R13's Modest Garage / Part-Time Studio

[R13]

Where to start.

This post/thread is long overdue given that I've been lurking on the forum for the better part of a decade. As I'm approaching done with what I'll call "Garage 4.0" for me it's the first one I've actually been able to finish out to the degree that I feel like it's worth sharing on this esteemed forum .

Garage 1.0 was a 12x22 basement garage in my first house. I got a lot done in there, but it was....less than ideal.

Garage 2.0 was a 24x24 detached structure that replaced the above ground pond (erstwhile pool) that came with that same house. Way more spacious, but I never really used it because I met my wife, and moved....the things we do. (I also built the lean-to additional bay off of the main house).
20170901211711814342000000-o by Richard, on Flickr

Garage 3.0 was a 2+1 tandem in our Colorado home, spacious, nice tall ceilings, but not a hobby space given the winter weather and the need to park everything indoors. Still got stuff done in there, but always had my back against a wall. (I did all of the backyard landscape...so much rock, all of the shovelling...)
IMG_20160717_085555238 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20160213_154851131 by Richard, on Flickr

...which brings us, finally, to garage 4.0. When we moved to Tennessee and started looking for a house, it was next to impossible to find anything with 3+ "real" garage bays in our price range, so we did the next best thing, found a house that had a normal garage, and then put in the contract that our offer was contingent on town and HOA approval for a detached garage as well as a contractor telling me it was feasible to build in the space available.

After much ado, we found a place. So it was time to get to building. I'm handy, but the town we live in is a bit **** about ze rules, so I found a contractor who'd built a garage for a fellow car owner locally and after some other bids, told the guy to start.

Build "montage" follows
IMG_20161115_165516007 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20161117_164342028 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20161121_145048396 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20161122_151949504 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20161202_145454580 by Richard, on Flickr
20161207_163211 by Richard, on Flickr
20161214_144041 by Richard, on Flickr
20161215_121146 by Richard, on Flickr
20170117_120122 by Richard, on Flickr
20170120_174247 by Richard, on Flickr
20170217_142729 by Richard, on Flickr

 

[R13]

Some key details:

• The oddball roofline mirrors the house. This was my requirement, not any HOA or town...because resale and aesthetics
• At the same time they were running power to the garage, I had them run ethernet cable in conduit in the same trench because I'm a nerd and need my internet.
• It's footprint is ~20x30. That's as large as I could go per ordinance without applying for a variance. I sacrificed a little floor area to have a porch because I had fumbling for keys in the rain (and it matches the house)
• The roofline is a foot or two higher than allowed by ordinance....shhhh, they didn't catch that, but looks nice with the overhang off the peak.
• Interior ceiling is ~10ft tall. If I had a do-over, I'd have talked to them about designing some trusses to vault that up some while still having an attic for insulation.

I decided...a decision I regret a little, to paint the floor with "Hot Trax" rubberized paint. This garage floor gets some legit abuse so I did not want to deal with epoxy potentially failing, nor did I want to deal with the expense of having something more industrial put down. In hindsight, I probably should've just sealed the concrete. This stuff is easy to touch up, but it does tend to pull up with hot tires....and hot tires happen with me...

Message_1490740852505 by Richard, on Flickr

All the same, here *was* the finished product with what used to be both of my projects and some props for my YouTube channel. (I'm not going to ***** that out on here, there's a link in my signature if anyone's curious, but don't worry, I'm not going to be that guy )

20180107_183934 by Richard, on Flickr

Cleaned up a little for a "launch party"
20171104_141921 by Richard, on Flickr

"back to the studio"
vElVC8i - Imgur by Richard, on Flickr

 

[R13]

That situation served me well for nearly two years. However, I live in Tennessee....so humidity happens in the summer, and in spite of what anyone from the Northeast might suggest, it does get cold enough here for your fingers to not quite work right in the winter. The plan was always to eventually go back and finish the inside, and I've finally gotten around to that.

I had the same contractor come back and deal with the insulation/drywall/hvac. He had some delays, so I regret a little bit not just DIY-ing at least the walls...c'est la vie, it's done now. Once they finished with that, I got to painting, trimming, more painting, etc. I'm still working on the latter as I post this....but it's a Thursday night and paint/caulk is drying so I have little better to do. I'll add some photos of that process once I dump some photos off my phone to make them more accessible. [edit, quicker than I thought]

First thing was first, i had to move back out of the garage to get out of the way of other people doing work....which was, in itself, work.
IMG_20190212_092227714 by Richard, on Flickr

The 280z does run....in theory, but naturally the starter was out, and the gas in the tank is too old for it to be bump started reliably...so I negotiated to cover it and leave it on dollies so it could be pushed around out of the way.
IMG_20190212_092318402 by Richard, on Flickr

Insulation and min-split HVAC rough in done here:
IMG_20190225_122341237 by Richard, on Flickr

Some extra framing so as not to "lose" the windows in near the peak of the roof:
IMG_20190218_163046707 by Richard, on Flickr

Drywall hung:
IMG_20190306_113547043 by Richard, on Flickr

"skylight" window wells
IMG_20190306_113602648 by Richard, on Flickr

Drywall taped/mudded (the main thing I was happy to pay someone else to do) and ceiling painted:
IMG_20190325_194914 by Richard, on Flickr

Lights back up. Somewhere in there, I painted the block with a few coats of dry-lok as it's slightly below grade and although it hadn't been weeping...better safe than sorry for the cost of a couple of gallons.
IMG_20190406_213350379 by Richard, on Flickr

HVAC up and block painted a little nicer color of gray. walls also painted a much lighter gray now as well:
IMG_20190413_202503986 by Richard, on Flickr

What I just finished earlier tonight - covering the exposed sill plate (correct term?) with some simple 1x trim. This will get painted darker gray to better hide the inevitable greasy hand prints and brake dust from setting lug nuts on it and such.
IMG_20190415_211325106 by Richard, on Flickr

 

[R13]

My main challenge going forward will be to somehow move back in without just re-cluttering. I feel like I was really under-utilizing my tool box / workbench storage before. I now also have some potential for attic storage, though again the trusses were not set up to provide any deliberate storage space. I've also tried to purge any take-off parts or equipment that had descended to "art" status (having no purpose other than itself existing).

