Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT My Five Pound Garage.

[Terranova]

The Five Pound Garage
It's finally time to start my refurb thread. Needless to say, I hope to live up to and pay homage to those awesome treads and projects that have come before me, the ones from which we all draw inspiration. Namely for me, Jack, Sakurama, XcYZ and LilScorpion among MANY others.

Intro/Overview
As you may be able to tell from the title, I plan on stuffing A LOT of stuff into what I consider a "small" garage, compared to what many of you have. It's bigger than a single or a shed, but at roughly 19' x 19', it's barely a two car garage. With no options for going deeper or bumping out, it will stay that way. Luckily, though, it has a 10' ceiling, which I plan to use as much as possible.


We moved in July of '13 and here's what it looked like just before we arrived.

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Everything on the walls was left by the POs, who are acquaintances of my wife through work. Obviously not a garage guy, even though he owned a bike.





why I really want to do this right...
The garage I came from, and grew up in etc, looks like this...
View media item 42150So, given a blank slate, my desire was to set it up right from the beginning. Luckily, most if not all the things I hope to move into my garage are still at my parents garage, providing me some time to try and get it done before life "necessitates" my moving the tools if you get what I mean.
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After the refurb, the car on the right will be moved in and restoration begun. The car on the left is a '34 ford that has been in my family since the mid fifties. The car on the right is a '36 ford Fordor bought by my FIL a year before he passed. (Just over a year ago). His reason for buying it was to have a car to share with the whole family and haul the grand kids around. That task, although originally mine when he purchased the car now has A LOT more meaning as you can imagine. But I digress, back to garage.

As you can the garage was only partially finished with a minimum of light from a single light bulb fixture and what ever the GD opener added (not much)

The Boss (an amazing woman and partner) knowing the importance of setting yourself up for success and knowing her fathers wishes for the car has pretty much agreed to getting the garage done right. (Did I mention she's amazing?)

The plan
Primarily, I wanted to:
improve the electrical - there were only three double outlets all on the same circuit and one light circuit, with a dedicated GDO circuit. Which is two more than the garage I grew up in. One outlet on the ceiling in the middle *****.

Improve the lighting. - I'm getting older and I want to be able to see. Again having grown up in a cave of a garage I want to do this one right

Insulate - try keep more of the Ohio cold out during the winter.

Dry wall - better for lighting and to hang tools and cabinets off of.

After that I plan on building cabinets with which to stuff the proverbial 7 to 10 pounds full of tools and stuff. As my Great Aunt used to say, "A place for everything and everything in it's place". I never really understood that till about my mid 20's lol.

 

[Terranova]

Pictures of what's been accomplished so far..
I'm actually fairly far a long in the refurb process, but here are some pics to bring everyone along.

As you can see it was pretty dark...
And the inevitable "moving in junk accumulation" began as we'll.

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The uninsulated garage door in this pic was actually the first thing to get replaced. For what ever reason it began to cave in the middle and actually started to tear. My awesome wife was all for an insulated replacement.
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Next came some insulation...
I finally got bored/frustrated with not getting it started and got off my ***.
The start on the short wall...
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Finish on the short wall... Notice the Christmas light outlet abuse.
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Electric
After the weather broke, we had a couple companies come out and quote the electric upgrade. After a few calls and visits I found someone who could tell what I wanted and wasn't trying to get me to upgrade the house to 200 first.

Right now it's only the two circuits with plans for a 220 circuit when I get the cabinets roughed in.
Wasn't super excited about the execution, but it works and I can build put around it later. Studs behind it were about 8" on center.
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[Terranova]

Continued...

lighting
At the same time the electrician ran the box he also ran a quad box to each wall about the mid point of the garage and also left connections for me to do the lights. After much reading etc, I had decided on four 4' T8 fixtures with three bulbs each. He punched the wire through the drywall ceiling for me, guessing where I was going to put the fixtures. Again, not so excited about the execution, but we make it work right?
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To save some green, I hung the light fixtures myself with the help of my nephew.
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One for the "Garages at night / close encounters of the third kind" thread
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[Terranova]

Continued...
Apparently I didn't take many or any photos of insulating the long wall (I know, you'll survive, right?)
Probably because I insulated half of it and then got impatient and started to hang the drywall as I went. I'd already drywalled the short wall. (What a learning experience!)

