I wanted to share my ideas with the experts. I've been trying to think through all the problems that I might encounter and everything that I would want in a workspace but I know I'll never think of everything until I need it and it's not there... which I'm sure everyone on this forums been through at least a few times.
this is my basic sketch:
It's a single door, two car, around 20x20.
I don't know a lot about building cabinets but I'm thinking that the main ones along the back wall will feature 3 pantry style pullouts, one single sided one on the far side of the house door (there's only 5 inches between the jamb and the wall) and two 12" floor to ceiling ones on the other side of that door, both double sided. All the pullouts will be stocked with rail bins like this:
I'm going to have to make the rails out of some steel stock mounted to a plywood backer (the spine of the pullout) since the louver panel is prohibitively expensive. I'll also put a full length rail along the back of the workbench so that I can mount bins there temporarily without setting them on the workbench.
The next 48 inches following the pullouts on the right side of the door will be a toolbox up to about 33" high where the top drawer of the toolbox will be a full extension pullout light table. Above that will be traditional swinging door cabinets with my computer in the lower half and shelves in the upper.
The remaining 96 or so inches will be divided into two traditional floor to ceiling cabinets. All inside surfaces of the cabinets (including the doors and the cabinet with the computer in it) will be lined with Wall Control steel pegboard:
because it's reasonably priced and allows me to choose if I want to use the heavier duty slots or the more versatile holes. This way I can hang things on the wall of the cabinets or mount shelving if that makes more sense at the time. For the faces of all the doors I want to use either 3/8" ply or MDF which will be sprayed with poly and basecoat shot either white or black, then the mural will be printed on paper one door at a time and applied with contact cement (the basecoat stage may not be necessary) I'm hoping to be able to spray that with an automotive clear coat to preserve and protect it (I need to do some experimenting)
Infront of the waterheater will just be a false front panel to cover it.
The toughest part in my mind right now is the proposition of moving and reframing the door to the house to make it flush. So I figure I'll have to start with that and move out from there. Right now the door opens into the house, but since I want it to be flush I may have to switch it so it opens into the garage... is there any way around this? Unfortunately the garage is completely sheet rocked (we just bought this house a month ago, it was built in 2001) so I'm going to have to strip that to get to the plumbing, run airlines, electrical, and pack as much of the best insulation I can afford in there. The back wall (on the other side is the master bath) I can strip the sheetrock and replace it with 1/2" ply to build the cabinets onto (the rest of the cabinets will be all 3/8" ply or MDF)
Behind the workbench will be more of the Wall Control board. As for the workbench itself I’m not sure what to make it out of… laminated ply or something, but the top and front faces will have to be covered in stainless with the biggest SS sink I can find/afford at one end. I’m thinking of the workbench being 20” to 24” deep with big 45s cut off the corners so my girlfriend can go in and out without banging into a sharp corner. It also needs a rubber bumper along the front so that she can open car doors into it without significant damage to car or bench.
My compressor will be in the attic with two hose reels that will drop through the ceiling at the two front corners of the garage.
I also have a dream of building 3 pockets into the ceiling to hang my rolls of fiberglass and carbon.
Electrical will run the length of each side wall with outlets placed at around 2 foot increments at table height. I also need to put at least two outlets in each cabinet. I’d like to have hard airlines in the walls with at least an outlet at each corner.
I haven't figured lighting out yet, I could just do "boxes" on the ceiling but I like having light down low and on the walls rather than the ceiling. Or maybe recessed.
I’m not sure what to do with the floor. I can’t properly express how much I love this:
I want to do stained concrete so bad but fear it’s not practical for a working shop, someone please tell me that there’s a nice clear epoxy that I can cover it with and make it bulletproof. The worst stress my floor will experience regularly would be from the side stands of my bikes (to pivot a bike you balance it on the stand and spin it… convenient for you, tough on floors) I was thinking I could get some strips of industrial carpet to park them on long-term to protect the floor. I love the epoxy floor we have where I work, but it's so boreing.
All the drawer slides will all be Accuride self/soft closing and the hinges for the cabinets will be “European hinges” with self/soft closes (so all the stuff hanging on the door doesn’t fall off when the door’s slammed)
It's most of the time going to be housing stuff like this:
This is my old garage at my apartment.
I have 4 bikes which I work on regularly (my blog) and one car which I work on very infrequently, my car’s usually outside, and my girlfriends Saturn is inside.
p.s. I can't figure out why my sketch wont show in forums... maybe it's too big or something. Whatever the reason, it wont work, so my apologies but you'll have to click it or cut+paste the link into your browser.
