Interior Garage Wall Materials?

[BQuicksilver]

Well, I'm ready to pull down the ugly wall material and get the garage in my new place and start the transformation. Problem is, I really am somewhat in over my head this being my first home/garage, and could use a lot of advice. I'm handy, but these are all first-time projects for me. My father (has built his own shop) will be up to help this weekend, but the control freak in me really needs to have some more educated opionions (yours) on where we should head with it.

The garage is 20x20 and will not see heavy work, but most track prep and general maint for my C5 will be done in it. I would like it to look like a nice clean garage that can handle the occasional project.

I plan the pull down the walls (pictured below) and presumably?? need to take out the blown-in insulation that seems to be behind it.

My other big question is what meaterial you recommend for use as the garage wall. Drywall/Wood Paneling/etc?

Some pics below (any advice welcomed):

 

[husky125]

I would go with drywall due to fire protection reasons.

 

[hitek]

I agree...drywall.

While you are at it, make sure you have enough outlets and light fixtures.

 

[BQuicksilver]

Any good guideline based on your experience for outlet placement/number? Is there a height for outlets that tends to work best?

I'm thinking about one switched outlet for the gas heater, some (?number) after putting in a 10ft ceiling, coax,

I know the more light the better, but the 3 4ft fixtures I have right now aren't quite cutting it. Maybe 6 fixtures?

 

[hitek]

I would put one or two quad receptacles just above where your workbench will be located...assuming around 8 foot of worksurface. As for the others, I would say a couple on each wall should be fine for what you will be using the garage for, centered about 14" from the floor. 220 for a welder or compressor?
One of the last garages we built we put receptacles in the ceiling for the fixtures to plug into...this would give you some options on the quantity.
I just recently found a new fluorescent from The Light Edge (the Raptor series)that we are going to use in an upcoming project...supposed to be "The" light to use.

 

[Der Bugmeister]

A good height in general is around 50". That will let you lean 4' x 8' sheets of materiel against the walls without obstructing the outlets.

 

[boiler7904]

From the looks of the pictures, your garage looks like it was araound before the days of blown cellulose insulation unless it was a retrofit. Based on the last picture, I would sooner guess that you have fiberglass batts in the stud cavities. May or may not need to be replaced depending on condition after you pull off the existing paneling.

For the new surface, I'd go with drywall. Make it 5/8" thick on any wall adjacent to the house to achieve some fire resistant characteristics - this won't be a fire rated wall since you'll only have one layer of fire rated gyp (5/8" has a type "x" fire resistant core by default) on one side of the studs. I would consider using moisture resistant gyp board (called MR or green board) up both sides of the overhead door and at least for the 4' closest to the floor since the walls have a pretty good chance of getting wet either from washing cars or the floor itself. If you want a cleanable surface without going to the hassle of epoxy wall paint, try a kitchen and bath paint. They're scrubable and mold / mildew resistant. Gloss or semi-gloss finish is easy to wipe clean (usually).

For me, it makes sense to put the outlets higher on the wall like 52" or so to the centerline. 52" makes sense since it would be higher than a worksurface and above something against the wall (including 4 x 8 sheets of plywood). 52" would also come out below the bottom of most wall cabinets too. As soon as you put outlets in at standard height off the floor (16" or so) , you'll put something in front of one, never be able to get to it easily and ***** about it every time. Been there - done that.

Consider putting a piece of plugmold across the front edge of your workbench so that cords do have to cross the work surface. I also mounted a cord reel next to my overhead door operator and plugged it into the space receptacle there. Good source of power that doesn't usually get used a lot in garages.

You're probably on the right track at 6 lights for that amound of space. I would also consider 8 fixtures and have the wiring set up so that one switch controls one tube in each fixture and one switch controls the other tube in each fixture. It's more work to wire but gives more flexibility. Painting the ceiling brite white and the walls a light color will help reflect light.

 

[BQuicksilver]

My father was interested in some sort of system with horizontal grooves to hang various items. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and have feedback on it? Personally, I want drywall for the sake of simplicity and clean finish. We **** heads somewhat on the issue.

