N.Quigs
Active member
Hello everyone. I've been lurking on here for a few months now as I was just toying around with the idea of expanding my garage. Now my wife is on board enough for me to actually start designing/planning the renovation. I know that it's going to take a lot of time, energy, and devotion to the project, but I'm excited about the possibility of expanding my current space. Realistically I think I'm 3-5 years out before I can even start the construction process, but in the mean time I'm very excited that I found this forum so that I can increase efficiency in my current space.
I've been an avid car tinkerer for the past 12 years or so, so when it finally came time for house shopping I told my (at the time) wife-to-be that a garage was an absolute necessity. We put a few offers in with mediocre garages, but I'm glad they ended up falling through. The one we ended up with is definitely a pretty good starter garage.
The house we ended up getting was built in 1974 and we purchased it from the original owners. The garage was built in 1982 and was self-built by the homeowner. It has been obvious that it was a budget build, and I have come across some questionable things in my short time in the house, but it does appear to be structurally sound.
Anyway, on to the garage. It's two-car, detached, and is 34' L x 24' D. It has some attic storage space via two pull-down walkways and a kitchen counter style work bench. The floor was epoxied at some point, but I'm guessing it was the cheap Rustoleum kit or something similar as it's pretty rough. The concrete slab itself has seen some wear and it's a standard 4" residential garage slab from what I can tell from the original plans. Tons of electrical outlets, even one 220 outlet, though it's not in an ideal spot. The lighting is all jacked up and needs to be redone, there's like one or two lights per switch so it take like 5 switches to turn on all the lights.
My plan is to add 16' to the depth to make it fit four cars (stacked two deep). I also need to raise the ceilings as they are currently only 8' and I would love to have a lift. I may just try a MaxJax for the immediate future to hold me over until I have the finances to undertake such a large project. It may just be easier to salvage what I can from the current building and then just knock it down and start over since the entire roof structure will need to be redone anyway.
I've rambled on more than I need to. I'll be making a build thread once I start diving into design and possibilities, so I'll save all the rest of the details for that. I have also been working on expanding my driveway, so I'll include that process in the build thread as well. I'm very excited to learn from the members here and have been enjoying reading through everyone's builds so far!
A few pictures of the current garage. It appears I no longer have the pictures I thought I did of "just" the garage, so I will try to piece together the pictures I do have to give you an idea of what I'm working with.
This one shows the house and where the garage sits in relation to it. This picture was taken just recently when I sold my long-time Jeep restoration project. I just lost interest in the project unfortunately. But, I'm much happier with my current projects, so all is well haha.
This one shows the elevated concrete patio that comes off the back door of the house toward the driveway/garage. My wife hates it when I park on the patio, hence the reason for the picture.
Almost the whole garage can be seen in these two shots. The second one also shows the pull through bay to the backyard. I may not be keeping the pull through when I add the addition to the back, not sure yet.
And then the far side of the garage where the trailer parks. The edge of the driveway to the right of the truck/trailer in this picture is lined with a small block wall and also represents my property line. My lot is long and skinny.
From right when I was moving in before the garage was filled up with tools, engines, and the many various cars that have been through it. This was before the Jeep teardown and the Cherokee was used as a donor vehicle for the drivetrain. Man do I wish I still had the garage that clean/open!
Added a Miata to the stable for a brief period...made it rather cramped with the Jeep in pieces.
Sold the Miata, had tons of space again:
Bought a Lexus...flipped that one pretty quick too.
The truck made it in the garage for some maintenance...barely had room to work around it haha.
And that's pretty much where I'm at now. I've loved my garage so far, even though it is getting tiresome doing engine swaps and other vehicle work with jackstands while laying on my back. Currently I have a second Mazdaspeed3 in pieces and being prepped for racing, have my brother's Harley to store it for him, and have a bunch of other stuff taking up space on my workshop side. I'm dying to get it all cleaned out and back to just a garage for working on cars again.
I'll get my build thread going in the next few weeks or so and will have much more detail on what I'm trying to do and how my current garage is set up!
I've been an avid car tinkerer for the past 12 years or so, so when it finally came time for house shopping I told my (at the time) wife-to-be that a garage was an absolute necessity. We put a few offers in with mediocre garages, but I'm glad they ended up falling through. The one we ended up with is definitely a pretty good starter garage.
The house we ended up getting was built in 1974 and we purchased it from the original owners. The garage was built in 1982 and was self-built by the homeowner. It has been obvious that it was a budget build, and I have come across some questionable things in my short time in the house, but it does appear to be structurally sound.
Anyway, on to the garage. It's two-car, detached, and is 34' L x 24' D. It has some attic storage space via two pull-down walkways and a kitchen counter style work bench. The floor was epoxied at some point, but I'm guessing it was the cheap Rustoleum kit or something similar as it's pretty rough. The concrete slab itself has seen some wear and it's a standard 4" residential garage slab from what I can tell from the original plans. Tons of electrical outlets, even one 220 outlet, though it's not in an ideal spot. The lighting is all jacked up and needs to be redone, there's like one or two lights per switch so it take like 5 switches to turn on all the lights.
My plan is to add 16' to the depth to make it fit four cars (stacked two deep). I also need to raise the ceilings as they are currently only 8' and I would love to have a lift. I may just try a MaxJax for the immediate future to hold me over until I have the finances to undertake such a large project. It may just be easier to salvage what I can from the current building and then just knock it down and start over since the entire roof structure will need to be redone anyway.
I've rambled on more than I need to. I'll be making a build thread once I start diving into design and possibilities, so I'll save all the rest of the details for that. I have also been working on expanding my driveway, so I'll include that process in the build thread as well. I'm very excited to learn from the members here and have been enjoying reading through everyone's builds so far!
A few pictures of the current garage. It appears I no longer have the pictures I thought I did of "just" the garage, so I will try to piece together the pictures I do have to give you an idea of what I'm working with.
This one shows the house and where the garage sits in relation to it. This picture was taken just recently when I sold my long-time Jeep restoration project. I just lost interest in the project unfortunately. But, I'm much happier with my current projects, so all is well haha.
This one shows the elevated concrete patio that comes off the back door of the house toward the driveway/garage. My wife hates it when I park on the patio, hence the reason for the picture.
Almost the whole garage can be seen in these two shots. The second one also shows the pull through bay to the backyard. I may not be keeping the pull through when I add the addition to the back, not sure yet.
And then the far side of the garage where the trailer parks. The edge of the driveway to the right of the truck/trailer in this picture is lined with a small block wall and also represents my property line. My lot is long and skinny.
From right when I was moving in before the garage was filled up with tools, engines, and the many various cars that have been through it. This was before the Jeep teardown and the Cherokee was used as a donor vehicle for the drivetrain. Man do I wish I still had the garage that clean/open!
Added a Miata to the stable for a brief period...made it rather cramped with the Jeep in pieces.
Sold the Miata, had tons of space again:
Bought a Lexus...flipped that one pretty quick too.
The truck made it in the garage for some maintenance...barely had room to work around it haha.
And that's pretty much where I'm at now. I've loved my garage so far, even though it is getting tiresome doing engine swaps and other vehicle work with jackstands while laying on my back. Currently I have a second Mazdaspeed3 in pieces and being prepped for racing, have my brother's Harley to store it for him, and have a bunch of other stuff taking up space on my workshop side. I'm dying to get it all cleaned out and back to just a garage for working on cars again.
I'll get my build thread going in the next few weeks or so and will have much more detail on what I'm trying to do and how my current garage is set up!