Here's an inadvertent pic from when progress was put on hold due to the Nephew (the light installing apprentice) and his newlywed wife moving all their worldly possessions into our garage while waiting for things to be rectified with their new-to-them bug infested apartment. Life, right?
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Here's a pic of the Project Sup helping my insulate above the garage door. always fun when he walks off with your tools while you're working. Always the sharp pokey thinks too. Box knife, screw driver, scissors. Being a stay at home dad is the best job I've ever had. I wouldn't change a minute of it. Hopefully I can pass on as many skills to him as my father has to me. (Thanks dad, for the all the tools, and the skills to use them!)
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Drywall
Apparently i failed to take any pics of the drywall process. Probably subconsciously, because I knew how sucky it was going. Did you know you can't "pull in" the bottom of a piece of sheet rock like you can with a piece of plywood when you're building things? The corner crumbles. Did you know that the carpenters don't always make the studs the most convenient for laying drywall sheets all the time? I learned a lot doing this drywall
We're gonna call it a "ten foot" drywall job. 'Cause it looks ok from ten feet away. I also knew I plan to hide most of it behind cabinets anyway. Check the gaps on the right side. Lots o mud and tape.
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Aside from a coat of primer on the drywall, that's where things pretty much stand.

On to cabinet making.

 

[Tyberius]

Awesome start!

What's above the garage? A crawlspace or living area? I see a window above the garage. If it is just storage are you going to have to share it with anybody?

 

[1/2 Cup]

Great start, thanks for posting.

 

[dlcwent]

Very nice please keep the story and photos rolling.

 

[HSpencer]

Great job on the lighting, and your very lucky to have the tall ceiling. Makes the space seem so much larger. I like your efforts and plans and I think your place will look great when your all done. Welcome to GJ and I will be following your thread.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[Terranova]

Tyberius its crawl space. Plans to leave it mostly empty right now. Hopefully I've planned enough storage into what I'm about to start building. You'll see in a few posts. The trusses for the peak over the garage run from the garage door to about where the attic entrance is. They run the width of the garage 16" OC making storage tough. Everything from the attic entrance back runs perpendicular to the garage at way wider than 16" OC. Wide enough that I wouldn't expect it to carry to much weight. Any way...

1/2 cup Thanks!

dlcwent Thanks! That's the plan. Finally posting the work and progress after lurking and researching so long has an odd kind of GJ accountability to it. I'll do my best.

Herb. Thanks. You are one of the MANY I mentioned in the intro. You're "Small two car operation" thread obviously caught my eye during my research. The ceiling height is definitely a bonus as I plan to stuff it full!

 

[jesse72]

Dang man you beat me to the garage name! Hahaha, I've been meaning to start a thread for my place called the "5 Pound Bag Garage". I like what your up to and feel your pain, I am in an 18x18 rental so I cannot do anything permanent but try to get by. Keep up the progress!

 

[Terranova]

Sorry Jesse, it's a phrase my dad always uses. I even checked to make sure no one else had used it yet! It also has new meaning since I'm a stay at home dad. I've actually tried to stuff 7 pounds of poopy diapers into a 5 pound hamper cause I was to lazy to empty it!! Lol not really, but close!

 

[bigby]

Looking good!!

 

[Terranova]

Continued...
Now we're caught up to where I am currently.
Cabinets and Storage

Plans are to build this along the long wall.
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• Each section or third will be four feet wide
• Cabinets will be 18" deep
  Center section
• The center section will consist of fold down work bench based on these plans:
  http://www.shopnotes.com/plans/fold-down-bench/
• The top of the middle section will be magazine boxes for dad's old Hop-ups and HotRods from the fifties and sixties. I hope to make the boxes as "Globe Wernicke" as possible.
• I plan on putting some task lighting under the bottom magazine shelf for the work bench.

Once you open the doors you'll see something like this:
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Right side

• The bottom half of the right side will function as a tool chest
• Drawers will be approximately 40" wide.
• Drawers will be approximately 16" deep.
• They will graduate from approximately 3" deep on top through 4",5",6" and 7"
• Above those will be your standard six "small stuff" drawers.
• The top half of the cabinet will be shelves for chemicals, spray cans etc.
• The bottom most drawer will be 46" wide, 18" deep and 18" tall, and will serve as a catch all for all those big things like kick balls, ball gloves and kid stuff.