Good idea on the 220v (compressor)

boiler, thanks for all the info. I just finished pulling a wall out and it had some sort of loose fiberglass insulation. It looks to have been blown in via 2 inch diameter holes cut in the drywall. The house was built in 1946.

52" sounds pretty good. I know my father has his wired up at a similar height in his garage. (we'll agree there)

I like the plugreel idea.

 

[BQuicksilver]

Also, what insulation would you recommend for us to install?

 

[hitek]

My father was interested in some sort of system with horizontal grooves to hang various items. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and have feedback on it? Personally, I want drywall for the sake of simplicity and clean finish. We **** heads somewhat on the issue.

Good idea on the 220v (compressor)

boiler, thanks for all the info. I just finished pulling a wall out and it had some sort of loose fiberglass insulation. It looks to have been blown in via 2 inch diameter holes cut in the drywall. The house was built in 1946.

52" sounds pretty good. I know my father has his wired up at a similar height in his garage. (we'll agree there)

I like the plugreel idea.

Putting all the outlets at 52" would certainly work and actually would be more universal...I just like the cords coming off the wall at a lower height.

 

[CruZer]

An alternative to drywall is this foil coated fiberglas board sold at Lowes and Home Despot. I like it because you can ductape the seams and it reflects light really well to make the garage interior brighter.
The downside is that it's a little pricey.

 

[sjsfire]

By looking at your pictures and if it was my garage since you say the side walls are insulated with blown in insulation, I wouldn't take down what you already have up. I'd go over the walls with either OSB board that you can paint or 3/8 inch drywall then tape and paint. If you pull off what you got why loose the insulation you already have? I would do the cieling in 5/8 drywall and the wall joining the house for the fire protection. Unless you are against running outlets in surface conduit and boxes I would cover up what you have and paint it nice. That way you can maybe do the floor up nice instead of spending more on insulation that you remove
Thats just my opinion....

 

[BoCRon]

My father was interested in some sort of system with horizontal grooves to hang various items. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and have feedback on it? Personally, I want drywall for the sake of simplicity and clean finish. We **** heads somewhat on the issue.

I'm going to use StoreWall in my garage. I'm not planning on going floor to ceiling like this pic. I want to do a band around 2 walls that will be about 45" tall. I want the bottom to be about 36" from the floor and go up to 81". Which will leave about 30" above to the ceiling.

Annette

 

[BQuicksilver]

BocRon, I think that's what he's wanting. It does look decent in that pic.

Pro/Cons vs drywall?

As for the insulation:
The way it was ?blown? in between each frame section left the top 25% or so uninsulated. Maybe it just settled, but the insulation was also home to various creatures once I got into a portion of the first wall. Still, after taking off those paneling squares I found a wall with otherwise clean dywall underneath (outside of the 2"dia holes to insert the insulation).

I'm on the fence here. I'd rather pay more and have it done right than just clean, but hate to be outright wasteful. I would like to get in and redo lots of electrical. Three walls don't even have a single outlet. Actually, outside of the door openers, I have one outlet for the whole garage. Yikes.

 

[BQuicksilver]

More Pics:

 

[T1704]

I know of the product you're referring to, that you can hang shelves, cabinets, hooks, etc. from. I plan on installing several sheets of this in my garage, but plan to do that on top of the dry wall. I would still dry wall the garage.

My opinion.

 

[boiler7904]

BocRon, I think that's what he's wanting. It does look decent in that pic.

Pro/Cons vs drywall?

As for the insulation:
The way it was ?blown? in between each frame section left the top 25% or so uninsulated. Maybe it just settled, but the insulation was also home to various creatures once I got into a portion of the first wall. Still, after taking off those paneling squares I found a wall with otherwise clean dywall underneath (outside of the 2"dia holes to insert the insulation).

I'm on the fence here. I'd rather pay more and have it done right than just clean, but hate to be outright wasteful. I would like to get in and redo lots of electrical. Three walls don't even have a single outlet. Actually, outside of the door openers, I have one outlet for the whole garage. Yikes.

What you just said tells me you should go to bare studs and start over. Patching that many holes will be a pain and will be tough to get a good finish on. Once you get to bare wood, have an exterminator come out and take a look at what you've got. Also gives you a chance to see if you have structural damage caused by "the creatures". Electrical will also be a lot easier.

