keep things nice that are stored in it.

The Garage and woodshed in 2014. The roof was new and the Woodshed had been trimmed back from being flush with the front of the garage.



Current arrangement


Vision for future



Thoughts on priorities

 

[captain14]

Following.

 

[2Rocky]

Storage loft

In order to get bulky things off the floor, I put a header beam of 2 sistered 2x6's from the 4x6 header over the doorway to a true 2x4 post my grand father had used to create the partition down the middle of the Garage. Over that header I put 2x6's resting on the concrete walls and screwed into the rafters. While my vision was that I would have a 19 ft continuous 2x6 floor joists in the loft, I decided to just have 2 2x6's meet on the joist and scab a short board across the joint. on one side it was a 10 ft span and on the other a 9 ft span since the partition posts were off set from the Ridgeline.

 

[2Rocky]

Tool organization

One big part of my grandfather's pieces that I inherited in the garage was a 6 ft tall, 42 inch wide storage locker divided into upper and lower cabinets. It has been a nice place to hide away my clutter of power tools in the top and store my hunting backpacks in the bottom.




I found a real good blog that had a scalable set of plans for cordless drill storage racks

Custom Drill Storage and Charge Station - Easy - Her Tool Belt

Need to organize your cordless drills and batteries? Build a custom drill storage and charge station for your batteries with these free plans.

www.hertoolbelt.com

So I fiddled around with it for a few weeks then started cuttin...





FWIW the Plywood on the backs and sides are NOT attached to the metal of the cabinet. The Plywood sides are wedging the back piece into place. The storage station is hung on a French Cleat. I anticipate having to disassemble the locker in the future to sand and paint it.

 

[2Rocky]

Breaking Eggs to Make an Omelette.

Part of my frustration with the previous layout of the garage has been the bck 6 feet of the work bench which became a collection center for whatever tools and assorted stuff too good to throw away that would get shoved in the corner. it also broke up the flow of the back wall. This has been part of my desire to move the bench to the North wall. While the North wall still has shelves along it and my locker, I figured a good next step was to open up the back wall to have a place for those items to go.

It was hard to cut into the scrap wood bench my grandfather had pieced together from remnant boards in the 80's. I remember feeling this way when I remodeled the 72 year old kitchen on the farmhouse.

The kitchen remodel mid demo.
The Shop Side BEFORE



This partition is coming out

First cut hack job.



Now I have a Real dust collection setup on my Miter Saw.




Now that I've had the shortened workbench "island", I'm not as against the mid garage bench setup as I was originally.
Pro's

1. There is Power at the bench already
2. The structure is sturdy, and I could just add 3/4 inch plywood to the top 24 inches wide and have a clean, wide workbench.
3. wouldn't have to run power and rebuild a workbench on north side.
4. Could put the man door on the north side more in the Center of the Gable wall and have room for long boards on the miter saw.

 

[2Rocky]

One of the First upgrades I did with the garage 9 years ago was the electric panel and service. The reason being we moved the laundry washer and dryer to the garage while we remodelled the house. That meant we also added the T5 Lights and have a 220 outlet where the Dryer plugged in. I think I'll need a Higher Voltage Breaker though if I want to wire in a welder.



I did remove the temporary water supply lines but I still have a stub I capped off near the door.

I forgot to shut off the main supply valve before I removed the pipes, resulting in a bit of wet feet...



(no one was electrcuted in this process)

 

[2Rocky]

One new twist is a couple 36 inch tall by 30 inch wide and 12 inch deep wall cabinets my uncle had left over from a dental office remodel.



I’m evaluating where they would best serve my purpose. Stay tuned for more.

 

[2Rocky]

Using the gun safe and a couple redwood 1x6s to act as a ledger was easier than drilling into the concrete a couple more times.

They even came out level across the two walls!

 

[Boon]

I bet you have a ton of memories in that garage. All the old cabinets, rack and old wood and racks makes it looks used and comfortable like an old baseball glove.

 

[xtremek]

Nice score from the Uncle.

 

[Bears Fan]

Nice rack

 

[2Rocky]

Just picked up this FREE 5 ft wide x 28 inches deep x 34 inches tall steel top bench to go along the North wall. I think with some degreaser and paint it will look sharp.

 

[2Rocky]

My new Angle Grinder got put to use to knock down the toe catchers in the concrete floor

 

[MacTexas]

Following

 

[Ford52PU]

nice job! thanks for sharing the cordless too rack , looks like a good winter project for me.

 

[2Rocky]

Test of the Degreaser just before dark
Left Drawer was degreased Right drawer wasn't




also any suggestions for what to do with the blue parts drawers that came with the bench?

 

[tyyost]

The blue bins are drawers for Lyon shelving. We had some where I used to work, shelves were set to the drawers height and the were captured between the upper and lower shelf. The high cap at the back prevented them from being pulled out all the way,

 

[2Rocky]

The blue bins are drawers for Lyon shelving. We had some where I used to work, shelves were set to the drawers height and the were captured between the upper and lower shelf. The high cap at the back prevented them from being pulled out all the way,

Thank you. Now i know what to search for on CL. Although the "deals" usually don't know the brand names...

 

[2Rocky]

This Weekend I degreased and sanded the workbench in prep for paint.

After scrubbing with a bristle brush and Gunk brand Multi Surface Degreaser, I soaked the top in Vinegar, then sanded the top with a angle grinder abrasive pad. Thespictures are the test patch of regular Vinegar, left for 40 minutes...

 

[2Rocky]

I primed one coat and painted the topcoat with Hammered Grey Rustoleum Rattlecan.