Thanks for reading my long post, I'm anxious for suggestions and ideas all of you might have.
this is my basic sketch:
It's a single door, two car, around 20x20.
I don't know a lot about building cabinets but I'm thinking that the main ones along the back wall will feature 3 pantry style pullouts, one single sided one on the far side of the house door (there's only 5 inches between the jamb and the wall) and two 12" floor to ceiling ones on the other side of that door, both double sided. All the pullouts will be stocked with rail bins like this:
I'm going to have to make the rails out of some steel stock mounted to a plywood backer (the spine of the pullout) since the louver panel is prohibitively expensive. I'll also put a full length rail along the back of the workbench so that I can mount bins there temporarily without setting them on the workbench.
The next 48 inches following the pullouts on the right side of the door will be a toolbox up to about 33" high where the top drawer of the toolbox will be a full extension pullout light table. Above that will be traditional swinging door cabinets with my computer in the lower half and shelves in the upper.
The remaining 96 or so inches will be divided into two traditional floor to ceiling cabinets. All inside surfaces of the cabinets (including the doors and the cabinet with the computer in it) will be lined with Wall Control steel pegboard:
because it's reasonably priced and allows me to choose if I want to use the heavier duty slots or the more versatile holes. This way I can hang things on the wall of the cabinets or mount shelving if that makes more sense at the time. For the faces of all the doors I want to use either 3/8" ply or MDF which will be sprayed with poly and basecoat shot either white or black, then the mural will be printed on paper one door at a time and applied with contact cement (the basecoat stage may not be necessary) I'm hoping to be able to spray that with an automotive clear coat to preserve and protect it (I need to do some experimenting)
Infront of the waterheater will just be a false front panel to cover it.
The toughest part in my mind right now is the proposition of moving and reframing the door to the house to make it flush. So I figure I'll have to start with that and move out from there. Right now the door opens into the house, but since I want it to be flush I may have to switch it so it opens into the garage... is there any way around this? Unfortunately the garage is completely sheet rocked (we just bought this house a month ago, it was built in 2001) so I'm going to have to strip that to get to the plumbing, run airlines, electrical, and pack as much of the best insulation I can afford in there. The back wall (on the other side is the master bath) I can strip the sheetrock and replace it with 1/2" ply to build the cabinets onto (the rest of the cabinets will be all 3/8" ply or MDF)
Behind the workbench will be more of the Wall Control board. As for the workbench itself I’m not sure what to make it out of… laminated ply or something, but the top and front faces will have to be covered in stainless with the biggest SS sink I can find/afford at one end. I’m thinking of the workbench being 20” to 24” deep with big 45s cut off the corners so my girlfriend can go in and out without banging into a sharp corner. It also needs a rubber bumper along the front so that she can open car doors into it without significant damage to car or bench.
My compressor will be in the attic with two hose reels that will drop through the ceiling at the two front corners of the garage.
I also have a dream of building 3 pockets into the ceiling to hang my rolls of fiberglass and carbon.
Electrical will run the length of each side wall with outlets placed at around 2 foot increments at table height. I also need to put at least two outlets in each cabinet. I’d like to have hard airlines in the walls with at least an outlet at each corner.
I haven't figured lighting out yet, I could just do "boxes" on the ceiling but I like having light down low and on the walls rather than the ceiling. Or maybe recessed.
I’m not sure what to do with the floor. I can’t properly express how much I love this:
I want to do stained concrete so bad but fear it’s not practical for a working shop, someone please tell me that there’s a nice clear epoxy that I can cover it with and make it bulletproof. The worst stress my floor will experience regularly would be from the side stands of my bikes (to pivot a bike you balance it on the stand and spin it… convenient for you, tough on floors) I was thinking I could get some strips of industrial carpet to park them on long-term to protect the floor. I love the epoxy floor we have where I work, but it's so boreing.
All the drawer slides will all be Accuride self/soft closing and the hinges for the cabinets will be “European hinges” with self/soft closes (so all the stuff hanging on the door doesn’t fall off when the door’s slammed)
It's most of the time going to be housing stuff like this:
This is my old garage at my apartment.
I have 4 bikes which I work on regularly (my blog) and one car which I work on very infrequently, my car’s usually outside, and my girlfriends Saturn is inside.
p.s. I can't figure out why my sketch wont show in forums... maybe it's too big or something. Whatever the reason, it wont work, so my apologies but you'll have to click it or cut+paste the link into your browser.
Thanks for reading my long post, I'm anxious for suggestions and ideas all of you might have.