Left side

• The left side will mirror the right dimensionally
• The drawers will be approximately 5" deep and 10" deep for bigger things like corded hand tools etc.
• One of the sevens may become fastener storage.
• i plan on employing LilScorpion's sliding treys idea. (Killer thread)
• The top half of the cabinet will be used to hang things like hammers, squares, a charging station and homes for my cordless stuff.

Next will be overhead storage.

 

[Terranova]

Continued...
Overhead storage.
Above each of the sections, connected to the ceiling above the garage door track will be a cabinet that will look more like soffit storage.

Something like this:
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• Each will be 4' wide by 3' deep and approximately 24" tall.
• 3/4" plywood construction with red oak face frames. Rabbets, grooves and dados.
• Glued and screwed
• I may have to go with all-thread in the corners up to uni strut or metal over joists to ensure strength
• Tall enough for totes etc.

I plan on doing three along the long wall and two along the short wall.
I'd hoped to do one and a half on each side of the garage door center track but the dimensions don't quite work. After talking it over with the boss one night, she came up with a fix. Did I mention she's amazing? So shifting the whole long wall cabinet setup six inches and shortening the over heads on either side of the garage door center track, everything will connect up to look like soffit all the way around.

This may help visualize.

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The bottom is the garage door, the left side is the long wall, where you can see the cabinets (line closest to the wall) and the soffit storage farther out. I know it's messy.

This may also help.
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The six inch shift I spoke of earlier will take the whole bottom apparatus and move it closer to the man door alighting everything top and bottom.

I think I'll build a shelf above the man door for the air compressor.

 

[Terranova]

Continued

A little make shift work area. View media item 42223
I'd seen people lay a sheet foam on the floor and cut wood that way, so, not having my (dad's) table saw, I went for that option, but after ripping 4 4x8x3/4 sheets to widths that way and really feeling it the next day from climbing around on the floor so much, I decided to improvise. That's actually a six section portable kids gate holding up the foam. Not the wisest choice, but serviceable. As you can see here I've ripped the 4x8s to size.

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Four sheets were enough to make the parts I need for both smaller cabinets that will go over the garage door and one of the larger cabinets that will go up over the cabinets on the side wall. Guess I should follow the old "no lean rule" from working at Home Depot, the weight of the boards shoved the things they were leaning on over. No biggie.

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Having cut the ripped boards to length for the sides I started in on routing the grooves rabbets and dados. I originally planned using a 1/2" strait bit and adjusting the fence to get a nice tight 3/4" fit. Didn't really work on the dry run, so I went to HD and popped for the 3/4" pattern bit with the bearing at the top. I was worried because the bit was 3/4" and the plywood is 23/32s. What's 32 between friends, right.
The only problem is that I routed a small 16th or 32nd notch or two in my nice aluminum strait edge clamp. Oh we'll. living and learning and hardly noticeable.
It definitely feels good to be making saw dust.

I failed to take pictures while routing, but you can see the Bosch plunge router I used. Everything is 3/8ths deep.
Everything was calculated for the following rabbets and dadoes.
Rabbets on both ends and the back of the top to receive the sides and back of the cabinet.
Rabbets on the back of the sides to receive the back of the cabinet.
A dado 3/4s of an inch above the bottom edge of the sides and back to receive the bottom of the cabinet.

When I went to the ACE to grab glue and screws, I looked for one of those expandable gate tools like the rivet guys use, so I could lay out my screws nice and consistently. It's not something I've always taken the time to do, but this time around, I'm doing it. Unfortunatly, No Luck. Back to good old math, a tape and combo square.

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[sean Buick 76]

Great plan, cool vehicles, and nice job documenting the whole process!!!

 

[taumac]

Totally digging your sense of humor and your thread. You got to laugh every once in a while and poke fun at yourself. I thought about the name also few years.... definitely will continue follow progress and laugh along with you.

5 Stitches Garage
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899
Florida GJ Group
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=117

 

[Terranova]

Continued
I started to glue and screw the top and side together using some Irwin corner clamps I'd bought on clearance at HD. Apparently they're a little more "light weight" than the package advertised.
Grrrrrr.

