My First Garage

[MAYOR28]

My wife and I bought our first house(!), with a little bit of land and a two car attached garage. The house is fairly new, and I don't think that anything has ever been parked in the garage. We have been painting a lot of the rooms inside, and are putting down some new floors, but other than that the house is in amazing condition. My wife agreed to let me 'decorate' the garage/manly-space as I desired (I am so lucky to have married the most amazing woman!!!!).

With that said, here is the plan:
1. Sweep out the garage.
2. Decide on paint colors.
3. Decide on flooring.
4. Paint walls.
5. Paint floor.
6. Move everything from my 10x25 storage unit that I have used as my 'garage' for the last year.
7. Enjoy!

We have completed thru #4, and plan on getting the floor down next week (there is another thread in the flooring section.). So here are the progress pics(sorry for the crappy phone pics, I will get better ones later):

Starting Point:

Base Color:

Finished Walls:

Comments? Questions? Criticisms?

 

[dude67]

Man that's gotta be a big house with two circuit breaker panels like that!

 

[Kevin54]

Open the garage doors and stand back and snap a pic so we can get the full view. Hard to tell the size, but is it a two car or three car? I'm guessing a two car, maybe 22' x 24'? I like the color scheme you made it If the crappy weather ever gets nice around here, I have to start on our house garage. I may just go with a two tone like yours.

 

[justanengineer]

Nice looking place, definitely like the colors, but personally I wouldnt paint the floor. I hate having to worry about marring up the floor, which happens no matter how careful you are if you let any metal objects touch it. There are simple ways to make a bare concrete floor look BETTER and shinier than a painted floor.

Nice garage. So whats this about being able to park inside of a garage now? I thought they were just supposed to be used to protect tools and machinery.

 

[Hud]

Nice garage...that lawnmower looks lonely!

 

[MAYOR28]

Nice looking place, definitely like the colors, but personally I wouldnt paint the floor. I hate having to worry about marring up the floor, which happens no matter how careful you are if you let any metal objects touch it. There are simple ways to make a bare concrete floor look BETTER and shinier than a painted floor

I mulled this decision over for weeks, I thought about densifiers, polishing, clear coat, waxing, nothing, all things..... I have a few threads in the flooring section... and have talked to Christine (rugerlady) a lot about epoxy-coat's products, and my wife and I ultimately decided it was the best bang for the buck.

 

[SuperSocket]

Open the garage doors and stand back and snap a pic so we can get the full view. Hard to tell the size, but is it a two car or three car? I'm guessing a two car, maybe 22' x 24'? I like the color scheme you made it If the crappy weather ever gets nice around here, I have to start on our house garage. I may just go with a two tone like yours.

I'm assuming two car since there is only one garage door opener button.

 

[MAYOR28]

Yes, its a 2 car. 20x25. I will snap an outside pic when I get home....

 

[BEAVO]

did OP post pics because all im seeing is little question marks in a box? hey congrats on the garage enjoy!!!!

 

[BEAVO]

nevermind the pics just loaded up i like the color combination as well you going to go with a grey epoy with blue chips in it?that would look good

 

[W650Mike]

The bump-out with the two windows (2nd pic) looks custom made for a workbench.

 

[MAYOR28]

nevermind the pics just loaded up i like the color combination as well you going to go with a grey epoy with blue chips in it?that would look good

Light gray epoxy with black, gray, and white flakes. This will give me the most options to have things match......I like matching.

 

[justanengineer]

I saw one thread in the flooring section, but figured I would respond to this here for more visibility in case others should be inspired. Take it for what its worth, its your garage, make your own decision, but IMHO there is another option to consider. When I was in the military our shop had to be CLEAN when we werent actively working in an area, and being the military, most of our cleaning was done in the time honored WWII traditions using older methods (toothbrush if necessary). What we did was to take a simple old fashioned floor buffer (think 1950's cartoonish wobbling vertical motor on a handle variety), and using one of the giant green scotchbrite pads made for them and some wet scouring powder (ajax), we buffed the concrete. It removed oil stains, grease, tire scuff marks, and anything else we could spill on it. An added benefit was that the concrete floor GLOWED when the lights were on. The concrete acquires a paint like quality to it that reflects light to the point of having a very slight glare on it at times from the lights. It may take a few hours to do initially, but is ridiculously easy to touch up, is significantly quicker than epoxy even initially, cheap (buffers are <$50 at yard sales/auctions), and unlike the various epoxies you dont have to worry about scratching the floor if you use jack stands or let other metal touch it. Personally, I prefer the buffed look, my rented garage now has epoxy that is 3 years old, and simply from driving in and out every day its fading and nasty with ground in dirt.