The wall panels in that pic are called slatwall. If you go with something along that line, make sure that you don't have to use propietary hooks for the system. You can also make your own slatwall using a router and special bit from a variety of sheet materials.

 

[JMURiz]

I agree, tear it out and start over, should be much cleaner result!
Also, try and have that brick wall exposed, adds some nice character to the place. Also like above rewiring will be much easier with exposed studwalls.

 

[red vette mike]

Well, I'm ready to pull down the ugly wall material and get the garage in my new place and start the transformation. Problem is, I really am somewhat in over my head this being my first home/garage, and could use a lot of advice. I'm handy, but these are all first-time projects for me. My father (has built his own shop) will be up to help this weekend, but the control freak in me really needs to have some more educated opionions (yours) on where we should head with it.

The garage is 20x20 and will not see heavy work, but most track prep and general maint for my C5 will be done in it. I would like it to look like a nice clean garage that can handle the occasional project.

I plan the pull down the walls (pictured below) and presumably?? need to take out the blown-in insulation that seems to be behind it.

My other big question is what meaterial you recommend for use as the garage wall. Drywall/Wood Paneling/etc?

Some pics below (any advice welcomed):

I just finished a 31x54 garage addition. I used 3/8" Luan board on the walls and the ceilings. My ceiling height is 12' (due to a lift) so the 4x8 sheets are stacked 3 high. I used this board mainly because I knew how to work with it and I didn't know how to do sheetrock. I caulked the seams and you can still see the seams, but it looks real nice. I painted it a semi-gloss white and I put in 25 4 gang 4' flourescents. It lights up like a summer day when I turn those lights on.

 

[ultgar]

For a workshop, you might consider putting up 5/8" or 3/4" plywood so you can hang cabinets or brackets anywhere at a future time.

You can sheetrock and panel over the plywood.

For collectors with large parking (museum) garages, you can do something creative. I've got a muralist coming in to do a current project....here's a link to some examples (see http://www.ultimategarage.com/murals.htm ) that I put on my site from time to time. Because of the murals are so life-like, you need to be careful not to drive into one of the walls.
SD

 

[BoCRon]

BQuicksilver,
The brand I put in the pic is Storewall brand. There are quite a few companies that make a product like this all are a slatwall product. Most of them seem to be an MDF type of composition, but I wouldn't swear to it. The Storewall brand is and extruded plastic type.
I like the Storewall because it seems that a large number of the hooks and hangars made by other companies are compatible. Whereas it the gladiator, or sears ones for example only work with their products. Alot of the cabinet companies (Schulte, for example) sell hanging systems for their cabinets so they can hang directly on the Storewall.
Pros and cons vs drywall.
Storewall is more expensive. You can attach it directly to the studs in place of drywall, but I'm not sure how it works out if you are only doing a band as opposed to floor to ceiling. I'm sure it can be done and would probably look very neat to have it flush with the drywall.
Storewall is completely water resistant so you can wash the walls down if need be.
Annette
http://www.storewall.com/

Here's where I will probably get mine from,
For $257 you can cover 40sf. I will probably do about 120sf of wall in my garage total, that will be a band 45inches wide covering to 22ft walls less a window or two.
http://www.walltowallstorage.com/storeWALL_slatwall_products.html

Here's a pic of it just one panel wide around the room. The panels are 15inches wide by 8 ft long. I will be doing 3 panels wide to get 45inches.

I just remembered that they make a slightly less "commercial grade" product called "Standard Duty" which is about $220 for 40sf.

 

[BoCRon]

Hey ultgar, nice MINI is it yours?
That's the color I originally wanted by they discontinued it for the "S" for '06.

Annette

 

[ultgar]

Hey ultgar, nice MINI is it yours?
That's the color I originally wanted by they discontinued it for the "S" for '06.

Annette

I have to get rid of a few cars for the winter and put the Mini up for sale...see http://www.ultimategarage.com/mcs.html . I thought liquid yellow was a popular color.....surprised they discontinued it. Steve