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Anyway, laid out the screws with the tape and combo square. Drilled pilot holes with a counter sink bit appropriate for the #6 screws and got to it. After the regular jockeying around required, here's what I got. I tried using my impact drill to run the screws but it was way too fast and I buried a few. Switched to the drill with the slower speed and clutch. Much better.

One carcass down.
I plan on doing the face frames in red oak and attach them with kreg jig pocket screws.
I'm also thinking I should run a reinforcement rib width wise under the bottom to help the face frame keep things from drooping.


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[wvudafox]

Nice to see another Central Ohio garage represented so well. I have exactly the same play-yard as your "workbench" and I'll have to keep that one in mind, if only to have a lid to keep the little ones in.

Also admire you taking the time to do the cabinets right. It's amazing how much better they hold up when you take the time on the joinery. I'll stay tuned.

 

[Terranova]

wvud wvud used to be a rock station in Dayton. Any connection?

 

[Terranova]

Continued...
This time around I took some pictures while I was routing the grooves, rabbets and dadoes.

I used a Bosch 1/2 shank plunge router with a diablo 3/4 width pattern bit I bought at HD. I set the depth for 3/8" deep grooves/dadoes including the thickness of the aluminum clamp I used for the strait edge.
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I set the depth gauge to bottom out so I couldn't accidentally go deeper. It only took me fifteen minutes of fiddling around to figure out how to make it do what I wanted.
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be careful using the plunge feature on your router or you may nick your nice aluminum strait edge clamp. Luckily it want big enough to make noticeable issues on the grooves.
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3/4" to receive the sides
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More later...

 

[Terranova]

Set up to run the groove the length of the sides to receive the bottom of the cabinet.
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By the time I finished this round, I have enough pieces done for two more carcasses. Ready to glue and screw.
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Unfortunately I had to wait a week before I get a chance to get them assembled. I may try to get to the store and get the wood for the face frames tomorrow.

 

[Alexbn921]

Subscribed. Looks like you got a good plan laid out. Good luck with the build.

 

[Terranova]

That ****** moment when, after a week of not getting a chance to work on your project, you finally get time, go out to the garage and get half way through assembling your box to find out you forgot to cut 3/4" off the back (that you've already glued and screwed the sides to) because the top that has glue on three dadoes is not lining up. And you have to pull it apart, hoping the glue on the ends hadn't set up to much and scrape the wet glue off everything. Oy

 

[HSpencer]

Nothing like the violent scream of a router in the morning. People who don't have those are missing a lot. I especially like it when my freshly filled coffee cup that was placed in the wrong spot gets full of sawdust. Another thrill is getting to sweep up all the debris that the raging router spreads around.

I see you have an unused set of golf clubs like I do. Maybe we should get together and do nine holes and leave the routers in the shop?

Looking good!!

Best Regards
Herb

 

[Terranova]

Continued...
Just a quick up date on not much progress and a question...

I finally made time to assemble the third carcass I had cut out.
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I may have missed on the bottom corner, but I nailed it on the dados.
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I'm already putting them to use to hold some of the stuff cluttering the garage so I have room to work. Sitting on end, it still has plenty of space to hold what I need it to.
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All three carcasses sitting, waiting for face frames.
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And now for the question. As they sit in the last picture, on their ends, looking at them I'm worried about sag across the four foot span. I know a face frame of red oak will help stiffen things up, but should I put a rib across the four foot span on the bottom.? if I did, would a 1 x 3/4 rib of plywood work or should I go with hardwood?

Thanks!
T

 

[Terranova]

Continued...
Bought some red oak dimensional wood and cut it it length using my little Bosch trim saw (forgot to take a pic) and set up for drilling the holes with my Kreg jig that I got back after loaning it out for two weeks.View media item 42819
Lined up everything, little bit if titebond and screwed 'em together
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[TheModelAGuy]

A couple of electrical suggestion:
**The Romex 220v wire that was connected through the bottom of the panel should be covered. It does not have a utility cover that is resistive to abrasion. a simple wood box enclosure would do it and keep from serious injury.
**The romex poked through the ceiling into the light boxes should have a protective device where it comes through the metal knockout. Because the cutouts can have sharp edges it can cut through romex with the normal vibration in a building from the garage doors opening and closing over time. A plastic bushing is available at most stores that can be cut and inserted over the wire already installed.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice compact garage, and great job documenting the improvements.
Subscribed for updates.