Regardless, good luck with your garage...

 

[MAYOR28]

justanengineer-
I wish I could have a floor like that, but all th research that I did said it was not a DIY technique.....
The upkeep maybe, but the initial hardening, diamond grinding, and polishing, no.
I had hoped to find someone that had done it themselves, because I really wanted to have the look of a department store floor...but alas, the epoxy is already sitting in my garage......
Tha is the adventure for next week!


Thanks for everyone's comments so far. Keep them coming.....

-Matt

 

[MAYOR28]

justanengineer-
I wish I could have a floor like that, but all th research that I did said it was not a DIY technique.....
The upkeep maybe, but the initial hardening, diamond grinding, and polishing, no.
I had hoped to find someone that had done it themselves, because I really wanted to have the look of a department store floor...but alas, the epoxy is already sitting in my garage......
Tha is the adventure for next week!


Thanks for everyone's comments so far. Keep them coming.....

-Matt

 

[ZRX61]

I think I'd paint that thin white stripe a different color, blue or red...maybe even a dark green

 

[justanengineer]

alas, the epoxy is already sitting in my garage......

Too bad...not sure what you mean by initial hardening, diamond grinding, and polishing...if the concrete was poured decently level and smooth then there is no need for any of that, otherwise its a buffer of a different variety.

Good luck with the epoxy, the toughest part will be staying off it for a few days until it cures.

 

[MAYOR28]

Got a call from lowe's telling me my epoxy coat was in!
Went and picked it up, but it didn't fit in the trunk!?!? So we strapped it in the back seat....

That's all for now, I am planning on coating the floor next week and starting to move stuff in next weekend....

Anyone have any good tips or tricks for epoxy install?????

 

[MAYOR28]

Was going to do the floor tonight after work, but talked with Christine (rugerlady) and she said that I shouldn't apply the epoxy if it was raining.....which it threatened to do all night....

So, I think I may have to wait until Friday.....

 

[MAYOR28]

Well, after a week of fighting with the weather, my wife and I were finally able to do the floor last night!!!

We got a late start, around 7, and it took about 3.5 hours without clean up to lay the entire floor. I think it looks amazing so far. I will maybe get some more pics tonight with the door open, but I am not going to walk on it until tomorrow night......and I will not put stuff on it until this weekend. I really want to make sure that it is cured. It is really starting to look like a showroom.

Side note, the carpet installers I had working last week really thought the garage was going to be sweet once I got the floor down. I didn't want to, but I had to let them unroll and stretch the carpet on the etched floor because it started to rain . Which meant we had to pick stupid little carpet fuzzies out of the epoxy a lot.......


Etched:

Mixing Setup:

First Section:

The rest of the work:

Finished!!!!!!

I think that it looks really good so far. I am sure I will find a lot of bugs stuck in it (stupid crane flies kept flying into it as we were rolling it out....), but I think that was unavoidable.

Let me know what you think,
Matt

 

[Chloe Taylor]

The garage seems to be great, your wife will be so much happy from you. The Garage looks just splendid.....

 

[MAYOR28]

The garage seems to be great, your wife will be so much happy from you. The Garage looks just splendid.....

Thank you. My wife has been very excited for the garage as well! She is the best and we have done all of the work ourselves (in the garage that is....) so far. I really think it is something that we can be proud of!

 

[rugerlady]

The floor looks great!

 

[MAYOR28]

I think I'd paint that thin white stripe a different color, blue or red...maybe even a dark green

I was thinking of doing this.....but wanted to leave my options open for tool box colors and/or car colors.....

But I may be persuaded otherwise, anyone else have an opinion????????

 

[MAYOR28]

I was thinking of doing this.....but wanted to leave my options open for tool box colors and/or car colors.....

But I may be persuaded otherwise, anyone else have an opinion????????

........anyone.......

 

[UN4GTBL]

White looks good to me.

you going to do anything with the block?

