ZenMoto
Well-known member
...aka 2-car garage. 
When I bought my house in 2009 I loved that it had a 2 car garage, and an access door directly from the house (rare in my neighborhood, but someone cut one in at some point). ...but it was your basic, partly (and poorly) paneled, unfinished space. The concrete floor was 30 years old, badly stained, and very badly pitted near the door; surprisingly there were no real cracks. ...I should mention it's about as level and smooth as the Bearing Sea in storm season though.
First thing to do was a floor. I ended up paying a concrete guy to clean and etch it, as well as do some patchwork. ...if I'd had the money, I would have had him level it too, but I didn't, so...
I bought an epoxy kit from U-Coat-It and it worked out very well, despite my complete inexperience doing that sort of thing.
I have pics somewhere from this time, but I'll have to dig them up.
Here's a shot during the home inspection:
And another showing the quality paneling, some of which is still in there:
Well, work on the garage has been slow. My wife was laid off at the end of the 2009 school year (grade school teacher in California. ...she's about to get laid off again) ...anyhoo, half the garage had to be used to store all her classroom stuff for a year and a half, and it was only August 2010 that I got the space back.
Not long after that a friend of mine decided to retire as a motorcycle mechanic and gave me a few deals I couldn't pass up on tools and equipment.
I'm still sorting out where to put everything, and I'm trying to get rid of some stuff, but it's finally a workable space, so I thought I'd share.
Here's the Handy air-lift with the KTM on it:
The foam board is 3/4" extra from insulating the ceiling. I ended up putting R19 batting between the rafters and covering it with the foam board so the paper doesn't dry up and tear away through the staples. The foam is nailed in place and all the seams are taped with 3M clear tape that can be used to repair conveyor belts. ...it's not going anywhere, and it made a HUGE difference keeping the SoCal sun from cooking the garage via the shingles on the roof.
At the front of the garage is my work bench, actually a retired "tech bench" from my work that had a very abused maple butcher block top. ...it took me about 10 hours to pull all the staples, packing tape, decals, etc. off the top and sand it down. I finished it with a cherry stained oil to help keep the wood in good shape. I just did cherry for a different look.
On the other side of the lift is one of my to-good-to-pass-up purchases, a Matco service cart with 3 extra drawers at the bottom. It holds all my "fancy" tools, and has pretty much everything I need to tear one of my bikes down to the frame; it also makes a handy place to set large parts on top, and smaller trays of parts inside the sliding top.
A little paint on the front wall really made the space look nicer, despite very little work actually being done.
Here you can see the No-Mar tire machine (along with an MRP tire changing stand that I'm trying to sell). The back shelf has some cleaners, solvents, and lubricants (which will go in a fire rated cabinet when I can find one I can afford), as well as a Snap-On mid chest which holds drills, specialty tools, etc.. The black Craftsman roller is holding my wheel balancing stand, and inside are all manner of tire related tools, parts, and all the accessories for the No-Mar machine.
As I said, there's direct access into the house, which goes through my office/studio. Washer, dryer, and new 50 gallon water heater are along the wall just to the left of the frame:
The Handy Industries lift, one of three my buddy was selling, is actually his oldest at about 27 years. ...it still works just as well as his 8 month old lift does, just without all the bells and whistles!
In the pic above you can see where I relocated the shelf that was against the front wall (where the bench now is). It holds cleaners, waxes, things of that nature. I also added lines of shelving up high to store boots, helmets, and whatever misc. stuff I can cram up there.
And that's it, in a nutshell. I will finish the walls after I insulate them, but first I have to swap out the old Federal Pacific electrical panel out with something newer and larger (I'll bring 200A service in when I do). A new garage door is in the plan eventually, with a jack-shaft opener so I can put lights where I need them and make access to my rafter storage easier as well.
I guess I don't have any pics of the left side, but there's just the w/d, water heater, and closer to the big door, a utility sink, and a large rolling steel shelving unit that I'm still sorting out what to do with.
So that's my 8 bike garage (for now). ...there's actually only 4 bikes in there at the moment. I just sold my '99 VFR, the Rebel is a bike I fixed up for a friend to sell as well as a Suzuki GS500E that's next to the house under a cover. Outside is also a '77 Yamaha IT175 Enduro in need of love. The XR650R is my desert bike, and the '78 Honda CR250 Elsinore was my father in laws, but he blew up the motor in Baja in '08 and was "done with it" so he gave it to me as a project (cool bike, and he bought it new in '78). ..lastly is my brand new Honda VFR1200F which is out being used as a mule to develop an electronics package by Bazazz Performance.