 

[Modern Jess]

Subscribed. I have a soft spot for maximizing the use of space in a small garage.

Also, I really dig your makeshift cutting table. When faced with the same need to break down a bunch of plywood, I built something far more complex, and I'm not convinced that mine ended up being more useful than yours.

 

[Terranova]

Model A guy
Thank you for the suggestions on the electrical. I planned on surrounding the panel just from an aesthetic stand point, but really hadn't worried about the light pass throughs. I'll see if I can add something when I get up there to hand these cabinets.

Pugetdude
Thanks, nice jackalope.

Modern Jess
Thanks, in my mind, it's gonna be a big 19 x 19 Studley Tool case that I can park and build a car in. Hopefully it'll turn out to be at least a quarter as cool as it is in my head. Lol
I'd been through your build thread a couple of times and really like the lights and the unistrut shelf you built. I'm actually going to have to do something similar with the all thread for most of my cabinets that you see so far because the two going over the garage door only have one stud above them that I can screw into and that about 14" from the back of the 30" cabinet. My original plans were to screw through the back and top of the cabinet to studs and only do two all threads near the front, but now I'm considering four. Two front and two back.
And I plan to put a puck light under them for some additional light where the cabinets may throw shadows.

 

[TheModelAGuy]

You are welcome, have seen a few fires started from electrical. Small things that don't seem like a big deal can get ugly fast! Keep up the good work.

 

[Terranova]

Continued...

Never a dull moment with the supervisor...

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One of the things I learned while trying to attach the face frames to the carcass is to compensate for the spacing of the pocket holes when attaching them to the carcass. Once or twice, in an effort to make sure the face frames were attached tight at the corners, I placed the carcass screws right where the pocket holes were, leading to a lack of material to screw into. A great reason to also use glue in the process.
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Post stain inspection.
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NOTE: process tip
Don't try to stain wood with a two year old present. Clean up immediately to avoid stain being inadvertently applied to everything else in the garage/house. Luckily there's a restroom right next to the garage entrance to the house!

For those who are curious:
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Attached and stained.
The wider style on the right will be the bottom of the cabinet.
On the left side corner closest to the camera, you see two pocket holes close to each other. Not a function of the face frame issue I mentioned before, but I actually ran into a screw holding the top to the carcass, another thing to be aware of when drilling pocket holes.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I felt like I need to run a rib along the bottom of the cabinet to help the face frame keep the bottom from drooping under the weight if contents, seeing as these will be hanging from the wall/ceiling and not really supported from underneath.
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[Terranova]

Continued...

A picture of what? Nothin! Look close and you can see where I marked the location of the studs before I put up the drywall, a trick I learned on GJ. No guessing where to put the screws!
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I did some measurements and made a story stick of the stud locations and used it to transfer the spacing to the back of the cabinet. Then I drilled four clearance holes on each line. The cab happens to hit three studs across the back, one of which is actually two studs sistered together. That should be 16 screws for the back. I plan on using these #8 3" screws with fender washers... That should be beefy enough for the back, right?


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More on how I'm going to have to attach them through the top later.



On to thinking about the doors.
I was originally thinking about using the 1 1/2" dimensional oak to make the rails and styles of the doors, but after sourcing European style concealed full inset hinges and the requisite Forstner bit at the local woodcrafters, I found out that won't work...

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The next easiest option then is to go up to the 2 1/2" oak like I used on the bottom of the face frame. I'm worried that it will make the frames of the door look to clunky.... This is as close as I can get for a mockup.

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Do I wait till I can cut the 2 1/2 down to 2"?

Anyone have any feed back on Hafele hinges?

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[Tyberius]

Why not just use cabinet screws?

 

[Terranova]

Continued...

I've done enough projects to know that I should believe them when they tell you to mock up the hinges on some extra stock before you drill the actual doors.

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The drill press is an hour away at my parents, so I measured the edge of the Forstner bit so I could eyeball the depth. With a three quarters piece of stock and a half inch deep hole required, there's not much wilggle room, especially when the pilot tip on the bit sticks below the flatter cutting surface.

