My 400 sf Carport Conversion

[bdsmith21]

Hi everybody, I'm Brian. Im new to garage journal and I'm converting my carport to a garage. So here's my intro. I am a 25 year old mechanical engineer. I just bought my first home and I can't live without a place to build things. I moved from a 900 sf apartment that was above a big car shop and it had NO insulation in the floor (noisy). The 8 am Saturday morning wakeups with an air chissel on body panels was not cool! I couldn't even hear tv while they were working. The tv freaked out anytime they welded with AC. Atleast I got to use the shop and tools but I really wanted a place of my own that was organized, clean and most of all, mine. I did FSAE in college and now i am having serious design it/build it/race it withdrawl. I work at a company that does analysis work (fea, cfd etc.), 3d modeling (Solidworks, Pro-E) and a lot of other stuff. So I get to design all kinds of cool stuff but I want to be making things too. So anyways I moved into a house with a carport and am currently turning it into a garage. It will be about 20x20 (cant remember exact size) with a 16x7 door and has 103" ceiling. My dad and I have framed in the three walls (one long wall and two smaller walls), put up osb outer sheating and removed the brick walls from the inside. We had to remove the upper row of bricks along the side of the concrete slab and pour a concrete footer for the walls. We have also removed the vinyl siding from the inside walls.

Future plans are to wire in some 120 and 240 plugs, probably do canned lights and drywall everything. I will remove the ceiling vinyl and drywall the ceiling. I will have a few 3 phase machines so I will add a 3 phase converter. Im not sure how thats gonna work yet. VFDs at each machine or a dedicated remote digital converter in another room, i dunno..... When I'm done I want to have a nice machineshop with welder, lathe, mill bandsaw etc. So there should ba a few pictures attached.... This is the first house construction work I have ever done, so when you find something wrong, let me know.

 

[rsanter]

personally I think your house will look better with the conversion to a garage.
looks like that will make a good starter house and you have made a good choice with starting the equipment selection.
just add a VFD on the mill. get another VFD when you get another piece of equipment.
I think you are better off with a step pully machine and a VFD than the varispeed units

bob

 

[bdsmith21]

And here are a few more pictures. I have pulled the vinyl and taken the brick down now.

 

[JSGAuto]

Looks like a good start. Need to get going finding those machines!

Where did you go to school?

I am a retired Baja guy. I didn't handle the withdrawl well.....went out and bought a Formula Vee.

 

[bdsmith21]

Tennessee Tech University. You are probably familiar with our Baja team.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

It's looking good. I kinda liked the brick on the lower walls, butI can understand why you'd remove it so it wouldn't be obvious the garage was a conversion. Why take down the vinyl on the roof? Are there suffficient ceiling joist up there that you can store stuff above with the addition of some reinforcement and a drop down ladder?

Someone will remember his name, I can't - But the Camaro guy here with the red/black garage that has perimeter above-counter storage cabinets with can lights in the 2x6 framed bottom might be a very good example of something you could do. You're fortunate to have such a nice house at a young age. Congrats.

 

[nolatoolguy]

Ausome job, mind if i ask what the overall cost was?

 

[bdsmith21]

Yeah I really liked the look of exposed brick too, but not on just 1/3 of the wall. Not in the garage atleast. The 1/3 wall (whatever its called) looks nice on the outside of the house. Im going for a clean/modern look anyways. Im thinking mostly white, grey or black.

The vinyl on the ceiling- I just dont care for it. I think I would rather have drywall, especially with the can lighting. Im not sure how strong the ceiling is for storage. It does not have prefab trusses. I think its called "stick built". There is plywood under the vinyl.

As far as overall cost... Its not done yet. Ive only spent about 225$ on material so far. 2x4s, osb sheets and a box of nails. The door will be about 700$ (insulated and metal inside and out), windows will be 200$, add wiring, drywall then I will pay someone to lay brick. Im really trying to find a cheaper insulated door....

Any opinions on vinyl vs aluminum windows? The aluminum windows are 200 for 2 and vinyl is like 270 for 2.