Lickers
Well-known member
After a lifetime of enjoying cars, taking my driving test as soon as possible and my subsequent immersion into the BMW scene, I’m finally in a position to realise my longstanding dream of having a garage.
As some of you will know, the UK isn’t famed for its garage scene. It’s incredibly rare to see anything that resembles the installations you guys have on your side of the pond.
The typical garage here is a 15x7 box which is scarcely big enough to leave a car in, let alone any parts or provide the means to work on cars. These are almost considered as afterthoughts which occupy some redundant land around a house and hark back to the days when people drove things like Wolsey and Morris cars which were narrow and high in design.
More modern houses will typically have an integrated garage (similar size) or double which is just deep enough to park a mid-sized car and wide enough to park two small cars side by side. By small, I mean BMW Mini size. It’s a pretty poor show.
Seeing as I have one main toy, my daily driver and usually an on-going project of some description, I really need the space and facilities to properly work on and enjoy my cars.
Given the crazy house prices in the UK, getting a house with either a decent garage or the space to build one is pretty prohibitive. Add to that the cost of materials and services to get one built, it becomes a non-starter.
Luckily, at the end of last summer, I managed to find an unusual house in a great area which is an excellent compromise for space.
We closed on it a few days before Christmas before spending a month taking care of lots of re-wiring and building work before moving in about two weeks ago. Now a lot of the work in the house is slowing up/coming to an end, I can start concentrating on the garage.
The garage was built in the mid 1980’s as a 22’x13’ over-sized single; effectively a garage-and-a-half. A utility room (approx 10’x6’) was then added a little later.
It stayed this way until the previous owner moved in and started to run his company which manufactured trophies. After several years, he expanded on the garage and utility room by adding a 14’x26’ extension which sits on two levels to house his compressors, mills, lathes, drills, grinders and work stations.
This left the outbuilding to be an open plan unit which is ~57’ long by 14 wide with an underground room under the main area which is referred to as the ‘Bunker’. Whilst I would love to stake claim to this entire space, my fiancé will be taking the rear of the building for her studio.
As it’s a suspended floor/ceiling, I’d be limited in terms of weight with vehicles so it’s not a huge issue for me. It would have been great for storage and workspace, though...
As it stands, I’ve commandeered the utility room which will have the internal and external walls knocked down in favour of extending the existing garage to create more space and take it to a 31’x13’ footprint which is big enough for two cars in tandem with the space each side to work on them, store all my tools and parts and have a work area.
There are some other benefits to the garage. It has a 5’x2’ pit (albeit shallow at ~18”) and gas central heating which will help to keep the chill out during the winter months. The future of the pit is uncertain. I’d like to dig it out properly to gain another 4’ depth as there is no space for a lift. I’m not too sure how feasible that is, though.
Power is taken from a three-phase supply into its own meter as it was run as a commercial property. As this is overkill for my needs (not to mention expensive) it will be removed and will either revert to single-phase or run from the house supply. This needs to be organised with the utilities company first.
The previous owner did the work himself and it’s far from a good standard. A quick investigation shows the garage lighting (8 x GU10 spots and 3 x T12 double strip lights) to be running off a single 13a supply which is plugged directly into a wall socket. I need to get the garage back to a shell to see exactly what I’m dealing with.
The brief so far is this:
Remove all internal temporary walls and fixings
Remove false ceiling and original ceiling
Disable and remove all existing three-phase wiring, switches and air lines
Remove all existing wall sockets, wiring and extraneous fittings
Sounds simple, huh?
Here’s some snaps taken of the garage on our second viewing. The view from the back of the garage to the door. This is currently boarded off by a partition that makes a storage area.
The view from the back of the 'studio' to the utility room.
This is the view as you enter the garage.
We get the keys to the house on December 23rd so work starts in earnest on the 30th after enjoying Christmas and visiting family etc. First up, stripping.
30/12/2010
Partition removed
False ceiling removed. This was installed to help hide the three-phase wiring as well as the airlines for the compressor.
False ceiling subframe exposed and removed.
One nice thing during all the destruction (read: fun) was the discovery of an RSJ (I-beam) with a carrier for lifting/moving heavyweight stuff such as engines. This will come up nicely once I refinish it.
It became apparent that there were one or two areas that needed atttention due to small leaks, but, on the whole, everything was in pretty solid order.
This is how everything looked once the rubbish was cleared up. Now it's starting to look like a proper garage space.
Here's a view from the back of the utility room - where the garage will finally extend to.