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Reading a couple articles on full inset European style hinges, one of the suggestions was to place the hinge the same distance from the top and bottom of the door to simplify the process, so I grabbed a cutoff to use as a spacer. WINNING! Right!?
Not so. When I put the face frames together, the reveal distances top and bottom are different, so it's either figure out the dimensions needed for separate spacers for the top and bottom of the cabinet keeping dimensions similar on the doors or use the same spacer on top and bottom, requiring different dimensions for drilling the cup holes on the top and bottom of the doors. I went with the later.
I'm glad I decided to mock up both the top AND bottom hinges.

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The same article I had read suggested using full inset hinges even if you're using face frames. All you need is a spacer so set the hing out from the side of the cabinet.

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This is the mocked up door rail attached to the hinge. I have a little dialing in to do, but I think they'll be ok.

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I also went to the store and bought the stock to cut up the styles and rails for the doors. This Bosch trim saw makes things easy and is much more compact than having the big *** chop saw out in the garage.

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Now I have to figure out how thick the material for the panels will be and decide how I plan to mount it. That's coming next.

 

[nsogiba]

lot of innovation and effort here. Keep at it, looking better and better now that you have drywall.

 

[Terranova]

Continued...


In the immortal words of David St. Hubbins,

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"Such a fine line between stupid and...clever"

Yesterday I decided to hang the first cabinet by myself.
If the Egyptians can build the pyramids, I can hang this stupid cabinet right!?

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Two four foot cabinets on their sides and a couple of totes, and Bob's your uncle.

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That's just under eight feet off the floor.

The whole time I could hear my wonderful wife's voice in my head! Lol. I'm glad she wasn't home. Talking to myself and Imagining what the phone call from the hospital was going to sound like.

It's not quite visible in the pics, but I'd already screwed a ledger to the wall in the appropriate place. The plan was to jack it up to "close" using the totes setup and then slide the back up onto the ledger. It actually worked and I don't have pictures cause it was pretty precariously perched up there and I wasn't stopping for photo ops.
I'd pre-drilled the back of the cabinet with clearance holes in the right places for the studs. Luckily the screws at the bottom, closest to the ledger were long enough to gain purchase in the studs. The only rafter that ran width wise across the top of the cab was only about 8" from the back of the 30" deep cabinet. Knowing that I'd planned on running all-thread through the bottom of the cab up through the top and into a piece of slotted angle run across two rafters. I lifted the cabinet and threw a screw or two in the top holes and then punched the all-thread through the drywall using an orange dead blow hammer. "Ran up to" the attic and threaded the nuts over the all-thread.

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After I got it secured it took a little jockeying to get it to snug up to the ceiling. I'd screwed to many screws in the back and it kept the all thread from pulling it up. I backed the screws out of the back, ran five screws in the top at that eight inch point and then used the AT to pull it up. Put the screws in the back again and tightened everything up. Right at 24 1/2" from the ceiling. Lucky it tightened up to, cause when i opened the garage door, it only cleared by about half an inch!

Such a fine line...

 

[BFBOB]

It all looks good so far. One thing I did that has helped the usefulness of a small garage is add an overhang with a gutter to the roof on the front. It looks like you already have some sort of a roof/gutter going across. Extending that 2 or 3 feet will enable you to do such things as some auto repair outside but under the roof overhang, and also work on big pieces with the door open, but still some shelter. It doesn't sound like much, but it can make the difference between being able to work during rain and not.
Depending on the garage's orientation, it may also provide shade in the summer.

 

[Terranova]

Continued....

Well, it hasn't fallen down yet, so there's a victory. Things have been slow lately, mostly due to me just being unmotivated.

But you know what is motivating? Have a buddy who you respect over and show him your garage. Tell him your plans and expectations. Then suddenly there's some extra accountability besides the normal SigOther's and of course to your self.

I've done the prep to put the other two cabinets up, but am waiting till I can recruit some muscle to help.

I have mocked up a set of the doors though.

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The doors will be the same oak I used for the face frame. The Haffele full inset European hinges work really well and seem to have enough adjustment that I got the fit I wanted
The oak will be stained and I have yet to get the material for the panels.
They're gonna get a secret special treatment I'm saving for later!