 

[MAYOR28]

White looks good to me.

you going to do anything with the block?

I think that once I get some stuff moved in I am going to seal the block with kilz, or ugl, or block filler....and then paint it the same color as the walls....

I had though about epoxying it to match the floor, but I had barely enough epoxy for the floor itself.....


Side note: Does anyone know of any surplus/salvage stores in the southern md area????? I would like to find a vise......

 

[Riverfarm]

Where is Southern Maryland are you located?

I'm in Leonardtown. If you are close, there is a Habitat for Humanity center in Lexington Park that often has tools, and cabinets, etc. that are very reasonably priced. There are also a few pawn shops in the area that have tools.

The Amish also hold a large auction every November...I buy and sell a lot of stuff there. It is an amazing day.

Best of luck. The floor looks great. I did the same in my shop and it is holding up well. The only negative I have heard is that in the summer here car tires can cause premature aging of the epoxy since they are so hot when you first park in the garage.

Lastly, you can stain Kilz to match your paint or floor.

I forgot this:http://www.cochranauctions.com/Flat_Iron_April.php

 

[socapots]

thats a nice place.
and really nice garage man.
Good work.

 

[nathank]

Looks great!

 

[nperkins]

Loving it! I think that might be the paint scheme I go with in my garage!

 

[GirlnAgarage]

I was thinking of doing this.....but wanted to leave my options open for tool box colors and/or car colors.....

But I may be persuaded otherwise, anyone else have an opinion????????

Leave the strip white. Let the tools and furniture add the third color. You might can add that accent color later if you want.

Really nice job. It's bold and clean, color wise. My favorite.

 

[JC23]

I was thinking of doing this.....but wanted to leave my options open for tool box colors and/or car colors.....

But I may be persuaded otherwise, anyone else have an opinion????????

I'm thinkin' FLAMES on that stripe! And make 'em the direct opposite of the toolbox colors.

 

[MAYOR28]

Where is Southern Maryland are you located?

I'm in Leonardtown. If you are close, there is a Habitat for Humanity center in Lexington Park that often has tools, and cabinets, etc. that are very reasonably priced. There are also a few pawn shops in the area that have tools.

The Amish also hold a large auction every November...I buy and sell a lot of stuff there. It is an amazing day.

Best of luck. The floor looks great. I did the same in my shop and it is holding up well. The only negative I have heard is that in the summer here car tires can cause premature aging of the epoxy since they are so hot when you first park in the garage.

Lastly, you can stain Kilz to match your paint or floor.

I forgot this:http://www.cochranauctions.com/Flat_Iron_April.php

I am up in M'ville. I have been to the habitat store a few times, they usually have some good stuff, but I haven't really seen any tools or garage type stuff (other than kitchen cabinets....). Thanks for the auction heads up, but that already passed..... I will keep an eye out for some other auctions.

I will have to watch out for the hot tire aging.......
I thought about getting parking mats, that have a little bump in them to tell you when your in far enough. Maybe that will help with hot tire problems....

 

[MAYOR28]

Leave the strip white. Let the tools and furniture add the third color. You might can add that accent color later if you want.

Really nice job. It's bold and clean, color wise. My favorite.

Thanks, that was my thinking exactly.

Also, very nice spaceballs quote.

 

[MAYOR28]

The bump-out with the two windows (2nd pic) looks custom made for a workbench.

I thought about that. but for now I have a nice electronics workbench to go in there, plus my 'tool' cabinet....I hope to get that in there tonight.

thats a nice place.
and really nice garage man.
Good work.

Looks great!

Loving it! I think that might be the paint scheme I go with in my garage!

Thank you for the comments and praise!

I hope to do a lot more moving in this weekend now that the epoxy has set up

 

[Corsario]

I like the paint scheme! will be tuned for more pics!

Take care

Corsario

 

[MAYOR28]

Moved the vette in last night....
Thought I should get some glamour shots with the clean garage:

How do you think it looks in it's new home???????

 

[MAYOR28]

I will try to get some more pics after I get more cleaning done today.....

I am open to suggestions on bicycle storage....I haven't searched thru the threads yet.....

 

[MAYOR28]

I know how everyone on here like old tools. I thought I should share my pair of vintage spike shoes that I recently found for my floor application:

They are very vintage, but also for sale for those whom can appreciate such rare things.........