New home = New Garage

[Sgt Beavis]

After 17 wonderful years in Texas, my family and I have relocated to the Denver area. As a result of that relo and buying a new home, I'm blessed with a new 3 car garage. WOOHOO!

The main bay is 19' x 16' while the single bay is 20'8" x 8'. It would be a tight fit if I were to go with 3 cars but since I'm sticking with two, I have plenty of room for my woodworking gear.

Even better, it is already insulated and has new, but unfinished, drywall. Even the garage door is insulated to R11. I'm still planning to add a bit more insulation to the doors.

So now I've got a few little jobs to do. 1st up is getting garage door openers installed. Then finishing the mud job on the walls and getting it painted. After that I'm thinking of putting down racedeck or a similar flooring material.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Super Sport]

Before mud and paint I would layout the garage and decide on electrical and lights. If you plan on running additional outlets now is the time to do it as it may require tearing up some drywall. If you think you may want some kind of flooring I'd do that now as well before everything is set up.

Congrats on the new house!

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Before mud and paint I would layout the garage and decide on electrical and lights. If you plan on running additional outlets now is the time to do it as it may require tearing up some drywall. If you think you may want some kind of flooring I'd do that now as well before everything is set up.

Congrats on the new house!

Good Point. It has plenty of 110v outlets but I want at least one 220v for a table saw.

 

[stonesg]

Put the outlets above bench height and make them all 4 gang.

Don't forget a dedicated outlet for the cord reel(s) in the ceiling. Go ahead and make them one of the 20A circuits you'll be adding (as your current outlets are probably only 15.

Think of it this way.... have all lighting both over head and accessory (work lights on a reel or near a work area) on separate breakers. You can use the existing 110 15A outlets for these. This way, when you pop a breaker doing some heavy cutting etc, the lights don't go out at the same time.

TG

 

[matt_i]

It might be worthwhile to run a small sub panel to the garage, 60A main lug load center with a few slots.

Woodworking stuff seems to build, tablesaw is first, then decide on a planer or jointer, those last two produce piles of chips. Then you need a circulating air filter, etc. As you can see the electrical needs can add up. With the sub panel in place you could do surface mount/EMT wiring in conduits or fish thru the drywall. But you are only limited by the incoming service then.

For lighting I would keep the basic bulbs just for parking cars and pulling out the trash cans. But then add in 1-2 more switched circuits (could both be fed from the same 15A breaker) for your "work lights" which would be something more numerous and brighter for seeing all the fine details.

 

[kwyjibo]

Welcome to Denver!
Just to add to the other guys - since you haven't painted yet, make a quick diagram of the stud locations. Pictures are fine, but I feel a lot better having actual measurements for when I have to mount heavy things to the walls.

 

[AFBud78]

Have you considered adding a wall to separate the bays? Sawdust on your racedeck and cars is no fun.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Got the garage door opener installed this week.

Welcome to Denver!
Just to add to the other guys - since you haven't painted yet, make a quick diagram of the stud locations. Pictures are fine, but I feel a lot better having actual measurements for when I have to mount heavy things to the walls.

Good Idea.

Have you considered adding a wall to separate the bays? Sawdust on your racedeck and cars is no fun.

That's probably not going to happen. I'm planning to put in a good dust collection system instead.

 

[69bigblok]

Great looking house and 3 bay!

 

[Sgt Beavis]

It’s been a busy year for me. I finally got around to putting in a couple of 4’x8’ SafeRacks. That freed up metal shelving that I relocated to the basement. Now I’ve got that area looking 75% better. Next up will be the installation of some LED lighting strips. Then I’ll get an electrician to install a few more outlets.

On the woodworking front, I’m going to get a SawStop Professional Cabinet saw, but I’m not yet ready to pull the trigger on that.