The wall to the right will be knocked down along with the remnant of the back wall of the existing garage.
That's taken care of the first days work on the garage. Next up, wiring.
As some of you will know, the UK isn’t famed for its garage scene. It’s incredibly rare to see anything that resembles the installations you guys have on your side of the pond.
The typical garage here is a 15x7 box which is scarcely big enough to leave a car in, let alone any parts or provide the means to work on cars. These are almost considered as afterthoughts which occupy some redundant land around a house and hark back to the days when people drove things like Wolsey and Morris cars which were narrow and high in design.
More modern houses will typically have an integrated garage (similar size) or double which is just deep enough to park a mid-sized car and wide enough to park two small cars side by side. By small, I mean BMW Mini size. It’s a pretty poor show.
Seeing as I have one main toy, my daily driver and usually an on-going project of some description, I really need the space and facilities to properly work on and enjoy my cars.
Given the crazy house prices in the UK, getting a house with either a decent garage or the space to build one is pretty prohibitive. Add to that the cost of materials and services to get one built, it becomes a non-starter.
Luckily, at the end of last summer, I managed to find an unusual house in a great area which is an excellent compromise for space.
We closed on it a few days before Christmas before spending a month taking care of lots of re-wiring and building work before moving in about two weeks ago. Now a lot of the work in the house is slowing up/coming to an end, I can start concentrating on the garage.
The garage was built in the mid 1980’s as a 22’x13’ over-sized single; effectively a garage-and-a-half. A utility room (approx 10’x6’) was then added a little later.
It stayed this way until the previous owner moved in and started to run his company which manufactured trophies. After several years, he expanded on the garage and utility room by adding a 14’x26’ extension which sits on two levels to house his compressors, mills, lathes, drills, grinders and work stations.
This left the outbuilding to be an open plan unit which is ~57’ long by 14 wide with an underground room under the main area which is referred to as the ‘Bunker’. Whilst I would love to stake claim to this entire space, my fiancé will be taking the rear of the building for her studio.
As it’s a suspended floor/ceiling, I’d be limited in terms of weight with vehicles so it’s not a huge issue for me. It would have been great for storage and workspace, though...
As it stands, I’ve commandeered the utility room which will have the internal and external walls knocked down in favour of extending the existing garage to create more space and take it to a 31’x13’ footprint which is big enough for two cars in tandem with the space each side to work on them, store all my tools and parts and have a work area.
There are some other benefits to the garage. It has a 5’x2’ pit (albeit shallow at ~18”) and gas central heating which will help to keep the chill out during the winter months. The future of the pit is uncertain. I’d like to dig it out properly to gain another 4’ depth as there is no space for a lift. I’m not too sure how feasible that is, though.
Power is taken from a three-phase supply into its own meter as it was run as a commercial property. As this is overkill for my needs (not to mention expensive) it will be removed and will either revert to single-phase or run from the house supply. This needs to be organised with the utilities company first.
The previous owner did the work himself and it’s far from a good standard. A quick investigation shows the garage lighting (8 x GU10 spots and 3 x T12 double strip lights) to be running off a single 13a supply which is plugged directly into a wall socket. I need to get the garage back to a shell to see exactly what I’m dealing with.
The brief so far is this:
Remove all internal temporary walls and fixings
Remove false ceiling and original ceiling
Disable and remove all existing three-phase wiring, switches and air lines
Remove all existing wall sockets, wiring and extraneous fittings
Sounds simple, huh?
Here’s some snaps taken of the garage on our second viewing. The view from the back of the garage to the door. This is currently boarded off by a partition that makes a storage area.
The view from the back of the 'studio' to the utility room.
This is the view as you enter the garage.
We get the keys to the house on December 23rd so work starts in earnest on the 30th after enjoying Christmas and visiting family etc. First up, stripping.
30/12/2010
Partition removed
False ceiling removed. This was installed to help hide the three-phase wiring as well as the airlines for the compressor.
False ceiling subframe exposed and removed.
One nice thing during all the destruction (read: fun) was the discovery of an RSJ (I-beam) with a carrier for lifting/moving heavyweight stuff such as engines. This will come up nicely once I refinish it.
It became apparent that there were one or two areas that needed atttention due to small leaks, but, on the whole, everything was in pretty solid order.
This is how everything looked once the rubbish was cleared up. Now it's starting to look like a proper garage space.
Here's a view from the back of the utility room - where the garage will finally extend to.
The wall to the right will be knocked down along with the remnant of the back wall of the existing garage.
That's taken care of the first days work on the garage. Next up, wiring.
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