That's it for tonight. Sorry for the "all at once" approach, but there will definitely be more to come as I try to glean what I can from the rest of the forum to optimize the space for what I need from it.

-Cheers,
-Richard

p.s. let me know if you can't see the dozens of photos...I have suspicions that hosting may not be playing nicely with all browsers...

 

[mweg]

Very cool post, but yeah, not seeing all the photos...

 

[Purist]

I only see one photo, as well. This one:

In for future updates!

 

[R13]

Sorry about the picture situation, I'll work on that today some.

[edit] Fixed hopefully! Both PhotoBucket and imgur can bite me [/edit]

 

[memphisnate]

What part of Tennessee are you in?

 

[R13]

What part of Tennessee are you in?

East Tennessee, Knoxville-ish.

 

[polexican23]

Not trying to be an ***, but you could rename your garage the "chicken coop" cause it looks like one. Should be a nice place to work out of. Keep posting.

 

[R13]

Not trying to be an ***, but you could rename your garage the "chicken coop" cause it looks like one. Should be a nice place to work out of. Keep posting.

Yeah, but then I'd have to get a late '70s Trans Am.....nothing wrong with that, just most of my tools are metric .

 

[R13]

Not much progress today. I'm struggling with a couple of probably inconsequential things that are bothering me. As you can see in the pictures the block and sill plate protrude into the room ~5 or so inches compared to the drywall which creates a ledge, which I've now trimmed-over for aesthetic purposes.

The problem I'm having is what to do about the inevitable gap that will be left behind any stock/standard toolboxes and workbenches.

Example (pre-finish):
20170508_210853 by Richard, on Flickr

Yes, I know it's just a few inches, but every inch counts! I've considered a few options, but haven't landed anywhere firmly. At this point I'll use what I have and deal for the moment, but would like to solve that down the road.

I could:
A) Use OTS benches and set them on the ledge and block under the front legs

• ​
  +This is easy
• ​
  -I'm 5'8 on a good day so this might end up being like a kid eating at the adult table for the first time depending on bench height.

B) modify stuff where I could remove/leave-off the rear legs

• ​
  +This is also low effort
• ​
  -It could limit the selection of what's out available to purchase as a ready-made solution.

C) Wall mount everything possible

• ​
  +This would keep the floor clear and use all of the space
• ​
  -OTS wall-mount stuff is somewhat weight limited, I may need to set a transaxle on this at some point and hit it with a hammer.

D) Custom build/modify Cantilevered benches or repurposed cabinets to use all the space.

• ​
  +This probably gets me the most functional result for a work-bench, but I'm not on the level of fabricating tool boxes.
• ​
  -This is probably the most time/effort intensive solution and I have cars I'd rather be working on.

One thought was putting everything on wheels as I've done in the attached garage for house projects (Saw cart made out of some take-out upper kitchen cabinets. Miter saw on top, jigsaw, belt sander, etc in the cabinets. )
20170401_193716 by Richard, on Flickr

However, this still has a similar issue of leaving a weird cantilever and having a ****/critter-magnet space underneather...though I could at least more easily move stuff to clean...

Oh well, that conundrum will have to wait through the weekend I think. Happy Friday

 

[R13]

Ok, Paint's done finally. The window wells/skylights were a PITA.

IMG_20190426_133226749 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20190423_195906239 by Richard, on Flickr
IMG_20190423_195849008 by Richard, on Flickr

I found a place for my map back on the wall. This is a big laminated paper map glued (poorly) to a piece of rigid foam insulation and framed to serve as a pin-board for all the race tracks I've been to so far.
IMG_20190423_195953305 by Richard, on Flickr

My other "win" for the weekend was finding a 72x36x18 Gladiator cabinet on sale that I'm not sure could fit any more perfectly in that *exactly* 36" space. This should serve to disappear a lot of the stuff I used to have just stacked on to open shelves before.
image000000 by Richard, on Flickr
I found some tubs that fit three across and can swallow all of my microfibers and stuff to keep them from getting too dust-laden between uses. All of my jack stands also fit in the bottom, and I have a "store" shelf of consumables for the NSX. I think the open shelf is going to be more clear tubs with some grease tubes/guns (just to contain that mess to one plastic bin), and some less pleasant cleaning agents. the tubs on top (that don't fit inside) are going to be less-frequently used stuff like tubing/hose, and some other stuff to-be determined as I continue my move/re-org.

IMG_20190428_220822801 by Richard, on Flickr

I opted for the Gladiator cabinet due to a combination of cost, availability, and the ability to wall mount. It's designed for their proprietary rail system, but I improvised with some 1/2" plywood blocking that seems to do the trick. About half of the perimeter of the base rests on the block lip, so my home brew wall mounts aren't having to do too much work. All the same, I did a couple of pull-ups on it before starting to load it with anything. It's not likely to be going anywhere.