...there's just no room for cars!!!
When I bought my house in 2009 I loved that it had a 2 car garage, and an access door directly from the house (rare in my neighborhood, but someone cut one in at some point). ...but it was your basic, partly (and poorly) paneled, unfinished space. The concrete floor was 30 years old, badly stained, and very badly pitted near the door; surprisingly there were no real cracks. ...I should mention it's about as level and smooth as the Bearing Sea in storm season though.
First thing to do was a floor. I ended up paying a concrete guy to clean and etch it, as well as do some patchwork. ...if I'd had the money, I would have had him level it too, but I didn't, so...
I bought an epoxy kit from U-Coat-It and it worked out very well, despite my complete inexperience doing that sort of thing.
I have pics somewhere from this time, but I'll have to dig them up.
Here's a shot during the home inspection:
And another showing the quality paneling, some of which is still in there:
Well, work on the garage has been slow. My wife was laid off at the end of the 2009 school year (grade school teacher in California. ...she's about to get laid off again)
...anyhoo, half the garage had to be used to store all her classroom stuff for a year and a half, and it was only August 2010 that I got the space back. Not long after that a friend of mine decided to retire as a motorcycle mechanic and gave me a few deals I couldn't pass up on tools and equipment.
I'm still sorting out where to put everything, and I'm trying to get rid of some stuff, but it's finally a workable space, so I thought I'd share.
Here's the Handy air-lift with the KTM on it:
The foam board is 3/4" extra from insulating the ceiling. I ended up putting R19 batting between the rafters and covering it with the foam board so the paper doesn't dry up and tear away through the staples. The foam is nailed in place and all the seams are taped with 3M clear tape that can be used to repair conveyor belts. ...it's not going anywhere, and it made a HUGE difference keeping the SoCal sun from cooking the garage via the shingles on the roof.
At the front of the garage is my work bench, actually a retired "tech bench" from my work that had a very abused maple butcher block top. ...it took me about 10 hours to pull all the staples, packing tape, decals, etc. off the top and sand it down. I finished it with a cherry stained oil to help keep the wood in good shape. I just did cherry for a different look.
On the other side of the lift is one of my to-good-to-pass-up purchases, a Matco service cart with 3 extra drawers at the bottom. It holds all my "fancy" tools, and has pretty much everything I need to tear one of my bikes down to the frame; it also makes a handy place to set large parts on top, and smaller trays of parts inside the sliding top.
A little paint on the front wall really made the space look nicer, despite very little work actually being done.
Here you can see the No-Mar tire machine (along with an MRP tire changing stand that I'm trying to sell). The back shelf has some cleaners, solvents, and lubricants (which will go in a fire rated cabinet when I can find one I can afford), as well as a Snap-On mid chest which holds drills, specialty tools, etc.. The black Craftsman roller is holding my wheel balancing stand, and inside are all manner of tire related tools, parts, and all the accessories for the No-Mar machine.
As I said, there's direct access into the house, which goes through my office/studio. Washer, dryer, and new 50 gallon water heater are along the wall just to the left of the frame:
The Handy Industries lift, one of three my buddy was selling, is actually his oldest at about 27 years. ...it still works just as well as his 8 month old lift does, just without all the bells and whistles!
In the pic above you can see where I relocated the shelf that was against the front wall (where the bench now is). It holds cleaners, waxes, things of that nature. I also added lines of shelving up high to store boots, helmets, and whatever misc. stuff I can cram up there.
And that's it, in a nutshell. I will finish the walls after I insulate them, but first I have to swap out the old Federal Pacific electrical panel out with something newer and larger (I'll bring 200A service in when I do). A new garage door is in the plan eventually, with a jack-shaft opener so I can put lights where I need them and make access to my rafter storage easier as well.
I guess I don't have any pics of the left side, but there's just the w/d, water heater, and closer to the big door, a utility sink, and a large rolling steel shelving unit that I'm still sorting out what to do with.
So that's my 8 bike garage (for now). ...there's actually only 4 bikes in there at the moment. I just sold my '99 VFR, the Rebel is a bike I fixed up for a friend to sell as well as a Suzuki GS500E that's next to the house under a cover. Outside is also a '77 Yamaha IT175 Enduro in need of love. The XR650R is my desert bike, and the '78 Honda CR250 Elsinore was my father in laws, but he blew up the motor in Baja in '08 and was "done with it" so he gave it to me as a project (cool bike, and he bought it new in '78). ..lastly is my brand new Honda VFR1200F which is out being used as a mule to develop an electronics package by Bazazz Performance.
...there's just no room for cars!!!